0012026 meeting of the Carl Place Board of Education. Oh, that's really, which was-- Sorry, I didn't realize that one of our trustees was not here. Oh, all right. Uh, yeah. Oh, yes, you did. No worries. No worries. I'd like to call to order the February twelfth meeting of the Carl Place Board of Education. Please rise for the pledge allegiance. I pledge allegiance, to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please remain, uh, standing. Heavenly Father, we invoke Thy blessing on all in attendance here and on those we serve. Help us to bring wisdom and humanity to our deliberations and Thy spirit to our work. You all may be seated. Good evening, everyone. I'm hoping that
002everyone's starting to join us. It looks like, uh, Marty Blask is leaving us. I'd like to congratulate the varsity girls volleyball team, third place at the Nassau County Champs. I'm sorry, the bowling. The bowling team. Let me rephrase. I'd like to congratulate the Nassau County Varsity third place, girls' Carl Place bowling team. Congratulations. I'd also like to congratulate Abby Thyler. She placed third for the state qualifiers. Good luck for the New York State Gymnastics Competition week. I'd also like to congratulate Brian Leary for the last game of scoring forty-seven shots in one game. He broke the record for Carl Place High School. I'd like to also congratulate the inductees of the National Honor Society last night. It was a nice ceremony to see all our future honorary academic scholars, as well as leaders for our
003future. And lastly, if you celebrate great Chinese New Years, Gong Xi Fa Cai. I'll now pass it on to Vice President, Griffin. Uh, good evening, everyone, and thank you for coming to tonight's meeting. I hope everyone has a happy Valentine's Day on Saturday and enjoys the winter reset-- recess that begins on Monday, which is February sixteenth. Um, I'd also want to congratulate all our students who were inducted into the National Honor Society last night. Um, keep up the good work. Um, congratulations to our mock trial team on their win in the Nueva Court House against strong competition. Thank you to their advisor, Lanny Fraser, for her dedication and support. Um, I want to congratulate Nora. I'm, I'm sorry if I mispronounce her last name, Goldraab? Goldraab. Goldraab, great, for being recognized by, um, Lisa. Good
004luck in your future endeavors. Um, congratulations to our Robotics first FTC team on historic performance at the Long Island Qualifier at Locust Valley High School. The team impressed judges, passed inspection, and comp- competed well against top teams from across Long Island. Thank you to Mrs. Barry, Director of STEM, along with Julie Tusset and Tim Johnson, for their dedication in coaching and launching this team. I also want to thank everyone who's committed to helping Parent University to become a meaningful success. Um, I attended one of the sessions, and it was very informative. Um, and I want to congratulate our boys' varsity basketball coach, John Cantwell, on achieving his two hundredth career win. Thank you for your dedication, John, your leadership, and lasting impact on all our student athletes and basketball program. I'm gonna pass it on
005to Mr. Zink. Okay, not to be repetitive, but, uh, congratulate Ryan Leary again. He broke a record that lasted, uh, since nineteen eighty-nine. Oh, gee, is that right? And I'd like to congratulate John Cantwell, who I have known and loved for years. Uh, he earned his twentieth career, uh, win. So congratulations to Mr. Cantwell, Coach, Coach Cantwell. I'd like to also mention, uh, congratulations to the, uh, our, our business office, because you had six months of claims with no exceptions found. So Miss Demartino's office put through ten million, one hundred and seventy-three thousand, sixty-four dollars and ninety-seven cents worth of claims, and no exceptions were found. So tell everybody in here to say thank you very much. I'll pass it on to Mr. Dunphy. Uh, good evening, everybody. Um, so, um, I've got a few,
006few items here. Uh, attended the Parent University. It was a great-- It was my second, my sophomore year at the Parent University. Um, really great job, uh, done by the, uh, I sat in on the work-based learning, um-... break out the AI, which is always a powerful, right? Always kind of, I think, raises some eyebrows and a lot to be learned in that area, right, for, for all of us. Um, but all the presenters, just all I heard, uh, that evening and, and the days after were that, uh, the presenters in general just did such a great job. Um, robotics, I know, um, Vice President Riordan mentioned, um, but I'll just reiterate, it's a great experience seeing our robotics team. Nice to see our black and green shirts. And, um, you know, worth mentioning, too,
007and, and possibly a huge thank you to Tim Johnson, really, to Dr. Barry, uh, who were there from sun up to sun down and guiding our students, you know, the whole way. Um, interacted with some parents, too, that were very enthusiastic about this. Uh, but one thing I wanted to stress, too, that I noticed when we were-- there was group shots being taken at the end, is that we had a-- I think we had seven or eight, um, girls on the robotics team, which is actually, um, a rarity, and it's a really, really positive, good thing to see. So, uh, I wanted to highlight that because it's a great-- I don't know if, uh, it hasn't already been, but it might be. Um, there's a great shot of just the girls on the team. Um,
008and I just thought I'd highlight that, because that is something in the, in the CTE realm, that's something we, like, seek out or looking for. Like, we, we can't get enough, um, uh, of, you know, girls in the, in the, in the trades and in general, and so that was a great, a great thing to see. So I thought I'd spotlight that. Uh, but it was great to be at Locust Valley with, with, uh, with our, our young, uh, robotics team, and they did a great job. They represented this district well and our community well, um, and we're certainly excited about the future. Um, wanted to give a shout-out to... I went to the county finals for swim over at Eisenhower Park, the Aquatic Center. Uh, we had, um, a nice showing there. Um, got
009to see, uh, Anthony Malfitano on the board, did a great job. Joseph Schmidt, my nephew, happened to be my nephew. I was, uh, I, I try to get there sometimes on my own, so I was joking with him. I said, I-- you know, I said, "Okay, I, I swam a thousand yards." I said, "I feel pretty good myself." And he right away was like, "Well, I swam two thousand." I said, "All right, man." Like, you know, hey, you know. Um, and then just a shout-out, uh, Key Club, uh, noticed on one of our Instagram pages. This- this is such a great relationship. It's a great partnership of pre-K kids, heavily connecting, uh, what happens there and really bringing them into the, into the district, right? Our, our tadpoles. So, uh, that's it for me. Thank
010you. Good evening, everyone. I'm reading from my phone because my printer did not work tonight, so I apologize. So good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us tonight. I would like to take a moment to recognize and thank our incredible custodian and groundstaff. They work tires- tirelessly to help keep our buildings clean and our roads clear. With the recent cold and ice weather, icy weather, their efforts have helped ensure our students, staff, and community members remain safe, which is really, guys, handle things. I would also like to congratulate Ryan Leery on his outstanding achievement, scoring forty-seven points against MacArthur High School and setting a new Park Place single-record game, um, score record. Uh, Ryan continues to raise the bar and is certainly making his mark before graduation. Uh, congratulations as well to Coach Cantwell
011on earning his two hundredth career, uh, coaching win. What an incredible milestone! Um, last Friday, I attended, uh, the Cherry Lane PTA hosted a Valentine dance. It was wonderful. Each grade had an opportunity to spend time celebrating with their special someone at the Sheila, Sheila Park Room. Uh, tomorrow evening, Rushmore will continue the festivities by hosting a karaoke night. Um, tomorrow is also P.S. I Love You Day, and students across the three buildings will be wearing purple in recognition of this meaningful day. P.S. I Love-- P.S. I Love You Day is a global movement dedicated to combating mental health stigma, bullying, and depression by spreading love, kindness, and hope. It serves as, it serves as a reminder that we can all create a community where everyone feels valued and never alone. I would like to
012publicly share that if anyone ever needs a laugh, a listening ear, or simple-- or simply someone to talk to, my door is always open. Just give me a call or email. Um, have a good night and have a wonderful break. Um, you all deserve it, especially the teachers and staff. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Midterms have finally concluded, and we are now officially in the second semester. On January nineteenth, the Park Place School District hosted Parent University. Many students in grades nine to eleven attended to help guide parents through the school. Members of our Frog Products Club shared information about this program with parents and community members, and our music students welcomed families, welcomed families with wonderful per- wonderful performances. Last Friday, the Park Place Student Organization hosted its annual Jamie Gym Event. Students and
013community members gathered to watch the Frogs take on West Chester Rams. It was an exciting event featuring a hot shot competition, free T-shirt tosses, and a ten thousand dollar half-court shot. The National Honor Society induction ceremony was held on Wednesday. Congratulations to all the students who were inducted. The Sad Club will be hosting P.S. I Love You Day tomorrow, February thirteenth. We encourage all students and staff to wear purple to promote mental health awareness. I hope everyone has a great break. Thank you. We will now hear comments from Dr. Kinobe. Thank you, Madam President. Um, I think I'm going to repeat several of the things, but they, they bear repeating. I want to start off by saying, um, congratulations to our mock trial team. Mr. Foraker and I were there with them on Monday night.
014It seems like a hundred years ago now. To, to see the precision of their arguments and the clarity with which they presented them, um, was really, really impressive. These are students who are operating with an actual judge in a real courtroom, and the case is drawn from an actual case that was tried.... They really, really were super well prepared and very confident. And I think any parent or any teacher or any member of our community would be proud to see them there. And then you see them the next day in school, and they're sort of back to their regular teenager selves again. Um, and I wanna say thank you to Ms. Goodman, Margaret Goodman, part of our council for Curry University, and Eric Levine, for supporting them, also for Ms. Fraser for supporting them as
015well. It was really good to see. Um, as Trustee Victoria said, tomorrow is PS I Love You Day. If you notice around the building here, there are purple, um, hearts with inspirational messages on them. Life can be really difficult sometimes, and we all go through those periods, and it's really nice to see our students recognize that needing support is normal, asking for support is healthy, and giving support is part of compassion and passion here in Carl Place. That's a really good thing to see. Um, both our girls and boys varsity teams, basketball teams, had their senior days last weekend. I got to see both of them. I came where Ryan broke the record. It was really, really exciting. Coach Cantwell, as we know, joined the two hundred win club. So Rick Pitino, John Wooden, John
016Cantwell, why not? Um, they go again, and I wanna say something else that's really, really important. Spectator behavior is such a sensitive topic right now around Long Island. Spectator behavior is so poor in so many places. We have had very good spectator behavior of late. That's because of the work that Mr. Block and Mr. Forager do. It's because of the work that our supervisors do during the games, the coaches expect that, and because our kids rise to the occasion. So I wanna say, if you've been a spectator at games lately, keep doing what you're doing because it meets the expectations that Carl Place sets. It's, it's a good thing, and it's something for us to be proud of. Um, the National Honor Society induction was really wonderful last night. It's a privilege to be there
017when those students take that next step in their lives and commit to hard work. And, um, I'll say, too, as far as Parent University goes, it could not have happened without the support of the district, without the support of my planning team, which includes Ms. Shaw. Ms. Ripperidge was not only a planner but a presenter, and, um, Jake Gilio was one of our co-presenters. You guys did an outstanding job, as did the rest of our group. It was a really good night. We'll do it again next year, and, uh, on we go. I hope everyone has a safe and healthy and peaceful break. Thank you, Dr. Sidoni. I would like to also welcome the new ABA aide for Cherry Lane, Stephanie Margarelis. Please stand and welcome. Thank you. We will now continue with our meeting.
018The public discript-- disclaimer will be read by Vice President Reardon. Hmm. Okay. The Board of Education allows time at the conclusion of its regular meetings for comments from residents in attendance. Please note that any person wishing to speak during this time shall comply with all provisions of board policy. Although a total of thirty minutes is allowed for comments, the board president has discretion to adjust the total time. We remind you to keep your comments to three minutes and to conduct yourself in a respectful manner. Please address school matters only and refrain from addressing topics related to personnel matters or individual students. Such concerns should be discussed privately with the superintendent or administrator at an appropriate time. The board is here to listen and cannot provide immediate feedback or engage in open dialogue. Any necessary follow-up
019will be and provided at a later date. Thank you. If there are any comments from the public on agenda items only, please come to the podium and state your name and address. We will now continue our business meeting with a presentation regarding our initial budget. All right. Thank you, everyone, for being here tonight. Um, this is the official kickoff for our budget season, although for myself and many others, it never ends. Um, this is our initial budget presentation, and to just give an overview of where we're at now, excuse me, in the budget development process. So the quote I chose as inspiration for tonight and the next several months is, "Assumptions are the termites of relationships," said by Henry Winkler. Uh, this quote is, uh, applicable across all aspects of life, both small scale and
020large scale. We all make assumptions, sometimes we don't even know we're doing it. Um, one example that we sometimes make as district leaders is that we assume people know something, and therefore, we don't communicate it out in the way that we should. And I'm pretty sure many people in this room have felt that way at one point or another. Um, and when that happens, it does eat away at the relationship because it's easy to assume that it was done intentionally....As it relates to our budget process, I think it's important to set the stage, uh, with a reminder that at the end of the day, we're all here for the same reason. We may not like the decisions that are made, we may disagree on points, um, but we're here to ensure a positive experience for
021all of our students while they're here and when they graduate. So I think that'll help us prevent us from making assumptions and have more productive conversations. Uh, so tonight we're gonna do our twenty-five, twenty-six investment recap. We're gonna talk about factors affecting the budget, review our initial numbers, uh, and as a change to the structure of the overview this year, we decided to present the significant items under consideration to the community early, so people have time to consider them and no one feels like they're hearing about something for the first time at the end of March. So starting with our investment recap, we replaced all of our network switches district-wide. Uh, we used E-Rate grant funding to offset all or part of that cost, and thankfully, since the replacement, we have had no network outages
022this year. Compared to last year, we had multiple, uh, due to the aging equipment. On the facility side, we repaved, uh, the middle school driveway. We recarpeted the main office of the high school, and we made improvements to the boys bathroom at Cherry Lane, which happens to be my favorite. Uh, as you all know, our work-based learning coordinator started this year, and the "How will we know?" box is taken directly from last year's budget presentation. So in this case, a lot of the metrics that we outlined, uh, do require a full year or more to track and see trends. Uh, but we have been tracking participation, uh, on an ongoing basis, and so as of this month, um, we have over twenty students registered for at least one workshop on topics including career readiness, resume
023building, um, interview prep. We have fourteen students enrolled or in the process of enrolling in an internship or job shadow, and five, uh, participating business partners. Another initiative for twenty-five, twenty-six was instructional coaches. Again, the box on the left is from last year's presentation. We said we wanted to see an increase in the sophistication of coaching requests, which you can see an example of, uh, on the top right, and we wanted to see improved student achievement. So we have some data from both, uh, Cherry Lane and Amersham over here. Um, starting with some kindergarten data, a classroom assessment, uh, the pre-test and the post-test, that's both before and after the coaching cycle. You can see the improvement in students that were able to identify characters before and after the coaching cycle. On the bottom is
024i-Ready data from, uh, a grade one class from fall to winter, where fall is the bottom, and as you move to winter, you see the green bar growing and the yellow bar shrinking. That's what we want to see, showing improvement. And lastly, uh, fourth grade data on the classroom assessment. So pre and post for each of the four categories, you can see the emerging went from having six students to no students, the developing decreased, and both the meeting and exceeding increased significantly. And it's worth noting that this was a mini cycle, so this growth is within, like, a one-month time period. And also, if you're doing the math on the pre and post, uh, there's one less student in the post because they were absent, and this data is from two days ago, so we
025haven't taken them into... All right, so now we're gonna start looking forward, what's affecting the twenty-six, twenty-seven budget. The market outlook and market uncertainty. Dr. Tony, myself, our business administrator, Mr. Thaler, have been to several industry presentations this year about the state of the economy and changes to regulations and compliance. Um, ultimately, the reported economic outlook for K-twelve schools is negative. Uh, the main contributing factor there is the trend of expenditure growth outpacing revenue. For Long Island as a whole, uh, business leaders have a more positive outlook, but not as positive as they did last year at this time. Um, and school districts in Nassau County, uh, we've seen expenditure growth outpace revenues for three of the last five years, so a challenge to everyone's budget. Changes in state aid. This year is actually a
026mixed bag, it's both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is a result of a change in the minimum foundation aid increase that a district can receive, um, in the governor's proposal. The minimum increase for twenty-six, twenty-seven is one percent. Last year it was two percent, so it's less aid for us. On the other hand, the governor's budget included a substantial increase for paid funding from fifty-four hundred a student to ten thousand a student. Uh, and while the cost will undoubtedly increase, uh, at least for the twenty-six, twenty-seven school year, that increase would afford us the ability to run the program completely funded through a grant, no need to transfer funds from the general fund. Of course, it's uncertain if these will, um, go through with the legislator, legislator budget, um, but all the advocates
027out there seem to think the pay is, is definitely gonna happen. And of course, our educational vision always guides everything we do. Our estimated revenue, uh, remains consistent and almost identical to the prior year as far as the breakdown. Our largest source, we all know, is the investment from the community in the form of property taxes, and the remaining revenue coming from state and federal aid, pilot payments, um, use of district reserves, that's not capital reserves, that's our other reserves, usually our retirement reserve, uh, and just over two percent coming from our other revenue, interest on investments, facilities use, things like that. ... Uh, right now, preliminary numbers, our estimated allowable tax cap is forty-eight million, eight hundred and ninety-three thousand, five hundred and seventy-five dollars. Um, it's a two point three two percent increase
028over the prior year levy. We do still have some final inputs that need to be incorporated, so that number might change, um, a little bit. And just a reminder of the formula there, the-- there's one of those inputs is where that two percent, uh, cap comes in, and everything else influences whether you end up above or below the two percent for your actual allowable levy. Uh, a total proposed expenditures as of right now are sixty million, two hundred and thirty-one thousand, two hundred and thirty-two dollars. Uh, it's a little over one point five million dollar increase from the prior year, it's a two point six three budget to budget increase. And I just wanna point out, um, now that this increase is right around inflation, which is about two point seven. Um, and I draw
029your attention to that because for the past few years now, we've been able to keep our budget to budget growth lower than inflation. Um, but as time goes on, that becomes harder to sustain, so we would expect to see budget to budget increases at or around inflation. So what's driving that increase? Um, our mandatory costs, which is our district insurance policies, our legal fees, transportation, audit services, utilities, our contractual increases based on employee contracts, um, materials and supplies for our programs, textbooks, field trip transportation, um, and our equipment, which is any individual item per our board policy that is over a thousand dollars. And as we go through the rest of the budget presentation, you will see in greater detail what make up these increases. Um, this is just an overview tonight, but I will
030say our mandatory costs increase is so much smaller, uh, this year compared to last year, because we're starting to see those efficiencies that we found in facilities, and we've been able to reduce several budget lines and keep many others flat. So shout out to Mr. Mandracchia for that. Thank you. Uh, and another savings there related to that decrease in the required transfer to UVA because of the increase in savings. All right, so this is the new stuff. These are some of the proposed initiatives... for twenty-six, twenty-seven. Most, but not all, are incorporated in the numbers that you're seeing tonight. Um, we-- again, we are still in the process of doing our due diligence on these items, but we wanna put it out there as early as we can. So Bloomberg is something we talked about
031last year, we ended up deferring it. Um, our goal with Bloomberg is to ensure that all high school students gain authentic, future-driven fluency in financial, uh, and business literacy. And our why for that is that our student interest in finance continues after graduation. Out of a hundred and fifty-six graduates reporting data over the last three years, thirty-eight percent of them went on to major in business or economics, and of those students, eighty-eight percent of them attended a college that also utilizes Bloomberg terminals in their program. And for graduates across all majors, um, fifty-eight percent attended schools that utilize Bloomberg terminals, which has applications across multiple industries, so it's wonderful to have. Um, also looking at, um, potentially some new club offerings, creating a middle school musical review to support theater interest in the transition from
032Rushmore to the middle school, um, and strengthening the pipeline for our high school theater program. Um, maybe expanding the scope of our existing scenery advisor to offer our non-athletes a place to go between, um, school and play rehearsals that gives them technical hands-on experience. We wanna revive, revive, excuse me, the leadership club to develop, uh, student leaders that will be trained to run and sustain our leader initiatives at the middle school. And our why here is that despite seventy-five students participating in the Rushmore Musical, only fourteen of them auditioned for the middle school musical. So the middle school musical review is less intense, less cumbersome than running a full musical, which had success when that was in the fall, but presented tremendous scheduling conflicts. So this is a compromise between a full-fledged fall musical and
033nothing to keep the interest going. Um, and of course, the skills and experiences the students will have in the leadership club also fosters our Core Place POG characteristics outside of the classroom. Okay, CP professionalism and pride. Um, this initiative, as I just pointed out on the last slide, they're not monetarily significant to our overall budget. We're talking about them because they're new and people should know about it. So, um, we want to build upon our existing CP pride to elevate student confidence and strengthen our ability to attract and retain quality employees. We have no shortage of pride for our athletic teams, and their success is undeniable. So like the uniforms that our athletes wear, that give them the feeling of pride, we have started to incorporate standard concert attire for our music groups who also
034have great success. Um, and applying that same concept to our recruiting and HR materials will help elevate the perception of our district and hopefully translate into an increase in both the number and quality of job applicants. Student-centered mental health and wellness support. We'd like to, uh, expand and support existing mental health and wellness services that integrate with other student support initiatives, such as MTSS, to help our students reach their greatest potential.... why mental health struggles are the primary, um, driver of school absences. In our most recent marking period, a hundred and eighty-three of our students have missed more than five days of school. And while a portion of those absences are excused and unrelated to mental health, um, being able to integrate that attendance data with our MTSS and provide some additional support services will
035help us address those underlying issues, um, of chronic absenteeism. So we're going to the end. We have our summary slide and then a few housekeeping slides. Um, again, right now, our proposed expenditure is sixty million, two hundred and thirty-one thousand, two hundred and thirty-two dollars, balanced by our forty-eight point eight million dollar property tax revenue, ten million dollars in non-tax revenue, and nine hundred and sixty-five thousand, um, appropriated from our reserves. We want feedback, so there are plenty of ways to provide that feedback. Um, new this year is, is our budget thought exchange. That is a QR code. We'll put it on our website and circulate it, um, you know, as best as we can. Uh, we've done thought exchange with the community, so a lot of you are familiar. Um, it's gonna be open
036to students, staff, and community members. Uh, and so just in case you don't know, when you identify your role within the district, student, parent, whatever, community member, um, that will determine the thoughts that you can see and rate. Uh, the primary reason being, we want our students to see other student thoughts. So in addition to our thought exchange, uh, you can email budget two six two seven, you can call the business office, and of course, you can come to a board meeting. But please, however you do it, feedback. Um, these are the additional board meetings where we're having budget-related conversations. Um, our next presentation, February twenty-sixth, is our facilities, BOCES, transportation, benefits, and debt service. And of course, all our budget-related documents will be posted to our website, and we'll see you at our next
037meeting. Thank you. Okay, we will now continue with the business meeting. May I have a motion to approve the minutes of the Board of Education business meeting on January twenty-second, two thousand and twenty-seven? I'll make the motion. May I have a second? I'll second. All in favor? Aye. The minutes of January twenty-second, two thousand and twenty-six are approved. May I have a motion to consent-- to, to amend the consent agenda to remove five point four? I make a motion to consent. All in favor? Aye. We now have removed the consent. Make a motion. Now, may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda, um- As amended. I'll make it. I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Now, may I have a motion to amend-- to approve the, the item five point four? I'll make it.
038I'll second. All in favor? Aye. We now have approved the agenda item five point four. Now, for approval of the consent agenda. And just note, Kathy, you were saying it right. I understand. Yeah. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Nope. Sorry, we did that. Any questions or comments from the public not regarding the agenda? Please come to the podium, state your name and address. Um, Elise Meyer from Peacock Road, Westerly, New York. Um, questions, comments here. Um, early on, you said that we, we happily paid ten million in claims. Um, what does that mean? Those are the amount of, uh, uh, bills which come into the school district. They're, they're bills. It's not- In effect, it's an account, accounts payable. Okay. It's not like claims from lawsuits or- No, no, no.
039Um, on, on budget, um, let me change the order of this. I'm going to want to know what is the current enrollment? Elise? Yes. Um, we are asking that people ask all of their questions in their three minutes, and then we'll-- we're writing them down, and then we'll respond. Okay, I have all my questions. Um, I'm asking that in future, for something like these investment decafs, that... Is this all of our-- all of the spending on, on investments? I thought there was much more. And perhaps when you do this, could you put down what we paid for these, these items? Um, the, um-... The Bloomberg terminal, that came up not last year, but some years ago. At the time, it was about, I don't know, sixty-five, eighty-five thousand dollars. And I asked things like: What
040grade will people have this in? And will they have had-- Do you require prerequisites, like statistics, or what kind of math do you require in order to be taking this? So my question would be: Now that you want to do this, we're trying this again, what does it cost? And, um, what will the prerequisites be in order to take this? Um, just let me see. I have, um... I want to know what POG is, what MTSS is. Um, when I'm estimating the total cost per student, I think I've been using the tax levy, but we have this number, the sixty million dollar number, so that means, I'm guessing it means that, um, about ten, twelve million dollars comes from something that's not in the levy, but that is expenses, so that question, that would in
041fact be part of the per student cost. Yes, Mel? Are you asking how do we calculate the per student cost? Oh, I'm telling you how I calculate it. Oh, I understand. Thank you. Thank you. Because you don't like my calculation. Um, my calculation is the total expenditure divided by the enrollment, really- Mm-hmm ... cut right to the basics. Um, well, and, um, oh, on this- Louise? Yes, just one quick- Louise? Yeah. We're going to answer your questions now, and then, um, we're gonna ask you to be seated. Okay, but just this tax levy, could we have this, that you showed us, these calculations, could we see the real numbers at some point? We'll get back to the questions. All right. So, um, our current enrollment is, uh, thirteen hundred and six students. Thirteen and six,
042hmm. I'm gonna answer your questions a little bit out of order. Um, yes, the expense number is the number to use when you're doing that. The revenue side, as we saw, it's made up of the tax levy mostly, but then we have, um, our own, uh, other earnings, we have state aid, and we have, um, our reserve funds. So altogether, they match the expenditures, but, um, that's the number to use, that total sixty million. Um, on our investment recap, and I'm sure, uh, Dr. Carmona might want to speak further about it. We will talk about Bluebird, uh, in greater detail in a future presentation, uh, but we do have a very well thought out plan for the rollout. And I did mean to mention, um, that we all, uh, a bunch of administrators and, uh,
043faculty members, we have taken a trip to Bluebird headquarters. We've spoken to Chaminade and Garden City, who also use the program. They've made that investment already. Comack as well. Yeah, to see how, uh, they've done it and how it's, um, working in their schools. Uh, the tax cap calculation, uh, is posted on the website up here with all of the inputs available. Um, as soon as those are finalized, which should be very soon, it will go on the website, and, uh, it's free for everyone to see anytime. POG. Sure. POG stands for Portrait of a Graduate. We did our Portrait of a Graduate committee last year in a presentation back in June of twenty five, that is on the website. The State of New York has come out with its own Portrait of a Graduate,
044and it's something that it asks schools to live by, and part of the way you can live by it is for your district to create its own Portrait of a Graduate. And those are the characteristics that we want students to fully embody by the time they graduate at the end of twelfth grade. So that's what Portrait of a Graduate looks like, and like I said, the presentation for that is on the website. MTSS stands for Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support refers to the increasingly intense ways that you provide academic and social, emotional support to students as they, as they need it. And MTSS, or the MTSS plan, is also a state requirement. I think we got them all? Well, the, the full, the real full budget be presented at these meetings-
045Yes, of course ... for each? Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments from the public not regarding the agenda? Please come to the podium and state your name and hometown. Hello, good evening. Uh, sorry, I arrived a little late. I was doing an event. Uh, Charlie, I have questions regarding the... I can ask now because it was- Yep. Earlier. Okay, I'm sorry. Um- ... uh, these items, the third amendment agreement or five point eight, five point nine, the professional negotiation agreements between food service aides and the, um, business. Can those items be, um, foiled? Is that information I can email? Okay. Thank you. Um, so to start off, my next question is permanent subs in Carl Place, do they receive benefits, and are they part of the Carl Place Teachers Association? Permanent subs,
046not the replacements. Um, I saw that there was an, uh, um, an increase in, in van support. So, um, it says for our student at the cost of like twenty-four, twenty-three thousand, thirty, well, thirty thousand. So is, am I to assume that is a new student that needs additional- like, we couldn't put them on a regular car, the buses that we have? Yeah, question. Is that a question about transportation? Yes, it's, uh, it's actually number five eleven. Okay. The additional two-hour van transportation needs for our students. So at the cost of thirty-two thousand seven six, six seventy-nine, uh, for the remainder of the year, is that just because... Is, is it, I'm just, is it a new student who transferred to the district, or is it, uh, we need different buses, or why wasn't that
047included in regular transportation? And, um, I guess the question re- but for, uh, budget, the budgeting, are principals and building, um, department heads still bringing their needs and wants to the table, and like, is their budget still being flushed out, or is-- I know presentations are forthcoming. However, I know the principals decide that we, we, we want to ask for this and that. The only reason I'm asking is because, um, I know when the, the budget comes for technology and those kinds of things, I know technology budget is always very heavy, um, because of online learning platforms and because of cybersecurity. But my ask, and little kids, when I went in for a secret reader, teachers, principals, and students are asking for books in the classroom. They would like lending libraries. They would like to
048portable books. I know the teacher was very grateful that I left a small pile of books on her desk for the students to enjoy. So I'm asking, I know technology is wonderful, however, kids like to hold books. So if somebody can find it in some budget somewhere, um, books. Thank you. Thank you. So I believe that those items, five point eight and five point nine, are foilable. Okay. When the benefits for permanent subs- Yes. In the management? Yes, that would be managed to be done. Sure. Um, perm subs do not receive benefits. They are not part of the teachers union. Mm-hmm. Uh, relating to the transportation matter, um, that is a student who is out of district, we are required to provide that transportation. Okay. And what was the- The, the other question was, have
049principals and directors and other administrators been bringing their needs and wants to this- Yeah, like, is it still, like, is it an ongoing process until, like, a certain date? It's a process. Exactly. It is an ongoing process until a certain date. We have been hosting those meetings, and- And you've told them to ask for, ask for what you need? Always. Okay. We always do. Okay. And books are important. I know, I know the little ones, they, they, they, they want books. Yes. And I, I did go into a classroom, and the library was a little sad. Okay. And so- Thanks. We all like books. Me too. I know, and I... Technology, I know those s- online subscriptions renew, need to be renewed every year. Books last for a few years. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Are there
050any other questions or comments from the public not regarding the agenda? Please come to the podium and state your name and address. ... Gina George, one fifty-six Hill Street. Um, I just wanted to, uh, reiterate things that I said in the past as far as we mentioned the whole work-based study, and I know obviously during the budget, we're going to start figuring out our teachers. Um, I still hope we're considering hiring somebody within, because after seeing the course catalog, we're not offering enough business courses. You said there's a high percentage, I don't remember the number, like thirty, and we have four electives that end up running. And it's been an issue for years, and we need to fix it, and if that's having somebody, like I had mentioned, in-house, that we hire, that does our
051work-based learning and opens up these courses that these kids have been wanting to take, and we haven't opened it, I think that would be beneficial to many students. So I'm mentioning it now, so it's not the answer, "This is too late in the budget," that we will not discuss it. And the other thing that I will continue to say, for those of you that might not be aware, years ago, we had ICT in second grade, that is the inclusion program. It was in, put in for two years, and then it was taken away. It should be there. We are hurting kids by not having it, and I've talked to other parents that feel the same way, and I hope they speak up. I don't have anybody in Cherry Lane. We need ICT in second grade,
052and if we need to figure out other things, we're doing all these s- special teachers that, you know, we have the, what I can't think of the word now. Instructional. Thank you. Instructional teachers, and we should be having these ICT for the up, uh, for everybody else that-- We should have. I don't know why we don't have it. I mean, I have my feelings of why we don't, but it needs to be looked at, and stop just crushing it under and saying, "We don't have the money, or we don't have it in the budget." And that's why I'm saying it now. Um, I know Joanne mentioned something about, like, the scores, uh, in the comparison chart. Those are charts that should be there with a regular teacher in the classroom. We shouldn't have to have-...
053that, so we could see the numbers go up. What's the point of a, a mainstream teacher? So I, to me, that, that doesn't show anything. That just shows we weren't doing our job before, possibly, if we're promoting this. Because I don't think that's the case, but I want to see the results from last year and then compare it, if you're saying it's that, uh, drastic and that it's such a need. So I think a lot of-- and I know it's a long process, but if I don't mention it now, then I get the, "We don't have money in the budget." So thank you for listening. Thank you. Ms. Meyer, please these things in the agenda went by so fast. Uh, quick question on, it says here, "Professional negotiations, agreement to Harplands Clean Service with Cafeteria
054Aides and Recess Aides Association." I was under the impression that the cafeteria was a separate entity, and in recent years we've been spending, throwing in an extra fifty thousand or something every year. Um, at some point in this budget, I would like some sort of explanation of whether we're paying for the cafeteria or we're not paying for the cafeteria, and what the responsibilities are toward it, so that it actually gets shown. Um, and, uh, those books that you were talking about, were you talking about for small children, or who were you talking? Books in the classroom for children to read in. Yes. I was under the impression many years ago, we had the audiovisual library for very small children, that we spent a lot of money on, that they get to go to for twenty
055minutes once a week. Um, I would hope that there are still books available, but I would like to point out that during my time in this district, we now are part of the Westbury Library System, and are paying taxes for that, and it is quite a nice library. And perhaps when the children go to the libraries here, the te- the librarians would point out that availability to them also. Thank you. Uh, you can make a point about the cafeteria to help clarify? Uh, yeah, just, just for clarification, so the school lunch fund is separate from the general fund, so it's a self-sustaining program, uh, as much as it can be, so not part of the general fund budget. There were several years, um, in and around COVID, before COVID, where the lunch fund was operating
056at a deficit. It's a requirement, it's a law, that if you are running a negative fund balance in your school lunch fund, you have to make it whole from the general fund. So we had been having to do that, but in the past several years, we've been running a profit. So much so that I ended up with an audit finding for having too much fund balance in the school lunch fund. Um, and, uh, we are hopefully gonna be able to make some improvements to the cafeteria using that fund balance, so it will be completely, uh, separate from the general budget. It couldn't pay us back. Are there any other questions or comments from the public regarding the agenda? I am now going to close the public session. Can I have a motion to close the
057public session? So moved. Second? Second. All in favor? We are adjourned. Adjourned.