BOE Facilities Committee Meeting ~ Monday, December 15, 2025, CES Library at 7 00 p m

001Yeah. I just if we could just give um just a few minutes. We have uh folks who just took a quick break between exact session and our meeting. So give them two or three minutes. All right. If everyone could please welcome to the Monday, December 15th meeting. If you could join me in the pledge of allegiance. Do we have any public comments? Thank you for joining us. We're going to start with our student representative reports. Um Jocelyn riding solo tonight. Okay. So, good news at Willow Avenue Elementary School. Willow Avenue has kicked off the holiday season with our annual gingerbread decorating activities and toy drive. We welcome parents to Willow on Thursday evening and Friday for parent teacher conferences. Willow is full of holiday spirit for our holiday spirit week. Students will be showing their

002school spirit by dressing like a winter wonderland, chilling in plaid, slaying the day, wishing a merry Grinch miss, and getting cozy in our holiday PJs. We will be ending the week with our holiday Friday morning opening where we we will be celebrating our December principal award winners and getting a visit from from Santa. Okay. Good news from uh Cornwall and Hudson. Our Monday, November on Monday, November 24th, uh Cornwall and Hudson conducted a highly successful reunification drill. Members of the CO building emergency response team worked together to carry out a scenario in which second grade students were transported to C CES to be safely reunited with their parents or guardians. A heartfelt thank you to all members of the CO BERT team, to local law enforcement officers, and to Miss Zapini for thoughtfully coordinating this

003important and complex exercise. December began with the PTO's annual holiday bizaar on December 3rd and 4th. Students have the opportunity to shop for gifts and friends and family. The concert choir from the high school is going to visit CO on December 18th to fill the holes with song and holiday spirit. To keep that spirit flowing, all are welcome to carol with the CO community on the morning of December 19th beginning at 8:30 a.m. on the front steps of the school. If the weather is inclement, the carolling will be held in the main lobby of CO. The annual fourth grade combined winter concert with Willow Avenue in Cornwall and Hudson will take place on December 16th at Cornell Central High School. The fourth graders will have been working super hard to prepare for their first performance

004and musicians from both buildings will perform in band, orchestra, and chorus. Good news from uh Cornwall Elementary School. The Cornwall Elementary School PTO holiday shopping event was once again a resounding success. It provided a wonderful opportunity for our students to exercise experience the joy of giving during the holiday holiday season. We are success we also successfully held parent teacher conferences and are delighted by the great turnout and engagement from our families. These valuable conversations strengthen the vital partnership between home and school, ensuring every student's success. Our CES student council will be hosting a holiday spirit week running from December 15th to 19th. Our students will show their creativity and imagination by participating in our fun-filled uh themed days. All of our students and staff are excited and looking forward to joining in the festivities. Once

005again, our dragon wagon prize cart is going again to all our kindergarteners through fourth grade classrooms. All of our students are excited to cash in their hardearned dragons for prizes. The Lee Road winter concert will take place on Wednesday, December 17th, and on Thursday, December 18th. The CCHS concert choir carolers will be visiting our school to sing carols. Finally, our amazing PTO will be hosting a movie night. It is a great way to show off the start of a holiday season with a fantastic fun-filled family night. Spending time with family and friends is the perfect way to bring community spirit. The laughter and sweets will be spilled over during the showing of the Grinch. All schools wish everyone a happy holiday and all the best in 2026. Good news from CCMS. CCMS band students provide

006music at the Cornwall tree lighting. Many thanks to Mr. Aloia for bringing our students out to kick off the holiday season in Cornwall. This week, fifth and sixth grade students will enjoy a fun and sweet afternoon on Friday for the annual PTO gingerbread house build. Students have the opportunity to make some sweets and creations. Many thanks to the PTO. Our eighth grade students got dressed up for their annual for uh red carpet event. We are so thankful for all of the volunteers that have made this event happen. It was a fabulous evening. The middle school would also like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season. And now from the high school, it has been a great month at CCHS. The holiday spirit is everywhere. Every day, new and fun holiday activities take place

007in the library, from ornament decorating to holiday cards. Spirit week commences at the high school this week with different themes every day to celebrate the impending holidays. Our second annual door decorating compet competition hosted by the spirit club ends this Wednesday, December 17th at the end of community lunch. They are all beautiful and festive designs. A large thank you to all for filling the hallways with holiday cheer. The CCHS winter concerts went from phenomenally well last week with a great turnout and of course amazing performances. Congratulations to Sydney Johnson and Fiala Query for participating in the Nisba Allay M music festival this week in Rochester, New York. These two young musicians both received a perfect score on their audition last spring and were chosen from more than 6,000 students from all over the start state

008to participate in this year's all state mix course. Congratulations. The CCHS Orchestra is presenting holiday music in the lobby this Friday, December 17th, from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. We encourage all to stop by and attend this annual event. Auditions for the spring musical Mean Girls take place today in the high school. And of course, best of luck to um Mave, who is also auditioning there. We are looking forward to an incredible performance. Exciting news as more and more seniors receive college acceptances and scholarships. Congratulations. Take a night off from cooking for the busy holiday season and support the CCHS Senior Fest fundraiser at Bubbakus Burritos at 113 Temple uh Hill Road in New Winsor on December 16th, Tuesday from 5 to 8:00 p.m. Don't forget if you order online, show the flyer or write fundraiser

009in the comments. Maven and I wish everyone a happy holidays and wish and are looking forward to seeing you all next year. >> Thanks, Jocelyn. Um, superintendent update. >> Well, I think Joselyn covered it all. So, um, just a big thank you to our middle school band. Um, they performed the national anthem and taps at the, uh, Wreaths Across America event. um and also uh lit up the tree at the tree lighting. So very exciting and thank you to them for that. Um as Joselyn mentioned, we are all things festivities here in the in the school district between theme days. I have a themed t-shirt on. We have uh you know all kinds of amazing themes happening. So no, you know, no matter what building you go into, either you've got a crazy hat, you've

010got blinking lights, you've got like you know crazy socks and tops and whatever it might be. So, I'm glad everyone's having a great time with it as we get ready to uh celebrate our holiday season. Um, and just on behalf of our district, I just want to wish everybody a healthy and happy uh holiday season and a happy new year. >> Thank you. Um, so for the president's update, I wanted to give an update on two things in particular. The first being our superintendent search. So, um, District Wise has reported that the outreach portion of the search has wrapped up and, um, they've reported that we have some incredibly impressive applicants for the job and they're in the process of screening them and they will be bringing their slate of, um, final recommended candidates for

011the board's consideration in early February. I will say someone was asking about timing and I think, you know, the holidays really kind of puts a pause on things in terms of everyone's availability and sort of the momentum. So, I think that's why that pushes us to there. Um and just to be clear, so what happens is they will present to us a slate of let's say seven people. We have a meeting with them. They call it a binder meeting and they go through all of the candidates and then the board discusses in terms of next steps from there because that's when the board gets involved in the interviewing process. Um the board has received all the feedback from staff, faculty and community forums and uh we did also get the responses to the sur public

012survey that was out there. We had 126 responses. Um, and that feedback will factor into our evaluation of the candidates and what we are um, talking about, etc. in our interviews. And then for our strategic plan, I'm really excited to tell everyone that u Megan and I met with HYA just to get an overview of the proposed timeline and to better understand the process and what would be required of the board and what are the upcoming tasks. So, at this point, I just want to give you a high level overview. There's nothing to do quite yet because we're really going to hit the start button after the holiday, but you can start to kind of um marinate over some of this. So, um the the main working group is uh the steering committee and that

013is a committee that's comprised of um really who whomever we deem appropriate. So, um you want to have a committee that is reasonable. So, I think 20 was the max that they recommended. Um, and it could be board members, community members, um, it really runs the gamut. But what I would ask you to do over the course of the next couple weeks, you know, on a long drive or, you know, when you can't fall asleep, start to think about who from our community, um, you think would be have valuable input and insight for a steering committee. And we will we will talk about that after the new year and also if you have interest in being on it. I want to be clear that the commitment of a steering committee is two full days of

014work and that would be in the March um timeline and it could be a 9 to5 a 12 to8 you know those are the things that we would decide once we figure out who everyone is but that is the requirement um the actual strategic plan itself if everything goes according to plan should be completed by June and that is ideal so that staff can use it to be planning and guiding the 2627 school year that does not mean that the communication and the official roll out and you know the the I don't want to say marketing but the the the uh educational materials around it they will not be ready by June that will happen sort of over the summer at the same time but the the plan itself will have been presented to the

015board and we will have provided feedback or approved it. So that is what we're looking at for a strategic plan. I think you're really going to um enjoy working with the firm. they were really very um they were just easy to to you know work with and answered a lot of questions and and clarified things and they have a lot of experience doing this and so even when it came to like the number of people I'm like okay well what's the best practice and what do you recommend and what have you seen and they were just really forthcoming so I think you're really going to enjoy um working with them and and um seeing how that process unfolds okay thank you so now we have um our presentation it's our annual data presentation by Dr.

016Aign, the interim ASI. Thank you. Are you all set? You do you need anything? Okay. >> Good evening. I'm Kathy Affinier. I'm the interim ASI here at um Cornwall. Um before we begin the data presentation, I just want to do a shout out to um all the folks who are involved in the assessment process. Um, I know we talk about annual tests, our regions, our AP exams, our 3 through8 exams, but it's important to acknowledge all the people that are involved in the process. Our administrators who have to organize things, our central office staff who have to, you know, work on the in the data portal, make sure all of our testing is ordered, our secretarial staff, our custodial staff who participate and help us set up rooms, our teachers who and also our students.

017So, it's important to acknowledge everybody involved in the process. So, I just wanted to do a shout out. I also want to do a shout out for today's presentation. Um Karen Brooks who's here tonight. She helped me gather a lot of the data. So she was very instrumental in setting up the process. I also spent some time talking with Cath uh Katherine Milhome and also with um Joe Dal. He also gave us some data for the presentation too. So I just want to do a shout out to them. So tonight's presentation kind of in five parts. Um we have the three through eight um state assessments plus the regions. Those are our state assessments. Um we're going to talk a little bit about diploma uh requirements which are very similar to past years. I know

018we're all anticipating um the portrait of a graduate and new requirements but we haven't really gotten some specific details from state ed yet. Um we'll talk about PSATs and SATs. Um advanced placement exams and dual enrollment. and then um some information about beyond homo central school district. So 3 through8 exams and the regions um most of this information in this report came from the New York state um uh data.com if you any you can you can Google any school district nyed um data and then add the school district and you can come up with information about any school district in in the state. So most of that information came from there. Some came from school meter. Um and again the rest was also supplied by staff members. So just a reminder that we're doing this

019transition from the common core state assessments to the next generation um standards. It's important to keep in mind too that this process and this transition and these these assessments were supposed to roll out three or four years before but co kind of got in the way and so things were put on pause. But you can see up there that um in the spring of 2023, we had the roll out of the 3 through8 next generation standards and assessments for math and ELA. Um and we also had uh common core standards at the high school level too being rolled out in the spring of 2024 was the first year that we gave the assessments in science. They were revamped in grades um five and eight. Prior to that year, we used to give the science exam

020in grade four, but now we give it in grade five, we give it in grade 8. Um 2025 was the first administration of again the next generation geometry and life science biology exams. And then in 2026, this coming year, students will sit for the algebra 2 next generation and also earth and space science and then also the English regions. And then finally in 2027 the plan is for the next generation chemistry and also physics exams. And that will complete the whole cycle of the transition to the next generation assessments. If anybody has any questions, you know, stop me as I go along. So if you want additional information about the timeline and the different assessments that are being given, the links are there. They've all been checked and they've been updated. So now we're going

021to transition to the grades three through eight ELA and math assessments. So test refusal which is as as you know has gotten better in most districts. And so here when trans transitioning towards and almost there and and actually have achieved the 95% 90% that the state is asking for um you can see overall test refusals for ELA exam is um 87% the average in grades three through eight. And so these are how um the ratings what the ratings mean on this state assessment. When a student gets a four, they get a three. Threes and fours are proficient. Two is partially proficient. They're progressing towards proficiency. And then uh a level one on on the exam is below proficient. And so when we talk about proficiency, we usually group levels three and four together. So here

022we're going to go through and you can see overall grades three through eight. Um you'll see that 68% of our students, if you go to the far right column, um achieve proficiency. And then these next set of graphs and charts will compare the district to um the state performance on the exam. And then here you can see again proficient levels along the right hand column. And then you can also see how they um level ones, a percentage of level ones, level twos, level threes, and level fours. And this um this presentation will be on the district website tomorrow night too for by tomorrow so people can reference it if they'd like to go back and look at the information. This is pretty consistent with what which is had has been presented to you previously in

023these um state assessment reports. Also too, there's another link here to and this is a 3 through eight report card for the district. So if you click on that link, it'll bring you right to the summary report for grades three through eight. All the slides that are here are also listed there. And then if you're looking for any information in particular, English language learners, um, students in foster care, migrant, not migrant, you can find all that information if you click on that link. It'll take you right to the state website where the district's report is. So in comparison for the district um to the county, you can see and again this is we have last year's um results on the right hand side. So there's 17 districts, public school districts in in the county, and

024you can see where Cornwall is ranked for each of the exams. So grade three ranked first and then last year ranked first. And so you can go down pretty consistent with the previous year. And then overall when you combine Cornwall's 3 through eight ELA um assessments um overall the district is ranked first in the county when you look at all the the 3 through8 assessments in ELA and this is very similar to what we just saw in ELA. This is the math refusal report. You can see 85% at the bottom grades three through eight. And when you see combined, that's combined regions and also eighth grade math students who took the math state assessment. And in some districts, there are some stu some districts that actually do offer algebra in grade six. I don't know

025how that happens, but they do. Same thing grade seven. >> And Kathy, just to interject, so the 85% is the participation, not the refusal. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. That's okay. Thank you. And same thing level one, two, three, and four regarding um what the levels mean on the state assessments. And then this is the 3 through eight district to state proficiency comparison. So to the far right um 78% of our students proficient the state has 57 and then you can see combined the eighth grade students who also took the math assessment 76 to the state 60 and then what's really nice is the regents 100% of the students in eighth grade who took the regents got 100% proficiency. Okay, same chart as before. Um, proficiency on the right hand side. So, overall grades

026three through eight, 78% of our students scored a level of three or a four. And then the same thing, the link takes you to the state website where you can see the grade um the math report for the school district, grades 3 through eight. And you can see it all broken out for all the subgroups there if you wanted to explore. And then here's the ranking with the with the county and again overall ranking three grades three through eight. I'm ranked first in the county. Anybody have any questions about the the state assessments 3 through eight? Math and ELA. Sorry. Thank you. So far. Um, yeah, just the uh it was I guess it was the ELA Orange County comparison. It was just surprising to see two years in a row. >> This one here.

027>> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Thank you. The uh grade seven to be ranked third two years in a row because that cohort would then be in a different grade. So the the one that placed in third in spring 2024, logic would tell you that maybe grade eight this year would be ranked third or whatever. But so it seems that it's more of if there's a correlation, it's more of an issue with grade seven than with that cohort. But that's just me making a conclusion at glance while glancing at the data. So I don't know if there's more to that story. >> Okay. >> Yeah. grade grade five has uh mirrors that effect. So it yeah just makes you wonder you know what's driving that? >> I I have some questions on this but would you

028mind if I just hold them to the end of your presentation? >> Yeah, go ahead. >> It was a I'm sorry it was a question. I don't know if we have if there are any I'm not asking for a direct answer, but is that normal to see that? You know, is is it >> am I expecting too much to think that, you know, the placement would follow the cohort? >> I had a similar when I saw it, I thought, well, that's interesting. Like, I wonder what shifts and like I think about our fifth grade is the first year you're in the middle school, right? >> Fifth grade is when you know my kick with reading. It's when you're reading to learn, not learning to read. That's when you notice a lot. So I these are

029just my yeah >> you know the world according to Christine but I I thought it was interesting too like what happens in that grade listen first or second they're both good places right but what happens that there is that drop you know and I I don't know we probably have to dig into it more but >> yes so it'll be a question to to pass on to Kate um but the other piece is too is that sometimes digging more so into the data to see how many highle threes and lowlevel fours or high level twos and so we have some students that just kind Teeter, right? There are some years they're level two, some years they're a level three to see who those students are students are on that band. And they call it a

030stev a standard deviation like any given day kids can score a level three or a level four or level two or a level. So it it could be something along those lines where those kids are just kind of like there. But it's good data to to look at and we can certainly you know push the question over to to Kate and you know have her perspective. I know the state did a deep data dive on superintendent's conference day. I actually went in there and saw all the data reports and all of the um the drive that she created for her students, her teachers to look at. So I know that they're doing that work and so it would be a good question to ask Brenton if you're interested. I do have if you're interested in

031like tracking cohorts like the same group of students across years because obviously third graders become fourth graders, fourth graders. I do have that if you'd like and Excel. So, if you just want to take a look at that, I do have it broken down and I can maybe save some work. >> Is that the piece of paper you're holding here? >> No, that this is a piece of paper. I have an Excel spreadsheet that has it broken down. >> I would appreciate that. Thank you, Christian. All right. Now we're going to move on to the regions exams. So here are the regions exams and again we just kind of organized the slide to show that um the new exams when they're happening and then also the projected new exams for the next generation um standards.

032And then how many students took each exam this past spring? And then you can see English language arts 280 students you know global US history normally in those classes most of the class takes that that exam that year. Um I want to point out that for chemistry and physics because we also have chemistry and physic AP exams in some districts students who take the AP exams also take the the regions and in some districts they don't. I believe here um students aren't asked to also take the physics regions if they've taken the physics AP. So you have a different pool of students. So when you do the county comparisons, it's not really comparing apples to apples because you're comparing yourself to districts where those kids who took AP chemistry have also taken the AP regions

033exam. And so that changes the pool of of students taking the exam and also the data that comes out of the exam. And so he have five levels. Five exceeds standards, four meets, three is partially meets, two partially meets standards expectations, and then one is does not demonstrate knowledge and skills for the standards. So we consider levels three and above as proficient. Very similar to the AP exams. And keep in mind regions are administered in August, January, and also June. And that's interesting too when it comes to the uh the next generation standards students who took the course and let's say for instance I took the course as um as a freshman I took earth science regions exam and I didn't pass it as a freshman but the next year my district moves on now

034they're giving the earth and space sciences I still have the ability to take the old exam and so we'll see some pass scores of the old exam too and the majority of our students are taking the next generation so we do have the those students do have the ability to retake the exam that they didn't do well on. And some students retake the exams because they want a better grade. That's something else to consider, too. So, this is the ELA regions. You can see our proficiency rate again, levels three and above was 89% and the state's pre proficiencies rate was 75%. And then you can see the breakout for levels This algebra 1. This was the new exam. Geometry again. The new exam. Algebra 2. This is the living environment. 32 students took this exam

035or they took the old exam. And the next slide is the life science biology exam which is a new one. Again, chemistry will change next year or the following year and then physics will too. So again, chemistry and physic are the two exams where we don't have our students who take AP also take the physics exam and chemistry. I think what's also noteworthy too noteworthy noteworthy is that um level fives do you notice the the level fives are consistently higher than the state throughout and I think that's impressive shout out to our teachers and then here again if you click on that link, it'll bring you to all of the regions exams and on on the state website. Anybody have any questions about the regions? >> Yes, Christian. >> Oh, I have a question about

036um the the new um life science biology and also the earth and space science exam. As I'm sure you're aware, >> the last June there was not a very popular exam with the teachers. >> No. >> Um and particularly there's always a question that everyone's like how could they ask that question and like there were quite a few of those. >> Yeah. but also that the the the framework of these new exams >> um >> the investigations but also like that there were a lot of questions that were I think the the reason why teachers were unhappy was a framework of this was like >> it's like read my mind what I think the right answer is while you you know investigate or come to a conclusion about something but the so the point about

037it is that um they were kind of cute and I smug. I guess the exam that's that would be the term that some of the teachers I know did that which is that they were unhappy with the exam because it the exam was almost self-consciously trying to be smart in a way that was confusing for students and also even confusing for people preparing for it. So I was wondering if you have any thoughts or comments about that and what that might mean going forward because I think we took some student we did not take any last year the earth and space science. Yeah, >> everyone took the old earth science. >> One did take >> one did but most of our students took the earth science. Is that correct? >> Yes. Right. >> And then

038some students took the life science biology >> which is a new >> most of our students took the life science biology and then 32 students took the living environment which was the old one. So so I have um I think the whole process was confusing. I think the way when you look at the original documents for the implement implementation timeline, many districts read the document and thought that all students um had to take this last year in 2005 that all districts had to move forward and take the new living living um life science biology exam. But some districts misunderstood that and they thought since they were still giving the old exam that they could take the old exam. But that old exam really was in existence for students who had previously failed um living environment.

039But again the directions nobody did anything wrong. There was no bad actors sitting at the table. People were very confused about the process and about the the roll out. Um for the exam too I know that there were some questions about well there was a question about erosion on one of the exams and and they had never talked about erosion but erosion appears in our in previous science standards. So kids should be, you know, familiar with that term. Um I I know that um the directions were confusing because there were charts and tables and those they when they showed them the chart and the table, they didn't refer students back to the chart and table. Typically in previous exams, it would say go back to table whatever, go back to chart whatever. And that wasn't

040there. It would appear once and then some students were trying to answer questions based on their knowledge and not referencing the tables. So there were a lot of there was a lot of confusion. Um I think people thought the state would acknowledge and say something but there was silence. Um what I thought was interesting too is it was the first time in my experience that the state said um have people call us directly. So that's what I mean I was I was down working in Rockland County at that time and and when I went to a Rockland Boseies meeting that's what we were told at our administrative well at our um curriculum council meeting that we were to tell our parents to call the state directly not to feel questions anymore call the state directly

041and so we happily said okay here's the information um so I I think that and I don't think the state's going to change the layout of the exam there was also confusion too some people took um test questions off of old biology exams or living environment exams and and used them and some parents took issue with teachers who did that. Well, you know, just because the state changed the standards doesn't mean that how our our concepts and understanding of biology changed, right? Because New York State redid the standards. So, there was just a lot of confusion, misunderstanding, and I think frustration. >> Yeah. And I can tell you, you know, um leading into the exams and we're continuing to do this work. We've spent a lot of time with our science department. Brian Goodman's our

042department chair and he's been really fantastic getting the group to embrace the changes in terms of it's a reading exam. So, you know, it's it's funny when you switch levels, you know, you go from this level where everything is reading and content based and it's all kind of combined to as you move along and Joselyn, you know, right? Like in your in your classes, you don't necessarily think of science and looking at the content as a reading um content. And that was a big piece with the Lexile level um across the state where people struggled. And so um kudos to our science department and they're continuing to this to do this work where they've teamed up um some of our classes, Brian specifically with earth science with our librarian and doing science research as part

043of what they're doing in their classroom. So they're really learning true skills and how to apply them plus doing the investigations to prepare for the exam. Um, oftent times in New York State when there's a shift in a regent exam, teachers prepare by saying, "Show me the test." That's not what we're doing. Um, and in fact, the state wasn't releasing pieces to it for that exact reason. So, the philosophy of science has changed. It's definitely more investigation based, which is real life and practical. Um, but kind of getting those shifts in practice and getting our kids and and breaking down the reading in the in the questions is something we're kind of going back and retraining our kids, you know, back to what you see them doing on the younger le level with highlighting, marking

044up and so on. And, you know, I mean, that's just one example of how the practice has changed and what our teachers have done to prepare them. But lots of professional development around it and we'll continue to do that. >> Yeah, I know teachers were asking to attend Boseies for on superintendent conference day. there was a lot of PD and I also noticed too a lot of them um taking online classes trying to learn more about the science and updating themselves. >> Yeah. And just to piggyback on that so we have done we even did release time um within our school day for our science teachers and actually for our math teachers as well to get together last year to kind of start with this work and they did go down to P&W Boseies and

045also out to um OU to get trained on this. Just just as a follow-up question because I think the this has happened not just with the science exams but I think also previously with the um the social studies exams that kind of did a transition earlier than this. >> Yes. >> And this idea that they're embracing an authentic exam that is more close to reality of science or social studies or history. And I think that I I think in that attempt that a lot of people have felt the exam has actually gotten worse because this idea of you know what people think is authentic is often just their own construct of what they think people do. Um which is that like um historians spend a lot of time for close readings of documents which probably

046is not a description of anyone who's doing actual historical research or that scientists are actually doing hypothesis collect the data you know analyze the data which as someone once said is like in real research no one follows the scientific method and and so the point about it is is that we're presenting this and so that when you sign a test on that it actually is really a bad instrument in gauging what people know and that even though the old test might have seemed like to me um more wrote or in a sense less realistic that it might have been a better gauge of what what was actually the level or the knowledge level or the grasp of the subject that a student had and so yes through all the things that you mentioned there wasn't

047as much of the test provided I think a lot of people felt the guidance was um not through which we mean like they said we're going to ask about this and then it never showed up and then things that never were on the guidance didn't show up showed up quite a bit but um and every teacher will complain about that but I think the point about it is like how these tests are changing and whether we're just uh training our teachers but also then training our students in test taking skills which are which are not connected to the subject matter or the title on the test. So if you just give like five reading tests, a science reading test, a social studies reading test, a math reading test, you're just really testing reading five different

048ways and not necessarily testing math, social studies, or science independently. And I think that would be the concern. I mean, that's the concern that I have, but I was just and but you kind of answered it with some of your thoughts that this is something we're going to struggle with. I don't think the state is going to change and so what is our best approach going forward? And thank you for answering that. Okay. You know, I just, you know, I gez I've been giving state assessments in my career since I think 20, what was it? Um, 2019 was when no 2009. Yeah, 2009. So, I've seen the whole but I also seen all the angsts every time, you know, common core learning well the init the initial learning standards and they were the common core

049learning standards and so we had to make all the adjustments. So, we see this every time there's a change in the rigor of the test or the format of the test. And um and it's important that our kids understand format because format should not get in the way of how they're doing on the exam. So, they have to be very comfortable in the format of the exam so that doesn't get in their way. And so, a lot of this is a learning curve for them and also for teachers too. You know, how best way to um get them to the point where they can access and be able to understand and answer the question to the best of their ability. and the test truly does reflect what they know or don't know versus what they

050they can't figure out based on again the format. So, it's it's a learning curve, but I I you know, I have hope. I think things will get better. And the bottom line is when you look back at how the students scored on the on those those assessments, home students are doing well. I mean, when you look, they're still scoring above the state. They're they still have um uh level five is still, you know, they they are doing far better than the rest of the state getting threes, fours, and fives. So, there's a lot to celebrate, too. And similar to what we just talked about with the rankings, um here are the rankings also for the county for the Reges exams. Oh, that's right. Yeah, there was something. Yeah, it was a trigger, right? They they

051felt that one of the questions. Yeah. Anybody have any questions about the rankings with the data up there? I'll just say that I I mean as a per as a parent of students that went through that um I believe it was global history or it might have been US history in 23 that was the first year that it was like the new reading exam and the history teachers really um adjusted did a lot of you know study and you know so that this that the to your point the um process or the the format didn't get in the way. they really did do a lot of extra work with folks getting them comfortable with that format. And to Christian's point, you know, whether it's really a reading test and is that worthwhile, you know, that's

052a a philosophical larger discussion, but the teachers really did um buckle down for folks that, you know, needed it and um they, you know, they did a great job with that. >> Teachers, they just need to know. We just need to know what it looks like and what it feels like. And then once you kind of walk through it, you get a sense of it, walk around in it, and you you develop a game plan and you move forward. That's what That's what they do, right? Any other questions or is that Oh, keep going. Sorry. Keep going. All right. Diploma requirements, which really haven't changed. So, same slide as last year. Uh we're all waiting to see what what it's going to look like, the more specifics about the change, the portrait of a graduate.

053So um but for now those are the requirements and again uh the next the next slide has links where if you want to check out and learn more about the different pathways they're all in the link the next link and this is just a nice description about um the region's exams must pass five regions exams with a score of 65 or or higher. And then what regions exams that you need as you know um regions the regions exams for um high school diploma that's sun setting so that won't be a requirement anymore but my understanding is the regions aren't going to go away. It's actually it's very similar to when I was in high school. We didn't have to take um we didn't we didn't have to have regions exams to in order to graduate.

054that was considered to be an advanced diploma. If you got a regious diploma, it was an advanced diploma. Otherwise, the local diploma was the most common diploma that was given. So, I feel like we're going back to that time. Anybody have any questions about graduation requirements? >> I have one question. >> Sure. >> So, I know the state hasn't come out with much in on portrait of a graduate. So this is mostly speculative but the portrait of the graduate as we kind of understand it is to create alternate pathways to graduation outside of passing the regions. Uh given that Cornwall generally um has not had a problem with graduating most of our students with the regent's exams, would you anticipate that Cornwall will probably still stay in the traditional regions as a demonstration of proficiency

055um for most of our students or would you see us broadening out to some of the other pathways that are kind of been sketched out in portrait of the graduate? >> I what I I envision um I mean we I have your graduation rates. I mean the number percentage of your students who get diplomas high school I mean regent diplomas >> um I'm going to I'll skip ahead. Yeah. So your graduation high school graduation rate 97% your your graduation rate is impressive >> and and as you know like in other parts of the state that can be as low as 40 50 60% for for graduation for the same one and I would I would be surprised if ours ever dipped really below 95% just given the socioeconomic status of the community. So my point

056is that since a lot of the portraits of graduate is create alternate pathways around the region's examination region examination some people have interpreted this as the region's going away but do you think that for Cornwall given our kind of demographics and our past performance are we still going to be more more or less in the traditional pathway you know where hey you take a region to demonstrate uh readiness for graduation I >> I um I feel more comfortable framing it just for New York State Right. >> But um I I envision that for some students the regions get in the way and so I envision that um we'll probably have maybe more students who maybe will participate in AP exams and dual enrollment in in um in Sunni courses. I anticipate that we'll have more

057students maybe explore CADS. Um I expect there may be some districts that will start to look at um international balora. I mean, so I envision that there'll be more um local control over how you I mean, we're still going to have guidelines from the state and once we figure out how to maneuver around them. I just think it's going to give more opportunities for students. That's how I envision it. And I don't think that your rate your graduation rates will will drop. I think that um students our students are are are classified students, student, you know, students with disabilities. I envision that they'll have more opportunities, too. >> Yeah. And just to piggy back on what Kathy is saying, you know, we are really looking at this as a nice opportunity to embrace what kids

058need to make them successful and not in that traditional model that works for some kids that doesn't work for all kids. So, um to answer your question, Christian, I think it's a little early just in the fact that we're waiting on more guidance and we've already started the process of looking at, you know, what does it mean for um more projectbased internships for a high school student? like what does that look like? Um like Kathy said, maybe it's a student who wants to achieve some more of the college work and so on. What does that look like for them? You know, I think the biggest issue we're going to have in Cornwall is how do we manage all of it? Like we can't have 250 different paths. So, we're going to have to figure out,

059you know, if there's three paths or four paths, what does that look like? Um what's the criteria around that and so on. So I don't really see us sticking to a traditional model for all students because it doesn't work for all students. Um so I think we'll you know we've already started the work in advance of this um before even getting some of the requirements and what what it might look like just kind of hearing comments around the state and just knowing what's good for kids. Like I think this is a really good opportunity like Kathy said for some more local control of what we can do. >> So um just to kind of maybe can clarify my own question which is that I understand that like well we're not going to have all the

060pathways and I do appreciate that I think what we're going to do is that there's going to be more opportunities but between like infinity and like you know the old system which is one really one pathway since we are fairly success in that pathway what is Cornwall's you know disposition towards that so if there's been preliminary work towards what are the two or three alternatives that we see that are going to be treated uh locally in our district. What might those be? Um because perhaps that's something that we want to field out for more discussion both for parents and stu students who are you know going to favor certain pathways and we may as you say resources is going to limit our ability to make everyone their unique you know to provide a program. Obviously,

061everyone can find different ways individually, but the point is to create programs or p grooves that people can naturally take in addition to just let's say the default of you know 4 plus one and and and you know what it's been for the last decade or so. So like that's what I was and I didn't realize that that's a >> the state has not provided the guidance and we are not finished with their preparations but if there was any um work in that direction I just suppose be interested in what that might be. I I think some of the work will be and I I I envision what districts will be doing is looking looking to um probably just developing surveys to get some feedback from families what they would like to see, staff members,

062maybe what some students would like to see. I see people reaching out to gather some data because they're going to want to um grow something that's going to be appropriate for their own culture in their district and what they what they locally want. I think it's a good time for people to explore what they're what they're wanting to see for for their students, for their children in the community. So, I I I I'm not in a position to say what I think you should do, but I think that there's going to be a process in place and districts will do it as they fe see fit. They will come up with their own process to figure out what, you know, where what is important to them, what is important for they want their children to

063know and then how will you assess that information. And then just speaking of assessments, so there is assessments still attached to this and I don't really foresee the regions going away right away completely um because districts have to figure this out. So a lot of conversations around the county and around the state are you know as Boseis's consortiums can we team up and look at like what assessments would be appropriate? Are we going to create local assessments? are we going to determine, you know, um standardized assessments that we're all comfortable with or at least a launching point from? So, it really is early in some of this. I don't really have like a direct response to you, Christian, for what that plan might look like. It's more in theory right now as we build it

064um and get more guidance from the state, but that's kind of where our head is on that. >> I think it'll it'll start to take shape once we get some definitive information from the state. I think that we're all trying to hypothesize what that's going to be, but I I think that we're pretty much wanting to see what is the definitive information coming from the state. >> My question was when is that coming? And that was just like I thought it was I just was it not in the know but apparently it's we don't know. Right. No, I mean we we >> so it makes it hard because you can spend all the time hypothesizing and then they come out with something that's >> it was originally promised yesterday. >> This way it goes, right?

065>> I can tell you that every um platum Northern Westchester Boseies I go to their curriculum council meetings. I also go to the the um council meetings over in Orange County and also when I was down in uh in Rockland County and it's the same question. I mean people bring it up. It's like it's a topic, an ongoing topic of a discussion as to where are where are we in the process and we get little bits of information but nothing that's enough to, you know, to excite people. It just kind of says we're working on it still. But it's it's a big thing to dismantle I mean uh a graduation system and to build a new one. It's it's a it's a big lift. So I got to give them that. So regions of PM

066recipients 99% I mean so really again a lot of good stories up here. So here's our high school graduation rate. >> Now we're on to the PSATs. SATs. >> I'm sorry. I just have a quick question. >> Sure. 97% roughly. What are we talking about in people? Four, five, 10. And and I don't mean it to be like a quiz. I just mean like so and I could probably do the math myself. Christian probably already has it done. If we have 249 students, >> seven people. Okay. I just was trying to get an idea. >> So merit um national merit student acknowledgements. That's all based off of the PSATs. People know that's like the preAT. We give that to them one year before the SATs are given to students in school. And so it this

067describes the process about 1.5 million students take the PSATs in this country. And then you can see that they they become they filter through categories to be recognized. Commended students the cuto off for the top 50,000 students um that's determined by April. So, the students take the exams um typically in in the fall and then by April this information starts to be filtered out. 34,000 students are recognized as commended and then you can see um 16,000 will become semi- finalists and then you can see what happens when they're semi- finalists and then finalists and then scholar. And so the next slide shows you that we have four students awarded as commended scholars and then we have one student moved to semi finalist. Um we don't know um if we'll have a finalist that hasn't been

068determined yet and so that that'll be acknowledged later. probably I think it's February. Is that usually when we get it? And then this is just a comparison between last year and then um this year's SAT scores for students. You can see the New York State mean SAT score is 156 and that was actually the the mean score stayed similar from 2024 to 2025. And we have slightly more students who scored um above the mean. Extra 4% of our students from 2024 to 2025 scored above the mean. That's pretty impressive. And 2024 is that the graduating class of 2024 because a lot of those folks were tested. >> No, it's the year that they took the >> the exam. Okay. Okay. Here are the AP exams. And so this is a list of the AP um

069exams that are offered through the district. And there w there was a new one this year, pre-calculus. That's a new AP exam that's been that's been or AP course that's been offered for this year. So there was a question um during Joe Debald's um presentation about students who took AP classes in 2023 then 2024 then 2025. And so this kind of just displays um you can see like for instance in biology 2023 to 24 we had a jump and then we we came down a bit for 2025. But you can see if you scroll through you can kind of see what's happened each year for those three years with those exams. I think also too um the the whole dynamic about taking AP exams has has changed over time. I remember um I mean I've

070been involved with four different ele four different high schools in four different districts and what I'm hearing more often is that students are being told to balance their AP classes and not always take um four rigorous AP exams at one time. Um some some are I mean I know for instance like my my daughter she was going she wanted to be a premed student and so she concentrated in the science and math because that's what she needed to do because colleges are also looking for very well well-rounded students and it's very hard to put all your time and effort to for rigorous exams each year and then also have time for sports and music and you know community and family and so most schools are looking at helping students and families amilies balance, you know,

071their their course load. So, that's something else to take into consideration, too, that I don't think we're in a in a climate anymore where we're just trying to drive our students that way. So, there's more of a balance. Anybody have any questions about So here again some questions uh during Joe Debolt's um presentation. So I tried to show you in a graph like if you look at the top the the green line that's the total that's the percent of AP students who scored three or three or above on one or more exams depending on how many exams that they took. And keep in mind that we had um 248 I think students take AP exams. Let me just see. Yeah, it's here. I'll go back up to that slide. But um 235 Cornwall students sat

072for 484 AP exams. So some students just took one and some students took multiple exams. So it's important to keep that in mind too when you're looking at the data. So but so we went from 74 up to 86% of our students who took AP exam scored to three or better. And then we can see the the blue is the total AP students total number of students who actually sat for exams. And then the red is the number of exams that were given in every given year. And then the gold is AP students with scores three plus. And then you can see the average. So it's a it's a good story. Yes. >> I just want to be sure I'm interpreting this. And so the the number on the I'll call it the left y

073axis >> that's numbers >> those are the those only refer to the blues the totals the percentages >> sorry >> blue red and gold it's the number of >> no I I understand I'm just breaking down the numbers that are on so on the >> there's like two y axis axes so there's the the numbers on the left and then the percentages on the Yes. So, I'm interpreting this that the numbers on the left refer to the blue because that's just an aggregate number total of AP students and that the percentages refer to all of the yellow because that's the percentage. >> Nope. >> Okay. So, >> all the all the bars are numbers to the left. >> So, Yep. >> And what is the Okay. So, total of AP students with I got it.

074Okay. Okay. So, Okay. Okay. What was that in physics? Physics. In geometry, the one that the axis that came out that's when I quit geometry and >> Here we go. You looking at this one first? >> I was like, um, yeah. The the Zaxis. I was like, uncle So this you can look at this as you would like the the grades three through eight exams or just the regions. So you can see how many students sat for each of the exams for each year. It's okay. So it's so I mean the good news is everything kind of goes up right as you go from the left to the right we have in 2025 we had we had more students sitting for you know who were taking AP exams we have the number of exams the

075red went up and then the number of students who got three or or higher on the exam went up so the the point of the graph was to show you that there's a nice trend going up especially with um the percentage of AP students with scores three plus >> since it was my question I think about the composition of the exams and what students are taking >> I mean if you look at the changes in what students are taking and you just do >> obviously we don't know what scores they got on what exams >> but if I would say just from a background students are taking what are generally thought to be the easier of the AP exams We treat a three as a three, but they're taking exams that are generally considered like

076for example, if you look at the math AP exams, you see a decrease in calculus, a decrease in statistics, and a huge increase in pre-calculus because of the new test, which means so if you're having more students taking pre-calculus and less taking calculus, you would expect that the number getting three would go up because same if you consider like same ability level, but the tests they're taking are not necessarily is considered as as rigorous or hard and some of the ones in the social studies I would social studies AP exams I would say that would probably generalization but without knowing what are the scores on different exams there is you still this question about the composition that it's not really an apples to apples other than we have aggregates but what's inside the aggregate is

077not the same >> so that that would be curious in looking at some of the raw data if if it's available >> I mean on the other hand too. You look at chemistry tripled from under 20 kids to near 60 kids from 24 to 25. So >> yes, but I would so I >> it's a mix it's a mixed basket. It's hard to draw >> a direct comparison. >> So I think when you let's talk about pre-calculus. So pre-calculus came online last year that could account for the dip in the calculus AB because students took pre-calculus to prepare to take the and that was the whole point. Am I correct in giving the pre-calculus >> and going back to the whole child so you have we have um an advanced pre-calc class. Um so this

078allows maybe a student who wants to dip their toe in the water and take an AP class to get the credit or at least to try the higher level they can now take the pre-calc. So yeah it would offset it but it also goes to the offering status for all students not just the kids that are at the highest level of our of our district. So, and I think that's something worthy to take into consideration because years past, we always thought that our students who were, you know, above the the 75th percentile were the ones who were destined to take AP exams and that's really not the case. I mean, you'll find that more students going towards the mean, the 50th percentile are taking AP exams. And that's a good thing that people or students

079are wanting to stretch. And so, you know, you can you can interpret the data so many different ways, but to me, I mean, if you have more students who are venturing in and we know that the numbers have gone up for the number of students who are taking the exam, um, I'm, you know, I mean, I'm I'm all for rigor because I want students to push, but I think we also should celebrate the fact that more students are wanting to to do this and to venture into taking advanced placement courses. And we also have the dual enrollment courses too, the Sunni courses, too. So that's happening at the same time. You have another question. Okay. You want me to go on? And so here's some more of a breakdown. So 484 students took um AP

080exams. 47 of our AP students in 2025 were considered AP scholars. That means they received a three or higher on five or more exams. Um 17 of our AP students um were considered AP honors. They received a three or higher on four or more exams. And then we have uh I think that's that's a typo there. What that should be, but um 21 of our AP students in 2025 were considered AP with distinction. and so the the last line last six years although this year this past year 86% of our students scored a three or higher over the last six years students have scored 83% or more three or higher on the AP exams. >> Yes, >> a question just on the last slide. So, um colleges award credit for score of three or higher.

081>> The three generally converts to be like a C, right? When it when it gets converted into a college transcript. >> Are colleges taking this more as year credits so you can graduate early? like you have these credits and they're already counting towards your graduation requirements. >> Yeah. Or are they mostly looking at them like this is a way of profiling a student which is how challenging was a curriculum you took in high school which means taking these advanced courses is mostly about trying to distinguish between students when grades have become compressed which means like you're establishing a profile by taking the class and taking the exam and whether you get credit or not is a secondary cons concern >> and so I was wondering what you maybe you're seeing or what you think is

082happening with how colleges are taking AP credit and other types of like concurrent enrollment credit. I >> I think both are true. I think that um for students who are going into very competitive looking at highly competitive schools um they're wanting to have more of the AP classes. Um some students choose to do the Sunni classes because they know that if they go to a Sunni school that um if they get a certain grade or higher they're going to they're you know they're going to be able to transfer the credit. It's like a no-brainer for for the whole Sunni system. Um but that doesn't negate to other Sunni or other um dual enrollment schools like Marrist. I mean you can take a course at Maris. It may or may not transfer to another institution. So

083it's kind of like hit or miss. I do know too it's not really it's not it it's three or higher they may accept but for some they may want to they may want a four to accept the course. They may want a five to accept the course. Um for the some of the more rigorous AP exams a three they will accept. So it every institution has their own scale of what they will take and not take. Um but it's it's both ways. I mean students are also doing this because they're building a resume. They're building a profile um for you know that plus all the other things that they're doing for um their next steps whether it be college or it be going to vocational school. They're going right into the workforce or going into

084the armed forces. They're all trying to you know to to to be able to demonstrate themselves in the best light. And then here are dual enrollment courses. So, Sunni Albany um foreign language and science research, Sunni Orange Community College, um English, mathematics, technology and business, barrist, um accounting and music theory. I kind of like the music theory. And um new this year is Sunni Sun um Sunni Onian University. uh for government and politics. >> Is this the program where students like seniors at Cornwall High School could go to Sunni Orange for part of their senior year, take classes? Is that this program? No, >> these are do so any of our dual enrollment courses are just the um college courses the kids are taking in in the high school and our teachers have to um

085be approved by that college in order to take it. So it's not just any teacher can teach that course. It has to be approved by the college. >> But there are schools that do do what you're saying. I know for instance Pearl River, they do that. They students can go to um the local college college Rockland Community College and they can be on campus there instead of being on campus here. I think it's easier for students to be here. So beyond um formal central school district and then these are the destinations for the um the class of 2025. So, these are all the schools that the class of 2025 is attending and there's three pages of uh of schools. That's is an impressive list. Sunni is very well represented. again. This will be posted tomorrow.

086And then our military trade technical schools Any questions? >> So, I had my question before about the um the 3 to8 um ELA and math exams. >> Um so, not surprisingly, like we have a higher proficiency as you would expect. than than the state average because we have a higher socioeconomic status than the state average. So the fact that we are doing better is somewhat par for the course. Um but looking at like you know the 24 versus 25 and just these are the two next generation exams. If you look at like the state average there's an increase in there and just using that as a benchmark. the increases overall cumitively for Cornwall is that our increases year-over-year were 35 points below the increases by the state average as a whole. So it means like

087yes the whole the the benchmark went up we didn't go up as much as the benchmark by a significant amount and that works out to be like seven or eight% per grade and then when I just did this by just tracking the same students which means comparing last year's fifth graders with this year's sixth graders. So tracking them because obviously there might be differences by different cohorts of students. It actually it it's a little bit worse which means it's it's in the same ballpark but that doesn't seem to to do that. And um what what is it seems like we might have like a declining margin right in terms of like we obviously we should perform higher socioeconomic status higher but just to use just one comparison to illustrate what I'm talking about it is

088not surprising that Cornwall performs better than let's say New York City because the socioeconomic status of the average student in New York City is much lower than Cornwall um but if you basically controlled for soio economic status and just look at the residual which means what are the things that schools actually control which means their own decisions about curriculum hiring quality of teachers etc. New York City's residual is larger than Cornwall's so the question is like are we is there anything that we can do and not that tests are everything but the point is like is there something that we can do or more resources that would seem to maintain I guess the the historic performance of the district. So, I think there's a couple of things that come into play besides soio economic status

089and other things. I mean, first thing that comes to mind is the test refusal. Although we're talking about five to 10% 15% depending on which grade level you're talking about, it's not consistent. And so, in most districts that I've worked in, you find that it's hard to find a a group of cohort of students that have taken the multiple tests one year to the next. And so when you're comparing those tests in isolation 2024 and then the next year comparing 2025, you don't know if the same group of students took test from fourth grade to fifth grade. And so that becomes another variable within the district. You folks have been doing some major work in um ELA, right? Fontis and Panel training has happened, foundations has been implemented. Um last year you piloted two different

090math curriculums for elementary. So all those things come into play when you're doing a data analysis. And so it's kind of hard just to say um to look at the data and also too again I always come back to standard deviation. We don't know how many of those kids were a high three one year and they were a you know they were a low four the next. We don't know but when you really want to do a deep root analysis those are the kinds of things that you're teasing out too. So, it's very hard just to say, "Here's our scores from third grade to fourth grade, from this year to that year, and then to say this is this week, we're going to put all of our, you know, this is what we're running with."

091I we really need to go and look at the data and look at students and the district is embarking on that. >> So, I mean, some I take your points and obviously there's always a way to go more granular on this. Um and you know I think that you know if there was more data you know that could presented um the questions about let's say the distribution of the variation standard deviation. >> Um I'm not sure why that wouldn't matter because you're grouping across you know proficiency is three and four. So you're talking about half half of the two of the four. So you're not going to get the the variation because that's where most of the students are most places. But also like you could say students are taking it this year and not

092taking this year, but those would cancel each other out because we're looking at the average for the whole state and the whole district. So I think the point is that you would expect that the district because it's smaller would show a little bit higher variability, but you would see higher variability in all directions, not just in one one direction. So I guess my my question though was like is there something we can do other than analyze the data and say you know work harder teach better study more that we as a as a school board provide resources that would support it if that is a problem and I'm not saying it is it's just one year over year. So I guess my question was like what can we what can we as a school board

093since this is our presentation of this is that does this data lead to any actions that we could possibly think of or take and that's so that's where I would like you know obviously there's a >> we could have different interpretations and different analysis of the of the data and I'm sure you have that >> I just can't hang my hat on it. >> Yeah. You know there's just too many there's there's just too many variables to consider. >> Right. And we're and we've said year after year like we're dealing in children and you know socioeconomic status put aside or not. Um you know our district is changing and it's changing rapidly and the needs that are coming um and how we can support all of our learners. So how can you support us when

094we come for budget and we you know we ask for the needs of you know our AIS team or our early intervention team you know continuing to support the resources that they need within programming and software and so on. Those are the pieces. Um we have tutoring for our students for um our ELLL population and for our um testing in advance. So, those are all things to continue as we look at budget and we know it's going to be a really tough budget season, not getting rid of those critical pieces because um you know our our student need is changing and every student needs something different and it that that is growing in a reality. >> Yeah, just a couple quick observations and and some you know kind of brief follow-up questions. First of all,

095thank you uh for this well put together presentation and thank you, you know, to our entire academic staff from central office to building leadership and of course to our teachers who are are putting the boots on the ground here. Um one, you know, just in general, I saw a lot of green flags here, not a lot of yellow flags and red flags, right? We're a high performing district. Um the state assessment data, um as we know, this is the second year of the new test, so we could compare year-over-year, which we couldn't do last year. um and saw a lot of you know high achievement few years ago followed up by high achievement which is great. Um, one question in the past, uh, it's been stated, and I assume this is still happening. Just want

096you to confirm that the state doesn't just give the numbers, but previous prior to this, late summer, early fall, they give specifically like, hey, there was 50 questions in grade three and, you know, your school district did really great on these 40 and these were five or 10 areas strengthening. Is that still happening from the state? >> It's happening. Yeah, it's coming out. Um sometimes I mean it's delayed because there's a moratorum on it. It it doesn't get released until October, November. Um not the best time for educators to be diving into that because as you know report cards, parent conferences, concerts um but they are those reports are being released. Um Karen Brooks sends out a lot of this information to um administrators and staff and so they are doing the deep dive into

097that. Um and then it's a matter of looking and seeing like the atom analysis. Um what questions did we not score as well as um other districts, the county, the state, the rick, um where where are where did we do really well? Because we have to make sure we celebrate the good things that we, you know, where are we learning, where are we doing well, and then why why didn't we did we hit those standards enough times? Um or maybe we don't have the right resources for those standards. And so there's a lot of questions that administrators are working with their staff um during SIP time. They're also doing this work. So they are they are in the trenches and they're doing the work and they're they're trying to figure out the best way to

098meet the students needs who are who are struggling. >> Great. Yeah. I just wanted to confirm we were still getting that. Um, obviously that's the most important part, you know, >> Mhm. >> for the instructional staff to look at threes and fours and >> that's not super helpful to them, but that that information I'm glad they they're still having it and that may be something to look at. And the issue, you know, Brendan flagged in that grade seven of, hey, it's two years in a row, seven's had a little issue. >> Perhaps there's, you know, a specific thing that we can pinpoint to to beef up. >> And Jim, just to piggyback on that, so the skill strands are incredibly important, especially for the practice of what you're you have in front of you. We

099always feel like we're playing a little bit of catch-up with the 38 exams comp, you know, compared to the regions exams because we get that information so much sooner. Um, so 38, right? Like by the time we get it and break it down, have the data team meetings. You may have already taught a lot of that content. Yeah. So, but yeah, to answer your question, those meetings happen, the grade levels have them, SIP is having them, and so on. >> Great. We did we I just want to also >> piggy back but we did bring in a consultant who worked with our staff members on superintendent conference day and we're doing that ongoing work um Carrie Mullen's >> progress monitoring how can we better target specific skill deficits how can we um deliver an intervention

100and then how can we monitor student progress and so that's another big initiative that our that our teachers are working on with our with our administrators. So we are doing the deep dive um we're just trying to learn how to do it the best way. >> Absolutely. Great. Um, and one other issue as I flagged, I kind of I looked at um that cohort set of, you know, the fourth graders become the fifth graders and and all the different classes and really the only one that jumped out to me was that fourth to fifth grade. Um, you know, some, you know, most of the cohorts as they went up, it was up two points, down two points, really within a margin of error. Um, that was down maybe five, six points. It rebounds the next

101year. I think the obvious explanation is we are switching buildings for our elementary students a year earlier than most districts are. Um so just something for us to be mindful of. Um try and make sure that we're making that transition um as easy as possible for those fifth graders. Obviously we're working on it, but just you know that's something that jumped out to me. Um and just two more quick questions. The high school non-graduators, do any of those come back and graduate? You know, we said we had seven or eight of them last year. Do we have people >> who could graduate a year late? Does that happen sometimes? >> You see, you can see the data where you can see in the um in the graduation data, you'll see the August graduates. Some students

102will graduate later, >> but after that point, they can't come back, you know, so they typically would get like a GED um if they were to complete. >> Got it. Um and uh I saw I spy with my little eye. I saw a calculus BC on the list of AP exams. It's been a discussion point. Are we teaching that or is that on the list because some students have elected to take that of their own valition? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Actually, I had Karen I actually had guest Karen to check that out for me because I found it too and so we did we found that there are every year there's a couple of students who take exams that are not taught through a formal course and they do sit

103for the exam. So we do >> I just wanted to clarify because it it's been a discussion. Um just wanted to from my understanding. >> Great. Thank you very much for the presentation. Thank you. >> Other questions. >> Thank you. That was really informative and I think gave us a lot to think about as we move forward. And I think you know um to Christian's question and you know Megan your response about how can the board support you know what is needed to um support all our students in achieving their you know greatest opportunities. So thank you for that. So now we're moving on to our consent agenda. We have items 2 through 11. Would anyone like to pull anything from the consent agenda? I would like to pull seven, eight, and 10. >> Okay.

104Anyone else? Anything else? >> Okay. So, the use of the consent agenda permits the board of education to make a more wait. Yeah. To make a more effective use of its time by adopting a single motion to cover those relatively routine matters which are included. Um, we've pulled numbers 70 and 10. Um, so, um, may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda for items number 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, and 11? >> So moved. Second. >> Um, Carl, you got to speak up. I couldn't get to you fast enough. Jim, uh, and Christian, thank you. No, he didn't say anything. That's why he just, um, All right. So, uh, thank you. Um all in favor of um approving the consent agenda for those items. >> I Any opposed? >> Abstaining. Okay. The

105motion passes for 2 3 4 5 6 9 and 11. So consent agenda item number seven. >> If I may, can we um consider um 8 and 10 first? Um because the those are I think 10 is um For those of us who are on the policy committee, there was a policy particularly we had some questions and we wanted to kind of bring it to the full board particularly about um the first reading for board committees. And so if we could just do 10 first. >> Sure. Um so consent agenda item number 10. Um may I have a motion to approve this or to discuss it? >> You know, I think it got flip-flopped. I'm looking at it. What's in 10 should really be in F and what's in F should be in the Is

106that what it is? >> I didn't >> The committees are in 10. >> So the committees are in 10. I think the point is that those are being adopted because those are without change. So they're just being readopted while the rest of them are either at a first reading stage. So that's why I'm saying I think it just got what's in new business are all being readopted. Those should have been in the consent agenda. The ones that are in the consent agenda should have been in new business. >> Well, the consent agenda ones are I mean the the new business are the first reading. >> So no discussion. So that's what you're saying. What Jim is saying is that if 10 requires discussion then it could have been a new business whereas the you would

107you know read and adopt all in the consent at in one go. >> There was just two different groups of policies and I think it got flip-flopped and it's fine and we stop and discuss them. >> We can discuss it here. I just Yeah. >> So Jim, I agree with you on the general point but that's why one reason I pulled it because I thought it merited discussion. >> All right. So can we have a motion for consent agenda um number 10 first reading of the board policies resolved upon the recommendation of the interim superintendent of schools the board of education does hereby accept the first reading of board of education policies 2240 2250 2440 and 8113 may I have a motion >> make an auctioneer so moved >> Brenton thank you a second Jim

108thank you discussion >> so let me start but I'm gonna ask Jim to you know come in because I think you had a perspective particularly on board committees about you know the different things we we were undecided about. Um so on uh these these are all new policies I think. Um the extreme heat conditions is basically just a policy that we were mandated to create by legislation last year. And the other two are pretty much uh 2240 and 2440 um I think are just um you know they're relatively short and straightforward if you've seen the text but um in our board committees um one of the things we didn't really resolve in the policy committee was and let me just take a step back. The reason for this policy is to memorialize um and to

109um to to give the committees some permanent status by putting them into policy. So audit and audit and the policy committee have or grounded in some other policies visitation and communications or not. So one way to do this was to list these different committees and kind of give them a permanent standing status by putting them into a board policy. um which means um and then we looked at some language was a readoption or reapproval of committees at the reorganization meeting each year. And so that would be a different approach which means we would vote to approve the policies and then we would populate these sorry approve these committees and then we would populate these committees usually at the second August meeting. Um and so we had kind of a difference of opinion kind of on

110that whether we want to kind of in a sense create these put these into the policies list the committees um so that they kind of just restart every year and they're in our policies and they're they're set or should we revote or re reapprove them in a motion at the reorganization meeting and so I think what I at least originally what I proposed was that why don't we list our standing committees so that you know they're there and um you know that they have some basis and then maybe some they are what the other parts of the policy just creates a framework for committees and how they are filled and what the committees are expected to do. Um but I was saying maybe just list our four existing committees that are longstanding but I think

111Jim you had pointed out and this is where I'm going to maybe pass baton to you about perhaps reapproving them or re voting for them at the organization meeting. uh you want to present that perspective. >> Yeah. And I think that's what uh that's on board docs right here. I think uh leaves that um perspective in there. It doesn't it doesn't have voting on the polic uh to to reinstitute each committee in the in the policy on committees if I'm reading this one right. Yeah. Right. And in the discussion though, we thought maybe we would want the insight or the input of other board members about what they thought would be the best way before the policy was adopted maybe on a second reading and this would be the place to have that discussion. >>

112Yeah. So basically um yeah I will I will echo your um opinion Christian that um this um policy was new and it was I think unanimously agreed upon by the policy committee and just what we thought was um for an ease of operation um in the reorganization meeting every July the same way that we say here's the law firm here's the auditor here's all these things that we throw in an extra item that says here are the standing current standing committees. Um so just to kind of take a vote on that every year. >> Is that what we did this year? I feels familiar but I >> we voted to seat members on the committee. Um but this would be to add a step to actually vote just to just to list hey here's the

113committees and we can >> change we can add subtract um committees at any time by a board vote but just you know as a point of practice just to have that every July to say here are the current committees. So for instance I think the thinking is um audit you know audit we have to have by law but we have audit and policy and facilities and communications and visitation as kind of our five standing committees but I think it's also listed that we have a new handbook committee and a scholarship committee which really have fallen off and have not meet in a couple years or have not had a meeting in a couple of years. So we would just, you know, next July not include those in the list of current committees. So just forces

114an annual an annual review of what committees we have. >> So if I'm understanding because not the policy that I read didn't have any of those listed. The policy was really just about minutes posting them etc. Right. So the discussion or the question is do we add an element to this policy that formalizes what our committees are meaning the five that you've mentioned and then every July we re we re we we revisit the policy to confirm those are our committees or to adopt >> we reviewed um policies from a couple different districts um and thank you to for Christian for gathering those and bringing it to us to make our job easy um and some of them put the committees in the policy on committees and others put it in their reorganization meeting and

115we thought the reorganization meeting was a better way to handle it. However, Christian just brings it up as a discussion point for the whole board to consider since it's a first meeting if anybody would like to see it within this policy if I understand. The point is we didn't put it in the language because I think we had more than one point of view and we thought they were all valid but we were only four and we thought that we would when we did this we would just anyone does have an opinion about this we could add that in so that what gets adopted includes that input. Um, so I think the point about it is, um, you know, we, as I said, we looked at different versions of this policy by different districts and

116we did pull from different policies, things that we thought were good, including like taking minutes and things of that sort. Um, but we also then saw this was one where they had an annual revote and another one where they just kind of enumerated a list of these are policies recognized by the board. And um, so as I said, there's more than one way to do it. if anyone has a strong or preference on it. Um, we thought this would be the opportunity to amend that before the second reading and and I'm not sure anyone does. Um, I think it's policy is fine as is. Um, but this is an opportunity that we do it now and not just 3 years from now when we review it. >> Thank you. Other discussion or anyone feel strongly

117that we um modify the policy as it's stated for the first reading? Okay. So, may I have a vote to approve the first reading of the board of ed policies 2240 2250 to 440 and 8113. >> All right. Vote. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Yes. I >> I like when someone else does that. Anyone opposed? Abstaining. Okay. Thank you. The motion passes. Okay. So, um now we have numbers seven and eight. you would like to do number eight, Christian. >> Sure. Um I know the board has this has been already briefed um by um Mr. Frink on this, but I just for the public about why the audit we have another audit report here and just to make clear that this is not because there's an issue or that we something was wrong

118with the previous audit. Um this is mostly as a result of the government shutdown and therefore we need certain information from the federal government and the federal government was not um in session or operating and so we could not finish our audit completely. So we already voted on the the external audit and this is just mostly to tidy up that one part that we couldn't do because the federal government um was um was shut down at the time in October and we had to approve this by state by a certain date. So, I just want to make that clear to the public that this is just basically the last piece of what usually would have been included in the external audit. >> Thank you. >> And it's a clean opinion. >> Yes. And >> may

119I have a motion to accept the independent auditor's report for the single audit from EFR group CPAs covering the fiscal period from July 1st, 2024 through June 30th, 2025. Richard, thank you. May I have a second? Loftton. All in favor? I >> opposed. Okay, thank you. The motion passes and uh consent agenda number seven. Um Christian, >> so number seven is the uh the budget calendar and um as of last year we had a discussion about this um particularly about the um the polling site which is included in this calendar. Um, and as some of you know, I spent some time over the summer uh looking at the polling books and just by street addresses looking at the the turnout or the the turnout in different parts using the electoral districts of Cornwall, New Windsor

120and Woodbury. So, not looking at any personal information, but just like if you live on Angola Road, you go into this box and just looking at those numbers. And I did a complete for two different years. And one of my concerns was like the the you know the vote um distortion that occurs because of the location of the polling place. And so one of the things and I just want to report this because I think we should reconsider either a second location um or an alternate location basically meeting the high school um and leaving that open um especially because in our budget line there is more money allocated toward the our annual meeting than there was previous year. So there is more money allocated because there was a potential second vote that was occurring. So

121there is money in the budget that wasn't there in previous years. And so perhaps we have some more latitude on this. But the basic result and I think this is just important to note that um someone living in in Cornwall and Hudson just because there are three electoral districts so you can get it clean that is about 2.5 times more likely to vote than someone living in New Windsor. And that was true not just one time but also in a vote. One with the highest turnout and one with the lowest turnout in the last five years. And so what does two and a half 2.5 times mean in terms of vote distortion? That's basically the same vote distortion that occurs because we have the electoral college to elect the president and we elect senators from

122unequally sized states which is a magnitude or a scale that most people would see as material. And I think that um it's not because it'll change the outcome of any election or I think it would change the um whether a vote would get approved or not, but it does affect how let's say decision makers knowing that you can safely ignore or maybe not be as aware of certain things that happen because of that. And generally that's why people talk about vote distortion as being a major concern. So, um I would urge as I did last year for the same reasons in the discussion of last year that we at least consider a more centrally located both in terms of geography and population which would be the high school or as I suggested last year potentially

123having two voting locations as some other districts do. Um, I'm not going to go into the details beyond that, but I think that bears mentioning and I would move to amend this to leave that last uh voting site open at least at this time. Um, and that would if we want to make a formal motion on that. Um, but I I don't have any objection to the rest of the budget calendar. So, Christian, right now, just to clarify, the budget calendar lists Cornwall Middle School as the the polling site, and you're asking that we uh leave that open to have a discussion around what that actually might be come the election or I I don't to amend it right now, but >> I would amend the calendar just to leave it blank for the moment.

124>> Okay. and adopting the rest of the calendar as per document >> and then have that as an agenda item in the future to discuss. >> As I said, if it's worthy of discussion, um I I think people know what my views on on this are, but um I think it's worthy of its own discussion and this seems this last year was presented in January, presented now in December for the budget calendar. I just thought this was the appropriate time before we make a decision where it's kind of in a sense included inside the budget calendar. So I can make it a motion to amend it and then we can vote on the amended amendment um or um I rather than let's say vote against the whole calendar which I don't think is necessary. So,

125so um so it would have to become an agenda item for us to discuss it, right? And then what is the downside just um to to approve this as is still have the discussion because we could then amend it to include a second polling location. >> So obviously we can always change things and amend things in the future because we're not bound and we can always make different decisions tomorrow than we do today. So arguably there is no difference. But I do think there is importance to when there are made decisions they generally don't get revisited because they're considered settled issues. And once we vote on something we're basically saying there's a position of the board by the vote of the board for that issue. And while I you know generally when things are settled

126I support the position of the board regardless of my personal opinion. And I don't think it's any different than saying vote on delete this now, make the decision in three or four weeks at the next meeting and we can then adopt it then. >> So I would I would say that would leave it open and have the the same minimal impact on operations or anything any plans that people are making. >> I'm okay with either. I just was curious what that was. >> So that's my view on it why I would prefer my direction. other discussion. >> I mean, I would lean towards proving something that could stand on its own as a default, you know, if we don't. Um, in terms of to answer the question of, you know, if you that we will

127default to doing nothing, I mean, anybody on this board can put anything on the agenda. um one of the officers of the board is certainly in pole position to put anything on the agenda. So I don't see that as a concern. Um I think that it's a worthy discussion to have since we have two new board members this year. you know, we could have that whole discussion again u because there were trade-offs that I think um we would all be well served to just be reminded of and certainly our our two newest members uh could hear those uh both sides of that. So, I'm all in favor of putting this on the agenda first meeting of the new year. Um but you know just generally just as general practice it feels like why are we

128even approving this if it's going to come with caveats if like it's not even a full resolution like we either approve it or we kick the the can on it entirely and I don't I I think that we should have something on the books heading into 2026. So I would be in favor of approving as is and not amending it since there's no material difference if we go back and amend it later. Other discussion, Jim, >> I would be in favor of approving it as it is and I do not see the need for amendment and we had this issue discussed on multiple occasions last year and we discussed a lot of operational and financial concerns of why we have the budget vote where we have it. I don't think we need to relitigate that.

129That's my personal opinion. >> Thank you, Richard. >> Yeah. So, I think everybody knows where I stand on this, too. Um, I I don't think it really matters whether we amend this or we just vote as is, as long as we do discuss it at the next meeting or, you know, one of the meetings in January. And now that we have, it seems, some more data from the voters and the poll books, I think we can continue this discussion and see if there's any new perspectives about it. >> Thank you, Carl. Anything to add, Jamie? >> I agree with the general consensus to approve it and then go back and amend it to I would love to have the discussion. Yeah, >> agreed. Christian, anything add? Um so um I am disposed to make the

130motion to amend it and of course that would have to be seconded and we would vote on that. Um but uh hearing I'll just uh we can vote on this and I know what my vote will be on this this time. Um I can make the motion. Someone has to join me in seconding it for it to be considered. I'm not sure that there is a second vote. Um, but I don't if people are committed to discussing it. Um, I think I can take that, but that doesn't change my vote. Um, I did not make a motion. >> He did not. Okay. So, um, I'm committed to putting it on the agenda for early January to discuss this. Um, can we have a um, excuse me, may I have a motion um to approve um

131or to adopt the attached 2026 2027 budget calendar as stated? >> Brendan, thank you. Second Loftton, thank you. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Abstension. Okay, the motion passes with one abstension and seven approves and we will add that to the agenda for discussion. Um Christian, I'll just ask that you you can lead that discussion since you've done the data analysis and probably have the most information around um what we need to consider. Is that are you good with that? >> Um I'll lead the discussion. Do you want me to make a presentation on this or do you want me just to what information do people what information do people want because I'm not sure that there is data but there's also like um it's sometimes it's a value decision as well. >> Sorry,

132John John hasn't a thought. >> Just uh I issued a memo to the board last year with some information. I could share that again with the board which breaks out costs and some of the concerns because we did discuss this last year. that could be your starting point for for discussion. Again, your old memo, but it encompasses a number of different >> Thank you. I think a discussion is is sufficient in terms of um you know, what we need to consider. Um but I just I welcome you to bring you know the data and such that you want us to also consider. >> All right. Yes, Jim. >> Yeah, Christian, if you have um the data that you indicated, if you could email it to the board so we could review before discussion, I think

133it would yield a more fruitful discussion. I I'll do my best. I think there's some time and I have some we have some holiday days coming up, so >> I should be able to get that to you before the next meeting. >> Thank you. All righty. So, moving on to the new business non-consent agenda. May I have a motion um to accept the first reading, review, and subsequent adoption of board of education policies 1420, 1420R, and 4513. >> Brendan, thank you. to a second. Loftton, thank you. Discussion. >> No. >> I mean, let me just give context to understand why this is um we had committed to kind of reviewing some of these policies in light of certain issues that have been brought up to the board. And so, the policy committee considered these policies

134and did a close reading of them. And um we adopted them um uh we adopted them as they had been written before. So we're readopting them now. Um but we had made a commitment uh to look at these policies and I think we we honored that commitment. >> Jim, you got your hand on the button. Okay. Anyone else? Okay. All right. All in favor of adopting these board policies? >> I I >> opposed. obstaining. Okay, the mot Jim. >> We're done with that. >> The motion passes. Before we go on to recognition of visitors, >> yes, >> I wanted to make a motion to just include a 60-second committee report from the facilities committee since we just met before this just to share some important information and dates with the public. Um, so I just

135wanted to make a motion to add an agenda item for >> a brief >> uh committee update >> and I will second. >> All right. So, um, Jim adds motion. Christian seconds. All in favor of adding the agenda item on the policy committee. >> I facilities facilities >> facilities, excuse me, the facilities committee, >> talking policies. All in favor? >> Uh, anyone opposed? Okay, the motion passes. Go ahead. >> Thank you. I'll make it brief as we're rounding the turn here on the last meeting of the year, but um you know, we we did have a facilities committee meeting tonight. um had our new construction manager in attendance, had uh members of the architect uh team in attendance and um the construction management firm really dug in and um looked at the existing pricing that

136we had for projects, the existing list of projects that we had uh both from previous existing committee work as well as the five-year building condition survey. Um, in in short, um, it's about $60 million, $70 million in total projects. And really, that's not doing new fund stuff. That's um those are needs. Um, those are just maintaining infrastructure. Um, and and you know, I think that the committee would feel strongly that all of those are needed and it's just a matter of timing. So, that's the number we're at now. um working with um John is is working with our financial adviserss in terms of okay, we have the piggy bank saved. How much money does that get us? It's going to be somewhere in the in the low $20 million range. You know, still working on

137what that number is, but $60 million of projects, $20 million of funding. So, um we set our next three meetings as a committee. Um, Thursday, January 8th at 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, January 21st at 7:00 p.m. and Thursday, February 5th at 7 p.m. Um, locations forthcoming and those will get posted on the district calendar. U, but just wanted to let you know that we're going to make some decisions as a committee to pair that down. We're going to have a discussion of uh do we recommend to the board to make this uh proposed bond for the spring a revenue neutral bond where we say hey you've already saved in the piggy bank do you want to turn your quarter into a dollar or do we want to propose um a part of the bond that comes

138with the tax increase um to pay for long-term capital improvements. So just wanted to put that everyone's um calendar going to have to have discussions in in January um certainly at one or both of the board meetings. Um and then definitely February and try and nail down a scope of projects. So um that's it. Thank you. >> Discussion. Anyone else? I'm sorry, >> Jim. For the sake of folks, >> I welcome any questions. Sorry for those. >> Yeah. No, just going to say for the sake of those of us who weren't really on the board in the last goound with the um bond and all of that in the January meeting, could you just spend a little bit of time explaining so you're saying, you know, like 20 million's our cap unless we go and

139get raise the tax, you know, just give us kind of like how does that formula work? How does it become neutral? Just so that we all understand and talking the same language because as this becomes talk around this table, people in the community are going to start asking us. And I just want to make sure that we're all well informed in terms of how that works and and not coming with assumptions from other places that we've heard or done, etc. >> Yeah, we can certainly go more into that. Just the the very short version just to put it on record while we're talking about it. Um the state gives on capital projects uh a state aid percentage to each district. Um I haven't checked ours. It used to be 77% at the last bond. We

140used What's that? Yeah, we use 70 or 75 as a rule of thumb. 75 is pretty easy because you say, "Okay, if we've saved a dollar, you can do $4 of improvements and the district or the state will kick in those $3." Um, not immediately. The state doesn't write you that check. They pay you in equal installments over 20 20 years, 25 years, whatever the bond length is, which is why we vote to bond it out. Um so we do have um we opened a capital reserve number two in 2022. The same year we passed the first um capital project uh with a total cap of $5 million that has been filled. Uh last year we opened capital reserve number three two years ago. I don't know if it was 24 25 we opened capital

141reserve number three with the max uh available to fill that of $5 million. There's I think seven 7.5 million in there right now. Um so >> total 7.5 million roughly. I think it's 5 billion in two and 2.5 and three. >> You're right. >> There's two and a half and number three. The two and a half plus the five makes seven and a half. Thank you Christian for clarifying. >> Um so we have that money available to us and you can essentially multiply that by four. It's a little bit less because of some different factors. Now you can say, "Okay, so we've got below $20 million that we can do quote unquote revenue neutral because we've already saved the money and public, you're taking a vote to just say, would you like to turn your

142quarter into a dollar? The state is going to chip in this money if you public vote for it." um if we want to go above and beyond that number then it would have to come out of you know the annual budget. Okay. So how much additional would we be willing to spend? So um that's a discussion that we have you know talked about as a committee. We have not made a recommendation yet. There's a lot of pieces to put together. Um but just wanted to throw that out to the group that that's uh coming down the pike and it's coming down rapidly in the new year. >> Thank you. And Jim, can I just add one thing because I think you know when we look at the math because what we're talking about is we

143have $60 million of worthy projects and a certain amount available in our reserves is that I think one thing that the public is going to be confused about and I I know you know this very well which is not everything we propose is aidable, right? And so there are things we were required to do which I believe were conditioned on what we did in the last capital project that we must do in this capital project to get the matching funds. And I think that people need to understand that because why is this priority? It's not necessarily because it is necessarily the most important thing but is requirement for getting the funds for the things we we do think are you know very high priority. And I think, you know, that's as you said, it's not

144exactly three to it's not going to be an exactly 3 to one matching. Um, and I think that is um, you know, a consideration in like making sure we make that clear because otherwise people kind of go and then they start like getting the Christmas tree of like you know all the things that fit under a certain number because they think we have the next number of funds sitting there that can be spent and it's funible in many different ways and as you know um, that's not quite exactly how it works which is why we are sitting in a cafeterium not a cafeteria because cafeteriums I believe areable and cafeterias are I think is the way the the state looks at it. Um, and so, you know, that's why we have cafeteriators throughout New York

145State because captorians are adables. >> Great. Thank you. I'm sure we'll get more detail and more granular as we get going, but that's helpful to have a a general understanding. John, anything to add >> if if I just want to >> No, I think Jim did a great job. Okay. >> Christian did a great job updating. Um we'll probably have a little bit more of an update um at the next board board meeting as well. Um and I think to regularly update the board on the work of the committee because there's a lot of work taking place um certainly at the district level and then bringing it to the committee trying to move this forward for you know what are we going to present to the board and then doing to the >> Thank you

146so much. Okay. So, moving on to well, public comments. There's no one here, so I'm just going to use my deductive reasoning. Um, so we're going to move on to closing comments from the board of ed members. And, um, Jocelyn, anything to share? >> Just want to wish everybody uh, happy holidays and I'm looking forward to seeing you all in the new year. >> Thank you. Enjoy your break. Jim, do does everyone mind if we just go around the table? >> Yeah, absolutely. Um, just yeah, happy Hanukkah to our to our Jewish families. Uh, started last night. Uh, merry Christmas. Uh, happy new year to everybody. And I just hope um that everybody when they're uh, you know, gets time to to rest and relax and spend time with friends and family um during this

147season and gets to reflect on a on a on a 2025. Hopefully, it was good for you. If not, hopefully 2026 will be better. And uh just yeah, hope everybody gets to spend time with those that they love. And that's it. Thank you. Yeah, kind of echoing Jim. Happy holidays, happy Hanukkah, merry Christmas, have a great new year, and thank thanks thanks to everyone for all their hard work this year. So we'll see you next year. Just wanted to thank everybody and um enjoy your holidays because we know the new grandpa any minute now. He's excited about it. So enjoy. >> Well, congratulations, Carl. Um and yeah, ditto to everybody. Um hope everybody gets time to be with the ones you love and be kind to the ones you don't. And we'll see you in

14826. Um, oh no, I'll go. I'll go. Uh, yeah, just happy holidays to everyone in the district and um I want to special shout out to the elementary schools for keeping me on my toes with spirit week. It's been real fun, but the kids really love it and it's been awesome to watch. So, thanks. Yeah, happy holidays to everyone. >> I I will de mirror. >> Okay, great. Um, you know, this is just two things I want to say. One, I I really I want to acknowledge, Linda, we're doing a lot this year, Mike, when we think about what we're doing with facilities, superintendent search, now we're starting with strategic planning. And on all these calls, our partners are saying, "Oh, I need to know who in your admin office is going to help us

149with, you know, room reservations and getting all the people together and, you know, so we're doing a lot this year that's tapping you." I think more so than typical. So, I just want to acknowledge that and thank you for always doing it with such such a pleasant attitude. So, um, I really appreciate that. I'm sure all all of my colleagues would agree. And um you know it's just a moment I think when we when you know happy Hanukkah, merry Christmas and happy new year of course but it's a moment where I know I reflect and think you know when I think about being in Cornwall what a truly blessing or if that's not your thing how lucky we are you know to be here and surrounded by people that genuinely care about the community. We

150might not always agree um but I think everyone is coming with an intention to really make this the best place it can possibly be so that all of us can you know thrive and be the best versions of ourselves and our families. And so, um, as I kind of think back at, you know, the past year and the year to come, I am really grateful for that. And I'm grateful to share this, um, opportunity with all of you and get to know you. So, um, I thank you for, you know, your cons continued service and support. And, um, I really look forward to what we're going to be able to accomplish in uh, the second half of the year. There's a lot we have going on, but it's uh, all good stuff. So, thank you.

151And, um, with that, may I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? Moved. Brendan a second often. Thank you. All in favor? >> I >> motion passes. We're joining at 9:14. Thank you everyone.