Copy of BOE Meeting @ Central Admin

001Good evening everyone. My name is William Auzi um president of the board of education and I would we are about to reconvene the public session of the meeting. Colleagues, can I get a motion and second to reconvene the public session of the meeting? >> So moved. Ross second. Lewis. >> All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Can we all please stand for the pledge of 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. [clears throat] Colleagues, can I get a motion and second to accept minutes of the board of education regular meeting held on December 4th, 2025 and accept minutes of the board of education special meeting held on December

00218th, 2025 as submitted by the clerk and secretary to the board of education. >> So move Lewis. >> Second, Jacob. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh, first up on our agenda tonight are our announcements by board of education members. Do any of my colleagues have any announcements they would like to make? This >> is a very brief one. Um, the funds uh has started their annual gala planning. Um, and so tickets are live and on their Instagram, Facebook website, etc. So feel free to get your ticket for the gala which is upcoming in March. >> Thank you, Miss Lewis. Anyone else? I Oh, Miss >> Yes. I would like to say good evening to Michelle and welcome back to school in 2026. Uh may the rest of the school year be

003even better than the beginning of the school year. >> Thank you, Miss Williams. And I just have a very brief one as well. Um I was appointed to the newer city of New 25th anniversary committee. I'll be working with 12 other members um and celebrating this uh anniversary of New Shell. >> All right, great. So, next up on our agenda um is our superintendent update. So, Dr. Reynolds, I'll throw it over to you. >> Thank you very much, President Ayanuzi, through the board. Uh to all of our members here in the audience, and to our families at home, uh welcome to 2026. Every time I say a different uh year in the year 2000, I think of Y2K. And I know I'm dating myself and I can't believe that we're here. Um, but we would

004like to celebrate uh the Newell Fund for Educational Excellence is proud to announce four outstanding Newell High School seniors who will be honored with student achievement awards at the foundation's gala on Thursday, March 5th at the surf club on the sound. The arts and culture award will be uh awarded to our very own Harmony Hopwood who made history as the youngest youth poet laurate of Westchester County. She is a three-time gold medalist in the NAACP's Afroacademic, Cultural, Technological, and Scientific Olympics, also known as AXO program, and serves as a president of both the poetry club and NAACP youth council. Harmony plans to study film in college. The David A. Garfinkle Citizenship Award will be awarded to Kyra Mulra and she is a a student researcher for the air of truth exhibit at the Newell High

005School Museum of Arts and Culture and now serves on the city's ecology and natural resources advisory committee. Kyra plans to major in international relations. The Eric Tatera Sports Leadership Award is awarded to Sam Cave. Um, and he is a four-year varsity swim team member, two-year captain, and threetime MVP all league and all section honor and will be competing in the states on March 6th. He mentors youth athletes while excelling academically as a National Honor Society member and a National Merit Scholarship Program Commended student. Sam will swim division 1 at American University. The science and technology award will go to Corey Sylen, the class of 2026 valadictorian. He earned first place in mathematics at the international science and engineering fair. Is an accomplished clarinetist clarinetist that a clarinetist [laughter] selected for NISMA's all state symphony orchestra.

006serves as president of the Tri Music Honor Society and volunteers as a music teacher and math tutor. Corey will attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study mathematics and music. >> So, if you would like to go and celebrate with our students, please visit www.nfd new um nredfund.org for your tickets. Please keep in mind that early bird prices are ending on February 25th. Last Friday, the Newishell High School girls varsity track team had an incredible showing at the Hispanic Games, finishing the spring medley relay with a time of 4 minutes 4.80 seconds. Um, and that is 18 seconds ahead of the second place finishers. The team took first place in the state and in the country. We would like to congratulate uh our uh junior Alexis Smith, sophomore Alisa Crisp, junior junior Olivia Smith, and

007sophomore Olivia Solomon. You make us all proud. We'd also like to congratulate one of our employees. Congratulations to the New Relle High School athletic department's Judy Patron on being awarded the Judith A. Martin's Secretarial Award of Excellence from the New York State Athletic Administrators Association. This award recognizes a Secretary of an Athletic Administrator who has demonstrated outstanding contributions to local athletics. Miss Patron will receive her award at the New York State Athletic Association's conference in Saratoga Springs on March in March. And finally, all district offices and buildings will be closed on Monday, January 19th, 2026 in honor of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Day. And all schools will have a half day of school for for students on Tuesday, January 27th, 2026 for Superintendent Conference Day. And with that, Mr. President, I relinquish

008the microphone. >> Thank you very much, Dr. Reynolds. Next up on our agenda tonight are discussion items. We have two uh the first one being strategic and simple services are one Dr. Reynolds I'll throw back to you to set the stage. >> Thank you. Just for time purposes I will um introduce our next uh team to the podium from here. Um every year we share with you the great accomplishments and the challenges that we have in each of our departments. Uh this year uh we are beginning our conversation with the board and the public with our student support services department. Uh it is important that we keep in mind that uh this year we're seeing a shift in responsibilities as it relates to our student support services department. I should say not department division. Um,

009so the division has subsumed the responsibilities of special education this year that was transferred from our curriculum and instruction division over to our student support services. Um, last year we heard from the community. Uh, we presented our entire division's um, accomplishments and uh, their record of achievement in one evening and we heard from the community that it was a bit too much um, to receive all at once. So this year we are splitting our uh presentation in two. So tonight's uh presentation will focus solely on special education and the supports therein. Uh and tonight we are going to uh be led by our two team leaders for special education, our assistant superintendent for student support services, Dr. Gail Joiner, and our director for special education, uh Miss Michelle O'Brien. So we bring Dr. Joiner to

010the podium at this time. Good evening to our board President William Ayanuzi, board members, superintendent Dr. Reynolds and community. Joining me tonight is Michelle O'Brien, our prek12 director of special and alternative education. And tonight we are pleased to present to you an update on the status of the implementation of our action plan designed to address the recommendations lifted in the evaluation of our special education program conducted by PCG our public consulting group. Tonight's presentation we will begin by setting the context presenting our implementation roadmap and from there we will share status update that includes our special ed survey results for the last two years and lastly we will address how we will move forward. As it is our custom, it is important that we frame the context by starting with our why. We remain committed

011to our mission and vision and providing a fair and equitable education for every student every day. It is important that we continue to focus on the whole child approach as we support the development of our students identity, belonging, and agency. The improvement of our special education services to our students with individual education plans, IEPs, is directly connected to all four directions of our strategic roadmap. To that end, special education action plan is in alignment with our strategic road map. This visual that you see in front of you is by Cooper and his team and it offers a positive approach to change. The appreciative inquiry model is what it is reflected from which lends itself to the cyclical process of continuous improvement. During the initial phase, we assessed what we currently have. We analyze quantitative and

012qualitative data and acknowledge the great work that is already being done. And I just want to publicly say thank you to the special education team for the work that you have done and will continue to do. And we look forward to collaborating to co-design that which we desire with a focus on systems, structures, processes, and practices to support our work. This visual representation of the tree shows the interconnectedness of each department within the division, excuse me, of student support services. The foundation of our work lies at the roots of the tree image where you see our strategic road map objectives which excuse me our team will present at the next board meeting. As Dr. Renes alluded to, we have broken it up into two sections. The student support services team is the base, the trunk

013which is located in the middle of the tree. Each division within the department is represented by tree branches and we work individually and collectively to support the growth and development of our students, staff and families which are represented by the leaves and the beautiful fruit it bears our successful students. I would like to publicly again thank this team in advance for the hard work and heartwork that will be done this year. gonna quickly introduce our team. We have Miss Millisent Lee and she is joining us this evening. Our director of pupil personnel services, Miss Leah Lego Fetes, our director of school counseling who is doing a presentation at the high school. Mr. Nate Adams, our program coordinator for my brother's keeper, my sister keep her and the liaison for the youth justice equity program. Miss

014Christina Gobam, our lead nurse, and Dr. Casaro, our interim medical director. And now I extend a warm welcome to our director of preK12 special and alternative education, Miss Michelle O'Brien, who will come forward at this time to share the special education leadership structure of support and walk us through the implementation road map and survey results. Thank you Dr. Joiner. Um thank you and good evening everyone. I would be com I am compelled to express my appreciation and acknowledgement of Dr. Roberts who led our department for the last few years um the members of the board my colleagues our students and community stakeholders for your continued attention to and support of the special education department. The insight each of you offer from your varying vantage points is essential part of the driving force that provides energy,

015direction, and consistency, turning small actions into significant progress for continued improvement as your invaluable input illuminates a path for growth, wisdom, and excellence. As the director of special education and special and alternative education overseeing our prequ prek 12 district-wide program, I do not lead this department alone. This slide provides a glimpse of the work my leadership team, the assistant directors of special education um do on a day on do as an overview. I say glimpse because a slide can only capture a sampling of the vast work they do on a daily basis. The denoted feeder pattern structure was implemented during the school year in support of a more seamless, comprehensive, and robust program for our students with disabilities, ensuring a more targeted and coherent approach towards teaching and learning in our schools and classrooms, as

016well as a stronger alignment of systems, practices, processes, and supports. This begins with one assistant director supporting the committee on preschool education, PreK2, Barnard, and Ward. When these students leave Barnard, they attend one of the six remaining elementary schools as indicated by the arrow. originating from Barnard and extending the two K5 boxes, demonstrating that Barnard students feed into the six elementary schools after second grade. The following assistant directors support Columbus, Jefferson, and Trinity. The next supports Isaac Eie Young and Webster. and the following supports Albert Middle Albert Leonard Middle School and Davis. At the conclusion of students tenure in the elementary and middle school arenas, as indicated again by the arrows, students metriculate to the high school including Hugenat Academy. One assistant director continues to support this grade band. Our team remains committed to providing

017improved practices and services. Before moving on, I want to publicly thank them for their devotion, commitment, and to the success and safety of our most vulnerable students. At this time, we will bring back to your attention the implementation roadmap of our work aligned to our self-imposed audit of special education designed to address these areas of focus and recommendation. From there, sharing a status update that includes our sped survey results for the last two years and lastly addressing how we will move forward. We also want to bring back to your attention to the purpose of why the evaluation was conducted, which was to identify areas of strength and more importantly areas of growth that would inform the development and implementation of a of a cogent strategic action plan designed to improve practice and elevate student achievement.

018This action plan is the focus of our update. Let's begin by revisiting the recommendations yielded from the evaluation. Displayed on this slide are areas of focus and aligned number of recommendations. In row one are the MTSS, the multi-tered system of supports specifically focusing on four recommendations. Special education referral assessment and eligibility practices area of focus consisting of four recommendations five to eight. Special specialized services and inclusive practices addressing seven recommendations and cse meetings and IEP development with five recommendations. In row two, the following areas of focus are noted. Inclusive community addressing two recommendations, strategy, organization and an enact reporting containing four recommendations, family and community engagement comprising of six recommendations and human capital with one recommendation. The third row displays the last three areas of focus which are data reporting consisting of two recommendations, policy

019and guide documents with one recommendation and lastly the staffing allocation model containing one recommendation. Overall the 11 areas of focus comprising of 37 recommendations are the drivers of our action plan. You may access the comprehensive evaluation report using the tiny URL code or the QR code displayed on this slide. At this time, we will bring back to your attention the implementation road map again or no, I'm sorry. At this time we will bring back to your attention the focus of the recommendations. Being mindful and to ensure that the comprehensive work of the work of comprehensive scope of the work is done with intentionality. We were very strategic in creating a multi-year implementation timeline noting when the 37 recommendations would be addressed. We have approximated five years for all of them to be addressed with fidelity.

020Reflected on the slide is a high-level overview of the implementation over the five years. This year at a glance denotes a specific implementation phase of each recommendation. I draw your attention to the legend on the bottom of the slide which signifies the three phases of the work. P for planning, X indicating starting the implementation or C continuing monitoring of the work. For example, you will notice that the recommendation number one is denoted with an X in the first column entitled foundational year and will continue over the next four years as denoted in the letter column C in the following columns. To view the timeline in its entirety with all recommendations, you are welcome to use the tiny URL or the QR code on the bottom of this slide. To measure our success, we are using

021the 10 KPIs which include both quantitative and qualitative measures as well as state and district measures. Next to each KPI key performance indicator is the measure that is being used following our baseline. And in the last column are the end of plan matrix specifying what we are aiming to achieve at the end of what we are doing what we are using to monitor the implementation of the action steps over the duration of the plan. Now I will provide you with a status update to celebrate our accomplishments, share our current work as well as refresh our memory of the tremendous work ahead of us. 2023 24 November to June served as our foundational year. Reflected on this slide are those recommendations that were of focus during the 2023 24 foundational year. At this time, I will

022provide you with a status highlighting what was accomplished last school year and our scope of the work this year. This slide illustrates our focus for the 202425 year demonstrating where we're planning, continuing, implementing. As you can see on the screen, it is important to celebrate accomplishments both small and large. As you know, last year was our second year of implementing our action plan. As Dr. Joiner had said, it was a result of a district's self-imposed special education evaluation. We want to share with you the work that was accomplished. Please note that as I highlight these accomplishments, I want you to listen for themes of collaboration and consistency. I will lift three specific accomplishments to your attention. The first accomplishment I would like to highlight is bullet one further studied and developed a toolkit to support

023specially designed instruction SDI which was paramount as this increases the provision of strategic instruction in service to the students with individualized needs and learning styles as reflected in their IEPs. The development of the toolkit was a collaborative effort engaging special education teachers across the district to whom I am grateful for their diligence and commitment. Their tremendous work fosters equity of instruction across the district while also norming practices. The second accomplishment I would like to highlight is bullet five, addressing the initiation of a robust multi-year professional learning plan based on the needs of identified in the reports developed by PCG targeted to different audience such as not limited to general educators, special educators, related service personnel, aids, and parents. illuminating the value in collective knowledge and continuous learning. When we share a position and a posture

024of of being a lifelong learner, we not only benefit from the knowledge that's gained, but we also model for our students the value and importance of learning and continuous learning. Third, but certainly not least, I would like to highlight bullet four, developed a plan to begin the expansion of integrated co-eing ICT. Having a plan inclusive of required enabling conditions is a gamecher for the district. I hope as you comb through the accomplishments on the slides and heard the three highlighted ones, you notice that there that we are endeavoring to be transparent, collaborative, and to implement consistent practices. These accomplishments serve as the foundation on which we are building this year's body of work. As illustrated on the next slide, as mentioned, during the 202425 school year, in collaboration with our evaluating partner PCG, we researched

025the expansion and developed a plan of expanding from half day ICT to full day ICT and began a implementation plan as proof of concept of full day ICT for third and fourth grade at Columbus Elementary School for this current school year. While offering students access to a full day ICT program, it allows us to continue to refine our district plan for expansion across all schools. What gets measured gets done is a phrase that is echoed throughout our district. Using this slide, I bring to your attention our 10 key performance indicators with data to measure where we began in 2023 24 noting our progress in the next column in purple and the end of plan target listed in the final column. Focusing on the center column in purple, the data is provided with the target for

026the 2425 year listed in parentheses. I am pleased to note for the first indicator increase student performance and literacy for all students by 18%. We met our target for students with disabilities rising from 17 to 20%. Our target for that year was 20%, we rose to 20. In contrast to the first indicator, our second indicator increase student performance in math for all students by 17 percentage points and for students with disabilities by 17 percentage points. Our student with disabilities performance similar to the general education peers remain the same as previously measured. Looking at the next indicator, while considering the district's overall percentage of students with disabilities rising from 17 to 20% this year, it is not surprising that the number of students referred to special education increased rather than decreased as the classification confirms their

027need for referral for consideration by the committee on special education. As a department, in school teams, and in collaboration with our New York State Ed partners, we continue to audit the quality of our IEPs and have seen improvement in this area. With the success of improving the quality of IEPs and provision of professional learning for our team, it is disappointing but not surprising that the percentage of meetings that adhere to the statemandated timeline also decreased rather than increase. As with the increase of students referred and ultimately classified to receive services, the staff required to support this demand decreased during the 2425 school year to 82% 82.7%. However, I believe that our efforts for improvement is reflective in the reporting of the next indicator. increase the percentage of CSSE stakeholders who report favorably about the process

028appropriateness of IEP quality program quality of program engagement of participants and resources available in this area we rose from 73% to 80% in favorability again our district's commitment is reflected in the next KPI increase the percentage of students with an IEP who spend 80% % or more of their day in the general education setting. While we did not re reach our target in this area, we did increase. Unfortunately, we were not as successful in the next KPI reduce the percentage of students with IEPs educated in a separate setting outside of Newell school district. Rather than decreasing the number of students attending schools in the district, we increased to 10% by to 10% which is a stark contrast to the next indicator which rose by 10% surpassing our our target by 6%. Increase the percentage of

029stakeholders who report favorably of the department culture and climate elements including efficacy of professional learning, collaborative opportunities, customer service, standards of service, inclusivity. This KPI's results signify that we are progressing in the right direction. Our final key performance indicator listed increase the percentage of parents and families who report favorably regarding the availability, accessibility, and quality of resources such such as guides, trainings, training materials, website available and accessib accessibility also surpassed our target by 2%. The next portion of our presentation will continue in depth to reveal the perception of our stakeholders as solicited through our annual stakeholder survey. In our ongoing commitment to improvement and enhancement, we launched our annual stakeholder survey designed to gather valuable input and feedback from students in grades 6 to 12, parents and staff, including teachers, support staff, and administrators regarding

030the programs and services provided by our special education department. We will review the results on the next few slides. with participation being voluntary and anonymous. As noted on this slide, 3,762 stakeholders received the survey and 49% responded. To guide our strategic work moving forward, we examined the aggregated data for each stakeholder as a means of capturing their perspective. The survey asked the stakeholders to respond to various statements using a Lykart scale ranging from strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree. As reflected of the 1,81 total respondents, 73% rated their respective statements favorably by indicating strongly agree or agree. Specifically, 80% of parents, 68% of students, and 72% of staff responded favorably. As this is an annual survey, it is our goal to increase participation and favorability every year. We would be remissed if we did

031not pause to express our deepest appreciation to all the stakeholders who took the time to respond to the survey. And I must say in conversations with the state, having this large of a volume of response is not typical. As a reminder, this survey is one of the measures being used to assess our effectiveness in meeting particular key performance indicators, KPIs. On this slide are the three specific KPIs to which our survey is aligned. The parent survey addressed all three KPIs while the students and staff focused on only the two first. Reflected on this slide are favorable response rates of the various stakeholder groups indicating strongly agree or agree per aligned KPI. Overall rising from the previous year, 80% of our stakeholders reported favorably to the first KPI to this year over addressing the CSSE process,

032appropriateness of IEPs, quality of programs, engagement of participants, and resources available. In regard to the second KPI with 10% increase, 79% of our stakeholders reported favorably about the special education department's climate and culture. And lastly, 84% of our parents reported favorably regarding the availability, accessibility, and quality of resources, our third KPI, which is again an increase in favorability. We will now highlight some of the feedback from each of the stakeholder groups, noting the greatest and least favorable items. I want to pause for a moment to orient you to the formatting on this next few slides. Throughout the portion of this presentation, you may note that the bolded items were not previously a part of the top five favorability items in the 203 school year. Bolded on this slide is and and new to the top

033five favorable items is my input is con considered during CSC meetings. The favorability for this response rose from 91 to 94%. [clears throat] In contrast, the statements marked with an asterisk where it listed in the 22 23 24 in the top five, but not this year. The asterisk is next to this last statement indicated. I am provided with a copy of my child's IEP. Although this item did not remain in the top five, the favorability response rose from 91% to 92%. Overall, the favorable themes of our parent surveys are families valuing caring staff, inclusive opportunities, and individualized attention. Families are noticing improvements in the IEP meeting process and communication in some areas, which is progress worth celebrating. Indicated on this slide is the area where growth is needed with the following themes being illuminated. Parents

034continue to ask for more consistent communication, better clarity around services and progress, stronger accountability for IEP implementation. Our data indicates that parents want to feel warm, um, informed, supported, and partnered with and receive reactive responses or be and not being left to feel uncertain about their engagement. Parents want to be included and partnered with. On this slide, we are notice noticing our students responses. We have to note an increase of student participation in the 2024 25 survey from 54% the previous year to 90% this year. We have data to illuminate students voice which affirms the importance of inclusive environments. Student empowerment and mental health supports which is highlighted with the new addition to our top five favorable items. I can talk about school work that is easy or hard for me during the meeting rising

035from 58% to 86%. are clarity. For clarity, the meetings that the students are referencing are their cse meetings to discuss their IEPs. The data reflects that students feel welcome and supported and are largely satisfied with their services. Continuing with our student voice, the data indicates students want smaller, less distracting environments, clearer understanding of what their IEP means, more access to social emotional support. It is important to note on this slide the item added to the top five. due to tremendous increase in the student response. I can talk about things I enjoy during my meeting rising from 51% to 80%. So, we had an increase of student participation and an increase in that response. CSC's are mandated to invite secondary students to their meetings. However, we must ensure that their meetings are also welcoming and affirming

036and to engage the students. I want to acknowledge the work of our school teams at the secondary level as this response is evidence that they're doing the necessary work to empower and include students. Our staff noted our areas of strength in their favorable responses illustrated on this slide. Appreciation for professional learning and opportunities to collaborate. recognition that we are supporting inclusive practices and quality IEPs as well as staff acknowledgement of improvements and our responsiveness. As a district, we maintain a posture of seeking continuous improvement. Excellence has no ceiling. Our staff indicated in areas in which we need to grow with persistent feedback around staffing challenges, programs and services being stretched, consistency of expectations and implementation across schools, efficiency in IEP processes, communication and access to materials. Staff also raised concerns about equity and services and

037decision-making. This reinforces our focus on system level solutions, not individualized or siloed work. Our key takeaway from this, our three stakeholder groups are aligned around the following themes. Communication, consistency, and capacity drive trust and success. I now turn this over to Dr. Joiner. I'll give you guys the cliff notes, okay, for the short answers. I promise. But I just want to acknowledge two of the fantastic five. They know who they are. So Michelle, we want to acknowledge our assistant director, Miss Clara Reyes and Miss Cameron. Thank you for being here. And I call them the fantastic five. It's our running joke, but I love each and every one of them. So thank you for what you do. So the open-ended questions were designed to align with the specific performance indicator for each of our stakeholders.

038We'll begin with the summaries of open-ended parent responses. But as we review this qualitative data, you will notice the alignment between the data that was just presented by Miss O'Brien. We shared this data, the open-ended questions as well as the um quantitative data with the district and sitebased leadership. They engaged in an activity and submitted recommendations to our team for our consideration. So it wasn't just look at the data, we gave it to them and they gave us some feedback. So the survey responses are record, excuse me, were recorded as favorable and least favorable. We just listed a few because we didn't want to go through all of them. It's quite a few that we received. But on the favorable side, some parents expressed satisfaction. Others acknowledged inclusive afterchool programs and valued the individual support

039that their child received. On the least favorable side, parents reported issues with communication, which included lack of timely responses and delays in delivery of services. Some families are seeking more resources and communication in Spanish and hybrid training and information sessions. We appreciate the thoughtful feedback provided by our families and will incorporate all recommendations submitted by our school teams as well. Excuse me, our district leadership as well. on the student survey the open-ended questions we listed a little different. We didn't put this side by side. We are going to show you both of their slides. So on the favorable the summaries of our open-ended student responses you can see students felt welcome supported and set up for success. While they appreciated their current accommodations, they also expressed the desire for independence resulting in few excuse me

040requesting fewer accommodations and more autonomy. So that's something for us to think about as we go into the process moving forward. Summaries for our students for the least favorable open-ended responses. As you see, one area of growth includes providing smaller classes with less distractions. Students are seeking to be better educated about their IEPs, which we can see is beginning to happen based on the survey data we received last year that Michelle just presented. They also highlighted the need for mental health resources and someone to talk to. Lastly, they are seeking improved communicate communication, excuse me, between home and school. Our staff open-ended survey responses. Similar to the parents, we listed them side by side and it list lifted a few favorable and least favorable responses. Our staff values, excuse me, our staff values ongoing professional

041learning opportunities and sessions held after school and in the summer. Members of the team appreciate discussing ways to best meet the needs of our students. Some of the least favorable responses include a call for more transparency and support for our non-English-speaking families. There is a need to enhance the consistency of programming across buildings and provide facilitators with training to increase effectiveness throughout our team. So yes, I'm not going to read all of these. You can see them. Those are our areas of focus for this year. There are many more, but this is what we are focusing on based on our action plan. So moving forward, we just wanted to leave you with a glimpse of our next segment of the work. It's really critical that we enhance the growth mindset and leading programs to support

042students with IEPs, create schoolwide opportunities for students with IEPs to be part of the school community. Set a clear vision and engage in action planning focused on student success, operational excellence, and customer service. realign the roles, responsibilities, and structure of the Office of Special Education to enhance responsiveness and efficiency to meet student, teacher, and parent needs. We will continue to build the capacity of our staff. We are poised to finalize and implement our family communications plan. We have made some shifts in the CPSC and CSSE process and other pro practices will that will support consistency and coherence. But lastly, as we maintain a posture of continuous improvement, we will continue to seek and garner feedback via our stakeholder surveys and by engaging with the parent steering committee who have been forthcoming with great insights. And

043again I mentioned earlier those shifts in the cse process are critical and other processes that we have in place to begin to finalize. So this concludes our presentation and we thank you for your attention and at this time we welcome your questions. >> Uh colleagues do anybody does anyone have any questions or comments they have like to ask? Miss Clayton. [clears throat] >> Well, um, first I'd like to say that, um, you must have been reading our minds. We wanted a deep dive and an analytical, um, understanding, a better understanding of how to support um, our youth with disabilities. they are a critical part of the new of the school district's success and we want to see them thrive as as all of our students. So this was very helpful um a good you know

044leading um map for us to you know examine a nice I really hope that um all of the different groups in Newer Shell uh the SEPTA and Newer Shell funds for excellence and the boards and whatnot you know we we partner a little bit more as a team so it's not just you know um one man on on the island trying to do all this this very important work. Um, I I had a couple of questions. Um, it's probably redundant, but SEPTA, how involved is SEPTA in some of this work that you do? >> So, glad you asked that question because some of our SEPTA members are here tonight in support of special education. um we are in active communication, texting, calling, emailing and so forth in support of our parents. So sometimes parents don't

045feel comfortable reaching out directly to any of us, but they will reach out to SEPTA and SEPTA actively gets involved in encouraging parents and partnering with them to reach out and help them navigate newell. So I appreciate and we um myself and our leadership attend SEPTA meetings and support SEPTA and even offerings to what we can present to the community to engage and increase the knowledge of our parents. >> Yeah. And for those who don't know what SEPTA is, yeah, sorry. >> Um special education PTA. So it's for all schools together. We have a PTA just for special ed. Um also it's it's noted that the numbers of the students um have been steadily climbing these last um last 10 years. Uh you know just to make sure that you know the community is also

046looking for ways to support that. Do we have a data like kind of, you know, like in our in our school data, we have sort of a a m a met a matrix that says ages and um is there something that could kind of give the give parents and and different people that kind of scope so we know what exactly um what does that mean? You know, when you say the numbers are increasing, is it starting at the very early Barnard age or you know, sorry, but does that make sense? Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you very much for that question. Um, all of our data as it relates to our student populations, regardless of whether they're special education or general education, are readily available to um any member of the public on the New York

047State Education Department website. That data is updated um annually. Um, as you may recognize, over the last few years, uh, the district has worked to effectively house our own data warehouse. So a lot of the information that uh you are um requesting including how many students fit into which uh student profile, which category based on grade level is actually available on our own district website. >> Thank you for that. Excellent. Thank you for that hard work and that deep dive. >> Great, Miss Ross. >> Um thanks thank you for for the presentation and um I really appreciate the key performance indicators and having that slide. Uh, a couple of things that stood out to me and that's I think slide 22 um was the reading literacy for all students including those with uh for all

048students and then also those with stu with students with disabilities with IEP uh that we actually met our targets this year. So uh thank you. I commend you guys for for reaching that because I I think uh that's a great milestone that we're actually starting to to see progress. I do have a couple of questions on the areas that we didn't meet uh targets and specifically there's a couple of them. One is on the math, right? It looks like we didn't sort of meet targets. What's our plan so that we will eventually kind of get to our 2027 28 if we know that we haven't sort of met them for this year? Like how are we planning to attack that going forward for this school year and beyond? Okay. So, part of it is when

049we're as we're working and as I say, we're active learners and engaged in looking at the data and trying to figure out the wise behind um and some of the work in other areas support this. So, as we shared that the SDI toolkit was developed last year in collaboration with our teams, we look at how successful was that tool and what do we need to do to enhance that. Additionally, in our area of professional learning, we look at what's needed, what additional learning and support staff may need to support this um improvement to meet our target and actually surpass our target. So, those are some of the items that we're um working on currently. >> Also, please keep in mind that um what's reflected here for our students with disabilities is also the story for

050our general education students, right? So this work is not done in isolation as a special education. I'm going to use the air quotes of project. This um is very much integrated into our curriculum and instruction. So the two departments work very closely together. What we do is we actually analyze the um the the types of skills that we were deficient in based on the assessments that our students take and that is what we al we we try to shore up um each year in our instruction. So based on the analysis of actual student performance based on um and we look at it from different aspects. We look at it from a building perspective. We also look at it from a grade level perspective to see what skills are necessary for us to build on um

051in alignment with the New York State standards that is incorporated into our general education uh offerings and then replicated at a higher level on our special education offerings. I'll associate it this way. the um the movement that we're seeing in our reading instruction and our reading performance is again not isolated to special education. It's happening general education and that's very much a testament to our curriculum and instruction department and the um move to bringing those quality skills that were only offered to special education students to our general education masses. So when we um determined to make um art and Gillingham um available to all of our students, we're see we we I've always said what you do for the least of our students, >> all of our students will benefit from. So we're starting to

052see that and that's what we have to start doing in mathematics a little bit better. >> And so I guess just on that uh and I might have missed it is um have we figured out the plan or we're still figuring out the wise as to how Okay, >> it's a work in progress. >> Got it. Okay. And then my other question is um and I'll skip to the one I have a few but I'll just skip to the other one that I think is important is the um because I recall hearing this throughout our conversations is students who have IEPs um having them spend more of their days in the general education setting that that is something that we as a district want to do. It's better for the student. It's sort of best

053practice overall. um as well. Uh and there's two I think two of those that are here. And in both of those cases, it looks like we haven't met our targets either. And so is it a is it the function of some of the students we're getting are more higher need or is it that we are still kind of working through our process to get them back into the general education setting? It's not so much the design of our student population as much as it is the ability to offer th those programs. So, we don't have enough classes that have the availability of the least restrictive environment >> which is why um we are working with the state specifically through our um evaluation to start to build more of those classrooms. So, when we're looking to

054expand our um inclusion um ICT to integrated co-eing classes across the uh the district and making sure that they're um that they're available in each of our buildings as opposed to just pockets of our buildings, we're trying to meet that target by opening up more of those classrooms. So, the more classrooms we open up, the more offerings we'll have for our students. And that is what we take into consideration when we have our cse and we talk about the available um environments for the students. The more environments we have, the more students we can offer it to. >> And is it at any particular level? Is it more at the elementary school or middle school or high school or is it across the board? >> It's across the board. >> Across the board. Okay. Um,

055and then the the last question that I just had was the um I think it was the review of the statemandated timelines and um making sure that we're kind of meeting those uh was it sorry I can't can't see. No, the randomly selected IPS um was that one is that an audit that we do ourselves and we're kind of grading ourselves in that audit. Is that what that is? Okay. Okay. And Okay. Thank you. >> Perfect, Alana. I mean, Miss Jacobs, sorry. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, thank you. Echoing everyone's thanks. Um, it was a really helpful deep dive and as more of a novice to the panel here, I just learned a lot tonight. So, thank you. Um, an observation is um, some really great wins and then some setbacks as you pointed out.

056Um and um I think we just talked about some of the the scores that were lower or didn't meet their targets and there are a couple of others including just meeting you know IEP timelines delivery and uh the percentage of students going out of district um which I think all plays into one of the three themes you noted at the end which is capacity right so um I guess along the lines of that observation as a board we're here to support the district and continuing its progress in this area and I know we're going to spend another session talking about the roadmap but we are here to hear your needs in that area to meet the capacity and how to build that up and make that a priority. So, a statement in a question if

057you want to, you know, sort of give us those needs, but just putting that statement out there um because that pops out to me as big areas of capacity um will not be we can't increase the growth in those numbers without increasing some of those tools and one of which is just capacity and staff. Um and along the lines of the positives, it's clear that everyone in the department is um I think winning in the surveys and the impressions of working with families and students. And my sense is that um you're you're giving a lot of attention you can to the students and their families, but there's only so much people can do. So, I first want to say thank you for that na um acknowledgement and I want to say thank you to the

058board because um when we meet and we discuss the concerns and what's going on in special education, you really do lean in and ask the questions that need to be asked. And um that's support as well to the department that maintaining accountability. >> And since you asked Um you know we are our our next presentation of course is going to um go back to the pathway of budgeting as it relates uh to next year. Um we will always ask for more we will always ask for more resources. We will always ask for um more resources and the most important resource that we can have are our people, right? um the more classroom spaces and facilities that we're able to build that will honor the the true sense of education for students, the better off the

059district will be as it relates to special education. Keeping in mind that the perfect classroom setting is an ICT classroom, right? And and this is Corey's opinion. Um, having been an ICT general education classroom teacher, um, I know that having a partner full day that has a different perspective that can meet the needs of students who think differently in the moment, again, not reserved just for students with IEPs, but reserved to work with students who see things a little bit differently than than the way the general education practitioner is presenting. It is a perfect classroom setting. It's the state's desire that every classroom is an ICT classroom. Will we ever be there? I don't think that any school district will ever be able to afford it. But the closer we get to that uh type

060of an environment for our students uh to meet their needs and to make those spaces available, the less we have to ask for variances related to our more specified classroom settings, our 81 um2s, our 1211s, um the better we will be uh poised to honor the needs of our students. So again, we will always ask for more. >> Thank you. >> Um can I piggyback off on that question for a second? Um, I remember correctly when I first started uh on the board 7 years ago, 10% of our student body was classified as student with disabilities. Last year it was 19%. So that's like a 9% increase in 7 years. um how are we dealing with an influx of new students who are coming with IEPs from maybe from other districts that we have to

061honor as well as um dealing with an environment where we are struggling to find educators who work in special education. >> President Auzia, I thank you very much for raising those points. Um, so the landscape, not just in New York, not just in Westchester, not just in New York State, in this country, I probably say nationwide, is we do not have enough certified teachers. Then we do not have nearly enough certified special educators. Um, the number is shrinking. And as a matter of fact, um, one of my, um, um, one of my colleagues shared with me this morning that one of our local, um, schools that was one of probably one of the the highest producers of, uh, educators that stayed within this region, I won't name the school, but they're closing their school of

062education. They announced today that uh not today, this week that this is their last class of education um students that they will be accepting on the undergrad level as well as the graduate level. So we're finding that institutions that prepare teachers are closing. So what we are seeing and what we're seeing specifically here in Newell is we are seeing an we're leveling off with our general with our student population overall. It's it's a bit of a dip and an increase. it it waivers, but we're seeing a tremendous increase in students coming to us with special education needs, IEP needs. In addition to that, we're seeing an increase in the um in the I don't want to use the word severity in the in the the the level of intricacy of their need of IEPs. Right?

063So, more restrictive placements are actually coming in. And when we say we're receiving these students, the question was asked tonight, no, we're just not taking people from all over the place. They're moving into the district. Um um and again, they move into districts where they know there's a strong special education program, right? But then with the budget crisis under which we are currently faced, we also had to reduce our workforce. We said that it wouldn't touch special education. For the most part, it didn't. But we're looking at the service providers that we're no longer able to um employ. So all it's a perfect storm at this point and to be quite honest I don't know how we get beyond the perfect storm but we must by law meet the needs of our students and as

064long as this district is producing the work that we are producing it in terms of the presentation that we're showing you tonight and sharing these results with the state the state works with us to give us those variances. A lot of districts don't get variances because they're not working to increase their um environments for special education services. But we are actively working to do that. So, uh that's the only um safety net that we currently have. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Uh thank you Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Joiner, Miss O'Brien, and your team for this special education action plan update. My question comes from slide 20 um action plan 2024 2025 accomplishments. Um thank you for all of the accomplishments that you've made and I want to address bullet one further studied and developed a toolkit

065to support specially designed instruction SDI. My question is when um do we plan to implement the toolkit? Who will have access to the toolkit and what are the expectations of the use of the toolkit? >> So the toolkit as I um mentioned in my presentation was developed in collaboration with our special education teachers. there was a a committee district-wide committee that convened and um worked with our team, our leadership to develop the toolkit and actually there was um turnkey of that during our superintendent conference days. I don't want to misspe which ones but they did engage in actual um teachers engage in professional learning about accessing and what was in the toolkit and going through it. >> Okay. And can you um share with us a little bit um about some of the things that

066are in the toolkit like you know just explain what's in there and perhaps like you know how it um we anticipate that it'll benefit the students. >> Okay. So the toolkit is housed in our um Google drive. So it is fully digital and accessible for all from all over. Right. Um it is defined by content area. So, ELA, math, and it's also defined by gradeb band. So, the tools within it are when a teacher is planning a lesson and want to plan a lesson in science, let's say, they can go to the toolkit to access the um materials as well as um there's some guidance documents within there that they can access in order to plan their lessons for that instruction for the students. Okay. >> Yeah, for the students specific needs. I'm sorry. So,

067when um you're doing um specially designed instruction, you're considering the curriculum, but you're also considering the IEP, which highlights the students specific needs as well as your knowledge as a teacher of their learning styles. So, if let's say a student is a visual learner, what type of visual representations do you need to provide and how can you incorporate it into your lesson? >> Oh, this sounds exciting. It sounds like you know this would be beneficial for um certainly the students with disabilities but also ENL students and the general education students and this would help us with um the complexity of educating all of the students. >> Yes. So there um during that same work time, I don't want to oversp speak into the curriculum and de in the CNI team, but the ENL director and

068her team also developed a toolkit and worked in in collaboration with the team. So it was a comprehensive district-wide effort, but also within special education. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you, Miss Williams. Do any other my colleagues have any comments? Miss Klein, >> I'll be brief. Um, first of all, thank you. That was incredibly comprehensive. It answered many questions that I had at since it's my first year on the board and I I do appreciate it. Um, I'm very pleased to hear, you know, that we're, you know, meeting goals and that there's an a plan. Um, and I think it's important that the community sees um, you know, what's coming and how special ed has changed um, in the last few years. I like to say postcoid. Um so I think it's

069really important that we're all aware and we're all working together on this. So um thank you for your support for your for everything. That's it. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? Seeing none. Thank you guys so much. >> And then next up is our second discussion item which is budget workshop number two. And Dr. Reynolds, I'll let you set the stage. >> Great. Thank you very much. [clears throat] So, um you you could not have a better uh introduction into our second presentation. So, what do we need? Here's what we need. Um last year, and I I don't want to um make this too light-hearted. Last year, we were in a position um that has not been seen for quite some time uh as it relates to our finances. Um, gladly, again, I will reiterate

070from the beginning that all of our audits, both statemandated and independently, um, um, requested, have placed the district in excellent standing financially in terms of how we manage the money that we do have. I also want to reiterate that uh working with as as um Mayor Ramos says our cousins in um in government. Um we are more fully funded as it relates to our payments in lie of taxes and developments in new shell. Um so those two items alone have uh put us in good financial standing but we all know what's happening on the federal landscape and then on the state landscape. Last year we had um again just revisiting we've we've uh received increases from year to year and I always say that it compounds right. So, uh, for for the, uh, few years,

071uh, prior, we had an increase of about $8 million, another $8 million a year after, another $8 million a year after, and then $16 million, uh, increase, right? So, um, outstanding support from the state. While that is the case, we are still not fully funded by the state. We still do not receive our full um, foundation aid. Um last year when um we as superintendent asked the governor to reook at the foundation aid formula, what was um accomplished was the governor actually changed only two variables within that foundation aid formula. And the two variables ended up hurting New Relle um in particular. We were one of the few districts in the state that were hurt. Um when the uh variables were um re- um uh calculated, it made Newell look like we had more in

072property value than we did um under the old formula and it made the residents of Newishell look like they earned more way more than they did when those variables were in the old calculation. Thus, we only received an increase from uh in the support from the state overall from uh last year to this year of $377,000. Again, 8 million 8 million 8 million6,377,000. That forced us to have to take a look at our programming, have to take a look at our personnel. Um we did uh see this coming. It actually hit us earlier um uh year-wise as opposed to what I predicted. I I anticipated we would be coming to that cliff at about this time. It hit us a year early and um we unfortunately had to reduce our workforce by 200 positions. Um

073and which equated to about um I believe it was about 35 what's our number in terms of personnel that we had to reduce. number uh in and about 50 or so personnel that we actually had to um lay off. Um gladly uh because of reduction um because of of of um transition in retirements and and things of that nature. We've been able to call back u many of those individuals, but we're still not at 100% of calling our our our employees back. uh they do remain on what's called the preferred eligibility list for seven years. So if a position opens up in their tenure area, they have first rights to that employment. We cannot even post for that position until we contact everybody who has been reduced in force and inform them of this opening

074and invite them to take their position back. Um, so that landscape was just last year and here we are and we are already hearing from the federal government that funding that is intended to help the specific children we were just talking about in our previous uh presentation. children who are um have special education needs, children who are considered to be English as a new language or English language learners, um individuals who might have some reading deficit and need some additional assistance uh in their in in their reading instruction. Money that was earmarked by the federal government for those purposes have been reduced by the federal government by about 30%. That is where we're starting our budgeting conversation this year. So, not only are we faced with the uh the financial landscape of last year, we

075are already starting from another deficit. So, tonight we are going to share a little bit more information. And again, we do not have all of the viable information uh necessary from the governor's office yet uh to uh present a full picture of our budget landscape, but we are going to uh begin our budget workshop work session number two. And we are going to be joined by our assistant superintendent for business and administration, Carlos Lau, and our business administrator, Miss Joy Mike. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening. >> Yes ma'am. Um so uh good evening president I vice president Ross and board members. Um this is uh the second presentation of many to come. Right. Um and so this will be somewhat of a repeat from the first because as Dr. Reynolds indicated we don't have

076all the information yet. So you're not going to see hard numbers yet, but um so that you know where we are in the process. Um um you will continue to see these slides throughout um our journey this year. And so this is again the budget process. We start with our guiding principles which I will uh again uh share with this evening. everything aligned to our strategic roadmap um with specific areas of focus, sharing you with you the variables um and of course always asking um our stakeholders to provide input um throughout this entire process and then we of course we get to the budget vote to determine where we go from there. So our guiding principles again are our our vision, mission, our equity work and of course a focus on the whole child and

077how can we maintain a focus on this as we kind of uh massage the numbers um to stay focused on what matters most which is the student. Um the strategic road map which you are all familiar with again aligned to the student learning superb staff staff support of connected schools and of course managing all resources in service to schools and departments. In terms of our areas of focus, when you think about what is informing us, it really is that student outcome, knowing that every dollar, every penny um should be in service to supporting those whom we serve. That um evidence-based and data supported decision-m is taking place. that this is not decisions made in in in in silos but um in collaboration and using data and numbers to inform that. Also leveraging attrition and retirement

078where possible. Um decreasing um external contracts really looking internally to the experts inhouse and asking how they can leverage the work so that we don't have to then ask external folks to come in and do things that we can do here inhouse. and then staying within the state mandated tax cap that is of course our desire. So in terms of budget development there we go um our approach again is to leverage the the roadmap we've already begun a conversation with all administrators across the system that we've decreased our discretionary spending by 10% right out the gate. So that is where we are. U maintain the current district-wide staffing level. So we are not talking um about increasing that number. We're talking about how can we proceed with whom we have. And then continue to provide

079building allocations based on enrollment. Um and you will uh hear joy Mike momentarily on how that's been distributed. Ensure that building and department leadership budgets are within the allocation. We recognize that some have asked for additional items. they go on a separate list. Those are things that are not budgeted. You may want them, but you have to stay within your allocation of what was provided to you. And then of course, a commitment to regular checkpoints um throughout this entire process. Um we have started our one-on-one conversation. So after having met with all district leadership um informing them of where we are currently um we've started to sit down with each uh principal to say here is the current landscape here's what you currently have tell us more so that we fully understand so that when

080we go in to deliberate as a cabinet uh we are fully informed and then review and approval of requests to maximize student outcomes and resources again all focused on our student outcomes. and utilizing our resources appropriately. So, that being said, I will pass the mic over to Joy M who will provide you an update on some of the variables that we we currently have. Thank you. Good evening, trustees. So in terms of the budget variables that we have to incorporate as we um proceed through the budget development process, one of the areas um that we focus on in addition to allocating funds for supplies, materials, contractual, those are all based on student enrollment. The district has established an equity uh allocation to be distributed districtwide and that is based on enrollment first. So this slide

081shows you all of our school buildings and their enrollment as of beds day. Beds day is the basic education data system date which is the first Wednesday in October. Um where districts across the state will capture student enrollment in each school building. um our equity allocations for that overall district allocation for equity uh funding is distributed to the school builds buildings not just based on raws student enrollment numbers but also uh based on the demographics within those numbers so that um students that have additional needs uh may be low income or may need additional academic supports um are weighted more heavily so that they'll get a a larger slice of the equity allocation. And so that's what this slide um sort of measures or or um represents. You see the high schools at uh 30%

082and Isaac is looking um currently at 14%. Again, that's the percent of the equity allocation of funding, not the percent of the students in the building. This next slide um is a I I believe one that we presented previously related to uh the internal considerations um as we go through the budget development process. those things that we do have some input in. Um there are some factors that I'll speak about that we really don't control. But in terms of the collective bargaining agreements for um our union members for uh the fuse unit for ANS um and the non-represented employees and our management and convent confidential uh employees, those agreements are are pending um um and uh will be in the negotiations process uh this school year. Um our staffing practices are being reviewed in terms

083of our sixth period assignments at the secondary level uh for coverages. Um our building substitute models across the districts um and then the optimal case loads for our clinicians and service providers. We are looking to um engage with best practices for our operational ratios um for um security and facility staff and also looking at staffing realignments as we learn more as we have um employees that may have um submitted paperwork for retirement. Just looking across the district on how we might be more efficient. We are um planning uh according to the class size guidelines that we I believe established last school year. Those will continue into 2627. Um these are some external factors and contractual obligations that we don't necessarily have input on. These are information or inputs that we will receive. The teachers retirement

084system rate has not been finalized just yet. We are hoping to get that this month. Um but it will be a slight decrease is what I have um learned. Uh the local retirement system rate for our um civil service employees will increase 1.1%. So that's the district comp contribution to that retirement system. Our health insurance um through the NIH plan will increase 11%. Medicare reimbursements and retirey benefits um are also a factor as we have more um people that go into retirement and then reach those age thresholds. Uh and then our staff retirements as much as you we would love to control that we can't. So we are are are receiving those uh letters and uh requests ongoing. I believe um the consumer price index um the projected range as of when we wrote this

085slide was between 2.8% and 3.5%. That does vary. Um it will be provided to us um for calculation of the tax cap uh I believe by the end of this month. Um but that rate the final rate will impact our transportation contract um and also our Bosei services. Um so we are also uh looking to or or required to account for the anticipated impact of the charter schools that are um slated to um open in the city of New Rashell and there are two schools that we are currently um planning around. Um >> can I sorry can I clarify that one has been approved one is in the middle of >> one is in the approval process. That is correct. Thank you, President Ayuzi. Um, and then the state and federal aid revenue. We have

086not gotten um our state aid revenue numbers from the governor's office um yet. We do anticipate that to occur before the end of this month. So, there are a lot of variables that should sort of solidify um as we get to the end of January. Um, as we mentioned in our previous presentation, uh, we are anticipating a reduction in our, um, state and federal grant allocations. And so for the formula grants, specifically our title 1, 2, 3, and four grants, we are anticipating or planning for a 27% decrease. And for our section 611, and 619 grants, we are anticipating a 15% decrease. Okay. Um so and and we will um continue to learn more as we move forward. Uh Westchester County sales tax is a variable. It it actually has increased over the years um

087thankfully. And then our use of appropriated fund balance which is really just using district savings to mitigate the impact to the taxpayer. And that's it for our variables at the moment. and I will turn this over to Mr. Leo to finish. >> Thank you, Joy. Um to give you just a maybe a a clearer look um at the grants themselves, we provided the tit the titles of each of the grants that we currently receive on the lefth hand side. Um and then the allocation that is projected for 2627 on the far right, the 2526. So it the the chart itself shows you the the allocation in 23 24 2526 and then what's projected based on that reduction of 27 or 15% for a total of 6,541,349. So as Dr. Reynolds indicated earlier, we're going we're

088going into this conversation with an assumption that those dollars will not um be part of our equation, unfortunately. So, but I think it's important for folks to to understand that. Um, and then just to provide clarity on those grants and what they do and um who they service. Again, as Joy had mentioned, 611 primarily supports our special education program for our school age students with disabilities. Uh, 619 um also special education related to our preschool age students. The local government records management is really just moving from paper to digital. um um which we don't have any dollars um allocated for that. Um my brother's keeper um designed to improve and support some of our students um specifically at the high school and I believe we have moved that into the middle schools. Um title one

089um this is a school improvement dollars um and title one specifically is is supplemental dollars to improve academic achievement. Title 2A uh training uh recruitment efforts. Um it's also used for reduction of class size um for those dollars there. Uh title three um is specifically for our ENL supports for students who speak a second language or come in with a a language other than English. Uh title three also supports um our immigrant students. Um excuse [clears throat] me. And then our title four, a student support academic um enrichment. Um title four actually supports um both well-rounded education but a focus on the use of technology in the classrooms. Um and then of course the teacher center which we do not manage those dollars specifically. We do have a teacher center um and so u those

090dollars of course would also decrease. And then the universal prek uh dollars that we receive that is for both the services we provide in-house and also pay to um our external partners. Um and then always in the back of our minds is where where were we and how did we get here kind of scenario which we talked about uh quite a bit last year. So we truncated the the list which was I think about 10 years we provided previously uh just down to the five. So just to kind of do a quick recap for this past year in 2526 um the calculation worked itself out so that in in theory we could ask for.33% um to our community and that just was not going to be enough because the the dollar increase would be $762,000

091um and we would have to reduce a heck of a lot more. And so we engaged with the board um and the recommendation was to go back out at 3.95% um or um this past school year which is the same percent from the year before in 2425. Um and that was able to allow us to bring um an actual dollar increase of 9,147 962. Um and so collectively the difference um would be 8,385,597 of an increase um using tax dollars. And you'll notice um where we are currently and we've shared this before and we'll continue to share this at the next couple of meetings. Our intent of course is not to go above the tax cap. That is not how we're walking into this scenario. What we need to do is find out what are

092those external variables that are going to influence what our revenue is and then make um the best um informed decisions possible and bring those back for consideration. Um and of course the road map moving on from today is we will not be presenting at the next board meeting I believe on the 22nd if I'm not mistaken but we'll be back on the beginning of February February 3rd um for work session number three and our hope is that at that point um we will have all the information all those variables will have now come inhouse and we'll be able to make a full calculation to provide you with those numbers again at the beginning of February followed by a sec a session number four February 26, a work session number five on March 12th, and then

093another work session on number six, March 26th, but that's also the same night that the board would adopt um a proposed budget. Um and then we would move on uh engage in conversation with the community um if if the vote is a positive uh for a budget hearing on May 5th and then the budget vote itself on May 19th. And I know that Millie has already started working diligently on that because that is a a huge undertaking. So, thank you Millie ahead of time. Here's a a a picture of the uh the calendar of events um so to speak. Um simultaneously uh the top of the arrow is our currently the meetings we're engaging in so that folks understand that things are happening inhouse and externally. The items underneath are the board meetings and the

094work sessions that we will engage um with you um so that you have an understanding of what we have done and where we are going. We've already met with principles and district leadership and we will continue to do that throughout this process. That being said, we encourage our our community to please please please give us in um input and feedback um at community meetings definitely here at um at BOE meetings but definitely at the budget hearing um and please please um review the budget presentation and if you have any questions please send those questions and emails to either the BOE at N boeredlearn.org or we've set up a specific emails for questions specific to this year's budget process at budget questions nredlearn.org and then of course like as I mentioned attending board meetings and watching

095the archive videos etc to be fully informed. So thank you and now we are open for questions and discussion. >> Thank you very much Miss Ross. >> Uh again thank you as usual. I appreciate uh getting ahead of the budget um in the process and even having these kind of before we even begin the new year. Um I have a couple of questions. One is I know that um last year it was the state the way that they calculated they made their calculations and so whatever the aid is that we received was lower than in previous years. like I think the percentage increase was very small and we only had what was it like $700,000 that was come from the prior year. Um when in the budget process do we get that calculation and that

096number back from the uh from the state? >> Well, our hope is that we'll get a run of the first run should I say at the end of this month. >> Oh, it's the end of January, >> right? February. Like should be the end of this month. We're hoping by the 22nd, right? I don't want to give a date specifically, but that's why we're saying if we get our items and our variables by the end of the month, come February 3rd, we'll be able to provide to you numbers. >> Okay? At least in terms of what we expect from a revenues coming in from >> the different um pieces. And then regarding the uh budget snapshot grant funding on page I guess it's 16. Um was this just your estimate or how do we know

097that it's coming down by this amount? Um, so basically we're we're we're looking at everything. We're reading um >> okay >> um statements u coming out from Congress. Um anything that we can get our hands on to kind of get a sense of what's going on whether it's our colleagues in discussion with other business administrators or journals or articles that are coming out from the state. Uh uh the uh not Boseies I just going to say Boseies the uh the Southern Westchester not southern Westchester our business Questar Questar and >> oh my goodness >> school of business administrators of New York >> Asbo oh my goodness uh sends out regular communications and says hey guys here's the pulse of what's going on here's what's trending here are the numbers here's what we know so far

098and so that is how we're continuously being informed. >> Got it. Uh and then one last question is um and maybe I'm just trying to find several several linings, but the um page 14 uh when you have sort of the the different increases that we're expecting in costs and of course everything is going up. uh is be will will we be able to put numbers to like what a 1% increase will mean or an 11% increase or when will we expect to see what the what that means? >> So we certainly will have um numbers for retire like specifically retirement uh yeah >> increase and health insurance increase >> and we will be able to compare from year to year. I want to say that cautiously because it depends on the mix of your employees

099as to what the benefit cost will be. So not everyone has a individual health insurance plan. Maybe they switch from individual to family. Um and the number of uh civil service employees versus the number of pedagogical employees and their salaries will drive our retirement system costs. So currently as as this slide um shows we expect for the civil service employees that contribution rate to go up 1.1%. So that will definitely be a increase but we are waiting for the final TRS or uh rate for our pedagogical employees which I do anticipate to be a a decrease. >> Okay. And then I guess similarly for the health insurance premium, >> that um number is already out because our insurance rates start from January 1 through December [clears throat] 31. So that when we budget, we have

100six months at the current rate and then six months at an increased rate. So that increase rate for January 2026 was a 11% increase. Oh, so we already budgeted for that for part of this year as well. >> Well, as part of the budget process, I I budget for the current premium amount for six months and then I project an increase for the second six months so that we have sufficient funding even though I don't have a crystal ball to know exactly what the rate increase will be. >> Got it. Okay. Um, and then the last question is you mentioned the um, charter schools that are coming in and I know we put money aside for this year in this year's budget. I don't think that will materialize. Will we be able to kind of

101take that money and hold it into next year? >> Well, Dr. Reynolds, >> thank you very much for that question. So, we've already allocated that that money uh to other uses within the district in order to bring individuals back that were laid off. >> Um we do still have a portion of the money that was budgeted for uh the charter school to open this year in reserve. We can encumber that money and we can decide what we're going to do with it. Either bring some uh bring a few people back or we can roll it over to the next year. >> Got it. Okay. Thanks. Can I I just want to make sure that everyone understands we currently are paying for other students to go to other charter schools and so that number could still

102increase, right? Other options other than that are taking up airspace. >> Okay. So there's always some some part of our budget regardless. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Any other of my colleagues have any questions? Miss Williams. >> Okay. Uh thank you Mr. Lal and thank you Miss uh Mike for this presentation and to your team. Um my question is going to um slide number 12 and um is the equity allocations by building and um when we look at that number the total amount of students in our public school building I believe is um 9,8668 and that's a decrease from you know um each year seems to be going down. So my question is um what is being allocated to students who are not attending our public schools? Do we have that information? >> We do

103not have an allocation for students that are not attending our schools. We are funded based on the numbers that we have on beday. It drives almost every state aid metric that we receive. It's based on your enrollment and the statewide everyone looks at that beds day date for enrollment. But I do want to say that 9,868 is a snapshot on that first Wednesday of October. On the first Thursday of October that number might have been different and I would certainly uh anticipate that today that number may be a little higher. We do have um cyclical change within the district enrollment annually. So that number varies. It is a moving target. However, we must bud based on that attendant state snapshot because that's how we get funded based on those numbers. >> And if I may

104add, um, historically over the past few years, the number that we report to the state on beds stay a low number compared to the number that we end with um, at the end of the year. So, while we have to while we're working on a budget um that's dependent upon this number, we will actually be serving more students with that that dollar amount than what we anticipated. >> And you know, funding, as we know, funding for public schools comes from um a mix of local property taxes, state formulas, and targeted federal programs. Um, so I mean how else can we raise money through private institutions, grants from private organizations? Is that something that um is feasible or is is that something that we would look into that would help us? >> Um, unfortunately as a

105New York State public school um organization, we cannot raise funds. We can't solicit funds. Um if there are times where we are able to receive donations from the public um uh there those donations are are minimal um we can't um go to any corporations to receive any additional funding. Um the one thing that we do benefit from that I shared at the beginning is uh the the revenue that we receive from the city uh for the payments in lie of taxes for the developments. Uh so that's an additional funding that we do get and as I said uh the the city government has fully funded us over the past few years. I would say the last two years two to three years. Um so uh that's the only additional revenue that we're able to receive.

106>> Thank you. I I have a I had a similar question and so not to repeat the question but um it's just specifically focused on the federal cuts and obviously that's going to impact not just New Relle but many large surrounding cities and it's obviously a highly politicized decision like do we expect there'll be private endowment is not the right word but um private institutions that come to fill these gaps and in in a way of grants that would support some of these districts. Unfortunately, no. Uh many of the grant uh provisions are actually federal funds as well and we are seeing many of the grant providers having their grant funding cut as well. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else with any comments or questions? All right, seeing none, thank you very much. >> Thank

107you. >> Uh next up on the agenda is our public comment period. I'm going to read a brief statement. Um, you haven't signed up, please, you can pass to the clerk your sheet of paper. Ladies and gentlemen, we're about to convene into the public comment period of the meeting. The board of education adopted policy 12:30 in April 2022 to ensure all members of the public had the opportunity to speak at both of our board meetings each month. We believe it is crucial for us to hear from our community members about their concerns and issues. Having said that, please note that the board is here to listen. The public comment period is not designed to be a discussion. Accordingly, understand the board will not respond to your concerns and questions tonight. We take your concerns and

108questions seriously and want to have sufficient time to process and research issues if need be. We will, however, respond to your questions and concerns at a future meeting or have the proper staff member get back to you at the appropriate time. I also want to point out that under state and federal privacy laws, we are unable to entertain any comments or questions about school personnel and students. Please know, however, that we take personal concerns very seriously. On these matters, we would ask you to go through the appropriate administrative channels. Finally, we recognize that right now our nation and our community are polarized on a number of issues. That said, we want our schoolboard meetings to serve as an example to our students that members of our school board and members of our community can deal

109with controversial issues in a civil manner and demonstrate mutual respect for one another. In that spirit, we will insist that all speakers and members of the audience maintain civility and respect for any divergent views that others possess. We ask that speakers please address their comments to the board directly rather than the audience. In the unlikely event the meeting becomes unruly, the board will recess the meeting and return once order has been restored. Finally, I want to remind everyone that you may submit written comments to the board in lie of speaking during the public comment period if you so choose. Tonight, we have set aside 45 minutes for public comment where each speaker who has signed up before 3:30 today has three minutes to speak. If a person requests to speak after 3:30, speakers may sign

110up in person at the meeting with the clerk and will also be afforded the opportunity to speak. Our first speaker of the night is Miss Sharon Foots. Good evening. My name is Sharon Foots. I wanted to say at these meetings we keep hearing transparency. We will be transparent. In the survey, it uncovered that transparency and not um uh information not being properly disseminated to uh and and in a timely fashion. um information wasn't given to the uh specifically the ELA community. Um I'm trying to figure out what has changed in all of these meetings that I have been to and the ones that I haven't. Um and then I ask what will change? Uh a student population our student population has shrunk significantly significantly now at 9,868 students. I was just made aware that that

111number could change even as of today. Um that means that we're spending approximately 36,400 $36,000 $36430 to educate and support a student which seems like a lot of money to still not be having services for um these students. What are you doing about that? I tend to look at um how the schools are ranked by looking at apps like uh home buying apps, right? because they tend to show a different picture of how the schools are rated and um people don't want to come to a city where the school district is failing. So when I look at schools that are rated like Columbus a 6 out of 10, Trinity a 5 out of 10, Nura High School a four out of 10, it is disturbing. Um, now when I look at the budget variables, right,

112I do see that in certain schools, we're uh ranked like obviously expected. Uh, Webster is a seven out of 10. Alba Leonard and Ward, great job you guys. What are we going to do to get those other schools up to seven out of 10, eight out of tens, nine out of tens um, with this data and research that we spend so much money to, we talk about these strategic road maps every other meeting, I don't see where it's getting us. Um when I look at the budget variables for the uh equitability allocation chart I wonder but it's also interesting that [snorts] schools like Columbus who were allocated 11% also failing not failing but low low scored schools like Trinity 10% um and uh what was the other one? Nurial High School 30%. These are the

113same schools that are rated six and five and four out of 10. I don't really understand why this is continuing to happen. Um I have 29 seconds. What do I want to talk about? Oh, I I know you all know that I'm a big fan of the charter schools. So, um I thought it was interesting that uh it was stated here that you all still receive money for children who are going out of district to go to charter schools, right? And you will continue to see you will receive money and you might receive more. But I found it also interesting that one of your things about these charter schools coming is that they're potentially taking away from the district. >> Thank you. >> Would anybody else like to sign up for public comment tonight? >>

114Mr. Seam, you may you're good. [laughter] Oh, sorry. Thanks. All right. Good evening, Miam Desine. Um, so I listened to the special education. It looks really um detailed. I hear a lot of numbers and measurements, which is always good to hear and see. I don't get it all. So, um, my my when I hear this, I hear a lot of improvement, but in talking to folks that I know about that have interacted with special ed, um, two things come to mind. Like, for example, I know this one family that recently tried to bring the child back to the district. She took her out and put her in charter, tried to bring the child back into district. She's only been gone for about a year or so, and it took us like a month to get

115her in here. And one of the issues was the fact that she does have an IEP. We don't have the records anymore for some reason. Um, we were delaying. She has to be tested. Um, she had a language before she was taken a language and charter. We didn't want to give her a language now. Uh it was just disturbing. I know when we were in a committee before, we said that it shouldn't take a child more than 3 days to from the time they register you prove them in that they should be able to go to school. For it to take a month for her to get to school was so unacceptable. Um in talking to my cousin that has uh a child of special needs, she had to put on her gorilla suit to

116get the support that she needed. Um, and it and it it was obvious that that he did need support. So, I don't see a lot of the improvements that are here. I don't know who answered this, but I don't see it when I speak to the special needs folks. And then the other thing about special education is in this last budget cut, we were losing excellent special ed teachers, teacher aids, and we let them walk out the door, but we need them and we can't find them. and we didn't do what we needed to do to keep them. That was very disturbing. Um so those were my things until I can get into um bigger details with this. Now the other thing with with the budget that we talked about last month or at least

117I brought it up. So you have this and you're saying this is your bed day. So give us the numbers. give us a range of the numbers of what it could actually be so we have a better idea that it's not just just one day even that's what you got to budget for give us that number um looking at these again it's not the population you're saying it's you know looks discrepancies but so tell us what is it based on so that we see how this equity matches up because the numbers are very lopsided to me um Isaac E is 14% % um equity but only like 10% just about equal as Alberta Leonard. Alberta Leonard gets um 10% of equity. We got to explain this better. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Seam. Would

118anybody else like to sign up for public comment? Okay, seeing none, we're going to move into our consent agenda for personnel resolutions. Colleagues, can I get a motion and second to approve consent agenda for personnel resolutions number 26-247 1-4 number 26-248 1-1 number 26-249 1-11 number 26-250 1-5 number 26-251 1-5 and number 26-252 1-3 according to the recommended action for each item >> so moved Ross Second, Jacob. >> All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Next is our consent agenda for general resolutions. Colleagues, can I get a motion and a second to approve consent agenda for general resolutions number 26-253 through number 26-262 according to the recommended action for each item. >> So move Clayton Fernandez. Second, Ross. >> All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Our next meeting will be a

119committee of the whole session on Thursday, January 22nd at Isaac Young Middle School. And colleagues, can I get a motion, a second to adjurnn the meeting? So move >> Vega. >> Second, Ross. >> All in favor? >> I. Any opposed?