001So good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Board of Education meeting. We've just left executive session. Could everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance? Thank you. And I'm now going to turn the meeting over to Doctor Mauricio for the superintendent's report. You can get. Uh. Thank you. There it goes. Okay. Great. Good evening. Board trustees, president Belen and members of the public. Members of our administrative team and those who are watching online as well. Welcome to our Board of Education meeting. The last meeting before we open schools and welcome all of our students back on September 2nd, day after Labor Day. And we are looking forward and exciting to receiving all of our scholars on that day. Tomorrow we will have all of our teachers and staff, uh, on Torpy field, knock on, uh,
002plastic, uh, clear plastic that we have no rain tomorrow morning because we're going to welcome them all and get them ready for our new school year. And we are really excited about this, uh, as well. Do want to share. We have an exciting, uh, update to the board in the community on our capital work, so you'll hear about that shortly. We are so excited about the work that's been happening. And, uh, Carmen Christie, our director, will present that in just a few moments. Uh, but I would like to update the board and the community that we have been working diligently to prepare for the opening of school, um, both facility wise, uh, educationally, um, and in every aspect for the whole child. We are, uh, working diligently from administrators at clerical and, uh, want to
003give a special, um, thank you and applause to our custodial staff and our, uh, operations team. Let's give them a round of applause. You will see the work that they have done. And, uh, you will also hear about all the great capital work that is happening to beautify, modernize and transform our school environment. Classrooms, uh, welcoming spaces, uh, common areas and the facility at large as well. So excited to see that work happen. Um, but it also is putting a, uh, additional, um, work on our current staff because not only are they preparing for the opening of school and shining all the floors and cleaning the the classrooms and making sure everything is just right for our kids. We are also adding construction projects on top of that. So if you ever renovated, uh, bathroom
004or, uh, kitchen in your home, you know that it really turns things upside down. And so that's where we are. So I'm going to ask for a little bit of patience as we open our schools. Uh, in particular the Woodside and Oxide Cafeteria. Uh, they are going to be beautiful, like the, um, Hillcrest one is. And we all applauded when that happened. Uh, equally important for it being modernized. New equipment, new point of sales, um, stations. Um, we also have two entry points. And thank you, Mister Chrissy, for, uh, proposing that that allows our kids to have more recess time. And that's very important. Uh, thank you, Mrs. McDonald, for always bringing that, uh, idea forward. And so we're really excited about that. That'll happen now at Woodside and Oak Side as it has. Uh,
005last year at Hillcrest. Um, but we are slightly delayed, as you know, uh, you always have to add a little bit more funding and a little bit more time to any project that you work on never truly ends when you think it's going to end. Um, and that could be supply issues. That could be, uh, just being behind on things. And so, uh, a little bit of patience in the beginning. We will make sure we have breakfast and lunch for every student. Um, at those two schools. And so they'll be well fed. Uh, but we may have to delay the opening. Uh, although I'm hearing that we might be ready, but just in case, just want to, uh, ask everyone for a little bit of patience, and we'll make sure that your kids are well-fed
006in our school. We'd also like to give a quick update about our, uh, packets that went home. We have received feedback from our families. Um, and I know this as a parent, uh, as I receive my packet for my daughter, uh, last week as well, filled with wonderful information. I want to thank our clerical team, our administrators, Doctor Vilas Rodriguez, Doctor Bedi, uh, everyone, Laura Belfiore, Kamari, uh, Nick Carpio, everyone really working to put all of these packets together. Uh, throughout the summer and make sure they're up to date. Uh, have all the critical information, legal information, and offer informational, um, aspects to it as well into those packets, getting them out through the post office. And we spend about $11,000, uh, for those packets to be mailed. And we also know, um, that they
007don't get to parents when we want them to get to the to you. And so next year we're going to, uh, go green. We are going to digitally send everything to our families that will get you your information at the end of July. Uh, so a month before school, five weeks before school opens, we're going to have fillable forms where you can fill them out. They'll be mobile ready, so you can do it on your cell phone, or you can do it on a computer screen. Um, we will have packets available for families that, uh, and we've held on to our, uh, packets for years because we felt that there are some families that don't have a printer at home, don't have the ability, uh, computer at home. We're going to make ways to create
008in all of our schools, uh, city resources, a family resource center, local churches where we have the packets available that they can fill them out, drop them off as they do now. And so we will accommodate our families will have bilingual individuals who can help them, a phone call away and, uh, drop in centers with computers that they can get it all done and we're going to support them. Uh, but we have realized that we are, uh, not doing well and not getting it out in time. And so we're going to make that adjustment and, uh, that will let parents know who their child's teacher is going to be. Um, and we'll do that again towards the end of July. And so that is forthcoming next year. And thank you for the feedback that we
009had received. And so with that, I'm going to share some Peekskill Pride as we kick off the year. And uh, we began in July and also uh, day in August where we brought all of our administrators together, uh, to engage in learning on, uh, data analysis and continued effort in literacy and math instruction and, uh, focusing on leadership qualities and improving in our culture and our environment. And then on the bottom right, you see, um, all of our administrators were, uh, certified in CPR and something really important as well, which I always, uh, feared as a parent and continue to do so is, um, making sure that our family, our administrators, know what to do when a child is choking. And that can happen in in a classroom. That can happen also in, um, in
010our school environment. Cafeteria, and so making sure that they were trained on the appropriate measures to to enlarge it and keep our kids safe. Very important. And so, uh, thank you to New York Presbyterian Hospital, who paid for every single administrator to be certified in the use of the ad machine, CPR, and also, uh, choking hazards as well. So let's thank NYP and thank him for being a wonderful partner. I want to thank all of our administrators, teachers and staff who are part of the summer school program, uh, related to our Leap initiative. And you see here just some of the pictures of the academic and, uh, engaging activities that our students were part of. Uh, thank you again to our leadership team for putting this together. Uh, and also, all of the staff who
011came in the summer to work with our students and our students had a great time and learned a lot as well. And we know that summer, uh, time is really important to keep our kids engaged. Let's give a big round of applause to Maria Flores and her entire team. Uh, high school also had, uh, great programing happening as well as did the middle school. Uh, we had uh, camps from the city that were run, uh, by the city. We had our own, uh, program as well. All of our lead programs, um, as well at the middle school. And then our high school also had, uh, academic programing for our students, preparing them for Regents exams. Uh, some of them were making up course credits that they needed towards graduation. And you see that we were
012able to go outside, remain inside, have, uh, visitors be part of that work, like our local, uh, police department as well, and making sure that our students were focused through the summer to make sure that they are on track for graduation. Let's give our high school team a big round of applause. And, uh, doctor, uh, Mrs. Ellen Grace and her team who work together to provide, uh, the extended school year program. These are students with special abilities, and they get to come to our schools as part of their 12 month programing, and they get to engage in academics, but also fun activities, making sure that they stay focused and also are supported. Uh, all these wonderful supplies that were donated by different organizations and, uh, staff here in Peekskill, uh, to our students from Uriah
013Hill all the way to the high school is great to get hugs from the students and see them again. Um, I will share that. Uh, my question was, are you ready for school? And the parents have said immediately, yes, we are. We're ready to send it back. Uh, students had, uh, a puzzled look. They weren't, uh, fully ready to come back to school, and I understand why, but they are excited to be ready. And now they have backpacks filled with supplies. Let's give all of our volunteers a big round of applause and say thank you. And again, thank you to the city. You see here, uh, Doctor Holliman and Mrs. Sonia Patino from the family Resource Center. Uh, many of us, uh, were able to go to National Night Out and be part of this,
014uh, city initiative and meet our families, um, provide information. And they were numerous organizations, their health care and otherwise, uh, providing opportunities for our families to learn and be ready and be a great a community. So thank you. Let's give Doctor Holman Miss Patino, a big round of applause. And, uh, as I shared. Uh, high school summer program, uh, was providing a great opportunity. We had seven graduates, uh, graduate today as part of our August graduation. Later will share what our graduation rate is, but we're excited where where we stand now. It's just, um, it's embargoed right now. Uh, but really excited about our students. We provided a wonderful ceremony for them in the high school auditorium with all the pomp and circumstance for them as well, to make their day special. And we talked
015about perseverance. Life doesn't happen when you think it's going to happen. And sometimes things don't always land the way you think they will land. But you stayed, uh, focused. You, um, work with your family, and our students deserve the opportunity to graduate in a ceremony and have, uh, showed their perseverance. Let's give all of them a big round of applause. Thank you, President Villa and Vice President Vella for your wonderful speech and encouraging words to our students and their families as well. Well, they graduated just in time, uh, because this September, uh, all of our students will be part of a new environment, uh, which I think will be a good thing. Although I do know that, uh, there are, uh, different opinions, uh, related to cell phones in schools and, uh, different research out
016there, which I've read. Uh, there's also different thoughts that people have. Uh, one thing that is two things that are really true is one that we are all connected to our cell phones, and many of us are overly connected to our cell phones, adults and, and, uh, students alike. And the second thing is that we must protect the school environment, the classroom environment in particular, and it must be, uh, distraction free so that our teacher can teach and our students can learn, and that they, more importantly or equally important, can connect with each other. And so this work is really important for us. Uh, it is a law. Um, so the governor passed this law with legislators, um, last year. And so we were required to have a policy, which we did. And so that
017policy will be in place effective September 2nd. And, uh, students will not be able to have cell phones out. They will not be able to have them on. They can text their parents throughout the day. This is going to be a change for all of us parents, staff and students alike. Um, they are definitely different. Um, uh, concerns about that, wanting to be able to reach your child. So any parent who has an urgent concern or needs to, uh, check in with their child, we asked you to call the main office, and we will make sure that we get your child if you need to speak to them. We'll also check in on your child if you need to check in on them. Um, so we do realize that this is going to be a,
018uh, um, emotional challenge for some of our families and want to make sure that we are, um, accommodating of whatever challenge you might have. And then any student who has a need to call their parent will be able to do so immediately by going to the main office or trusted office in our school environment, and they will be able to, um, call their families as well. So we will accommodate that. Uh, ask for your patience and support in this. It will not be easy in the beginning. Uh, but in the end, I think that, uh, in the end, we will learn from this, we will grow from this. And in the end, I think our students will be better off. Um, but we will want to make sure that we alleviate those concerns that parents
019have that are immediate and, uh, safety, uh, very focused and health wise. And so we'll make sure we have all of that in place and that you are able to call any of our families, uh, children in school, uh, by contacting the main office. Uh, with that, I'm going to get ready to turn it over to Mr. Carmine Christie, our director of facilities. He's phenomenal at what he does. He's been with us for over 15 years, has seen, uh, a lot of great improvements. And one of the things that I'm always reminded and I thank our trustees for also speaking about this, is that in, um, some communities, when you engage in a capital project, uh, campaign and a bond vote, that that money ends up going to infrastructure. And what happens is it's important
020to do that work. Um, rooves and uh, masonry and, uh, Hvac systems, heating and cooling systems, all of that is very important. But when you do it predominantly through a bond system, then what happens is students don't feel anything different. They don't see anything different. You as a parents in that community, they don't get to engage in a learning environment that's transformed. But when you do that work over time, and then you use the, the, the bond to do some of that work, but also create wonderful spaces to be feel. Family resource center, science lab at the high school, science lab at Hillcrest, new uh, uh auditoriums in each of our schools cafeteria projects that they create wonderful, uh, cafeterias for our students as well, hallways that are bright and and engaging and fun to
021be in our classrooms, which will have LED lighting, new flooring, painted and and have that Westchester light feel for our students here in Peekskill, like other communities have for their kids. That's the kind of work that we want to make sure we have latest technology in our classroom. So that's the work we're excited to share with the board. Um, and so I'm going to call up mr. Christie. I will remind the community that just recently in 2019, uh, thanks to the Board of Education, our wonderful community who voted in favor of the capital project, we were able to bring a family resource center, new Torpey Field stadium, uh, the science, uh, steam lab, innovation lab at the high school, also at Hillcrest Elementary School and some other small projects as well. And then in 2023,
022the voters overwhelmingly approved our proposal, uh, to bring capital referendums, uh, and work for our schools. And you're going to hear about where we are today and really excited about this work as we move. It is work in progress. Uh, it was coming soon in the spring, and now we are in work in progress and making it happen now. And all of that happens under the wonderful leadership of Mr. Christie and, uh, Mrs. Cynthia Hawthorne. And thank you, board, for supporting this effort. Uh, this is our promise for the future modern, transformative and sustainable classroom learning environment. So with that round of applause for Mr. Christie, he is going to walk us through where we are with our capital work. Okay. Good evening everyone. My name is Carmine Christie. I'm the director of facilities. I
023want to thank everybody for giving me the time to present and show where we are, where we started from, and where we're going to continue to go. So this is our kitchen that was completed last summer, uh, Hillcrest Elementary School. So we are mirroring this at both Oak Side and Woodside. Uh, this project, uh, it went well. It's a very tight timeline. Anytime you do a kitchen project within a school, we're doing about 4 to 6 months worth of work in seven weeks. So there's there's a lot of coordination and a lot that has to happen. And I'd really like to thank Cynthia Hawthorne for this and Andrew for seeing this come to fruition. Um, this funding source is through the lunch fund. Uh, this is it doesn't look like this anymore, but this this
024is the way Oak Side looked a few weeks ago. Just so you get a true idea of what's really happening. It is not just a beautification project. It is a true, complete renovation and construction project. We have to rip out floors to remove drains, add drainage, add new underground electric. Um, we are removing some of that. We remove doors, relocation of doors so that we can have the double line, as Doctor Mauricio mentioned earlier. So this is where Oak Side was, uh, a few weeks ago. They're currently, as we speak, doing the epoxy floor there this evening that that will run through for the next three days. And then we'll be moving equipment in over the weekend. This is Woodside. Uh, Woodside doesn't look like this any longer either. There are finishes on the walls.
025The ceilings are in place. Uh, the majority. All of the rough in for electric is done. The plumbing is done. We just need, uh, the final with the ceiling lighting. Um, the epoxy floors. And then we'll be moving forward with, uh, bringing the equipment into the spaces. This is a fun one for me. So this is this is phase two a within the capital bond that was voted upon, um, in 20 2428. Okay. I don't remember myself. So this is the pool area downstairs. This was the left photo. Shows what it looked like, actually, when it was almost cleaned out. We use this for storage since about 2008, when the pool was initially closed. So this is going to become three classrooms. There'll be three bathrooms down there. This will be an amazing space. I'll
026show you the renderings after the photo. On the right is where we are as of this morning at about 10:00 am. So that is the pool infilled. And that is the abatement completed in this space. So this is the rendering. So if you're down there, you know the athletics car door where the locker rooms are in the entrance to the pool. This is the initial rendering of the space where you're going to be walking through with the classrooms on your right hand side. That'll be an exit door that'll bring you out to Walnut. This is the space. So so this space is going to be designed as three classrooms. But we're going to put movable partition walls in there. So this has a very this will give us many options in here besides just general
027Ed whether it be drama, black box theater, um, yoga. It'll give us a lot of options, especially for an overflow for the high school. And with the new turf in the gymnasium here. We truly have a functional area here for our students. So I'm going to get into a little bit. Just so outside of capital work, we also do a lot of in-house project as doctor I was talking about before where we can't do everything through capital work. So we do have to be very creative with funding to make sure that we can continue to improve our spaces and our infrastructure. So this is just an example of what our staff did, along with a to the contractors did the floor. We did all the other work. So what you see on the left are
028the bathrooms before the boys and girls bathroom at Hillcrest. This is a renovation after the fact, it's got new, um, we covered the walls with an FP painted, put in new ceilings, put in new fixtures, and we did an epoxy floor. Uh, when you do stand in this space, it looks it really looks much better than the pictures that are showing right here. But it is an amazing space that the original bathrooms from 1965. Um, so this is really showing us something that we can do now going forward. This was a little bit experimental for us this summer, but now we know that we can do this across the district internally and be able to save a lot of money by doing it this way. These are some other projects we've been doing so in
029the high school. What we've been doing is doing a couple of classrooms per summer with replacing the floor painting, upgrading the furniture. So that's what you're looking at on the left. So similar will be our vision as we move forward through the high school, um, through, uh, to be and the transfer to capitals with flooring and case working and stuff in all of the school buildings. What you're looking at in the middle picture is the pool. Um, so where a pool needs to be emptied every 5 to 7 years to be inspected, and we also need to change out the water. So we check the ceilings, we ensure that all of the safety equipment is working properly. Filter. So our in-house staff, this is 100% done by our staff. Emptied the pool, sealed it ensured
030that all the tie downs and everything is working correctly. And we also they painted the um a they did an epoxy paint on the first level bench and all the way around on the decking, and this came out beautiful if you really when you see this too, you'll see it. And then within this area as we do the EPC, they'll also be newer lighting in here. So this is going to energy performance contract sorry that's EPC. And that's where we'll be going next. What you're looking at on the right. It's not the prettiest picture. But these are the infrastructure projects that we're talking about. So one of the things that we've done between last summer and this summer is through General fund, our staff and contracted service. We will have a brand new boiler plant
031at Hillcrest and Hillcrest. Also, we redid all of the condensate lines at Hillcrest and Uriah Hill. These are steam systems, so we have to maintain them, and it's important that we keep it up on these because the steam systems of the boilers that will go bad first. So this will give us a system right here for another 15 to 20 years. So we don't have to worry about this building. And here this is our phase two. Be this. We're going to show you a couple of renderings. This project right now is in the final design stage. We will finish our design. We will submit to SCD. We will go out for bids in either December or January, which will give us better numbers, um, financially by going out to bid early. So we'll be prepared
032to break ground as soon as we can. Whether it be starting projects in areas in May, June or July depending on the spaces. Sorry, that is the new entrance to the high school so there will be a new bridge installed. There is a small addition that you could see the gray that's coming out. That's to give us a secure vestibule area like we have in all the other buildings now. So basically when you enter the building, you're in the vestibule in a holding area until you're released by security or the greeter to eye teacher or whatever, wherever your appointment is, uh, there's some nice work there. So there's there's going to be new. Not just a bridge, but there is new site. We're coming out with the, um, sidewalk. And we're still there's a couple
033little changes were tweaking. Uh, once we have the final rendering, we'll be able to to show everyone. There is some beautification in the main office that we're doing as part of this project. So no real infrastructure work or not really moving any walls. But we are going to update flooring, ceilings finishes throughout the main office to give it a more welcoming, um, appeal. This is one of my favorites. This is going to this is the rendering for the new main entrance area, the main vestibule. When you walk into the high school, the main lobby, there's a few changes. We don't think we're going to keep the floating, uh, bench there, but we are working also in this area with a, um, designer to create, like we have the bridge there, the murals, the words. So
034we're going to have some exciting things that we're going to be working, um, with our teachers, staff and really get some students to get some creative ideas there. That is a skylight. And yes, I gave in. We're going to put a skylight there. Uh, it's going to be beautiful. We'll take care of it. Uh, part of this project, a big part of this project is doing the athletic wing within the high school. So there's a lot of movement there. We're taking the current fitness center, moving it upstairs to the girls locker room. The fitness center will that's downstairs will be turned into two additional classrooms. And the boys locker room side is going to be turned into office spaces. Two changing rooms, the nurse's office. It sounds like a lot, but they're very large spaces,
035so it works out really well. And this is just an example of the way, um, the changing rooms will be set up. And this is going to be our new gymnasium. So we're taking the opportunity to turn the gym. What this does is it gives us two full, full length courts that you can run side by side and we'll set up, we'll have new, um, stadium types, um, set up with bleachers will be able to. We are replacing the floor completely. Um, this is the original floor from 1972. So we're starting to get a lot of dead spots, so it is time to replace it. This is typical to to do it. I'm just actually one year older than me. So this is 53 years old. It's about time to be done. Um, this is
036a really exciting project. This is just a rendering. So we will have the volleyball court in the middle. Um, we're going to go through many different options with our architects and consultants to determine what we really like as logos and what we want to finalize this space with. This will also have new lighting within the project also. And this is a rendering of the new fitness center. So we are, um, as I said, moving the fitness center upstairs to the girls locker room. Within that space, there'll be a training trainer's room, and we will be we'll be utilizing a lot of the equipment that we currently have with a few additions. We've been working very closely with, uh, Mr. Goldberg, who is the athletic director on this and all of these spaces. We've been working
037with him. And now I'm gonna jump back. So we have started some work for the energy performance contract. So one of the things that we're working on in the high school is as part of the lighting, we're able to get ceilings in their car doors to fit into the project. And we still stayed within the 18 year payback that's required. Um, so I don't know if you got everybody realize, but the ceilings in that building are original 1972 tiles. This is a tough building because of the curve. So architecturally it's very difficult and it's very difficult to maintain. So we went with the two by two that you can see on the left hand side. It'll have all new LED lighting in there completed by Friday afternoon and ready for opening day. What do you
038say? I'm I'm just as excited for that one. I can't wait to do the floors next year. So this year what we're looking at here. So we are getting a brand new boiler plant at the high school. Also, uh, the boilers are not in yet. They will be here on time. Uh, that's not a concern of mine in any way, but they over already done the majority of the infrastructure. So with the pumps are in place, the tanks are in place, so will be ready to go as soon as the boilers arrive. We'll pick a holiday weekend and we'll get everything in and up and running within about a week. And now back to phase one of the capital bond projects. So within phase one we talked about we had the roofing project. So the
039original design we had called out for a full rip and replacement of ePDM, which is a rubber roof. But when we started to do some more investigative work, along with our architect, engineer and our new construction manager, Triton, the roofs were in really good condition. We're just coming to the end of our warranty and useful life. So what we're able to do is actually it's a newer technology. It's an epoxy coating that goes on top of the roof directly right over the rubber. So this saved us $1 million from our original estimate, which was very helpful for the overall project. And on top of that, instead of a 20 year warranty that you would typically get. We are able to just add the additional coating. It's simply another few millimeters, but it gives us a
04030 year warranty on this roof now. So this works out. Really. This really worked in our favor. And this will lead into the next step which is solar with the EPC. So when we originally design the capital and the energy performance contract, we planned on running them parallel. And this was the main reason because once we had our roofs taken care of, now we can have the solar installed on on Hillcrest and the high school. And this is the main driver that's funding our energy performance contract. So by utilizing the solar we're a solar and LED lighting are the two main drivers. We're able to get air conditioning and the high school classrooms that do not have it, and the Uriah Hill classrooms that do not have it. Um, we we are getting the new
041boiler plant out of this. We're doing upgrades to our building management system that gives us better control over our Hvac systems. So the energy performance contract that we got is an $11 million project, which is phenomenal for us. It gets a lot of the infrastructure work done that's not pretty, but it gets us to a point where we need to be as a district. And this is going to be everybody's favorite. So anybody who's been in Peekskill since the 80s knows that the parking lot at Hillcrest, the dirt lot is the majority of route six from when they redid route six through Mohegan Lake in the 80s. So that was the infill that was placed in that area. So we started here. We continue to go through here. So this was parking lot and site
042work and we are now here. So. What you're looking at. On the far left on the tree line is the new lot. Um, what we did also is we resealed all of the, um, and lots that were already in place, realigned. We also took care of the playground area. We blacktop around the back, also of the school, so it's clean, easier to maintain. And we also did a part on the entire stone. Uh, cement wall there. They actually there's a big section from the basketball hoop to where the, the roof come, uh, the roof where the wall comes together on an angle where they actually cut down about 18in that they needed to rehab. So this was this was a pretty big undertaking, but this is complete. As of yesterday morning, they finished this project
043100%. So the positive is we are on schedule, complete and under budget for phase one, which was the roofs at Hillcrest and the high school and the site work at Hillcrest. So that's a good start for us for this project. Um, I just want to. I want to thank everyone. And I just want so everybody understands when we're coming up with these projects, everything that we're doing is in alignment the best we can with our building condition survey and our five year plan that we put together. So by doing like the boilers and some of that work in-house, it saves us a lot of money and it gives us the opportunity to keep in line with our BCS and our five year plan and still be able to do the beautification projects. This doesn't get
044done without the support of the board, Doctor Mauricio, Cynthia Hawthorne and the community. So we're getting a lot of work done here since I've been back for the last ten years. The amount of work that has been accomplished here is absolutely amazing for the support that we got through all this. So I just want to thank everybody for that. Thank you very much. Mr. Christie. On behalf of our Board of Education, our families, our staff. Um, this would. Thank you for the kudos. But this would not be possible without you. So let's give Carmine Christie a big round of applause and say thank you for all that you do. And we appreciate all the work and that of your staff. And so want to say thank you to that. And again, I always want to
045thank my staff because they are the ones who really do the work. I point fingers a lot and tell them what to do, but they're the ones who are doing all of the work. So when you look at something like the boiler work, the bathroom work, this is all of them. We built, uh, three new spaces at Oak Side, um, that I didn't even show because I couldn't get a good picture. But we did this also this summer at Oak Side. There's there's a lot you'll see when you walk through the buildings right now. That was done this summer. Yes, yes. Thank you, thank you. Another round. Applause again for Mr. Christie. And before any oxide parent emails me yes, we going to have an outdoor classroom. Mr. Christie recommended that that'll be happening before
046or early September. So they have new turf field thanks to the rotary. And it'll have sales over it to block the sun. And that's coming this fall. So we'll have an outdoor classroom at Hillcrest, and we'll also have a beautiful one thanks to Doctor Vilas Rodriguez and her team at Woodside. And now Oak Side will have it coming soon. And so our kids will be. Hillcrest has one that was there today. Beautiful uh, in bloom. And now our kids will be happy because they will have a turf field and we'll make sure we bring out everyone to see that as well. So thank you again. And we have a short video. This will conclude the superintendents update. And so Tyler when you're ready you can go ahead and show the video. I was down. You.
047Be. E e e. E e. E. E e. Uh, that is our update. Thank you. Um, I know the board wants to thank Carmine and everyone else involved because I know we're very excited. Um, of course, for the parking lot. That's our number one objective now. Um, a lot of us is getting on the board. Have talked about solar panels and green initiatives. So we're really excited about that. We're very excited. Um, especially when we look at districts in the area of being able to do what we've done with the amount of money that we have and what we're doing with our bonds and what you're doing with a five and a ten year plan to make sure that we're replacing things so that we're not putting out bonds so that we are just fixing
048things and that we're actually getting value add every time we ask the community for more money. Um, and we're very excited for our students to get things that are state of the art and to have access to the best available. So I know the board is very excited about the work that you're doing and about these, these, uh, projects. So I wanted to thank you. Um, and I guess we'll move on to the hearing of citizens. Uh, Peekskill Board of Education desires and values, input from the entire school community. For those who wish to address the board, please sign in and state your name, city or town of residence for the record. And please keep your remarks to three minutes. Um, remarks and discussion of districts personnel are prohibited, although we do not engage in
049dialog. We are listening. Please leave your contact information for prompt. Follow up from the board, president or superintendent. Hi everyone. My name is Sue Imhoff. Um, as many of you know, I'm a longtime Peekskill resident and a recently retired Peekskill teacher. And before I came to say what I wanted to say, I wanted to say to to Carmine how great things have been. And I like that you give the kudos to your staff, to many that I had in my classroom years ago. We have so many that are on staff that are are homegrown, and so that's really good to see. I'm up here to say something that I long for for quite a few years now. I am so glad that this cell phone policy is going into effect, and my main reason for
050being here is more for the parents out there going crazy. I see it all online. Oh, how am I going to get in touch with my student? I've been in the classroom, I know. How are you going to get in touch with your student? Um, every classroom has a phone in it now. It is so easily accessible. I mean, when we went to school, we had a. Oh. Can, uh, Susie come to the office, you know, over the intercom, and everybody hear it? Uh, the teacher that you call the office, the secretary will look up on where your student is supposed to be, will call into that office and say, oh, Susie's got to come to the office immediately. We got a message for her. Or sometimes you get things where they say, well, I
051have a message. Tell her. Tell her to come stop by, you know, in between classes and whatnot. You will always be able to get in touch with your child. As long as your child's is where they're supposed to be. And as we know, some of our high school students might not be there. And that's a different issue, totally different issue. But, um, and also I, you know, I read even though I'm retired, I have a granddaughter in the, in the district. So, you know, I read the little letter and how it said, if your child needs to get in touch with you, just ask the teacher. You said you got to go to the office and I need to call home. It is. So it is going to be so much safer, so much safer.
052And even if there is a an emergency where we have some kind of lock down or something, which really we've mainly had just drills, a couple of lockouts because of a, you know, a stray raccoon in the area that might have been rabid or whatever. But, uh, I know this district is very good at contacting and letting parents know right away that what is going on? Why are we having this lock down? Why are we having this going on? And as long as your information is up to date in the school system, you will get that information. And I say that coming as a teacher, because I know I've been trying to get in touch with parents. Try this number, this number, this number not working. So it really the onus is a lot on
053the parents to make sure your information is correct in the system. So I know there's a lot of not a lot of people out there, but I'm hoping people are online looking or looking at it later. And um, so I, I'm really, really glad that that, that, that is taking place. And um, so that's, that's all I wanted to say, but I think I might have another minute and. I just wanted to throw something else out there. Um. Uh, Peekskill has been doing a lot of building a lot of building a very huge, um, apartment buildings. They have more on the agenda. I've been really keeping up on that. Too many of us think it's a lot of overdevelopment. And, I mean, when I was in the schools, I know we were so overcrowded. And
054then I hear, Carmine. Yeah, we need more. Our libraries have been taken over by classrooms, and now we need classrooms here. We need classrooms there. Um, I you don't have to answer me now if they're, you know, just kind of keep it in your mind. What kind of contact has the city had with the school district and the school district had with the city of how possibly we overcrowded? Uh, you know, we already know it's happening and how much more we can and what more are we going to be able to do for the schools to be able to accommodate many more people coming in? So I want to thank you. And I was able to come tonight because I don't have to get ready to get up tomorrow morning. Thank you. While she's signing
055in. Let's give Mrs. Emhoff a round of applause. She was a truly science teacher for us. We thank you. And thank you for staying continued with us. And, uh, just quick note, the city does, uh, speak to, um, our office. Uh, I meet with them when there are new proposed projects, and we keep an eye on that as well. And, uh, um, many of which are, uh, higher rent, one bedrooms, two bedrooms, not often, uh, family friendly, uh, or, uh, a place, you know, for that rent. You may want a house or so. So we haven't seen a huge influx of students from the many buildings that have gone up, but we still continue to keep an eye on it. But thank you. Hi. My name is, uh, Jeff Stauffer. I have a student here
056in, um, 10th going into 10th grade in the high school. And, uh, uh, when I received the, um, the packet, uh, explaining what was being done here, uh. It was there was a statement about phase one of the roof projects on Hillcrest School. Um, school and the Peekskill High School and phase two, a, uh, the three flex classrooms. Um, when I got that notice in the packet, I was somewhat concerned that there hadn't been, um, earlier, uh, information out there, notification of that happening. Uh, I, I want you to know that it's only because Mr. Christie, uh, who was able to in very short order, uh, only a handful of minutes before this meeting, uh, allay my fears. And I'm somebody who's worked in the industry renovation through construction. I've seen them done poorly. I've
057seen done well. And, um. Yeah. You're not going to pull the wool over my eyes on somebody who doesn't know what they're doing. Um, there's quite the opposite. And the response I got was so immediate, so non-confrontational. You know, when you're talking to somebody who knows what they're doing, when they welcome questions, when they have responses, when they're not flippant about those responses. And I really I enjoyed our conversation immensely. Um, it's good to see because it is. So yes, we want to educate our children, but the last thing we want to do is expose them to hazardous materials. So it's business, whatever it is, and to know that somebody's actually doing it. Per the very well written New York state laws and guidelines in that area, they're marvelously well codified. Um, I just want
058to say thank you very much for doing the job you're doing. It's an almost bewildering array of things that you're doing in short order. And with the diminished window, I used to have quite a substantial window to do things in the summer. But now, with all these special programs and so forth, there's really not much time to do things. Certainly not without people in the, um, facilities, you know, whether that students or teachers, whomever. But, uh, I am very thankful that we have you here doing this, um, because I've again worked in the industry and I boy, I've been shined on quite a bit. Um, so thank you very much. I might have been a very different discussion here, so thank you. Thank you for your comments. Yes. Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Christie,
059for, uh, answering those questions, uh, immediately and also, uh, in a pleasant way as well. And we appreciate the questions, uh, and encourage that as, uh, community members have concerns and thoughts. Can you further comment? Okay. Um, so we'll move on. Any old business from the board? Any new business. Um, David mentioned in his superintendent's report that we've been talking about communication around the packets, around our upcoming website, and I thought this would be a good time to just have a little bit of community, uh, conversation on communication and what that's going to look like for the board this year. Um, some of our concerns, some of our thought processes, um, what the district where the district is headed. Um, and how people can get involved. So if you have any comments either, that would
060be helpful. Yes, yes. Uh, thank you, Miss Belfiore, for leading this effort. Uh, this is a second, um, adoption of a new website. Uh, I think just at least since I've been here, uh, when I first came here, we did so as well. And, uh, it's time for us to, uh, reinvent our website. And thank you for taking the lead on that. Uh, we certainly will. Um, uh, request any input you might have as family members, students, community members on our website, if you can send them to Laura Belfiore from our office. We'll make sure that we, uh, bring them to our committee. We're going to have, uh, families involved in that, um, as well, because you are the, um, the user end of our website. And so, uh, we're looking forward we decided to
061hold off on the rollout to get the year up and running, make sure that, uh, things are running smoothly, and then we will bring, um, the new website, uh, this fall, early fall. And so we'll get more information in my Friday letter. Uh, but again, any thoughts that families have, uh, or interest? Uh, please make sure that we reach out to Lori Belfiore from my office. Uh, (914) 737-3300. And we can make sure that we incorporate that in our decision making as we move forward. Parents where our new, uh, website, um, uh, management company is a well known throughout education, uh, across the nation. Uh, they are top, uh, top line, um, website management and have great products for our families. And so we are really looking forward to that. Um, communication is one of
062those things that you never fully get it right and you're always working on it. And so, um, uh, sometimes we're in advance. Sometimes we put out too much. Depends who you ask. Sometimes we make too many phone calls, too many text messages. Others will say we don't communicate enough. And so we are trying to find that balance. Um, and our role has been and my thought has always been, it's better to overcommunicate and then under communicate. And so as I shared about our packets, we're going to work on that. Uh, but the website is also an area of support for us and our families, and we want to make sure we get it right as we evolve into this new era. So thank you, Laura. Let's give her a round of applause for all her
063work. And, uh, again, we look forward to rolling it out. Let's have a question or suggestion. Um, every time the website comes up, I'm sure Laura knows this, like, everybody has their personal bugaboo, which is great because it leads to usability, because a lot of times, you know, for me, there's like one thing I'm at the last minute always like looking to find. And so if there's a way that the site can become more usable based on user experience, I mean, that's fantastic. I'm wondering if there's a need or a way for us to have like a portal, um, a contact, you know, fillable form on the site itself. Or it could just be emails and calls, billing. You might get a lot when we put it out there to the community of like, what
064are what are the usability, um, things you may have run into because everybody has something, you know, I'd like the calendar, you know, to click on it and get the get the event information or whatever that may be. Some of it may be doable, some may not for various reasons. But I wonder if, like sort of having a place where people can go fill out a form as opposed to calling or office or emailing might be easier. Uh, thank you for that. Many websites at the bottom have a contact webmaster. Um, so we can, uh, make sure we have that link, um, on there if it's not already there. And then may Laura, one of my Friday letters, we can put a, um, website at Peekskill schools. So, uh, yes, yes, the survey we did
065get input from our, uh, K12 insight. Um, but certainly we can make sure we get more input from our families as well. Yes. I just want to offer as, uh, you know, a parent with two kids in the district, the third coming up. Um, we're very excited about that. Uh, finding ways to standardize certain communications across schools. We'll be really helpful for myself. And I know for other parents who have multiple kids in multiple schools so that we know what to expect in terms of how teachers are communicating out, are they using the same app, which I think for the most part we are, but we're just continuing to find points of consistency because that level of expectation helps us do what we need to do and better be better partners to the teachers and
066the administrators as well. Um, so something that I'll offer for continued conversation. Yes. Thank you. Uh, consistency and especially in the in light of a Princeton model is always really important. Um, some districts, you know, you might have kids in one school for six years. I was a principal of school where we had the kids from for ten years, from pre-K to grade eight. And so, um, consistency was within, um, in our model, we always want to make sure we take best practices from each of our schools and make them more consistent. And so, uh, Doctor Vilas Rodriguez and uh, Doctor Bedi certainly working towards that. And I appreciate the feedback will continue to do so. So that's all really great. Um, we've brought the the packets more than once. If you haven't received your
067packet as a community member, please call the school that your student will be attending to make sure that you get that information because it's your back to school information. It's the whole packet. So it'll be your contact information and your contact card. It'll be who your students teacher is. It'll be your school supply list. It has everything that you need to start the school year off right. So if you haven't received it, please contact the building that your student will be attending. Um, and I guess that we'll move on. So policy readings. We do not have any policy readings at this time, but as an FYI, on the 7th of July we approved the policy for door hardening and lockdown emergencies without a policy number. So for the reference of the community, the policy number
068is now 8130.3. Accepting of minutes. Does anyone have any questions or comments? Can I please have a motion to accept the minutes for the reorganization business meeting on July 7th, as well as the business meeting work session on August 4th? Moved by Branwen. Back in. Hi, Christina. All in favor? Aye. Any nays? Any abstentions? Okay. For the district wide safety plan, there needs to be a board member on our safety team. Is there anyone who would like to be included as the board member? You are. So can I please have a motion to include Amy Belay as the board representation on the school district safety plan moved by Angel. Second. Bye bye for you. All in favor? Aye. Any nays? Any abstention? Consent agenda. Are there any comments, questions or thoughts on the consent agenda?
069No. Can I please have a motion to approve consent agenda items ten eight through 13 C. Moved by Brad, one second by Amy. All in favor? Aye. Any nays? Any abstentions? Are there any reports from committees or comments from the board? I mean, that makes sense because school hasn't started, so. So, um, I do want to say, before the school year starts, I want to welcome back all of our teachers tomorrow. I want to welcome back all our students next week. I want to congratulate parents on having a moment to themselves starting next week. Um, I'm really excited to start off the next school year. Um, so as a board, we're really excited to welcome your students. We're really excited about our capital work, about all of our buildings and where they are. So I
070just wanted to put that out there. So if there are no further actions, can I please have a motion to adjourn? So moved by Amy. Second by Angel. All in favor? Aye. Any nays? Any abstention. Good evening. Peekskill.