001Um. All right. Good evening everyone. It is 6:00 on April 8th, and the board is opening meeting for the purpose of taking a motion to adjourn to executive session, where we will be discussing collective bargaining negotiations. No action will be taken, and we'll return to our regular session at 630. Can I have a motion and a second reading on the motion, Jen on the second. All those in favor? Motion passes six zero. We'll be back at 630. Thank you. Good evening everyone. It is 630 is April 8th and the board is returning from executive session to open our meeting. So I just need a motion and a second on the motion, Madame. Second. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. So open tonight's meeting of the board with the president. Like the United States
002of America, it's a republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, we'll move on to administrator's remarks. Oh, really? Thank you. Uh, this morning during the Ela testing at age 12, we encountered connectivity issues with next to request of the New York State computer testing platform. Uh, during testing, the platform froze and students were unable to complete or submit their tests. So this was not a school specific issue. It was statewide. Um, affected many districts. And, uh, what we did according to guidance that we got from um, they said was we paused testing for this morning. Um, they said has assured states or districts across the state that they are testing vendor and WEAA has addressed all of the issues, and they anticipate testing to be
003able to resume without any further issues. So tomorrow, students at Wells will take day two, part two of the Ela exam. Uh, part one and two are not interdependent. So you're able to take part two without having done part one. And then on Thursday, students will be able to complete park part one, picking up from where they left off or being able to submit their exam if they have completed it. Um, tremendous. Thank you. Goes out to the Wells administration because they kept everything calm and collected this morning, and we got through this with very little issue. So thank you to them. Uh, my second comment is about the Olympics, the visual arts. If you look around the boardroom, there are, um, art projects here from Art is grade Olympics a visual arts team. And,
004uh, if you want to see our victory team projects, they are currently on display over at CV star. But a tremendous thank you goes to Miss Danielle Michelini and Miss Megan The Clarion, who have worked with our artists all year. For these teams to be able to go up and compete at Saratoga Springs last Tuesday. Um, and really just crush it. They did fantastic. And we have just a brief video that I think will do it far better justice than I could ever. Yeah. So, Chris, thank you. The Nissan sponsored Olympics. Visual Arts is about unleashing creativity. Imagine a vibrant arena where imagination knows no bounds. Where student artists transform blank canvases into innovative solutions and creativity becomes a powerful tool for problem solving. This is what makes Saturday's design challenge entitled opens. It's an
005electrifying annual event that pushes the boundaries of artistic innovation and collaborative thinking. It's a playground of possibilities. Each year, student teams from across New York City dive into a thrilling, creative adventure with eight diverse categories waiting to be explored. Participants are invited to unleash their artistic prowess and design thinking. It's more than a competition. It's a celebration of young talent, ingenuity, and the transformative power of art. The journey matters as much as the destination. Our students here in Brewster start in the fall and work and right up until the competition in the spring. Participants don't just submit their final credits. They print a comprehensive story of creativity through meticulously documented portfolios. Teams reveal the intricate process behind their designs. They have exhaustive research that. Forms and foundation for their consent, and brainstorming sessions start with
006breakthrough ideas. There are signs that showcase problem solving and action. And the evolution of their creative visions. While there, the students also participated in the On Demand challenge, which is about creativity under pressure. Adding an extra layer of excitement. Teams face an impromptu design challenge that test their ability to think quickly, adapt and create on the spot. It's for spontaneity and skill, and true creative agility shines. ODI is more than a competition. It is a creative community. It is a vibrant gathering that transcends traditional competitive boundaries. It's a platform where student artists connect and collaborate. They share diverse perspectives that are celebrated. Innovation is the true prize. Creativity is recognized as a powerful form of expression. Artists here emerge creative. They have an exhilarating journey of discovery, learning and artistic exploration through our own classes
007in both first and eighth grade. President. Thank you. And whoever's idea was to do some of your work here is a great idea. Thank you. Mr. Hancock. I don't know how you found that. That was awesome. Um, so I just want to share. On Saturday, March 29th, at the Lower Hudson Council, school personnel administrators held their Virtual Career Fair 2010 brochure. And we're finding 12 back. And I just want to thank, uh, Maggie and Rainbow Corals. Rodriguez, uh, Rodriguez, Postel, Archie and Amalia, uh Vertica for giving up a Saturday morning TV interviews with me. Um, all our, uh, postings anticipated possibly for next year on our website, as well as what was on school front. So anyone watching or anyone who knows that is interested in joining this family center for those sites to work.
008Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Uh, yeah. So construction continues to progress throughout the district. You'll see the security vestibule project should be marked down, which should be completed in time for serving time for a budget vote. Uh, next week, a letter went out to, uh, to our, uh, school community, actually, this afternoon, uh, informing them of the water main tie in for the dashboard, which is a huge milestone for us to complete. Uh, there should not be any interruption to services. And, uh, in case there is an interruption, we do have bottled water on hand, but we've been assured by our construction professionals that the water main, uh, captured, uh, should go off without a hitch. The majority of the work is actually going to take place during spring recess, and the buildings are
009largely occupied. And the reason why they are, uh, approaching it this week is because of the water at the time that we take, uh, with, uh, sample testing and getting approval from the Department of Health so that our construction team for their website, uh, schedule your sweetener with you. Uh, not in instruction, however important to inform our school community. Um, uh, I reserve the remainder of my, uh, comments for our morning presentation. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Good evening. Um, we'll reserve a majority of my comments for the presentation and the discussion, but I do have several brief comments. Uh, the first has to do with the change to the calendar. We sent a letter to the community on April 2nd, uh, showing some calendar adjustments since we've only used one snow day to date. So
010schools will now be closed on Monday, April 21st, Friday, May 23rd, and Tuesday, May 27th. If for, um, some unforeseen reason, we need to have an emergency closure. Um, this could change, but this is where we are for now in terms of our our snow get back days. Um, and, um, I can't believe that none of my colleagues said this. Normally we meet each other to, uh, to wishing everyone a happy break. Um, but, uh, it's hard to believe this is where we are in the calendar. I'd like to wish everyone a restful and rejuvenating spring break. We come back in on April 22nd, ready for the, uh, push for the last couple of months. Um, my final comment actually is one that we'll do jointly with, uh, Mrs. Cunningham. We'll also invite some special
011guests in for this one. Oh my God. Okay. So, uh, one of our teammates achieved a career milestone today. Uh, Steven, who is now known as doctor. So this journey, like, uh, most that end in, uh, a terminal degree or the highest degree in one's field is cognitively, emotionally and sometimes physically daunting. It requires incredible stamina and perseverance, as well as an intense desire and motivation to learn at the highest levels of academia. Steven is a unique kind of leader, one who puts his heart, soul, and care into each decision that he makes. His conscientiousness, authenticity, and humility set him apart on a daily basis throughout this academic pursuit. He has been able to take who he is as a leader and a person, and lean in on how to best lead through change, which
012can be some of the most challenging times. Lead through. Steven Skillset and Deep Care have brought forward his unique perspective and as they say in the field, he has now made a contribution to the academic literature to benefit future generations. So while every doctoral journey has a student at the center, there is an ecosystem of support around that person that completes the story and ultimately makes the candidate successful. For Steven and is his wife Andrea, who likely should be awarded an honorary degree, or at least if you agree them. Um, his family, including his mom, uh, who is here this evening to celebrate and, of course, is, uh, beautiful daughter Addison, who wants to thank dad for waiting to complete the degree so she could be here. Congratulations, Steven. Andrea has been an overwhelming. So.
013Well. So this guy here, we got you. Of course. A boring nameplate, right? But you're not going to get that here tonight. Uh, but this is from all of us, too. You have to open it here. Oh, yeah. You got. It. You know. You. And I said, my dad is. And he did. You can call him doctor. Thank you. So. And yes, this is my beautiful daughter. Oh, that's so sweet. So anyways, yeah. I cannot thank you all enough for this recognition. For I am so, like, lost for words right now. I just want to say thank you. I consider myself so lucky to be here in the restaurant part of this family. And this is one, right? Uh, it's moments like this and the fact that you, including my family tonight means so much
014to me. And the support you provided me in October. We were talking about me finishing it. Here I am, and I'm so thankful. So thank you so much from the bottom of my heart to everybody for for the special. I'm Doctor Harrington, just on behalf of the board. We just want to say that we appreciate working with you very much, appreciate all the hard work and all the dedication that you bring to this district, and congratulate you on such an achievement. And now that we all have to call you doctor, which may take a minute, I see that right now we just raise the bar a little bit higher for you. So thank you for for being such a great model for the kids in the district and the staff. Thank you. So graduations appreciate
015it. Thank you. To see the future. Yes. You can take it up here. Take it. Take it in here. Look at the boards when I go up. Okay. Um. Okay, so we will, I guess. Actually, I will address one more thing, which I addressed at, uh, in my comments at the last meeting, and we'll probably do so until, um. Until the UN budget vote on May 20th. Um, we have a resolution that will be on the ballot that day. And the resolution relates to capital improvements that we're doing here at the district. And as everybody knows, there's two phases to these, um, capital improvements. The first one includes the recent high school security vestibule, the City star cafeteria, the new track into our field. And then phase two includes the fieldhouse and renovations to existing
016spaces for the Stem lab and the NJ ROTC program. Um, phase one of the bulk of the project is under budget, which is obviously great news. And the uh district has about a $6.1 million surplus. Those funds are maintained in a reserve and a capital reserve account by the district. Phase two of the project. Again, the, the, um, uh, Fieldhouse and other, um, additions of the high school, um, looks like it's probably going to be about $4.2 million over budget. Um, this deficit is due to a combination of things, many of which are outside the, um, control of the district, and they include relocating certain utilities, adding storage. Um, and also delays in approving the project. So we are very fortunate that we are able to address the budget deficit for phase two with the
017budget surplus for phase one. Um, and we just need the community to approve of the district transferring those funds. Um, there is a resolution on the ballot on May 20th, um, that gives the district permission to transfer the funds from phase one to phase two. That's it. That's all that the community is being asked. Um, there is no tax levy. There is no additional bond. There's no additional cost to the community. The district just needs the community's permission to transfer funds from one account to another. If you have any questions about this, we encourage you to reach out to the board at BOE, at Brewster School Board, or to Mr. Carlson and his team, which is budget at Brewster schools.org. So if you have any questions about this or what it means, please feel free
018to reach out and we will get back to you. Thank you. And now we can move on to our student representative Sebastian. Hi, everyone. Um, so the past two weeks, I've been pretty busy with, uh, our high school spring spirit week. Uh, it's this week and concludes, uh, Friday, April 11th. Uh, junior prom will be held April 24th at the Grandview and Poughkeepsie Music Department. Spring Choral Concert will be held on April 10th, starting at 630 in the park. Uh, the student and advisors, along with Mrs. Waller, will be traveling to Italy tomorrow and spending the rest of the week learning about the culture and history of Italy. Uh, VHS and JROTC cadets spent the day at Camp Smith as a part of the soldier for a day program, where they all took part in
019various activities that help them learn about what a day in the life of a soldier looks like. Um. The clinics, track and field attended the first annual Winston Invitational. First year track and field competed in our first major, uh, Invitational of the season in Ossining. Eight schools, 18 schools competed on a cold and rainy day. Brewster had seven medalists, highlighted by Ariel Lopez Navarro, who secured the win in both the 110 meter hurdles and 400 meter hurdles. Lohud player of the week. Uh has two nominations Emma Fagan for flag football and Troy Vasquez for baseball. Please vote for your bears. Uh, last night, our varsity baseball team competed at Dodger Stadium under the lights and became successful on the diamond with a 12 to 6 win over Hanford. Uh, girls lacrosse defeated Eastchester last week
020at Fox Lane and is at Fox Lane this evening. Uh, hoping for a favorable outcome. Softball will be on the mound for next three nights with nearby towns Wednesday on May o'clock here at Brewster, Thursday at Carmel and Friday at Yorktown. Uh, flag football team or, uh, defeated Greenlee. Uh, Greely yesterday at home and on the road today at Lakeland. Boys lacrosse team only played one game and lost to Arlington. They will be, uh, home tomorrow versus Carmel at 5 p.m. Congratulations to Luke Cunningham for making the 2025 Lohud Boys Lacrosse watch list. Um golf lost its first match 247 to 251 to Putnam Valley, improved team score to 245, in loss to JJ F during yesterday's match. The match is Thursday against Pawling, led by Zach Beal, scores of 42 and 43, in Wells
021on March 27th, the math scientist came to work with our sixth graders in their science classes, and the students engaged in experiments with chemical reactions. Thank you to everyone who came out to support the positive in our fundraiser, and a special thank you to Mrs. Winning, our Art and PE departments for organizing all of the different components of this event. Uh, New York State 638 Ela testing session two will be on Wednesday, April 8th due to unexpected disruption. As mentioned, students will have the opportunity to finish session one on Thursday morning. The NYSE as let and speaking exam will be on, uh, April 22nd and April 23rd. The star Ela and that testing will be the week of the 22nd to the 25th. Etsy star. Today, our fourth graders had a pancake breakfast celebrating the
022fruits of our labors. From identifying maple trees to drilling into the trunk to tap to leave a tap, and finally cooking our 80 gallons of sap to make just two gallons of maple sirup. Fourth graders learn much more about this than an article from the history book can teach them from a hands on experimental learning project. Maple sugaring has been a part of rooster's fourth grade program for almost 40 years, and it all started with a wonderful special education teacher, Mr. Streeter Read. And it lives on by a fourth grade team led by Mrs. Michelle, Marcel and JFK. The paleontology sandbox has been installed in the courtyard. Our students have been introduced to what it means to be an archeologist for fossils. A huge thank you to the BBF and PTA for supporting us in
023this purchase. The cowgirl stance was a success this past Friday, and our cubs had such a great time dancing and interacting with each other. We're looking forward to the Cowboys dance this coming Friday. And finally, our kindergarten students who produced the wonderful books by Alyssa Sang, lead author of the famous Biscuit Books. They will have the opportunity to be here on April 29th when she comes to visit. Thank you. Thank you. So, like everything else in the spring, it's like there's so much going on. So that was great. Thank you so much. If I could just one thing. Last year I went to the arts on an induction, and Sebastian was there and they highlighted his poetry. And I just wanted to congratulate him on his poetry. It was well done. And I believe he's
024even up self-published. So he's already accomplished things I've never done. So congratulations. I want to get this far. You established. Right. Thank you. I think so. Thanks. Watching. All right. So we will now move on to our presentations, recognition and discussion. Number one. Um, this part on for discussion is the student ex-officio board member. Yes. Thank you. So even though this is meant to be more of a discussion, we put together a quick presentation that summarizes the memo shared with the board previously in order to get the conversation going and give us direction around how we would like to select a student board member. Um, so you are familiar with these requirements. This is, um, what we have been advised is, uh, part of the law that will be effective on July 1st. So each
025district has to establish a process. There are ways that you can be elected or selected, um, in order to be ex-officio official and board member. The requirement is that you have to if you have attended the high school for at least one year, uh, the student is entitled to sit with the board at all public meetings and hearings. The student will not be allowed to be in executive session or have access access to any confidential material. So I'm thinking about the process that we currently have to select, uh, a student, uh, board member. Uh, we were we're thinking of building on that, recommending that we build on that and make the process a little bit more robust. Um, so once we receive direction from the board, we would advertise a position we would, uh, recommend.
026We would have students who are interested apply to Ms. Haller, who, of course, will, um, distribute um, this opportunity, uh, far and wide. Um, we'll have a panel and interview panel with various constituents, um, from both from the high school and from the district office teaching roles, uh, guidance counselor. Um, and questions will be, um, asked after having those questions be formulated and informed by, uh, board of trustees and and others. Uh, a successful candidate would be appointed to the board of Ed at the, uh, reorg meeting, which, of course is the first Tuesday in July. So just to put the proposed timeline in order to make sure that we comply with the law, that we would have this discussion now, uh, may, uh, late April, early May, we would, um, advertise the position and
027ask, uh, for students who are interested to apply to Miss Haller as a high school principal. We would make sure that in late May or early June, we have student interviews, um, with comprised of the committee that we, uh, previously to share. Um, and then, uh, in June or July, it'll be great to be able to have this appointment done by, uh, the second board meeting in June. Um, in order for us to be set and ready to go. Okay. Thank you. So this is just the first step, sort of of this process to have a, um, a student, um, support for certain purposes. Um, does anyone have any thoughts on this suggested way of, um, of selecting, uh, a student? I do, um, a couple of thoughts on it is one. Um, you know,
028I know Sebastian's been here every week, but previous year we have had two students because, you know, board meetings are a lot for us. And these are going to be seniors that are going to have to do their capital project next year. It's going to wind up being a high achiever, um, because that's who's going to put their hat in the ring and that kid's going to be in the National Honor Society and and in this society and that honor society. I just think it's a lot of work. Um, and I'm not opposed. I don't know what the law says. Specifically. I thought we had talked about the potential of two people. Um, just because it's a let's this is an upper case that we all understand, you know, and we do it, but it's
029it's a challenge for us to busy lives. And these kids are stressed in their senior year. They are hanging out by a friend. They are going to college visits and they're doing a thousand things. So I would I would definitely not be opposed to two kids. And then, you know, how how potentially could we try to generate interest from the non high achieving, you know, and open up an opportunity to kids that can give us the middle of the road. Um perspective that is not you know like a high achievers often are the voice of the schools because they know how to do it. And they, they are so connected with, you know, admin and the and and the groups and so forth. But so it would be lovely to be able to see how
030we're able to get kids. That's just general path that is able to come forth and give us ideas and thoughts about that. I yeah, I wouldn't have a problem with having to. I think maybe you maybe it would encourage people to put their hat in the ring if they knew they had a back up. You know, maybe it's a primary in a in a back up type of idea. Um, if possible. I mean, what is everything about that? I agree, I agree either having to get primary and secondary or even just like a team effort would be great if we think that if you get more kids, maybe not just super hard to do, but who would be more interested if they, you know, they've got someone in there with them versus I can do
031it all by myself. And the other thing which is not we're not we're not something we're deciding now. But there's also, um, like we can have, um, since they won't be voting. So, like, they can come to the beginning part of the meeting and then when we get to action items, they can stay or they can leave because it does get late. These kids are, you know, they have a lot going on. So there is flexibility about them being here for the whole meeting as well, so that, you know, that could help as well. And they can have the option to stay if they want to. Um, so is everybody on board with that idea? I've got my question. Is there anything in the law like, okay, we can keep going if the child isn't
032here, right. Like. Yeah, yeah. Um, well, and, you know. Yeah, I mean, there's going to be a lot of that, like, some districts may not even get somebody who is willing to do it, you know, you don't know how it's going to turn out. So they'll probably be some, um, you know, some bumps in the road. But yes, they, you know, they're not a, a voting member of the board. So we could proceed, but obviously that would. Attendance would be one of the things that we would expect. Yeah, if I could, you know, this has existed for a number of years, but there was a component where it had to be voted on by the voters. So that's why a lot of districts in the state and upstate, there are a fair number of schools
033that already have this in place. I remember years ago I talked to a number of them, and they've heard a lot of what people have said here. Sometimes it's true, but maybe it's instead of being a team, you can also split it up term in half because also with a lot of sports and I know you have questioned that yourself. Is this your time for serving students with some downtime? And we do definitely want to attract not the same student that does everything. We're really looking to get the student that is more involved in policy, politics, somebody who wants to be a voice and doesn't have that opportunity. So this is a great opportunity that could be handled by the way that Principal Haller and her team would interview the students almost make it like
034a job application. So we give them experience at home at all different levels. But. I didn't know and I think he did this for our West is has a seminar on coming up soon. Whether actually having the existing student board members participate in um. Um, just gave us more experience, but is this the way to go? I think it's fantastic. And we do have to have it in place. So it's one of. Is it something even that could be done, like for the season? You know, like the fall, winter spring is or is it? Hopefully for somebody that might be interested, they can only do it for season and it's not such a big task. Yeah, I mean, I suppose it's possible, right? You know, so, um, but certainly I think the idea of having
035at least two, you know, and three will be great, but yeah, I mean, you know, sports is definitely a but that's okay. There's plenty of kids who don't play sports, but they can do this and who want to do it. So that's great. Um, is everybody anything else that anybody wants to discuss? I like the, you know, sort of panel interview process. And we have the opportunity to sort of think, you know, relevant what service. I think that's good. And what is there? What seems possible for them to understand? What is their responsibilities? Yes. I mean, they don't. Uh, well, their responsibility is that they're going to be the ex-officio board members, so they are obligated to come and to participate, to share their thoughts. So after a presentation on something, the budget can be
036anything. They, you know, they will have the opportunity to make comments and, um, you know, suggestions or thoughts the same way that we can. Um, they don't they're not going to be, you know, they're not a lot of interest deputy of session. And they're not, um, voting members. But certainly from the students perspective, this is a significant leadership opportunity. Um, you know, something that I think, you know, would be great for college applications or your resumé or anything like that, and maybe a stepping stone for people to be involved, you know, as follows, with our civic responsibilities. Um, and they, you know, give them the bug to, you know, stay involved and, and. Um. It's just. Yeah. So I'm just here for you. Yeah. Uh, yeah. So that's something to, like the agenda with me,
037like emails and, um, just thinking of how they think they have ahead of time. But there wouldn't really be necessarily, like, outside work to do. Right. Right. Which is, you know, I think the positive of it, you know, the, the, the heavy lifting that they're going to have to do is attend the meetings, um, you know, and spend the hour, the two hours, you know, however long as it is and we can discuss later, you know, whether they can leave after presentations or whatever. Um, but that's really the heavy lifting. They're not we're not going to be looking, you know, and sharing their opinions and, and suggestions and things like that. Um, just from a steel shamelessly. And you guys may have already thought of this, but I know that the officers that are elected
038for model, um, they had a really rigorous interview, um, panel way. So it might just be something you might want to, um, pick up and steal if you guys haven't done. All right. Anything else you want to share on this? Uh, just say that. Otherwise, instead, come up with policy and everybody that have a similar question to what we had. And I told them what we would bring back the information from this meeting and help them with that. But the policy will not separate from this. This we can have money because there is no policy requirement. Yeah. To do this. Yeah. The policy piece will follow later if it's all right. So we're going to have. So this is sort of the selection process. And then the board will sort of agree on the protocols
039for you know how how they'll be, you know, treated information that receive things like that. So what has been discussed in policy. But just like any school policy. So now that theoretically we can have a policy ex-officio student board member. So there would be an actual policy in our policy manual. Specific to this, the one item like this policies for four members is policy for everything. So there is a chance to put a policy. It is not required by law by policy committee. You know, it says everything that comes before them. And that would wait to see if there's interest, you know, from everybody involved whether this actually needs a policy. Sometimes it's nice to have a policy as it'll refine what we're talking about and it'll be in place. So there's no variation that's
040unlike that might go into the if they decide it needs policy, that how they select would be a policy or that we decide on to the board decide on two versus one. Like that might be something that they're like, let's do that into a policy. But it will be determined. And I think we'll let it play out for a little bit to see if they know what's working and what needs to be tweaked or, you know, so that we can hear. Yes. Yeah. I mean, they don't have to do anything because it's not required. So policy is moving on and addressing other policies. They're not really waiting on us. Oh that's okay. Um, okay. Everybody good with an answer? Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So then we will move on to number 220 2526 budget
041presentation. Superintendent's proposed budget regarding Mr. Stanford as one. Um, so tonight you move on the budget presentation number four, which is the superintendent's budget, the summarize recap of previous presentations. You shouldn't see any new information here. I pulled the essential pieces from previous presentations in order to put forward a more concise, um, presentation. I assume I can use ChatGPT to answer if I might. Okay, I think you're having that. I'm sorry. Okay. Um, you've seen this, uh, priority slide previously. Um, you start with, um, the tax cap. And, uh, for the 14th year, the tax cap has been in existence. We have been under for nine out of those 13 years to, uh, the tune of approximately $7.8 million in savings. Um, you'll remember from our earlier presentations, the tax cap, uh, formula, a lot
042of seven allowable tax cap of over 4%. Of course, you're not going to hear that, but just another example of how we're looking to be as fiscally responsible as possible. We work through and think about how best do we allocate the resources that are available to us in order to meet student learning needs and to move us forward? Uh, in terms of our strategic plan, the vision 2026, of course, make sure we're addressing new mandates, uh, and mandates that are currently not being met, which of which we have very few, if any districts. Um, and we are a particular focus this year is, uh, education with seven class sizes. So you'll see, as we, um, move through the slides that we have looked to, uh, pivot a bit and to rightsize and reallocate based on
043where we're seeing student learning needs. So moving from our priorities to our guiding principles is really threefold. First, we have the fiscal responsibility around rightsizing, reallocating strategic interventions. Looking at student learning data is helping us and being able to make decisions based on that and then marching forward, uh, as it pertains to vision 2026 and putting those final pieces in place in order for us to get to that next level of opportunity for our students. Scroll down a little bit deeper into fiscal responsibility, really threefold. Uh, we have put forward to you last week, uh, or less, uh, we're reading some educationally sound reductions, um, where we have used, uh, the board through to, uh, class size guidelines in order to make those recommendations to you. Um, we are also making recommendations around some strategic
044interventions, looking at, uh, what, uh, supports are available to students throughout the grades. Again, what the student learning data is telling us and how we can, um, reallocate some resources in order to address student learning needs. And then, uh, something that we're particularly proud of is over time, we've gotten better at using grants. Um, and uh, being able to whether they're allocations or competitive grants, uh, being able to use that, um, to further our fiscal responsibility. Um, this year, we're paying attention also, as we do each year, but we're able to make some shifts when it comes to, um, a previous year's Boces spending and how we can, uh, shift that into districts. Uh, we love the slide, and we're getting off of it. Updated things, uh, each year. And it's nice, even if we're
045thinking about things like your online courses, that number has grown over the number of years that we've used the slide and just the opportunities that we have been able to give to students from a programmatic perspective. Again, we're particularly proud of, uh, our students are most definitely making the most of it and exceeding expectations, uh, with the opportunities that have been wasted, um, coming through into enrollment and class size. So again, this is where we are and where we project to be next year. A reminder around factors that are impacting class size. Of course we have enrollment staffing. We have to take into account our facilities and physical space. Um, of course, our fiscal resources and then programmatic opportunities that we want to be able to provide for our students. So as we said two
046weeks ago, uh, this is, um, these slides look a little bit different than in years past, uh, because of the approach that we're taking. It's broken down, uh, grade by grade. You'll see up top, uh, where we are currently in the 24, 25 school year, where we projected being a 25, 26 school year, both in terms of number of sections and number of students. The arrow you will see is, um, average class size, um, and the green bar in the middle, which will shift to the right as we, uh, as students get older. Uh, throughout this presentation is board approved policy, uh, class size. These are the recommended guidelines for our board approved. Um, so those are the old numbers from whenever the board approved, whenever that was last incident of 1828. So this year
047we had 17 kids per carry. And next year we're saying 17.4 based on, um, the projected or based on what who has already enrolled at this point, it's projected. So based on I mean, we have an idea based on, um, pre-K enrollment. But that, of course, doesn't tell the whole story. We have a demographers report, which we have each year on our website. Um, it's a, uh, you know, mathematical, uh, so the mathematical algorithms and equations that I guess to the point where, um, the demographer makes comfortable making those recommendations. So it's, it's projected that there would be, uh, 174 students for next year. This leads us to a point in that this is, um, the most unpredictable grade, uh, in terms of enrollment. And so our recommendation for next year, uh, even though we
048have four more students and even though we would be below the recommended, um, class size guidelines is to stay with transactions to allow for that flexibility in enrollment that we could potentially see as students, uh, move in or register, um, outside of the demographer projected. So statistically speaking, because it is the most think it is the most unpredictable. But if we look at the last and, um, forecast, Covid is a one year pre-K is going to change. And so but can we start to look at. You know, today is April 8th, April 8th of 2024 April 8th of 2023 to see how close our projections were, because a nine section and Cynthia and I can disagree on, um, kindergarten numbers, but a nine section is 19 kids, and that's still a really nice number. When
049we have two adults in the classroom. And how many of our nine classrooms also have push ins or have ICT. And, you know, whether it be, you know, uh, you know, or um, uh, special ed and so forth. So when we look at that mix, we actually have three teachers, three, uh, adults and teachers and eight in a classroom, maybe not all day, but. Yes. Right. Pushing in. Um, so I guess a couple of thoughts on that. Uh, you know, enrollment we've talked about this enrollment is fluid, right. So you think a point in time and you're saying April to April, the year after year? Um, that can give us an idea, uh, looking at the question when it comes to, um, kindergarten and we've seen what enrollment has looked like for the current kindergarten,
050first grade, second grade. Um, and we are seeing, um, what we thought was a blip. Now be more of a trend, right? Um, I would argue, um, even, uh, if it stays at is projected at 174, it's slightly below, um, the class size guidelines if we're going to do it in any grade kindergarten, is it ready to do it even though we have, um, two adults in the classrooms at all times at the same time? I like my question. Yes. As my classes get larger, how does that affect the mix in the classroom? Because does that change who we need to hire in? Those other, uh, teachers that were aides and services. Okay. Um, and I would think that would be as strong as we would like it to be as. Let's get larger. Sorry.
051Okay. No, I agree with you. I just think I always think at 17, you know, first year is still a middle class community. And having numbers that are under rich communities, um, that have, you know, wild, crazy budgets that are not even dependent on New York State is is a really big luxury for us to have so much more interest in the same way we're doing it, you know, for pre-K is also like, oh, uh, you know, let let's invest in pre-K and get the grants that we want, because now we are better preparing our children because our, uh, what we were getting is between Covid and all these kids coming in that we're not prepared. Now, we have so many of them that are going to be of a kindergarten pardon standard, because we
052actually invested a ton of money to be able to say, let's get these kids up to grade. So that kid that wasn't ready to be in kindergarten two years ago is now actually on par and ready to come as a whole. But I'm saying like, yes, I pray to God we're seeing that, and we would hope that we would see that, uh, improvement in student learning outcomes by about second grade. Right. Um, that it comes through and we, we are seeing just from a qualitative, um, perspective, um, an increase in kindergarten readiness as students are coming from pre-K into kindergarten, for sure. Um, and so what we're trying to do is not just think about it in terms of, okay, does it meet the bare minimum? But how can we continue to support students on
053their, you know, academic growth as they move through? What's your question around MTS? It's true of of all grade levels, really. You know, we're asking teachers, um, to do more and more in terms of those tier one and tier two interventions in the classroom. Um, and so the more students that you add into that, um, the, um, just proportionately, um, if we're, you know, if we're doing it, um, the right way or the way that we're asking, um, we're going to have less student teacher contact time as the numbers, as a numbers increase. Um, and so, you know, with kindergarten, it's a different dynamic. Students are going to be four years old up to December 1st, right? They're they're still, uh, they're still babies. And so, you know, our recommendation for this particular group is
054to say at ten sections to give us that flexibility. And even if it would be, uh, an okay thing, if, you know, we still have had class sizes around. And I will let you go through your presentation. But I'm doing the math and some of these other ones, and they're going they're going up a lot like I. And again, I'm not a teacher. So we can roll in the parking lot and throw it in the park. But you know, like where like you're going first grade, we just jump to 21. Whereas here you know, 19 versus, you know having 20. So it just it goes up fast versus do you do that shift. And I know it's a balance with input from educators and so forth. But just thinking along those lines. Moving into first
055grade. And honestly an argument could be made at each grade level. So why we should, um, either keep the current level of staffing or add a section to reduce class size. Um, but it comes down to the overall, you know, budget picture and how we're going to use things like, um, class size guidelines in order to help us make these, um, objective decisions. And I 100% agree with that. Uh, just one of the things. Sorry, I don't know what. I'm sorry. One of the things I think of is that kindergarten now they are babies, I get it, and they're babies coming in with less, um, parenting, like parents are, are not parenting. I know that there are toileting issues that, you know, no kid ten years ago would have had unless they had special needs.
056And now we're seeing a lot of that. So I know that there's a shift, whether it be Covid, whether it be, um, parenting, you know, apathy or whatever it may be. But I'm still thinking of two adults in a classroom versus when you just get to second grade, we're going up and we're going up fast. And now that's one adult in a classroom that has 21 kids versus 17. And so that goes for kids different on that. Um, that shift is because they are still babies, you know, now it's it's 21 against one versus 19 against two. And that's the thought process there. Yeah. And it's I know it's a balancing act. And there's and there's a lot going on in a kindergarten classroom where it's out there. And there's a reason why we have
057bathrooms in each kindergarten class. Right. Um, and the hope is that the growth that is made during that kindergarten year gets, um, you know, ready for, for, uh, for the next year. Um, so moving into first grade, you can see by reducing a section, we have the same average class size, uh, that we would have for the 2425 school year, which is on the lower end of our class size guidelines. Uh, so back to the question on enrollment here. We see, um, a section less of students, um, moving into first grade for next year. And so by reducing one section, uh, we would be able to keep class sizes at the same at 21. Now, the argument as to whether or not 21 is the right number for first grade, that's a separate argument using
058the objective criteria that we have here. Um, we are recommending that we go down to eight sections here. And this is another thing to last time. I know I had spoken about, um, our class size policy and I'll talk about that again in the board remarks. Um, you know, thinking about first grade and the amount of development that happens in first grade, I will argue any day against anybody that first grade has the most demands on them to get from point A to point B, the stretch is far, um, longer than anywhere else. So I'm concerned about, you know, 21 kids in the class versus 18 is a huge difference for them have in the classroom. And and having teachers really meet the needs of these kids. And I know, you know, we're talking about
059fiscally responsible and all the things. And I feel that there are times when fiscally responsible is, isn't always, you know, taking out and reducing here or there in the short term, looking at, you know, investing in the short term to be fiscally responsible in the long term. So that's something like I see first grade as primary, second grade primary, uh, second grade. Going into third grade, there is a big transition from one school to the other where I could argue also the how important that is. And I know I said this last time, I just feel like I have to say it again, how uncomfortable and reducing sections and more in elementary schools, I feel very strongly that it is very important to keep classroom teachers in classrooms and not take them out. And my
060understanding of says, uh, is keep them in classrooms. Small class sizes, resources, and classrooms support teachers who have so much on their plate to take on all of these things along with new literacy, new this, new that, new all of it. Um. I'm very uncomfortable with it again. I will go with whatever the majority of the board says have said all the things. I just feel that it's a mistake to take yourself out, to take teachers out of classrooms. Sorry. No, I just heard about it. So this is one of those gray levels. Again, I'm not by any means saying you're wrong. Um, looking at it just objectively at the pure numbers where we are this year, where we are next year, by reducing size from the same exact place that we are in 25,
06126 again. Is that the best place to be? That's up for, um, uh, like, uh, some big, uh, fiber using a section where I the same class size in first grade as we artists. Artistically, right? Here we have, um, currently nine sections, uh, 183 students. Next year we projected to have seven more students in second grade. Um, so we're recommending still that we keep nine sections. Um, this one is, as we explained two weeks ago, a little bit different in that one of these nine sections is not a special education classroom. It is a bilingual education classroom. We have two classroom teachers. So we have 10.0 FTE or full time equivalent. In one of these sections, we're recommending that go to a 9.0 FTE and say at nine sections we're not reducing sections, we're not
062increasing class size based on any reduction or shifting staff. That is, uh, here, um, to uh, another um, area, uh, in the K-5 system, as we get to some of the, um, opportunities for shifts and whether it comes down to, uh, retirements or newly proposed positions, um, and doing that, class sizes go to, uh, to 21. Not again, not based on, um, any enrollment based reductions, but on the model, uh quotient. Right in the third grade. Um, we are at nine sections currently. We're recommending that we go to eight sections. You can see that we say at nine sections, we should, uh, have class sizes, uh, on average of about 24, three, which would be lower at first and second rate. Um, by um reducing section, uh, we would go to 20.9 average class size,
063which is in the middle of our class size and. As a fourth grade, you were also recommending the rejection of a section that would currently have class sizes on average of 22, that would go to 24. It is in the middle of our class size, uh, guidelines. Uh 23 to 27. You can see in fourth and fifth grade that shifts uh, to that were policy or uh, shifts up to 2327. So understanding. If you change it tonight by mockingly, um, understanding it's on average. So um, and that is going to be on average with our, um, higher level of special ed classes, which are mixed grades for, for CV star. So like what would be the top echelon of fourth grade once we, we dice this all out. Like, are we going to have a
064classroom with 27 or that won't happen. It would be more at 24 once we have, you know, because you're going to have ICT classes that you're not going to want the biggest one, the biggest one, you're going to have that or that you're not gonna want the biggest ones. You're going to have that, um, that, um, I forget the word for the special ed class that has a higher level of services. Um. High. Right? Right. Yeah. So, like those those classes are going to be smaller. So does that make the average go to 20 that one teacher in fourth grade is going to get 27 kid. And that's what Andrea does. So in general, just in thinking about how we place kids within ICC classes or any other, you know, specialized learning um, or labeled
065class to be. Leave perhaps a 1 or 2 student wiggle room. Yes, but across the board, the class size averages are generally within one and two of each other. So it's not like one class would have 23 kids. In another class we have 27. That's generally not what the initial placement is. Um, and uh, certainly have there been situations where, let's say new kids come in and perhaps they have IEPs or they have specialized needs and they have to go to a particular classroom, which may move, um, an average number up and, you know, by, let's say, and three, compared to their neighboring classroom. Yes. But when our administrators are doing that placement, they're looking for within a 1 to 2. Um, okay. And I think the other concern is like, you know, uh, if
066you do a good job, you get rewarded with more work. So you're stronger. Teachers are the ones that you naturally think like, oh, you know what? This one can handle that. This one can do that. And you really want to make sure you're not burning out a, uh, a star teacher that goes from 24 up to 27 because they're, they're the best ones and therefore they can handle, you know, the increase, whereas, you know, lesser teachers would be like, you know, have the 23 because that's all that they can handle. So our. Then moving on to fifth grade. This was um, and the discussion at the last board meeting. Uh, that class has guidelines of 23 to 27 or currently is an average of 21.59 sections. Based on board feedback from last meeting, we can
067keep it at nine sections, resulting in at 22.3. Average class size for next year. I believe the rationale for this was that if we did not, um, if we reduced down to eight sections, we would have five sizes of pies in the district in fifth grade. Um, uh, 25 plus, I remember a no no recommended change after the feedback was. All right. So moving into the middle school and this is where everything is every year. And my freshman record as we move into the secondary, um. Uh, schools, it's not just a pure calculation in terms of what the class sizes are. So what we try to do, uh, for this particular year is to show you the range of those core classes, um, as well as the average class size, and then give you what
068the, um, enrollment would look like for the overall enrollment for next year. Uh, the middle school enrollment overall is about the same. Um, what we and what you'll see is that, um, as we have had people either leave or, uh, retire, we're taking advantage of that by, um, not filling those positions. And thank Mr. Gregory, his and his team for having a key to that. Uh, as early as, uh, the beginning of the school year. Um, there's also some reallocation that's going on within the building. Uh, Mr. Rodriguez's and his team have some, uh, pretty unique ideas around how to provide, um, some intensive, um, support in the during the block period by utilizing some of these core teachers. Um, so these average, these class size averages will increase next year based on, um, not
069filling some retirements, but really more so based on how we're reallocating, um, that targeted intervention support in the middle school. So just a question. It's more of a comment about, um, middle school. Um, I've had, you know, as, as someone that's had three kids go through middle school. Seventh grade is the last year. And even in the end, the numbers support that. So you you baby them in sixth grade because you're trying to bring them into this new learning environment. You support them in eighth grade to prepare them for more independence and and and a harder road ahead. But seventh grade is the year that every parent just prays their kid makes it out alive, and that you are so relieved when you you get your last kid through seventh grade. And I've been saying
070that since I stood at that podium and was saying that you have 29 kids in math classes in, in, in, in seventh grade math. So like it just is a consistent thing. We have new leadership. So I just want that message to be heard. How do we engage seventh graders. So it's not a lost year so that you don't have a bitter kid and that, you know, you're having having all this struggle? How do we how do we we look at that. Because and I'm saying this because the numbers, you know have it's it has a higher number. And that just as a regular like link to seventh grade. Well they're they're the non coddled year. So let's stick them. You know we have to figure out a way to make seventh grade a little
071bit more engaging and special. So we don't lose kids and take half a year to get them back on track when they're going into eighth grade. It's also different, like so we have sixth grade in our middle school. However, our sixth grade is still elementary school grades. Elementary school teachers are sort of this sixth grade teachers are elementary school certified. Seventh grade teachers are secondary. So it is that jump from elementary to secondary that kind of lives in the middle of middle school. Um, that also is another difference. Yeah. And I think if you go to any, um, awards night at the end of the year and then kids that made, uh, three quarters of, um, high honor roll, uh, the number jump of the number, uh, drops off by like eight kids from sixth
072grade to the to to seventh grade. And you're like, you're like, oh, what happened? And it it is because like, the gloves came off and so forth. So how do we, you know, how do we look at that and think, is that the right way to do it? Maybe it is, but it's also waking kids up in seventh grade with a little bit of harsh reality that maybe the end of sixth grade that they start to get. And I don't I don't know how that's recommended in a K through six teacher versus a seven through 12, but I'm just it's it's challenging to to to not like you look at it and you're like oh God. There's a stark difference here. I know that middle school is a time of, um, you know, more drastic
073development. And, you know, the times that I can see what it is, um, you know, that, um, increase your brain development, etc., so their lives when you sign on and when you have the transition years. And that's part of the focus. And seventh grade is the, um, introduction to, you know, the secondary schooling. Um, so Mr. Rodriguez has some ideas around, um, not necessarily seventh grade in particular, but looking at the spectrum of these across grade six, really, that will, I think, improved achievement overall. Um, based on that targeted intervention support. No question. Um, uh, right. Um, um, for the high school. So here we see a significant difference between outgoing 12th grade and incoming eighth grade difference of eight more students. So then the question naturally is, well, why can't we just cut, you
074know, x number of positions from here? Um, and um, the answer is because a high school's different right to high school. You have multiple pathways for students. You have students who take more specialized coursework, whether it be for exams or dual enrollment. Um, we have, uh, I don't even know how many levels of math, uh, for example, based on where students individual individual pathway, um, you know, maintaining this level of staffing that we have at the high school allows for opportunities for students. And some of the things that we've talked about in vision 2026, in our strategic plan, thinking about, you know, students doing those career career inventories and thinking about what they might want to do when they leave the high school. One of these gaps that we saw between the offerings that we
075have and what students are interested in are health sciences. So being able next year to introduce a health sciences course in order for students to start in sort of that pathway, is one way that we're looking at meeting the needs of what the students are telling us. They they need to want, um, and the matching offerings to those, um, to those applications that out of work. So my challenge to you on on that. Because 81 is a lot. That's a huge difference is what are we stopping. And so uh, as someone that just went through the process and I just had a call with my kid about Manhattanville English one versus two, and, um, whether that's accepted versus AP English and all of that, like, there has to be some sort of input for us
076to better understand, um, what kids are being successful with and, um, their college applications with AP and dual enrollment. So from a focus group of one, I saw better leverage of dual enrollment. And you guys have expanded the dual enrollment. And you have that 11th grade class in social studies, which I think is a great idea. You put all those kids through that will correct. And we'll see what that winds up being at the end of the year in terms of success rates and so forth, for kids being able to to do that. But that's amazing. But like our APS, as AP, as a US, as prestigious or as useful as they used to be. So I'll challenge you specifically. And of course, none of my kids ever took that one because I have two
077kids myself. It never would have happened, but they would qualify. But with the secondary English one, the literary one. I know it's a niche class for certain kids, but do we need that class versus something else? And it's the trade offs. So with being able to grow your program on dual enrollment, if that's your better bet, and shrink other areas so that it's a balance of how do we be fiscally responsible for our community and still buffer up that slide and have incredible opportunities, give health sciences, but maybe look at some of the the sciences that are more specialized and maybe our our falling off. How do we do that. And, and there's there's going to be data to support it. I don't want you going down a rabbit hole for data, but it is
078that kind of trade off. Yeah. No. And it starts with, uh, you know, this from in high school I experienced that, um, there are a plethora of offerings when it comes to, uh, course selection, but what ones actually run right down within a moment? Looks like, um, and so part of what we have to also balance at the high school is if we have 12 kids that want to continue in calc and, we don't know, accelerated a drought, like, that's, uh, that's something that we should support or see them sort of through that sequence. Um, but are there other electives that maybe, um, you know, have lower numbers that we wouldn't run into allocated in a different way? So that's, that's that those are the chess pieces that we move around to make sure that
079we're getting the, um, those data back in return on the investment items. Do you mean there's also a big difference, difference in perceived prestige between dual enrollment and AP? So when kids are applying to colleges and they're applying to 25 colleges. Yeah. Um, you know, having they want to have the 87 apps on their transcript. Right. Um, where because it's more prestigious, because you have to pass the test to get the credit right, and you have to pass the test with the 4 or 5 versus, you know, taking a dual enrollment class and passing the class and getting the credit. It's very different. I 100% of my, the I there's never I don't think that we can ever or maybe some way but not anytime soon until it's also like, uh, the kids need to
080get this and the parents to get out of their mind that they have to have 87 apps on their transcripts, 100%. Um, there's not going to be an ability to further constrict what we offer in 80s. I mean, I think we're actually seeing an expansion, like because the AP is offering more. Yes, but I'm also seeing, um, colleges being more accepting of dual enrollment, which I was surprised to see some dual enrollment, like covered more than a lot of apps, which I was surprised about. So that's evolved and depends on the schools too. Yeah. In that regard, if you had some of the schools that you're partnering with, it depends on the sources the kids are going to. And the other thing I would say is that we kids are intimidated by AP and they're
081less intimidated by dual enrollment. So we're going to have more success of kids actually having a college class. And whether that college class is really, you know, everybody has that argument even with APS. But we're pushing more kids in dual enrollment. So more kids that are not normally going to take a college course. Now we're going to graduate with 610 credits and and have a little bit of a leg up. But is there a trade off because and the reason why I picked on English is because kids are looking at. That Manhattanville English course saying I get six credits versus the three in literary and the Manhattan one is going to be less intensive from the, the, uh, demands of the reading. So that's why I picked on that one in particular of the trade
082offs of being able to do it, because one is niche to that super reader group of kids, which is great. They're going to read it anyway. They're going to they're going to read books anyway. And do we redeploy assets someplace else as we balance out? And I've seen that I've seen the kids rush towards with the Manhattanville class for those reasons. And stay away from that, that high level. Uh, AP literary one. Those are our class sizes, which we said was, um, you know, one component of the recommendations that we would make when it comes to saving. Um, so as a summary of what we discussed previously in, uh, grades one through four, um, we are recommending, um, 4.0 enrollment. Uh, enrollment 4.0, a shift or reduction. Um, from these, uh, these grade levels based
083on either enrollment or, uh, a shift in the model. Um, what we are, what we're looking at here on the right hand side are recommended positions. So halfway reading, that's not a new position. That's a position that currently exists and is vacant due to retirement in the middle school reading position. That's vacant due to a resignation. Right. So those are opportunities for our students or for our our staff members to not lose their jobs, maybe shift positions if they're ready for that next challenge, they have a different certification that they want to explore, etc. Um, the blue we can see it for JFK and CV Star Math. We are recommending 1.0 increase for both of those schools. I can do math there. So this at the last meeting we currently have, um, you know, five
084reading interventionists in each of the each of JFK and ACP, sorry, schools. And we have two math interventionists. So this helps Principality. Um, plus, um, the district student learning data showing us, uh, based on what we have seen, uh, at previous board meetings that, um, this is, is most definitely warranted. Uh, the other piece of this, too, is just from a scheduling and logistics perspective. If we are able to have one interventionist at each of the grade levels, that opens up opportunities for, um, more grade specific support. I also just want to say, and I thank you for bringing this up, because it, um, is important that I'm clear about this. I'm not saying that, um, you know, a, an interventionist position is more valuable than a classroom teacher position. Um, what are these recommendations
085are a result, um, is using the objective criteria of the class size guidelines and being able to say, okay, we can reduce here based on that objective criteria. And here are some of the recommended recommended positions that we're looking at based on what we're seeing in terms of student learning. So I just want to to clarify that, uh, moving uh, moving forward and thinking about the secondary school. Yeah. And I'm sorry, because I missed the last meeting. I, I heard some things from it. I have not watched the video. Um, I don't necessarily know if the statement of objective class sizes is correct, because, I mean, we're looking at, you know, 22, in kindergarten, 24, 27 real fast. It is the balance of what is feasible and so forth. I don't mean for us to
086go back, but. So when we look at you just said the data is suggesting that we need math interventionist. What I would challenge is what is the data saying is the deficit in our kids that is requiring math support. And while we invest in empty assets. We are. So theoretically we are surrounding this kid much earlier, looking at the data. We are coming in with arms around this child at an earlier point and bringing, you know, fixing us. So we're doing that and we're doing a back end, we're doing a back end song and adding two positions and increasing class sizes. So, you know, like I did get an update and simply did not try to sway me. She's not that. But as someone that has been intimately involved in the closing of Garden Street,
087the dismissal of interventionists across the board, the ripping out of every program that supported our children from a phonetics perspective, and learning how to read and then watching. The repercussions for eight years, nine years of kids. Um, I've seen that all. And you guys are rebuilding a lot of these things by getting rid of teachers college by, you know, bringing in a literacy professional that is trying to integrate these things into it. Our biggest gap still remains is reading and writing and kids understanding grammar. It's not by osmosis. It's actually a real thing. So now we are putting in all of those foundational blocks, including foundations and the Haggerty and all of these things. But now when it comes to math, we are we are doing an intervention of MTS, but we are already solving
088one problem. Why are we running to solve a math interventionist at the back end? And I, as a person that has kids with reading disabilities, I have a kid that could do monster math and then you give him a word problem. And I had a read last night about parabolas. I have sworn to God I would never have to read about parabolas ever in my life again. And I'm reading Work Problems because he can't do it. He can do the math, can't read the word problem. And so when you think about that, we're like, I want to make sure when we solve, we solve for the right, the right elements. And so I'm looking at that. And that makes me nervous because I want to understand the data that says, where are these kids missing
089in math. Should and where should we be tweaking the curriculum to better support those kids? Plus MTS, is that going to help us, and do we allow those things to play out for a year before we bring in two new positions, hire people, get them used to prove to get them excited, and then we're like, you know what? We actually didn't need that because we kept our class sizes low and we wound up doing MTS. And we got those those early interventions of being able to say, hey, you know what, Johnny? You don't know this, and this is what we're going to work on. So. Right fast. Luckily, um, the first is recording. This is, um, objective in terms of numbers. It's a quantitative measure that's in our board policies that we're using as a
090guideline. Right. Because I don't need to tell you, um, we have heard from our constituents that we have declining enrollment. Why do my taxes go up each year? Why are you not making any sort of reductions that reflect that enrollment? This is responsive to that using an objective criteria. That is that is board approved. Um, the second piece is let's talk about like when class sizes increasing based on reductions, it's it's increasing slightly in kindergarten, but it's not based on reduction. First rate is reduction. But they're not increasing. Right. Because it's enrollment based second grade. The only shift is because of a model change. Third grade, we're looking at an increase of 1.3 students on average per section. And fourth grade. There are two more students per section. Okay, so where we're looking at these
091shifts in a responsible way, where we're using this objective criteria in order to make these these decisions. So we're not we're not looking at and I know it triggers because we've had conversations um, with staff um, large group, small group individually around. You know, I remember when class sizes were 28. Yeah. Did you I was here I remember one entire team was cut at the middle school. I remember when Mrs. Andrea was laid off because she was on the lower end of of seniority. We're not. And I had to say to somebody today, you're saying 28 kids in a class, this is not fair. And I was wanting to get um, but I understand that PTSD because of. Yes, right. Because of the journey that we've had as a district. And I also understand the
092concern of, you know, we don't want to like inch back up year by year and get to the point where in 3 or 4 years from now, we're having this conversation and I when you when you go and go back at those classrooms, except for fourth grade, fourth grade is the only one that. Yeah. Um, but all those others are relatively comfortable. The problem is, though, are we bringing in two interventionists, even though we are doing all these other measures? And what is the real math problem that we have? You know, like what what what is their gap that is going to actually help them get over that versus MTS, which we're hopefully being smarter about. Plus intervention is a good question. So the the difference in math and and and what we've seen and
093it started with the modules however many years ago that was um, and it really has evolved now into, um, what our current curriculum is and what the new math standards are. Is it not just about knowing your timetables? Right. It's not just about that automaticity and being able to recall information or talking really deep or conceptual understanding. Um, so this whole idea of number six, um, which is if you look at all the research, literature, number sense, are those is that foundational understanding of, of how, what values are attached to numbers and how that exponentially builds on itself? If a student is missing that in their early grades, then they're not going to be able to get to higher level math. You're not going to able to get to algebra, which we know is one
094of those courses that, um, is sort of a gateway for future mathematical success, right? Um, so thinking about what those conceptual building blocks are, I don't know that, you know, these two math interventionist, uh, positions is going to solve all of our, our issues. But I do you know that there's an equity in terms of the support that students can receive in math versus Ela. And you know that if we have one more math interventionist, one more at both start and end, JFK were then able to integrate them into this MTS framework to maybe it might not work out where this intervention is inside the third grade, this one fourth grade, this one fifth grade. But it gives us more flexibility logistically where we're doing similar things that we're doing right now with with literacy
095or pulling kids based on skill based groups, for example. And not just, oh, you were in the red star. So let's pull you for this, right? Um, so it allows that shift that we've been able to make in literacy to happen in math because we have that availability, um, of, uh, of staff members in order to, to address those concerns. All right. But we got to that to the secondary level. Um. Uh, I mentioned, uh, how, um, Mr. Rodriguez had made an adjustment, uh, when we had a resignation at the beginning of the year. There was a teacher that was part time math, part time teacher on special assignment. Um, he was able to absorb that. Um, and, um, so we're also recommending that that not continue into next year. In retirement? Uh, social studies
096at the middle school. Um, that, uh, we are asking ourselves now, if you think about the success that we've had, um, with our, our CTE offerings at the middle school and now at the high school. Um, we would love to be able to build on that and to expand offerings for our students. Um, if someone had asked, a trustee had asked, um, I think in the fall. Okay. Now, now that we have students taking in shared carpentry, you know what's next? This allows us to have that sequence and then eventually build towards where we want to go, um, where students can do shadowing and internship opportunities and eventually some, uh, work based learning opportunities. Uh, vision 2026 talks about, again, those shadowing and internship opportunities. In order to make that happen. We need a work
097based learning coach. Um, this is someone with a separate, um, certification who, if they're advising students while they're, um, they're advising students and they're sort of the teacher of record. Um, while they're involved in coursework, any shadowing and internship opportunities we're able to build, uh, we're able to get a high school credit. Um, you know, they might be spending, you know, X percentage on a job. Um, a job function somewhere else. So, but being able to to put these pieces in place next year, we're pushing forward what we particularly in vision 2026, we're expanding those opportunities and we're able to sort of, um, look more broadly at how can we build on what we're currently doing with with P-tech and making it so every student can have these shadowing and internship opportunities and for. We
098mentioned earlier on feels like hours ago at this point. Sorry, um, that we were also looking at some of our bosses costs and how we might be able to, um, shift those costs to, um, a more a to a different model. Um, so we currently, uh, contract with bosses for IP mandated services. Um, what we would recommend is that instead of, uh, paying bosses dispatched to send, um, individuals to us, that we hire our own people. Um, the, uh, Codas are certified occupational therapy assistants. They can do everything but assess. They can provide direct services to students. And that's what we would do if we had our own people that are more accountable to us. We can make schedules. We can help to build them, um, you know, within our culture, uh, and, and share
099with those expectations are as opposed to having someone that far from bosses. And that's an immediate impact, not a three year span like some of the other policies charges that we get. And what's like the what is what does that save us? You don't have to pull up the number. But just like at some point, what does that save us? Um, being able to put these three in our books versus three over that. Well, I thought it is I, I've had. Yeah. But I just also wanted to add the familiarity that we would have with a personal master. I think because it's great for church. One of the challenges, uh, sometimes you'll have different. Yeah. Therapists show up and, uh, you know, they don't building rapport with the students. So I think that's a great
100opportunity for us and I so I think it's it's a great cost savings mechanism. I just want to understand what it is, because when you do put them full on our books and they contain their salary, I assume their salaries are going to continue to grow, just like bonuses would pass with bonuses. But just being able to understand what that cost savings is great. Um, and we also currently contract um with Boces for bilingual um, speech, um assessments. Um, but being able this would be a, it's would be either partially or fully offset if we're able to hire um, um, uh, bilingual speech therapist. Um, it seems as though the estimated cost for um, occupational um, OT services is around $300,000. So we would be able to, uh, to have some immediate savings on that
101for, um, for next year. All right. And then your positions. We've discussed previously the need based on, um. Uh, IEP mandates to have, uh, uh, 1.0, uh, to hire a 1.0 special education teacher and open another section at JFK. This would be a, uh, small class section. Um, we also, uh, spoke to me, uh, last meeting about, uh, the need for additional, um, secretarial support, um, in the human resources department. Um, although this is credited to the district office, the, uh, service, um, will most definitely benefit all the buildings as well as any, um, uh, teacher or staff member who needs more direct support. And then finally, given the space that we would have in, um, in the buildings, we would love to open a fourth campus on section of, of pre-K. This would be
102at the 5400, not the 10,000. Uh, based on the grant that we previously wrote and how our allocating the money that we have. Uh, but this would be mostly offset by that grant allocation. So, uh, just a couple of thoughts on this is that, um, one, we did talk a couple of meetings ago about placement of special ed kids going up the number of times per year for next year, going up. And then we also were saying due to IEP mandates meaning. So I'm looking at our number this year is our special ed classification going up. It says 13%. And I think that's pretty steady isn't it. Um, we have uh an increase in the classification rate at the we have a bump, um, at the lower levels. That's our that's coming through and that's
103reflective of this, but it's not an increase in the number of IEP. So is it something I know previously we've done Chuckling it wasn't the greatest. But is it the shuffling. It would be the CPS to CAC ratio that ships coming in. That's where we're seeing that that need. So the percentage of um primary students that are identified has gone up. It's mostly yes. And it's got an increase of in kind of candidate kindergarten students with um IEP. Is there any change in how the CPSC, um, the process or the how they would communicate with the caucus? Has there been any change in that or it's just it's just the need. Okay. So just the point here is that 81 k difference in the high school is ten kids losing. You know that on a
104ratio of 81 kids times 13%. I know it doesn't always work out that way, but statistically speaking, that's ten special ed kids less in the high school. And how might we be able to move around needs? Because now our costs are going up or out of district placement. Um, and our IEP numbers are not going up. Our, our our, our the way that it goes. It's 13% across the board. And that's been pretty consistent for a number of years. So is there something that we're able to do of a moving up or even down to be able to support that need versus an out and now increase of a special ed teacher and outplacement, because the outplacement are 60 to 70 grand a pod. And now we're talking about, you know, increases across the board
105for the same number of kids and our percent and our enrollment numbers are declining, and it's still 13%. So it's 13%, um, 33,050 kids and it's 13% on 29, 50 kids. And so we had, uh, you know, 13 less special ed kids if I mess this up, um, please help. But the high school and I think we know this, but the the difference in in how FTE is calculated at the high school obviously is different than K-5, right. So if you have for every class that a teacher's assigned to without a lab, it would be a point two FTE. Right. So if we see, you know, if we let's say that ten students, for example and and that's not my understanding here. Um, but that doesn't necessarily translate to a 1.0 FTE, uh, because students
106would be across grade level. So now we're getting into potentially different certifications, right? I mean, I understand the nightmare of the scheduling and all that. I'm just saying from a mathematical perspective, we're going to have we're we're putting in more special ed, uh, whether what the teacher and the outplacement and the outplacement means we will have less students in our classrooms needing special ed, not necessarily at the high school. Um, and the any increase or outside the decrease of 81 students. I have to take that a part, but I don't know that that would be um, but proportionately that looks like for students with, with IEPs. Um, and so I get the ratio and pulling out the percentages, um, I'm not certain that that translates directly to no. And I totally understand like it's all
107like I love being able to throw statistics at you and be like, oh, it's so easy because I remember some semblance of math that I absolutely hate. But in that light, you know, like we are asking up and up and we have less and less. And I know how it nets out across k k through 12 is is is a difficult challenge. But now when we look at the overall budget and we'll, we'll get to it in a couple of slides like we're getting money from multiple parts and we're still going up. So that that is the challenge. But I think also for special ed, like yes, we have out placements which are growing, but the goal is to bring those kids back. So you still need the space for them to come back 100%.
108And also in terms of like high school versus elementary school, the high school level, the special ed is completely different. It's by subject. It is my subject matter. It's my everything I. So like, it's not like you can take a high school especially teacher and throw them in JFK. Get your study done. Well we've all we've done that and I don't I wouldn't even say it's been overly successful. Um, you know, but no, you can't take certification wise. Yes. You know, we we have K through 12 certification. Uh, so the older certification we have that versus the, the smaller ones. And it's been done recently and I'm not necessarily recommended. I don't necessarily want someone who's been working with 912 I don't I mean you don't in an elementary school knocking. No no absolutely not
109out here. But I'm just saying the numbers the numbers wise we are going up in all areas when our population is going down in all areas and it's still unsteady 13%. So somewhere we're missing we're missing something. And also just want to add to uh, to again, back to my concern about, you know, taking teachers out of classrooms in the primary and elementary, whatever. You know, we have an increased amount of students with IEP and the end goal is least restrictive environment. And to reenter them back into those classrooms, you know, reentering them back into smaller classes is going to be putting them into a position where they will be more likely to be successful. But we can't have it all. So I agree with everything that you just said, but we can't have it
110all in terms of tons of outplacement space for them to be here, smaller classrooms and a fiscally responsible budget. So we have to kind of pick our forces of the least restricted environment of being able to have more kids in our school district versus an increase in ad placement or something, because our numbers are going down and our our 13% is steady year over year over year over year, even despite all of our stuff. And we also are bringing the discipline of a more rigorous MTS program that is supposed to be early identifier. You got a gap. We're going to get you from that B to that D level faster, because now we see it and we have the proper program in place to be able to do this. And I guess I should have
111presented this position as, uh, an IEP driven need based on the CPSC. The CSC, um, needs that we're seeing coming through. Uh, okay. So a lot of moving parts, a lot of, uh, shifts that we're recommending and ways that we're trying to, um, to show either moving back to take place at the end of the day, the net increase, uh, would be at 2.0 instructional positions, one of those being, um, offset largely offset by a pre-K allocation. The other one being the separation that we added at the last meeting, the non instructional, uh, I think that uh, started in 1986. So when we added a another secretary last year. So now we're, we're doing it again. We order of finance. Was it that was it not a secretary was a finance. Yeah. Okay. So and
112now so we're getting heavier than admin. And so everything you present, you're like Jimmy, why do you care about two positions of instructional and one not. And this is the reason why we just got from New York State funding. We went up by $3 million. So we just got another boon in cash from New York State. And that is the third year in a row that we have between them, closing the gap on what they have shorted us to, to that. So now we have 3 million, I believe, that we have from this year. I know it's not final, but we estimated something like a $2 million surplus from this year. Now. How much was that? We haven't projected our forecast that we're actually going to do it as of the end of March. We're
113going to be presenting that in the property tax report card at the April 22nd to some preliminary thing that we reviewed in the Finance Committee of, uh, of a surplus. It could have been our long range financial plan, which we have more. Yeah. Okay. A lot further out. Okay. As of October data. So. Okay. And then. We are still. Going up on the thing. So I want to preface this with. I have never had more confidence in the ten years that I have been involved with this school district in a superintendent. I'm letting you know that I've never had more confidence. That's number one. Number two is I have been saying since last year because we were asking the community for $89 million. We have had a huge closure in New York State funding. That
114has been a boon. We have had Covid funds that I know we took and put towards our capital project, all of that. But I am still uncomfortable in the numbers because we're going out to the community and saying, you know, even though it falls under the tax levy, we're still going to ask you for another million dollars with a lower enrollment rate and so forth. So that is that is it. So when I think about I love smaller classrooms, you know that I don't love two small classrooms. I love that you guys have given such thought to it. I love that you are doing a new MTS program, because children have been robbed of of that for years, and being able to close the gap. I love that we have literacy being important and actually
115being it being about actually what you need to do and have fun stations. That is an intervention and a curriculum. And I've had that debate with previous supers. I love all of those things, and you're doing everything to bring us close the gap. But I also want to make certain that we are doing this in a way that we could go out to our community members and say, yeah, we've got $89 million coming in. Awesome. We got $3 million coming in from closing the state gap. Do we actually need that 1.28 from you guys at. Because we want to make certain that we are doing it, because when you look at the numbers and you're like, oh, because this is what everybody does, we I already saw the Facebook fight off. It's never free the
116money from prop one to prop two. They're like it's never free. It's never taxed. I've seen it all and I didn't chime in. But we know how people look at it. But if you are looking at this budget we're going up 4 million. We're going up 3.56 million. And every dollar of that is a taxpayer dollars. Even if the tax levy is 1.28, every single dollar is. You either paid it to New York State or federal, you know, whatever it is, every single one of those dollars, every single one of the grants that we get is I let's say 80% of our grant is, is, is tax funded because there are corporations that chime in. So we are going up 4.3 million. We have gone up significantly. Last year it was a zero tax levy,
117but we went up significantly in dollars. We and we have the cost base. That is the cost base that always has to go up. But those are the challenges. Do we need certain services that are more around support that are driving that? Do we need to have somebody from Boces come in five days a week on communications? We went from zero. We went to four. We went to five. Great. Does that do we still need five? Do we get down to three now because we don't need all of that. Are there other areas of savings? Can we get a math interventionist? I know sharing of school sucks, but point five and point five, instead of going from zero, you know, I know there's more in there. But going up to can you look at those
118things? That is my challenge because I look at this and say, wow, we have won both the New York State funding lottery for the last couple of years. That is awesome. We have big gaps to close, but how do we do it so that we're not always, you know, going out? And because the thing is, I don't care if it's a 1.28 tax that I see, we're going up 3.56 and it's $4 million that we're going to talk a little bit about the contractual increases that we have each year. And what do I have for the rest of the year. And I'm fine five to do that for the public. But that's why I said the cost is the cost. And I understand that we just go up on all of that and we are
119not unlike any other school. Yeah, sure. So, you know, we compare ourselves regionally, and the Westchester Putnam School Board Association puts out an annual or weekly survey data. So all the 47 school districts in the region participate in this year down exactly where they are at that moment in time. Some districts participate. Others don't. So we do have some benchmarking that we do each year. Um, at this point in time, we have the fourth lowest proposed tax levy increase of the 47 school districts. Who is uh, we are just asking that region, what is the budget increase? So outside of tax levy, the. Budget increase because we did win on funding. So I believe I dropped that into our last Friday update. I believe we're here at the, uh, the median or the lower third,
120uh, within the region. So, you know, again, we benchmark ourselves. But that's not to say that what we're doing is fast or right. Every school district is in a different position. Whether they're, you know, challenged with, uh, you know, inflationary costs that they can't manage or, you know, what have you. Every school district is in its own unique situation. Obviously I'm biased, but I believe that what we've been doing has been the, you know, the most efficient way of handling our budget each year. Um, over the past, what will be the 14th year if we, uh, if the board, uh, adopts the budget on the 22nd and the community approves it on May 20th, we will have levied over $10.5 million less than what the tax cap allows. And that's probably. And forget about the
121aggregate dollar amount as a percentage of our tax levy increase, our tax levy increases average about 1.88 over those 14 years. So forget about school districts, all levels of government. I don't know of any other levels of government who have raised their tax levies at 1.88 or less. Uh, and now I'm talking about Putnam in Westchester County. I understand how amazing that is. I truly do, and how that lowers each year. But as your average person that doesn't dog you like, I do. The average person looks at a 3.56% increase and they don't necessarily say, well, oh, my taxes are only going to go up the 1.2 way. They are looking at that total number of and that's, you know, the people, the the naysayers, the people that say no, but they are saying we
122are going up 3.56 what am I getting for that? We have declining enrollment, blah, blah, blah. All those stories. And each year, you know, we see a lot more people saying no than, you know, so we it it it is always a thing. And I am not saying this because I do not support this district. I literally in the ten years. And it's not because I'm on the board because, you know, I've been the dog on that side. I have never been happier with the turnaround than now and with our leadership then then in ten years that I have been following or participating or trolling. So it's nothing to do with a lack of confidence, but I will always challenge on. Are there smaller savings that we can can to sniff that we could get
123rid of, that we could reduce because we have a declining enrollment, because we constantly are always going to have increasing cost of health care, benefits of teacher salaries and all of those things. And we want to keep smaller class sizes, and we want dual enrollment and and CTE and, you know, all these things that we see on the horizon. Because guess what? We're going to have to spend in the next three years to fill all of these wonderful capital project space. Yes, the hard costs were put into thing, but we're going to need teachers to teach, you know, those classes and so forth, and maybe we'll have some savings from Boces and so forth. But one of the eye openers and I remember it from years past, but I totally forgot. Like Boces takes a
124three year average. So we're getting, you know, uh, eating up. I'm trying not to curse because I have a saying at work that I always use eating a stinky sandwich now because it's a three year blend, and we're not going to see that cost savings for a while. But we're ramping up expenses because we're doing great stuff. Yeah, we're not lowering them on some of those things like that. And I applaud your efforts of being able to say, hey, if we bring in an occupational therapist assistant and they don't know how to do those, um, assessments, and we could pay less and we're going to pay Boces, that's amazing. That is the creative work that we want. So I applaud you guys for that. I'm just I'm going to ask for more because when I
125see JFK special Ed go up and outplacement go up, you know, but we're also doing more work with EMTs and all of these things. Those are the things I can I challenge you on and I'll always continue to challenge your. Until I'm not here anymore, which I'm sure you're all really hoping is in in July. Uh, alright. So our proposed expenditure budget and in summary format, obviously this is our fourth presentation of the whole. So we're just really presenting in summary form. One thing that I do want to point out, there was actually a big budget, um, uh, helper this year. So employee benefits budget, which is usually the area of budget, gives us the most concern because we have generally the least control over it only increase by about $300,000 or less than 1%.
126Uh, naturally, the largest investment in next year's budget is in instruction, which went up 2.7 million total budgeted budget, uh, increase of 4.3 million, or three five 6%. Uh, again, as I mentioned, I believe that we're either in the first quartile or the, uh, median in schools, uh, within the Putnam Westchester region. And I think it also includes Rockland, uh, on the revenue side of the budget. Uh, doctor Josh mentioned we had a tax cap, uh, calculation that resulted in a 4.1 for 4.15% increase. At that time, we said we have absolutely no, uh, intentions of going anywhere near that. Uh, what we, uh, are proposing this evening is the tax levy increase of 1.28%. Um, the, uh, Jenny Hanson earlier, uh, stated is increased by $3.1 million and 9.7%. That obviously played a huge
127role in, uh, in our budget in allowing us to minimize, uh, the increased tax levy for next year. So from a communication perspective, um, again, I'm looking at this and like I said, I've already seen the prop one, the prop two. Like people saying like it's not net zero, all that stuff. So. There has to be some way to better communicate. Um, 1.28 verses like, and I understand this, and I read this stuff like you're your average citizen then is going to come out and vote. No it's not or it's the people like that, uh, that send us text messages and contact us. Like what? Like what am I getting for my 3.56? So there has to be a better way to be able to demonstrate state aid and what you could have gone up
128to. Minus eight. Yeah. What you are doing and the savings to to to that I mean we have done that in the last presentation where we have the, you know, the tax stuff. Number three, instruct the stuff that goes out to people. Yeah. And we're going to obviously make note of that. This is obviously a cleaned up version because this is the actual, you know, budget proposal. Uh, but we did we did do that in the last presentation. And we are obviously going to, you know, play that up in the in the budget newsletter. But there's also something that be said like, you know, I'm serious about that, that communication thing, like there is a lack of um, like we do we do great job now about booster sports. And there's a lot more stuff
129on social media. Our, um, our link to a board meeting should be posted after every single meeting, um, presentations that are important as this, that would have been able to be put on, um, the first or parents page that would have shown that proposition, like, clearly articulate. Some parents came in at the candidate, but there was a clear articulation by you guys from 1 to 2 that were just taking on an underage and moving it here. Like, we need to be doing that type of stuff. Your website, nobody goes to that. It's great. You need to get out there and say, here's the presentation about the budget, here's all this stuff. To be able to demonstrate that, you know, you're not just going up, you know, 3.5 every afternoon I had a brutal recording of
130the, uh, uh, you know, snippet. You know, better explaining the, uh, you know, proposition to the capital fund transfer. So over the coming weeks, we have a, you know, a number of things coming out on card that's going to be available for distribution. This, uh, you know, obviously, we'll push this out to parents, this little snippet. We've already, um, chopped up the, uh, length of your presentation. I want to say like year. I think it was only maybe eight, eight minutes long, uh, back in February or February when we discussed this. So we are going to be pushing this out. Um, you know, and obviously, if. Greater detail as we get closer to the project, and I appreciate that. I've seen you guys already come down from some original stuff, so I appreciate that work.
131I am still I'm still sensitive to the 1.28, and if that is as lean as we can go by keeping classroom sizes, by keeping the important elements that impact our children more so than other things that may be ancillary. Right? So, um, Tuesday, May 20th, um, assuming the the board adopts our, uh, you know, the 22nd, what we're proposing is a total budget, 123,000,008 36 521 increase of 3.56%. Tax levy associated with that 83,000,006 81 521, an increase of 1.28%. And then proposition two, this is the, uh, exact language that you'll see on the ballot. Um, I'm not going to read in the details all the time. There are obviously the votes that we've been stressing this. I am stressed earlier. This is merely a transfer of funds from, uh, the prop one projects to
132the prop to no additional funding or no tax levy in no further reserve and no borrowing or debt impact. And also one other thing that I just also want to point out. How have we gone out in March of 2023 with a single voter proposition of $8 million, is, instead of two separate propositions, one of nearly six in the other 23. We would not even be required to do this because we there would be one single funding source that was approved by the community. However, the way that it was presented in March of 2023 is two separate, you know, projects. It now requires us to treat the financing of each of those completely independent. So that's why we find ourselves here today. Uh, so I'm going to go through that a little bit more, uh,
133these slides that you should be familiar with, they're, uh, they were presented or constructed by our, uh, construction team training, uh, driven construction. So here is the prop one. Projects the construction budget. So just two of our costs. Uh, and at that time, cost you, uh, at that time, we had already awarded contracts for the security hospital, the, uh, turf fields and track replacement, also the cafeteria. Uh, and we had a placeholder for an estimate for the building condition survey improvement projects, uh, $16.8 million, which is on the agenda for this evening. And our construction professionals basically hit a right on the head of the. The total bid came in, uh, about $75,000 less than our estimate. So that's great that we were working with, uh, no numbers, uh, even before the movies came through.
134So, uh, again, as this coming in mentioned, we have a surplus of about $6.1 million among the proposition one construction budget. However, our concern is with the field House and Steve, like in our, uh, ROTC, uh, space renovation. Uh, so we're estimating, uh, that this project may run into a deficit of about 4.2 million. Again, these numbers were prepared as of, um, uh, late winter or early spring, uh, certainly before tariffs became a thing. So we are additionally concerned, not knowing how that may play into, uh, this bid opening, which is, uh, scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, uh, once that's completed, will obviously have a better understanding. Of course, there's a due diligence period that's going to take place. Um, we'll be able to share more detail with the board and the community. Our, uh, uh,
135meeting on April 22nd. So here's kind of a summary of what we're discussing. Again, these are just, um, uh, visual examples. So on the left hand side, our original project budget from a funding source, uh, and you see that we have a capital reserve that we are using and applying the entirety of $12 million to the proposition one projects and $0 to prop two. And what we're requesting is that we reallocate a portion of that, uh, $12 million, uh, as an example, $8 million remains for the gap or prop one projects, and then 4 million is transferred to the prop two projects. That exact number, again, will be defined in the coming weeks after we, uh, but we are good to know, uh, where we stand with respect to prop to, uh, and should the
136community approve, uh, the funds transfer on Tuesday, May 20th at the proceeding, uh, board meeting, which is, uh, will now be on Wednesday, um, May 28th, we would then ask the board to adopt an amended bond resolution that, uh, that solidifies the the numbers that they have that's required to be transferred. So this concludes our presentation for this evening. Our next meeting, 2017, uh, for budget adoption. May 13th is the informational by the hearing. Tuesday, March 20th is the annual budget for trustee election. Doctor Ghosh loves what I am sure to tell your friends neighbors, relatives to come out and vote on Tuesday, May 12th. So the good news is, is I my person to know the presentation so we won't be much longer? But the one thing I would say is, um, we know
137that, um, people's participation is low. If most people's participation is low with our, our one, um, steady, um, meeting and that not always um, we know that we have low, um, participation of people like people ranked and then they don't necessarily come, but, um, because I think it's so critically important for the proposition movement money to do is their, um, thoughts on potentially doing like just a zoom meeting and saying, hey, if you have questions about the budget, you know, you could you could do it here. Have an in person and then have zoom questions, whatever. But you really want to be able to say it's just you just switching from one budget to the other things. There's a $0 impact, and I'm the first one that always is there to challenge you on the
138$0 impact. And this one has no impact. And I want to make certain that people understand that we have, uh, the team has put together a schedule of exactly that. Okay. We have these two, um, community zoom sessions. We're inviting ourselves to a lot of different places. Um, in order to get the word out, we will walk anybody and everybody, um, answer any questions that you asked. Um, if people want to invite us to their homes to have, you know, friends over to, uh, to talk about it, where we're gonna say we're willing to show you some of that stranger danger. I believe that, um. Oh, the muscle of. So, um, you know what? We're willing to go to any length in order to get the word out to, um, talk about the uniqueness of
139the, uh, project to. And also how we're, uh, working to be fiscally responsible and and organized, usually somebody that's you and you have some good advocates on social media that's really like, like social media is where people are like, uh, you know, like they get crazy and then some of be like, what do you need them? They just give them all this money, why they do it. And that's almost where you need to have a crafted response that you're able to just tabulate. And and people did that. People were like, but who goes to watch board meeting? I mean, it's hard enough, you know, but like, um, yeah, all of those things, I just, I like I think that's a critically important one. And I don't want people thinking that we're asking for more money,
140so. Right. I'm glad you guys have that one. Yeah. Just say it. Also, please a question as for a while, I know I go to the village to town as I go on with people. There's a lot of attendees and it's actually the same people all the same week, but it's the concept and we have to get out. We have to promote. We all live in the district has a long list, and I think I just saw like a Chamber of Commerce meeting and there's a whole bunch financially. Um, and it's interesting to me that they are getting out there and trying to get as much. I mean, I don't want to be in a negative now, but the people that say no, I'm saying the people that want to go on Facebook and talk,
141you say, can you say gavel and say they'd be like you? I don't want to say those words, but the small piece and then we usually rely on our our supporters are faithful to help them because we cannot get involved in a keyboard discussion in social media, because that would definitely go nowhere. Links posts for the base one way, no response, that kind of information to blanket them with actual information. Yeah, we can do. We cannot get into discussions of things online because it would never work that well. But you know, these projects keep going. Yeah. If you said as much and obviously the district might have stuff they're coming up with is great. And once again, please, once it's already let me know. So I'll be able to go to Patterson the village book
142and put out information there for the people that come to their meetings are come to pay taxes. You know, they're more than willing to help us support because most of them are in the same boat as we are when it comes to tax levies. Um, try to keep the memos cost down, because New York is like the most special system. And and we all appreciate that. So we all have to support the same aspect. All right. Thank you very got. Um. We will. Now we're at our first opportunity for public remarks. This is limited to our action items on our agenda tonight. So if anyone has any remarks you'd like to make regarding action items, we just ask that you make your way to the podium. State your name. Please direct your comments to the
143board. Um, every speaker has three minutes to make whatever remarks you'd like to make, and we ask that you not identify any district staff or students by name. So if anyone has any remarks they'd like to make with respect to action items, please make your way to the podium. All right. We have no in-person remarks, and we also did not get any emails relating to action items. So we will move on to action items. Action item number one. Approval of resolution to change board meeting floor meeting date. Yes. So referring back to my opening comments, due to the calendar adjustments, the district will now be closed on May 27th, which for us was a board meeting day. Since that is also the date for the ten reception, we respectfully request that the board moved meeting
144to Wednesday, May 28th. So the resolution passes will make sure that we go about notifying all the activities of the change. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item on the motion or on the second? Any questions or comments? Uh, sorry. Was that was that the meeting? That's our tenure meeting. Um, so one of the things that has come up in the board discussions and, uh, people have actually grown up from, um, our community is being able to look at when we do tenure. Um, because I'd love to have everybody be a captive audience to a budget conversation, but they don't need to be there. Some of them are going out to dinner, or some of them have young kids that are bringing it. Can we potentially look at
145reorganizing that agenda so that we are able to get them? It's our most highly attended one. I'd love for them to stay through the torture, but how do we be more thoughtful to our our ten year candidates or ten year recipients versus having them suffer through this? Yeah, we already discussed that. We can add we can do an action item before presentations. Like we can vote on tenure. Yeah, you could do that. Yeah. And then the action item. Perfect. Thank you. Um. Anyone else? All right, let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action. Item number two. Award of contracts pursuant to competitive bids. Districtwide building condition survey improvement projects. Um. Number 001. Dash 27, three dash 14 and four dash 20 A general contractor. Be electrical contractor, mechanical Hvac
146contractor, plumbing contractor, and B roofing contractor. Yeah, so as I mentioned earlier, we are pleased that the bids for these, uh, projects came in about $75,000 under budget. So again, another another win for us with respect to our proposition one projects. Um, there were a number of alternates that were spelled out in the bid specifications, but they were not, uh, ad alternates, meaning they were not additional scope of work that we identified after the fact. There was actually an opportunity for us, and fear that bids may have come into reality would have allowed us to kind of peel back the original scope of the project. So I'm pleased to announce that that's not a deal. Uh, because it is, uh, overall, they come in, uh, again under budget. Um, but you'll see that we're awarding
147all the contracts, including alternates, uh, for the general contractors in-house and construction management, uh, is, uh, the recommended, um, contractor. Uh, this contractor is already beginning work by city staff, so they've already established a presence in district, which is a good thing. Uh, the electrical contractor for most electrical, there were three bidders. Uh, I again, foremost is, uh, local contractor. There were three bidders on this project. They've also already established an onsite presence, having won the high school security industrial project, uh, mechanical or Hvac contractor. Southeast mechanical, again. Another local, uh, local business. Uh, there are two bidders here. Uh, they've already, uh, won the city start of 40. Project Southeast Mechanical has also won the plumbing contract here. Um, and again, is, uh, working on the capital project. Uh, the one new contractor not
148new to the district of new to, uh, this round of, uh, capital improvements. The roofing contractor, newer construction. Uh, there were six bidders for this project. New is actually, uh, one in project, I believe, back in 2014 when we replaced the, uh, the, uh, CB. Sorry. So we recommend this, uh, contractor once any leaks and everything. Okay. No leaks. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? Scott on the motion. John on the second. Any questions or comments? Uh, I do. So this is one of the parts of the job that I'm most nervous about because like, and I know this goes through, you know, the lawyers and all of that, um, and Glenn and so forth. But I read this and this is definitely not something that I understand. And it's
149for it's a foreign language to me. So just what is the process internally, you know, making certain that we have those checks and balances to make certain that, you know, everything that is in here is, is so perfect, so that we're we're thoughtful and that we don't have a lot of change orders because we didn't think about exit lights and we didn't think about, you know, this thing and that thing that we and that we've learned from the JFK one that, um, things that we had to change and so forth. And how are we bringing those learnings forward so that each and every time we're better? Yeah. So part of the due diligence process, there's a scope review. Um, and part of it really the, the reason for the scope review is to make sure
150that the, uh, responsive bidder is actually able to perform the work. So they review the entirety of the bid specifications, milestone deadlines. Do you have enough staff to actually meet these milestone deadlines? You know, if you're already, you know, a two person operation and you just bid on a $20 million project that needs to be done in 18 months, you're likely not qualified to actually perform this work. Um, so that's the diligence takes place. They go through the scope reviews, uh, they reach out to other, um, other owners, other school districts that maybe may have done work with, uh, for reference check. Have you had any issues with them? What is in their approach to change orders? Has there been a lot of change orders? And, you know, again, it's kind of nuanced because there
151may be change orders, but it may be due to, uh, deficiency in the architect's rights. Um, there could be unforeseen conditions where, you know, you don't know what's what's beneath the soil. Um, but those types of conversations take place. Uh, and again, it's led by our construction managers and our architects, uh, and a lot of the players in these, uh, in these trades are well known. Um, so, so rarely do you have a newcomer who's being recommended for more of a contract. It's it's pretty much the same, you know, grouping as you can see. Yeah. And I think it's great that you guys have local and it comes in a lot of and uh, so it's, it's known that no contractors. No, um, uh, you know, no work at uh, uh, we still have, uh,
152right. Thank you. Well, there's also a specific niche of people who do municipal work, right. You know, so it's even smaller than that. Broader construction. Well, can I have a, um. Value motion a second. Any other questions? Okay, let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action. Item number three. Approval of change. Order for best security vestibule, new synthetic turf field and track replacement project 00042018ASC04. Yes, this is a change order for the replacement of the concrete subbase below the paver walkway. Enter nice little security vessel. The amount of $12,000. I have a motion and a second, please. I am Scott on the motion. John on the second. Any questions or comments? What? What is that? What is that change from? So the existing stuff is in this kind of
153discovered condition. This kind of condition. That's perfect. Great. Any other questions or comments? All right, let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action. Item number four. Approval of change. Order for CV star cafeteria project 0001. Dash 026A PC Dash zero one. Yes. So this is a $2,600 change order to upgrade the roof cranes from PDC to cast iron, which obviously provides greater longevity durability. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? Lenore. On the motion. Scott. On second. Any questions or comments? Seeing none. We'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action. Item number five. Approval of waiver of liability and release form. Yeah. So, after inspecting a tree on the border of the district's property and our neighbor's property of
15498 through 12. It was determined that a tree which is located exclusively on the district side should be approved at the homeowner's request. The tree will remain in place, but a waiver will be signed absolving the district of any responsibility for the tree now or in the future. Uh, and we we did go out there and we did trim that the tree. But, uh, and homeowners accepted responsibility for it. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? Jamie, on the motion, since you're on the second. Any questions or comments? Seeing none. Let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action. Item number six. Approval of tax refunds. Yes. There are six refunds totaling $6,121 resulting from reductions in current year. Assessment have been recalculated
155by our treasurer, reviewed by our attorneys in the recommended format. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item, Jen on the motion also on the second. Any questions or comments? Let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action. Item number seven. Acceptance of donation a VHS in JROTC from JROTC Booster Club and BCB CDs from Adopt a Classroom Board. Thank you. Uh, not received a donation from the Booster Club in the amount of $4,000 to support the activities, travel, and learning of our cadets. And CV star received a generous donation in the amount of $3,000 that can be used to support classroom materials from Adopt a classroom.org in their partnership with Brewster, Subaru, and the Subaru Labs Learning Program. These donations are submitted. Here
156we go. Great. Thank you. Can I have a motion a second for this item? Cynthia motion Scott on second. Any questions or comments? I would like to thank these groups, especially the boosters, for the work they do for our students. And what else? All right, let's go to a vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action item number eight. Preliminary approval of 2026. Wells Middle School, Washington, DC. Yes. Wells is requesting the initial approval for the proposed eighth grade student overnight trip to Washington, DC, which is tentatively scheduled for May 2026. Uh the trip include over 100 students and aims to provide an educational experience focused on historical sites in our nation's history. So do planning for next year and submit that for your visit. Okay. Thank you. I have a motion and
157a second for the same Leonore in the motion and Melissa on the second. Any questions or comments? Okay, so now we'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action item number nine. Approval letter intent with Putnam County for potential pre-K partnership. Yes. Thank you. As we have discussed previously, we are partnering with Putnam County to establish another pre-K option, uh, this time in Paterson. This idea was born out of the need for in county as you placements. So the idea is that this will be a braided model where our students who receive services through the CPSC and those who don't, uh, would be in classrooms together, similar to like an inclusion model that we see here, uh, in, in, uh, K-12. So this is a non-binding letter of intent that
158states that we support this endeavor and will continue to partner. The county is aware that, you know, given where we fall with what we have another, uh, section on campus or partnership currently losing James, potentially, um, another site on campus, uh, that we might not have students for 25, 26. Um, but this and that's okay. This letter indicates that if we do have students that we would open this up as an option. We would continue to partner with that in order to get this off the ground. So our attorneys have looked at it, uh, it's non-binding and simply states that we're interested in pursuing this, uh, potential operated universities. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? Jamie on the motion. Scott on the second. Any questions or comments?
159Okay. Um, so a couple of things. I love the idea of this program. I think that's awesome. But then it just tickled a thought in my head. Like of our pre-K students, I was wondering, what is our spend percentage and how are we servicing them? So you do not have to answer any of that tonight, but I'm just wondering, how do we service them today and what are we looking at? Because it is probably a smaller number because they enter the system. And then in kindergarten we start to notice. So up until a student enrolls in. I don't have the numbers, but I have until a student enrolls in kindergarten. The county is responsible for the services. So those services can range from a specialized placement somewhere, which is where a number of these students
160would. Would? A number of students would be in this program. Um, and then students that we have in our uh, program or in Saint James could receive, I would call student services, special education and tutoring services, which is sort of like a special teacher. Um, it could receive, uh, related services ot, uh, speech. Um, and so currently we have county providers come in and do all of that with our, with our teachers. Um, so this would be, um, uh, this would really be dual purpose. Um, so it could be for students who receive those services. This county option, um, all the way from the restrictive, although wouldn't be as restrictive because, um, sort of an inclusion, but it would be that, uh, for students, you need those really intensive separate placements, um, all the way
161to, you know, typical students who don't require support at this time. Yeah. And I'm just really excited that the county is stepping up and doing this. I've seen a number of years ago, I attended a meeting where, like, every social service was literally begging, and you were like, oh my God, there's such a depletion of these types of services. So I'm excited to see that. I think what would also be an interesting question and future meeting is, um, what do we do in MTS for our pre-K? Um, for us to, to just think about because again, now that we have that nipping things in the bud earlier, um, is always our best bet. I have a question, too. Um, so this is a program that, um. Like typical peers at the pre-K level from Brewster,
162would be able to. Yes, attend and doesn't make up your model? Yes. Situation. Yes. Uh, Carmen was also, uh, pursuing this as well. So ideally we would have separated sections, but we might not. It might be some students and some richer students or Carmel students if this comes to fruition on our end. So is there something to that? Um, will go out or could go out to, um, you know, public, um, pre-K parents who may choose to opt for their child to participate in this program with the benefits, um, you know, the peer typically the typical peers would get from being in a program like this. And because it is a philosophical right, um, option for people, um, and so what we would, uh, you know, we've had our lottery and we were clear, based
163on the timing of when they brought this idea forward, that this would be an after lottery option. Um, and, you know, there's certain that, you know, certain regulations that govern how we run that lottery process. Um, so we are working that through in addition to, you know, the potential other, um, off campus, um, offering, um, so, you know, we would have to if it comes down to that point, you would have to, um, figure out how that might be communicated in. The goal would be to make sure everybody has a spot. Right. And then if there is movement and shifts within that, that then we could work that through again within the confines of the lottery based on where it is. There may be some parents that should get accurate over their initial. And do
164we get when you do that lottery, do you get to choose which program, uh, or do we get to say, hey, you're on this side of Brewster, closer to Carmel, and it's going to make it much easier for us to send you to Saint James versus, uh, and then Patterson, you know, proximity doesn't plan to it, you know, status and socioeconomic status. So it's it's a matter of parents pick first, second, third choice. Uh, and then based on when their number get full, they get their first, second and third choice, um, based on their ability right outside of a Catholic school setting there, there might be some, like, savings for us, like bussing, like if I'm, you know, at the bottom of of Brewster and got to go to Patterson, like, you know, there's there's
165some value in that kind of stuff of us making decisions outside of, uh, you know, religious affinity. And if I can. I attended the county meeting with the county brought this up. I think a part of the county perspective is that we don't have to set up partitions and working backwards and Cornwall on board. The county's perspective is that open, just, you know, like pre-K, like they're looking for very specialized services that they provide that the county is able to provide in Putnam County. So these our youngest learners, I call them, are literally on busses for long periods, time and possibly hours, right, to be shipped all over the area. And they're just trying to bring it in-house because, I mean, we all know these are attractive. It's best for the child to be close
166to the home and be surrounded by their peers. And of course, I mean just the cost. That's the biggest piece. If we get it from some of our other is getting that, that's one piece. But it's also an extension of pre-K, which is a whole nother option. Yeah. And that's why I guess filling spots with peer students, there's a value to those children. But then also there's a devaluation because you want to be able to get as many of those special needs kids into there to be able to close their learning. Is there a ratio? There's a ratio. You have to. Yes. Yes. Depending on yes. Okay. Any other questions or comments? Okay, let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action item number ten. Approval of the MOU with
167Co care for CFD assessors. Yes. Thank you. We are again asking for, uh, the board's approval to enter into another agreement with Coker this time or CFT services, that is child and family treatment and support services. So this is a program that is licensed under the New York State Department of Health. Indicate individuals who are Medicaid eligible can access this service. Uh, so there's currently students on a caseload. Um, and part of the issue in delivering a service to them, uh, is, is the idea of, uh, scheduling constraints and, um, and space. Um, so Coker approached us to say, would it be possible for us to use your space and our providers to come in and and support these students? So this could be everything from, uh, you know, individualized, uh, like, counseling all the
168way to wraparound services. So it's much more comprehensive. It's only for students, um, who are Medicaid eligible. Um, and, uh, we would be providing the space for students to receive the services that have been, um, you know, uh, offer it to them from this outside agency. So this has been vetted by our attorneys, um, and, uh, pending approval, we'll work with the administrators to work through the logistics. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? The motion scroll in a second. Does anyone have any questions or comments? Just a quick one. So it's it's cost is 020. And it is providing more help to families and kids. Yes. And this is also helping residents. Um or so. Yes. Yes. That would be for. Thank you. Yes. Um, students who
169are currently enrolled in our district. Right. We're not allowing for other to come in. Right. Anyone else. Hey, let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action item number 11. Approval of resolution for a duel rail between the district and employee number three 940. Yes. Details were provided to the Board of Session about this. Okay. Thank you. I have a motion and a second for this item. Gentleman. Motion GBM a second. Any questions or comments? So you know, we'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action. Item number 12. Approval of resolution for a general agreement between the district and employee number 3949. Uh, yes. Similarly, the board was provided with details. Representative sessions. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second
170for this item? Jen on the motions in the on the second. Any questions or comments? Seeing none. We'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action item number 13. Approval of them away with Mr. Teachers Association. Defining the position of special education assistive technology specialist. Uh, yes. Thank you. So this may establish the parameters and responsibilities, um, for this position and the PTA address. Okay. Thank you. I have a motion and a second for this item. Jamie Oliver, motion Scotland second. Any questions or comments? Seeing none. We'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action. Item number 14. Approval of first rate policy. Number 6550. Leaves of absence and second read policy number 7220. Graduation requirements. Thank you. Policy 6550 includes updates to employees serving
171on jury duty and notify the district prior to the service. They will not be penalized or discharged from work on account of those absences related to their juror service. It also codifies terms in support of employees who are nursing. Policies 70 to 20 includes updates in terms of the notification of students and parents, beginning in grade five, of the opportunities to take advanced coursework in middle and high school. These policies have been reviewed by our attorneys and are submitted for your approval. Okay. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? Uh, Scott on the motion. Jamie on the second. Any questions or comments? Feel like our employees just lost out on a way to get out of jury duty. I just. I don't understand the changes on the the graduation like notification.
172Just like notification that the classes are gone. So it's just, um, is it a state requirement? Yeah, it's it's literally just state update, making sure that all districts are notified because it just seems like we do it anyway. But it seemed like a random thing. So I just wanted to see if it was state pending. And that's why we had to go back into class. Okay. Welcome to New York State. And any other questions tonight? Yeah. Not seeing the, um, the updates in nursing was in that room. She said her father. Yes. Um. Is it? If it's not highlighted, I will reshare, um, the marked copy, but just making sure that, um, nursing mothers are given time. It does not have to be on their own like lunchtime, that they are given paid time for
173their needs. And if they have a space that provides, um, privacy and, um, you know, they're able to take care of their needs with the privacy. And, um, so, um, it's possible I just have I do have a question just about the wording there under that, um, it's saying the district shall make reasonable efforts to provide a room or other location in a close proximity. Um, is it seems kind of like make reasonable efforts. Like what happens if. It's not really an option. Or there is. The space in the room doesn't. Um, allow for it in the building. Is there is there a guarantee? I mean, it is guaranteed a place for them to go. That would be. Yes. Not a bathroom. And. Yeah, well, there's something like an online car salon, though, so, you
174know, while it can take the language of, um, close in close proximity. So while the space not may not be adjacent to their classroom or perhaps, um, in their particular hallway, uh, as long as we have a space that, you know, is is not a bathroom is while it is, is not a place that's going, you know, people are going in and out and things like that, that, um, that we provide that for teachers. So it may not be the perfect, uh, location, but it is one that is within, um, reasonable accommodation and to the best of our ability. But, uh, we do not send teachers to restrooms. You know, each building has spaces that they have used over the years and, um, and that have been more than adequate to meet the needs of
175staff. I mean, I just knew, you know, the law, I think, had wording something like that that had to be other than a bathroom and was like outlet, like there's nothing that needs to be provided there for that chair lighting. Yeah. Like does that need to be is with the specifics need to be listed here, do you think or because it's covered under or somewhere else that I don't even need to answer that. I just think it's short to think about even what the committee, how to be specific enough to make sure that if it's in the policy, you know, that that the space is being provided and all and this has come up before or not. But as far as a policy committee or whatever, you know, in all four of the school buildings
176in the district office, transportation, um, and just looking to make sure there's a spot in each of the building offices so that hopefully somebody wouldn't have to go outside or, you know, whatever. Um, I don't mean don't have time, but I mean, you have to walk through an outdoor place to get to another building. Um, but I thank you. Any other questions or comments? All right. Know we'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes, seven zero. Moving on to the consent agenda, doctor Hancock. Uh, yes. Thank you. So, this evening, there's nothing, uh, specific notice I respectfully put the agenda before you so people. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for the same gentleman motion. So the on the second. Any questions or comments? Seeing none we'll
177go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Um, okay. This is our second opportunity for public remarks. So again same the same rules that I sort of went through before. If anybody has any remarks you'd like to make, please let your way to the podium. Over. Speaker has three minutes to make whatever remarks to make. Uh, we ask that you state your name and direct your comments to the board. And please don't identify any district staff or students in your comment. So if anybody has any remarks you'd like to make is make your way to the podium. Okay. Seeing no in-person remarks, we will move on to summary of email communications to the board. And Cynthia, I know you have missed one. Yeah. So on April 4th, we received an email
178from the new, uh, Mercer Southeast Youth Sports, um, asking as they continue their efforts, uh, to provide youth sports experiences for community members in this new role, um, new organization. They are reaching out to ask the district for assistance in sharing the digital flier for coaching opportunities. Um stated that they are looking for qualified coaching candidates to mentor our youth, specifically um, eight youth or 11. You tackle football and take you through the 14, you cheer. And if the district kids these half lives hosting the flier in the very front champions fair. Okay. Thank you. Um, I'm the only one. Okay. Thanks. And that that was posted in Fairfax today. Correct? Okay. So now we will move on to, um, board remarks and community updates. Uh, Jenny, I've been lobbying. Just call me Scott. Um,
179you know, under that, although we went to watch these together. So, um, so Scott and I, on March 27th attended Saturday's presentation on mental health support for children. Um, with Speaker Christina. Um. Jim McGowan from Putnam County Mental Health Services. Um, she shared with the parents there that the Putnam County Mental Health Services is a resource for all parents of all children who need support for any, um, anything from ADHD and anxiety to much more severe mental health cases. Uh, they can do things like help find therapists, service providers, and create programs. And they work in combination with co-chair of Putnam County firm Green Chimneys and a bunch of other organizations in the counties. Um, it was super informative. I think it helped parents feel like they weren't alone in trying to support their children
180and giving them like, a pathway of where they could go. Um, and it is really great to see the rebirth and growth of support with people like Tracy Jones over there. Um, at the forefront of that movement, on March 31st, I and Scott participated in a webinar, um, given by Westport, um, uh, called Soon Smartphones and Social Media, written by Deborah, reflected over a partner who was growing up in public and screen wise, and she was really thinking about the use of cell phones and social media with our students, and how it really hurts so much earlier than we think with, like the use of Roblox and like those types of things as well. Um, and she really focused on the fact that we need to, um, teach our kids accountability for their actions on
181social media and, and on the interwebs. Um, and we use social skills back into our curriculum using classroom recess, lunch, and hallways as a way to do that. Um, she's not a fan of, uh, total cell phone bans, similar to what we've been saying with Nisswa. Um, but that schools and school boards and these have committees with kids and parents and teachers to create policies. Um, but we also need to teach our teacher students to use technology with knowledge and digital literacy more than what we have already. Um, and we have to combine that with limits. Um, and social education to help limit cell phone usage. Um, and she used the idea of building a fence around the pool instead of swimming lessons, like someone going and just building a fence for swimming lessons. And,
182um, and that had been needs to support enforcement needs to support teachers enforcing limits on cell phone usage. Um, and we also need to provide students with support for their phone addictions if their phones are taken away, which I actually witnessed in person as a student left the building because her cell phone was taken away right away. Um, last night, Scott and Shauna, I, uh, went to Putnam, Northern Westchester Boces for a regionalization meeting. Um, and it was great. It was a presentation was, it seemed like, for board members by the supers. Um, where to see where we are. The regionalization plan speakers have been looking at the strengths and needs for all the member districts. Um, and they focus on the six main points of where they are looking to share cost and resources.
183Um, pre-K costs, especially with DPS and transportation. Um, transportation in general, with coordinated routes for private school placements, electric busses use, and other transportation needs as we are moving into that bus situation. Um, the third one was for workforce foam and internships, especially with the 18 to 22 population. Um, was interested, like creating an internship clearinghouse, a work related work based learning coach, and partnerships with WCC. Um, the fourth was, you know, especially again with 1822 year old, uh, population. Um. With the idea of perhaps creating a like a larger night school alternative. Um, and because, um, having eight year olds in classrooms, 14 year olds or 20 year olds in classrooms, 14 year olds gets a little touchy. Um, five is to us, um. I can reach back to social emotional learning. Um, it's
184really funding, especially, um, for things like urgent care with our K7 population, um, helping with our support, personal support programing. Um. And. There's another one that one loves. And then, um. Oh. Rises up prices to climb for number six. Um, and then with security, though, it's like the biggest thing that always comes up. There's no money from the seat for that. So, um, figuring out a way for cost sharing, maybe using more peace officers instead of, um. As a result, um, and, uh, an increase in crisis response training for those security members. And then lastly, this has nothing to do with this event. But, um, a number of months ago, I was asked, um, to I was highlighted, um, in my superintendents monthly newsletter. Um, and I had to, like, include my favorite memory from
185being in school. And my favorite memory from being in school was in fourth grade, watching a mr. Reid stir the sirup outside. And I remember standing outside. I remember out there being out there, my coat. I remember the smoke. And I remember how you probably were not watching Mr. Reid, sir, the whole time we were playing and whatnot outside JFK. Um, but it is, um, such a great thing that this younger generation is continuing to get to do that. And I'm really happy that fourth graders, fourth grade teachers, have continued that tradition with our kids. You know, I feel robbed because I'm always loved Garden Street. And Garden Street is like my favorite, you know, jail for kids. Jailbird kids was better that way. But we did not have. That's the one thing we didn't
186have. You know, losers still never made there. Jen, thanks for attending all those and sharing all that. That's great because it has got, you know, so I one of you Scott I don't know I guess like I don't really I forget the number of my wife. Um, I also wanted to bring up which I brought up last meeting um, for the for and I saw the email to the board since our last meeting about the advocacy, um, the possibility of putting on our, um, the just the board events. Um. Page on the district's website. Um, an advocacy um link that was provided to us by um Newspath. And it relates to letting Congress know that we support certain federal priorities relating to schools, including, um, school meals, Medicaid. And so, uh, title one funds, Ida
187funding, uh, and addresses all of these career and technical education and staples uh state and local tax deduction. So it's it's obviously uh, a voluntary thing. It's there if someone in our community wants to voice, um, you know, their support for these federal priorities as they relate to school. So I just wanted to see if that's something that you guys, um, would support putting on our advocacy page. Does anybody object to doing that? Yeah, if I can, I just, um, may have sent out, uh, one of the boxes and one of the findings, and they had actually said that, uh, you know, that goes around on other social media, and they also send that out directly to the, um. Other areas and stuff as well. Like through like a backpacking, backpacking there, you know, other
188aspects, social media. They decided to highlight electric busses and state funding, but also any anything we can do to get support. And if they can, they choose to support their option. But the more people that talk about these things, the more likely you are to actually get some results. And it's one of those very simple. You click on the link like it could not be simpler, um, and not time consuming whatsoever. Um, okay. So we will have that added. Two more to go. Yeah. Thank you. Um, and then I also just wanted to say that I had the opportunity to attend, um, the BFA gala, um, which was, you know, as always, a great event. Um, and it was very fun. And this year they, um, they honored Glenn Humphrey, our, our resident CTE specialist,
189and also George Zucco, who I introduced myself to after he got some more because it was like, how could one person be responsible for both of these wonderful things? He not only started to be, uh, he also started the ROTC program here. First he was a, uh, uh, guidance counselor, right? Yeah. So amazing that one person could start those two programs and have them. Going first, you know, for years. So that was really nice and it was great to me. And, um, and, uh, you know, encourage people to go to the BBF events. I will say it was a smaller showing, I think, than other years. And the, uh, um, not only supports our teachers with grants, they're the ones who are bringing in these authors. They also give significant scholarships to the senior class.
190And they have, you know, for many, many years, um, but they need the support of the community. Um, they need people to attend their events. Um, so they have a website, and you can always donate or buy tickets to events. I know we have a golf outing coming up soon, so, um, thank you to everybody who put that together. It was a nice evening. Does anyone else have something? I do. Um, so, you know, during the budget presentations, uh, the last meeting, I had talked about our class on policy. Um, uh, I feel like it's outdated. And, uh, a few years ago, we had a work session on looking at our class policy, class size models. And at the time, um, we didn't seem to have the resources to really update it in a way
191that we felt was best for kids. So I would like to suggest that we, um, whatever, you know, format process we feel is best. And we have a policy committee. Three look at this. Um, and see if there is any adjustments that we feel could be should be made to support MTF, us support the class sizes that we currently have. Um, because I know, like we were talked about earlier years ago, you know, I remember when there were 27 kids in a kindergarten class and we've come so far since then. Thank you doctor. Gosh, administrative team, um, over the last several years for making that happen. I think it's important for us to really look at this. Um, and also, again, thank you, Doctor Garcia, administrative team, for creating a budget that is within our
192class size policy. You know, that is what we have hired you to do, ask you to do all of the things. I know that when I talk about what I think is best for our kids, it's a little bit smaller class sizes. Um, what's in our policy right now? So that's on us as a board to really look at those changes. And, and it doesn't help us in this budget process. It can help us in the next budget. Um, so I think that's something we should really look at sooner than later so that we can be ready for, um, future decisions. Yeah. So I think that we can do that. We can ask the policy committee to look, um, at our policy and as they do with all these policies, they gather information to educate
193the policy committee on why certain things are being changed or should be changed or could be changed. Um, and, and they can address that and it'll come to the board like a policy statement and then the board can consider it. Yeah. So everybody go with us okay. And you have some rules. Okay. Um, I just have three quick things. Um, to our previous, um, things that happened either at a forum or a board meeting. So the DC trip, I've seen some chit chat, um, uh, social media, still of parents wondering what's going on and weight loss things. So I don't know if a communication is going out. I don't have previous email. Um, so that was one thing. I don't know if you want to say anything more on the next one. Okay. Um, at
194the sports forum, we talked about a lot of things, and I in particular asked for consistent rules around kids, um, missing practices. And, you know, I haven't seen anything come out. And I know that they are leaving for the, um, school trip again. So just being able to say, like, if I'm on this sports team, I don't get to play, I'm going to be benched again on a school trip. I'm going to be bench. But if I'm on this sports team, I'm not going to be benched. And being able to look at guys and make certain edits. And it may be that this team has 26 kids and this kid, this team only has 12. So there might be a disparity there. But making certain that coaches are giving clear direction on, you know, expectation
195and what help. So maybe it doesn't have to be, you know, district wide on everything. Although I think that's the best thing. And setting expectation. But being able to say, hey, at the beginning of the season, if you're going on, you know, an ROTC four day trip and you're going to miss that, or you're going to Italy or you're going here or versus, hey, I'm just gone. Because we are. These kids have practices every day. On these breaks and parents don't get a break. We have kids that are stressed out about asking their coaches for days off to go on college visits. You know, like all of those things. So being able to have those conversations, not have the stress involved, having expectations, I think is sort of an expectation setting. So the last one
196could potentially be a praise comment, but maybe not. So did all New York State graduation rates go up or ten hours go up four percentage points in the last year. So I have heard Michelle Ghosh do her social economical spiel on why we rank where we do. But last year we were 86%, this year we're 90%. And that's that's huge. So I don't know if all folks rose, but it's like, what's our 4% increase? The high school team has really been diligent in making sure that they have, um, identified, um, you know, different areas of supports that students need. And I don't know what the graduation rate increased across, because I know across the state housing has dropped like 50% or whatever. But at some point, like a passing grade. Yeah. I wasn't sure if
197that was a contributing factor. Um, not necessarily. I mean, we do have some special appeals. Uh, we do have some, um, other ways, but that's the same across system. Right? So we're just trying to chip away at it and and do all that we can. And, you know, again, um, this K-12 guidance and social emotional self, uh, specialist and, uh, and smaller and her team really has been trying to continue to do what we need to do. We have students take the Regents exam multiple times in order to get them to be exposed to high stakes assessments and to an experience that that's likely to give them their best chance to pass. So we're we're trying to do all the things they can. Um, so I will look at some data because that that New
198York State education down is one of my favorite sites. Um, but I think that's a that's a huge accomplishment. So going up four percentage points in a year. Um, you know, I just and I think our ratings went up too. I couldn't get to last year ratings, but I think our ratings went up. But again, it's just, uh, like a little dark thing in terms of, oh, yeah, right. But crime rates are an important are an important metric to the success of a district. And our district with its socio economical, uh, diversity. And having that come up is, I think, a huge point that I think is, uh, needs to be. So I did say something. That's all right. So anybody else have any other updates? I was just going to highlight. I was just
199gonna highlight our, um. All right. Once again, um, want to celebrate? I was able to visit the Wells Middle School art show. Um, and it was incredible to see the community there, um, celebrating. And students show off their art and, of course, do anything I could, um, believe that, uh, students not only show collaboration, uh, and teamwork, I just it. Brings together everything the paper, my math skills, um, their English skills. And it ties in with the more fine motor skills they learn and can evolve. I get it, it's builds and other skills just come together, right? Um, middle school and just see it continue to be celebrated. Um, is really fantastic. Um, especially for these kids who are probably more, um, quiet others and whatnot as well. Um, and then I was also able
200to go to the National Honor Society in high school, where again, um, that's student led that education. Um. And they did such a great job by not only speaking about visual arts, but honoring, um, I got very on Sebastian, who plays poetry. Um. There was a flutist there, and then somebody who sang along with her as she played. It was beautiful. And it was just, um, so nice to see come together. Um, see, this could be celebrated, um, with the art. And so. And they have funded very kind of young and pre-college. It's so important. Um, so it's really important. Uh, that's what I. That his specials are special to me. Um, so thank you to Wells and to the administration. And I know they had, um, the fundraiser that they put 12, um, easy
201trips. So that was nice to kind of see it all come together. Um. That one. It was. It was a knife. Yeah, I know, so anything the staff and the easy. Thanks, Rosa. It is nice to see the artists and musicians being, you know, celebrating our actors and actresses, so it is nice. So thanks for those comments. I just have one more thing I just wanted to thank also, um, the administration for the efforts to, you know, get notice out to parents on the state testing and the grades three through eight and kind of your district philosophy around it. And, um, you know, the efforts to try to get the most accurate baseline down because I still feel like we don't really have it now, but so many kids opting out in years past. So
202I am interested to see, you know, once you've got all the way through the whole testing process, um, the difference between this year, the amount of kids are participating versus years past if if it's making a difference. And, um, I'm sure that the glitch that happened today might have some impact. Hopefully not. Hopefully the kids will come back for that, you know, third day and be ready to put as much effort into it as they would. That's right. Um, but just thank you. That's appreciate it. I, um, I just follow up the art. I decided it was amazing. Each student led the different various forms and the holidays. You just see here some ways where some say poetry, art, I mean ceramics, knitting. I mean the amount of, uh, items that these students represented was
203incredible, just to see the options they have and that we all know other places. I mean, not everybody has this another outlet for our students, and that helps everybody grow at their own pace. Um, this Sunday is the VFW breakfast. As we all know, second Sunday to the VFW breakfast is, uh, 9 to 11. Um. Magen said on the set the mental health presentation not I would not knowing, but the connections with the county, the aspects of what they showed and I've seen them be affected by kids. I mean just the availability and the aspects of what the county is able to provide. Partnering with the squad. These are incredible options that we should take advantage of. I did get to the same night as the BDF. Roxy had a passage in our own town
204which was well attended by proxy families and Roxy fans. Um, but it's another support of our community of students. And I was watching, I think it was may have had they have a budget line, the holding for an Air Force Roxy that they've been trying to get their hands on for years. So they are working on it. But as it stands now, we are still the only major program in Putnam County. I did offer a, um, our color guard says time and county because they always use the aircraft that we have. And I'm wondering how other guys so sure, if they asked sometimes it would be nice to see how that works out. But once again, just thank them all for their work. Okay. Thank you. All right. Our next, uh, regular meeting is April
20522nd. And as always, if anyone has any remarks, which makes the board and superintendent, they can do so by sending an email to BOE at Brewster schools.org. So right now I just need a motion to adjourn. And a second Scott on the motion was on the second. All those in favor. Motion passes seven zero. Thanks for joining, everyone. Have a good night. Congratulations.