001All right. Good evening, everyone. It is, uh, Tuesday, February 11th. The board is. It's about 6:43 p.m. The board is returning from executive session to open the meeting. Can I have a motion and a second? Scott on the motion and Cindy on the second. All those in favor? Motion passes six zero. And just as a quick apology, we try very hard to get down here by 630. Uh, sometimes we have executive sessions that run a little long. And, uh, so we apologize for not starting on time, but we'll get going now. Um, Sebastian, if you wouldn't mind, you want to lead us in the pledge? Thank. Like I was going to ask you to leave the meeting. I didn't mean to catch you off guard. Um, okay, so we'll start with administrator's remarks. Zandra Harlow,
002do we have enough? Can we move some of the bikes down? All right. Thank you. Uh, our pre-K application opened last week. We had a high turnout for our parent meeting, which was virtual last Monday. And, um, have had an overwhelmingly strong response to the application for the lottery thus far. And we are very excited to be welcoming the newest booster class in September. And just as a note for everyone, the um, pre-K lottery application is closing on February 28th and we will have reminders coming out. And, um, that process is in full swing. And also last week JFK was celebrating reading, and on Friday I was very, very fortunate. I was able to go into Miss Hickey and Mr. Hayes's classes and read the Paper Bag Princess to my new little friends. And, um,
003it was wonderful because the staff and students were dressed up as their favorite story characters. And I have to give kudos over here to Mr. Conroy because he and Mrs. Cruz dressed up, um, from them, uh, from as characters from Mo Willems book. Mr. Conroy was Gerald the elephant and Mrs. Cruz was his best friend. Piggy. And it was just an absolutely great time. Got. Thank you, Mr. Hanger. Yes, there's pictures and videos, by the way. Mr. Conroy said. What? Why don't we get these costumes at the meeting? Um, so thank you. Good evening everybody. So, uh, one quick remark is today, our mentoring committee met to review the mid-year feedback from our mentor and mentees in, uh, year one. Um, so some minor adjustments were made, uh, based on today's meeting and based on
004the feedback that we received from both groups. Well, one thing I want to highlight that I think it's important, it's a testament to our district, is, uh, the feedback from both mentors and mentees about booster is a they not only feel supported, but those that had come from other districts feel that this is a very positive and are very thankful to be working here in booster and being part of our family. So I think that speaks volumes to the environment that we're trying to strive to create. Um, and it's again, something that both mentors and mentees felt empowered, uh, compelled to mention, uh, during two separate occasions. So I thought it was important for us as a district, uh, to know that, um, and just thank the staff across the board and everyone at this
005table for helping, uh, make that happen. Okay, great. Thank you, Mr. Carlson. Uh, good evening. So, uh, just one quick one. So nicer to finally approved Brewster's application through the Clean Green Schools Initiative grant, uh, which authorizes, uh, consultant work to begin for looking into our electric vehicle feasibility. Um, so accounting for nyserda is delay in approving our project. We expect to receive a report from IMF associates, uh, later this spring, which, uh, we'll then, of course, review with the board and, uh, likely formulate a committee and, uh, proceed with next steps. Should the state continue in its, uh, implementation of this by 2035? Um, so we're again, we're expecting a report later in the spring. We'll take next steps from that point. Uh, just one last announcement at our next board meeting will, uh,
006finally begin our budget process, starting with our first budget presentation, uh, around our revenue budget. And that concludes my comments. Okay. Thank you, Doctor Ghosh. Yes. Thank you. Good evening. Uh, we have another exciting future accolade to mention. We were notified recently that Mrs. Deborah Roman, who is an eighth grade English teacher and instructional technology specialist for the middle school, was recently named as the Outstanding Innovative Teacher at the Rick's uh Tel, or Technology in Education, leadership and Learning Words. Uh, if you worked with Deb, you know that there is no one who works harder. Um, and as good as she already is as a practitioner, she works tirelessly to get better. I've seen her in action as a teacher, a staff developer, a colleague when designing curriculum and skill based frameworks, and have worked
007with her on numerous committees. Um, this award is incredibly well-deserved and is a significant acknowledgment from her peers throughout the region. Uh, we want to thank Mr. Jim Schiller, who nominated her, took the time to do that. So thank you, Jim. Um, and congratulations again to Deb. Uh, tomorrow we will be sending out a mid-year communication with a number of important highlights and updates, as well as some ways to follow the district on social media. We know that you receive a lot of emails and communications from us. Uh, but this one is a good one. And I'm not just saying that because I wrote most of it. Uh, but please, uh, please check it out. If you get it, get a chance. Uh, we have an exciting update from the county center, which was mentioned
008just briefly before the meeting. Congratulations to Thomas Luby and Ryan Brace for their wins at the county center. They are back at it again tomorrow for section semifinals. Uh, and finally next week, schools closed. In case you didn't know, uh, wish everybody a happy winter break and a restful and rejuvenating week. Thank you. Okay, great. Thank you. And just a note on the sports side, I saw on our, um, a district, um, Facebook page that our Brewster girls varsity hockey team, um, won their section one championship last. Night and sudden death overtime. So it doesn't get any more exciting than that. Um, and it mentions our seniors, Anna Nettie Jr, Lindsey Smith, and sophomore Stella Quatro Chi. I don't know if those are the only Brewster kids on that team, but they were mentioned because
009this is a team that is a merger of a lot of different, um, schools. So congratulations to the girls. Uh, it's fantastic to have an all girls hockey team in this area. So congratulations to them. And now we will move on to our student representative Sebastian. Good evening everyone. Um, so the past few weeks at high school, the Brewster High School Chamber concert will be held, uh, Friday, February 12th at 630 in the high school cafeteria. The not Not Military ball was held last Friday in the Amber room. The eighth grade and incoming freshmen parent orientation will be held February 26th at 630 in the park. BHS Annual Mr. Brewster will take place on February 28th at 6:30 p.m. in the park. Um, and we have a new section from the athletics department kind of
010running through a bunch of different, um, of the teams across all the schools from boys ice hockey. Uh, defeated Male Pack on Monday and is looking forward to sectionals next week. Varsity girls basketball. Uh, are varsity and JV girls basketball team will head to Yorktown tomorrow night. And will host Poughkeepsie this Friday at the beach gym at 5 p.m. it will be our senior night, so come out and support the Lady Bears. Uh, varsity boys basketball. Our first varsity and JV boys basketball teams will host Yorktown tomorrow night at the gym as well. And then travel to Poughkeepsie on Thursday morning. Gymnastics. Uh, congratulations to seventh grader Jenna Taylor and 11th grader Bianca Torquay on I qualifying for division last week. They both did a great job. Unified bowling will start their season after winter
011break at Carmel Spins. Uh, congratulations to our JV JV cheer team for placing first on Saturday at the Arlington Tournament. The bowling season is over. Congratulations to Guy Courtney. Now coming in sixth highest average in the league at 127. Track. Our track season track season has a strong season with two athletes who are Putnam Dutchess champions and 13th county medalist. This weekend, we will be bringing more than 20 athletes to sectionals. Sports awards will be held Thursday, March 13th and invites will be forthcoming. At Wells. Congratulations to eighth grader Derrick Crivelli, who ranks number two right now for the Brewster Ski Team and is heading to sectionals on Thursday at Hunter mountain. Wells. It will be celebrating Black History Month this Thursday with a virtual production about Harriet Tubman's life. The Ridgefield Playhouse for eighth
012graders and Laser Show, which will take place on sixth and seventh graders. Through the cultural influences African-Americans have had on music Thursday two slash 13 is the seventh grade Valentine's Day dance from 530 to 730 at the Wells Gym. Seavey stars participating in Random Acts of Kindness Week throughout random Acts of Kindness week will put Spotlight on Kindness by encouraging students to perform, share, and celebrate acts of kindness at school. Stevie Star would also like to thank the PTA for organizing the Harlem Wizards game this past weekend, and JFK also mentions the Wizard game, where it was full of excitement this past weekend, and it was so great to see JFK students and staff having fun and engaging in friendly competition. The JFK Winter concerts are in full swing, and our students have been practicing
013singing various songs and are excited to share them with our families. Great job Cubs, thank you so much. All right. Thank you Sebastian. All right. So we will move on to presentations, recognition and discussion. Number one, proposed school boundary line change with Carmel Central School District regarding Gateway Summit and Fairways residential development project with the Town of Carmel. Okay. Good evening. So, um, as you see here, we reconvened our subcommittees from both the Bruce Report and Carmel Board on Monday, January 27th. Um, at that meeting, the assessor for the Town of Carmel shared with us some additional maps which we'll share with, uh, with you in a moment. And, uh, it really gives us a better understanding of the satellite and topographical views of the lots that we were discussing. So with that, I'll, uh,
014move to the next slide. So, um, this I found helpful because as we were looking at the maps that were provided to us initially, uh, were actually the maps of the developer, we were actually looking at those maps, um, from left to right, as opposed to, you know, north and south orientation. So now we have a north and south orientation of the area of the Brewster and Carmel school boundary line. Of course, it's represented by that red, um, squiggly line. Um, and then the, uh, boundary line for the towns of Carmel and Southeast are highlighted by the, uh, the white line. Um, so it just gives you a better understanding and you'll see in a moment if you can reorient and, uh, shift from left to right, you'll see where, um, where we're looking. Um,
015this actually is the same orientation. It's a north and south orientation, but it gives a better understanding of that, uh, rectangle that we've been talking about that, uh, intersects Centennial Golf Club. Um, so as you can see, it looks like, uh, three holes which are intersected by that, um, school boundary line. Again, that large rectangle piece that we discussed our last, um, the last time that we spoke about this, uh, here, it shows a the boundary line further south. Um, so when we first, uh, were presented with those, uh, the initial, uh, map, it cut off before you got further south, but you could see at the bottom of this map, um, that our school boundary line encompasses, uh, basically the, uh, Carmel Sports Club, um, and also the Putnam County Bureau of Emergency Services
016buildings. They're basically at the very bottom of this map. Dead center. Um, so again, you see, uh, the Brewster boundary line, uh, encompasses those areas now, uh, zooming in on, uh, lots one, two and three. And again, this is kind of, um, looking at it, you can see route six, uh, carry through from, uh, the middle right of the map to the, uh, bottom middle of the map. Um, lots one, two and three that we had discussed because, again, based on the assessor's initial recommendation, there was some consideration of, uh, adjusting the school boundary line to, um, provide um, Carmel School District with, uh, portions, if not the entirety of lots, uh, one, two and three. So now moving on. Um, I assume, but also including the topographical lines. So those, um, faint white lines,
017if you can see, um, more so in lot one than the others, shows the, um, the elevation of this, uh, this lot. So every, um, every line represents an increase, I believe, in 100ft of elevation just to show that it's, um, you know, there is some elevation there. And if and if you've been by the, um, by the development, you'll you'll notice the, uh, the roadway goes, you know, up, you know, squiggles up to the actual development itself. This, again, is another, uh, zoomed view of, uh, more so of, uh, lot one and two, again, showing the, uh, the elevations of the, uh, the two lots. Um, and then this was shown to us a, a water course, uh, that goes through lots, uh, one, seven and eight. Um, and again, it was discussed that
018there are limitations on what can be built within 100ft of a water course due to dep, um, regulations. So. Of the river, a river, a stream, um, which feeds into the reservoir at the bottom of, um. Um, yeah. Route six. Right. Yeah. So, um, so this is just something that we, we kind of discussed at the end of the meeting, and I'll certainly, you know, defer to, uh, Jen to catch up as well. Um, talking about, uh, an option to send all units to Carmel. So, um, uh, as existing as we know right now, there are about 60 to 70%, uh, of these units are already, um, falling within the Brewster Central School District and about 30% in the Carmel Central School District. Again, the assessor's initial recommendation were was for all units to go
019to Brewster in exchange for um, providing Carmel with some, uh, of the additional, um, commercially zoned property at the bottom of this map. So again, this is a new concept and consideration. If all the students were to go to Carmel, um, what would the tax impact be? So, uh, if we were to yield, uh, school taxable assessed value to Carmel obviously would result in a, uh, tax increase, uh, more so, of course, affecting Carmel, uh, taxpayers than in any other town. Uh, logically, because this property is within the town of, uh, of Carmel. Uh, but you can see that the impact is, um, it's it's not significant. And the reason for that is, uh, that property in its current status is not, um, not very valuable. Um, however, if you look on the right side
020of the screen, what we discussed in November, uh, on November 20th showed that property become developed, which it's already in process of being developed. Uh, it would be very valuable. And if Brewster were to see that, you would see, you know, again, on the right hand side of the screen, the tax benefit per $100,000 of assessed, uh, value of your home, again, comparing to the left side, which is kind of like a, um, a no harm, no foul way to look at it where it's currently not developed in its, uh, current condition. And then if it were to be, um, you know, removed from the, uh, from the Brewster School District, the tax impact would be, you know, fairly minimal for Paterson and Southeast homeowners, but much more significant for Carmel homeowners. So. And this
021was an attempt to develop some kind of, uh, pros and cons, or we try to be as objective as we possibly could and certainly welcome, you know, the board's, uh, reflections on this, um, pros and cons, whether it, uh, all students attend one school district. I think both, uh, both subcommittees, uh, board representatives, everyone stressed that everybody wants what's best for kids. And knowing that all kids ten one school district is really at everyone's, um, you know, core, core mission here. Uh, on the left hand side of the screen is the assessors recommendation, you know, pro of course, all students, ten one school district. Uh, another pro, is that it? Um, would result in a tax rate, uh, reduction, um, con the unpredictable cost of new students relative the expansion of that tax base. Um,
022and then con it would yield commercial zone, uh, lots out of Brewster. Uh, two Carmel on the right hand side of the screen is the all units to Carmel consideration on the pro. Of course, all students attend one school district. In this instance, it would be Carmel. Uh, the other pro is that it would eliminate any, uh, concern of the unpredictable nature of the students that were to, um, inhabit those townhomes after construction relative to the expansion of the tax base. And then on the cons, we would yield school taxable assessed value out of Brewster and into Carmel. Um, and then it would result in a, um, a tax increase, again, as I described in previous slide. And again, certainly welcome. You know the board to you know, share their thoughts and reflections of other
023pros and cons. Jen, anything that you want to share? No, I don't mean to put pressure on you, but is there anything from the subcommittee you want to share? I think you're basically covered most of it. From the conversation, I will say, looking at the maps and having a better understanding of the of the land. What we're looking at in terms of land, especially the commercial land, was helpful. Um, and the waterways, uh, and the fact that there's. The yes, there's always potential to build, but it doesn't seem as though the potential is as great as we thought it might have been. Um, was helpful in, uh, just trying to wrap our heads around all of this. Um, you know, at the very end of the meeting, uh, Carmel board members throughout that, you know,
024they're either they either want the original plan or to take all the good. And that was how our meeting ended. So, um, you know, when we were talking about negotiating a stuff in the past, they're not up for that. Um, so I feel like this is really where we are with, um, with our two choices here. So, Jen, can I just ask you, uh. Because the whole reason this conversation started was a town councilman had had emailed the board and said that there had been a letter that was written by the Carmel School Board that said, hey, Brewster can take all of the age restricted and we'll take all of the that was not part of this conversation at all. So when they say we'll take all of the kids, though, they're meaning they'll take
025all the, um, we're talking about to the, the map where the that line, they'll take route not not just the unrestricted age, which I think when that came out. Jamie, since then the developers have switched it that the non age restricted is now that straight line that comes off where the age restricted is the circular section at the top. Does that kind of make sense? Which I think was the other one like. This is now not an. I'm sorry. This is not okay. I think it was originally the first conversation for the second edition. I was like, we just. So I think that was part of that. That's not that's not it anymore. So then the the options that Carmel is putting forth is we take all units, period. So not we don't take the
026kids, we take all units period. Or we go back to the original proposal, which is this. Yeah. I thought it was all kids. Well, that's that's what they're saying there. They're the, the the circular part, the, the that's all age restricted. And that is Carmel. Yes. So we are talking about those homes that could possibly have children. Correct. So the street line, the street over here, the homes we're talking about. So when they when Carmel or you know, I'm paraphrasing says we would take them all there. We're talking about the kids here. There's no nothing on the table where Brewster would be taking the age restricted. No, they're Carmel saying they will take all of that. So when you look at the that map, that little like divot. Is the Carmel area. All of the
027rest is already in their school district. Like. That's like so Carmel. So like, we'll just take it all. They take it all the. Yes. But I don't know what that means. I mean, this is a question for. You people get paid the big bucks. Um, like, what does that mean? Like we're talking about trading. Trading this land for this little section. Like, are we going to. I don't know if this starts the whole process over again in terms of like, can we just. Give it to them. Do you know what I'm saying? Can we just give? What like is it even a possibility as a school district to say, fine, Carmel, take them. I think collectively we can agree to that. And then I wouldn't it be the bossy superintendent. But what I'm saying is,
028like, we're having this whole conversation in Carmel over this little chunk of, like, exchanging land and whatever over this chunk of land. So my question is like, is it? Can we just say take them? Is it permissible? Correct. Like we're talking about trading land here. We're trading different lands to do this, I guess, is my question. As if we're changing boundary lines. We would both have to pass resolutions saying that's the case, and then the district superintend superintendent would have to petition the state on our behalf to do that. Whatever the resolution is going to be, if there is going to be one, because it could say how it is too, right? That's the other. Otherwise, if we're saying, you know, criminal takes all of the kids to school districts, then possibly the training for.
029I just I just want to know, like, I guess I want to know if that's something that has to happen. You know. Or do we just. Can we make that decision? Um, because then we're back to square one with trying to negotiate something here. I don't know. That was my question. That was just a question I thought of later. Sorry. So I just want to make sure I'm clear. Um, the the part in the little triangle that is the Kamal for right now. The proposal is that Brewster would take all of the kids we now are already supposed to have, like, 70%, but we're going to take those 30% in that. Thanks, Victor. And then that. Okay, so that's that's one proposal. The other proposal is that Kamal will take them. We'll take the first
030part of that. Okay. Is that if we take that triangle. Yeah. We are ceding all the strip blue land. Okay. And actually a little bit more like along the road, but the boundary lines cut off there. Um, that we'd be saving all of that land to Kamal. Okay. That's one of the things I wanted to clarify. Okay. And then in that proposal, you had mentioned that by by seeing some of the maps, you had a better appreciation for what it is we're going. Because I know last time we discussed like, well, it could be developed later and you know, but it hasn't been developed for 100 years. So is this really developable or. So I think, you know, the, the, the rectangle part starting there, that's for the golf course. And the concern is. Will
031Centennial still have? Three sets of nine holes. Will they always keep that or, you know, will they be looking to get rid of some of their list? When you look at the map, you also see that there's a whole another community along those fairways, along those three holes. So if that were to happen, perhaps that's not the the chunk of land that they would get rid of because back. See, like all those lots along the left side of the three of the holes. Like those are all houses that the selling point is. No thank you. All right, so these are all houses that are already there. And the selling point is fairway right. So they're building townhouses here. The selling point is the fairway. So when we're talking about can. If Centennial does get really
032developed here in Sacramento, that doesn't seem like that would be the choice. Of course, that they would. And because this is the kind of. That an existing RV backed up to. Neither did I, until I saw this man. Yeah. That's, um. I think it's Saint Michael's terrorists. And you access it on Fair Street and come way back off the fair street. Pick it up there. So that's proposal one, which is we take the kids and we're giving some land, right? We're giving that land and we're giving, um. Describe the stripe stuff. Yeah. Right. Right. But that was okay the first hour. So we've gone over that or we're giving the same stuff to. Okay. Yeah. So that's that's proposal number one. That's just one. Yeah. We did talk about in the meeting, you know, the
033ability to develop. Um, when especially when I was out of school I don't actually. Okay. Thank you. Um, this point does actually go through these apps as well. Um, but, you know, this is what we're talking about with a. What do you call it? The waterway, watercourse, water flows through this here. So that's what do you here? Um, and then. Uh, I think this one's really. That one's really hard to get to. No one has to see bikes to get through the right. One of the few rights to get through to the other and in agreement. And then the grading on this one like this is it's very steep. Okay. Okay. And the reason we're discussing giving them some property is because we're going to take all the kids. And along with the kids comes,
034um, tax revenue. So that's the idea of that. Right. Okay. But. And then the second option is Carmel takes all the kids and we don't see that problem. Right. Uh, reserve your understanding. Okay. This this was thrown out at the very end. Okay. Well, and I know I think you said, like, one of the board members said that, but was it an actual, like, one board member can't say things. Was it an actual decision of the board that that is on the table? They this is their feeling that they I think the where he uses a unanimously agreed upon this. I don't know when they unanimously agreed to this because I didn't see it in their board conversations, but that this was their overall feeling. I do think you use the word unanimous feeling coming
035from Carmela's. Either you take this deal or they'll take all the kids. Okay. Or it stays the way it is. And we take 70% of the kids and they have 30% of the kids. And it's not, you know. Yes. It's not perhaps the nicest. Right. Uh, separation. Which is why we're even having this conversation. Okay. Did they say anything about, like, why they revolted once again? And this is all in the town of Cornwall. Right. This is Carmel, the whole Carmel town. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's. There was no conversation about that. It was a statement. There may have been a mention of declining enrollment, and they didn't really say why or how. It was really just a statement at the end of. Now if we did the all units, the karma, like when we did
036everybody to Brewster, we gave them away. Now if we do everybody to caramel, do they give us. That's because if we don't 70% of that, that's 70% of the appraised value. That's a much bigger piece than a little piece of Carmel has. So if they're getting pissy and want to just say, well, if you just have to watch the meetings, then, um, and they want to just take it off, but they'll give us nothing. So it's almost like they're. Daring us to do I, I. Much more thoroughly in a fuze now than I have ever been. And I've been on this board to cope. I've never been this confused about what's going on. It was it was very ultimatum ish at the end of. I think that's a fair point too, because if we leave
037it the way it is, which of course we had nothing to do with we, we we wouldn't have be having this conversation if the boundary line wasn't as, as wacky. So we're having it and we all I think everyone agrees it would be great if the kids weren't. You know, separated by building over. You know, having a go right through the middle is where the kids sleep. Is the district they go to, right. That they could be split in the middle and if the patches are outside of that, but if they move back to the other side now, they're going to court. Yes. But I do feel like if we're giving up, if we were to consider having all the kids go to Carmel, um, you know, that's that's a that's a give. That's my,
038uh, from my perspective, it's a give. We're giving either way. Right. We are giving either way. Um. But with this, with this deal, we get a return here. This little portion here is called. Correct. So this is booster. And this is this. Yes. Yes. So. Okay. This is a little formal. So we keep this but we take this. They want all of this and all of this. Well that's undeveloped right. Yeah. True narrative without that that was what when we went into the meeting was is it how developer develop and how much can you build on it. Thank you. The word wasn't coming. Um, and look, like I said, looking at those the maps that we saw with the gradients and the waterways and stuff like that really gave us a better understanding of like.
039First the map. Sorry. There's. Why. Um. They do. She gets a hold of your budget. That's a difference. I can't find it. All right. But where's the money for the red line? And just. Don't know if that's not going on either. Um. I don't know, a first proposal. Yeah, like assessor's recommendation. Sorry. I put the last presentation. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, um, where was I going? So looking at the land, along with what we're doing at the bottom here, um, that is that that lot? Closer to the road is very steep and has been through water, as does that big chunk of land there. The next one is next to it. Um, and in looking at the map and discussing it with. With the town assessor. Um. But yes, I felt the same way. They
040are going into the meeting like there's potentially there's potential there, right? This has been built on for a hundred years. Doesn't mean it won't be built on it. I see that that land would be very difficult to build on. Because the water and the gradient and the elements of salvation. You are in water. I know you sold it. And they. They told me they would never build on it. Never. But it's one little thing. But I always just water. If it's just water, I would agree with you. But its water and elevation. And in that area of town. I mean, think about the fact that the mines were there, stuff like, that's a lot of rock. And. Stuff, so to do it. Has there been any discussion at these subcommittees or otherwise? I don't know.
041Um, about. I don't really remember what the dividing line looks like on the as currently scheduled. You know, like, is it literally going through a building? Is it so that, you know, you could have an attached building where one kid is in one school district? Is there any flexibility there? Yeah I would. I would say that if we got to the point that we weren't able to reconcile this together, that at a minimum, we would request that the boundary lines be shifted. You know, 20ft, 100ft, whatever it takes, so that the line doesn't go directly through a townhome and that we can make sure that they are, you know, apportioned appropriately. Carmel schools or Brewster School. So we don't have the border line property situation where, you know, you'll have a split dwelling. Again, that
042would be a last resort. Again, everyone's, you know, goal is to have everyone attend one school. I mean, even talking about transportation, I mean, transportation is going to be an issue here no matter what. But think about transportation. You have Brewster busses picking up the first quarter and the last two thirds, and a Carmel bus coming to get. You know, I know it's clearly not ideal. Yeah. Um, I just want to share, you know? So my thinking is we need to come to some kind of consensus as to what we think. I'm just going to throw my opinion. I think for me, like, well, what's best for kids in general, regardless of what district are and what role in and what whatever. I feel that what's best for kids is to go to school in
043their town. Um, I think it's best for kids also to have, you know, you think about when they're involved in youth activities, camps, youth sports in one town, going to school in another can be tricky. You know, do people do it? Do we have kids from different towns or different activities? Whatever. But that's what I think is best for kids. So my opinion is try to work out a way for our kids to go to school, um, as well. And that's just like. Um, so I agree with that. You know, like if you're looking at these kids, I mean, I live, uh, fairly close to this. These kids are less than a mile away from Carmel High School. Carmel Middle School, the main street of of of Carmel. They're they're rams. And to come in
044and be like, all right, well you guys are going to go to the bear den and you guys are going to go over there to be rams. You know the dividing would be ridiculous. But also like how do you say that? We we talk about community all the time. And we're going to be like right. Youth sports. You're going to go to Carmel because your parents are closer. It's going to be easier. Your uncle who lives on the other side of town, is actually going to be the coach. You're going to do that, but don't worry, modified. You're going to start coming over to and do Brewster Sports. It is it does happen. We have we have this happen with North Salem. We have for some reason the state lines are so are much more
045crystal clear. Although we've had history with with certain things. But you know, like it is a bizarre thing to live in a town and to be shipped elsewhere. They these kids are going to be rams, you know, and I understand that we have challenges. All all of you know, New York state area right now has challenges with, uh, enrollment and so forth. But with that comes, you know, other, other expenses, other things that that we would have to consider. But these kids are rams. And why why would we be so disruptive? Even in looking at the cost scenario from a taxpayer. Great. We would be for 100,000. We'd have $17 extra, you know, after if it's a $400,000 house, that turns into something. And for each tax increase, it does start. It does start to
046build up. Well with those kids also comes expense, you know. So those are things that we would have to consider. And we don't have a natural offset of what that $17 would be, uh, versus, you know, the expense of kids. But the bottom line is these kids sit squarely in, I don't know what you guys call yourselves over there, ram country, but they are they are rams. They're not they're not bears. If we are looking at how like the logical lining up of where they sit with schools and where they sit like our town line is south of there, I don't understand why school district lines are so butchered compared to that. So if you're saying the suggestion that two of you have boys, that everybody goes to Cornell because we walk for boys and
047all the kids, you go south, it's best for the children, and that's what's most important. But if we give that 70% to Carmel to make it consistent, then it's only fair. And we don't want to upset Victor. We have to get something back in return to offset it, I think. Just give it away. I think that's fair. I think that, you know, I don't understand why they get to do an ultimatum and not think about what's best for kids. So I'm all for like, continue it. We're we're being evil. We're back. Well, we are, uh, bears. Or at least you, um, but, like, I'm absolutely fine with us going back and say, that's great. You know, you guys are still not you know, you guys are not here to negotiate. And so. And then, God
048forbid. I hate to make war work for it, but I mean, because as board members also, we're responsible. For the money of this district and by just giving the students away. I know not giving the property away without getting some value. We are doing a disservice to our taxpayers. I don't think it's it's it's it's what can't be cut. Drax. We don't know if that cost. But if you're keeping it simple. If the first one was, we take them, you know, we take them. But we had to give back. So it's only natural to assume that in reverse, it would be done in reverse. That's all. I'll just say this is clearly the board's decision. Okay, but a couple of points to think about. We currently do have students who live in Carmel who attend
049future schools. Right. We have a development stone throw away from George Fisher middle school cruiser students. Right. So this this precedent, this exist, right? This situation exists. And if we give away. The development. We are down the road going to be increasing the tax rate on existing taxpayers. It doesn't. It doesn't say the cost. You know, the the cost of additional students. And what that would look like aside, it is increasing the tax rates right down the road. You know, like we cannot say that at a blanket statement because we are operating hypotheticals. Right? Like I don't know why so many students, but the Democrats say you got you got 100 kit fair race. You have 14% of our students here at Brewster are on a, uh, our special needs. So right there at a
050fort that's 14 kids that are going to have IEPs, 500 fours out of that, how many kids go, you know, like, that's the kind of thing that we would have to start then doing, you know, uh, ratio with and and so forth. So yes, you lose 17 bucks per 100,000, uh, on a 2025 basis, but you also do not know what the cost is. So from a revenue perspective, you're down. But a cost perspective, you don't know what what what you're at. And there will be cost with kids. There always is. Like, you know, as a mom, you know, there's a ton of costs with kids, you know, so that that is that is definitely a factor that's going to to be there. That's a projection. Yeah. So Doctor Garcia said we have to deal
051with what we can control. Do not yeah, but we think it's 100% true. Right. That it will be a loss on that. But on your side it might be. Well, if there was much more need in that district, it could actually be a deficit, but that we don't know about 90%. It's 100% certain that kids are going to come with cost. We know that off the off the top. Well, I would hope so, right? But that's not what the issue is. So, I mean, maybe we should just instead of keep going. It's over an hour. We want to come to some resolution and we want to continue this discussion. Do we want to? As if they could go back as much as it's going to pain them to go back and opt for something else?
052Or do we vote on it as it is? I mean, I don't. Does anybody else want to share anything? I mean, honestly, if I'm asked what's in the best interests of these kids, it's to come to Brewster. I mean, that's that's how I it's to be educated here. Um, but, you know, I don't know if other people want to share their views. I don't know if we're ready to, um. You know, we need some just I guess these we need some. The options are to. Say. We couldn't come to a resolution for. Caramel takes all or Brewster takes all. So we are where we started out. Or we're going to. Be okay with one of the other alternatives, which is still possible. Or where we table it, and we're not ready to make a decision.
053I don't, you know, I don't know. Is there a. I don't suppose there's really a deadline, you know. But I know it's not going to get better with age necessarily. But, um, you know, this is a co-operative. This started out and should remain, in my opinion, a cooperative endeavor with Carmel. Um, it's supposed to be, you know, what works best for the kids. And obviously we're not going to give away the farm, and neither are they. You know, it has to be reasonable. Um. But, you know, ultimatums one way or the other. I don't think it's going to. It's going to get us to that finish line. No, I will say just from. From the meeting and looking at. This map. Um, I don't know that if we if we did take this deal with
054the swapping, you know, so the kids universe there. I'm not saying one way or the other on that. I don't think we're giving away the farm even though we're giving away more land. Um, which was my concern from the beginning. Like, you know, how developable is this land? What type of potential revenue are we losing? I'm more comfortable with that than I was in the past. Um, so I do think that if, you know, the decision is that kids come to Brewster, then this is a fair deal. Um, I don't. I'm not saying one way or the other, I'm just looking at this. I can say on that. Um. If it goes the other way, I, you know, we're talking about like would we have would they, would they have to see something to us?
055Well what would they see? I think that's part of the question too. Um, you know, we're talking about land in the same area. Like, what does Carmel have to say to us? I'm just throwing it out there as a thought process. Right. What is Carmel have to say to us in this area that would, you know, make up for it, make up for the difference in the town. What what was the term for you? Thank you. The school tactical assessment. Um, you. Because this was based on the tax assessment from the town assessor. So if you flip it around, I don't know what that. I'm just saying. I don't know what that looks like. And I don't know if we. I don't know if we necessarily have to do that. I don't know, I don't
056know. So now is. They're going to take them off. So we're seeing. And nothing is on the table. So I, you know, like, I feel like there's. But like I said, they don't know what it is. There was no cover and there was no conversation. So I mean, this is. This is where we're at. Sure. Be delighted. Yes. The. I just don't think the conversation is done yet. Uh. He was. It just seems like there's more discussion to to be had. Well, yeah. Yes, there is, because we're going back to what we're saying. Like if we're ceding. This much. Victor's words. Thank you. Um. Then. Then there does has to be. There have to be some sort of give there. What I don't I think I would have to go back to the terms lesser
057wouldn't it. Probably. Yeah. I mean what what would it be. Yeah. You know, or are we going back to there's no blues stripe lines, you know what I mean? Like, you know, like we're not going to give if you take them. We're not going to, you know, if it's got to be they take them. Well that's the other issue. Right. So if Carmel takes them then our school lines are still screwy. Right. Because we still have that rectangle and we still have those that. Well, the rectangle would go away. At the time. But we'd have to have a member station to give them away. There would be no way to get that. Yeah. Um, you could fly a helicopter. I think that's a great way to get kids in school. Um, yeah. I mean, so
058we would have to do another. Conversation about what those lines would look like. What the school, what the school lunch would look like at the end of this. Scribble point here of like, straighten them out. Right. So I just think it's it's our responsibility to do our due diligence to have the most thorough conversation about this. You know, and while it's true that there are some, you know, parts of Carmel that go to school for students and for rooster to go to school other places, you know, I have also heard from people in those situations. Maybe a line goes right down the middle of their house, or their property line, or their neighborhood or whatever, um, kind of wishing that they might have been different. And so I'm glad that we're looking into this to
059make sure that years from now, somebody's not saying, why didn't they look into it? You know, it's a conversation that has to be have like I do. I've had issues with residency, so I will say that this is a conversation that I do think needs to be had. And it's important. Like straightening out these lines is important, especially where it's homes, like if it's commercial property. Right. But like especially for homes. Like the lines do have to be straightened out. I mean, but if you looked at, if you actually look at the school boundary lines across the whole thing there. Mhm. Um, but. Well that what that line looks like. I guess we have to continue to have that conversation. Okay, so then it sounds like, um. We'll. If anyone has specific questions that they
060want Jen and Melissa to or Victor to convey at a, I mean, we'll see if they want to meet again. I don't know why they wouldn't, um, but, you know, get specific questions so that you're, you know, we could do that before whatever meeting is scheduled. And, um, you know, again, if this isn't a situation where one town has done something wrong and we're going to, you know. Sees an opportunity to, you know, this is a cooperative endeavor. Um, and I think it should be looked at like that. So hopefully they'll do that and we can continue the conversation. Does that work for everyone? Okay, okay. Um. All right. So now we are going to move to our first opportunity for public remarks. So this opportunity is limited to our action items. Um which is
061ah on uh D and E on our agenda. So if anyone has any remarks I'd like to make relating to an action item, you can, uh, make your way to the podium. We just ask that you state your name. Um, all speakers have three minutes to make whatever remarks you'd like to make. And we ask that you not, um, name any staff or students in your comments. So if anybody has any remarks they'd like to make about the action items, please make your way to the podium. All right. We don't see anybody in person. And I don't believe we received any emails about action items. Okay, so, um, we will move on then to, um, action items. Action item number one, Award of contracts pursuant to competitive bids, CV, star cafeteria and project number of
0620001-026A general Contractor, B electrical contractor, C mechanical Hvac contractor and D plumbing contractor. Yeah. So as our construction team shared at the, uh, February 4th, uh, work session, we had a very successful, uh, bid result for the CB Star cafeteria. Uh, resulted in about $900,000 below our initial budget. So that's obviously a great thing for our project that's currently underway. Uh, it includes the award of the first floor corridor, uh, corridor alternate that we've been discussing for the past year and a half or so. It does not include the second elevator alternate. So those were the two big ticket items that we were discussing, uh, for the past year and a half. So we're delighted that, uh, we can afford to award the alternate for the first floor corridor, uh, for the general contractor, um,
063recommendations being made to award to Mid-Hudson Construction Management. We had eight bidders initially. One, however, withdrew due to a clerical error for electrical contractor recommending award to Acorn Electrical, who's our current in-house, uh, electrical repair contractor. We had seven bidders for electrical for mechanical or Hvac recommending award to Southeast Mechanical, who was also performed work for the district for the, uh, past several years. We had seven bidders for the mechanical contract and lastly for the plumbing contractor, Snow Construction Services. And there were four bidders for plumbing. So, again, uh, we did have a, uh, quite a bit of interest in our project. And that's a that's a good thing. Uh, I think our contract or our construction team said, you know, people want to work in Brewster, so that's that's good for us. And, uh,
064we hope they will have the same success in our future contract awards. Okay. Great. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item, Scott? On the motion. Jamie. On the second. Does anyone have any questions or comments? I do, so just a quick question. I'm assuming that's the reason. So on that first one. Um, sorry. Yeah. Is that they. Are they the ones that removed yourselves and that's why they're cross out of. Yeah. And you can see their bid was significantly, significantly lower. And, uh, they were allowed to withdraw. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else with any questions? Just one on the, um, the general contract. One, um, in the, I guess, the bid scope review sheet, they made their paper dated. They're the ones that did not go to the site.
065Now, later on, there was a plumbing one on, and then they didn't go to the site. And no, that wasn't a problem. But on the general contractor one, they said no, but there was no note. Say it's from I'm assuming since tried and reviewed it and everything was fine, and they're comfortable with the fact that they weren't actually at the site. Yeah. So Triton on behalf of the district and also Fuller and D'Angelo, on behalf of the district, they perform the due diligence. Uh, they work in this industry so they know, um, you know, the different owners of different, uh, projects, and they'll be able to check references on a much more personal level than, you know, than any of us could, you know, blindly in cold calling. Uh, so for them, they obviously have,
066you know, quite a bit of confidence in their, um, their reference checks, the people they speak to, which are, you know, predominantly other construction managers within the industry. Any other questions or comments? All right. Seeing none. Let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes six zero. Action. Item number two. Approval of change orders for DHS security vestibule. New synthetic turf field and track replacement project uh 0004018 AGC 003. BMC 0202. Yeah, so these are two small change orders recommended by our construction team. The first one JC zero three um, uh, a little less than $4,000 to upgrade the door hardware at the security vestibule and to, um, match it with the existing hardware of the rest of the, uh, the entrance to the park. Uh, mix zero two is about $4,000 to
067add to, uh, fire and smoke detectors at the security vestibule and to tie it in to the existing, um, uh, fire alarm system. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? Jen on the motion and Leon or on the second? Any questions or comments? I'm just going to let you guys know that I'm going to abstain from voting on this because one of the, um, contractors is a client of my law firm, so I'm not going to vote on that. Any other questions or comments? All right, so do I. Got a motion, right? Yeah. Okay. Uh, all those in favor? Five against, zero abstentions, one motion passes, five zero. One action item number three, approval of inter municipal agreement. I am a with Putnam County property tax collection. Yes.
068This is our annual agreement stipulating the terms of processing tax bills on behalf of the school district by the county. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? Scott on the motion. John on the second. Any questions or comments? So we have our hour. And this is just for a purely knowledge thing, because I know we have that whole situation that went down last, last year. So with, with um, a default property. So Town of Southeast sends out their, their tax bill, we send out the school who sends out the school tax bill. Uh, we actually do. So it's it's a very pretty convoluted process. So Putnam County actually prepares the tax bills on our behalf, meaning they print them. The information is provided to them by the towns
069and the school district. The county actually prints the tax bills, then sends them back to us. We sort them and actually, you know, stuff that's I started reading and I'm like, I don't understand what is going on. Okay, so this has nothing to do with them collecting tax, ensuring that we're going to get tax revenues from businesses or anything. So this is specific to just printing tax bills okay. Thank you. No county okay. All right. Thank you. Any other questions or comments. Um. All right, let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action item number four. Approval of 20 2425. Instructional Services and related services. Contract for Devereaux Foundation advanced behavioral health. Yes. This agreement has been reviewed by our attorneys and is recommended for approval by a Director of
070Pupil Personnel Services. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? Scott on the motion. Jamie on the second. Any questions or comments? Seeing none. Let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes six zero. Action. Item number five approval of tax refunds. Yes, these are five refunds resulting in a total of 8000. Um, about $800, uh, from reductions to current year assessments. It's been recalculated by our treasurer, reviewed by attorneys, and approved for payment. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? Jen. On the motion lien or on the second? Any questions or comments? Because seeing them go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes six zero. Action. Item number six. Acceptance of insurance, recovery proceeds and budget amendment
071number five. Yeah. So this is an insurance recovery of about $12,000 for damage to the motor of the pump house. And if you don't know what that is, that's the, um, uh, the water tower, uh, as you enter on the far right of campus, it's actually used for our sprinkler system. Um, the motor blew. We were able to, um, submit an insurance claim in. This represents the reimbursement we received from nicer. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? Scott on the motion. Cynthia on the second. Any questions or comments? Seeing none. We'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes six zero. Action. Item number seven. Disposal of district property a Wells Middle School cafeteria equipment and B District office microfiche machine. Yes, these are requested
072in accordance with port A bid policy 5250 disposal district property items. Cafeteria equipment. Obviously at Wells Middle School. Hot holding cabinet. B is the microfiche machine here at the district office as we move to digitizing our, um, records. We sure were ready to get rid of the microfiche. We are very ready. Uh, can I have a motion and a second? Scott on the motion and Jen on the second. Any questions or comments? Scott, just one quick question. I know in the past we gave him one of the hot boxes to the VFW. Is it the same type of issue? Yeah. This one I understand is beyond repair. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? All right, let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes six zero. Action. Item number eight. Reassignment of
073disposed district property CV star playground equipment. Yes. So this is actually a reassignment of the CV Star playground equipment that was previously disposed of, uh, and recommended to be, um, uh, delivered to the town of southeast. This town of southeast informed us that they were unable to accept the equipment. Uh, but we found a home for it in the town of Kent. Uh, in this resolution, reassigning the equipment to the town of Kent. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? Scott? On the motion. Jamie. On the second. Any questions or comments? Thank you for reassigning it. I was at a southeast meeting and they were upset that they couldn't use it either way that we the script. So I would let them know if that is going to
074a happy help. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions or comments? All right. Let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes six zero. Action item number nine. Approval of 20, 2223 and 2324. Health services contracts. A Hempstead Union Free School district B city school district of New Rochelle. Yes, these are clearly very, very late, uh, submissions that we received from New Rochelle and from Hempstead for health services. As you recall, these are mandated reimbursements to other public school districts which provide health services to Brewster children attending private schools within their boundaries. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? Jamie on the motion and Leonore on the second. Any questions or comments? I just am always shocked at how expensive care is per child and like, I'm
075sure we do the same thing and it's standard rate, but it's like it's like if you have. Like 300 kids in a cot in a school. Yeah. And I mean, you know, these these are, um, New Rochelle actually has quite a few, uh, because of the school, the private schools that are in our show. Same with Summers and Kennedy Catholic. Same with Carmel and Saint James. Um, so there's a few that we pay quite a bit of money to. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? All right. Seeing none. We'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes six zero. Action. Item number ten. Authorization to close inactive extra classroom activity fund account. Yes. So this is a procedural requirement based on Board of Ed policy 7410 co-curricular and extracurricular programs transferring inactive
076funds to the next graduating class. So in this instance, we're graduating, um, or we're transferring the funds from the graduating class of 2024 to the class of 2025. And the reason why we're doing this, uh, in February, as opposed to the fall, we're waiting for an outstanding check to clear the account so that we can move the money over. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second? Jen on the motions. Got on the second. Any questions or comments? Seeing none. Let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes six zero. Action. Item number 11. Acceptance of donations a bus fare essentials from United Way, Ace and a Co. Walmart extended family and First Baptist Church. VBS, cyber bots from sultry KBS. Cyber bots from John Sveta and Sons and DBS
077and JROTC from JROTC Booster Club. Thank you. The district is very fortunate that we have such, um, generous donors. Uh, several donations to the Bare Essentials program, uh, food and other items which will be provided to families in need. The Cyber Cyber Bots team received two very generous donations, um, to help support their efforts this year. And our NJ ROTC program received a very generous donation from the Booster Club to support their military ball. Nice. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item, Jen on the motion and Jamie on the second. Any questions or comments? Okay. Seeing none, we'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes six zero. Action. Item number 12. Approval of second read policies 7330. Searches and Interrogations of students 5681. School safety
078plans thank you policies 7330. Includes updates regarding the type of ID required of CPS workers when entering the schools to interview students, and also clarifying language about the interviewing or questioning of a student by law enforcement. On school Property Policy, 5681 reflects revisions from the commissioner that are already reflected in Board policy 5683 with regard to how and when drills are conducted in schools. All of these policies have been reviewed by our attorneys and are submitted for a second read tonight. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? Jen on the motion. Scott on the second. Any questions or comments? Seeing none. We'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes six zero. Moving on to the consent agenda, Mr. Hancock. Yes, I'd like to recognize one
079retiree noted on tonight's agenda. Uh, Valerie Gonzalez, teacher at Wells Middle School. Uh, she'll be retiring at the end of September with 11 years of service to the district. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for this item? Jamie? On the motion. Second. Someone's got. Any questions or comments? Um, just have a quick question. So I'm just trying to dust my brain off and remember, um, our wave of teacher retirements typically comes at the end of the year for the forthcoming year. So we shouldn't have. We know pretty much who's going to retire for for the forthcoming year. I didn't it didn't I can't recall if we had a ton, but like from a projection of open positions and so forth like that. I know you're ramping up for hiring season.
080So like, you know, how how are we looking in terms of, you know, landing with, uh, like how many open positions and. Yeah. So that's a good question. So that's what we're finalizing now. We have the retirees and not as many as last year. We're definitely not into heavy hiring season. Don't quote me because I haven't looked at the number again this week. But I want to say probably run eight positions. Um, we'll have to we'll have to fill. And that's not just instructional. That's just overall from across the board. Yeah. And that's we have and also still discussed you know future in terms of budget and stuff. So yeah we should have a solid number though in the next month right. Okay. Any other questions or comments? All right, let's go to the vote.
081All those in favor? Motion passes, six zero. All right. We're up to our second opportunity for public remarks. Again, if anyone has any comments they'd like to make to the board, we just ask that you go to the podium, that you state your name. All speakers have three minutes to make whatever remarks they'd like to make. We just ask that you direct those comments to the board and that you not identify any, um, staff or students in your remarks. So if anybody has any public remarks they'd like to make to it today, please make your way to the podium. All right. We don't have anybody in person. Um, and no emails. Okay. All right, so we didn't have any emails either. So, um, we will move on to BOE board remarks or committee updates. Does
082anyone have anything they'd like to share? Um, I have a couple of things. So, Steven, in your opening, you mentioned the mentor program. So what I liked that you said is that teachers that are coming in that have been in other districts have actually mentioned that our mentoring program is actually above and beyond. I think that's that's critical feedback and information. So, you know, kudos to you and all the that have led that to establish that, because that's an incredibly, you know, that's a differentiator that that that, you know, newer teacher is going to go out and be like, oh, there's a job at Brewster. And yes, like every like teacher jobs. Everybody's like, I just got to get a teacher too. But if they're able to say, you know, come to Brewster versus going
083to someplace else, I think that's, um, that's important. Um, the two things on the construction, one is I would love to see if we can incorporate the work sessions into our meetings and just not have a big agenda, items of presentations that if we could balance that because, you know, I was looking around last week, one, we were all here, but then, you know, admin all had to be here. Everybody's missing dinner. Everybody. So if we could try to consolidate that, I think that would be great. I know I'm often the one that drags it out, as Scott likes to remind me, but if we manage from an agenda, I see that I um, then I think, uh, if we can manage from an agenda perspective, I think that would be, uh, time well spent.
084I'm going to just always put this on the reminder. If we can look at the rates schedule, the, um, schedule of being able to move, um, up the development. I know you guys took that away in the work session, but I will continue to to remind that. And the last thing I just wanted to ask, and I sent you guys an email earlier today, is, you know, I have a middle school and a high schooler. And another parent brought this up to me is that I see the my kids quarterly GPA in middle school. I don't see it for high school and just really want to understand why we are not reporting on GPAs in high school. Okay, I'll start by saying, can I answer the last one? You may, uh, start by saying that
085we need to do a little bit more exploring on it, and we can put it in the weekly update, but here's what we know. Um, so GPA hasn't been consistently appearing on the high school report cards. Um, we think that what happened is that there was an upgrade to Infinite Campus, which then switched on switch the view, which made it visible, but we aren't sure. We do know that we did take it off because it was reporting an inaccurate rolling or cumulative GPA. So you have the quarterly grade, which I think is what you're talking about quarterly, uh, grade point average. And then we have that cumulative or rolling. So it was inaccurate. So they're tied together. And we were trying to find ways to split them. Um, but the rolling GPA, which was a
086reason why it was removed, was inaccurate because it was taking the, uh, quarterly GPA and counting it as a full year and adding it to whatever rolling GPA previously. Um, and then in some cases, it wasn't even taking it into account at all. So it was what it caused a little bit of mayhem in that, um, you know, uh, teachers were saying, oh, your GPA look at this. And not knowing they were giving the wrong GPA, students had, um, uh, unhealthy reactions in some cases, um, and all over and not being correct. So we're looking to see if we can split that quarterly from that cumulative in order to be able to, to report it. But it wasn't it previously because wasn't isn't that the middle school quarterly? The middle school is quarterly, but it
087doesn't have that key. And it it has a yearly GPA, but it doesn't carry from year to year the way it does in the high school. So always like even like last year, that's what we think it could have been on at some point. Um, but we're, we're need to do a little bit more digging on it. So appreciate the explanation. But also like I think it's important to have it there. So I'm glad to hear that you guys are not removing it for the overly sensitive nature of that. Um, you know, like taking out, you know, like, oh, a measuring stick. Like it's really important that we understand that grades matter in school, and everybody across the board between parents and kids should be able to see what the GPA is and so forth.
088So I'm glad that's not the result. But if you guys could just let us know when you think you have cracked that or not, that would be great. Great, thanks. Okay, so anyone else have anything else? It's got. Um, I, uh, last week I sat in on the mayors of, uh, uh, virtual capital conference. There's a lot of good information in it, and one of the big items that we took out of it, and everybody took out of it, that there was no mention at all. About the zero emissions transportation. It's almost like the pretending they put it out there. And then another not mentioning but everybody is posting for tomorrow is the actual, um, invisible lobby day. So a lot of groups have all of this bar west part, a lot of groups will
089be up there, and that is one of the items that is key on there. Uh, there was also a meeting with, um, on the virtual thing with a number of assemblymen and senators, and they pointed it out as well, because a lot of them represent upstate areas where coal is going to affect zero emission vehicles and power grid issues. So that is something they're on. But with the bag I took on, it was, um, there's finally a flushing out of the cell phone band. Uh, what is appears is one of the items as it's currently listed is, um, an area to store devices. Now, obviously, that's just what the governor put in there that is still in negotiations. That's their answer to. At this time, but all the other groups were pushing for local control,
090local determination, community input and that it will vary. It won't be a straight bell to bell. Everybody doing it the same because they pointed out there's a number of districts that currently already have these things, and they're working, and they were tied deeply with their bargaining positions, their community groups, their students, or even about these things. So there is out and there is thought being put to it, but they are working on it. So that was my my big items and we'll be getting an update from this. But in Westport after tomorrow when they're actually going up there and meeting with all the groups. Um, I just wanted to highlight one other item I just saw. We had a graduating class from the New York State Police and two booster brothers they highlighted as being
091members of this new class. I'll have to uniform the names, and I'm assuming they're brothers because they both have the same last name. So I want to clarify that I'll let you know. But it was just good to see that. And we have students that are excelling and doing things besides going to college. These students went out and they're serving the state. They're in the police department. So I just wanted to highlight that I think. Okay, great. Thank you. Yeah, just one more thing for sure. Public libraries. Still looking for a new trustee? Uh, go to the Brewster Public Library website and fill out a application, please. All right. Thank you ma'am. So as many of us, we know that the, um, Southeast Recreation Department is going through a transition period. There's, um, new leadership
092that has taken over. Uh. So. And there's a transition from, uh, competitive youth sports from recreation to a new, um, resource, southeast Youth youth Sports, which is a group of, uh, community members, uh, that has a partnering with our town supervisor and recreation department to transition these, um, sports into the new organization. So, um, there is a transition, the transition period. I know there has been some communication from our town supervisor that this is happening. And, um, I believe that there will be communication soon for the public. And while it's not a school district, um, department, these are feeder programs that do feed into our. And will be our future athletes. Making progress to pay attention to. Is that that's football. And. Is it any other sports right now. So confused right now okay. So
093now. Got it. Okay. All right. Anything else. So is it a couple is um one. Yeah. The week and I thought is could have been I guess in an email. But um, it's more really just for us. For our information, uh, Dan and I had attended absolutely. The regional official meeting with commissioner, and, uh, there was communication from. Boces, uh regionalization convening meetings. Uh, February 27th and March 12th at. Absolutely since I was in. So, um, I don't know if any of us are interested in going down and I went to the first meeting. I wouldn't mind attending. Did you sign up already? Okay. So. The reason for the asylum seekers to take to the beaches, and I would have to send them, or I can just gather what information they have that. Okay. Great.
094Thank you. Anything else? All right. Um. All right. I would just, um, let you guys know that on the 14th. February 14th, I'm going to be attending a zoom, um, roundtable with Doctor Ghosh and, um, um, Pete Harckham and others from other superintendents and um, boards. It's part of Westchester, um, West pets like advocacy efforts. So, um, if there's anything that you. One in particular raised, you know, let me know. It's on February 14th. Um, otherwise typically Doctor Ghosh and I'll talk beforehand and. You know, these are usually, um, very consistent, um, topics that are raised. Um, that's on February 14th. Okay. Anyone else on committee updates or anything like that? Related to that, depending on how the meetings go this week. Uh, I'm assuming busses, you know, uh, would be something that a lot
095of school districts might bring up with him. Um, but that would definitely be something that, you know, I think would be important, um, for that. Okay. Um, had mentioned, um. This is disgusting. Why don't you just cancel the whole thing? The feeling from Albany is they don't want to cancel. Maybe that puts it off of changes. Or maybe that's what they are actively or anybody across the board. This is a great. Okay. Um, so upcoming meetings, our next, um, regularly scheduled meeting is the 25th of February. Um, and as usual, any remarks that anyone would want to make to the superintendent and the board. You can do so by email, which is BOE at Brewster schools.org. Um, so at this point I just need a motion to adjourn the meeting. A Scott and a second.
096Jamie. All those in favor? Motion passes six zero. Thank you. Everyone. Have a good evening.