Board of Education Meeting, 3-25-2025

001Good evening. It is March 25th, 2025, and the board is opening its meeting for the purpose of taking a motion to adjourn to executive session for the purpose of discussing the employment history of a particular individual. No action will be taken and the board will return to regular session at 630. Can I have a motion and a second? All the motions and the. On second. All those in favor? Motion passes five zero. Good evening everyone. It is 630 and the board is returning from executive session on your motion to open the meeting in a second to the on the motion and Jen on the second. All those in favor? Motion passes five zero. And we'll start the meeting as we always know what. And so we just took a fire to the United States of

002America. It's very hard for us to stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. And we'll, uh, move on to administrator's remarks. Um, it's going to be on your show. I do, yes. Uh, very excited that tomorrow is the art show. Pasta dinner. Uh, well, um, and the volleyball game. So there's a lot going on tomorrow night at Wells. I really encourage everyone to go over and check out. The event starts at 5:00. Um, there is going to be art. Um, all students displayed through um, throughout, as well as the, uh, PC Book Fair and just a lot of really fun community building events happening. So I really encourage everyone to do that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hancock. Yes, everyone. Uh, so, as you may recall, back in February,

003we had January, we had collected feedback from our mentors and teams, uh, regarding this, um, program going. And part of that feedback included doing some sort of joint session between mentors and teams before the end of the school year. So we did do our last, uh, new teacher academy with around. We invited sculptor mentors, and then I just wanted to give a shout out to show innovation and also more whole facilitator. That session was actually pretty awesome. And it's something that, in the hope that we will continue to be part of our program, did a small little team building activity about communication. That was fun. We have some good pictures that will get posted. Um, but I thank them for that leadership and for taking time off for us. And then also just want to

004recognize and take a cruise. Who came with me in post last week for the hiring fair that was done there? Uh, we met some really awesome candidates, so we're going to work. Thank you. Okay, great. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh. Good evening. Uh, so our last. Opposition to the transfer of government funds. Since that time, we actually probably did, opening for the remainder of the phase one project to announce that those bids came in as the budget that we were projecting. So that's a great day. Um, and it's also a testament to the work of our construction team who are able to accurately project, uh, our, uh, budget for that particular project. So we're very excited about that. Uh, they'll be presenting to the Board of Education those contracts for the board of the meeting

005after that as well, that have to be donated to the field house in the days on, uh, and perform their diligence. And what presentation board make and they, uh, really put all of our capital reserve on transfer learning. And we'll have a lot more information push that uh, weeks as well as our next, uh, budget presentation, uh, and their policies and the bid openings that you said you had being prepared for this one. Phase one projects. So at the time. So our last, our last presentation, we showed the, uh, security vestibule and the field renovation project. Those contracts have been awarded, and obviously the work is ongoing. Uh, the second phase was the cafeteria that we awarded, and, uh, we're now looking outside. Uh, the third part of that was a building condition survey work

006statement issued exceed the 1980 grading where, uh, extending it out, uh, uh, $16.8 million budget beginning at 6730. So very close. Um, provided access to when, uh, confirmed our understanding and, uh, uh, mission report work session. And it puts us in a really good position to move forward with those funds. Uh, okay. All right. Thank you. Thanks for the clarification. Um, okay. Doctor Ghosh. Yes. Good evening. Thank you. Um, so I've learned over the last 8 or 9 months that one of the best parts of this job is being able to, uh, celebrate with and or celebrate the successes of our students and to be able to say thank you publicly a lot the following. Not often enough. Um, so a few a few highlights from the last couple of weeks. Um, this past weekend,

007um, high school play Once Upon an Island, um, was absolutely incredible. The talent and chemistry, the work ethic that the student showed, the incredible camaraderie, uh, amongst one another. Um, and really, the way that they just supported one another through all of the rehearsals, all, uh, through to the performance was was just incredible. Um, in addition to going Thursday night, I was able to stop by one of the, um, performances during technique and the intricacies involved student leadership opportunities. Um, the details, um, and the way that students were able to shine in a variety of roles was just, um, absolutely phenomenal. As we thank Nikki Sirianni, who's the director of Sandra, for Nico, the producer and all who contributed, it was just a, uh, uh, an awesome representation of Wooster High School. We have two

008and JROTC highlights. Um, so the and JROTC completed its competition season, um, with our drone team competing for the first time in the area, won championships. Um, they earned third place trophies in optical course, the slalom course, the extinguish the torch course, and the relay race. Uh, of course, resulting in a third place. Overall, it was an exceptional finish, especially for the first time competing. And and so hats off to them. And then finally our orienteering team, they had a bit of of excitement. Uh, they traveled to Alabama for nationals two weeks ago. They left on a Thursday and was able to get out on the practice course on Friday, and then some pretty severe weather. So in on Saturday in the form of a, uh, tornado warning. Um, so not only was it the

009competition delayed a day, but it also put our students in a hotel far away. Uh, you know, away from, uh, number of their parents. And, um, you know, I was thinking if that were my child and I couldn't be with them, I'd want them with our and JROTC advisors. Right. They know how to handle situations like that. So, of course, Captain King had made sure he knew about all the precautions to be taken. Um, what the procedures were. And that particular hotel secured provisions. Um, the kids seemed like they actually enjoy themselves. Um, and they were able to, uh, even further build up, um, those, uh, those bonds, uh, that exist in Ninja ROTC. So, um, the way Cathy King and Mrs. Looby shared, uh, about the way our students comported themselves throughout this whole

010situation in an incredibly high stress time, uh, was nothing but stellar. So, um, you know that before they we were able to to actually kick off on on Sunday. I don't know if any of you were at, um, either the military ball or at, um, annual inspection, but Mr. Washington was the area one manager was there, so he stayed through the tornado warning, and he gave our kids pep talk. And it seems like he keeps showing up. He's like one of our kind of guardian angels. Uh, but he gave us a, you know, incredible pep talk with kids. Uh, and they went out and they represented really, for sure, really well. So, you know, we're proud of not only how they competed, but how they represented the right person in Brewster. And then finally, um,

011as you know, we have a pretty scary situation at the middle school this weekend. Um, Saturday morning, the fire alarm was triggered. Um, luckily we had. Um, so staff in the building, the head custodian and, um, strengthening cheese. Uh, um, heard the alarm call 911. Assess the situation immediately called, uh, Mr. Fryer, who is a director of facilities. He flew right over from his house. Uh, Mr. Hamel, who is the head custodian at TV star, is actually there for his building check. So he came to assist Wendy O'Connell, who is one of our custodians. Uh, was there, and she was able to help with logistics as well. Um, but given that, um, between, um, Glenn and Anthony, um, you did go through two fire extinguishers to, um, make the, uh, you know, stop smoking and

012shutting off power and, and, um, you know, the ventilation into the, the building. Um, the emergency was minimized. Um, not to even mention the fire department on a Saturday morning. Uh, you know, volunteers were there within three minutes, so, um, it was, um, we're lucky and we're lucky because we have good people who really care. And, um, um, just make this community what it is. Um, and just before, um, I just wanna upstage Carlos a bit. Um, um, congratulations to you. There's no one, uh, that deserves it more than you do. Your incredible, uh, colleague and incredible teacher. And just really happy for you. Congratulations. Okay. Um, I'm just gonna follow a little bit on what Mr. Carlson was talking about with our, um, two phases of our, um, of our capital improvements. Um, we

013received great news last at our last meeting that the New York State Education Department was approved of all of our plans for both phases. Um, and the two phases Victor mentioned. The first phase includes the first year high school vestibule. The city staff have torium the new track and turf field, and then phase two includes the fieldhouse and renovations to existing um spaces for the Stem lab and for the end JROTC program. And we also received very positive news that phase one is under budget, and we have a surplus of about $6.1 million. These surplus funds are maintained in a capital reserve account. And we also learned that phase two, um, which is uh, again, the um, the fieldhouse and the and the stem and, um, JROTC, uh, renovations. Um, looks like it could be

014about $4.2 million over budget. We don't know that for certain yet because bits have not been, um, received. So this possible budget deficit is due to many things that are outside of our control, including delays from the New York State Education Department and approving our plans. Um, there's also a requirement now that we have to put in a fire access road around New Fisher High School and relocate relocate some utilities. Um, but we are very, very fortunate that we are able to address the budget deficit for phase two with the surplus funds from phase one, and all we need is the community's approval to allow us to transfer those funds from the reserve account. Um, there will be a resolution on the May 20th annual budget, uh, vote ballot that gives the district permission to

015transfer these funds. That's it. That's all we're asking for is permission to transfer funds. There is no tax levy. There is no additional bond or borrowing. There is no additional cost to the community. The district just needs the community's permission to transfer the funds. So if you have any questions on this, please feel free to send an email to the board at BOE at Brewster schools.org, or to Mr. Carlson at our budget email which is budget at Brewster schools.org. If you hear information that is inconsistent with what I just said, please send us an email and reach out and we'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Okay. And now we'll move on to our student representative Bastian. Hi there. Good evening everyone. Um, so over the past two weeks, Bristol High

016School and ROTC came in first and second place at the Academic Postal Challenge. Um, eight schools with over 90 cadets. And just to name some names. Uh, the first place team was Skyler Tierney, uh, center of cello. All right. Nancy, Juliet Friedman and Emma. Uh, hello. And congratulations to the second team. David Arias, Henry Portillo, Elijah Cruz, Samantha Sanchez, and Ryan Martin. Then we all theta math, um, will be held on March 29th at 11 a.m. in the cafeteria. And spring sports are officially underway. Uh, well, this week, circuit is hosting their Scholastic Book Fair, and students will visit the fair and their classes. If you're interested in the wells past beginner that was mentioned, please check the mayor's backpack for the flier amount to purchase the tickets for the fundraiser. Uh, New York State

017Healing Festival begin on, uh, four. Slash 24, slash eight and 4/9. We will grade. Uh, we will all grade level meetings for students. Um, uh, the second to go over testing logistics. Uh. Student participation. Uh ACP Star and Clubs continues to be strong, demonstrating our students diverse interests and commitment to personal growth. These are after school activities providing, uh, valuable opportunities for leadership, skill development, and community building. Our students are diligently preparing for two exciting performances the Spring Concert and the theater production of Lion King Junior. These events highlight the incredible talent and dedication of our students and promise to the wonderful celebrations of their hard work. We're proud of our students enthusiasm, creativity, and continued engagement in our school activities. Uh, JFK reads author visit from one of Medina. March 21st was a huge

018success. Our students were so excited to welcome the author of the book one to Lucas. A few lucky students who won a competition even got to have lunch with one. Uh, thank you, Mrs. Medina, for visiting JFK and celebrating the love of reading with our students. pre-K registration is scheduled to begin March 31st and continue through April 7th. Thank you to all those who have helped with the process at Hopewell concerning families. And finally, a huge thank you to our PTA for planning upcoming dances. The Cowgirls Dance will be held on April 4th and the Cowboys Dance will be held on April Land. Our theme is, um, Western for this year. Thank you. Thank you. Fashion. Okay, we'll move on. Applications, recognition and discussion. Number one district highlight several name and tell award recipients. Mr.

019Rodriguez. And this question. And it's a award. Well, yeah. Okay. I so thank you for having this night. Um, you know, you're not saying, um, so, um, before, actually, I talk about the award, um, I want to say a couple of words about this. Really? And, um. You know, I'm sure I'm going to say this again, hopefully like ten years from now when you actually, you know, retire. Um, because we need you around here. Um, but just as a first year principal, um, she's been a great support, um, whether formally or informally, at certain times, um, where I can lean on her to ask for questions, um, instructional reflection questions, um, about how to best help our staff or even just to gauge the temperature of our stack. Um, because culture is important. Um, and

020she's dealing with a company. So before I met that, you know, I had heard of our very different, um, very, but never really, truly gotten to know her. Um, she came as advertised. She really had, um. Which I really don't know. I really, um, really appreciate. So it's great to have, you know, an instructional leader on the staff, um, to help us out, because she really is for me, uh, breaking down the information. Um, I can talk to that. Uh, um, so all of us, and, um, makes our staff feel better about being able to keep connection to students. Yeah. So just before I started. Really appreciate that. Um, so the towards, um, it's, um, awards ceremony held annually, uh, honors and showcases innovative educators and leaders from the region who are transforming the educational

021landscape. These awardees are either nominated by peers or applied themselves and those that do not apply herself because she's very humble. Um, based on just ordinary achievements and innovation. Uh, we only go over your selection process. Uh, alert leadership. Uh, that was nominated, actually, by two people. Nominated by Mr. Lawrence Medical. So actually, separately. Um, which is really interesting. So two people thinking about, you know, um, you know, but, um, we were happy to be at the ceremony with honor, actually, to be there with you. Um, and then seeing how your daughter reacted to you as you were giving the speech and just the way that you are with your 38 years that you've been here. Um, but being able to really be a lifelong learner. You know, that's highly appreciate how you're still striving

022to like, which is what we want our staff members here. So thank you. So, um, Deb joins other, um, illustrious, uh, leaders and teachers from around the region, as well as other teachers from here in Brewster. Brit. Mom, miss Brittany, uh, because Lanco, uh, was a recipient of this, uh, last year. The year before. Um, and, uh, Deb will be the first to tell you that, um, she's a little bit of a reluctant technology user. Um, she feels she's not a technology expert in any way. Um, however, it's precisely this, uh, trepidation and apprehension, um, that has, ironically, really shaped her into such an exceptional teacher over the last 38 years. And the researcher and tech integration specialist for the last 17. Um, her cautious approach, um, to tools and openness about her struggles with

023it, um, give her a deep understanding of the anxieties and frustrations that students and teachers have, and that makes her very empathetic and, uh, relatable. And she really helps. It really helps her in making sure that any tool that she uses, she's very clear. Any training she provides to teachers is really thorough in, uh, helping them to understand what, uh, how it's used and how it's useful. Um, she's not wowed by any, you know, shiny new tools. Um, she takes kind of a skeptical approach. Uh, really looking at how a specific tool, uh, can support learning goals in the classroom. Now, the example that we shared with committee was on a unit, um, on Warriors Don't Cry. Uh, where Deb made it into the use of, uh, generated AI. She was one of the first

024in the district to really say, hey, I'm going to use this with my students. Um, and as any teacher knows, uh, it's challenging to get, uh, students engaged in conversation around a topic and really kind of deepen their understanding. Um, even if you use turn and talk, you end up with, um, uh, times where you're the students that they're talking to. Maybe you don't have that kind of a deep understanding. So the, um, Deb created, uh, for years she's been using Padlet, which allows for a conversation, a bulletin board for all students to kind of see what everybody's posting and reply to it, really helping to get everybody engaged. And by using the, um, chat bot. Um, in school, I um, around, uh, helping kids to all engage and kind of say, what would you

025engage? Would you help, would you support, uh, these students, the little Rock nine. And what she really saw was, um, not only full participation of all the students, uh, you know, engaging with this, uh, the chat around this topic, but then really asking deeper questions and really responding a lot more like, really deepen that understanding. In a way that she couldn't do with the whole class or individually with each student. So it was really a way of leveraging that technology to really get, uh, deepen, uh, kids understanding. Um, Deb is truly an inspiration to other teachers, to the leaders in the building. Um, you're an inspiration to me. Um, not just to be better with my granddaughter, uh, to be, uh, but to truly be a better leader. And I appreciate all you do for

026the instructional technology team and, uh, and for our industry. So it is well deserved. Thank you. We're going to make it come out, but nobody gets out of here again. Certificate without coming up. Congratulations. Thank you sir. Thank you so much. Yeah. I know you don't have to say that. On behalf of the board, I just want to say thank you so much for. I mean, listening to Mr. Um, you know, speak up there about how you're an inspiration to you, to him and to others, Mr. Rodriguez, and the fact that you were recommended by two different people is really telling. And you're obviously a, um, a leader among your peers, so we appreciate that. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Now we'll move on to number two on our presentations, which is

027the 20 2526 budget presentation, enrollment and staff. And Doctor Ghosh and Mr. Carlson. Thank you. There was another session on the path towards the health healthcare that the budget. All right, uh, this evening, we dive into the lake and do 4526. But it's all of it. That is our staff and the moment. Uh, as Mr. Carlson has said in previous years, when people business. So it's no surprise that salary benefits. You had 74% of our proposed budget for next year. At our board meeting two weeks ago, we outlined some of the principles that we are sorry. So the priorities that we have been developing. Um, budget overall, we sort of drill down and distill it into what have you looked at? When we're looking at staff involvement, it's really these three guiding principles. The first

028is fiscal responsibility. You're thinking about rightsizing, reallocating. We're in a different place than we have been in years past. And so it requires a different approach to how we look at staffing overall. Second guiding principle has to do with strategic intervention. So what is student learning data time us. Where do we need to strategically, um, allocate resources in order to improve student learning outcomes? And then finally fulfilling our goals outlined in vision 2026. Um, we have been able, over time, to incrementally take steps towards achieving the goals outlined within our strategic plan. Um, and we're grateful that we're in a position where we're able to recommend some of those, um, key components to the next steps within maybe in 2026. So thinking, um, a little bit further around fiscal responsibility, what does that mean? And

029what does that look like when it comes to staffing enrollment. The first one is educationally sound reduction. So if we think about where we were 7 or 8 years ago, um, we were flying back with class sizes that were, um, outside of our guidelines and not educationally sound. We're in a different position now where we have, um, a certain level of staffing and our enrollment. Um, that is again, different than it was 8 or 9 years ago. So how can we look at this in a quantitative and qualitative way in order for us to make, um, recommendations to you about how, um, resources should be allocated and hand in hand with that, is that saying, okay, if we can, uh, maybe do without a section in this particular grade level, what does that then look

030like in terms of supporting our students and their outcomes overall? And then finally, we have gotten better and better at, um, accessing grants. Um, over time, everything from p-tech to, uh, to different pre-K, um, grants and allocations. Um, and so we're looking to further leverage that this year, in addition to thinking about some of the spending that we have contracted with through Boces, uh, to fulfill some of our IEP mandates with some ideas around how we can take the, um, the money that we're spending on those, um, IEP managed services and reallocate them, um, towards some um, ideas around still meeting those mandates, of course, other than we so with our own staff, we have seen a, uh, a slide like this in years past as well. Um, one of the key components that we

031look at when we're thinking about making staffing recommendations is, of course, class size. So in some cases, it's a pure mathematical equation. Right. Where once what's the enrollment a particular grade level. How many sections do we have. And that that impacts our class sizes. But there are many cases where uh, it becomes a little bit more layers and nuance. Right. So of course, what are the fiscal resources that are available to us? What is our, uh, facility or fiscal space look like that could accommodate some of these adjustments that we would want to make. Um, and then finally, programs we have again gotten better. And it's been a full team effort with a clear plan for vision 2026 about where we want to go as a district, which then helps us when it comes time

032to being able to, um, to allocate resources. So getting into class size. So what you'll see in these slides, um, it looks a little bit different than it has in the past for grades K through five. And we did it for an A cut for a couple of reasons. The first is of course to show year to year comparison, um, where we can see in a number of sections in the number of students. Right. So what do we have currently? What is it projected for next year? We also wanted to show because we are in this unique and different situation, we wanted to show what those and just remind everyone about what the class size guidelines are for our board policy. So for each of the, um, grade levels that you've see in grades K

033through five, you'll see a green bar in the middle that shows you what that range, um, is. And that will increase, of course, as we go through the grades. Um, but it helps situate us in terms of the decision making and recommendations that we're, we're putting forward. The, um, the Black Arrow, um, shows where we are currently with our class size average, where we're projected to be for next year, and how that relates to that range overall. So if we look at kindergarten, we're currently at ten sections and an at class average of 16.8. Um, looking forward to next year. We're recommending that we keep that section. We do not want to cut a kindergarten section. I know this has been a topic of discussion at board meetings previously. Um. We believe it is in

034the best interest of the district to keep it at ten sections, even though this falls slightly below our class size guidelines. For a number of reasons, for students coming in at 4 or 5 years old, right there are there's a lot of attention needed, especially in regard level. But also enrollment is. Yes, right. We have our our projections. We have our demographer does great work. And sometimes that monitors correct and sometimes not so. But being able to keep ten sections allows us a bit of a buffer where we see an enrollment spike. We're able to still accommodate that enrollment while maintaining the same number of sections. We definitely don't want to get into a position where there's an RV. We don't have nine sections, there's an unforeseen and want to increase, and then we have

035to open another section in kindergarten. And one school year starts is incredibly disruptive. Experience it. And if it's not, it's not recommended. So you'd like to keep we would like to close that we say at ten sections for next school year. Even though we are slightly below the class size guidelines. They're now moving into first grade. We see a difference. And we talked about our enrollment over time. Right. We the our current kindergarten class next year, first grade class is significantly smaller than the current first grade, right. So we see that they have about 180 students enrolled in first grade next year, that kindergarten to first grade will be 168. So if we reduce a section, there's no impact on class size still stays at 21, which is on the lower end of our class

036size guidelines. Um, on the slides where we're recommending reductions, you'll see the white arrow. And that just tells us if we keep the same number of sections and don't make the reductions, what the class size average would be. So if we don't reduce in first grade, you can see that we're well below the class size. Our recommendation. Right. So a recommendation for first grades without a section no impact on class size given the difference in enrollment and current, uh, first grade versus kindergarten. Moving into second grade time, we are recommending that we stay at the same number of sections, which is not. I couldn't see a seven student difference. So because of that seven students difference, we'll see class size each up. With that it's 21.1. Again lower end of the class size range. Now

037if we think about staffing and overall FTE or full time equivalent, uh, there's something uh, I don't know about secondary because of the co-teaching model that exists currently in the seventh grade bilingual section. Um, we are asking that that be split and it be um, one and then go down to nine priority. So essentially we currently are nine sections with a 10.0 FTE. We're going to make that 9.09 sections. So we have two individual seven that split into two different sections. That's just the class size is not impacted because of that. But instead of the shift in our staffing allocation, any questions on that. Because it's a bit different from just straight up I to what is the general reasoning for that? Um, it has to do with our one way to a language program

038and how it was originally staffed and how it's by staff. We've been phasing out that model over time. Um, we're now at a place where we have to have a footing and understanding about how to do this. Not perfect, but, um, that we believe that we can still get the same level of service, or we can do what we need to do and have the equitable across, um, second grade with one teacher intersection section. All right. So from JFK we have a 2.0 full time equivalent or FTE shift that we'll be looking to recommend other places for. All right. Going into third reading and CV star. So we were here recommending a reduction of one section. And do we have nine sections 195 students. Um we will have 12 fewer students in third grade um

039next year. Um, so between um, the reduction in the number of students and where we would be if we did not make the reduction, which is below our class size guidelines, we're making a recommendation that we, um, reduce, uh, 1.8 FTE in third grade, which would put us at 22.9. Um, and within our class size range. On fourth grade. Um, we have, uh, six more students that would be going into, uh, into fourth grade next year. Uh, but we're asking for a reduction given. You can see here class size guidelines shift in fourth fifth grade to 23 to 27. Um, so we're currently under cyber size guidelines. If we reduce one section, um, we would be right in the middle of those guidelines. Um, and if we don't, you can see where we would need

040to limit 21.6 per person. And then finally on to fifth grade. Here we see 194 students currently going to 201 students. Um, next year we're asking for a reduction here as well. Um, because you can see that even with the lower class size guidelines currently, um, and, uh, into our, um, if we reduce, uh, we will be in a middle range. Young people. Um, and I just wanted to say something. I mean, it's it's never a great position to be in where you're talking about, um, increasing class size. However, after examining all the factors, given the age of the students, the resources that we have available, we do believe that we will be able to implement these reductions in a way that will still keep student learning at the forefront, because we're not asking for

041a reduction in force. Okay. Let me get into, um, that in in some additional slides. So we have, um, those PhDs that we're going to talk about how we can shift and potentially reallocate based on our recommendation. Okay. Heading into the middle school and high school. Um, as we, uh, the students get older. Um, it is not an apples to apples comparison in class sizes. Um, due to a number of factors. Um, one being the different courses that are offered to being certain scheduling quirks that could, um, results in really lower class size range and really lower class sizes or a broader range. Um, and um, what you'll see here for this particular in this particular school, um, trying to get the middle school to the high school to show our current enrollment, the, um,

042core class size, because we're not counting electives. Right. These are the core class sizes, our range currently and our enrollment for next year. You see the middle schools. There's about one student different for next year difference. So we're not going to see a huge shift in terms of in terms of enrollment. However um some changes that you need to know the middle school people. First is there are some reductions that are based on, um, retirements, which again, we'll get to in subsequent slides. The second thing is that, um, the, uh, with Rodriguez and his team has looked at staffing a little bit differently. Um, whereas current staffing may be used to put class sizes and you see what the core class size average is, which is pretty low. The, um, the range for, um, the

043guidelines for the middle school and high school are 25 to 30. Um, you will be reallocating some staff in order to provide some strategic interventions. For example, an English teacher who did the math that teaching one of the uh, or for English classes previously will now be pushing into, let's say, block periods or maybe co-teaching, working on really targeted writing skills. Um, being able to pull small groups and have more of an intervention based model. And so there are ways that we're looking to use the staffing that we have differently, um, in order to meet student learning needs. Um, and have more, uh, equitable outcomes. Thank you. Middle school. Under the high school and high school, we see a significant difference in, uh, enrollment. If we look at the graduating seniors and incoming ninth graders,

044there are, um, 81 students. So if you would see this on a, you know, a K-5 level, we might be able to say, okay, we can cut, you know, x number of sections, as always, work that way in a high school. Um, because of the comprehensiveness of, uh, an academic program that we offer, because of the desire to make sure that we have multiple pathways for students to pursue based on their post-secondary outcomes. And because of the different levels of courses that we have, everything from the number of dual mode offerings to APS, uh, to different levels of, let's say, language or math, different different pathways, um, throughout. And so we're not recommending any changes to the high school in terms of core staffing, because we know that that, uh, those opportunities don't need to

045be there for students. All right. We'll also note that, um, Miss Halter has done, um, some, uh, pretty ingenious work with her staffing, uh, in terms of making, um, their, that allocation more flexible. And we talked about the 10th grade writing course that every 10th grader rotates through is just an example of how we are shifting, um, some of the, the resources that are there. So this isn't always, uh, a clean calculation, but you'll see, um, the enrollment and that's enrollment in courses. We try to keep its core courses and, uh, 18 million romance enrollment, a number of sections, and then that classes. All right. So on to our staffing. And again, these guiding principles are driving how we're making these recommendations. Do you knew based on all that we just explained. So on the

046left hand side of the duties and the K5 slides you'll see you need first, third, fourth and fifth and Roman based reductions secondary model shift. So note the sections still remaining the same. But the number of teachers teaching second grade will be reduced by one. So that would give us um, 5.0 FTE. What we're looking to do is if the positions in green were either retirements or resignations, of course, we're filling those, uh, people who are dual certified might be interested in unifying. And of course, and in fact, we've received some interest already from some classroom teacher. So, um, are interested in one or more of those positions. The blue represents, um, some strategic intervention. So if we think about, uh, math and the math supports that are available to our students in JFK and

047CCR, um, there's a bit of an inequity there. Um, we have been fortunate to be able to build in, uh, reading interventionists. Uh, over time, those were no cut, no number two years ago. And again, we've been able to build back up. There's a we have five reading interventionists in JFK, five reading interventionists and TV star at um we have two math interventionists a Japan to math. And that's just as you start. So we're able to add one of those, uh, math interventionists into those buildings that allows for, um, that individual to have student facing support. Think of a caseload of students to be integrated into our MTS system, and to be able to help improve those student learning outcomes. Exandria, um, share those, uh, math, uh, outcomes with you. And, um, and look at

048the assessment data, but also a number of local measures and, you know, the numbers, you would like those numbers to be higher. Um, there are things that students need to learn at the lower levels. It's not just automaticity, you know, in your timetables. It's, um, conceptual understanding is number sense in order to be able to access that higher level coursework. So we really want to build those foundational skills that this math, these math adventure positions at, um, JFK to start. And then finally, if we have space available, if you remember, we were talking about, um, you know, what sort of what is facility uses use it for availability. Would like to us, um, if we're reducing sections, we have classroom space. So we've got to have a fourth, uh, on campus pre-K section, given the

049library responsibilities and realities in managing and, um, the, um, preference that people have indicated, there's most definitely, uh, interest for this program, too, uh, for our fourth section on campus. Okay, moving on to the middle. So I talked about how there were some adjustments that Mr. Rodrigues has made and planning to make for next year. So the 2425 school year, we had the resignation of a math teacher who was a 25%, our teacher on special assignment and point five math. Um, that position was not filled. So that represents savings for this year. And then of course, year forward. There was a one point our social studies retirement. Mr. Rodriguez is working to make class sizes manageable and is able to absorb those those two reductions. Um, what we're asking, uh, is to do more to

050consider in terms of new positions. Uh, we really want to build on the success of our CTE carpentry, uh, programs at the middle school and high school there, and believe that there is interest there, too. Um, at a point eight um, fte in order for that to to happen. And we would like for that to happen at the high school. We can work through some of the logistics of sharing space, uh, in order to provide those opportunities for students. We would also need at a point to, um, uh, special education position, um, that is uh, IEP based as well. Um, we're excited to offer and to propose to you, um, the work based learning coach you talked about in a lot in some of our presentations and, and thinking through how we're going to continue

051to actualize the goals of and vision 2026. One of the things that we wanted to do is to make sure that we had, uh, shadowing and internship opportunities for students who wanted to do it in a local community, a work based learning coach who can oversee that program, who can build relationships with community organizations and local businesses, and who can match employers to students and then oversee and work through integrated coursework where students are having these real world experiences are coming back and talking about and and building their skills in the classroom. And being able to do that in a reciprocal way is really exciting for us. So for us to be able to add a work based learning coach next year would allow us to get those building blocks in place. Um, and for

052us to begin those opportunities within the community, because again, we've noticed, uh, any time that we've asked for local community businesses or organizations, um, to help out with our students, to host, to come and speak. Uh, people that over backwards to do so. And so we're excited to make that recommendation to you. Um, that's why it's the work based learning coach of 1.0. Uh, we would love for it to be a one point out. Uh, we feel like given, um, where we are, uh, financially given where how we want the position to, um, to sort of grow over time. Um, we would like for it to be a part time or like a 0.6, um, fte, um, with a goal of in to in the 26, 27 year, making that a full time position and

053the, um, above the carpentry. That's a first year high school. Yes, yes. Although those are pretty high school divisions. Okay, onto the next set of positions that we're, um, recommending to you. So if you remember, in the beginning of the presentation, um, we had talked about ways that we were sort of getting smarter around, um, how we're, um, uh, using our physical resources. So there are certain services that we contract with Boces, uh, for IEP based mandated services, um, where they send individuals to us to help us to fulfill those, those services. Um, given the amount of money that we spend on those positions. Um, it makes financial sense for us to bring those in-house to hire our own people and to say, okay, we're going to hire a 1.0, uh, bilingual speech therapist who

054can do evaluations, which we currently have to, um, um, which we can't have currently have a contract with Boces for, uh, to an extent, um, and to be able to provide direct services to students. So that cost savings, it looks like we can not only pay for itself, but there might be a savings there as well. Um, we have a need for more, um, student facing services. Um, and we are recommending to you that we hire to what they call codas or certified assistants. So these are, um, skilled individuals, civil service position, um, that can, um, provide direct services to students. They cannot assess or evaluate. Um, so that's the difference being an OT and an office uh code. So if we were pulling these, um, if we were to hire our own 2.0, we

055get to select the individual is we can make a schedule. They're invested in Brewster. Um, and it will seem to be largely offset by the expenses that that proposes and or pays for itself. And, um, uh, that the level of service, um, and we manage its cost related to those two positions that we would like to bring in. Uh, we bring them in-house, we have salary, we have benefits. We add these additional costs to it as opposed to policies, or we're outsourcing it and getting, um, overseas aid in return. Yes. Do you feel the I'm assuming additional expense is beneficial because we have greater control and better interest for on hands on location as opposed to, uh, having to ship these students out of locations, which are stress also on the district and on the

056students themselves. Yes. Actually, the, um, individuals come to us. Um, so they they provide those services on campus. However, to your point, um, there's a level of accountability that we don't have when we don't hire that person and we aren't able to we don't necessarily evaluate them. They're not on a, um, you know, they're not our employee. Basically, we contract out for them. So the it's quite expensive to do this. Um, meaning to contract with Boces even though we do get reimbursement. Um, that's why even though we do get that reimbursement, um, given the amount of money that we spend and the salary and benefits of individuals and for those three positions would still be positive. Thank you. Okay. And we spoke, um, a little bit. Did you want to that. No, I was just

057going to add in, and I'm sounding like you and you're sounding like me. I was just going to also add about the consistency of the person, because you may not have the same provider show up from day to day or week to week. So it also adds a level of consistency that's important for their students. So a better relationship with students. Yeah, but this one is a wash because we're not spending it. Right elsewhere. We see a reduction across these processors? Yes. Hey, I mentioned this previously and we're excited to the potential of a fourth on campus action. As a reminder, this would be out early. This is largely offset by grant funding this year after we received the expansion grant, which is $10,000 per this section would be $5,400 per year. We're thinking about,

058you know, the on campus cost. It largely is largely offset, if not 100%, but partially offset by that grant on it. Athletics with the pre-K. I know that the county has been pushing for this additional side of Patterson County, a proof of concept. I think the Patterson cam water concept and the use of the building, and I think they have problems on board with that. Are we still looking into something like that? That would be above and beyond what we're talking about that we are in. It would be above and beyond. Um, and we are in discussions with, um, the county. There's a site visit this week that I'll be attending. Um, and there are a number of details to work out. Um, but we're excited by the prospect of being able to bring some

059of the services in county so that students don't have to travel a long distance. And if we get and there can be guaranteed availability for our students, receive those early intervention services or CPS services or, um, have any partners in that effort. Thank you. Okay. Uh, and then finally the new position. So we have a 1.0, uh, special education, uh, teacher that we're recommending at JFK. This would be a small class section. Um, and, um, it is, as I mentioned, IEP, uh, mandated we are recommending a 1.0 as confidential secretary. That would be in the human resources department. Uh, as you know, uh, HR, uh, manages a wide range of initiative tasks, um, and requires additional support to ensure efficiency. Um, data entry demands compliance, um, the regular tracking, verification, uh, certifications, employment records, etc.

060Um, the it the inc the um proposed increases at the district office. However that filters out this will be increased service for the buildings and departments of the increased service uh and efficiency um and effectiveness uh for employees as well for working to access that information as our building system. So a lot of moving parts probably unlike anything that we've seen, um, in these last ten years. Uh, but the net result of this is a 1.0 instructional increase, which is largely offset by the EPA grant and 1.0, not instructional increase. Um, just to try and push. I'm sure you answer in that, but we talked about reducing, I think, from first to fifth grade, um, reducing, I mean sections. So people where are the teachers going? Um, so this slide is important and I think

061it's and it's an opportunity for me to say something I forgot earlier, which is, um, just because this is live in a linear way doesn't mean that first grade reduction in technology after reading. Um, but these are some of the opportunities for these five individuals who may be impacted either by the model shift or by the smaller face reductions to move into these other positions. Um, you know, math interventionist teachers don't need to necessarily change tenure area because it's a generalist position, and they have a re-interpretation that's usually based on our position, pre-K. Um, so people are not our our recommendations to you do not result in anyone losing their jobs. There are positions that are shifting and are being rightsize and reallocated in order to respond to our demographics and our super needs. Question.

062Um, so the last time that we really have looked at our, um, class size policy was well before Gm-csf. Right. And just thinking about, you know, the amount of work that has gone in over the past several years to add sections and reduce the class sizes. I know that there's been talk in the boardroom about and we've gotten to a point where how small is too small? My question is, do you think you think that it is better to increase the class size and add a separate interventionists, then reduce the class size and help support our teachers with less students and more resources to provide that interaction with our students. Yeah. So we're really talking about an increase or a reduction. I mean, second grade is a much right. So there's no class size impact.

063So let's say grade II grade by grade. First grade there's no impact on class size, right? So even by reducing a section we're still exactly where we where we were the year prior. So moving into the um, the higher grades, um, we're still making recommendations that are now, you know, higher end of our class size guidelines. And I hear what you're saying, I mean, it's it's not a comfortable thing to say. Yes. Let's, you know, let's increase class sizes. Um, however you feel as though, you know, given, um, the supports that we have, um, that these class sizes, especially in third, fourth, fifth grade, are manageable. Um, not that a math interventionist, um, can substitute for now a class size of 20 and in any of those grades. Right. Um, but that the given the

064support that we have given where we are, uh, enrollment wise, um, and the student learning needs that are coming to us, um, do you believe that this is just right sizing? Reallocating is in the best interests. I have a concern about the increase in the fifth grade class size in general. Um, I mean, I the numbers, the number, the concrete number of students is not that big of a difference, but the difference between having 21 kids in the class and 25 and kids in the class, especially at that age, is significant. Um, and that's the biggest class size in the whole district. Um, it's it's transition year. I just have a lot of concerns about that grade, especially increase in class sizes. So greatly. And. Yes. And, um, you know, if we look at it,

065we don't make that adjustment. Then we have class sizes that are smaller. Then, you know, some of the other areas were comparable to, you know, a K2 setting. Well, that's not really, because if you look you go from 21, if you go to three, you have to 21.5 kids, 20 to 30 kids out. Yeah. The difference. I mean, that's it's consistent, right. But if we don't have if we don't. Make that reduction in fifth grade. Then they're small class sizes. Fifth graders wanted fourth grade. And I just want to integrate. Not only right, but some years that happens anyway, right. So that's just because of that white arrow to waiting. And then there's 20 one fourth. Oh, so you're saying with the black arrow on the assumption that we would make, I guess, reductions, the

066idea that, okay, we're out have 17 kids trying to grade, but we could have nine or 10 or 5 that use that number even greater. And I mean then you're going to end up with classes that are closer to 27. Could be 20. If if, if three more kids come in at that grade level. I mean, I know we're not gonna have a plethora, but, you know, even a handful of kids can really skew those class sizes. So in that situation, even if, um, even a fifth grade to stay as is at nine sections for a year, it seems like next year it would go down to eight based on the incoming fourth grade or isn't the same. If the recommendation stands is in fourth grade. Yes. Well, I mean, that would be consistency. Might

067be different grade levels. They have 26 kids in class. If we gain a couple of. I definitely have concerns about any kind of raising class sizes. I think it was really hard, especially with NCIS and especially with, you know, thinking about empowering the teachers to service kids and small group instruction, all the other things that we were talking about in our board meetings, um, thinking about how it goes into the classroom. And when you do add a couple cans of class for kids to in class, that's like a whole table of kids, you know? So it is it's definitely a concern of mine, because I know the years that have gone in and, um, Shelby was put in Sacramento ever to, uh, reduce the class sizes to what they are. They do I feel that

068our policies are a little, um, too high. So that's not your fault. That's, you know, kind of unknowns. But I'm worried about with what, years of the past few years. And I was talking about MDPs with the policy like this, and I'm worried about the class sizes impacting initiatives that you're trying to do, um, within the district. And I thought I should share something, um, the addition of a two math mix, uh, or ace teachers would allow us to provide that tier three math support. That right now is very hard to, um, provide because we have such low numbers of interventionists in the math areas. So. The thinking behind adding particularly that you now interventionist was so that we could provide that 2 or 3 targeted support it right now, um, a lot of times

069it's really difficult to schedule and to, um, give to the students that need it the most. So when what how how does exam how does the interventions work at the lower grades? And for a second grade where it's new that everybody, instead of having small classes, um, and supporting the teachers, uh, would pulling them out. So in terms of teacher support, we do have our math and specialists. Um, Ali O'Connor and I do work with teachers that do work with grade levels and support, um, and with the interventionist. Our interventionist team are usually pulling small groups of students throughout the day and addressing their specific skill deficits or still needs that they have. Uh, they're not necessarily reteaching the class content, um, or the class lesson. Um, they're targeting the really specific skill areas that

070students need to become more proficient in so that they can start to access the classroom, learning more independently. And then the next system, um, the classroom teacher would also be providing interventions within the classroom. Yes. So that's where I'm thinking of smaller class sizes, more time with your teacher. Um, I know I'm concerned about the part of the larger. Well, I think in an ideal world, I mean, I think we would all we have, our classes would be 20 kids. It would be great. We would make any changes. And I don't think anyone likes the idea of of bigger class sizes, but we don't live in an ideal world. And we have, you know, we have the, the, the we need to make sure that we're giving the best education to the kids, and that

071needs to be within what our community can support. And that's what makes these decisions hard. Um, you know, we can't, um, keep you know, we can't have 18 kids in the third grade in the fourth year, which isn't what's being proposed. Well, it's the same. It's the same amount of bodies. So either the teachers stay in classrooms and have their own class or provide services to the kids, or we put more in this class take out. And I think it's the same amount of body talents, immoral amount of money, but just a different model. But that would actually the case. And we had to go back and forth on this. But we, you know, let's say reduce a third grade section, right. Um, and we have math interventionist. Yes, that would be a straight shift.

072But if we have, you know, retirements that are being filled by, um. Yes, yes. And that has to, to staff members. Uh, you know, so some other parts of this. So we have packaged this in a way where we've looked at this in a, um, uh, concrete while taking into account other, other factors, but in a concrete way. We're looking at the class size guidelines. We have made recommendations that have are, are asking for reallocation, uh, and right sizing, um, of these, these sections, um, we are the rest of the presentation is Mr. Carlson working his magic, talking about, you know, uh, resulting in up to 1.16 tax levy, right, given all that we have, um, and so, you know, we it's a decision that we need to make, right? Um, if we are not

073going to make some of these reductions, then, um, we would be looking at a higher tax levy. Um, we would be than, than thinking about, you know, long term down the road, you know, what does that what does that look like? Um, as you're making decisions, um, and maybe it's not a budget year. That is where we have, uh, an increase in state aid or have some other factors that sort of break our way. Um, so, yeah, I, I these are recommendations. I appreciate, you know, any, um, any sort of feedback on this, um, just saying that if we, um, want to restore some of the sections and it will change some of the outcomes in terms of the positions that we potentially, as you are, that we could offer or, um, eliminate the, um,

074the tax levy increase, is there any is, um, you know, is there, is there a, you know, not not first or preference, but, um, education on preference for a small class size where a teacher is able to give more focused attention to kids that may need it versus a, uh, a slightly bigger class size where you have an interventionist or someone else who's giving the kids who may need a little more help, that help. Is there a preference industry either success wise or teach it like from a teacher's perspective? Or is it just, you know, some teachers may like it. Some. You know, it's different for everybody. I think it's different for everybody. And their number of factors and variables that correlate to that be lower class sizes are better. Um, and as you get

075older, you can expect that those class sizes would increase, um, and still be educationally sound. Um, the question is where does return on investment? And I know we're talking about students, aren't I? It's not just about a $1.10 conversation. Um, but at what point are the resources being allocated without a change in support? It's sort of the magic number or magic sweet spot that, um, is, is different than, um, the different scenarios and the different grade levels. That's sort of what we're doing here. Yeah. I think also like, um, just think about if environment or if there's intervention, are they pulling kids out or are they pushing in. And a combination of, well, you know, you know that right now it could be a combination of both. Um, but also depending on the level of

076intervention needed. So if a student is working on, um, let's say just number sense itself. Right. And versus understanding word problems, those are two very different skill sets that need to be developed and don't always necessarily. Um. Things don't always function well when it's a pushing model. So really the interventionists determine what their skills group, um, will look like for each individual group of kids. And then what model would work best for them. So then how? If you want to add information to. Okay. How much is that? Is that. That actually anticipated those questions? Um, and at the time, my question. Um, and just quick math, it would increase again, as Doctor Nash mentioned, our proposed library this moment is 1.16. If we add about two FTE to would bring it up to 1.28. And

077what are the two? I'm sorry. I think two activities would be launch up. Whichever two. You're just talking in general. Okay. 2 or 1? Two. Uh, that's what I anticipated. Just based on the initial conversation. Split in half. And that's what it would be. Okay, I got it. So we did it. What? What is something really different, if you ask? Well, it's really just the third, fourth and the fifth grade where the classes are. Right. And I guess the one that my biggest concern is the fifth grade because of the, the increase in the tax rate, having 1 or 2 students in this class size doesn't really make a big difference, but having three or 4 or 5 more in class absolutely does make a difference. Um, no matter what grade you're teaching, um, the

078dynamics change. Everything changes at that point. I guess that's my concern, especially in 10th grade, because that's the biggest jump between the size of classes we have this year versus next year. Um, and because it is transitional year and all that other stuff that goes into the fourth grade, that's my concern specifically with 10th grade. Um, yeah, the fourth grade. It's not as big of a jump. Yeah. I think going through it, I, you know, I don't know what's next for each grade. And I obviously first Tuesday or second, like I didn't have issues. I agree on fifth. It seems like it could be. Uh, you need to write down the progress. So can in turn, it would be either. You say oh I'm sorry. Yeah. So we're recommending no change. Um, ten sessions, um,

079this year. Ten sessions next year. Yeah. 874. So it's increasing. Just do our projected enrollment. Okay. First rate. The first rate. The first grade stays the same, even with the reduction of one section because of that zero. Yeah. So it's really not a kindergarten first grade thing. And then second grade, same number of sections. Um, the difference is in the teaching model. So the slight the increase of lesson one student, uh, on average would be due to more involvement than a 3 to 6 section. So that's going to go from 2.01 to technically one. So like you all said, the impact is really third, fourth and fifth grade. And if we're thinking about, you know, since you have two sections, this are top level. Um, but I mean, looking at where we are in class

080size guidelines for third grade. I mean, we're on the higher end of that, right? So for those considering maybe adding or restoring at another position third grade like, yeah. And just quick math that would bring the levy up to about 1.34. I voted to say, okay, I got three seconds. Okay. So essentially each, uh, you know, additional at 2.06 on the on. Could I just ask you directly, sir? Yeah. I mean, third grade is a little bit closer to our maximum size. Fourth grade seems like slower than the size. And then the print. But it does look like a follow up. It's just based upon projections. Um, this might be a model year because all the classes projected prior to this are much lower and have much lower number of students. And it seems like,

081uh, when my kids were in school, there's always that 2 or 3 grades that are involved. So you have 40, 50, 80 extra kids that in high school. Now there's a difference of 80 kids. Uh, this is something that's going to slide through the schools. While we might have hopefully a temporary bubble with the higher grades. It's going to be like a one year impact if the grades will continue to stay as projected. It will be a struggle, and it's not necessarily a good thing. I always defer to the people with the educational background, but it could be a short wait. Is it grades coming behind it are lower levels. So if we keep these levels as it is, and we keep our projected windows 21 to 24, the projections of class size at levels.

082This will be bubble as the other grades come through in a return to the lower levels, where more people are comfortable with towards the lower end of the scale at 20 months of 2021. That's where hopefully you go to watch it balance out, just based on demographics and the way our schools are going. For the last 8 or 10 years, there's always one bubble and we now have the Covid bubble, which is running through. But just based on projections and where we do well, it is a struggle to take away sections in class and increase class size. This might be as they point at the right time to do it. You always have to be concerned about student results and how it impacts them. But the way I budget is the way the state is,

083the way our projections are and the way the community is active and interest on the budget. This is like the perfect time to do this. If we wait or change, we might not be able to do this. We might have other factors. And then the interventionists. Those are obviously the first people to get vaccinated or reduced in the next year. Who knows. With the state's outbreak. Um, every year it's, uh, it's a golden and it's an election year. So we don't know who's coming behind this current governor. So this is like, more of a long term planning. I think we're only good at 3 or 4 years on those numbers. Like I said, everybody else feels strongly enough on class size. I can argue that that my experience in the classroom with sitting in it

084a long time ago, but I'm just facing off on projections, finances, economy and whatnot, community wise. This might be the time to do this, but of course, like I said, I would defer based upon educational experience. Well, we need to give some. Guidance. I think, um. You know, obviously, ultimately it's a budget that we have to approve, so we have to be on board with that, Scott said. This is Doctor Josh's expertise. Um, sorry. Not mine. Um, so if there is a feeling from at least a jority of the board, I want to see a fifth grade class added. You know, we need to we need to do that and at least see what that means and how it impacts, um, going forward. Or any other scenario. Just keep that distance. Yeah. And, you know,

085we work to give you a fiscally responsible budget. Um, that was within class size guidelines. And that's what that's what we have at the board would like to restore our position grade and third grade. We know that the tax levy would increase um, slightly. And as long as there's support, um, to, um, you know, lower to not get. Well, that's t two that these class sizes are within our policies. Um. Of course, they always prefer to be on the low end, you know? But, um, that doesn't always work out. Um, if I talk to my friends doors down and helping people get through, and then, um. Seen that large sized integrated Graceland Tickets concert as well. Um. Um, of all the others, looking up a little bit like the corporate is huge and I just

086think it's a huge year, a huge show in the cinema. It's very I think as best as we can is really. I would, I would like to see, um, the numbers like in January. Um, it's the biggest. Yeah, it's the biggest jump. And it is, I mean, looking at all the other numbers, they are like the large class sizes in addition to that might. I'm going to talk about swearing in. So it's 200. So and next year we're projecting 200 students overall. So that that's not too far down. Right. Right. But next year we could, um, just say goodbye to models at that point. So if you've got if you look at the numbers that like this going on 2025, it's 195 students coming in. So it's basically if you go back to the fifth

087grade, it goes back to being similar. And then that's a different conversation, right? I mean, even going through the bubble of the kids. Right. And when it drops down then the classes will be reflective of it. Yeah. And then yeah. And has used next year. Is that is there any question in regards to the structural changes that were in negotiation here, the contracts, the bargaining units. Do they have a feeling either way that we're going to meet? It doesn't sound like a drastic change in the way. It's not like when I'm ready to a major impact for my meetings and allocate people that a 1 or 2 person change stipends in terms of, um, staffing or, uh, cost or not just, um, more of a support for the budget kind of thing. If we say,

088oh, we could easily just fire 30 teachers and that may not have been a problem. Not just that students are a bargaining unit at our community. It just it's more of a feeling. On how the how the troops feel about all about possibly having people reallocate. Right. I think first grade teacher. Right. Possibly something that's not necessarily a bad thing. You know, even if we're not firing all these people, the people that will be changing more allocations are changing the climate, the different changes in jobs as it. Yes. For the record, no one is getting fired. Right. That's what we said. That three times a week. You said I was out of here. Um. Okay. So. We need we need to give direction. So we've heard from that side of the table. I think I

089would also be in favor of, um. Having another section in the fifth grade. Is the decision made now? Well, I don't know if we need to give direction and direction. Then what? You can. Then you'll go back and. Yeah, come back with us again. Uh, yeah, I mean again. What are the three four things? I feel very strongly about keeping class sizes small, and also empower our teachers with resources to do their interventions with their kids. Um, especially that we have a system that so much investment has gone into and continues to go into. I think just to shift course into making class sizes bigger sends a mixed message. So that's just how I feel about it. But whatever, everything's big, everyone's in agreement. So it would keep one section in fifth grade but still

090add the interventionist. Yeah. So that would be the change. So you still get the intervention? Yes. I mean, I can say I keep all the classroom teachers, but I know I'm the only one. But I just have to say, I know you had like 12 kids that what we what I think a majority of the board is proposing is that we'd like to see another section in the fifth grade. Right. And we want to see the interventionists that were that are proposed. Right. Okay. Is that okay? All right. Thank you. That feedback was great. No. Thank you for. Listen, we appreciate that. I can't even imagine how much work goes into all of this and your efforts to, you know, make a an impact fiscally for our community. And, you know, we just, um, appreciate

091that. And we appreciate your flexibility. And it's nice to be in a place where we're able to do this. Right. And, uh, yes, yes. Thank you, thank you. As part of that. And I would just add, you know, the that you got to change all this stuff. It's all challenging. This is you know, our goal is the Goldilocks one. Everybody wants the perfect number. And with these cohorts that are going through that are not always evenly distributed. It's difficult. So then you know class sizes vary from year to year. And you know the challenge for us and, you know, we do appreciate it for its feedback because we want to make the right decisions for our students. Um, all right. So moving on to a more boring part of the budget part. So this is

092our special aid fund allocations. As I mentioned, we've been much better over the last several years of, uh, receiving grant funds, which is a really a testament to Doctor Ghosh and her work in securing, um, this grant money in most cases. So, you see, we received several types of, uh, federal funds. So every student succeeds Act. Ida is with the Joseph Disabilities Education Act, universal pre-K, which is new the past two years, and P-tech, which is new for the last two years. So we're now up to an allocation of about $3.5 million from the federal government. So this is accounted for in special aid funds separate and apart from our general fund. So we do have staff members that are funded through these grants. More concerning now than ever, obviously, is what's going on with

093the, uh, U.S. Department of Education and whether or not these grants will continue into next year or to what extent they'll continue. So we, you know, obviously have serious concern about, um, you know, a large portion of our staff being funded through these, uh, these grants. But we provide this each year just to share with the board, because oftentimes we're talking about second positions that we mentioned. Oh, uh, by the way, this position is funded through a grant funded. So again, this just gives you some context to see which grants, um, are providing funds to the district. Uh, and then also with respect to the update grants, you know, you see in a great number, it's almost $1.8 million. However, we're not able to fully access that due to certain, um, per pupil allocations and

094limitations of the New York State Department of Education on us. We're hopeful that, uh, through, you know, each, um, uh, new state budget, those restrictions are loosened and a lot of conversation with this year's state budget is that they will listen them, which means they were able to apply for a grant, a portion of that allocation of support to us, you know, actually gets it. Those are all federal grants. Because I thought the previous state maybe I misunderstood. Um, uh, like we gave the technical our state grant. We have them. Right. Okay. Yes. In New York State. But the SS yeah, that's the idea of a federal grant. And until we know how whether there is a Department of Education title on whatever rolls into other departments, is this a point in time where the

095board, if they decide, can support not what I've said, integration of the part of education, but the advocate for these programs advocate for. So this is now the time. I mean, I don't know how much longer we can wait until, you know, it's too late. Absolutely. Yeah. We are relying on these grants. We're relying on them. And if not for these grants, we have a, you know, essentially, not entirely, but essentially a $2.5 million hole in our budget where we're looking to make off by making positions that are supported by this grant, but not solely should. Yeah, yeah, it's obviously very uncomfortable time because of all the uncertainty. Um all right. So moving on to salaries. So. Um, actually, so salaries make up the largest portion of our budget, 48%. So central business support an

096increase of 6.4%. The reason for that increase is not to mention an increase in, uh, what FTE confidential sector, human resources operations and maintenance budget remains, um, a slight increase of just 1.2%. Curriculum supervision and training increased 4.7%. The reason for that larger increase is due to our continued to provide professional learning opportunities for educators as they, uh, implement our new Ila programs as we presented. Uh, requesting teaching general education. You can see the increase here, uh, is minimized. And that's due to the reallocation of positions, uh, and attrition through retirement, special education, uh, increase of 1.5%, a good mark. I recommended three special positions for next year. Special ed teacher at JFK to, uh, certified occupational therapy assistants. Students support services increased by 5.6%. It's not due to any increase in FTE. It's really

097the reallocation from, uh, an existing employee from general to, uh, uh, to the other co-curricular clubs in athletics, an increase of 11.8%. The reason for that increase is due to increases in, uh, statements for club advisors as well as our coaches and also, um, settings for our, uh, supervisors, our chaperons at our budget dents and, uh, student rates, transportation budget increased just, uh, 0.5%. So in total, our salaries, uh, increase just 1.9%. And again, a lot of that is due to the, uh, rates, I think, reallocating and taking advantage of, uh, attrition. In the, um, reallocation, uh, towards clubs, athletics. And we're getting our feet, uh, cost on that cost associated pay for the different groups in life. We are competitive with the districts in the area, but not like overpay. This is what it

098does. Uh, yeah. We we settled, uh, our, uh, contract with each year last year. And that was something that they highlighted. Um, and obviously we, we reviewed data from other districts in the region. Okay. So employee benefits makes up another 26% of our budget. So this is the area that usually gives us the the largest concern each year because we have the least control over it. Uh, however, this year is a year that we saw, um, just how to reduce our total employee benefits budget increased by just 0.8%. So that's a great thing and really allowed us to do, um, you know, a few things obviously limit our tax levy increase. Uh, and then also, uh, some of the instructional, uh, movements that doctor Josh showed us. So starting with the Employees Retirement System, these

099are pension obligations to the, uh, in our system. And this is for our non instructional staff, an increase of 175,000 or 80%. So this is actually, uh, a hit on our budget. However we do have an ERS reserve that we're allocating uh 200,000 for this reserve to mitigate this increase essentially to work that out cause we're receiving some relief. So the pension contribution for our teachers retirement system applies to all of our instructional staff is going down for next year. So we're saving $120, which is great. So security back here is a slight increase of just 2.2%. That's consistent with the increase in salary base workers comp. We're receiving relief because of an improved experience ratings over the past decade. We actually improve our our experience. I kind of want everyone to be safe. Uh,

100and we're saving, uh, $44,000 on our budget for life on employee disability insurance. Uh, that's not a decrease of 20,000, uh, hospital medical and dental insurance. So this is the largest single line item in our budget, uh, for medical dental insurance. So our insurance budget, uh, each year. And this is not unique to first year, but health insurance, the rate of inflation and health insurance are outpaces that of ordinary CPI. Next year. We're a fortunate position where our premiums are increasing with less than what they normally do. And, uh, for that reason, we're able to, uh, slightly increase that that line for our budget, just an increase of 2.5% of 1000 union welfare benefits, you see, an increase. So, uh, Scott, as I mentioned, uh, in selling our, um, our contract with the uh, Teachers

101Association in, uh, requires a decrease in the district's contribution to the welfare fund, which would then be scaled, uh, phased back into the base year level throughout the four years of that contract. So we see some really in our budget retirement payouts, uh, which are important to our employees as they retire and accumulated sick time in, um, in terms of their collective bargaining agreements. That number remains flat. So, again, in total, our claim benefits budget, the area that we have the least amount of control room only increased by. 0.8%. So we're very fortunate in that respect. So now when you look at our, uh, expenditure budget, uh, from a functional level. So just have six categories general support and increase of just I have uh, half million dollars or 4% instructions. Naturally, as the largest

102increase in our budget of 2.6 million transportation and increase of 300,000. Uh, two weeks ago, um presented the, um, main reason the increase is due to, uh, the bus purchases that we're making for next year. Employee benefits, an increase of just 300,000. Very small. And our debt, um, budget is increasing by half $1 million. Uh, you'll see in a subsequent slide, we have a debt service reserve that we're using to offset that increase to mitigate that. So there's no impact on our, um, ordinary operating budget in a fund transfer. That is money that we set aside into the special aid fund for us to implement our extended school year program for our special needs students. And that, uh, number has changed from the prior year. So the budget $123.7 million, an increase of 4.2, or

1033.5%. Now we look at our revised revenue budget, because when we last presented this, Mr. Last presented our, uh, initial revenue budget back. And, uh, we attributed at that point, we shared with the board that our tax cut formula resulted in an increase of 4.15%. We also share that we have absolutely no tensions of building value with the 4.15% tax levy increase. At that time, we were using 2% as our thresholds. However, as doctor Josh mentioned, through our our diligence and reallocating and rightsizing, we're presenting a 1.16%, uh, tax levy increase. Uh, again, based on the conversations that we heard earlier, essentially, uh, each additional instructional position or classroom position that we had got represents about 106 on the levy. Um, so, you know, depending on the number of positions, the information that we have,

104that it would be a really an incremental increase. Um, uh, moving forward, local sources, an increase of 1.2 million. Uh, and that is where you'll see the fund transfer for the debt service reserve. That offsets the expense on the other side, as well as, um, interest revenues, uh, pilots, donations, miscellaneous revenues that are seeing federal aid increased by 3.1 million, or 0.7%. I'll speak about that a little bit more in subsequent slide. Appropriated fund balance, which is a portion of our savings that we use to balance budget. We're actually relying less on our savings next year. Uh, as we reduce that category by $1 million. So it's all of our revenue budget 120 3.7, an increase of 4.2 million, which we have accepted. And we'll push that to our our fund balance allocation. We spoke

105about that briefly at our finance committee meeting in December. It's going to be, uh, a topic of discussion at our, uh, June meeting as we've been reading comptroller's order reports of of, uh, school districts throughout the state. We want to make sure that we're responsive to that. What we're seeing is that a lot of school districts are being cited for excessive use of fund balance and balanced budget. We want to be, uh, responsible and get ahead of that. So we've actually begun that process. So the 24 or 5 year. We're actually using a little bit less than we did in 23 four. So we're facing that in and really trying to phase out our, our reliance on our fund, our budget and doing that cluster, uh, in response to controllers on it. So, uh, so

106my question was around the state. So again, I wanted to talk about, um, the, uh, state aid increase in terms of our and also our, our tax levy. So I'm just, uh, putting in just those two singular revenue categories, because throughout the past year or so, we've had lots of discussions with various constituents about the desire to go out with a 0% tax on it. So looking at 23, 24, that was an extremely unique year, right? So we received an additional, uh, state aid increase that year, 4.7 million. So that represented an 8.2% increase in that revenue budget. Also an extraordinary amount of money that we've never seen before. So if you sum up those two amounts in that reading column, there, 2324 we received additional, uh, um, revenue, uh, $4.7 million that allowed us

107to not increase the tax levy that year, which we did. So in total, we received $4.7 million for the 2526 two years later, two years of inflation, two years of contractual increases in our collective bargaining rates. And we received the state aid increase at 3.1 million. So nothing nearly is as good as it was in, uh, two years prior, but still a very good increase. We're certainly not complaining that we're getting an additional 9.7% on our, uh, state aid. However, the tax levy that we proposed this evening is an increase of a little under $1 million. It's 950 or 1.16%. So the sum of those two revenue sources in 2025, 26 is even less than it was those two years ago. So I just want to share that comparison that yeah, we would love to.

108Nobody wants to pay more taxes. Nobody. Not certainly not me. Um, but we're not in the same position that we were in 23, 24. Uh, and if we were to go forward and reduce the tax levy any further than we did, we'd be certainly cutting in the program a lot more than we want to. And and honestly, a lot more than you do at this point in time. So in order, uh, an opportunity for us to benchmark ourselves, which we often do, and sometimes it's fair and sometimes it's unfair because every school district is in its own unique position at any point in time, and media groups are in a very good position. So in looking at survey data from the Westchester Putnam School Board Association, we put out a survey each week. As of

109last Friday, uh, they were 24 and 27, 24 out of 47 school districts who responded. And Mercer has the third lowest proposed tax levy increase. Uh, of those 24 users who responded, we're hoping that we're going to get some more participation from our colleagues in that, uh, you know, the next week, in the next two weeks, we'll be wanting to share that. Uh, we also want to note that the proposed tax levy is $2.5 million below the tax that we share each year in our budget statement that cumulatively since. That's kind of came into play. We've levied $7.8 million below the tax cap. So we move forward to 2526 as proposed. We'll be about $10.6 million below the tax cut since its inception. So we we feel that we can, you know, certainly be responsible.

110I would challenge any other school district to see what their numbers are, because I feel very confident that we are probably the most conservative in terms of our tax increase compared to our tax cap. So with that, uh, I'll move on to our, uh, our next few meetings. So obviously this is our third presentation on April 8th. We'll be presenting the super tax proposed budget, certainly incorporating feedback with the board shared with us this evening, April 27th, is budget adoption. May 13th is information about a hearing. Uh, Tuesday, May 20th is the annual budget. Vote and trust the election time. Friends, neighbors, relatives here at um. And as always, all of our um presentation will be posted to our website as well as the initial budget, um, detail, uh, which we've embedded for the, uh,

111the board and the administrative content section for docs this evening. We'll be releasing that out to the community on our website, uh, probably tomorrow or the next day. Any questions? A victim with these changes in the use of these reserves. Are we still going to be allocated to keep 4% in our funds? Yeah. So we, uh, our policy, um, our policy first, um, recommends that we receive that we keep 4% on reserve. So we make sure that we always set aside that which is true rainy day funds. So we make sure that we set aside our 4%. And then whatever's left over is what we use to allocate to reserves. So our first priority is the, um, reserve, you know, rainy day portion. And then we set aside in those reserves that have been, you

112know, proven board in their, you know, limitations with each of those reserves either set by our general municipal law or the highlights, and the 4% will allow us to get hopefully when we go to issue of preparation. Yeah. Yeah. We and we've you know, we've received favorable bond ratings in the past, uh, probably 15, 20 years before I write. Let's take credit for things before I arrived here. But we communicate and I thank you. And I just mentioned that the viper deposit Carmel, um, that have not put their information out on the on the report chart. So, um, let's from the way that is doing. So I thank you for that. Anyone else have any questions. All right. Thank you. Okay. All right. So we are now moving to public remarks, our first opportunity for

113public remarks. This public remarks period is limited to the action items on our agenda. So if anyone has comments they'd like to make regarding our action items, now is the time to do it. Um, we just ask that if anyone has any remarks they'd like to make, that they make their way to the podium, that they state their name. Um, all speakers have three minutes to make whatever remarks they'd like to make, and we ask that those remarks be directed to the board and that you not identify any staff or students in your comments. So if anyone has any remarks we'd like to make about the action items tonight, please make your way to the podium. All right. Seeing seeing none here. And I do not believe we received any emails about action items. Oh,

114okay. All right. So then we will move on to action items. Action item number one approval of Legal Notice for May 20th, 2025. Annual budget hearing, budget vote and election. Yes, this establishes all the legal requirements regarding the annual budget hearing, budget, vote and trustee election. It also includes the language for proposition to be kept reserve. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion? And second to this item, Scott on the motion. John on the second. Does anyone have any questions or comments? Yeah. Just, um, from an informational perspective, it authorizes the transfer of. I think it says $12 million. And we're talking to people. We have a 6 million over general million, 4 million shortfall. I just want to know from an information, how do I sell this? How do I explain it to

115people? Well, you're going to look at this thing and it says 12 million. But I've been telling them all along. That's only like a $5 million difference. Yeah. So our bond council wrote the resolution, and they wrote it in a way as an amount not to exceed. So this is the maximum amount allowable because when we went out to the public in 2023, we allocated $12 million towards the project. However, that allocation was 12 million for phase one, $0 for phase two. This allows us to utilize any portion of that 12 million. Um, in order to go to to phase two. And at the time, um, you know, the board's adoption of the resolution, we didn't know the number specific. In fact, we don't we still don't know the number specific until we opened bids

116on that. So, again, our bond counsel worded it in a way that gives us the maximum flexibility when the, um, hopefully when the community approves, um, the funds transfer on May 20th at the next board meeting and board within approve the amended bond resolution, which would specify the exact dollar amount. But this gives the board to close latitude in order to make that transfer. Um, and again, we have kind of a chicken or the egg situation where we have to adopt this resolution and we have to do it, you know, before we go out and publicize that the, um, you know, where the vote is and then the date opening is not until mid April, at which point we get two weeks behind notice. Um, so that's why I was worried in a way not

117to exceed as opposed to a number system. So we could look at it more as we are transferring our reserve fund as opposed to foreign policy. Of course, you know. Yes, that that sounds about. And the community approved that, right. That um, the that those bond that those reserves be used for this project, it's just limited to phase one. But it's just now we need their permission to use it for phase changes. This is one of those items that will open up misunderstanding feeling when we're telling them it's probably going to be a 4 or 5 million shortfall. That's why it's put that it is Six Flags. That's what I mean. And the point is, is the money is there. But is that right? Yeah. Don't move that and calculated on the changes. But I

118still get the point across. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions or comments on this item. All right. Let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes five zero. Um, action item number two, approval of intra municipal agreements. I am a with Putnam County voting machine rental. Yes. This is the annual agreement stipulating the terms of voting machine rental. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? Gentleman, motion was on the second. Does anyone have any questions or comments? Seeing none. Let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes five zero. Action item. Action item number three. Approval of resolution between the Special School District and S.W. Boces Lower Hudson Regional Information Center. We're about to enter into a five year service contract for network printing

119services and support and subject to Boces and through. Yes. So that is a very lengthy, uh, resolution. This, uh, extends or creates an additional, uh, copier lease each uh, every five years. The district goes through a search process. We've established a committee. Thank you to Mr. Chair and all the participants on that committee. Uh, the recommending our next, uh, copy lease for the next five years, which is purchased through the lower house and Regional Information Center, which allows us to receive Boces economic that. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second on this item, Cynthia on the motion and Scott on second. Does anyone have any questions or comments? So at the last meeting we approved the canon copiers. Now this is going in through Derek so that we're able to get

120aid and support. Is this are different items I don't recall of um approval of uh, previous um, camera copiers. Oh, I'm sorry, are you referring to 2019 or 18 on our previous one? Yes, yes. No. I'm sorry, this is in replacement. Um, that's not great. I might, uh, I'm sorry. I thought you were. You were. I thought you meant the last board meeting. Uh, I apologize. Yes. This is in replacement of our expiring top of your lease, which was, uh, only five years, perhaps six years. Okay. Anyone else have any questions or comments? All right. Seeing none, we'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes. And you have something for hero. Sorry, I just missed it. No. Um. Actually voted for approval of participation in cooperative bids, educational data services, time, materials

121and supplies for both materials and supplies. And c S.W. boces materials and supplies. Yeah. So each year, we ask the board to approve these cooperative, uh, bids for various materials, supplies and services, which, of course, improves our economies of scale, resulting in cost of ordinances and data, which we've been participating in for quite some time. Uh, they show us what how we fare compared to seeing contract price increases over the last year of the last contract, we were able to avoid $203,000 in costs by purchasing through our data, as opposed to state capture. Okay, great. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item on the motion. And second? The second. Does anyone have any questions or comments? I see none. We'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion

122passes five zero. Action item number five. Approval of 20 2425. Instructional services and related service contracts. A Eastchester Eastchester U15 extended school year and the Eastchester UFC regular school year. Yes, these agreements have been reviewed by our attorneys and are recommended for approval by our Director of Personal Services. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? Motion on the motion. And second, does anyone have any questions or comments? I see none will go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes five zero. Action item number six is acceptance of donations VHS verified from Athletico and extended family. Yes. Thank you. The district is very thankful for the continued support our Bears Essentials program receives from Ace and Dako and the extended family. These donations will enable our CARES

123essentials programs to continue providing resources to families in need. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for the same Scott and a motion as in the on the second. Does anyone have any questions or comments? Just want um. So thank you as always for these generous donations um, which seem to come in very frequently now, which is wonderful. Um, okay, let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes, five zero. Action item number seven. Approval of donation for transportation cost for Teatown Lake reservation field trip. One of our special education classes at H.H. Wells will be visiting the Teatown Lake Reservation, and the reservation has generously donated the cost for transportation to the um to the site for this trip. And so that is what you're sitting here for.

124Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item, Jen, on the motion to the on the second. Any questions or comments? Want to say thank you. We're engaged in our transportation or their transportation hours that make up for any other comments? All right, let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes five zero. Action item number eight. Preliminary approval of overnight field trip and JROTC. Spring capstone field trip to national heritage sites in New England. So as part of the ROTC spring capstone field trip, a group of cadets will be visiting Armed Forces installations and national heritage sites in New England. This May, the group will be stopping in Groton, Connecticut, Newport, Rhode Island, and the Boston Seaport. And this is an excellent opportunity for our cadets. Learn more

125about our nation's history, as well as expand their knowledge of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard. Sounds wonderful. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second? Scott, a motion and Cynthia on second. Does anyone have any questions or comments on this one? Scott is the continuation of a great program we've done in the past. Anybody who's been through it has loved it. Learn from it. Can't speak highly enough of folks. I can't, but it's a great, great option. Thank you. Anyone else? All right, let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes five zero. Action item number nine. Google summary for the 20 2425 school operations. Transportation assistant. Uh, yes. This resolution establishes the school operations. Transportation assistance summary, uh, for the 2425 school year. This goes along with the

126sub rates that were approved by the board. Uh, generally on meeting in July. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this one? Scott on the motion and Jim on the second. Anyone on any questions or comments? Let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes five zero. Moving on to the consent agenda. Agenda? Yes. Um, the one, uh, com for tonight's agenda is junior prom. All right. We're talking about end of the year. May be April, May, June are full of a lot of events. Other than that, we've conditioned for your approval. Okay. Thank you. That motion and second, um. Motion. Jen and Melissa on second. Any questions or comments? As a mother of a junior, I appreciate all the, um. Um, anyone having anything else? Um, I

127know all the spring coaching positions in Apple. Yes. You are all set. Thank you. Bye bye. Okay, um, let's go to vote. All those in favor? Motion passes five zero. All right. We're now at the second opportunity for public remarks. So once again, if anyone has any remarks they'd like to make tonight, we just ask that you make your way to the podium and that you state your names, direct all of your comments to the board. Every speaker has the three minutes to make whatever remarks they'd like to make, and we just ask that you not identify any students or staff in your remarks. And again, these are not limited to action items. Thank you. Thank you. Hi. My name is Tracy Jones. Um, I would be so grateful if I could see that I'm

128going to go ahead in a statement I like to make to the board regarding the budget presentation. Okay. Um, so, uh, we have already finished presentation. Uh, the proposed staff reductions across grades one through five. Um, uh, I note that they could significantly impact, uh, educational quality. While class sizes are only increasing minimally across, uh, you know, those grades? Uh, my concern extends beyond the numbers. Uh, teachers are expected to support a wide range of student needs. Those are very high performers on grade level and below grade learners. The challenge is in you, right? You know, that's that's pretty standard. But, uh, with teachers are be reallocated out of these grades. Uh, most notably, uh, the second grade model. Uh, um, there is a direct correlation to, uh, potential decline in instructional quality. Uh, I

129first or to carefully consider how these adjustments may affect classroom effectiveness and overall, uh, student outcomes. And, uh, not to use a dead horse, but, uh, the fifth grade model as well, um, production in sections and I believe increase in class size. So, um, uh, of note and, uh, I believe the board with that. Thank you. Thank you for those remarks. All right. We don't have anyone else present who's going to make remarks. So we will turn to Cynthia for any email communications we have. Um, sure. So, um, on March 20th, we received an email from a community member, um, with concerns stating that the district did not provide transparency about the providers for the upcoming upcoming, um, year, particularly the decisions not on balls UK and Creative gifts, and concerned that some vacancies are

130being held outside of first year. Yes. Thank you. So I'll respond to that. Um, you know, whenever we have an RFP process, obviously we send out packets to all involved or all eligible agencies. We, um, post the, um, opportunity on our website. Um, and then the respondents are filtered through our attorneys and our insurance carriers. Um, the board did authorize an office, uh, a resolution, uh, that empowered me to look at all that final data and to sign agreements if certain criteria were met. Uh, in this particular case, um, we received, um, advice that, uh, the criteria was not met in certain areas that would potentially place, uh, the district in liability. Um, since that notification that, um, organization has reached back out saying they are willing out in July, um, with some of those

131insurance requirements that were, uh, below the standard that we required, um, which is wonderful. And so we'll with an ongoing conversation, we'll make sure to keep the, uh, the word of the date as to what the outcome of that is. Email. And today we received an email, um, from the committee member that would like to be in contact with the district about joining the disciplinary committee. Um, the committee members said that there is a policy that they feel is not ideal for modern schools, and would like to work with us on finding a better solution for kids. As committee member would also like to tour the campus to learn more about our technology and innovation plans. Thank you. I respond to that individual, um, and, um, so the notices, Suzanne really would be in touch.

132And I'll also just say we don't have a discipline committee. Um, we have a code of conduct. And, um, when we have a code of conduct, there is a public hearing. There is a time for public comment. So whether or not anyone sustainability develop that there was an opportunity for that to, um, to take place. But we welcome any conversation and are happy to, uh, to engage and get into. Okay. Thank you. Um, so now we will move on to forward remarks and BOE committee updates. Um, I just wanted to start off with something that Scott mentioned when we were talking about the budget and that was, um, whether now is the time for advocacy relating to the various federal grants that we were, um, discussing. And a couple of weeks ago, we got an

133email from, um, Mizpah on this topic, and they have a link to a proposed, um, you know, something like we've done in the past where we have it on our website and community members can, you know, click on the link and go and fill out, um, and it addresses, um, and I'll forward it to all of you guys. So you have it in the on the top of your email, but it obviously addresses the, the, the funding sources, the federal funding sources that were were in the slide, um, and gives our community members the opportunity to reach out to their elected officials on this topic. Um, because, um, I agree with you. I do think it is time. And as we heard in the presentation, this district and every other district in New York State

134depend on grants coming from the federal government. And if those funds aren't going to come in the future, it's going to have serious implications on the education of our kids. So I think it would be nice for us to give that opportunity to our community members, since we haven't all looked at it. Um, I'll forward it to you. And then I would suggest that we talk about it at the next meeting, about whether or not we want to add it to our as we age on our website at that time. And so if anyone else has anything, uh, updates or. I know we also had the. The gala is on Friday and tickets are still being sold and um, they are honoring, um, Glenn Connery, our very own. And um, also George Zabka, who is

135the founder of the ATF. And we all know how much the, uh, has done, um, for this district over the years. So it's a great opportunity to, um, to buy a ticket, um, to contribute to the wonderful things they do for the district, including the scholarships that they award to our seniors every year. So that's on their website. You can still get tickets. Scott Newsom. Yeah, we don't quite that as well. Now, whoever has to go to that on Friday. Uh, Roxy is having, uh, spaghetti dinner, I believe, at the VFW right there as well. So any one of those two items would be great, I believe. Um. Wells has the spirit in our wells. Coming up at the 506 seating the Rosie dinner, I think they have a five 3645 seeding. I just received

136some information that there's a mental health presentation at the ILC on Thursday, I believe, at 630. Writing resources are available at a community member over at, uh, high school. Um, there are some policies we've been talking about coming up, the visit of um, student board member, um, that was signed into law by the governor. So it will go into effect in July. And I know a policy committee, we have had a early review and I would ask us to, you know, go through the information if there's a way we could sort of get to it sooner, because it's almost like we need to be able to get it to the high school. And I on the policy, have someone decided May or June. And the window was very short and, uh, tagged along, that is

137that it's going to be a policy eventually once they've signed a budget on cellphone uses in the schools. And I know it's pilot season, but I would ask the district to look at gathering information, if nothing else, other than a home listening tour. If there's somewhere we can start to look at involving our community and especially our students in the various options that are being talked about in the Assembly and the Senate is very different from what the governor is asking for. And there's so many different concepts on this that we once again. That's what will work on our plate. But this is something we need to get through sooner rather than later. I believe if I think he was part of our NASCAR has a discussion coming up on social media and stuff on

138this, or somebody would like to attend that, that would probably be beneficial for the district. Um. Related to our. Working with the Carmel School District on the school boundaries. There has been some movement not related to that, but in that area up at the other end of that street. Uh, the Centennial Golf Club. Uh, they just came to the town of South East Planning Board because now they're looking to build a 60 unit development, and they have portables on that at the end of the golf course where the parking lot is. So in return, they're going to be down the street building a parking lot on their other property. So that'll actually be in the southeast territory. So a parking lot is coming, but there is a 60 unit building. Um, three bedrooms obviously is

139not going to affect us, but this might affect, uh, negotiations with Carmel, because if another 60 unit complex with three bedrooms comes in, they are going to look to see they've got two kids. This is not a restricted development. This is a relatively large sized option that would definitely drive children of some type. So this might affect our negotiations with uh, and on the piece we're doing uh, down on the other end of the hill. And I would just like to tie off on what you say with federal government and the changes department education. There's also a lot of talk about making alterations to snap, um, Bigfoot programs for women and children. Um, by programs from, um, our farmers to get education in our schools and drastically cutting funding for basically people, which I don't

140understand, but this is another item that we need to think about because this affects us while it was going to put it into the state budget. How much are these other allocations with staff and other items are related to what we're looking to do in this could greatly change that as well. It's more I think about it, we're talking about our advocacy and future planning. So I just have to see whatever. Uh, with all your extra time you people have, you know, just more that we need to look at. I appreciate once again that work and the, um, advocacy piece that I'm, uh, email them talking about addresses snap as well. So I don't see that one just not feel like we have 2 or 3 food banks in the village. And one of them,

141when they start to do the revitalization, is not anymore. So this is these are these are increasing for food that exist. So any concept of cutting anything under the guise of food and shelter is. I, I was, I was one, which is something we need to look like. And with respect to the new requirement that we have a, um, the school board, the student school board number that is in the works. I know that Doctor Ghosh talked about a number of times, which is working with, um, Mr. Spoiler about, you know, sort of the standards and, um, and then, um, obviously our policy committee is also working and it will come to us in discussion and, you know, input. So we're it's, it's in the works like. Um, okay. Anyone else? Um, but I just

142had, um, not a different just some of our thoughts about, um, class size and our policy on class size. I know it has been quite a few years. Um, I have to look it up to see that the last thing that that went probably before the policy committee and readjusted or looked at, um, I know when I was first on the board, probably about three years ago or so, um, we had a work session and looked at the policy, and at the time, I did not feel that we were at a place to change our policy or open it up. Um, and here we are now a few years later. And thank you, Miss Jones. I appreciate the comments. Uh, public comment is only so valuable. Is there a time that we can talk to

143the near future about looking at that policy again, um, and seeing if we want to update it, if we feel that it's still appropriate, um, with the access initiatives that we have, and then in 2026 or if there's anything that the board can do to support, um. Keeping class sizes are small. Now that all the work's been going into for the past few years. So just to about for now. Um. Think about. Okay. Thanks. Anyone else? All right. Um, okay. So upcoming meetings. Our next meeting is April 8th. Um, and as always, if anyone has any remarks, if they'd like to move to the board, the superintendent, they can do so by sending an email to BOE at Brewster school.org. And, uh, just need a motion to adjourn the meeting start. And a second will

144do all those in favor. Motion passes five zero. Thank you, everyone, for coming today. Appreciate everything.