BOE Work Session Meeting, Monday, December 1, 2025 @ 7 00 p m at CES

001So, we're going to start our meeting this evening guidance. Thank you. by the way tonight. So Joe and his team have been working. Um so he will take it from K through 12 how we're doing. >> Thank you very much again for uh inviting me back here. I know that I tend to So, thank you again for inviting me back. So, um it was very hard because when I asked Miss Arjenio, how long do I have? She's like, you know, 20 minutes. I was like, I don't know if K through 12 all the things that we do. Um but I'm going to do my best tonight. Um because I am always proud to talk about things that we do here. Um so, how I'm going to present tonight is kind of in the three major

002domains of, you know, uh anything you do with a school counseling program, which is academics, college and career, and social emotional. Um and this link right here um is our comprehensive school counseling plan. Um it is available online. Um but basically as you look through it um what we're required to have is our foundation, mission statement, program philosophy, our district structure in terms of you know elementary level, middle school, high school level. Our ASA national standards that we go by which is the American school counselor association standards mindsets and behaviors. And then this one right here kind of like our meat and potatoes right here. This is delivery by level. Um delivery by level um has to do with whatever the activity is, what our target group is, what tier it is, staff assigned timeline,

003specific time of year in which we have that for the high school level. Um I will say this just as a disclaimer, this isn't everything. Um, if I were to ask the staff at the elementary level, middle school, or high school level, you know, could you add to this? Any given day, they'll say, 'Oh, yeah, that's right. I forgot. We also do this. We also do this. Um, there's so many hats and so many things that occur. Um, but these are the things that we have down here um for anybody to view um in terms of our deliveries of services. So, this would just be a tier level support example. Um, so this is just for the high school as you can see, tier one, tier two, and tier three. Tier one obviously would mean

004all. Tier two would mean kind of like in the middle like you know there's maybe a small group of you know students that would need and tier three would obviously be in your most need. Um and so obviously with academic college and career and social emotional these would just be some of the examples. So for instance college and career a tier 2 um type of um service or activity could be specialized workshops um regarding uh SAT prep, workforce readiness, trade pathways, study skills. for social emotional a tier three could be crisis intervention and risk assessment in as results to uh self harm uh or harm to others. Um so that varies in terms of the tier it also varies in terms of the actual domain that we're servicing. So we're going to start with social

005emotional for tonight. So this is the castle wheel. Um it h it deals with interpersonal intrapersonal skills um self-awareness and self-management social awareness relationship skills and then those lead to the responsible decision-m this is everything that we kind of base our activities on um that we do um the thing that we have done um due in part to the uh leadership of Nicole Triassi our PPS director has really pushed the DBT which is dialectical behavior techniques. We do these uh K through 12 throughout our district from our support staff. They deliver monthly lessons to each grade level. Um and what they are, they're basically uh a toolbox of skills. So instead of just teaching them vocabulary, okay, how you're angry, you're upset, it's what now do you do with that emotion? What's the skills that

006you can do and practice out there? Um so just to give a couple of examples, this is something that an elementary student might see, which is a stoplight. My students or my kids talk about it at home. you know, they're like, "Well, you know, dad, you should be on a red before you go and say something." Um, and so basically what it means is kind of like a stop and think um, you know, before you act. If you start to feel that you're identifying something that you can feel, what can you do in that moment that you feel that in that moment? Um, and they talk a lot as DBT, it's easy to remember vocabulary of what support staff's teaching you if you're if you're hearing the same thing from first grade all the way

007up. So, we're basically in year three of this. But my kids will be able to tell me clearly what is the difference between emotional mind, rational mind and wise mind. Okay. So again, emotional mind is that emotional reaction you have. You're thinking with your emotions. I can't believe she said that. Blah blah blah. Rational mind is you're just thinking very analytically, black and white. But wise mind, you're combining the two. And so every student now, you know, you can hear them say it. I'll hear elementary students, you know, come by and they're like, "You're not using your wise mind." And I'm like, "Oh my god, there it is." Um, so it is awesome, awesome work that is occurring at the middle school here. This is just uh Sam Burton. She's a fifth grade counselor. Um,

008I got to observe Sam doing a lesson about uh, you know, rumors um, and things like that, but using DBT techniques and skills. Um, she had the class line up. You know, everybody's heard of the game telephone where you basically say something and then it goes to the end. And she said, "So this is 20 people. Imagine it's 200 people in school and it's about you." And so all the kids left that being like, "Wow, so something's really going to completely be not true." And so on and so forth. And she says, "Right, be mindful of that." And in here, she's doing basically a team activity. All the students have a marker. They have to work collaboratively together before they move. And that was her point, which was before an action occurs, communication has to

009occur. So a lot of times we are very impulsive and we move first, right? And how does that look when you do that first, now I need you guys to talk more. Um, and then the result was much better. Um, so Sam here is our fifth grade uh counselor at the middle school and she's an absolute rockstar with her classroom presentations. So just to speed up with our mental health clinician here. Um, last time I I spoke um we were introducing our mental health clinician. Uh clinician has been with us for approximately five weeks now. Um there are five students now being seen or students families I should say. Uh seven students uh and families at the middle school and then four students unfortunately in total could not receive services due to insurance or parents

010denying services. So, the intake process takes a while um because there's a lot of paperwork, a lot of insurance, you know, a lot of different things, a lot of disclaimers, parent consent things. Elementary students will be phased into referrals this month. The reason for that is because we want to slowplay this a little bit so that she can get her feet wet with the high school and middle school referrals. Elementary referrals will come next. She's projected to have about 20 students by the new year with incoming referrals and after that it'll most likely climb more than that. Um, but that's basically at year end she'll have about approximately 20 students in her case load. >> Mr. Dol, do you mind if we ask a question as we go? >> Yeah. >> I thought we weren't

011denying people for insurance reasons. >> So, we're deni we're she's not being she's not seeing them through insurance. She's she's not um what that number represents is who she's seeing like as actual case load. It doesn't mean she's denying seeing them though. Yeah, I should have clarified. I'm sorry. She's not going to say to them like I can't see you because your insurance got denied. What she's saying is that insurance got denied by those four. So, she technically can't charge through insurance, but she's working with those students and families still. Yeah. It's like payment plan, sliding, you know, all that other stuff. Yeah. Yeah. It's just not the >> four people are not being seen because of insurance or parental like I guess maybe in the future we could if I could differentiate. >> Parents

012are denying the service versus >> so two two out of the four parents said no. The other two it was because of Triricare like which we talked about last time. But now they're just working with the family on a different level. Yep. Sorry. So again, as also part of our social emotional stuff, this is also what we do in terms of parent outreach and also our student presentations. We still do stuff about health and safety. Um again, Amanda Zampini, our health and safety director, um has led the charge with this. We did another presentation a couple years ago regarding social media, smartphone, you know, safety and usage. Um, this presentation is set for tomorrow, but I have kids at home telling me to wear my pajamas inside out and backwards. So, I don't know if

013that will occur. Um, but we also have a parent presentation as well. It may get moved. Um, but this is something important that we do social emotionally on a granular level, but then also as a large community level. Okay. So, again, just in kind of encompassing how do we know all this works in terms of the social emotional stuff that we do. Um, as I mentioned before, this is kind of the third year that DBT has been in swing. uh a lot of times you know when you hear presentations you hear about data points you can massage data points any which way you want you can say all these things and when it comes to social emotional learning it's very gray you know okay so I can maybe give a survey or so on and

014so forth I like to just have a very basic data point the basic data point that I like to see was just simply attendance so we can see out of the pandemic there was attendance was a large issue and we also had students with social anxiety that still said I can't step foot in that building if they step foot in our building, we can get our hands on them. We can help them. We can serve them. We can do all these different things. And if you look at our attendance rates in two 2023 to 24, this represents five or more absences, excused or unexcused. Because here's the thing, I don't care what it is, you're not in our building for us to help you. You're not in our building for us to connect with you.

015In 2003 20 or 2023 24, CCHS had 151 students in the first quarter with five or more unexcused or excused absences. That is down to 123. Seems like a crazy amount, but the drop is what I'm really trying to point out to everybody. CCMS 117 and 2324 down to 64. The same time frame I'm using quarter 1 to quarter 1. Okay. CES 117 to 73. CO 45 to 23 obviously smaller building. Willow 44 to 22 cut rate basically in half. This for me is a is a data point that I get excited about because this is students saying I'm coming to school. We all know that there's probably out of that grouping actually sick kids. That's okay. There's probably uh a maybe a surgery, maybe a legit valid reason why the attendance is is in

016question. But out of that grouping of kids, there's probably a lot more kids saying, "No, I want to come to school or I do feel supported. I do feel like I have some strategies or I do have some opportunities ahead of me." So, this was just a nice data point that I like to look at. That's not again maybe a survey or an anal, you know, because I don't know, we give surveys as exit tickets to second graders. They're usually smiley face or a frowny face or whatever. This, I think, kind of speaks to again the work that we're doing and if it's working or not. And this is something that shows me that it is. Okay, moving on to academics. So, I want to talk about this because this is important for me because

017again, AP scores, you know, when we talk about where we're leading our kids before they leave our building. Um, this is something that is kind of um a national kind of comparison. It's not, you know, Cornwall Central High School's biology class versus Warwick's biology class versus, you know, and just keep on going. This is actual scores on a nationalized test. Okay? So, as you can see, coming out of basically the pandemic in 21 and 22, 71% 69%. That was a lack of confidence. You know, schools were in and out. Um that's very very apparent to, you know, what was happening. If we look at 23 and then we look at 23 to 24, the massive jump there. And in 2025, just around the same, you know, point right there of uh students scoring a three

018or higher on an AP exam, which basically means you're you've passed and you can obtain college credit. My biggest data point though when it comes to academics is this. If we look at 21, we look at the total number of AP students, that's 185. The number of exams is 357 and AP students with a score of three or higher was 131. We can start to see this really, really nice climb up. But what I really want to make sure that's apparent is this. The enrollment numbers in 21 was 191 students. Yes, Mr. Blly. >> So, I have a question. So you're looking at all AP exams, but all AP exams are not necessarily considered equally hard, which means higher scores, sometimes higher scores are more common on certain APs than others. So how much of

019this is a focus on the mix of AP exams that they're taking versus you know an apples to apples comparison which means are they let's say on a AP calculus exam are they getting higher or is it because we've changed the mix of exams that people are taking and that has an impact on the percentage. Uh it's all but I can provide that data. Absolutely. And and I'm only I'm only curious because I don't see it here but I just want to see you know I always like to see the components as much as I see the topline numbers. >> Absolutely. Yeah. And that's something I absolutely can and can show. Um I think kind of the the point that I'm making here is in 21 we had 191 students and if you look at

020today in 2026 we have 10. Um so it's way less students. And then this is our numbers for this year. So the total amount of AP students we have is um with approximately 81 less students than in 21. And the number of exams that if you look at that we had 357 when we had 191 and now we have 658. Um so again it just speaks to me it's again it's more the confidence thing but I also think it's we've created an ecosystem at the high school that allows for risk. I think that the students are saying, "Hey, I I can take that. That's okay if I take a small hit on my GPA. I want to take it." And so therefore, they're taking more rigorous courses, even if they're not necessarily quote unquote successful.

021Like, I didn't get a five. Maybe I didn't get a four, but maybe I got a two and three. I struggled, but guess what? I took a level course that is difficult for me. The other thing I want to point out to you is other districts also when they have AP students, they might say to the student, you shouldn't take the exam. You know, only they'll kind of say to everybody, you know, who's signing up for the exam and who's not. 99% of our kids enrolled in AP classes take it. So, so for me, that even speaks better more to our numbers there of success because if you do look at other districts numbers that might say we have 100% with a three or higher, their sample size might be 10 kids in their AP

022physics, you know. So again, we we test everybody. Um, and that's part of the reason why I think we're we're kind of proud of that. Yes. >> I'm curious, uh, and this is purely curiosity, and I don't expect you to know it off hand. Prior to 21, >> were those numbers equally high and there was a dip, or have we just been going up? Just been going up. Yeah. Ever since. >> So, it's not related to the pandemic necessarily. >> Correct. Yeah. We were hovering. See where 21 is with the 185? We were right about there, give or take. Those numbers. Yeah. Yeah. we we really didn't have as many AP courses as we do now as well. Yeah. So so right here just and this is just a a point of just a pride

023I guess you know it's just in 2025 85 out of 228 students their average score was 3.82. These are our AP scholars. Um so an AP scholar right here scores three or higher on three or more AP exams. We had 47 of those. Uh an AP scholar with honor average score of 3.25 in all AP exams taken and a scores of three or higher on four or more of these exams. with 17 of those students and an AP scholar with distinction is an average score of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken and scores of three or higher on five or more of these exams. So what I want to point out to you everybody is this. Before we didn't have the opportunity to have as many AP scholars with distinction because there simply

024wasn't enough time that they could take all these courses and to take all these exams. Uh so obviously mostly your junior and senior year you're able to take AP courses here at CCHS. We simply didn't have the offerings but now we do. Um we do have a lot of offerings where this can be achieved for a lot of our students. It's awesome. Yeah, I mean we we have rock stars in this district. It's I'm saying faculty and everything like that. It's it's amazing. So this right here is potential college credit report. Um this I I got from um College Board as well. Graduating class summary. So for last year for 2025. So 47% of our students had not had left the building with a three or higher on AP and basically could obtain college credit.

025What I put at the bottom here though, this number excludes any actual college credit earned from our dual enrollment classes. We also have dual enrollment classes. We have Maris College accounting. We have, you know, Maris music theory, you know, things like that that students also took. So it's actually a little bit higher than this. Um, so again, 12th grade we had 27% that had the three or higher. 11th grade had the 43.9% on at least, you know, and it's divided by the whole class size. So again, it just kind of speaks to where our kids are at in terms of what but what's the environment we're creating for them. We have students now attending CEK and taking AP classes. I think it just speaks to again it's they're not a it's that the fear is

026kind of gone, but I think the confidence is there from other students taking and saying I think you should do it too. There's a way more of a collegial environment in the building. So just in terms of increasing opportunity, just want to speak to about this really quick. Uh through some planning, uh we have an awesome um social studies teacher um Nick Welli um who is uh very very uh spoken about very fondly at Sunni Onian who is a rockstar there. So Sunni Oniian loves him and Nick kind of came up with an idea to say hey um what can we do? Can we partner like we're going to run an AP government politics class is there an opportunity to get Sunni Oniata credit as well? So he did all the work. Miss Wilhelm here

027kind of said, "Hey, let's let's get this going. Let's let's make it happen if we can." Um, so basically, students now have the option in their senior year to take zonian credit, AP credit, or both. Um, so we're looking to really do more of these type of opportunities as long as it meets the college needs. Um, more chances than not, just depends on the course. Um, the AP course will meet some of the needs of some of those intro level uh, college courses and vice versa. Um, so we just want to uh we had to do some signed partnership agreements. Um, but basically we're giving those students that flexibility. I do understand as a director of guidance for a district the dual enrollment kind of argument. Um, well, you know, well, if I just work

028hard and I pay the money and I get like a B minus, oh, I get college credit, whereas the AP is an exam. Totally get it. Uh, but coming from a perspective of if your teacher doesn't get certified by that Sunni college, you're kind of stuck. And so if you're planning for students and saying, "Hey, you know, we're we want to offer you all these things and we don't have a certified teacher or a teacher's ill or something like that happens, we're we're not in a good spot." AP at least provides a little more flexibility and there's a little bit more of like that rigor um kind of that the colleges fully understand because it's like I said comparison not uh regionally, it's more nationally. So another thing I want to talk about um is

029project lead the way engineering. So, um, I talked a lot about AP and the reason why I did is because obviously very proud of some of those numbers. I'm proud of the expansion, but what I really want to talk about in terms of our planning, uh, where we want to lead our kids to is this, uh, Project Lead the Way. Now, Project Lead the Way is a well-known program. It has engineering, has biomedical science, a couple other things, computer science. Um, for engineering for our technology department, um, they've done a lot of research. they've have uh seen the different results in different bu school districts that have it. Um you can also build um out outward. You can start at the high school and you can actually start to work your way down into the

030middle school if you wanted to. If you wanted to build a pathway, but the reason why I'm bringing this up is because any student can get involved with this. There's no prerequisites. There's no like you have to have uh this, you know, GPA or anything like that. This the way the classes are designed is there's a problem. You have to work collaboratively and critically think and solve it. Of course, having some background knowledge is key. Um, but it's not required and it's not necessary. Um, it's career path oriented. It meets NextGen Science standards. It meets New York State Portrait of a Graduate um, standards. And if you look right here, um, there's an opportunity for college credit, scholarships, and internships uh, through RIT and Syracuse University. Um, so for us, you know, we're kind of

031looking at this as like, hey, this is like a really, really nice opportunity for us. Whoops. Sorry. Um, the cost of an RIT credit would be 240 240 per course for three credits. You have to take an end of course exam for that. Uh, but that's in comparison to RIT's current rate of $2,160 per credit. Um, so the 240 is for three credits of RIT credit. Okay. So, Jacques Pansol, who is one of our technology teachers at the high school, um, secured a grant for us for $30,000. Um, so that covered teacher training, a lot of the hardware, uh, equipment that we needed. Um, so it's $15,000 for this year and then $15,000 for next year. Um, Project Lead the Way says you can keep applying for grants and if you apply, you know, chances

032are you'll get them. So that's all we keep doing. So we've just recently applied more. Uh, so hopefully we can kind of expand and build upon this program. So in 2526 we have currently introduction to engineering design. Um we have four full sections of ninth and tth graders in this course. So it is not just a course that's I think like a boutique course or a niche course that like hey this is pretty expensive you know what are we doing? Uh we have four full sections of 9th and tth grade students. In 2627 we're hoping to introduce principles of engineering which exams product design, mechanical design, infrastructure and sustainability. And in 2728 this is project lead the way's newest course. This is advanced manufacturing. This is where they talk about semiconductors, automation, AI, machine learning,

033and data analytics. Um, that's our goal where we want to get to. So, when students are doing a engineering pathway at Cornwall, uh, they're not just taking a smattering of courses, they're kind of taking a linear pathway, you know, through. Um, and again, if a student all of a sudden woke up late in high school and said, "Oh my god, I I think I want to get into that." They can. there isn't this track where it's like oh well no you're out because you didn't take introduction engineering design in ninth or tth grade you can jump in okay so that's the nice part about project lead the way so just kind of going back to engagement um in general just talking about academics so here we are in 22 23 this was our average credits

034taken at the high school at 6.3 it is now 6.6 six. It seems insignificant, but that's the whole average. So, some students decided to take a full boat of classes and maybe a study hall just because of the new schedule that we have, but some students are taking full advantage. Um, again, they're taking more. Um, they are absolutely more engaged with the coursework uh and the offerings that we've done here at the high school. Um, you know, in due in part to Mrs. Wilhelm asking, you know, students, what is it that you want to take? But then also getting ahead of the New York State standards of like the portrait of a graduate in terms of the personal finance that it has to be taught um when they launch that we already have that in

035place. Um a lot of that civic readiness we have that in place with our volunteer program with our community service. If we look at our 266 seniors in the class of 26, that's the grade bands right there. 90 to 100, there's 133 students. It's 50% of our class have a 90 or higher. I mean it's amazing and it really speaks to the credit. It's really the credit to our teachers here. Our our teachers are phenomenal about getting these kids up to speed, but it speaks to me looking at the attendance data points, looking at the grade data point that they're engaged and then the credits that they're taking more. They're taking advantage of what we have to offer. And that leads me to the college and career because that's ultimately the end goal, right? So,

036we have our two big parts there. But now, when we talk about college and career, now this is New York State's portrait of a graduate right here. Um, as everything New York State does, this is what they want. Still not sure how we're here yet. That's that's the March, you know, regions meeting. At the same time, all the things they have here down, creative innovator, critical thinker, effective communicator, global citizen, all great stuff. Awesome. You know, and I think we are already set up for that success. I don't think we're sitting here waiting for New York State and saying, "Oh my god, we have to align." I think we are already doing a lot of those things. This is a picture from our college fair this past October. This is half the gym. It was

037very hard to take a picture of the full gym, but this is something that we do every year that our parents and students absolutely love and appreciate. College rep visits from September to November. This happens during our community lunch. So, back in the day, uh, before the new schedule, we had admissions counselors say, "I'm going to come to CCHS at 10 o'clock. I'm going to come to CCHS at 8:30 in the morning." And a lot of students would say, "I I got AP Bio. That's my number one school, but I I have a test in AP Bio. I can't go meet with that admissions counselor. These all occur during community lunch. The biggest thing that I have seen is is besides the not missing academic time because they're present where students are taking, you know,

038having lunch and kind of walking around. You might get a student that sees Penn State. Penn State's a popular college. You know, they want to take the swag off the table, but there's a conversation that happens. And so the admissions rep says, "Hey, what's your average? What are you interested in doing?" Like, "Well, you know, I I got like an 87 right now." like, well, you got to pick that up if you want to be in Penn State B. And it just creates conversation. So, there's opportunity to be had. And out of these, that's 50 institutions and counting. They're still coming, you know, to our to our building. Um, and that's that's colleges and institutions, military, and it's also trade schools. And then we also have a lot of career people. We had a student

039start med talks. We have different medical professionals come into our community lunch during different, you know, uh, time periods. We had an opthalmologist in the other day talking to our students. So again, all great stuff. Not missing any academic time and just creating that spark, just creating that, you know, that interest. I I joke about it all the time. We as educators will tell the kids, "This is probably what you should take." Your parents, their parents will say, "This is what you should take." But the stranger who's in the career that they want to do that they've met for the first time will come in and say, "You should do this." And they go running to their counselor and say, "I need to change my classes." It's because it's crystal for them. They see themselves.

040This right here is Connor Melon. Conor Melon is a 2022 graduate of Cornell Central High School, who's currently at West Point. During community lunch, led a workshop on how to set yourself apart with service academy applications and everything uh that West Point has to offer and his experience currently there. He did this at the high school and the middle school. Don't get nervous. Our kids are not in trouble, but that's Sergeant Holoffield from New Order Police Department. What we did was we did a field trip with the the students uh to learn about law enforcement, learn about the court system um and actually do a full-on traffic stop, you know, and he basically told them about how to become a police officer, but also how to get involved with law enforcement in general. Um they

041had to cut their court proceeding because there was an actual real court proceedings. So they had to be like, "Okay, we got to end this right now." But all in all, a great day. Kids came back and they said it was awesome. Um a lot of kids said, "I want to do XYZ." Definitely changed, you know, some of their minds on courses they wanted to take. And this right here is a seal of civic granites. Why am I talking about this as it relates to the the guidance plan? Well, New York State uh comes out with a lot of different things, a lot of seals, a lot of, you know, medals and stickers. Um but this one actually matters. Um the reason why it matters is because um it's a formal recognition that of students

042who get kind of engaged in their school and community. when we have done I don't know if anybody's been to the uh the fair that the government classes run um in the um winter and the spring when it's their final culminating project they have to come up with a community-based problem and they have to figure out solutions how to solve it and we've had people from the town we've had um you know other dignitaries come and and view all these you know students problems we've had some students get invited to board meetings at those local municipalities to say hey you have an idea I we want to hear some more of that information that you've researched. So what what this is right here is so they can be you know those effective communicators, those critical

043thinkers, so on and so forth. So this is important to us. So what we wanted to do is instead of making this so it's uh this kind of like out there uh seal uh you know or something that some some people could achieve, we thought this was so important that what we did was um through the work of the social studies department um we embedded it in our social studies curriculum. So therefore, all CCHS senior students have an opportunity to earn this if they so choose. So basically, just to really summarize this quickly, it's based upon two columns, civic knowledge and civic participation. You need at least two points in civic knowledge and two points in civic participation. The four credits in social studies, you need that in order to graduate. So that's a given.

044The proficiency level on social studies regency exams, that's a one point right there. There's a global and US history. You got to get a 65 on each. That's three points. Okay. We embedded the high school civics project. It says limit two times, you get point and a half. We embedded that in government already. And we embedded that in economics. So there's your three points there. So that's that's a base level student. Some a lot of students have mastery. A lot of students um took an advanced social studies course, so on and so forth. So they obviously have more points. But the the main thing I'm getting at is that this isn't just for the elite. This is for all. But it's that important for us to teach our students about that civic-mindedness that we wanted

045to embed in our curriculum. So for this year out of the 266 um students that we have um I would argue probably approximately about 250 to 260 will achieve that solivific readiness. These are all the reasons why uh which I just already talked about CEK. This is another important thing that I want to make sure we show. Um, and the data point here that I'm going to show, um, I think kind of speaks to where we're identifying our kids strengths and weaknesses and how we're preparing them. So, in 2019, our enrollment was 1,182. We had 70 CEK students. The percent that we had on honor roll or high on roll and that year was 38%. In 2025, our enrollment is obviously less. We have way more CEK students. We have 95 and our percent or

046of honor roll or high roll is 53%. Again, it just speaks to again where are we identifying their strengths and weaknesses? Where are we basically identifying and getting out the information to them about these programs? I think a lot of them didn't really know. We'd always hear that, well, I wasn't sure. I didn't know or I wasn't sure that was right for me. Um, we've done a phenomenal job saying to students like this may be right for you or how here's how we can plan out your academics, you know, in conjunction with CEK. And that's why I said before we do now have students taking both. They're taking those AP courses, but they're also taking CEK. Is it easy to do? No. It's definitely hard. It's like anything else in life, you know, when you

047have, you know, scheduling issues. At the same time, we're seeing that rise because students are seeing that importance of having those skills. Um, so we're make sure we put that on the forefront for them. This is from our career fair that we had uh same day as our college fair. So, it was kind of like just like a college and career day. Um, we had everybody in here uh that were local people that have come lots of different times. We also had some new people. Um what I did was I went around and asked every single one of them, hey, if you wanted to take a high school student on just to kind of shadow and just kind of see, you know, they said absolutely 100%. Which leads me to this. So internship program at

048CCHS. So this is something that uh Mrs. Wilhelm has, you know, really really said, hey, this is something we want here. Um and the reason why is because there's other schools that have it. Um and we see what they do. We also see the benefit of it. And again, speaking to again, this is all I want to make sure I kind of harp on that. I think we have a great foundation and structure for uh the upper to succeed here. For me right now, my focus is on all that's all I keep kind of, you know, saying is like I I want to make sure that we're doing stuff that's pretty equitable. So, this one right here is pretty equitable. We'll have a soft lunch in spring of 26. Our AP government and politics class

049will do a lot of work with Orange County government uh in the spring. Um we will schedule this in the 2627 school year for seniors in good standing. The asterric is there because I want to make sure I can explain what good standing is. Good standing doesn't mean a high GPA. It does not mean that if you have a 72 GPA, you're not in good standing. But discipline attendance things, yeah, they might kill you. But again, I want to make sure we I I'm very clear with that. It's does not mean you have to have a high GPA to and be involved with this. That 72 average kid might rock this and have this best experience ever and say, "This is what I want to do for my job and for my life." And we

050want to make sure we give that type of student opportunity. So this class will meet three out of eight day cycle with our internship coordinator. First phase of this is learning about labor laws, workplace best practices, interviewing resumes, researching occupations. The second phase is the search process will involve interviews, seeking out placements, presenting resumes, and the third phase is the active internship hours in which a student have the ability to share experience with the instructor and classmates. Just kind of talking about the life lessons, you know, that are there. Um, so again, I wanted to make sure I highlighted some of these things because as you can see from our comprehensive guidance plan, those are kind of the granular activities that we do, but this is kind of the wider vision that we have because

051when we sit here as support staff and say, what are what's missing from these kids? What what what do we need? They're like, they need effective communication skills. They're struggling with that. So, what can we do in order to kind of build that up? So, we start to lay down some of this groundwork of some of that civic readiness, that internship program stuff, getting them more engaged with some of that trade and work-based programs and just giving more opportunity in front of them. That's at the end of the day, that's what we want to do is if we want to if we put more opportunity in front of them, they're going to engage and they're going to take on it. I know I went over and I'm so sorry, but it's just so exciting. So,

052I apologize. So, but if you have questions, you know, I'm happy to answer them. So, Yeah, >> thank you. >> Thanks. Sorry. Um, you were saying something that's important is uh getting the message out about all the programs. How do you do that? Like what changed? >> So, we now do um presentations where we force all the sophomores to engage in that presentation. We send out messaging to parents. We strategically do our parent night. So it's before CEK registration. Before it kind of got muddled. It was like, you know, right, you know, at or around and it was always like we were kind of chasing our tail a little bit. Now we kind of put it on the forefront. We actually have a student panel that uh during our community lunch that they can ask

053any questions they want of that. We have they they take a like a it's like a permissible excuse day from CEK to stay at their home school and do that panel with the students and then ask those questions. like we find that honestly student to student is like our best way to engage with them. Yeah. Yep. No problem. >> Yes. >> Sorry, just to piggy back on that too. So um they do a great job too with the student panel with also um some of the courses and some of the other programs outside of CEK that Joe was talking about. So they hear directly from the student perspective of what it actually involves, what's the reality behind it and that seems to entice the kids to exp learn a little bit more, too. >> Yeah,

054we we did that for um we do um in the spring when the AP exams are over, we do AP peer-to-peer workshops. Um so, it's students meeting with the students who just took the class. Um we had one class that was notoriously the class that every kid said, "Don't take that because that teacher's hard and it went from one section to two because of the peer-to-p peer workshops." Because the kids in the class said, "Yes, it's hard, but here's my writing from the beginning of the year and here's my writing at the end of the year." So when the kids saw that, they went, you know what? Okay. And they took it. So that's one of those things that again that was and by the way that came from us collaborating as a group with

055the AP instructors and saying what can we do here that would just give more opportunity for the the kids and that was one of the ideas we came up with. Y it's great. Kids love it. So I have some questions but really I think my questions rather than asking them tonight are mostly I would like to see the underlying data to some of these things because >> happy to provide that >> the the raw data on the composition some of the you know in my back of my mind I'm processing things. I'm a secondary teacher myself and I would like to see that because um that would answer a lot of the questions or concerns that I have. Um, and I'll just kind of put this out and this is more a rhetorical question. And

056this is um, you know, this is kind of one of those internal debates about what are we doing and how we're doing it. And I'm sure you're aware of like the debate between the AP model versus the IB versus concurrent enrollment and whether those are better or worse. And then kind of a related one which is the number of these classes and whether they're actually leading to better outcomes which means you're getting more kids into the classes and certainly there's way more kids in every school probably in New York State not to mention the country in these advanced classes and it's not clear that we're getting better results by and we we have now decades of like to see what happens to these cohorts of students not just here but everywhere and um you know

057I'm just going to put that out there as like um what is what is our goal and I would say if I had to summarize what I'm saying is that it's mostly would say in within a vocational framework which is the purpose of K through2 education is primarily to prepare people to be good workers and jobs and there's always been the other side of that debate and throughout uh American education history which is the purpose of education is to cultivate uh citizens in particularly citizens for a democracy and while the Civic rabbitis is supposed to address that. You know, there's a debate and I'm sure you're aware of it and I think that's one of those things about as we develop our programs, how are we addressing that and also how we're balancing within these

058internal debates within education. >> Sure. Absolutely. >> Uh yeah, Joe, thank you. This is incredible. I uh might be one of the requests that Christian would make, but one thing that came to mind uh about more data, it was really interesting your your breakdown of the AP students and and uh really encouraging to see that the averages are going up even as the pool is going up. Usually that's uh the opposite. >> So, um it got me thinking to explore that even further. And I think that the request would probably go beyond what you might even have access to, but it's just kind of a larger request and and I I'll start to rope in Megan on this. It started with, "Wow, I would really love to to see how our AP students, which I

059guess are a good cohort for our high performing students, do compared to others in the region on the AP test." And then I thought, well, what if we had just applied that same kind of logic to all of the other academic metrics we have, you know? So, It's almost like seeing like the regions data for example at the end of the year is really helpful, but maybe your high-end students are bringing that up and maybe there's a weakness in your middle or maybe it's the opposite. Maybe the high-end students aren't competing with the high end in others. So just knowing exactly where we are very strong, where we can support, I think that starts to shed a light as a board where it's really helpful because then we can say, "Oh, there's there's a programming

060need not just in this area, but for these specific students within that area could be helpful information." And your presentation kind of just made those wheels start going, but I think that would be a helpful thing for us as a board to see. >> Yeah, absolutely. Uh, thank you for the presentation. First off, I just wanted to say you referred to Sergeant Holyfield. Believe he's now Deputy Chief Holyfield. >> Chief. Yeah. Sorry. >> Uh, proud Cornwall graduate, class of 1998, which was an excellent graduating class. >> Bigger for that one. >> Um, he had more hair in 1998 than he did in that photo. I can vouch for that. U but I just wanted to comment um as well kind of piggybacking on Jaime's uh comment of um the through line that I heard for

061all of the programs that you were talking about which a lot of them are very exciting was we're communicating this to the students and we're getting more involvement because of just letting them know what's available to them. Um and that really jumped out to me as the connecting tissue of of all the different programs that you presented. Um, so just wanted to say, you know, uh, to the entire high school team, just continue that effort. Um, seems like it's bearing some fruit, but obviously just that that's a an important part. You can have all the programs in the world, but if the students don't know they're there, um, how to take advantage of them, why they would want to take advantage of them, uh, they're wasted opportunities. So, >> thank you. >> Okay, I have

062a couple comments and questions. um so impressed by the community lunch work that the students seem to be initiating themselves bringing speakers in and really utilizing that time and demonstrating leadership etc. So, that is um really a nice positive that's come out of that for certain. And I was really glad to hear you talking about and using the the comment um I wrote it down, focus on all, right? >> So, I'm jealous of AP kids, right? Because I wanted to be one. So, but in all seriousness, you know, there is that's incredible, right? Incredible work and and no taking that away. what are we how are we really focusing on those students that are in that um 70 to to 90 range right and it sounds like that's on your radar% and I just you

063know those students that aren't hand raisers how are we tapping into them because you know it struck me and I kind of whispered to Megan at the um National Honor Society induction there was a um colonel I don't want to misrepresent him a colonel that spoke he was fantastic but he basically was saying you know your grades are only so much like where's your grit where's the rest of it so that's being demonstrated by bringing in speakers and, you know, doing beyond the classroom. Yes. But those middle-of the road kids, they're not they're not the kids that need exceptional support, right? >> They're developing grit all the time. But how do we how do we acknowledge that or hopefully they are, I should say, and reinforce that as a positive, right? They're typically you're you're

064not neurotypical students, you know, etc., etc. And of course, I have a passion for that that um subset. So, I would just I you know I'd be curious as the year goes on like what are we doing there and how do we measure the success of that as well. Um, and I'm not asking these questions to have answers now, but you know, do we track our college retention like folks that go to college, you know, two years later, three years later? And it's not to say that it's bad if they don't, >> right? >> But just do we measure that in the sense of a data point to know how we're directing kids. >> So, we have tried um the >> I know it's not >> No. So I I can give a perfect example

065like so um we would ask on a senior exit survey and we would threaten all sorts of things like you won't get your g cap and gown you have to fill this out and again it's more we tell them because this is where we want to send your final transcript. We just we really need to know and it's so it's that self-reported data and it it helps tremendously. One of the questions we ask is like you know are you willing uh to put down a personal email that we may reach out to you because their school email dies when they leave you know so it's it gets shut down. So like, hey, is there a personal email that you would write? And we have sent out things saying like, oh my god, we love you.

066We just want to see how you're doing and whatever. And so if we send it out to 260 graduates, we'll get 40 responses back. >> And I would be if I presented that, I don't think that's statistically significant enough. And usually the people who respond either are like, I hate Cornwall because blah blah blah or I love it and I'm doing great and yay, look at a picture of me from valid. >> It's not valid. Right? So, I am constantly hunting, searching those ways. Uh, I'll give you another example. There's a clearing house that you pay for and you get data. And I was at Valley Central, my old school, and I'm sitting with a teacher and I said, "I got this clearing house data." And he looks and he goes, "Well, there's my daughter

067and that's not where she goes to school." And I was like, >> so it's it's frustrating. Yeah. Trust me when I say that would be awesome >> uh to have. Um, a lot of times, you know, an idea that we have for May is an alumni day u where we're going to invite alumni back. It's not going to be that, you know, how are you doing so on and so forth, but it's going to be more, I think, engaging to like talk to the students about, I think, life outside of Cornwall and living with another person potentially or just, you know, what were some of the pitfalls and, you know, you have to get the right students for that, too, otherwise it turns into war story time and, >> you know, we want it to

068be meaningful and valuable, >> community lunch idea to have the alumni come back and talk about it to the to college students. >> Yeah. Yeah. But again, everything you're saying about that, that is something that's always on my mind about how can I creatively get the the amount of responses back to make it valid. Yeah, >> I know that for CEK, you know, one of the greatest challenges is our distance, you know, and then what it impacts for a student's ability to participate in other elements of their high school career. >> Um, so, you know, that's nothing to solve for. I just think it's a shame in some ways because they really do have incredible programs beyond your um trades, you know, it's not just the kids who have weaknesses, right? It's it's incredible programs

069there. >> Um >> and I would be curious in the future to learn a little more about middle school, like how are we preparing kids because so much of their social emotional um confidence is developed at that time. So then, you know, they come to high school and then what, right? And so I would love to hear about that in the future. Um, I took notes so I didn't um uh babble. No, I mean I think it's just incredible and there's clearly a number of things that you have added in the past three years it seems like that are really rounding out the students um ability to be exposed to a variety of things. Um is the internship during school time or after after hours when they actually go do the work? >> The class

070would be during school hours. The actual hours would be after school. >> Okay, cool. >> Yeah. All right. That was great. Thank you so much. >> Uh just a followup comment about just tracking students because have a little bit of experience with this. >> Good. >> Um one because I've been I'm one of the panel of the longitudinal study of American youth. So I've been taking a survey since I've been 10 years old and every year I get the survey again and I take the survey. So when you hear about generational change, I'm one of those people in that survey. um a $50 Amazon gift certificate is how motivating. >> Um and that's that is how they get people and I know what their response rate is and that might seem worth it if at

071least once to um if the data is valuable. I would say that just by the numbers for statistical significance I think you only need 13 responses >> out of 260. The thing the question though is not how many responses but whether they're independent and I think you suggested that by the people most likely to respond are the people who have intense views whether positively or negatively and that's more of a concern than the number of responses. >> Gotcha. Thank you. >> I might suggest a raffle for a gift card versus everyone getting say Mr. Frank had a heart attack over there. >> Just one raffle ticket maybe. >> Uh any other questions or comments? Well, thank you so much, Mr. Dal. >> Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity. It's awesome. We're we're at a very

072very lucky place to be in in Cormal. Honestly, I don't say that like just as like, oh, I'm the director of guidance, student board presentation. Like everybody I mentioned um all the work that they have done. I just the collaboration is amazing. So, like it's awesome to see it all kind of come to life. Um and it's uh I think you you kind of said it which was like the all like that's everything right now. And I think you said rounding out and I think that's the key. Like we've already developed structures here that are set up for you know the success and the nice bragging points but now it becomes the the real rubber meet in the road you know with everything else. So but I appreciate it. Thank you. >> I I'll just

073add that at the beginning of the year um Dr. Dr. Harrington had asked the board to welcome new employees. And I had um reached out to recent graduates and said like, "What did you love about what do you love about being Cornwall or a Dragon?" Because what am I going to say to new employees? And um every one of them in some way, shape, or form said they felt seen, they felt like they mattered, and they had what they needed to be successful. And I did not ask all AP students, right? Like I I had a real um mix of students. And for me, that was really just an overwhelming reinforcement of what I think makes Cornwall special. Um, and you know, it's not always easy, but do you feel supported and that you have

074resources when it's not easy for you, you know? So, I think a lot of that kudos goes to all our faculty and staff, but certainly the leadership that, you know, helps to create that environment and expectation. So, thank you to everyone. Thanks. Um, public comments. Okay, I'm gonna move on then. Um, committee updates. Let's start with um Carl Richie's report. >> Yes, thank you. So, on November 7th, we visited the middle school and as I mentioned last month, we observed a French push-in class and a Spanish push-in class to our sixth graders. And I just have to say, observing it, sitting in the back of the room, I was just so impressed with how engaged the the class was. I know Carl, you were there for the the French class, and I mean, it was

075just incredible how the both teachers kept the the students engaged, paying attention. Um, you know, they were dancing, singing songs. Um, and it was just really something to see. And I'm glad we went there. It was a great experience and that's really it. Unless do you have anything else to add? >> I'll just piggyback that I was supposed to visit um Cornwall and Hudson and I had a work conflict at the last minute. So I am rescheduling that and I'll let the board know when that happens but that's on me. So that's not the school Jim facilities and if there's anything legislative. >> Uh nothing legislative facilities. Uh our next meeting is going to be um just finalized earlier today uh December 15th that that right before uh leading up to our next board meeting.

076Um so I will email that out to the committee. So that's uh that's hot off the press is that that was finalized today. So, um I know John and and Walter Moran have met with Triton, our new construction managers are getting them on boarded and we're going to hear um from them at that next uh meeting and really start to kick things into high gear uh as far as uh bond presentation um for the for the spring. >> I didn't bring this up before, I forgot. We're going to be setting something up where this time around we're going to meet the visitation committee is going to meet with buildings and grounds. So, I'm going to set that all up. That's just something we're going to add this year to it all. Okay, >> great. Thank

077you. Thank you, Jim. Anything else? Okay, thanks. Um, Christian, policy committee and audit if there was any followup. >> So, the audit committee has wrapped up its required work for the year. Uh, we will have another meeting before the end of the year, but nothing scheduled at this time. Uh, the policy committee is meeting, I believe, Wednesday. I might be wrong on the days of the week because I think of days of the month and it's a new month. Um, and we have several policies lined up. I believe the members have gotten the agenda and some materials and I owe some materials to the members of the committee just to um, as I I promised, but they will be coming before the meeting. Um, one other thing, um, Oxa Oxa has a meeting tomorrow. It

078is virtual, which makes it easy. You can do it in your pajamas, inside out, backwards, or any way you want to do it. Um, it and it might be interesting to a broader segment because this meeting is meeting with various different um, particularly state representatives, not just the our local ones, um, Ekas and Scufus, but other legislators. Um, and I know everyone received an email asking soliciting questions, so they would have some questions to start with. um they could have more prepared answers, but I think that the big question is going to be what is the state budget going to be like this year and particularly about funding and some of the other questions about some of the large mandates that are down the road. Um I'm not I believe you'll probably get a link

079from Karen Meyer probably either if you haven't got it tonight tomorrow to join the meeting and um I would encourage any school board member to join and listen in and ask a question. Does anyone on the board do you get those links from Karen or do you need me to forward them or Christian to forward it? Okay, as long as everyone's has access to join if you'd like. Um, thank you Christian. Um, legislative, you said no. Brendan, communications. >> Yes. So, we have a survey uh comm capital project a community survey that will be hopefully ready for distribution by I'm hoping the end of this week which just gauging the community's uh preferences and appetites for for different combinations that could be uh in the capital project. So, um hopefully uh we should be able

080to have some data in by the time the facilities committee meets uh midmon so that we can really start to align with what we believe realistically the uh community can support. >> Anybody I missed? I'll just give a quick update on superintendent search. So, as of November 30th, uh the window has closed for both the survey and the application process. And uh district-wise, our search committee is in is in the midst of compiling that data so they can provide a summary report to the board members. And they are doing their first round screening um of candidates. There was quite a few that applied um so that they can report back to the board and give us their recommendations for who they think, you know, we should be meeting with um as strong candidates. So, I

081will keep everyone, you know, more so the public. I think the board is aware, but uh informed as we make progress on that. Okay, moving on to new business. We have our consent agenda. We have items numbered 2 through 17. Before we take a motion, would anyone like to pull any of those from the agenda? Okay. >> Um I would like to pull number six and number seven mostly as to comment on seven through don't know the number but this comment on tax. So I'm going to pull one rather than pull all of them. >> But should we vote on all of them before you make your comment? >> I I don't I don't think my comment changes the vote on it. >> Okay. Okay. So, it's they're up through 17, but >> okay. >>

082If you want to pull all of them, it would be 7 through 17. Don't want to pull all of them. >> I understand what you're saying. I think we should pull all of them and just take and take a vote on those separately just in case the comments sway anybody. I'm not sure. So, do you want to pull six as well >> for a different reason? Okay. So, we're going to pull six through 17 and take a vote on those separately. May I have a motion? And so our consent agenda, use of the consent agenda permits the board of education to make more effective use of its time by adopting a single motion to cover those relatively routine matters which are included. Any member of the board who wishes to discuss individually a particular piece

083of business on the consent agenda may so indicate and that item will be considered and voted on separately, thus preserving the right of all board members to be heard on any issue. It is recommended that the board of education approve the following consent agenda items as submitted by the superintendent of schools. We are voting on items 2 through five. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items two through five? >> Some moved. >> Brendan, may I have a second? Carl, thank you. All in favor of consent agenda items two through five? >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay, the motion passes. Consent agenda number six. May I have a motion um for consent agenda number six? >> So moved. >> The budget amendment resolution. Thank you, Jim. May I have a second? Richard

084discussion Christian >> um so my comment here is mostly about you know the nature of the budget because this is amendment to the budget resolution and this is related to the project lead the way um and this is not obviously this is not additional spending this is adding a program and also adding a revenue I assume um however I have a we've done this now probably several times times this year. I think my count is three or four where we've kind of made amendment amendments or additions and all of them are worthy whether it's a strategic plan whether it's um an additional uh position uh position or having the project lead the way but my concern is how what this does to the budget process. We spend several months putting together a budget, you know,

085making decision, making a representation to the community about what why we're raising the money and why we're spending it. And if we basically just have these kind of leak leak leaks really the only purpose then of the budget vote becomes is how much revenue we're going to raise. And that was kind of in contrary to the spirit of why there are some of these caps and rules about how we spend money and where we put it because the whole reason why we have a certain percentage on the elated fund balance is because in Rosland uh district in Long Island, you know, superintendent put a whole bunch of money aside and use it like a personal spending fund to spend on well in that case on personal expenses, but it could be for basically a slush

086fund for any type of thing that we think is worthy and therefore there's a loss of connection to accountability. So my concern is that really I think we need to perhaps get into really focusing on the budget process because I can remember last year when things were suggested in the middle of the year that were even smaller dollar amounts that those were pushed into the budget process or had to wait to the budget process to be discussed and approved and it seems that we're being a little bit inconsistent on that. And if so that that's my concern. I think the point about it is we're going to spend this thing developing a budget and approving programs because this is my concern with two concerns with project lead the way. The first one is the general

087criticism that's been around for decades about it which is it's very much a canned curriculum and it's kind of what what it is in engineering. It seems to be something different, but it actually kind of represents what we might have called like um technology or shop class or whatever what people would have called it in the past, but it's called engineering and has this idea that it's STEM education or some high advanced education. and it kind of straddles that and therefore there's been always been like is it a good model and people I I I teach in a classroom that used to be the project lead the way classroom in my building and so I have a lot of the projects and of a very developed mature program building in my cabinets and things of

088that sort but what this grant is and I applaud the speaking of grants what it is is like a new program starter fund I presume given our status and so what this is money is like Okay, we're going to give you some money so you can come back and buy our materials and train in our program. And that kind of instance commits us at kind of following a certain model of the program without a discussion about whether is this the desirable model of how we want to do curriculum for this type of um program when there's other ones exist. So the point about it is it kind of in a sense I have a concern that this should be part of a larger discussion in the budget discussion rather than let's say we're amending the

089budget mid year and so that would be my preference and so I'm going to abstain on on this but I don't think this changes it because it's not a really question about the worthiness is a desire for I think a different process. Other comments? >> I if I could just add I do think Christian you you've um you've brought this up before about how in the past we pushed things through to the budget that might have been less con like inconsequential in terms of a dollar amount. And I think for myself, I can only speak is that, you know, in hindsight, I learn and sometimes, you know, maybe we didn't always make the best decision in the past and we were, you know, pennywise and pound foolish or or we can make a decision that

090is smarter in the moment. And I'm not asking this question to be argumentative, I genuinely am just asking the entire board when things come up mid year that we didn't necessarily anticipate or know about. And I'm not speaking specifically about this program, but maybe some of the other things that we've asked for money for. How do we manage for that then? Do we say we're we're we don't want to we really don't want to address anything that requires a budget increase at this point. We're going to wait until the budget time and then we wait that the rest of the year to do that. And genuinely, I'm I'm you know, this happens in business, too. Like, you know, how do you manage for those things that come up a year? We've been talking about staffing

091related to some some student needs that we couldn't have known were going to exist prior to enrollment, right? Um, and that's not what this is because I I hear two different arguments. One is around the curriculum. So, is this a curriculum that we want to support, which is a a valid question that we can discuss. Um, and I know that the grant money isn't it, but I just I am curious like what is our best practice related to requesting budget increases midyear? because there's something else that someone brought to my attention related to the sound system, right? And it's like, well, you know, we thought it was covered in the budget. Um, but do we not bring that to the board to have a discussion now? Do we just wait until the budget period? So,

092I I think I've made my point, but I I'm genuinely just asking as a point of discussion. Like, I don't know what the best practice is or what it should be, I should say. >> So, I have a response, but let me wait in case anyone else wants to join before I respond. I'm happy to let Christian respond and my comment can come after but >> so I'm not sure the question is a dollar amount because I don't it's not a question of whether you know we can afford it although there is a question about like what do we ask what do we need to levy to support our program um and there's there is a a broader discussion on that but then the question is like what information do we need to make these

093decisions Because the reason why some things were pushed in the past was because well we don't have enough information or we need really specific detail on it and it was pushed back you know months or whatever. You know we need to know the specific number on substitute teacher pay or the cost of uh a second election site or things of that sort. And so the point about this is that when you make some decisions can be made immediately with relatively little according to or use the word little foundation and then other decisions require a lot of foundation. We're basically having a sliding scale and that's that's probably maybe where I would go for a standard of what could and couldn't be done. The second thing is there are things that happen because they're out of

094our control and we don't control everything. We don't know how many special needs students or what needs or technologies or things they're going to need. That's not something we control. We're responding to something. And I'm sure there are allowances in our budget since we budget more than we spend for to handle those type of contingencies. And that's why we have reserves to handle some of these things that we can't anticipate. And by putting the money into the reserves, we are saying we don't know what the number is. We think there's going to be something there and that reserve exists for that purpose. And then there is the you know the method of like just doing transfers and we passed a policy about transfers which means we have more in this section than that section and

095one is over and one is under you know we can transfer between accounts. This is creating kind of a new budget line I believe and John correct me if I'm I'm not mischaracterizing it but that's kind of like a new budget line which is why I think it's an amendment to the budget. At least that's my inference but maybe I'm correct incorrect about that. But that's where I think you know you start kind of getting to the gray area. And um I think the last thing about it is that these should be kind of public discussions. The nature of the curriculum, the nature of the course of study is something as we've been reminded recently is something in the province of the board. And when we have two board meetings that are under an hour

096in the past month, perhaps there's not those decisions are not being made in the open. they're be made in kind of let's say the bureaucracy and those where those decisions are it means there's less of an accountability and that's where my concern is because some things are open and there's a lot of documentation goes with them for a variety of good reasons over time and that's where I would like to push our board for our process and so that's kind of where I would see the if you had to create a standard about what what is in and what's not in it's not because I don't think we can't do things for the middle of the year it's about being consistent about and also about what is a new program versus what is dealing with

097the fact of un unplanned. >> Brendan, >> yeah, I mean, generally speaking, I I agree with both of you. I think both of you are making solid points. Um, I think that to Christian's point, we we should have a we should have standards and and processes for evaluating any expense that we add to our budget uh in the middle of the year. Um, I do think it's worthwhile clarifying the examples where we have not added those uh expenses. You know, the a lot of it comes down to timing or has come down to timing. So, with the substitute teachers last year, if I'm not mistaken, um I didn't know this would come up so purely from memory, but I believe that was in the first meeting of February in which we were about to end

098like we were literally entering the budget season. And the numbers that were brought to us were not from the central business office. So, they were unverified. And so the calculation at the time was, well, if it's going to take another couple of weeks to get these numbers, we're already going to be in the budget season anyway. We may as well just uh kind of lump it into that process. As far as the um election sites, it was vetted through the central business office and the board just decided not to allocate that money. It just decided that it wasn't worth it. So I I think we did follow the process there. Uh, and I but I would underscore everything Christian said as far as the goal is to have a process for evaluating these. And to

099your point, Christine, we need to keep ourselves open uh as a board to be flexible because there are needs that that are going to come up that won't be on that budget cycle. Um, so I I think that the administration is hearing this discussion and and understands that that's a priority. So, um I don't think that what is being presented to us is outside of that best practice. Um but knowing that that's a priority for the board, I I think is good to hear moving forward. >> Yeah, I think we can certainly um I don't know if I want to say be more disciplined, but maybe more intentional about how we talk things through so that we are following a consistent pattern so that whoever is bringing something feels as though we've put it through

100the same paces as any other thing that's been brought forward. I'm sorry, Jim. >> Yeah. No, just a a quick comment to add. Um I think Christian raises a good point that we certainly need to be uh mindful of uh adjusting the budget midstream and and doing things within that budget process. Um you mentioned reserves and I think that 99% of uh additional expenses are handled that way as they should be. Um the two instances that we've had this year and this is my fifth year on the board and I think this is the first two times it happened. It just so happens that the this year this case and the strategic planning um this is a grant. So we're not going out to the taxpayer for this money. We're just saying, "Hey, we're getting

101this money as a grant and we're going to turn around and spend it." So that's sort of a unique case. Um, and as far as the strategic planning, it was something that we all agreed upon uh as a board that was a worthy initiative and we just had extra money come available because New York State was so late on their budget and we got more than we had planned for on that process. Um, New York's late on the budget every year, and I crack jokes about it in all of the board meetings when we're in that process, but I think last year was the first year that they were so late that we already had to take our vote on our budget before they came in in my experience on the board. In other years,

102it was close. We pushed a meeting back two days or we had to have an extra meeting that wasn't on the original schedule, but New York State was done with their work. Were we able to do it? and last year they were just it was just the calendar and and New York State's delay. So those are two sort of extenduating circumstances that I haven't seen before. Um but you know in in general I I take Christian's comment to heart that we should be um you know this should be the the to me these are the exceptions that prove the rule. We shouldn't really be doing this in general and in these are two unique specific cases. >> No, I'm glad you raised it, Christian. I think it's important that we're all aligned on, you know,

103how we um tackle these kinds of things moving forward as it relates to being consistent and uh ensuring that whoever's bringing something forward feels like we've put it through the same process and and um rigor in terms of the decision- making. Is there something else you wanted to offer? Um so I think a few a few things and it because what happens in the budget process is we we set like the tax levy increase and when we set the tax levy increase so let's say for example we did the strategic plan through the budget last year versus let's say the unallocated fund balance this year even if it cost the same amount of money or even if maybe cost maybe we save something what we do is we had it in the budget we would

104have had a high slightly higher tax levy and that would have put us in a better financial position going forward. And that's about making sure that our revenues are consistent. And look at this year where I believe this is the first year where um our unallocated fund balance isn't topped off. And we're going into a year with a lot of and this is like the rainy season where we're expecting where we might have to be, you know, we might have a real need to like how we're going to get those revenues. And this is one of the years where we have, let's say, less in let's say the keep the powder dry. And so that that makes it important why it's in the budget process because it's in the budget process it can affect the

105tax levy uh that we're getting and what funds we're raising locally and that gives us let's say a better uh fiscal trajectory long term. Right? So it's not just about whether this program is worthy or not and putting in the budget process allows to do that. Otherwise it comes out of the fund and then we have to find if it's a repeating where is that going to come in the future budgets if it doesn't display something. And I think though just for accuracy, the substitute teacher pay came up in December because we had to was on the budget. It was on the agenda because if we hadn't raised the substitute teacher pay last December, we would not be in compliance with New York State minimum wage law. So that came up significantly earlier in the

106year. And with the election, the meeting was requested in October, next meeting was in November. we had numbers then it was tabled then we came back with a different set of numbers which was different we're estimating the same thing now that's always possible but the point about it is um it evolved and the point about it is when you delay things it's sometimes because well what is a vote at a particular time and using time as any legislature knows delaying is one of the tactics of how you kill bills or how you kill motions and things of that sort and that's why it's important about consist consistency about it's the same process every single time. So my point is I think we're all in agreement that and I think Jim to your point this year

107has been more than your experience on the board and really what my original point was is that I like the fact that we were more consistent in the past and certainly you were part of that as was Brendan and I think my my point is to remind us that maybe we make an exception here we make another exception we make another exception eventually we're not following our own rules anymore and I think it's good to have a reminder of that so that we can get back to make whole regular process. >> I'm not sure if you just said that I'm being inconsistent or if the process is, but I am really working hard to be consistent. So, if there is I just want to clarify because that was a statement that was made. So, I

108would welcome anyone on the board at any time if you feel like we're not giving something that's due time or that I'm stalling a bill or something to please just reach out and give me that feedback because that is not the intention of all at all. So, I just I welcome the feedback. So, um can I have a motion for Oh, we already had a motion. Excuse me. So, can we take a vote on all in favor of item number six, a 2025 2026 budget amendment resolution resolved in accordance with the New York State Education Law Section 1718 that board of education of the Cornwall Central School District does hereby amend the general fund budget for the 2526 school year from 92 986,83 to93 million $1,83 an overall additional increase of $15,000. This adjustment includes

109new revenue from project lead the way to fund supplies and training for new curriculum. The funds will be added to the following budget codes accordingly 7500 into 21042 contractual PL ptl and 7500 into 20110 502 supplies PLTW. All in favor >> I >> opposed. Abstain abstaining. Motion passes. Six to one. Okay. Now we are looking at items number seven through 17. Um may I have a motion >> for consent agent? Thank you Brenton. Second. Thank you, Jim. Discussion Christian. >> Um, so this is not reflection on any of the um requests for tax certity or any of the homeowners or who are applying this round because this could be made on any year and I've made similar points in the past. Um I think that the key thing when we remember about like property tax

110and certainly there's a lot of people who talk about different funding systems for school districts whether moving to an income tax or that you know school taxes are a burden particularly to families or households don't have children in the schools and um there are several things about our tax system that you know when there's application of taxior um uh refunds and things of that sort is that property tax is regressive. which means it always falls larger on those with less means. Um unlike you know our income taxes which is progressive which means the more money you have or the more resources the higher the tax rate and that a lot of that goes to how properties are assessed. So even let's say the most um you know um humble property is assessed you know not

111that far from what the most grand property is. And if you look at the differences between where property taxes are just in this community alone, you would see that where a house that might sell for $5 million is not selling for 10 is not being taxed 10 times more than a house that's selling for $500,000. You probably getting something more. It's three times, you know, two in a two in a fraction. And so it's important about like because it's regressive. Some people would say it was a good thing because people feel they have ownership over it. And the other thing that's taxed aggressively is social security because you feel that you've earned it. You feel you paid in and therefore you kind of get invested in the quality of it. And that's kind of the

112reason why schools are funded through property taxes. And they're funded through property taxes in part because while it's easy to hide or manipulate income, it's really hard to manipulate property. You see it, it's there, you know who owns it, you can tax it. And it's funded that way in part because we want to have a secure constant uh way to fund schools not just today but also 50 years from now, 70 years from now. And so with a lot of taxority when you look at any group of people who are applying for it, it is not the people who are perhaps in the biggest pinch. It's not really an affordability. They tend to be properties that are paying nomally the largest amount for the most part. And there's a variety of different ways to do

113it which are like, okay, we're going to try to keep below a litigation threshold so that people won't challenge it whether or not it fits the property. And certainly if you're a typical property in the Hudson Valley, not just in Cornwall, um probably the value of your property has gone up over the last 5 years. And so why does this matter? Because when you make it, one of the we people talk about is the housing crisis and the affordability of housing, particularly the most unaffordable thing and as I was saying to M. Diaz before the meeting today, the median age of a home buyer last year in the United States was 61 years old, which means the average person buying a house is near retirement. And that's a real problem for school districts because uh

11461 year olds are generally not having children in the school district. And for particularly for suburban exurban districts like ourselves that kind of undermines the ability to do that and also the loyalty and support for schools. And a lot of that's because there have been a lot of accommodations, tax assertity, lowering the burden, property taxes, things of that sort. And these are little leaks that I think undermine that. Because when you think about how do you pay for a school district, if I trust the statistics, our district spends about $23,000 per student, which is the lowest in Orange County. But if you look at like the typical person paying school tax, even if you look at the highest school tax in this community, they're maybe paying 20 $30,000 in school tax, which means maybe they're

115covering one student. And the point is it's not like a tuition. You need everyone to be able to pay in, otherwise the model breaks down. And you hear this a lot talking about like school taxes are a tuition and if you don't have children, you shouldn't be paying for it. But there's no way you would finance it. So, for example, if I have two children, $46,000 of cost, and I pay roughly $10,000 in school tax, I'm nowhere near paying full cost of my own students, even if they had an average, let's say, set of needs. And so these facts are fury, I know we don't challenge them because they're below the litigation limits, but that what that does, it makes it more regressive because you tend to have it kind of bends it even to

116a more aggressive direction because the people who tend to get taxior are not the people at the pinch. They're the people who have let's say the largest nominal thing and therefore the most to gain from it. And I'm not I'm not sure how we become more discriminating about this, but we should be concerned about it because it undermines, let's say, the financing model for public education. >> Jim, >> um, just a question for Mr. Frink. I think you'd be the right person to answer this. We can't challenge these, right? This is handled on the town level and we just have to deal with the outcome. >> Thank you. And also to clarify um and maybe John you can confirm or deny this. The process at the town assessor level is it's not just something people

117apply for. They have to actually contest their school taxes. And it's only when they can prove to a panel that they've been overcharged do they quote unquote win their case and get a refund. So it seems like the checks and balances are already woven into the system and to Jim's point there's nothing we can do about it. you have a comment. >> It's not so much that we can do something about it like we're going to take some legal action or not approve the resolution. It is about what people in our community want to do and they need to sometimes I mean I have a good faith view is to encourage people like hey if you want to have a school district or you want to have a public school district um some of these

118things hurt our ability to do that. I would say as a general point I think it's well known that the way that assessments work is not the full market value or the real market the actual market value and um and that's one reason why it's regressive and what I was the point I was making is that you're proving it to a panel but sometimes a panel decides this not necessarily on the merits of the case because you can pick out comparables or things of that sort. It's to basically make it so that the taxing institution, whether it's a town or the school district or the state or whatever, whoever is taxing your property, that cost of litigation would be greater than the cost of the refund. And that's kind of in a sense trying to

119stay at that that sweet spot and whether that if you do that, you're going to win it because people don't want to challenge every single suit because going to cost you money to push back against it either at the town, municipal level, etc. So I think the concern is here. The reason for saying this is not because we're going to urge I'm urging people to vote against that today. It's more about we need to as a community whether you take an exemption or you grieve your taxes especially in a situation where the value of the underlying assets increasing you are undermining let's say the basis for public education how it was set up. And I think that's a concern. And whether you value public education or not, people have different levels of that commitment. And

120this is like a thousand or several hundred dollars of each of these claims is not going to necessarily do it by themselves, but they do create a leak in the system. And they also create where we have to set up a reserve, which means we have money there that is not being used in our program, is not serving an educational purpose. So that's kind of I think the purpose of making this observation. Other comments? Okay. So, I'm going to treat this as a separate consent agenda, but if we could take a vote on numbers 7 through 17 as a consent agenda. Um, that they're relatively routine matters which are included here and we will consider and vote on them as a group preserving the right of all board members to be heard. We have heard

121them out. Um, so it's recommended that the board of education approve the second consent agenda essentially or subset consent agenda as submitted by the superintendent of schools items 7 through 17. If it is okay to present it that way, I would like to take a vote please. All in favor? >> I I >> I opposed abstaining. Please note it is a six to one. The motion passes. Thank you. Any other public comments? Going once. Going twice. Okay. So, may I have a motion to adjourn our meeting, please? >> So, moved. >> Brendan, thank you. May I have a second? Carl, thank you. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed or abstensions? Okay. Thank you. The motion passes to And