001Good evening everyone. Uh we are just back from executive session. So I'm going to ask everyone to join me in the pledge of allegiance. However, afterwards I'm going to ask that we observe a moment of silence. Um unfortunately we lost another graduate of Cornwall um school district. Austin Casten passed away um just this past week recently. He is a student who excelled in carpentry and was known for his work and while he was at CEK and enrolled at uh Cornell Central School District and um even if you see some of his things online he was a really really talented craftsman. So I'm just going to ask that we observe a moment of silence after the pledge. So, our first order of business, I would like to bring forward the board's recommendation regarding the appointment of
002the superintendent of schools. Um, may I have a motion? >> So, moved. >> Thank you, >> Brendan. May I have a second? Second, >> Carl. Thank you. Um, be it resolved that the board of education of the Caramel Central School District hereby appoints Megan Arjeno to serve as the superintendent of schools for the period of July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2029, subject to the terms and conditions of employment set forth in the employment agreement, a fully executed copy of which will be filed with the district clerk. Be it further resolved that the board of education of the Cornwall Central School District hereby approves and authorizes the president to sign employment agreement. discussion. >> You gonna say >> I just want to say congratulations to Megan. >> We didn't vote yet. >> Well, you said
003discussion. >> Okay. >> Did you not say that? >> I did. I was just It was formality. >> I just want to if you ask me an opportunity then I want to say congratulations. >> I'm just >> And sorry. >> I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. >> Megan, I just want to tell you, Megan, we are so proud to have you here and good luck with everything. All righty. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Okay, let the record show the motion passes. Thank you. Congratulations, Megan. >> I just wanted to say a few words. >> A little bit more. A little bit more. So >> you got eggs. >> So I just I was just teasing Brendon. You can make all the comments, but I did want to just say that over the past
004several months, the board has engaged in a thoughtful and several several months, the board has engaged in a thoughtful and thorough search process. and we've heard clearly from our students and staff and community about the kind of leadership they value. Megan has demonstrated the kind of leadership that reflects the values of our Cornwall community. She knows our district. She listens and she leads with both purpose and care. Throughout the process and this past year as interim superintendent, it became clear to the board that she has the experience, judgment, and vision needed to move our district forward. On behalf of the board of education, it is truly my honor to officially appoint Megan Arjeno as superintendent of schools for the Cornwall Central School District. Congratulations. >> Thank you. Yeah, I just make sure she signs that
005before I give my >> um Thank you so much. Thank you, Christine. Thank you to the board of ed. Um, I just wanted to thank you all for your trust that you hold in me for this incredible responsibility as superintendent of schools. I'm incredibly excited and humbled. I feel like a little, you know, nervous at the moment. I don't know why, but and I look forward to our continued partnership as we move forward. Um, I also want to thank our students, our cabinet, faculty, and staff um, and our community for all of your support throughout this year. We have an incredibly special district and our future is so bright. And of course, I need to thank my husband and my boys um for always cheering me on and supporting me throughout all my craziness and
006all of the things that happen. Um so, thank you. Uh and so with that, I am submitting my letter of resignation as assistant superintendent for instructions so that we can begin this next chapter. Psych. Thank you so much. And I'm I'm so proud to serve as your superintendent. >> Thank you. So, um, I need a motion to accept Megan's letter of resignation as assistant superintendent of instruction. >> Carl, thank you. Second. >> Second, >> Jim. Thank you. All in favor of accepting the resignation? >> I >> Thank you. The motion passes. It's official. Okay. So, now we will move on to public comment. Um, this is our first round of public comment. Each speaker has up to three minutes. Please state your name and direct comments to the board there. Uh, we will take your
007name and um, email if you come up to speak. And we ask that everyone remain respectful so all voices can be heard. If you'd like to speak, there is microphones at the end here. Hello. Um, congratulations. How exciting. Um, I am here today just as a mom. My name is Natalie Ren. I'm in CO uh, elementary. My oldest is six, so he's in first grade. And I'm I'm sure that y'all have discussed this concern that I'm going to bring to you. Uh but I'm I just don't really know what the policy is. So I just wanted to share my thoughts and and kind of ask for further conversation if that's possible. So um so my older son's in first grade. He loves his teacher. He loves his class in school. We love it. Um he
008mentions all kinds of fun things that they do in class, but he also has mentioned a lot uh like playing games on the Chromebooks that they have in class and uh you know, mom, busy mom. Okay, cool. What else is going on in your day? But he started to to talk about it kind of a lot. So I asked his teacher who should be paid a billion dollars. She's amazing. Um you know, how often do do they do you have your kids on on the Chromebook? and she said, you know, it is every day, uh, but less than 30 minutes, um, you know, they're in first grade. And so, uh, we had a bit of a a really nice, productive conversation, but just understanding what what her, uh, approaches, and she tries to, you know,
009minimize it, which is great. Uh, and so I ended up having a conversation with a few other teachers and just parents in the community. And it seemed like like all the folks were a little worried about how much their kids were on the, you know, Chromebooks and and using digital technology. I know first grade like 20 minutes a day is maybe not a totally big deal, but it seems like it compounds as the years progress where a few parents from like third and fourth grade kids were saying that they're on Chromebooks a a lot more than than they're comfortable. So, I kind of just wanted to ask the board, and I don't know if you're allowed to respond, um, what the general policy is and and how you implement technology or digital technology for the
010kids by grade. I looked on the website and there is like a acceptance use uh, policy, which is a great like broad understanding, but I I'm not sure who's in charge or like what's the regulation on, you know, how much and what the programs are that we use. I I did some, you know, mom level research uh on, you know, the the dangers, right, on the dangers or or or the benefits of using uh tech for our kids. And I uh came away with some really interesting facts that I'm happy to share with you, but I feel like you've probably already know some of them. Um can I open it up to y'all to answer that? Is that allowed? >> So, we don't do the cross dialogue just because we want to go back and
011make sure we get all the facts to give you, you know, a really thorough answer. So, we will um you know gather all the information and then at our next meeting uh I'll be able to speak to it in terms of just in general terms or at least give you respond to you in the meantime with direction of where to find more content and stuff. Great. It is a topic that is top of mind that we've been talking about but none of us want to misspeak in terms of the facts just from you know our hip here. >> Right. Okay. Well, I'd be very happy to share what I have found um just in the email and then >> send you can send it to the board of ed. >> Okay. Wonderful. >> At Cornwall
012Central School District. >> Okay. Yeah. Thanks for your help. >> School Cornwall schools. Yeah. Thank you. >> Any other public comments? >> Okay. So, that brings us to our budget presentation. Uh we'll now move into the 26 27th budget hearing presentation. Mr. Fank. Okay, good evening. Thank you very much. Uh we are here for our annual budget hearing. Um this is for the public to be able to come up and ask any questions uh regarding the budget. So I'm going to get started with uh an overview. The board has seen all of this. Um probably could do it themselves up here. Um but we'll go through the the format here. So, the Cornwall Central School District is committed to working together with the community to provide a secure and nurturing environment of diverse learning opportunities
013for all students. It is our goal to help students achieve their dreams and aspirations and prepare them to confidently face challenges while promoting the strength of mind, body, and character. Just our budget calendar, lots of check marks. We've made it. Uh this is the last budget presentation. So congratulations. Um a little celebration on the right hand side there from here at CES. The only last hurdle to go here would be May 19th. That is our uh budget vote day and our capital project vote day. Just the agenda here. We have a lot to cover. Um that awesome picture to the right is courtesy of our uh PTO trust. We thank them for really recognizing our school bus drivers. uh the first people to see our kids in the morning and the last ones to see
014them uh before they go home. So, love to recognize our staff, particularly our school bus drivers here. And we have a number of items to cover. So, just to recap the budget development process, we don't just do the budget here uh in season uh with the calendar that that was just previously up here with the check marks. The budget's really an ongoing um review and it starts, we can pick any season. If the spring and summer is our choice here, we're closing out one budget. We're preparing for our audit. We're going through our budget assessment. Uh we're opening up the new school year budget and then we set the tax levy in the reserves. In the fall, we have our audit submission that goes to the New York State. Our budget calendar gets uh crafted.
015Our budget builder meetings start taking place. We have a needs assessment and then we're reviewing our budget uh through an analysis. And then in the winter and the spring, we do our budget construction, our board discussion, our budget adoption, our budget vote, and our analysis. So with respect to our process, it's highly collaborative discussions and input from administration, department chairs, staff, and community kind of where are we now? What do we want to do to improve student outcomes and achievements? and how do we get there? And sometimes we do a reshuffleling of the current year budget in order to make things happen, in order to lessen the burden on the next year's budget. Just a continuum of the budget. Starting on the left with the budget calendar, we kind of back into all of our
016dates. Really, the last date up there would be the budget vote of May 19th, and we back all the way down from there. So, our budget builder meetings, our needs assessment, budget construction, and then end up with that budget vote. So, as we dive right into the numbers, um here's our expenditure side of the budget. So, we don't have a line by line here, but we start to group to make it more visually appealing for us with salaries being really the largest sum as compared to uh year-over-year. uh your pension, your TRS, your ERS, uh contribution rates, social security, health care, uh and health insurance. Then we have lots of contractual supplies and equipment, out of school, uh out of district tuition, our debt service, what our transportation budget looks like, all of our utilities
017because we got to keep the lights on and the computers moving, um our occupational education, our insuranceances, and our transfer to capital. So our budget this year on the expenditure side 97 million 086599 as compared to the previous year of 92 986 803 a difference of about $4 million a little over $4 million. New York states require us to have a three-part budget. So, you'll see this in the budget newsletter, which will be arriving in your house holds very soon as that was uh crafted uh the past couple weeks. New York State mandates that schools release their proposed annual budget in a three-part component. So, we'll talk about that. Um administrative component, all the different parts, superintendent, assistant superintendents, p uh principles, assistant principles, their salaries, benefits, and then office uh and program costs for
018directing and supervising instruction. the program component. That's your largest component. You'll see in just a sec. Uh salary and benefits for classroom teaching personnel, so teaching aids, teaching assistance, instructional materials. Um that has Boseies in there. We talk about sports and extracurricular in there, transportation. And then the capital component, all costs for the facilities, maintenance, operations, so salary, benefits, supplies, and utilities. So our breakdown is here for year-over-year. On the administrative component, we're about 8.9 million as compared to 8.3. Uh on the program side, we are 73 million or 73.5 million as compared to 71.4 difference of a little over $2 million. And on the capital component, um 14.5 as opposed to 13.2 uh difference of a $1.3 million. So again you'll see the the total as compared to 92986 803. So the proposed revenue
019on the on the other side here our maximum allowable tax levy was 4.81. So that would have been a an increase in the budget about $2.5 million. We are proposing a 3% property um tax levy increase which gets us about 1.6. Um, we have what we're getting in state aid right now or what we project and then our building aid of about $1.3 million. Um, we've made a a recommendation to make some transfers from our ERS reserve and our TRS reserve. Those are savings accounts that um we hold um for a total of about $518,000. So on the revenue side, it's going to be $94.5 million as opposed to $90.4 million. So a difference of $4 million. And here's kind of how we balance out here. Total expenditures on 97086599. We break out what the
020property tax levy is going to be at a 3% increase. That's 55.5 million. On state aid, we're looking at 36.9. Our miscellaneous, which would include those transfers at 2.1, gets us to 94586599. and we are going to use an assigned fund balance of about $2.5 million and that balances our budget. Here's our recap kind of all on one page. The recommended budget, the expenditure side and then the revenue budget at 94.5, our fund balance of 2.5 million coming into play and we are balanced out at 97086599. You'll see a number of things on the lefth hand side with our assumptions. um 3% property tax levy increase, uh increase in state aid, building aid, and then on the uh right hand side, we still have some open items as we finish out the year. So, we
021have some contract negotiations taking place. We still have some special education placements. Um and then at the bottom, uh sorry for the chuckle. Uh final state aid figures in UPK, and I'll address that in a in a separate slide in just a second. So again, just a healthy budget is balanced out. 97086599 revenues and expenditures on one side you you have that tax levy largest portion um state aid would be the next and miscellaneous and then appropriated fund balance that makes up the revenue. And on the other side uh on the expenditures are all the other items I listed off this sheet. So I won't reiterate that and bore you to death. What does this look like on a tax impact? So, uh, kind of that fair market value. Uh, so let's deal with some
022assumptions first. We're going with the 3% tax levy, $2.5 million in assigned fund balance. Um, star exemption is included. U, no change in the town assessed value. We know that's going to change. And no change in equalization rates. I can pretty much guarantee you those are going to change as well. So, we're just trying to get some type of comparison. um you're looking at for a fair market value house of about $350,000 um a yearly increase of $354 or about 30 bucks per month. Some historical tax levy data. So we we've seen this slide before uh just reintroducing that what we're looking at in terms of what was our adopted tax levy increase, what was our max, and then uh what was our approval ratings and total votes. So really that 10-year average of a
0231.75 adopted tax levy increase as compare as compared to a max of 2.68 with a 67% approval rating. Uh the state of the state. So I presented this to the board in the really the past two meetings kind of where we are with the New York State budget. So I'm going to get to the bottom here. Um I think we're on our ninth budget extender. Uh I know we were on our eighth. I think that ran out yesterday. I haven't heard if they made an extender. Uh um I haven't heard if they made an extender. I'm assuming they did because the government was shut down yesterday. Um so just vocal came out on Friday um and this is kind of the first statement that we've heard about any movement uh in reality which is next
024week should be a very significant week in progress. Great. Okay. Meaning this week um negotiations continue. Um most of it is non-school related items. So yesterday we heard about what are called table targets. Um that's announced on the assembly floor. So maybe Jamie did some excellent work. She was just talking about how she was up with the on the assembly floor yesterday. So thank you for that. Um these are the amounts of money for additional spending that been agreed uh agreed to by the governor and the two houses for each program. How they get distributed will be negotiated. Bottom line, they're close, which is great news. So, we may know within the next couple days, we're still late. It's not helping us, but it's we still have some options. So, what are those options? Kind
025of what happens once their budget's approved that trickles down to us. Um, will we get more money? U, we talked about scenario one. Um, if we receive more in state aid, um, then then we could reduce the 3% tax levy. At this point, we're really set in all that. Um so we're looking at the bottom bullet here which is we'd reallocate funds budgeted for UPK to fund recommended expenditures. Um and then scenario two if we receive less which we don't anticipate based on how u uh the house was operating um is that we would have to increase the 3% tax levy a combination of of assigned balance or both. We have some proposed uh budget additions should we get some additional money. Those are up on the screen here. Um a number of different items
026um which is with respect to supplies, equipment, um a float nurse up there. We have a greeter uh department chairperson. So um we're we're equaling out what money we anticipate we should get. And same thing here. here. If we get a little bit more in foundation aid, which is the projection, we would add some staffing here that was requested through the budget process. Uh again, we're going to match out to what we anticipate through that additional funding coming through. I always like to uh tie in our budget bright spots. We have a lot and it's hard to put it on one slide. We could probably just do an entire presentation um because you've heard from Mr. Simo and athletics, all the budget uh uh bright spots in athletics, and you've heard from Mr. U Debold
027about what's going on in guidance. I mean, we could just go on and on here, but let's just take a couple here. We're ranked number one in Orange County. Um uh 3 through8 math and ELA. Um 83 uh% success rate on AP exams. That's a huge number. Um over 80% of our students consistently score three or higher to earn college credit. Um innovative portrait of a graduate curriculum. And let's just move on over social emotional learning. Uh 40% in student athletic participation. And then we heard about Dragon Day, which was pretty awesome in terms of um getting into our community and getting our community involved in in what our schools are doing. Contingency budget. We've spoke about this a little bit. Um what happens if the budget vote goes down? Um we have a couple
028options. Uh we could put the budget up for a revote. We could use the same numbers. We could reduce the number. We could go higher. Um, if the second budget vote is uh voted down, we'd have to go with a contingency budget and that's a 0% tax levy. So, we'd be reshuffling our deck and cutting about $1.6 million in additions in our budget. So, just a word of note, not a scare tactic, but reality if we end up there. On May 19th, we talk about our capital improvement projects. Um, we've dedicated an entire web page. We've continually added to that web page. We have Proposition One, which is tax neutral at $44.5 million on lot uh infrastructure and improvements uh districtwide. Proposition two, $21.1 million is classrooms and roughly about half of that is is
029uh tax neutral. So there's a partial tax effect. Um and proposition three is some athletic fields at CCHS. Um and that's a full effective tax rate. and the trickle down, you know, if um in order for two to pass, one needs to pass, and in order for three to pass, we need one and two to pass. More information about the budget is on the website um seen here. Um we've added the budget binder, we've added all each of our presentations, and of course, you can watch any of these uh videos on the website as well. Just a reminder, May 19th, said it a few times already in this presentation, uh, the middle school gym, uh, 6:00 am to 900 pm. Please come out and vote. And at this point, we take questions from the floor.
030>> Any of our audience members? Mr. Hines, I didn't get my walk up music this year either, so Okay. Thank you, Mr. Frink. >> As always, really appreciate how clear, succinct, easy to follow it is. I know I speak for many people because it can be very overwhelming. Um, so really appreciate all the time and effort that goes into that. Moving right along, we are up to our uh new business, our consent agenda. What? Oh, committee reports. Sorry. Thank you. Getting ahead of myself. I even have them listed here. Um, committee reports. Uh, you want to start with policy? >> Sure. We met uh two weeks ago now. Um, last week, I don't know, two weeks ago. Uh, thank you, Megan. Uh, and we have some of those policies uh were able to pass through
031right to the agenda tonight. Uh we have a follow-up meeting scheduled for next week to take care of the rest. So getting back on track and you know there's a lot of timely ones as well. So um everything is proceeding. And I would like to thank Megan and the team for for doing so much leg work and making it truly um you know very organized and easy to follow. It was a very productive meeting. >> Great. Thank you. Um communications. Yes, we have our final uh capital project forum next week, Monday here. So, um that'll just be a lot of the information that that John shared, but you know, going a little bit more in depth into the propositions. Want to make it super clear to everybody how the ballot is going to be set
032up so they know, you know, what to do when they they get in the voting booth. Um and then we'll have uh more that'll begin you know the final week. So we'll be pushing out more stuff uh you know to remind people of the vote and give them little quick hitters on what to uh what they're voting on. >> I have to say I got the the mailer today in the mail and then the postcard last week. I think they're really fantastic. Really lots of great information. Very well organized. So, I don't know whose hand, you know, it was um just outstanding. So, >> John Frink loves loves I'm not going to say how he comes up with it. I'll let people fill in the blank, but like he's like a magician with graphics. I
033didn't know he had that in his in his bag. >> It looks great. So, thank you, >> Brendan. What time is that? Uh >> 7 p.m. And you're invited, Jim. >> On Monday, 5:11, right here. >> 511. Yeah. Okay. um other committees. Ox, do you want to share about OXPA? We've actually had two OXPA meetings um because we had our one from the previous month um that was rescheduled. Um one of them was um all of the student reps got to come and uh speak and talk about their experience being student reps. on uh the board and it was just really wonderful to hear them speak about what they got out of being on uh the board. And uh I'm also excited uh to share with you guys uh later on some of the takeaways
034and ideas that they um shared um for different ways that they could be active um more active with their boards and things that other school districts are doing with their student representatives. And um it was just really uh inspiring. A lot of them are, you know, top students in their class and, you know, are going on to do great things. um great colleges and um whatnot. So, it it was a really nice evening um getting to hear from them. And then um we more recently had um a presentation given to us um by the Boseies team um that does um all of the uh education surrounding AI. And uh so Christian and I both were at that um that meeting and uh viewed that presentation and um I've got the slides and other information that
035we received and took notes. So um I definitely am uh eager to share that uh I'll I'll email the board and um uh yeah because it's that's definitely timely uh for us to be considering. So yep, that's was the last two meetings. >> Thank you. I look forward to the AI piece. I was really sad to miss that. So >> Loftton, I just may. Uh so at the meeting, the last meeting also the discussion after the AI presentation was on kind of a round the table about budgets and elections and just to share what you know a lot of other districts are facing. Um, one thing that came up and particularly Minist was talking about um, the cost of busing and particularly the difficulty in finding both drivers and also the cost of diesel fuel
036and how that's impacting some of the districts who actually run their own bus fleets and are uh, facing that cost directly and obviously we have a contract but that contract eventually will have to be renewed and so there were there was a little bit of a discussion on that. Um, another thing that was brought up is there are shortages in terms of um, umpires, referees for public school sporting events. And they are basically seeing this is not just in Orange County, but they're seeing this throughout the the region that there are shortages. And part of this are what you might say aggressive parents and therefore people unwilling to do that. Part of this is the rise of, you know, private sports leagues that are growing upon the same population of individuals. Um, and this might
037be something that impacts us. Obviously, Boseies organizes some of the interclassic sports and so this is something just to maybe keep on the horizon. >> Thank you. Um, anything with legislation? Legislation. Nothing except the late budget. Uh yeah, I don't think they're going to take my call on that one. Um nothing to report as legislative liaison um from facilities. Uh we have not had any meeting. You know, we kind of did a little sprint uh late 25 and early 26 to to get everything ready to present to the board for all these bond projects. So, um I'm actually going to uh good reminder for myself to talk to John to see if we need to meet between now and the end of the year. There's a facilities committee. I'm thinking that we probably don't and
038I'm thinking that really the next thing we need to do will be to reconvene um after we get the vote here. Um cuz the the vote for the capital project, you know, these projects are not fully designed and fully bid out. So, this allows uh if these propositions pass, the architects and the construction manager to really go to work. So, um certainly early fall we would need to get together with them for for updates and inputs and guidance um to have these then be ready to go out to bid to contractors uh for work to begin in the summer of 2027. >> Thank you. There was a lot of meetings, long nights, etc. that went into that. So, you deserve the break that you've had for a couple months here. Weeks at least weeks. Any
039other committees I missed? Okay. So now we move on to our consent agenda. New new business. Um any board member may request an item be removed for separate discussion. We have items two through eight. Are there any such requests? >> Christian like to pull eight. >> Number eight. What else? Okay. And number item number eight will be removed and considered separately. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items 2 through 7? >> So moved. >> Thank you Jam. Second. >> Second. >> Thanks, Brendan. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Dame. Okay, the motion passes. Thank you. We will now consider item number eight. Second. Um, the first reading of policies. May I have a motion? >> So, you Brendan second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Christian. Discussion. So, I pulled this
040one because I'm going to be voting separately on this, but I also have a question. Um, so one of the policies being put forward is not a policy, it's a regulation. So, 1500 are and regulations are basically interpretations or implementations of policies uh usually by the administration. So I'm not sure why are we doing the regulation really which is the administration's uh fear and we haven't really looked at the underlying policy that's a companion of that and I was wondering if we are putting this forward perhaps we should also at least bring forward 1500 and make any changes to that policy at least make the regulation consistent with the policy of the board. Yeah, it was um they were considered together. So, I mean the I'm trying to uh yeah, there was it was a
041small change to this one. Just the the website had to be updated. So, it was kind of a nominal change. Um and whereas the other one did not change at all, which is why it wasn't included in this revised batch. So, I mean, for I understand your point and I would I agree if they were not considered at the same time. Um but we there's no need to advance a policy that wasn't changed in any way. So it's just not included in this batch. >> So I mean I understand your point and obviously but the point is is that why is the reg if the reg if it's just a regulation this doesn't require a board vote and obviously we can vote on it. It doesn't we can vote on it but um if the
042policy isn't changing why is the regulation changing? >> I mean and and I have read I've read the changes Just the website had to be updated in the in the regulation. That's why. >> So you're talking about the the contact address and the regulation. >> Exactly. >> And to your point, I mean, it it is past precedent to consider the companion regulations with the policies. I understand your point if it's a it's not technically a policy. Um, you know, I think there's it is probably good to heir on the side of board oversight as opposed to um allowing those changes to be made without board approval. Um, so, you know, if you were you wanted to pull the regulation out, that that would be one way of doing it, but it is past precedent to
043vote on them as one unit. And I I would also add I think past precedent is if we review a policy on our three-year review cycle and we don't change we then skip the first reading and go straight to a second reading slash readadoption. So I would assume that 1500 these are all first reads because there were some minor changes made to all of them that 1500 will appear in our next meeting when these are up for the second reading that that will be up for the second reading so we can mark it as you know readopted as of >> May uh 2026 >> correct >> so I don't want to belabor the discussion um but um because this has been discussed in previous meetings of the policy committee the presence of addresses or naming
044individuals inside the policy. Um, one way that this is dealt with, at least in other districts, is that you just referred to someone and you change the address or contact information on the website. and that we would be look, you know, perhaps looking through all of our policies that name whether it's naming let's say uh the DASA contact person or the title N or things of that sort and just as a policy policy in a small P policy way to basically excise those from policies just because it's easier to update a website than it is to update a policy on a three-year cycle and that might be you know facilitating let's say you know or streamlining this going forward and you know that's for future future hands But that might be a better way to
045have us because eventually we're going to have to change this again. And so that might be one way to avoid having to do that through the policy committee process. >> Any other discussion on item number eight? >> I I just want to I think that we we had that discussion in the committee meeting. Um, and I I don't remember if the specific name was in the policy of the regulation, but um, yeah, it was. And we changed it. That's why we changed it. We took the reference away from a specific name and changed it to cornwall schools.com. So, I was saying this is not just unique to this policy. covers a lot of different policies and different regulations that have similar and other districts put it on the anyway. >> Other discussion okay all in
046favor of the first reading of policies 1500R 1510 4321.74532 and 8330. All in favor >> I >> opposed abstension. Motion passes. Thank you. We come to our second um opportunity for public comment. Please follow the same guidelines. Three minutes and comments directed to the board. Anyone wish to make a public comment there? >> Yeah, if I can make a motion before we get to a public comments. Um I would like to move for as a discussion topic to add to the agenda discussing of Chromebooks and and schools. not necessarily in response to the public comment, but this is not the first time this has been brought to the board's attention by the public and perhaps since we have only been in either meeting for 40 minutes, perhaps a 10-minute discussion or an airing of opinions.
047So, I would like to add that to the agenda and I will so move. Is there a second? Jamie. All in favor of the motion to add a discussion about Chromebooks to the agenda. >> I opposed. >> Okay. >> Abstain. Okay. I'm going to ask that we keep it to a 10-minute discussion simply because I don't know that we have all the facts or that we have a lot of data here. So Christian, to your request about people being able to share an opinion or a point of view, I think that would be val, you know, could be of value for us to get a sense, but I would just ask that we're not trying to dig into exact details or to like be drilling administrators on facts that we don't we haven't given them
048time to prepare. So >> I think the point was to limit it to 15 minutes, you know, as a you know, 15-minute forum and then discipline ourselves to that time. Can I start with a suggestion and then I'm sure the the discussion will continue regardless of my suggestion but um we should I agree that we should have this discussion. This has been a very important discussion for me personally. Um I think it would probably be best if we followed what you had just kind of outlined. We asked the administration to prepare a presentation that starts with the facts of just how much are Chromebooks being used, at what level, and all of that. And then we can have an a more informed discussion off of that. I'm not sure how beneficial it would be to
049share our personal opinions on this right now. Um it's, you know, not going to anchor the discussion any better than if we started off with the facts as they relate to this district in particular. Um whether that can happen at the next meeting or a meeting after that obviously depends on administration bandwidth. But that's my suggestions. I agree with this discussion wholeheartedly. I just want to make sure it's the best use of that time. >> Oh, thank you. >> That that said it better than me, but that's what I was doing. Thank you. >> I completely agree with you. I think I wanted this to happen because it needs to happen, but there needs to be a cadence to it, right? And I think we all probably have very strong opinions in either direction. Um,
050but I think we got to start somewhere. But I I would love to see that like a breakdown of what is expected and what is actually happening per grade I think would be super helpful. And maybe that's what we use this discussion for is to just maybe talk about what are we interested in learning because maybe it is too broad to say to the administration give us a report on technology in the district like where do you even start? >> I mean oh sorry >> no so so perhaps that is the the best use of this time. >> Yeah because I think it would be like you said being mindful of people's bandwidth it's like hey it's May do more work. Um, but it should be fairly simple, I would think, for each teacher to
051just kind of like a one sentence. This is how we use it per week. Um, and then we can kind of deduce like by grade what that kind of looks like. I think also something that's important is what is um mandated you know in terms of what's expected what's mandated and what is uh by choice or what's left up to discretion. Yeah, >> I would add to that um information around our like do they call them firewalls anymore? Like our our safety and security pieces around that often. >> Yeah. I um you know a lot of this we've already seen in discussion um you know uh just uh between us and um with members of the community on you know AI use and um technology use um so I think it it to bring those
052facts forward you know we've already gotten some of those together um to answer community questions and I would even um think it would be a great idea if you know in addition to a presentation that we you know make like a quick fact sheet and here I am giving Brendan and Jamie and I more to do but you know just uh some kind of quick fact sheet um and uh maybe a a post a portion of our website where it you know says this these are kind of broadly speaking at least our technology ology use um parameters for the school district so that there's a place for you know moms like Natalie who are doing mom research can easily access like this is what I can expect from the school district for my students uh
053technology use >> other comments Christian >> so the way I was thinking about this is a little maybe the history of how our district got to where we are so In I believe 2022, it was a district goal to go to onetoone on Chromebooks. And then the following year, it was a district goal and to intent intentionally use the Chromebooks and to in a sense roll them out and in a sense train our staff to integrate Chromebooks into their instruction. And there was a discussion at the time and I know that in the discussion of the district goals in September of 2023, I know that I made the comment and people can go back and look that there's no such thing as good screen, bad screen. And because at that time there was a long
054discussion about cell phones and therefore like if we think we're should be taking away cell phones, why are we putting a different screen into all of our students hands? And I think that was known at the time. And so the point about is we went here, but that's not it doesn't matter how we got here because going back is not just a matter of just taking away the Chromebooks or limiting their use because as Chromebooks and other digital resources became more common, school districts went away from purchasing other resources. So I would suspect and although I don't know the entire inventory, John probably does, um, that we have stopped purchasing textbooks for a lot of classes because digital resources have replaced a lot of those textbooks. And in the discussion at the time was that
055one reason why we could reduce the number of copers was because people would have everything digitally and there'd be a reduction in copying and cost on that. So if we reduce Chromebooks, we are also taking on the cost potentially of replacing those resources that we get through Chromebooks um and how they're delivered through the fact that every student has a uh issued a Chromebook. Um as a teacher I can talk about it. I think that there are two issues. one is kind of Chromebooks are a platform so for social media and the concerns on that but also that there is some research out there suggesting that um that as students started reading information on screens as opposed to text and physical books there is a correlated decrease you can see this timing when states did
056it and how they decreased in their their performance scores on various different assessments and so that's the academic side to it and And I think the point about it is is that we just recently kind of rolled this out and implemented it intentionally and to to go backward is more than just in a sense putting limits and asking what individual teachers are doing and so to satisfy I think what some people are asking for there's a bigger picture about how instruction is done and the point about it is indivi anyway the point about it I think there's a lot more to this and I think we need to look at the not just in the sense what the research is Um, but the reason why Los Angeles school district, which has actually been one of
057the first major districts to put limits onto Chromebook use in their in their school district, is doing it over three years. Um, so even though they've passed it, this is not a quick fix or quick change and because it's so built into how instruction is delivered, not just here, but throughout uh the country. >> Thank you. Other Oh, sorry. Go ahead. I just gonna say I think I mean there's so much there's so much out there that I've read I'm sure a lot of you have read about this, right? It's kind of overwhelming. Um and I think it's I think it's very important that we not get hung up on the fact that we rolled this out two years ago because who cares, right? Like I I care. Sorry, I didn't mean it like that.
058I don't mean it like I understand there's a budget we have to think about and there's resources we have to think about, but we have to figure out if this is actually working for our district or not first and foremost. Um, so I just think it's important to keep that top of mind. Um, it's always a disappointment if I'm not saying it didn't work out, but if something doesn't work out, it is always a disappointment to have to go quote unquote backwards. But uh that's the way the that's that's what happens sometimes. Um so I just I just want to be mindful of that of not when when we're having the discussion. I think there's a difference between like what is um I guess I'm trying to say I think there's two different discussions to
059have and we need to figure out which one we're having first. Is this right for our students and is this responsible for our district? Does that make sense? >> I would I think start with the foundation is what are we doing now? Like what is the I mean what's happening might be different than what our expectation like what is the district's expectation? what are the parameters, the rules, the guidelines, the ex you know all of that and then once we have that as an understanding I think we can go into the the paths of what works for us what is public opinion what is our opinion about what's right or you know modifying whatever it might be but I think we have to really start with a clear understanding because I think there's a lot
060of um bits and pieces every you know that come we don't know what's what >> and yeah everyone's hearing things from like I think Natalie was a great example of like you're hearing something from your kids and like I don't know my kindergartenner makes up like not you know he comes home with stories sometimes so I really want to hear from the teachers of how they're utilizing it first so we can really have a informed discussion of a what our district is doing and then b what we want to see our district do >> yeah I don't yeah to Megan's point like that's a lot by the next meeting but we can we'll talk offline I think in our agenda meeting and look at like what makes sense timing wise and everything else but it's
061certainly >> I just think it's an important discussion to start to have because I think we've We've kind of been it's been building. It's been bubbling. We like we've all been talking about it internally, but like starting somewhere and we'll have it done in two weeks. >> So, yeah, I it's certainly worthy of discussion. Um, we need more information than to just shoot from the hip and and not have anything in front of us or have any time to prepare for the topic. Um, I just went back and looked because I know it's it's been in our weekly updates um from Megan and I just went and found two of them quickly. Uh, on March 20th, uh, Dr. Fignay included in her weekly update to us that um, she corresponded with some parents about um,
062Chrome security. Same thing on April 10th, she included the text of an email that she sent to another parent. Um, we had another uh, parent email and and Megan responded to that parent last week. Um, obviously Miss Ren came and and spoke to us today. I think um I think I I'm I'm looking on my phone, but um I think we have recently received in the past couple months a communication from uh Mrs. Palumbo who's in the audience who has sent something to middle school. It came from either one of the two of you. I think it ended in our inbox or if not at least the fact that that's there. So there's certainly three or four things circulating um that can be gathered and distributed to the board now and some of that information
063pertinent information shared with um Miss Ren based on her comment tonight and you know that's a good start and then you know time to prepare for uh longer and more thoughtful discussion further down the road. >> It's also a great point though because a lot of that discussion was about security and I think that's a different discussion. So yeah, I think we need to kind of figure out we need to have like a a retreat like just about this. I feel like there's a lot to talk about, other comments. So, uh, clearly it'll be something that's on a a future agenda. We can talk. We will have um I mean it's already almost June. Well, it's May. I'm not going to rush it, but even if we have something in June as like a okay,
064here's an a light overview, but then I think we have a retreat in July that the future board will have one. So, it could be something there maybe that then we can okay, how are we going to attack this in the next year to keep everyone informed, but also make some strategic decisions for the for the um district. So, thank you. All righty. With that, now I will open the floor for public comment. And if anyone would like to make any comments, the microphones are right here. Yes. Oh, hi. Um, I'm Joelle Aguilar. I am a second grade teacher here at Lee Road and I'm also a parent in Cornwall. Um, just to piggyback quickly on what you were all just discussing, um, I when you do your own research, I would like you to
065kind of keep in mind all the brainbased research that has, I don't even want to say recently come out. A lot has recently come out, but also um, in the past, I don't know, 5 10 years, brainbased research that has come out that has said that kids learn best with paper and pencil. And so I know in my own classroom I use the Chromebooks but only for what I'm mandated to and really everything else is paper and pencil. Um so I just encourage you to do your research. Make sure you find that information because it really is called kind of all pointing back to like I'll say the oldfashioned way of learning of you know your brain learns best when you see it do it the whole nine yards. So that's all I want to
066say. Thank you. Other comments. Okay, with that I would like a motion to adjourn our meeting. 7:54. >> Thank you Brendan. A second. Thank you Loftton. All in favor? I >> opposed. All right. Meeting adjourned. Thank you very much.