001Um all those in favor I opposed absentions motion passes. Um okay call to uh return to that's right killing me. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance to the republic for which it stands nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Mrs. Flynn, can you please call the role? Jennifer boy here. Linda Gains here. Page here. Donna Logan, Marian here, here. Marian here. Mark here. Thank you. Uh, the reading of our district mission. Our mission is to empower all students to be self-directed lifelong learners who willingly contribute to their community and lead passionate, purposeful lives. May I please get a motion for the approval of tonight's agenda? Thank you. Thank you. Um any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I opposed. Absentience. Motion passes. Um correspondence. Does anybody have any correspondence they'd like to
002share today? Okay. Seeing none, um I don't have any remarks at this time. I'd like to move on to superintendent remarks, please. Thank you, Mrs. Mann. Um, sadly, uh, I had to inform the community last week that one of our high school students, Maya Ferrell, uh, who's a junior, uh, at Arlington High School, was reported missing. Uh, and after discussion with Maya's family, uh, and law enforcement over the last couple of days, we shared with the community this evening that Mia is presumed to be deceased. Uh, Maya was a bright, engaging presence at Arlington High School. She was beloved by her friends and family uh and certainly appreciated by her teachers and her house team. On behalf of our school community, I'd like to express our deepest condolences to Maya's family and friends, her teachers,
003and our support staff. Uh and with that, I'll ask the board and the members of the community who are with us this evening to join us uh in a moment of quiet reflection uh in memory of Maya. Thank you, Mrs. Beam. And I also just wanted to share that uh one again my appreciation to our support staff. Um too many really to name here between uh the school team and supports uh some of our regional supports that we've accessed over the last week as well as the support we have up here uh at the district office. um their support of uh Tamaya's family and friends uh and to one another. Um it's uh truly uh a loss that we feel as a school community. Uh we will have additional counseling staff on hand at the
004school uh for at least the next couple of days and um monitor the situation to decide what if any additional resources that we need to uh activate for our kids and and and for our staff there. So, uh, again, just wanted to thank everybody who's, uh, pulling together, uh, to make sure that MA's families feel supported and again, our our our kids at our school are supported as well. Um, yeah. Uh, transitioning just to some regular business items, I wanted to, uh, just follow up on a few things with the board that we've discussed in in months past. Uh, first, uh, um, next school year we're scheduled to have a student representative as an exeicio member of the school board. So, uh, we're beginning that process and I plan to present, uh, of identifying, uh,
005a student or students who may be interested in, uh, um, serving on the board in that role. So, uh, right now, Dr. Solomini, uh, has been helpful to me working with Kathy Bolino, uh, at the high school, uh, to first just generate, uh, inform the school community, juniors and seniors, specifically, rising juniors and seniors, uh, of, uh, this particular role and the responsibilities that it carries, uh, to see what the interest is. And then uh I'll host anformational meeting uh for those students. Perhaps a board member would like to join me as part of that once we have the date set and we'll uh from there I think we'll determine what the process is. If there's a lot of interest there probably should be a bit of a process uh to make sure we can
006identify one or two students who could serve in this capacity. If there's only one or two students who are interested that may be the process and uh we'll go from there. But uh I I I sense that we'll have uh a handful of kids who are interested uh and then we'll go from there. And I'll follow up with the board by way of a more formal report uh sometime next month just uh after Dr. Solomony and I uh gauge the initial interest in this important role. Um Mr. Orit is leading the effort uh to discuss our cell phone in school uh policy for next school year. Uh he's very proud. Yes, I see him smiling. Two thumbs up on that. Uh we've had a lot of discussions at the district office level, but John uh
007is also just monitoring the further discussion at the state level. We want to make sure there's no changes through the state budgeting process, which sometimes occur with various laws and as they're implemented uh inside of a school setting. So John's uh going to work with the high school um uh to and and really the secondary program to uh develop what our pro what our policy will be, our draft policy. We'll bring that to the policy committee and also what our procedures will be for next school year. And the good news is that there's some models in the region that uh schools who have already implemented um uh um a no cell phone. It's not just cell phone, it's also any internet connected device um a personal connected device uh that we're looking at. So, you
008know, your watch now, you can communicate through your watch. Uh who knows what else. So, um, this really encompasses more than just cell phones, but John's going to, uh, go ahead and and lead our effort in defining the parameters for that for next school year. And, uh, appreciate that. We'll have more to report as the year, uh, we get to the latter part of the school year. And I know Margie has been very active in sending invitations because it's that time of the year where it just seems like I had a flood of invites, and I know the board did as well, uh, for our school production, Legally Blonde. Um also the um uh Charlie Johnson recognition uh later on in in May uh which is looks to be a fantastic ceremony. A couple other
009events uh that are also on the docket. So thank you Margie for doing that. If you haven't checked those invitations out, please do so. We have a lot of great events that are coming up uh as part of the school um uh community uh in the months ahead. Uh as we transition to spring, it becomes a very celebratory time. As I say, there's lots of things to celebrate. One of those things we're going to celebrate isn't necessarily attached to spring. It's attached to winter. As I reported to the board a couple of uh weeks ago, we had our boys bowling team who was on their way to states and we were wishing them well and um was so pleased to see that the boys did fantastic. I was getting updates along the day from Mr.
010Cring. We were currently in third place, then we were in second place and then wouldn't you know it, we won the state championship. So, yes, kudos to the to the team. coached by Stephanie and Matt Rice. And Stephanie, I'm going to ask, you know, Stephanie because Stephanie we recognized earlier this school year. She's one of the important supports we have for our national board certified teachers. She wears many hats. So, not only leading our teacher leaders in the district, but also leading our bowling team um with good help. And with that, Stephanie, if you can come on up to the microphone, share with us a little bit about uh the team and their season. And then I have something for them here. But you first. Perfect. Is this on? You're on. I am. Okay. Perfect.
011Um, first, Matt, my husband, is my assistant coach. And we both would like to thank Dr. Bonante and the members of the board of education for honoring the boys tonight. Also, a big thank you to Mr. Kring um, and the athletic department for all their support throughout the season. Thank you for allowing me to recruit the middle schoolers throughout the past few years because four out of the seven bowlers bowled on the team as middle schools schoolers. The bowlers and us also appreciate you allowing them to continue their practices before going to states. We think it was well worth it. Um the next person I want to thank um is a person who's no longer with us. Um, it's a former coworker who listened to the athletes that were going who wanted to know, can
012we please have a bowling team. Um, not only did he start the team, he had great seasons and great teams throughout his tenure as a coach. So, I'd like to take a moment and thank Mr. Bob Jacavino for starting the bowling program, which allowed these boys to bowl and win a state championship for Arlington. So, thank you, Bob. This has been an unbelievable season and one that I know the boys will remember. Matt and I sure will. This year's season began with tryyous on November 18th. That is when we met Sam Areola, who couldn't be here tonight, and Lucas Suri, who you want to give a little wave, Lucas, so we know who we're talking about. Um, both new to the bowling team and they both earned a spot to be part of the postseason
013team. Also, they came to practice and they listened. They worked hard on their craft and excelled. Both of them were instrumental in helping the team to get to the state championship. Sam had a high game of a 236 and Lucas had a 232 throughout the season. These are phenomenal scores for a veteran bowler, let alone they had just begun. One month into the season, Ivan Ortega, wave Ivan, so they know who I'm talking about, please. Thank you, rolled a perfect game on December 17th against RCK. Then on January 16th, he almost did it again and rolled a 299. I've been bowled this year with confidence that um he has grown with throughout the years. His confidence and ability earned him over a 231 average, which is the highest in the league and is now Arlington
014High School's school record. Wow. So congratulations, Ivan. On January 11th, Arlington hosts a Dphano tournament. Keegan Howells um let everyone know he came to bowl by starting it off with another perfect game of a 300. He then went on to be the top bowler of the day with a 1399 pinfall. And Keegan loves tournaments because at sectionals he was also the highest bowler on the day with a 1417 pinfall. Our youngest ones, both freshman, um have bowled above and beyond this year. Throughout the year, they came in with many clutch games and they both continue these clutch games at the state competition. Five out of six games of Owen McNamera's um were all over 200 with his high game of the day at 244 in game six. Nicholas Mano um were also had 200 games
015and he was key in game four. We were second seated and the first place team we were bowling against and he rolled a 259 along with the other bowlers and needless to say after game four we never looked back and we were in first place. That's great. This was Braden Cassid's fourth year earning a spot in the state tournament, the first as a team. The first three years he was an individual Arlington bowler competing as a member of the section one composite team. Braden ended his bowling seasons those years being in the top five at times. This year, Braden adds first place individual bowler with a 1520 pinfall over the six games, which is the second highest in state history for a six-game series. To put a 1520 in perspective, that's a 253.33 average on
016the day. Pretty impressive. The last comment I have is that you've heard me speak about what amazing bowlers they are. However, they're going to go far in life because they're even better young men. When heading for an overnight trip with these seven, Matt and I knew we had no worries. We received lots of good lucks before going to the state competition from our colleagues. Not only did they wish the team luck, but each one of them, if they had these bowlers as a student, commented on wonderful human beings and scholars that they are. To add to the scholars, they were also nominated or awarded the athletic scholar award at the sports awards, the winter sports awards last week. So talented on the bowling lanes, um nice young men and very smart. Um I would like
017to commend their parents for all of that. And I can go on about their character, but I know you guys have a meeting to go to, so I'll try to wrap this up. Um, these seven bowlers embody our mission statement. To become bowlers that they are, they need to be self-directed and lifelong learners of the sport. Bowling looks easy. Some of them make it look very easy. However, there's many challenges. However, this year they made it look exceptionally easy. They were the Dphano Bowling Tournament champions. The Duchess Putnham High School leagues league champions, section one boys champions. And on March 14th, the Bowlers became Arlington's first boys bowling state champions with a 6,750 pinfall over six games, which is also the second highest in state history for a sixgame pinfall. as a team. That means
018they average 225 pinfall per bowler per game. Another impressive score. They are also the first state championship team of Duchess County for boys bowling. So, I'm pretty proud of that, too. Um, on this note, some of the parents know that I was doing this. Um, I would like to invite everybody on May 10th to join and go to the Mid Hudson Bridge as I received confirmation yesterday that it will be illuminated in maroon and gold in honor of these seven young men. Congratulations, gentlemen. And thank you, Dr. Bonante and the board of education members for honoring them. And please put May 10th in your calendars and go celebrate the light sparkling. Maybe find a nice place to have dinner that night. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Rice. Stephanie, if it's okay, I'm actually going to
019take the podium. I We have uh certificates for each of the boys, so we'll call them up and then uh I'll if you can help me with that. Yeah, we're definitely taking a picture with the state championship sign. Can you hold those for me for a second? And I'm so glad you acknowledge Mr. Jackavino and I just did want to share that um you know some of our programs have this you know deep rich history that spans uh since the inception of our our school district back to the 30s or the 40s. Bowling's a relatively new sport for us and uh was started by Bob Bob Jackavino uh who we lost uh too soon and I uh Stephanie did a fantastic job. I had the great pleasure of being with you, a couple other members
020of our school team when we were sending the boys off and I hope the cookies were good. I hope you enjoyed those. Uh, but we had a little breakfast for them and uh, Stephanie did a great job of honoring uh, Bob Jacabino. And just to give you a one quick story uh, because I like to tell stories uh, quick one though um, about Mr. Jackavino. He was one of my teachers uh, when I went to school here and I remember Mr. Jackabino because I was in college uh playing baseball in a in a in a I thought a pretty big game and I was uh up in the middle of New York somewhere and I hear someone call out from the stands, hey Bante. And I look over and it was Bob Jakavino. He had
021driven all the way up because he knew and one of my cla me and one of my classmates from Arlington uh was playing in a pretty big game and he drove all the way up to see us. That's the kind of person that uh Mr. Jackavino was. He really cared about his students uh both those who had graduated and his current students as well. and uh was certainly the you know the genesis of the of the bowling program, but you've really uh you and Matt have carried that tradition uh on and I really appreciate um both of you for doing so. So, uh we'll call the kids up one at a time and boys if you can uh you might want to give just a a pound or a handshake to each of our board
022members as you go through and then if you can wait over there we'll get a team picture with your coaches uh and Mr. Cring and Dr. Salamini. Uh and then we'll see you on. We know you have some homework. So, starting off, uh, we'll go with, uh, Keegan Hows. Keegan, come on up. Also, Sam's not here, but I'll mention Sam Areola. Sam's at baseball as I understand it. So, a round of applause for Sam. Lucas Siri, Ivan Ortega Nick Mano. Oh, Matamera and Braden Cassidy. is going to come on There's a purple. Thank you. I'm sorry. Yep. That concludes my remarks. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Venante. Um, moving on to public comment for agenda items only. Mrs. Flynn, do we have anyone tonight for public agenda? Okay, then we'll move swiftly to reports and
023discussions. Um, first up, budget presentation. Dr. Pante, Kevin Shel. So, we don't have an elaborate presentation this evening. Uh, just as a reminder for the board. Um, we're scheduled for the board to adopt the uh the budget at our next meeting to present to the community. So, uh, if you have any further feedback that you want to provide or questions that you have, uh, for the administration, we have a couple of weeks here, uh, before we present it to you for adoption. Uh, and Melissa and I are working on a communication plan, um, which really will, uh, begin after spring break all the way through the budget vote with key community members uh, or groups uh, to share budget details with. Um, once we develop that schedule, I'll share it with the board. it it
024you may wish and Maryanne we can talk about this to have a board member present at those uh just so um you can hear what the community or what feedback we're hearing along the way um if that's something that you'd like to do but once we flesh out the schedule we'll be sure to share it and talk about board representation as part of those meetings. Great. Thank you. Okay. Kevin uh is going to present to the board an overview of uh the resolutions that are going to be presented on the ballot. Uh Kevin, it probably be easier if you come up to this microphone than from the side. Uh because they are on for your action this evening. Those in addition to the regular budget vote. That mic's a little weak. Uh good evening. So,
025um I was just going to review. So, the budget Kevin, that mic's a titch weak. I don't know if you could point it at your face a little more. There you go. Is that better? Yeah, a little bit better. Yeah. A little bit better. All right. I'll do my best. So to review the budget, it's not changed since our last presentation at our last meeting on the on the 11th. Uh the levytole levy increase is 2.74 which is no change. The budget increase is 1.53% which is no change. There is a change on the board agenda. I put it under the um uh consent agenda to change the tax cap calculation because in order to make the budget balance on 311, we increased our assumption for building aid and that building aid is a component
026or ingredient in the computation of the tax cap and therefore reduced the tax cap from 3.74 to 3.38. It does it does makes no difference because we're going to tax well below the cap. So this is just uh making sure that uh the appropriate numbers and figures get sent to the state. So that is in the consent agenda. The proposition for the buses is uh 3,261,000 this year which is up from 3,140,000 last year. We do this every year and therefore we left it in the consent. We presented this first in uh the January time frame and it has not changed since that time that we presented in January. Also under consent is I did a cleanup item. There is an old capital project that we have finished. I c those dollars can't be used
027for any other capital project because there was no authority for those dollars. So I'm moving about $9,000 back to the general fund and then that so that will just help us uh manage what's going on in the capital fund. The there's one other item under consent. I met with the audit committee a week ago or so. Uh uh uh you'll get a you'll get a update on the audit committee later on in the meeting, but there is a resolution on there which is the CAP which is a corrective action plan and it is for the uh audit that we did or the specialized internal audit that we did on employee attendance. So that is also incorporated in the consent agenda. And then I've added two items to the new the new uh uh aspect of
028the of the of the board meeting. Uh there's a proposition there's a secret resolution which comes first and that secret resolution is to clear the way for work to be done at the high school uh football field so that lights could be replaced and also for the chiller which is the uh AC unit basically for the auditorium. Uh so that secret resolution has to be done. It's a type two action which means that it's a replacement in kind. So there's already those devices out there and we're just simply replacing them and uh it's the simplest of all SRA designation. So that comes first. And then the second one is a proposition that we're going to propose to the to the public and it's for 44 $4,250,000. This is to ask permission from the taxpayers to
029use a reserve that we have set up to do uh capital projects within the district. And so it's not a tax increase in any way. It's simply asking them to be able to use these dollars. And there's a list of projects that we've put in there. And the two that new ones that we're talking about, the lights at the the football field and the chiller at the high school are the primary ones. and then any ancillary dollars will be to finish off the other projects that we already have in motion. So, um that's that's what's on your agenda for tonight. Any questions, Marian? So, just to be clear on the ballot, Marian, I know you're trying to make eye contact with him, but talk to the talk to the microphone. Sorry. Excuse my side view.
030Um, so since how many propositions are going to be listed on the ballot then if you could do the uh three and then four if you count the the the uh the proposition for the for the uh board seats. So the number one proposition is the budget itself, right? The second one will be for the buses and the third one will be for the capital projects. Okay. So it it it's really three that Okay. Thank you. And just to clarify of those three, the first two are asking the taxpayers to approve a levy, right? And the third one is not. Correct. The third one is just we need a vote to have permission to utilize the funds that we've already designated for this purpose. Correct. We have to ask the community when we go to
031spend them. Right. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Right. I'm right. Right. That's right. Correct. Yeah. John, I just had a question about um the ors. How do we decide how how is it decided which project is done? Okay. So, so the word or when used formally is A or B or both if so it's inclusive of both of those. So, we're going to do both. any other questions on this the aspects of this. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Kevin. Thank you. What my page is go back to where I was. Oh. Oh, now we're going to move on to item B in reports of discussions. The cow meeting followup. If I can start, Mrs. I mean one I just wanted to appreciation for the board's attention and and uh during our committee of the
032whole meeting with Tetratech and Palumbo as we discussed the first phase of the capital project. Um as we shared there's some unique dynamics when it comes to budgeting for for school projects especially large scale uh capital projects that are at play right now. Uh but I think most relevant for tonight uh what I wanted to share with the board is just a slight change in process from how we have been proceeding to now because we're getting to the point where designs are being finalized uh on the first phase. We're going to begin to initiate uh engagements for the second phase just to again continue to keep things on schedule. And this is a long-term uh uh these are longer term capital projects that are going to span the next five or six years. So, uh,
033Kevin and I and John Wilson and other members of our school teams, um, uh, have monthly meetings with Tetratech and with Palumbo, uh, to discuss the ongoing progress that they're making as they're engaging with our staff or uh, planning um, designing all of those things. I thought it and I get we get to sit in on those meetings. We thought as a it would be helpful as part of a process while the board will still continue to receive quarterly updates from Tetratech and from Palumbo. Um most likely through the committee of the whole process, maybe on occasion through a regular board meeting. It would be helpful to have one or two board members present at these monthly meetings that we're having uh just because there's a lot that's happening uh you know months at a
034time especially in this particular phase of of the project just to serve as liaons to the board um in between meetings uh and then uh when we have our full board meeting uh with them um it would be helpful to have board members who've maybe been attached to some of these updates all along to provide further context to um uh to the full board if needed. I think it would also be helpful to me quite frankly uh because these are projects that some board members were a part of hearing about uh through the initial conception going back one or two years ago. I wasn't here for that and although I think I have a pretty good um uh pretty good uh sense of where we were. Um I think it would be good for us
035to walk a little bit more closely handinand through these monthly reviews uh that we have with the construction manager and with the architect. uh moving forward. I think that would be not only helpful to me but to the full board uh as we continue along in the process. So I just wanted to start with that and then obviously if there were any other reflections from the meeting that you wanted to discuss with me uh with Kevin uh or with one another uh this is a good time to do so. Why don't we kick off with what do we think of that idea? Does anybody not like that idea? Um cuz honestly I I probably would volunteer myself and I because I uh we all know I have my binder that I love to haul around.
036So um you know but if what maybe I'll just say if anybody else is interested maybe reach out to me and we'll figure out a process to figure out if we have a lot of interest we'll maybe do something differently you know see who Mark. Yeah, I I'm not so sure that that's not just an extension of the caffe committee uh to to a large degree. I mean, we have three people on that committee. Um, and I know on the third, getting ahead of the game here a little bit, we have a meeting and uh I've talked to u our lead guy and he's I don't know if he's going to be there or not, but certainly who's our lead guy for, you know, uh to to do that uh to you know, as part
037of the committee or individually or however you want to. Which league guy are you referring to? Which like a a guy for the project or a guy from the district like John or Garrett? You said you had reached out to Oh, Garrett. Yeah, Garrett. Garrett. I saw him at the LA at the committee and spoke to him, asked him if he was going to be coming on the third and he wasn't sure. So, I mean, I thought we weren't we weren't bringing the the construction project through the cafe candidly. like I thought that you were doing all the other construction jobs and we get to a point where we decide that's where that was going to go, but we can kind of like do some internal baseball on that, you know? I don't Yeah, I
038think there's there's not anything significant that to this point in terms of actual construction. Okay. Um so we've been dealing with what else is going on in the district. Okay. And getting updates. All right. Uh in that regard. uh and maybe the next phase is for us to you know get more involved in that whether it's one person or multiple people or the entire committee. I you know I defer to the board on how you'd like to have us handle that if you want us to handle it at all. Um I guess I have to get think about it for a second. I think that what Phil is proposing is something slightly different because it's meeting with a a different group of people that wouldn't come to your cafe meeting like they're meetings that are
039already scheduled, you know, but certainly um so maybe we need to have a Yeah, I I look I appreciate the work that Mark's put into the Cathy meeting. My here's what I just see as the difference just to talk about it. Cathy also covers uh um uh so just some of the regular facilities work that we have going on. Uh and I envision that some agendas may be exclusively just about the ongoing capital needs of the district and our um our our progress towards addressing those needs that sometimes sit outside of this specific project. We have these meetings once a month with uh Garrett, with Palumbo, um so Lou um and then members of each of their teams that is a little bit more involved uh when it comes to uh their engagements with our
040staff, reflecting back to the administration what they heard through those engagements uh and how it's reflected in their current plans, how issues that they're encountering with the plans, you know, whether it be um district property and where you know additions and how they fit. Um so it's it's pretty in the weeds. Um and then you see or have seen a couple of times the the final result of all of that by way of what Garrett's reflecting back through design uh and and timeline and and where we're at. I I do think that though as we're making decisions related to um and providing guidance back to Tetratech uh and and more so Tetrate on the design, there are things that are coming up along the way that a board member may be connected to by way
041of what we heard from the community at the inception of this project and ensuring that we don't lose sight of that um uh as they're working through those plans. Yeah. And I think what we're also realizing is that look, some of these uh costs that are being associated with some elements of the project are pretty significant are significantly different than what they were a year and a half ago. And and that's probably going to continue to happen. And what I don't think we can lose sight of is that there's certain sacrifices that are going to have to be made as there are in most capital projects, but we don't want to lose sight of the essence of what the community voted for. and and you were an important part of making sure uh working with
042the administration at the time in bringing shape to what the community's priorities were and how those priorities are reflected through this project. Um uh I feel pretty connected to that, but I just think it would be helpful to me if I had one or two board members who were there along the way uh to ensure that we're holding on to that through uh through this process, at least through this particular phase that we're going into right now. So, why don't we take a beat and you know, you know, you know, I can't do Thursdays during tax season, but I can't come to the next cafe meeting, but um uh so maybe next year, next year we won't do Thursdays, but um but uh why don't you and I talk. Okay. And then, um we'll like
043figure out what we think the best way forward is. Um does that sound like a good idea? It's fine with me. All right. And um how's that sound? It's fine. All right. Okay. Anybody else want to add something to that while we're talking about it? And then is there anything else anybody wants to talk about or reflect from last week or are we just going to move forward from this point or Oh, I did say that before. I said if anybody's interested. But you know, now it's kind of but now it's kind of like actually I I think probably um I should regroup with Mark because they've got three people on that committee. So um you know plus me. So um uh why don't we regroup and maybe I'll bring it to our Friday meeting.
044I'll regroup with Mark. Does that seem fair? But anybody else that's interested should let me know. We we aren't gonna all go to that meeting. First of all, we can't. But um you know we can't have a quorum. But um do they have is it regularly scheduled? It well I'm meeting with Garrett uh next week. Kevin and I are going to sit down. I know the next one is scheduled and we're going to make sure that we're on a regular monthly schedule moving forward. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. So we like the concept of the idea of some board involvement and we're going to we're going to work on that idea a little more. When is that meeting the which one? the one you just mentioned. Give me a minute. Okay. As I peer
045into the abyss here on my phone. Kevin, if you want to peek while I'm peeking because looks like it's like it's a it's a it is a race. Whoever gets to it first. My money's on Kevin if you're asking. Well, our meeting with Garrett. Yes. The the monthly meeting. Yes. The monthly meeting is April 2nd at 3 here in this room. Okay. Um, my calendar says Wednesday. It's a Wednesday. My kids's birthday is the next day. Um, okay. Does anybody want to talk at all more about the any anything to do with the capital project at this point? Um, I think we're going to then move on. Okay. Uh, new business. Our new business section of the agenda lists several items for individual resolution approval. Documentation concerning these items have been provided to our board
046members in advance to assure an extensive and thorough review. Um, let's see. Item B, election personnel for the 2025 2026 budget vote. Can I please get a motion? So moved. Thank you. Second. Thank you. Um, any discussion? Am I voting? Where's my little voting thing? Here it is. Here it is. I can just say one thing, Mrs. Meaning, because I feel like we're entering the phase where it's like this is Margie's culminating uh experience before she she retires. Uh, is is facilitating the annual election. And I had the chance over the last couple of weeks to see all the work that Margie's putting in and puts in behind the scenes to make sure that our election personnel are well trained and prepared to facilitate the election. And I just wanted to note um her her
047efforts are have been uh are seen, recognized, and appreciated. With that said, all those in favor? I opposed abstension. Motion passes. Okay. Item C, second reading. Um, some for two policies. Can I get a motion, please? Thank you. Can I get a second? Second. Excellent. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? I opposed. Abstensions. Motion passes. Trip approval. Can I get a motion, please? Thank you. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? Wait, I'm sorry. I was just going to ask what group. My bad. What group is going any? I know. They're becoming more exotic and interesting. Gopagos chapron opportunities. Your your your willingness has been uh shared. [Laughter] Um, any more discussion? All those in favor? I opposed abstensions. Motion passes. Um, stipulation of settlement. Can I please get a
048motion? Thank you. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? I opposed. Motion passes. um classified administrative leave. Can I get a motion, please? So move. Thank you. Second. Thank you. All um any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? I opposed. Abstensions. Motion passes. Civil service. Say that three times fast. Civil service settlement agreement. Can I get a motion, please? Motion. Thank you. Um any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? I opposed abstensions. Motion passes. Um, secret 2526 interfund transfer to capital project. Can I please get a motion? So moved. Thank you. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor? I opposed abstensions. Motion passes. Capital reserve fund proposition resolution. Can I get a motion, please? So move. Thank you. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, all
049those in favor? I opposed. Abstensions. Motion passes. Moving now to our business consent agenda. Our consent section of the agenda lists several items for approval by a single motion. Documentation concerning these items has been provided to our board members in advance to asssure an extensive and thorough review. May I please get a motion for the consent agenda? Thank you. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? If I may. Yes. Uh with the board's approval this evening, uh the board will uh be appointing uh Regina uh as our assistant superintendent for PPS to begin on July 1st. And Regina's here in the audience. If you can give away from the back there, Regina, hello. I just wanted to share a few things. Uh Regina brings a wealth of background experience to our district. She's an experienced school psychologist
050having served in the Thmer school district for many years. Uh she currently serves as the director of pupil personnel services in the Haldane Central School District. Uh Regina has a doctorate in policy and leadership development from Forom University. Go Rams. And I've uh found Regina through this process and and we obviously had uh some prior work experience together to be a humble uh hardworking steady uh leader. She will absolutely be an asset to our school district and we're uh excited at the prospect of her joining our team in in just a few months. And a quick story about Regina. So Regina and I uh at some point uh long ago she indicated she was familiar with Arlington. I said, "Oh, how?" And Regina's a wrestling mom. uh her son at one point wrestled uh for
051Yorktown uh where her children went through schools and um so she had been to our school for tournaments and whatnot. Um so she has her fair share of Husker gear um which is green and black if I'm not uh if I if I remember correctly. Um I also know Regina has her fair share of blue and white gear as well from Haldane. And I just wanted to say with your approval this evening, Regina, we're going to start a new drawer in the uh uh in the in the closet there or in the dresser. So, your first maroon and gold uh subtle maroon and gold look here to start in uh just a few months. So, thank you, Mr. Crank, for uh sharing this with us. We'll pass it on to Regina again with the board's
052approval this evening, but we're really excited about her to join our team. And I did want to thank we had about 30 staff members who are part of the review process for the assistant soup for PPS. uh two uh large committees before we moved to the smaller process uh at the district level that Hillary facilitated. So I just wanted to thank those members of our community which encompassed uh union leadership uh as well as uh pupil personnel department staff uh from the building through district level uh included in that process to provide uh feedback to us along the way uh to guide our continued deliberations. and uh Regina was the unanimous choice coming out of both of those uh committees and um uh really excited uh for her to join our team. Okay, with that
053said, um any other more discussion on the consent agenda? Seeing none, all those in favor? I opposed abstensions. Motion passes. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you, Regin. Um, see, I think we're up to page 25 and item 10, future discussion items. Does anybody have any future discussion items they like to bring up tonight? I don't have any ones to clear from a previous meeting. Seeing none, we're moving on. Um, public comment for non-aggenda items. We don't have anybody tonight. Thank you, Mrs. Flynn. Uh, moving on to committee reports. Advocacy. I don't have anything to report other than we're waiting with baited breath for the one house budget process to uh tell us something about whether there's movement or not. Right. Okay. Well, thank you. Audit finance. We met uh on March 13 uh as committee and uh
054discussed as Kevin pointed out a corrective action plan for an internal audit on attendance. Uh we've have that already uh uh in the propositions here. We discussed uh also discussed the internal uh audit topic for 2425 which would be Kevin help me out here. Accounts payable. Accounts payable. Thank you. And uh thirdly, um we discussed a uh request from the town of Union Veil by firemen, firefighters, and emergency medical people to get a u tax exemption for those folks in the community. Uh it's too late to do that this year. Uh we're waiting for more data and more information uh uh about who would be involved and what it would cost um and the number of people that might be in our district but serving in other communities as volunteers uh in or fire department
055people. uh and perhaps putting out a survey on to in terms of the uh number of people that we would be affecting that would be affected in in this thing. So uh that's something that will you know be taking up presumably next year at the earliest and because we have to do it by March 1st and that of course that chip is sailed for this year. So that's uh the audit report. Okay, moving on to Kathy. Kathy, a little simpler. We are meeting on Thursday, uh, the 3rd of April, coincidentally the day after. So, we'll see. That's all. Okay. Um, policy. We met on March 12th. We discussed transportation and records management policies. I'm hopeful they will be on the next board agenda. and we are going to meet for the next meeting April 9th.
056Thank you. Organization reports Arlington Education Foundation. Um our next meeting is April 2nd. Of course, you all know that there is a 5K on April 26 if you haven't heard already. Um get your registration in by the first if you want a shirt. Um, and also I just want to mention, um, really more for anybody that's watching at home, um, if you have a high school senior, this is the time to, uh, apply for scholarships. The Arlington Education Foundation administers more than 50 scholarships. Um, it's one application. You can find the information on the Arlington website under the Arlington Education Foundation tab. Great. Great. Thank you. Um, Duchess County School Boards, Boseies. Uh, next meeting for Duchess County School Boards is Thursday, April 3rd, 7 p.m. It's a Zoom meeting and the topic is student
057representation on the board of education. Timely timely topic. That's it. And I'll just throw in there because you said that everybody's probably seen we got invited to a free NISBA thing about welcoming and onboarding your student rep. Usually when they're those free lunchtime things, I'll call up there and find out. They tape them so you don't really have I'm trying to make the time. Yeah. Yeah. I think they send it to everybody. Like I don't even think you have to sign up to get the recording. I think they just send them out. So I'll just verify that they will do that because I think some of us may want be interested in that, right? Um, PTA, PTSA council, it's tomorrow, right? The meeting's tomorrow night at 7. Okay, great. Um, district health and safety. Uh,
058no meet next meeting to report at the time. Okay, equity, we met last week on the 18th. Um, you know, my share is the favorite part, my favorite part. And um this was a nice one because someone one of the teachers from Titusville um gave an appreciation to Jessica Dandridge who brought her um my brother's keepers and my sister's keepers students to Titusville to talk to the students there about Black History Month. And um you know my comment is it it does take a village. We're a large village and when we can use our high school kids as athletes reading or as students coming just to talk about their experiences, I think that just helps richen everyone's experience. So, um I was happy to hear about that. Um we talked a little bit about the
059uh the Duchess mediation work. We talked about it last month if you remember that was being done at Titusville over restorative circles. Um, and to use Maryanne's phrase, it's moving forward slowly. Duchess mediation is actually a small group and we're a large district. So, there are just some things to um iron out there figuring out how the capacity. And then the bulk of the time was spent um in in talking about we all received the dear colleague letter um that talked about um title nine and um how races would be interpreted. Um and then we also all received the joint guidance from the attorneys general of uh I think it's Illinois, Massachusetts and New York. So we two opposing opinions um I guess you would say um and we talked we read that and then
060we talked a little bit about that and what I just want to make the board aware of is um and not any action that we need to do but teachers are there's a concern like we have so many teachers and so many buildings that have been mindful about celebrating diversity and ensuring that students feel comfort comfortable in the in our diverse environments um and with those documents they're not necessarily sure what to do and Mr. Orott is well aware and you know he'll take the lead obviously but um it's just I wanted you to know the vibe on that. Thank you. Um and I would say that's it. John, anything? Thank you. Um superintendent's closing remarks. Nothing to share. Thank you. Board reflections. Jen, I had the opportunity to go to the winter invitational which
061was spectacular and um the winter percussion was there and there were two students playing in a very small area together and the non-verbal communication between the two of them as they switched between instruments was absolutely amazing and such a life skill that these students are learning just through music alone that they can take out into the world and use and I thought that was amazing. Um the winter guard itself they did a spectacular job. I don't know how they do it. Um and then I also had the opportunity to go on a Boseis tour and look at all the programs up at Boseis today and there are just so many of them. Um that's great. Thank you. Any reflections anywhere else Jeff? La last week I had to stop at the high school to drop
062something off for my daughter and she's in the east house and they've been dealing with a lot over the last week with you know a student that was unknown of her location and to see the teamwork of that house and the whole administration and this you know as I was there I was checking in you know I know some of them personally and how they were handling it just with compassion and grace and thankful for the com how comfortable the students were just to show up which says a lot about who we have there that these kids without being said hey do you need help they were going to get the help and that really says a lot about who we have in those buildings thank you anybody else Mark yeah I just uh want
063to say that it was I want I once again congratulate the bowling team. Uh Bob Jacavino was a guy that I work with. Was a great guy. This was his dream. He was looking down on this team. Thank you. Anybody else? With that then I'll have a motion to adjurnn. All those in favor? I opposed. Abstensions. Motion passes. Meeting is adjourned.