001Excellent. Yeah. Good evening. It is Thursday, April 10th. We're getting ready for spring break next week. Um, can someone please make a motion? Uh, I'll make a motion to return from uh executive session. Seconded by Lorraine. All those in favor 5. Uh before we start, can we rise for the pledge of allegiance, please? I alian 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. Great. Welcome, Ian. Happy to see you. We um have a sort of a short agenda tonight, but looking forward to uh one important thing is that we're going to uh talk about the third proposition on the um uh on the ballot for the May vote. And we just want to make sure
002that we get that really nice and clear. So, we're going to talk about that. Um, and we are going to begin, I believe, with your report, Ian. Um, but, uh, yeah, you're up. Bless you. So, April is a pretty blessing. Sorry. All good. April's Thanks. So, April's a pretty busy month, so I'll skip the preamble for now. Um, the elementary schools have their state testing for English on the 8th through the 9th. Their math tests are the 29th through the 30th. Oh, and the fifth graders take their science test on May 8th. Middle schoolers have their computer-based testing for English on the 23rd to the 24th. And then their math is on the 6th and 7th of May with science for just the eighth graders on the 14th. March 7th, Meadow Pond had their fifth
003grade PTO painting night. They had their park literacy hike on March 10th where students went outside on a nature bulk and they'd see um letters relating to books that they'd read before. Um May 1st will be their salad planting day leading to their actual salad day um 2 weeks after. And then May 9th through 10th will be the production of the PTO's fifth grade play at Increas Miller. They had St. Patrick's Day um Celtic culture celebration thanks to Andrew O'Donnell and Peter Butler coming in and talking to students about Celtic culture and playing the bagpipe for them. March 19th they had their PTS spelling bee and on May 1st they will be the fifth grade parent orientation. Tona Elementary School had their KS star story night. So students came, they read and they read under
004the stars with decorations on the ceiling. March 26th. Um, April 3rd, their fourth grade musical. And on April 26th, they'll be having their PTO spring gala. Up in the middle school, on the 13th of March, they had their sixth grade Black Life Party. Um, the day after, on the 14th, they had their 7th grade movie night. On the 22nd to the 20, sorry, 20th to the 22nd of March, they had their production of Greece. Um, 2 days after, on the 24th, they had their civil rights movement celebration with their eighth grade English classes. So it was kind of like the Egyptian museum if any of you remember that. Yeah. Um so they had a little station set up. Um they've been learning previously about different leaders or different processes, you know, um civil disobedience and
005whatnot um in civil rights movement and they would go around and teach their peers and other teachers about what they learned. On the 25th they had um preseason meetings for modified sports and tryyous were on the 31st. Um, moving on to April again, the 3rd, they had their fourth grade production of Mosart. And then April 8th, um, grade 6 through 12 had their music text showcase. Um, lastly, for the high school, um, the 15th through the 13th of March, we had our opening right of spring art show and then our production of 42nd Street. We had career day on the 19th as well as a workshop Wednesday. So students got out of classes, they did workshops, and then throughout the day in the cafeteria, they had options to talk to people from different careers and
006find out more about them. On March 28th, we had an assembly with Steven Hill, a former person who struggled heavily with drugs, who now overcame those issues and became a lawyer. He came in, talked to students, and gave them his story. On the 24th, we'll be having our sire symposium. And then on the 31st of March, actor studio students went to the elementary school for PARP theater and performed their sketches of books they read when they were younger to all the elementary schools. And then concerts, we have vocal jazz on the 23rd, orchestra on the 28th, jazz and jazz band on the 30th. If I may, uh, thank you so much, Ian. Unfortunately, with New York State's testing program, we had to push back the elementary ELA dates, and they'll be on Tuesday the 29th
007and Wednesday the 30th. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Ian, so much. Always good to hear about everything and hope you're enjoying the waning days of your senior year. It's a busy time, exciting time. So, we're happy to still have you here with us. Thanks. And um we are going to move to board committee reports. So audit committee is meeting in May. We have not met since the last meeting. Uh ERJC, I don't think there was a meeting since the last meeting. Uh facilities, I know you guys had a meeting last week. Sure. Yeah. A couple things. Even though we're all preparing for spring break and we're going to go relax, this is a wonderful time for some momentum in our buildings. So, projects that would be a little bit disruptive. We try to postpone to
008times when we don't have students and staff in the buildings. And we're excited about some electrical work and HVAC work that will be underway. As well as over at JJMS, we will finally be taking some steps to erect the greenhouse, which is very exciting initial steps. Um, in between the last update and tonight, the glass has been installed in the vestibules at the elementary schools. We're still not completely finished with our vision and execution of the vestibules, but we're very close now, and it's wonderful that the glass is here. Um, we're still awaiting a drill date to begin the drilling at KES. We're just, um, dotting our eyes and crossing our tees, awaiting bonds and insurance. Um, so stay tuned for a drill date in the near future. And then I wanted to just circle
009back briefly on something that we had mentioned in a prior update with regard to solar panels in light of the larger energy audit that Honeywell is going to be doing for the whole district. We're going to pause for the time being on those solar panels over on the new addition at increase Miller. The idea being that we can probably better incorporate plans into a larger EPC hopefully in the future. Fingers crossed. So stay tuned for that. And then finally, as Julia mentioned, thank you to the facilities committee for taking time last week to meet with architectural firms that responded to our RFP for architectural services, both for the building conditions survey to inform our 5-year capital plan and also some work at ELES that I know Lorraine is going to speak about, too. That's it.
010Thank you. Great. Thank you. Um Loren, do you want to just report out on Oh, sorry. Finance bill. Finance. Yes, we met last night. um had a lively, thoughtful discussion about what we should and shouldn't include in the in our 5-year financial forecast. We ultimately agreed to to uh primarily focus on the financials um while also including a few keyformational pieces like the enrollment trends and graduation rates uh which directly tie back to the impact of our financial plan. Um, we take in inspiration from other districts. Uh, Smer's school district, we took a look at that. We taken a look at Farm Hills financial plans um and their and their um uh their plan that they had done. Lisa and her team have been working really hard uh on a tool called forecast 5 to
011build out our projections. Um most of the data has already been entered and Lisa has been using every available resource she has to um get the most accurate projections um for each of the line items and we're on track to finalize the plan over the next two months and be ready to present in June. Excellent. Do you want to put on uh LJ committee? Sure. Um just as an update uh on January 16th uh we had reported that the plan was to maintain one-third of the building for UPK use universal pre kindergarten use um use of the gym a multi-purpose room outdoor space and potential solar arrays. We had also indicated that we were going to be issuing an RFP. That RFP was since issued. Responses have come back. Firms have been interviewed. uh for
012architectural work. Um and so we expect uh some design work and cost estimates for renovating Lewisboro to be forthcoming. Uh we expect to award a contract hopefully at the May 8th meeting. Um we did the charge that is currently for the Lewisboro committee does expire in April. So we expect at the April 22nd meeting. We will be coming back to extend that committee charge until the fall so that we can then review the plans that the architects come back with and finalize the plan for what's going to be a very exciting and beautiful space for the use of all of our community members in the four towns that this district serves. So, it's um a really exciting time and very excited to see what's going to come of our use of the Lewis Baron Elementary
013space for educational purposes. Great. Thanks, Uh Mark, do you want to do a combined anything related to New York State School Board Association? But more I'm going to do Westput early. Absolutely. Yeah. Not not not a whole lot, but I will just briefly mention that on Monday night, Westp facilitated a panel for prospective schoolboard members in the region and we had a great turnout. So, um, thank you to individuals who are considering schoolboard service and and welcome. We we welcome your questions. Um, the final ed presentation is scheduled for April 25th and I know a couple of us are registered, but the more the marrier. So, if these topics are of interest, the board's role in employment decisions, board use of social media, negotiation trends, then please, it's not too late to sign up. It's
014just a virtual lunch hour um on April 25th. And then finally, I thought it wasn't too soon to mention that the annual dinner is on June 2nd, and I know some of us have attended in the past, and we've had a great time. And again, the more the merrier. It's at a restaurant down in Pleasantville. Nice opportunity to meet and interact with board members from other school districts and superintendent, too. So, again, that's on June 2nd, and hard to believe that that's already on the horizon. Yeah. Excellent. Um, John, you want to report on parent council? Yeah, parent council met uh last Friday, April 4th. Um things that we discussed, the spring ballot and kind of what that looks like. Uh talked through the KES timeline. Uh also the air conditioning pilot program for KES
015has already started. That's trying to find spaces that we can keep cool and be able to multiuse different classrooms with um in case and when the weather does get hot either in the spring or next fall while the bond project continues. Uh we had a 2030 plan check-in and some updates from Dr. Blanch. It was a very robust conversation about how to get more consistency and clarity with communications more at the school level, the individual school level and um the the PTO presidents talking some through their frustrations and some ideas on how that could that could improve. Um there was based off our board meeting our prior board meeting about uh sports trips. we did bring that uh to the table and had some conversations about what that looks like. Um the the spring break
016trips for sports and they're planning on talking to uh some of their principles for principal coffee to see if that's something they would be willing to engage in in that conversation as well. So it was not decision-m it was just opening up the conversation to kind of see what people say. And then we had Chris Nelson join um for a screenagers update. Uh there were lots of questions about YouTube uh concerns about YouTube uh and he gave a little presentation about different tools that uh they are sharing with faculty and how to use YouTube content without students being sidetracked by the advertisements or going down uh the rabbit hole type of things and in ways to download videos. Teachers can use videos where students are watching the content they need to watch and they can't
017get sidetracked or pulled anywhere else. And the next meeting will be on May 2nd and parents council board of ed candidate night will be on May 5th. Great. Thank you. Um policy. Thank you. Policy did not meet in between the last meeting and tonight's meeting. However, trustees who serve on the policy committee had the opportunity to attend today's meeting of the code of conduct committee chaired by our very own Lisa Hurley. Thank you so much. And this was one of two meetings. We'll be meeting again on April 22nd just to step through the current code of conduct and look for any potential appropriate revisions. And then ultimately this is in preparation for the board's adoption. So please stay tuned for that. And the policy committee is next scheduled to meet um next Friday. Great. Can
018I can I just add to that? Please. Um, you know, there's a student that serves on the code of conduct committee and I I just want to thank our teachers and every time that we meet with students and have students involved, they're so articulate and thoughtful and bring so much to the table and I just found it just a pleasure um for James Denoya to to sit with us today and he had some really good insight. So, it's just a a great opportunity every time we sit with our students, present company included. Great. Um, Bill, did you want to Rory's not here. Um, he chairs sustainability, but did you want to report on the April meeting? One quick thing, we met with a company called Synergistics. Uh, they gave a presentation on how to make
019our buildings more efficient, uh, energy efficient. They estimate they can save us 600 plus thousand over the next few years above and beyond their fees. And um we also discussed uh the activities and the presentations we're gonna be making on Earth Day on the 22nd. So we're ready to roll. Excellent. Great. Hey. Um does anyone have any board announcements? I know Lorraine wanted to um report on the regionalization meeting. Um but I don't know if anyone else has anything or you want to go ahead. Yeah. So I had a great opportunity on Monday night with Ray to go to Boseis and attend the regionalization meeting. um it was really very impressive. What regionalization is not, it's not a consolidation of districts. It is a chance to collaborate and work together with different partnerships in the
020region um to make a better use. And the areas that they are focusing on are transportation, workforce development, which I think is an amazing opportunity for our students. Um, ENL programming, social emotional learning and mental health, and also SRO's. So, there's a lot of good ideas that um were forthcoming. It was originally thought that we were going to meet again on May 5th. Um, but with some of the work that's being done, I think they're going to push that meeting out till the fall. Yes. Yep. So, the fall. So, more to come. I think in the report to the state is due in November. Yes. Yep. So, there'll be meeting and and anybody else wants to attend. Um, I learned a lot. It was very informative and it's just really exciting the things that we
021may be able to work together with our partners um in the area with. So, um it was a a great meeting. I just had one quick announcement. Thank you to the John J. Middle School PTO and Mr. Suadawitz. I was able to attend their principal coffee on Tuesday the 8th and there was a really helpful facilitated conversation about um parent and community member tolerance for utilization of AI and then talking about our tolerance and threshold compared to what might be out there already in industries. So, it felt like a really relevant helpful conversation. was thoughtprovoking and then also Mr. Dr. Suato shared an article uh by Lorie Gotley that was kind of about intergenerational parenting. Sometimes when grandparents are critical of parents and how they parent too gently just to some. So I also found
022that very thoughtprovoking. I brought it home. We went to dinner table conversation. So just really appreciate the food for thought and nourishment and the opportunity to sit with other parents and um you know not taking for granted these in-person opportunities. It was lovely. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Any other board announcements? Great. Okay, we're getting to the meat of the meeting. Um, so uh the first item on the agenda is a conversation about the uh proposition three. Uh, and I don't know if we want do we have it to pull up or we do have it up. Yeah. Yeah. Um, last one. Oh, there it is. Oh, I have the clicker. I'm scared now. First time ever. Uh, so great. So, um, we know proposition. So, we know Proposition one and we're comfortable with
023that, right? We're good. Okay. Proposition two. And so, um, instead of buying buses, we're gonna, right, for the infrastructure to transition to electric. Yeah. and is the language gives us a little bit more flexibility in that area. And then um the proposition three, we were able to add the um additional 10% state aid in the title. Um and if people want to take a minute just to read it, it is in it is there. So and just want to point out that um you Barbara and trustees feedback as well as other feedback I had received. But we did go back once again to our our attorneys and um just really uh emphasize that we wanted again to move this to the first line of the prop where it was actually on the 12th line before.
024So yes. So for the purpose of receiving an additional 10% in New York State Education Department building aid, shall the board have approval to embark upon an energy savings improvement project for the supply and installation of the following energy conservation measures? And then it lists them. So, um, we're hopeful that both the additional 10% aid and the beginning sentence saying for the purpose of receiving an additional 10% aid will both help people to see that this is um, not a cost impacting measure. So, um, I don't know if anyone has any further thoughts on this or whether we're comfortable with these new adjustments to it. I feel very happy with them. I wish the um the have approval to embark upon I think is a very awkward phrase but I think it's like a legal
025thing and so that is a that's going to remain in there as I'm aware of that now. Um but I don't know I think this seems really like a positive change to me. Yeah. Okay. But it's not a question. Correct. Correct. It's written as a question. baby. Oh, yeah. There. Sorry. Yeah. So, period at the end. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, if everyone is okay with that, um we have a resolution 9.03 uh to place this proposition on the ballot. Um so, would someone like to make a motion? Luran's making a motion. Bill seconded. Can we just amend the question mark? Oh yes. So can we um so for discussion is if we can please amend this so that the question mark is now a full stop period. That would be great. And so
026the resolution is to approve the proposition with the question mark changed to a period. Yes. That yes. Great. Okay. All those in favor I I 50. Great. Thank you. So, we are now at our opportunity for public comment. Um, and we don't have anyone uh here. So, I'm going to close public comment and I'm going to move the consent agenda. Someone would like to second that. Seconded by Lorraine. All those in favor? I 50. Great. Uh we do have one gift to recognize. Item 16 is an opportunity to recognize a gift from our Kona Elementary School PTO for uh $950 of value of various indoor and outdoor recess items. So, I know that is very appreciated to always have fun, fresh, new things for our students. So, um we really appreciate and thank the Kona
027Elementary School PTO for uh those items. And would someone like to move the resolution? Moved by John, second by Marjorie. All those in favor? 5. So, thank you very much. We are at 17.0, know, which is an opportunity for board dialogue and discussion. Um, so I know that uh we did have a member of the Lewis Burough Town Board speak last week about um possibly a public meeting about uh the Lewisboro property, sort of a combined meeting. I think my sense is we have a plan that we're moving forward with. And so um depending on what comes back from our architect in terms of proposals, we may feel the need to consider the other options and perhaps change course. But until that point, I would um think that we're good with moving forward with a
028plan around the pre kindergarten sort of campus. Um especially with the public interest in the UPK programs so far. Yeah, I I think Alex might have the numbers better, but I think we're well over a hundred parents who expressed interest in the UPK program this year, I think. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, definitely. So, it's exciting. It'll be great to be able to have a space for everybody that wants to be in the program. Yeah. And I think that's the general target right now. The the opportunity we have for next year is we're currently having one section UPK and then we're to three next year. the the current thinking on this would add an additional five sections of UPK over at that space. So that gave us a total of eight. So we'd be getting
029very close to what we need to offer any parent that wanted UPK services in the district. We would be able to provide that. What's the What's the maximum number of children to in a classroom? 18 up to 18. It depends on the square footage. So our current class we're going to have two classes of 16 and one class of 14 based on the based on square footage. Okay. Yeah. I think new ones will be okay. I think and I and I think with that part as well too um the opportunity where again those are dollars that we get as a district we can only use for that purpose. So they're dollars from the state that we have no choice to do anything other than provide UPK services. So again, for us, um, it doesn't negatively
030impact the budget by any means. It's not like we could shift it to some other purpose just for that. And so if you think about that conservatively, you're looking at probably approximately $15,000 if a family is going to go out and do that for a year for a kid right now. So if you multiply that by the 100 125, whatever you have, you're talking well over a million dollars to save for community for what they're doing here. And we're against not not taxpayer driven dollars. These are directly from the state for this work. How many students can we fund for UPK right now? So, right now we're only accessing about Well, we have 44 seats this year and that's really based on um the availability that our partner had. So, we we didn't go out
031for RFP again because the way the contract was written was that if we were happy with the provider um which is CCC that we could continue to use them. So, we were able to get two classrooms in the Vista location and a classroom at the White House on 35. Um, so we were we're up to 44. So, if we show if we show expanded interest and space to accommodate the kids, New York State will follow with the dollars. At least already has it in the budget as we do have it. We can't access it to show we have kids in those seats. That's the thing that's confusing. you look at our state aid runs at $820,000 that we can't access. That looks like we're getting more aid than we actually are. Is our allocation for
032UPK, which is approximately like around 160 total students that it wouldn't fund seats for. So, so in all intents and purposes, we're we're funded right now to capability to provide for the district collectively. Just a matter of the space and our state aid grows to about 160 students is what I'm hearing. 820 would be yes because it's a set amount that we are allocated per student. Great. Yeah. Right. So, 60 is the capacity that we would have. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, it'll cover us. It should. And one of the things too that's been a challenge and Alex gets this every year as well and I know um the state mandates a lottery system for those programs. So by having more you're just you're going to be getting getting more likely anybody who wants to be
033a part of the program can be a part of the program. So that again adds a huge added value to the to the district. So, and our lobbyists as well too and you want to know are lobbying very hard for us to get that number to go up a little bit because it is a relatively small number. Thank goodness for our partner in our community that's allowing us to make that happen. If we're able to have that go up and it just just allows us even more flexibility. So, yeah. And I think I mean I would assume that I feel like the lottery was over a hundred people that signed up for it last year and that's and I would imagine that there's people that don't try for one reason or another. So if it
034was actually just available and people knew that they could enroll the number would probably be higher. Well, and new new to the team here too, but and thinking about where our current location is in the in the layout of the district by having this as a very centralized space. Absolutely. I believe we'll be able to drive more people and say, "Oh, yeah. I'm interested." For sure. Yeah. So, if you're in if you're on the Katona end of the district, Yes. Vista isn't necessarily ideal. Okay. Yeah, I didn't think about that. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. So again, in terms of um conversations publicly with about the property, I mean I think again we've presented here and um certainly the town supervisor of Lewisbrook can reach out to Ray and um and we've we've had meetings with Tony
035many times in the town everything and so trying to coordinate timing so it's a it's it works for all parties involved but we we also know that as we get closer you know our team's going to want to internally go and and kind of start, you know, kind of taking some of those um parts of the building kind of offline. Um we'll know so much more as Lorraine said, when we get that information back and have the the cost impact there. So, okay. Oh, I'm sorry. One more thing. Um in relationship to that, correct me if I'm wrong, you said by um us having it have educational purposes moving forward because we're going to need to update that spend some dollars, we will be able to get state aid on that as well. And so
036that's another key feature of this project we anticipate coming. It is actually because it's educational purposes, we will gain state aid to help with the project. Yes. Just I I hadn't shared this with you guys before, but in theory, one of the um areas are like the 4410 program. So like the special ed preschool programs that the states the states are is really pushing schools to begin to provide those services because they're so hard to find. So, if we were to have more preschool classes, we could work with our community- based organization to make one of those at least what they call like a ski class, which is a like an integrated setting. And that would give the opportunity for some of our families who have children in preschool where the placements maybe are very
037far down county. So, we have some children on buses. Um, and it would also give us the opportunity to to students in if we had that 4410 program here. Yeah. Thank you very much, Alex. I keep forgetting to mention that. Thank you. That's okay. That's great. And and I think as we look at the potential um layouts and think about the space and what the costs are, whether we would want more than five. Now we're talking. Thank you, Julie. And we'd also still be preserving that great gym that is used a lot for community. So, yeah. And the playground. And the playground. Y. So, okay. So, future meetings, uh, our next board of meeting is on a Tuesday night. So, for people who follow the board closely, we normally meet on Thursdays, but next meeting
038is a Tuesday cuz it's, uh, the night that all boards of education in the state of New York meet to approve their Boseies budgets. Um, so it'll be Tuesday, April 22nd here, um, in the library at 7:30. Prior to that, there will be a sustainability celebration that will start at 5:30 um out in the I don't know what we call that, the the outside of the auditorium, the foyer of the the the auditorium foyer um outside of the auditorium and cafeteria. Um so if community members would like to join us for that, it's a great display of uh the work of our students around sustainability and we'll have some community partners there as well. So, it'll be a wonderful night to be here and then you can join us for a board of education meeting.
039Uh, and then the Friday of that week policy will be meeting at 9:00 a.m. in the district office. Uh, sorry, Julie, I just one question. We'll be the entrance will be under construction. Yes. At that point, so we'll have a different entrance point if people want to come. I believe I'm looking at Lisa, but the theater entrance here in the high school is where people will be able to enter. And that's why we chose that location. Yes. Yes. Over. Yeah. On the side there. Yeah. So you get the theater entrance. Yes. So the theater entrance is to the right of the main doors of the library. There's a small ramp and entrance to the theater. If someone hasn't been to the district before, you'll look to it to your right as you sort of enter
040the circle that's in front of the high school. Parallel to buses. Yeah. Correct. Um and Oh, sure. Thank you. we had some of the piece there on the on the potential UPK. So, thanks for that. And I guess the last one I had, we've talked a little bit tonight about just when you you know you get meet with students and conversations and things. So, I had a student um reach out and had we had a nice in-depth conversation about the KSD 2030 plan and and the components that were involved in there and thoughts and wonderings. And so I just want to say thanks Ian for kind of uh coordinating that time and and getting a chance to sit down. And I really uh commend you for taking the lead on that conversation and the thoughtfulness.
041Now I I wish I had that. I'm not just in my senior in high school and any time of year, but where you're at right now to be able to come and just have an open conversation like that and wonderings and thinking and how you can share your experiences so we can continue to make our district as great as it is for kids behind you. I I really commend you. So well done. Thank you, sir. Yeah, I mean, thank you, too. I'm sure you've got a lot going on, so I appreciate you. So, thank you. Excellent. Great. Um, and with that, I will make a motion to adjourn, seconded by John. All those in favor? I have zero. Thank you. Thank you.