CCSD Board of Education Meeting Monday February 10th, 2025 @ 7 00PM

001e good evening everyone thank you for joining us for the February 10th Board of Ed working session if you could join me in the Pledge of Allegiance thank you Jim is not here tonight obviously so I'm sitting in for him um first order of business is recognition of visitors recognition of visitors for any items on the agenda or for any other concerns the Board of Education welcomes comments from the public each person wishing to speak is asked to speak into the microphone identify themselves and respect respectively limit their comments to 3 minutes two opportunities to speak are available one in the meeting which will be limited to 30 minutes and one at the end of the meeting each speaker May address the board only once at both opening and closing portions of the agenda please

002remember there will be no cross dialogue between speakers and the board members all speakers are to conduct themselves in a civil manner obscene language lius statements threats of violence threats of violence statements advocate racial religious or other forms of prejudice will not be tolerated persons wishing to discuss matters involving individual District Personnel or students should present their comments Andor concerns to the superintendent during regular business hours so any comments from the audience okay moving on um to committee reports um anybody want to start in particular or I can just start calling on committees go ahead Christian I'll start because audit a um audit has not uh we have finished our business with the year until the until June and so there is nothing to report you I'll knock out my too jeez not that eager

003um so communication uh we're uh cooking up a uh Community form for uh probably March at this point but uh some good collaboration going on uh behind the scenes uh regarding the topic and some research going into it so um we'll have more to share uh once we get in touch with some of the uh the experts that we are we plan to contact for that uh for the policy committee uh our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday February 27th uh that'll be our second meeting of the Year where we go over a third of the policies on slate for review this year all right so as I mentioned at the last board meeting we conducted our visits about three weeks ago to our schools um tonight the report is not ready we still have

004to convene as a committee to go over everything we heard and saw and convene and work with um Administration but I I do just want to note something that I've heard is a concern that once we get the feedback it doesn't go anywhere I just want everyone to know that I care and we all care about what we get from visitations and everything that we hear and that once we meet that will all be discussed and we'll um figure it out unless somebody else has something to add I just wanted to add to that um I know we have to meet as a committee and then we'll present our report but I just wanted to put this out there for admin to maybe think about one of the issues is a classroom here at leer

005Road um that's not really a classroom and what we witnessed was um you know students in a not uh condu to learning environment yeah so I just wanted to put that out there before we bring it up because that's something that has to be discussed we need to figure out you know how to so it is on the list and it'll be in the report um so facilities there's no major um updates at this time they are working on with an architect on what are the next things that need to be worked on as it relates to um capital projects and things of that so there'll be more details to follow on that uh the um Orange County School Board Association Christian and I typically attend that this past meeting was done virtually and it

006was really a highlight of the Esports program at Washingtonville and ironically there were some glitches with the uh Zoom so it wasn't as clear as it could have been but it was really interesting to see um you know what they're doing there Christian any updates on the curriculum Forum or I I don't want to say committee necessarily but the working group um nothing to report on that I add to the oxa um so one of the things the oxa meeting was presented was an Esports uh program um I know because I I was at an ncate which is um New York State teachers of Education um back in November last year and some of our IT staff was also there uh doing professional development that I know that people uh staff indicated interest in starting

007a new sport um and also robotics program and you know I mentioned that you know obviously there's a process to go through that but I would love to see either are both of those programs um have a route here in Cornwall great thank you uh quick update on the strategic planning RFP uh Jim myself and the administration reviewed the first round of all the rfps then elanora and Christian came and reviewed the top five that we had out of there and we have selected um a candidate they are going to put together a more um synthesized summary of what that experience will be and then we we will share that back with the board at the next meeting Al righty thank you any other committee updates just one question or comment um I know we

008used to have a board scholarship committee and I didn't I haven't heard anything about that for this year are we still going to continue that and if so I guess we need to open up our wallets again right so just throwing it out there I'll um make a note to get that to Jim I don't see why we wouldn't I think it's really just a a volunteer situation board members donate to the scholarship and I believe the scholarship is then advertised and selected at the school level so we're not involved in that yep just wanted to bring it up thank you just yeah one note on that we had decided that we we would discontinue the committee right since there was nothing really further to discuss that it was just kind of like yeah I

009just figured bring it up and so write your check and drop all right we'll do for those people who are new here and I'll just you know piggyback what everyone else has said uh used to be you take a check give it to Harvey formal Central School District and it would have to be voted on and improved as a donation just so like understand that there people who haven't done it before there is a process to it a cheack yes okay Al righty so now we're going to move on to our consent agenda um 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

010particular piece of Misses on the consent agenda May so indicate and that item may 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 as submitted by the superintendent of schools items 2 through six can I have a motion or would anyone like anything pull okay anything else anyone else okay can I have a motion to approve numbers 2 three five and six mov second second all in favor I opposed okay so 2 three five and six are approved Christian number four Health Services agreement uh uh my bad I'm using the one that I had earlier with my notes um I don't know if it's different is this the most recent one

011that we have or you have the most recent one I have my notes written so I know what to say when I only say this because I have pulled the wrong item before and I don't want to repeat the same mistake twice we have more okay go ahead um so I'm pulling just for to abstain thank you to abstain from number four the adoption of the budget calendar for reasons that have previously been discussed no I'm not you don't have to tell me why I'm just clarifying that that's what yes okay all right so um for item number four adoption of the 2526 budget calendar uh may I have a motion so move a second elanora all in favor I opposed AB staining so now you're making me do math we have two abstaining we

012have Carl your yes okay 1 two 3 four five okay so it it passes thank you now we are on to um presentation number one math pilot update by Mrs Areno did I miss something okay good evening so we are going to be presenting this evening our journey to the next steps in our decision-making process for our math program here uh in Corall on the K8 level um at this juncture we've been at this work for over a year at this point um and so we're we're looking forward to the next steps in our planning okay so just to um go back to last January um our K4 curriculum coordinator Mrs gleon and our middle school department Department chairperson Mrs Brenda Wright um communicated with our teams within the buildings that we would be picking

013up with the math exploration change that we discussed prior to covid so I know we don't like to think back to the co times but that's what we had started discussing prior to the closure of our schools um just as a point of reference we have been using our goath program since the 20134 school year and so um it was time to start looking at you know what other options might be out there in addition the current version that we have been using since that time sunsets at the end of the school year so teachers were asked for input on programs to explore they then shared that back with Mrs gleon and Mrs Wright uh materials were sent to to the schools from each vendor to start digging into as grade level teams um and

014then they provided this feedback to Mrs gleon and Mrs Wright in advance of our vendor meetings which we held um in March and April of 2024 excuse me included in this work was um Mrs gleon Mrs Right also we had Mr Serino he's our High School uh department chair um myself Mrs Palumbo Mr Hermon Mrs B and Mr coretti were all involved in this piece of the committee um so as you can see in March and April we met with three four five different vendors spent a good amount of time with the vendors um took their their materials their presentation uh considered all components of it and as a committee we reviewed the evidence that was given to us after each presentation we completed a pro and con document um based on essential components of

015the resources shared um such as like online platform differentiation the physical program attributes and so on um then at the end of this process each member rated the materials presented um and their understanding of the program and it was decided that we would move forward with go maath into maath and I ready as the top two programs to Pilot throughout this school year you can see the ranking breakdown from the committee so after each um one of the members um finish their ranking I ready and go math were neck and neck from the beginning after we chose the two pilots to um move forward with we began communicating so information was shared out including materials when to anticipate materials um teachers were given digital access to the programs and so on in addition PD dates

016were shared for planning especially over the summer so um I already had a date in the summer as as well as an early date in September go math into math had the same a little bit of a different September date I rep uh I ready reps pushed into the buildings in October our staff was informed that November 5th superintendent conference day would be focused on this work and then also sip meetings throughout the school year okay so now we're in November this past November um so as you can see we completed I ready and go maath into maath feedback forms this was was a really critical piece to the process um and this was done as grade level pilot team so we had our one group doing their their work our other group doing their

017work um the forms focused on assessment tools um areas such as like digital format versus the paper based format any additional PD that might be needed scope and sequencing and so on so after our teachers worked in teams to complete these forms they gave specific evidence and details that tied back um to pros and cons so there wasn't just I like this because it was I like this because and this is you know specific evidence tied to that teachers were reminded um to take advantage of popping into each other's classrooms to observe one another in action within a cross pilot so if I was doing goath I would want to go in and see what I is doing and so on and coverage was provided for this cross collaboration and then additionally time was spent

018digging into the digital components and assessment tools and looking at student data for the next units of planning okay so now we're in January just last month um so myself and our ka8 Administration um after the November superintendent conference day you know we we knew that we had to continue moving forward in the practice that we had set from the very beginning and that was using a rubric taking the evidence and aligning it to the specific areas that are pertinent to strong um practices for a tool so we followed this we met as a group and we planned um we lesson planned one uh Workshop that we would all do out in every single session so that everybody had a consistent um a consistent experience throughout so [Music] um the final piece was based on

019evidence of both programs because they both continue to have really strong strengths but also areas to and proponents on both sides um so what we did here was we uh created feedback that um each group they first met independently um as pilot groups you took time to look at um an anonymous piece that you could fill out you had time to work within your um grade level pilots and then also cross collaboration and it was based on um 12 different components which I'll go over next and it had to be so if like again like from the beginning if you had a specific um something specific you wanted to share for feedback you had to tie it back into the component and you had to share with us why so if you were um you

020know Pro for an area you would have to tell us why if you were kind of in the middle you'd have to tell us why and if you were concerned about an area of those 12 components you would have to tell us why the components included online platform enl differentiation diagnostic tools looking at lesson format extension activities the textbook format lesson pacing scope and sequence um supplemental materials which meant how much would the teachers need to supplement in advance what was given uh professional development and customer service not only the PD they Reserve received but you know how is that engagement with our company that we're working with and then support for our families and those 12 areas came F as themes and Trends throughout our conversations with our teachers um throughout the whole process

021so you can see our meeting dates here um so it was really important on the first presentation myself and Mr Hermon facilitated that session but we had all of our administrators um in at that one and we were kind of joking that our grade two team was our guinea pig for it because everybody was in that room um but it was important because then we can ensure that all the other present ations moving forward were are lock step um and we switched off with who would be facilitating each but then certainly as people's schedules could allow they'd be coming in in and out to show their support and gather feedback and then the same thing for the Middle School in the 27th here's some of our staff busy at work okay so then last week

022um in advance of the analysis we gathered all the data we organized it by grade we prepared it for the final review um a comprehensive Rubik was developed based on those 12 components that we I shared before um and evidence to support each component of the rubric had to again directly tie into the following feedback provided by our teachers so now we sat down we pulled each pieces of this that you see here these are all data points they have a lot of information within each one of those data points and we had to tie them into the rubric based on the components um before we even began we got familiar with the rubric we normed it um and then as we were pulling the evidence we um you know again both programs a lot

023of strengths no program is perfect and we know that we're going to need work to do um within it but this was a really good exercise for us as well because as we were pulling evidence to support each of the areas we were also able to see trends that were areas that we're going to need to start focusing on um the complete analysis took us 6 hours to do and then after the final numbers were tallied our uh K5 program will be I and our K six and advanced algebra program will be into math so again as I noted you know similar to when we started with go maath back in 2013 every year we would live with the program we would talk through the program we would take notes on the program and that

024focuses our summer work repeat do it again you know as our kids change maybe we need more support in areas such as like enl support are we differentiating enough do we have enough applied practice so on and so forth so as we continue to develop it we coraliz it and that's kind of been our phrase of programs we've done over the years because there is no program that is going to be 100% perfect it doesn't exist nor should it that's where we come in as the professionals to say what do we need to do to meet the needs of our kids who are sitting directly in front of us so we've already begun this process of pulling out pieces that need to be done we will be handing that over to um Mrs Wright and

025Mrs gleon so that can be the focus of our upcoming sip meetings to continue to build what that looks like um you know some areas that just jump out it would be scoping and scope and sequence pacing uh building of those supplemental materials gaining a stronger understanding of the online diagnostic there's a lot of information that's involved in that and application to planning and then enl supports so the next steps moving forward um we will have our AIS teams trained in the diagnostic tools to best support our tier 2 students that's a critical piece to this in the spring we'll also continue to get our K5 I ready and our grade seven into Math teachers who H are living in that existing pilot continue with their training um give our teachers who are doing the

026other pilot a minute of a Break um as we continue the year and then start planning sessions throughout the summer giving several different options for training and then the fall of 2025 and then as soon as practicable we'll order those materials so everybody can get their hands on them um and then this was the piece that I had just shared so again we always reflect we grow upon it and we tweak our programs as grade level teams um to make sure that it's a good fluid educational practice that's meeting the needs of our students and that is an ongoing practice that we have to do throughout each year not just this upcoming year and then into the summer we'll start that work now we'll live it all next year we'll do it again next summer

027and if we have to we'll continue to do it again after that so just a big thank you to everybody who's been involved in the p in the pilot it's been a a comprehensive lengthy in-depth process um you know just like with many things we're always going to find areas that we need to grow in and pull from but there's a lot that's really good in both of the programs that we're moving forward with and you know we should be pretty excited for that moving forward any questions thank you for that presentation um it looks like a lot of work went into it uh my question is so when we did our visitation we got a lot of feedback and there was some in favor and quite a bit that was not in favor of

028the IR so I decided to do a little research of my own after that and upon uh looking into it I noticed that there's a New York state and then there is the global we piloted the non- New York state which is the district purchasing is it going to be the New York state that's aligned to the New York State Standards or everything that we have is going to be aligned to New York State and that's what they've been piloting so working with the vendor she's assured us that what we have is what is appropriate for New York State and that's what we'll be moving forward with lots of question questions here um so my other question was that several districts in Orange County were using the I ready um including Newberg and Washingtonville and

029they stopped using it did we research as to why that they chose not to continue I don't know why Newberg is not we don't really ever compare um but Washingtonville speaking to my counterpart there they only fully implemented the diagnostic tool and they built their own around it so they didn't have the full program and it was very difficult to sustain in doing it that way uh my other question was um I noticed that you mentioned that the AIS would be involved uh because of course they would be uh us using it with the students did they have any input were they piloting any of these um were they able to go in and see any of the lessons with the teachers how do they feel is it appropriate for their students so the pilot

030program was with classroom teachers AIS is a tier 2 service for anybody who doesn't know that I know you're well aware of that um so typically when we pull our students out for AIS it's because what we're doing in the classroom isn't working for that child and we need to adjust for them so that's where we'll be getting training for our teachers more on the diagnostic tool so that way they can see where are the gaps that are in this child's instructional practice and how can they fix those gaps for that student and it may not be the tool that they're using here because they need to use something different and if they wanted to go in it was offered to anybody if you want to go in see what's going on please talk to

031your building administrator and we'll get you released Elanor do you mind if I see if there's any other questions come back to you of course Okay Christian sorry bass whoever yeah thanks Megan obviously as Leora mentioned uh lot of work lot of effort has been put towards the ranking and the comparison uh between these four different five actually different programs uh my question is like about uh although you mentioned kind of the criteria that was uh kind of what compare uh or categories if you want so like specific rubrics and metrics uh were not shared in this presentation I mean I'd be curious you know to to see how the scoring was done but uh more importantly I'm very familiar with one of the providers mcro Hill they have they call it reveal math and

032I was surprised to see why they score that low relatively relatively speaking so what contributed to their low score now I have to mention I'm familiar with mcrill at the college level not at the grade school uh level um so why they didn't perform that well I mean it surprised me out of curiosity I'm asking the question yeah I mean that was a year ago off the top of my head I can tell you that when we sat as the um it like I said it was myself our department chairs our administrators um that was after also our teachers had the materials back in the classroom so putting all that together after the vendor presentations it came down to the rigor of the program um the diagnostic tool what the online platform look like what's

033the physical attributes of the program compared to the others um so it just it didn't it didn't meat mustard compared to the rest of the the others that were there at college level there kind of if you want the gold standard and everybody compares to mro hold their books science math I mean you name it so I I was extrapolating if you want like downward I would expect them to do well it you know uh and you know B to answer that question too I'll tell you it depends on so we were kind of thinking one of the um one of the programs our high school teachers are loving and so that's why we actually were looking at the Desmos amplify because they're using Desmos in the high school so that was a high school

034recommendation could we look at that program it's just not ready yet for the Middle School level so that was something that we had to take into consideration they're kind of still building it as they go um we weren't really interested in being the guinea pig for that so I I don't you know again it could be something where the McGraw Hill program just wasn't as exciting or wasn't as rigorous or wasn't as um you know digitally appropriate as what we have now you know each level kind of presents a little bit differently and you know you know in the end it was really those last it was those two that made it to the top as the final two pilots so just to finish up uh rubrics metrics I mean can you share this with

035the board uh like how the scoring was done okay and it was based on each of the 12 components thanks so each component was broken out and had points associated with it Christian so I too would like to see because I didn't there's a lot of emphas that there was evidence and not opinion and that I didn't really see that and I would like to see the the underlying data um so my comments are mostly about I ready and I say this as a teacher who has taught with I ready and So based on your timeline I probably spent as much time on it as anyone who did and I mean the issues with I are pretty well known I mean you don't need to do much research to know what is the general opinion

036about you know the the curriculum or the software and so I'll just make Five Points I would be hesitant to adopt a curriculum that if you look around the country that's been used by a lot of teachers gets two out of five or one out of five stars that's not a restaurant I would go to it's not a contractor that I would hire um and I would wonder how that factors into that because if we like it so much but other people are having problems with it I'd really like to you know where's this disjuncture coming from number two you know one of the criticisms I've already is that kind of G mfi his education quite a bit in terms of like its approach and given what we've talked about terms of cell phones and

037various different types of like screens with students I'm not and I realize it's not the entire curriculum but I'm concerned about the kind of an NE Neal Postman frame you know amusing ourselves to death and I already seems to fall within that the third is that with the diagnostic and it's very clear that it pumps out a lot of data that seems to be very individ ual and personalized but it's not because as I understand it perhaps they've changed it it's an Adaptive assessment tool so it kind of let's say questions and puts you into a category and what seems to be personalized is just putting you into a class and so the the question is the information coming from the diagnostic might not be as helpful and a lot of reason why I think

038some places have discontinued it is because of that concern uh fourth students have figured out that one way to get the more games and some of the Diagnostics and once again it might have changed since I used it which is a few years ago um or I taught with it is they score low so they get more games so they show more growth so it looks like you're getting more growth than you're actually getting from the program um and that's why a lot of people have questioned about the guts of this and then finally like it's very much a teach to attest curriculum at least from my ey I K through five might be different than what I saw what I saw was 6 through eight um but I have a lot of questions about

039that because and that's why I'd like to see the underlying data so just to piggyback on that one of the reasons that we're going with into math for 6 through eight is because it is a more appropriate program that leads into algebra um so perhaps if you're not familiar with the K5 it looks very different um one of the very impressive pieces for us was the diagnostic tool we just met with the um analysts last week to go through our second assessment of all of our students that took it on the K through five level and seeing the growth that they have encountered is quite impressive the tools are broken down in specific to the students for where their gaps are how to create their um how to create their curriculum moving forward for the

040kids which back to Eleanor's point is going to be a huge piece for ouris team and lastly you know this has been a program that we have been working with our professionals have been working with it there's again mixed reviews but at the end of the day we have a lot of people who are in very large favor for this and I think we've done our due diligence in vetting it out I just want to make a um I know the rubric was requested by the board I just want to make sure that one out of five stars for any program I can guarantee you and I'll I'll produce the data for all five experienced if you go District by District you'll find some that have liked it and some uh that have not so

041I I don't particularly um uh resonate with someone giving it a one out of five or uh things of that nature um with regards to teaching to the test that begins with our teachers uh the resource doesn't uh allow for teaching to a test it's really how you're instructing um our students so if you know what's going to be on a test and you instruct in just that manner to just try to predict what questions are going to be and how do you um answer those uh kind of strategies that's what would lead it to you teach to a test using all five resources um and I say that as a as a classroom teacher um who departmentalized in in math uh the other piece the gamification is it is the niche that every single

042company right now is trying to figure out how do you engage students when they're not in front of an adult so whether it it's it's hard to make that into a social media cell phone uh convers ation because one of the things that we were ranking um different uh Resources with just like withl we use Exel in the classroom there's a game component to uh that as well so the gamification uh piece is not necessarily trying to turn our students into being self-absorbed with the games it's how do you motivate them when they're not in front of an adult to want to continue to progress uh in their in their skills um to meet uh their needs so again program by program the rankings I can um provide supportive um districts for every single program

043including I I believe wers uses um already already um so just it's hard to just say you can tie one one star rating or or what have you without taking the totality into consideration I I'll just come back to that so just like I have taught with the sixth through R I'm familiar with K through 5 I think the concerns are still there and really have not been addressed the data we can talk about where the rankings are it's not a district ranking it's teachers rankings from all around the country which is perhaps a better measure than what was used to rank this or in districts saying they like it um needly say the point is that obviously teachers have to teach the material there's still a lot of concerns with here and the idea

044that hey we can't get kids intention so we need to do bright shiny objects in front of them might be contributing to the problem as opposed to counterprogramming and that was the issue that I saw as a teacher in the classroom and I'm not sure the K through five is that radically different than the approach that you see in 6 through eight now that's why why I think we've asked to see the rubrics on the data because um I think there are valid concerns and well wers has chosen things and I teach in whoers as you can tell by the shirt that I'm wearing um you know I'm not in the math department I didn't make the decision and that doesn't make it better and famously the criticism of I ready that was published nationally

045was by a teacher who recently retired from Fairfax and laid out a lot of details about what was wrong with the application in that District so I don't think individual districts we have to look at a broader way of how teachers are looking at it how they're using it and specifically what is it doing well and poorly in the classroom now the faith goes back to I trust the teachers who are in the classroom to make the adjustments above and beyond curriculum but since we're just talking about the choice of the curriculum um that's the issue I think we need to focus on is like is this the best curriculum um or is this the one that has you know I think there's a longer discussion to be had about I ready um obviously it's

046not the only curriculum but I think there are concerns and I look forward to seeing the underlaying data in the rubrics thank you Christian um if I may uh so first of all thank you for the time that you put in I mean over a year to like plan this out set it up get the feedback do the trials regardless of the outcome I think involving the people that are going to be using it is really um critical and so um you know I I I appreciate the effort that went into that um aside from the rubric and the decision that was made I just want to make sure that I I believe I heard this but I want to make sure so there are pros and cons to both and honestly on the visit

047we heard quite a few cons but I'm not in the room I have nothing to compare it to um but of course that is concerning might be the strong the the wrong word um I trust the teachers can do it I really want to make sure the teachers are supported so what I think I heard you say was that we have Mrs gleon and Mrs Wright are going to be working on other supplemental materials that no no so the next step will be throughout the Sip process we will continue to pull areas that need a focus area on that will align us for our summer work so they they take that lead of that work because for planning it sip because that's part of what happens in sip um but then summer curriculum hour will

048be focused on what we need to do to be prepared for the fall and does that mean um creating things that fill in the gaps or fill in the cons that have been identified it absolutely could yeah okay um and then the transition from 5ifth to sixth going from one program to the other I'm assuming it's been analyzed that they will leave the one program in the right spot with the right skills to move into the other program like that will be aligned correct so okay in working with the middle school team um so our K5 is really our elementary right so then we switch gears to sixth grade and that's where we begin the process for setting up the steps for algebra um and our accelerate our accelerated program starts in seventh grade so

049those prerequisite skills will be in the sixth grade so it makes sense to have a 6A aligned program with that secondary program and non- accelerated students will still be in a general math and that will still flow naturally okay thank you welc thanks Christine um I'll Echo everybody's um gratitude for all the the work that went into it it's obviously um a long process a lot of stakeholders so appreciate uh not only your work but everybody else that was involved in it um you mention in uh the page about components for feedback uh and this really hones in on the only only point that I would make that last point of support for families I know any any time um there's any change made you know it's it's a change for certainly it's a change

050for teachers administrators um for the kids but it's also a change for the the families at home who are trying to support what's going on in the classroom so I know um really speaking as a parent of a third grader this year I have found it a little more Challen a little a lot more challenging to support her uh there are sometimes she comes home and I'm like well I can tell you how to get the right answer but I don't know how you're supposed to write it um and that's not a position I want to be in I want to you know really support uh everything that's being said in the classroom so as you mentioned which was very encouraging we can always um uh customize the the um the program for Cornwall and

051our needs that would just be the the one suggestion I would make I know that it's it's on the list here so it's on the radar um but you know particularly after 10 years of one curriculum you've probably have um you know families that have gotten very used to that so just helping families understand how to better support what's going on I think will make uh this transition easier particularly at the younger uh the younger grades where they are so reliant on uh on that extra bid at home and I'll you know I just want to point out too that's 100% what is going to happen I we continue to remind everyone that the program we've been using since 2013 is not the same program that we ended with this past school year because we

052have changed and tweaked and reflected and changed and tweaked and reflected so many times that the program that was being used last year as kind of the final year of the go maath program is very different than what we started with um so even if we went with the new go maath it is a very different program we would still need to do exactly this entire process of pulling out areas that we need to grow upon um where do we supplement parent education and so on and so forth so regardless of program that work will absolutely happen Elanor can I just see if Richard or Carl have something and then I'll come back to you no okay Richard yeah real quick I agree with most of what everybody else said thank you for all this

053work that you put in and thank you to the staff um and I'll Echo what Christine and Elanor said about we did hear this on our visits in numerous schools um some feedback I'll say there were some positive there were also some concerns and I'll say concerns so my hope is that we did collaborate it looks like we did that everyone's Voice Was Heard and I'd be interested just to see the breakdown of you know even a vote like how many teachers supported it how many didn't you know like if it's 51 to 49 that's a that's not great but that's something I would like to see with you know the rest of that data yeah that was kind of a non-negotiable there's you what Megan uh presented was evidence-based so when you do a

054vote that's preference uh so getting back to the rubric of why did you feel that a particular component was strong or weak or in the middle things of that nature um but just having a straight up and down uh vote um unless everyone was doing the same experience you have have literally half the staff with one program half the staff with another um and then I will tell you after you look at the the rubric we're we're back to kind of where we started where both strong both programs are are strong so to Richard's Point what do you do with a 55 45 split say oh well the the eyes have it um really going back to in totality what program would be best uh for the district so that was something we discussed but

055didn't move forward with yeah and that was really my point just making sure that everyone feels like they contributed and we don't have a group of people that are you know not happy with this program but yeah thank you just my thoughts and just to reminder I mean the six-h hour analysis it took six hours because there's so much information to review Elanor um just to I just want to point to what you said Terry I think um the eyes have it you're always going to have people who are not happy with the choice that you make so I guess my question is how are you going to now support those teachers who clearly did not want to use this program um I did hear that there's going to be summer hours I guess my

056question would be how many uh are the summer hours being spent to create the gaps that that um are are are missing or that they feel are missing in the program will there be support for them throughout the year is someone from the company going to be available to help uh to answer any questions to provide materials uh you know there there's a lot of ifs so I don't really think they're ifs because anytime we roll a program out we follow the same practice so yes to all the above right we've already said summer curriculum hours that depends on the budget passing as we all know I have summer curriculum hours in there we put it back to the buildings our principles can give them out we have them set for math that's going to

057be our Focus um I already covered earlier we've already started pulling out pieces that we need to focus on we would be doing the same thing if we were going with go maath and I have to say I just we need to also understand that just because there's people that aren't saying they really like there's a lot of people that really like I and they really like a lot of the components of it so maybe you're not hearing that but the evidence showed what we saw I mean we didn't go in there saying we're going to pick one thing or the other we went in there with a straight lens of let's look at everything and see where it takes us it's been close from go um and yes materials will be given the supports

058given throughout the year the the representative that we have for this program is incredible literally if I emailed her right now she would get back to me and by the end of this meeting pushes into the buildings she has been fantastic and I cannot say that about the other program and I've been dealing with them since 2013 so I just I I feel like you're get it you you're feeling attacked and I just want to make sure that that that you understand that's that's not what we're doing or at least I'll speak for myself um it my questions did not stem just from what I heard from the visitations I chose to do my own research and so my concerns also stem from what I was reading and from some of the the people that

059I spoke to in other districts who had used it so I just want to make sure that the program that we have chosen is appropriate for our students and that our teachers feel supported in using this program and I'm not feeling attacked for the record I just feel like I don't want to invalidate the work that's been done for the last year and all the people everybody in here whether they agree with it or not are 100% professionals and part of the process and they will absolutely be on board with getting the supports moving forward with it we've always heard feedback we've always done what we needed to do and at the end of the day this is the program that Rose to the top um so just uh to close it out I just

060want to kind of go back to what uh Brendan uh was saying um we're kind of interchanging a few terms that just for those um listening on YouTube are to go back to this later uh the curriculum is established by the New York State education department so that's what does a third grader need to know and be able to do in mathematics by the end of third grade there's particular standards this is what they must be able to know and be able to do by the end of third grade the resource that we're um discussing today whether it's into maath or um go maath or ready is the resource that teachers utilize to get students uh some of the information that they need whether it's via digital enl supports like Megan was was going through

061there's a lot that goes into mathematics instruction that goes beyond the resource so for me there's there's more work to be done in the teaching of mathematics that goes Way Beyond what we're discussing today this is kind of the easy part but when we talk about great mathematics instruction it's really that that workshop model of how are you teaching a focused and intentional um focus lesson Based on data that you might get from a diagnostic tool ex exit tickets things of that nature what we know about mathematics is students are not going to get it the first time that it's taught you're not going to look at all your boys and girls and say raise your hands give me a thumbs up if you understand uh fraction to decimal uh conversion you're not going to

062get all thumbs up or if their thumbs are up you might look at their sheet that they've been working working on um and and realize they need some extra support So pulling small groups and figuring out what um students might need um with regards to additional support is important um as well uh so please try to let's get beyond what the ways in which we were taught where here's the right answer which Mr cardi alluded to um I will never forget uh the conversation with my son of he had to show how we got the answer three different ways and it frustrated the hell out of them he was like I know the answer is 32 but the program that um he was using was trying to get him to be flexible with his thinking

063to say I can come up with three different ways to get to 32 that's the hard part is parents because you're like yeah Fiona is 32 good job but if they can't express how they might um get to that answer differently than uh those are some of the gaps that that we're looking at so again the ulum is established by the New York State education department this is a resource that we're providing our students families and staff with as a resource to get them there um and then there is the actual uh instruction that needs to take place that needs to be high quality to make sure whatever resource we're using is's a huge teacher component to make sure that whatever we're using the students in front of them get what they need to be

064successful thank you than you Terry you know I think one of the hard things is we're in a position to trust the professionals to make the decision but also make sure that the folks you know the teachers that are there every day doing it just have what they need whether it's supplemental to the to the thing we buy or um it's support in extra hours to to do that Gap work and I trust that we're going to do that for our staff so and I will say I do recall in 2013 sitting in here with the math guy that came in and taught us as adults how to do that three different ways I still was kind of like I got the answer I'm done but I remember that so it was very helpful for

065families so they did a really good job of that last time thank you Megan Al righty so now our second presentation by Mr fank our 2526 budget presentation and everyone on the board you have a a binder I believe with the presentation as well okay good evening uh thanks to the board of education and uh wow thanks to all these people sticking around from math to to budget we could jump right into it so um yes as um Christine Diaz said there's a binder in front of you we can add to that binder for the board of education for each of our budget presentations next one will be February 24th so I'm just going to get started here with our opening and preliminary information that we have um I always start with the vision and

066I'll just read that for a second we envision a school district in where in which every staff member is a source of knowledge and inspiration every building is a place of safety and support every leader is a pillar of integrity and every student is a source of Pride I'm going to pause on the student is a source of pride because often often times through the budget process we forget what we produce we produce students we produce sources of Pride and you see those sources of Pride sitting right up there in those pictures so as we start here on February 10th and wander through the budget process and end up in May with a budget vote let's not forget where we're focused on our focus is on kids and we use an expression what's best for

067kids and I will constantly come back back to that for our agenda this evening we're going to go through the uh budget development process we're going to talk about the needs assessment the past needs assessment and the present needs assessment and then some of our parameters okay budget variables and parameters and you're going to see some Trends examples historical data and uh expenses and and then ultimately our property tax cap so just the budget process often times people think think of the budget process Starts Now in February or in January or in March but the budget process is a cycle to yearr round continual process and I'll start on the upper right hand corner with that spring summer so during that spring season we begin to close out the current year budget we also prepare

068for our audit that we have our budget assessment that's going on how did our budget Fair um we begin to open the budget in the summer July 1 starts a fresh budget season then we have our external audit and they come in during the summertime and tell us how we did we set the tax levy we set our tax rate um and our set our reserves in August in the fall our audit is submitted to New York State and is reviewed with the Board of Education we begin to produce our budget calendar for the year when they we're going to do our budget presentations we have our budget Builders meetings with our principes and our directors we have our needs assessment they help us Define what are those needs uh that need to be addressed

069and then we have our analysis from day one our budget Builders our principles and directors are constantly looking at their budget and their needs and then as we roll into the wintertime in Spring we start with our budget construction then we move into our budget discussions with the board of education budget adoption budget vote and our analysis is continuing so more about the budget development process is highly collaborative we have discussions and input from our principles and our directors our community and our staff we tie our discussions back to where are we now does it improve student outcomes and what do we need to get there not every budget request results in a budget increase we reallocate current funding and resources as part of the decision process so when PE our principles and directors come

070in we see how we can make our budget work for the current year and maybe it doesn't become uh one of our needs assessments okay historical over the past four years we've added several things to our budget so last year for the or for the current year for the 2425 school year two teachers upk seats and the updated sound system you're looking at a total of about $455,000 the prior year 23 24 a number of Staff members you're seeing those 4.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 staff members you also added upk seats uh track coach and then transfer to Capital we did we're doing some Hardware Corridor projects your total from 23 24 is 2.4 million roughly wind it back in additional year 2223 more upk more Staffing 1.0 and a 0.5 and then transfer to capital

071for air conditioning for a total of 1.5 million what does that look like oh sorry we're going back to 2122 sorry again more staff 1.06 PE Varsity uh assistant varsity volleyball coach modified more coaches custodial workers painters music um musical instruments we replace musical instruments 57 that's a that's a boat load and then your transfer to Capital again you're looking at uh Library floor and auxiliary gym floor $1.1 million the total of that comes to this whole pie right here it boils down to what about $2.4 Million worth of Capital Improvements $534,000 in program improvements but the big one up there and it should stick out $2.5 million in Staffing or total of 24.1 FTE and I'll pause on that 24 staff over four years is roughly I don't need an I ready program to

072tell me six teachers or six six staff members per year right I just got the number I didn't have to show it three different ways thanks Terry that's not just static cost in staff you have not only salary but benefits healthc care TRS ERS Social Security workman's comp all of them play in and they don't stay static they grow so for our needs assessment um we reflect the budget requests by each building and Department we discuss we review analyze and prioritized with the central Administration when we show you some of these costs they're all incl exclusive so we talk about all the uh Personnel costs that have uh salary benefits Health ERS TRS Social Security onward and upward and again dial it back to the kids on the left-and side graduation our our products are

073exiting where are they going they're all we probably wearing their college shirts I think in that in that picture and on the right hand side are kindergarteners welcoming them to school right they're starting so on our needs assessment at the elementary level we have uh our three buildings CES uh Willow and Cornwall and Hudson our first budget request up here you'll see is a 1.0 FTE guidance counselor and that's going to be a split at cooh and Willow and you'll see the rationale off to the right and that's going to help support our special needs 1214 for those of you who don't understand 1214 12 students one teacher four support staff uh at Co provide seal assistance to classroom teachers and help develop Student Response plans for RTI response to inter intervention and IST instructional

074support team process at both cooh and Willow the second request is a 1.0 FTE early intervention support teacher again split between uh Co and Willow currently Co share a 1.0 kindergarten early intervention teacher so what we would do is split that out each would have their own individual uh um intervention teacher okay um we they will help identify learning gaps create plans to address those gaps progress monitor interventions for Success again the ideal model would be to split it out for each building and then you'll see an early intervention specialist for CES as well so we're going to create alignment across our elementary building so there's similar experiences in all three of our buildings that early intervention uh specialist is also going to do the same thing help identify learning gaps create plans to address

075those gaps and progress monitor interventions for for Progress um we have an instructional coach that we'd like to split between all three Co Willow and CES so we want to support Ela our science of reading program our new math program that we've just discussed and our science pro programs across all elementary buildings it's align our best practice instruction with classroom learning so students achieve at higher levels on the next slide we have our middle school high school and PPS so we are looking for a guidance department chair person at the middle school um and that's going to help create alignment um we have balancing incre uh sorry balance the increasing needs of State mandates you're we'll hear a lot more about that as we move through some of these budget presentations so we're going to

076provide a comprehensive system of transitional support as our students move from the elementary through the middle school and into the high school we're also looking at a 1.0 elll teacher English language learner um and that's at the high school our current design um has our students structured of co- teing self-contain and c tech uh needs risking compliance and student outcome issues so we'd like to bring that all into alignment with an elll teacher at the high school and then our last request of on this slide is a 1.0 FTE cpsc chairperson committee on special education um sharp increase in cpse meetings resulting in a similar increase in in students receiving cpsc services our best practice model would be to have a cpsc chairperson and a csse chairperson serving two separate populations to better serve our

077families and our students on the district side globally we're going to uh look to add a 1.0 custodian that will be uh at the high school servicing um the community lunch and the pool area so we want to help uh support our community lunch program that we've instituted and we also want to maintain the health safety and we Wellness of our pool area as we grow some of our programs there we're also proposing 4.0 four safety monitors one at each of the elementaries and one at the middle school our reason for this is that we'd like uh putting the responsibility on our security officers and Deputy sheriffs pulls them away from what they want what they should be doing they should be uh monitoring the building by circulation with those security vules we would put

078those monitors in our new security vesses that we've constructed and lastly we're proposing a transfer to capital for a Safety and Security districtwide lockdown and emergency notification system this allows us the ability to lock our school down at a moment's notice really at the push of a button and you can see that in the rationale off to the right hand side the the total of our needs assessment here is $1.4 million some of our parameters are unfunded or underfunded mandates these are the things that take place throughout the day throughout the school year in the various uh offices and or buildings throughout the district so if you look at the first one in the business office or in the financial area the district is obligated to pay ERS and TRS those are increasing every year

079here and I won't read every single one of these we have financial reporting we have a claims auditor we have an internal auditor an external auditor you'll see gby 3 and gby 45 those are all reports that we are mandated to maintain and submit under facilities there's a fiveyear plan your BCS your adhera so um you have to maintain those logs and those reports you believe it or not we are still required to have covid supplies um and maintain a uh percentage based on the district in case of an emergency transportation even though we contract out a lot of those costs are transferred to us through our contract um and you'll see drug testing and monitor training and driver training annual physicals again those are some of the things that we they have to do

080that are not funded and that the the um contract passes right along to the school district instructionally student calculators just think about certain supplies we have have to supply them for our students homeless student instruction incarcerated youth career and development that's our seedos program uh every student succeeds act Hospital instruction all those we don't receive money for that information technology unique Stu student identifiers we can't provide uh our students information out we have state data collection so that's our data warehouse um Ed law 2D is a big one again not sharing uh information about our students with vendors and uh on the Personnel side Mental Health Providers uh election day leave civil rights reporting commercial uh private parochial school nursing Services we actually have one on the board agenda uh this evening so again just

081all these forces and influences that factor into our budget on this slide I put up a little Trend over the past five years and it might be a little confusing so if you could you want to digest it so on the top part the top uh chart you'll see the maximum allowable Levy from this for the school district for the past five years so starting in 20 uh 2020 2021 you'll see 2.56 below that is what the school district and the board adopted as their Levy 1.38 and you can move right across and see what's the max and what was adopted now compare that to what's going on with an I'll draw your attention to the inflation rate CPI the low the uh bottom line on that chart CPI was running under 2% in 2020

0822021 1.8 and if you move across CPI begins to drop 1.23 and then Spike 4 point 4.78 and then come back down to 4.12 often times people are confused what is the tax levy growth factor so you'll see that come into play that's that 2% when you hear about the 2% tax levy in New York state that took effect as soon as CPI blew over that so that holds Us in in in our place so again the chart just illustrates where we are as a district where CPI is and how the tax cap Levy uh holds us that that growth factor holds us uh in place speaking of CPI cost of goods and services increase so here's a great example two the village of Cornwall water rates and the town of Cornwall sewer tax we

083pay we have to pay for water here in the district so there was a recent change in the rates that affect entities public entities and taxing entities that's us we're a taxing entity as a district um so that impacts the district and the The Village we spend about $100,000 per year on that water rate our notification just says here you go have another $100,000 on that we have no control over that on the bottom part the sewer tax same type of thing recent changes in operations and management and increases to The Debt Service fund that's what we are told spend about $7,600 on that welcome here you go 25 255 huge increases that are being put onto the district just like you and I as a taxpayer in whatever town and whatever we have to

084pay to maintain our lives in goods and services we're seeing these increases whether it's gas going up and down or our heating bills or electric bills the school district is not immune from any of this we see these increases as well inflationary increases impact all in the community and just like the little girl up on the picture just surprised that's what we felt like when we saw some of these bills we're surprised right just some historical you've seen this before over the past 10 years what has the the tax levy and it's similar to the slide that I showed earlier where have we been as a maximum allowable and what have we adopted in the 10-year average 1.66 versus a maximum allow of 2.62 so what's driving our revenue on the on the other side

085here state aid so we did get our state aid run from the governor we have to scrub that because it's not always dollar for dollar and we need to be careful we can expect an increase about 1.02 million and about a million of that is in Foundation Aid uh the tax levy we need to strike the right balance uh throughout this presentation or in the past couple slides I've showed you or you've demonstrated to the community you're trying strike that right balance between uh increasing taxes and being mindful of your community so I'll remind you that about 1% of the tax levy equals about $525,000 the final increase or decrease in state aid will be determined at the legislator and the governor uh jointly in April we hope a couple years ago we waited all

086the way till May so we don't know exactly what we're going to get until that time um we also need to remain mindful of federal funding I'm sure you've all been paying attention to the news lately Federal fundings being taken away uh the federal uh Department of Education what's going to happen there we need to be careful about that that's a future potential liability for our school district okay we receive title funds and what are called 611 and 619 funds for special education services they also provide money for us for our homeless students or um uh underprivileged students again on the uh expenditure side again more increases teachers retirement system we have to play pay an employer contribution that increased by 10% for this year you'll see the last two years 10.11 and uh 9.76

087on the ERS Employees Retirement System 16.5% increase after previous years of 14.8 and 12.76 bit of good news health insurance is increasing but only at 2.5% which makes me somewhat happy 3% and 4% in the Years prior your national average is over 10% at this point with Health Care increases so at 2.5 I'll take it transportation we have to be mindful of our transportation costs um special education place reflect an increase or decrease for the 25 26 school year um that is a variable that still lies out there we have a lot of our CES that are taking place and determinations about placements so we won't know what our increase or decrease is we have to make our best guess at this point employee contracts similar currently we're negotiating with the teachers teachers administrators and

088clerical unions three contracts we don't know the outcome of those negotiations yet so we have have to balance that into our budget at this point previously settled contracts cafeteria custodial and power professionals our property tax cap as it stands right now preliminary and I say that because there's some information that usually comes in I believe we're at a good point now where we have all of our information we're looking at a 3.08 or uh or $1.6 million increase again just reiterating the Max last year 3.12 or this current year 25 2425 uh and 1.76 and I put a little Aster up there with the preliminary because uh transfer to Capital impacts our Levy the larger our transfer to Capital and you saw on a previous slide we put in there about $300,000 for transfer to

089Capital the larger our um the larger our uh maximum allowable tax levy will increase if we were to eliminate that $300,000 we could expect this 3.08 to be somewhere around 2.5 uh some uh variables tax based growth factor 1.0 078 or 78% that is shrinking okay and you'll see the line reflects the increase in taxable real property assessments due to new construction and or additions to existing Pro properties not a lot of new uh construction not a lot of new additions and that number comes right from New York State same thing with the tax levy growth factor 1.02 or 2% I I showed you that on an earlier slide that's that cap while we get CPI the definitive CPI information on Wednesday I can assure you it's running over 2% at this point and that's

090why we have a 1.02 growth factor these are uh the rest of our dates the 24th of February March 10th March 24th April 7th our key will be April 24th where we need to uh adopt the budget and then May 20th is our budget vote welcome for questions questions Brendon first of all John uh thank you for uh I think we're all relieved this is the we had gotten so used to Harvey's presentations and we're like well what's John going to bring are they going to be as good frankly uh this was fantastic so uh very much appreciate the uh every I actually asked uh John Hines um for pyrot Technics for my uh int drop the ball maybe next meeting I'll get the pyot Technics and walk uh teamwork I love it uh I

091I have uh first of all I know that we're in a uh it's a fluid situation so I'm not going to ask you like where things land obviously we don't we don't know any of that stuff yet uh just about some of the the needs assessment items um and this could be uh really a question for you or perhaps for Terry um the transfer Capital that $300,000 for the districtwide lockdown and emergency notification systems is that would that $300,000 cover the entire system districtwide or is that are we putting that in to uh capital reserve to get 75 cents on the dollar so no um we would still get building Aid back on that but we would need to do that work next year in the 25 26 school year so yes the $300,000 based

092on the quotes we we teetered around with a number of different quotes in order to come up with that transfer to Capital we had a number of different thoughts of what we wanted to do ultimately feeling uh comfortable and Landing uh on that number uh to get us those lockdown buttons those Panic buttons in all the schools in strategic locations uh phone access so our phone is VoIP activated so you'd be able to lock down from any phone if I walked over to a phone here in the cafeteria I could do that uh as well as certain people will have administrative access on their cell phone to Boom lock lock it down as well uh the strobe lights if you could imagine uh a cafeteria I'll just say the middle school because they're they're really

093super quiet but like you know the the strobe lights will go off warning of something going on sometimes you can't hear those announcements and that that would be another future project to work on making sure that we have those proper notifications in place great um and you so you you said it would be aidable but in the following budget year correct we we would not not be able to we would have to finish that project next year 25 26 file probably wouldn't see it till I don't think 26 27 we may not see it till 27 28 and would it would it come back in one lump sum or like 15 years kind of bit little bit one lump sum one L some okay yeah not that it's a deal breaker for doing it but

094that's just interesting to know uh great and uh Megan this might be a question for you so the um the early intervention support teacher really all of them at the well both at the middle elementary schools um I noticed in the description for the cooh and Willow it says currently sharing one kindergarten early intervention teacher so my question is uh those two positions would they be first specific grade or would they just be General throughout from K to four no it would be for the early early level so it would be the K the K level um right now there's one teacher that's split between the two buildings so we would essentially have one teacher then at Co and then one teacher at Willow it okay great no that was the only questions uh again

095thanks for all the information looking forward to the next few meetings thank yeah thanks for the great presentation I mean lot of information uh is displayed and that's why you know we have questions um there's a slide on the needs assessment present middle and high school PPS my question is about the guidance Department uh chairperson and the rationale I I mean I went through the rationale and I don't know exactly what what the task is I mean what does it mean to be a guidance chairperson or not even chairperson like uh another slide uh needs assessment historical 2324 there was one FTE middle school guidance counselor um if you can tell me maybe tell the audience like what do the guidance counselor or chairperson do I see Megan reaching for her microphone so I'm going

096to turn it right over to her I could answer but not as well as she could so um right now we have at the high school we have um a department chair for the guidance uh guidance Department we are void of that um in the Middle School level and essentially that person would be a liaison between um the middle school department as well as to the high school department just to ensure that you know the kids are making the progress that they need that it's a streamlined process as they move throughout those middle years and then get ready for the high school level um they basically oversee it and they be working with Mr Debold as well um as more of a collaborative Department I mean they're currently doing that work but there's really no

097point person that would have that chairperson stiffened for that thanks like would the counselor uh meet with the student or meet with the teachers yes so the counselor meets with the students um their C their there four are the children but the so for this for the chairperson yeah it's kind of more like I almost want to say like a management type of position where they would be coordinating with the other counselors to ensure that the transition and so on is is seamless between the two the two buildings and something that ad bass there's current Department chairs for math science uh language arts so it' be that same type of uh planning necessary for all things happening uh this year with regards to pushing lessons um mandates from the state uh things of that nature

098so that same type of model that might be in Cent areas would be at the uh counselor level as well would you consider the department chair the guidance Department chairperson as a subject matter expert in telling the teacher what needs to be done how it should be done that kind of guidance or I would say they would be seen as a valued colleague uh to provide resources to help meet the needs of the students in their classroom Beyond content so what's what's a barrier that the student might be bringing to class that's that's preventing them from being on their game for uh math instruction okay and at the counselor level when the counselor interacts with the student what the student question can be as an example and what kind of answer the counselor would give

099to that student so there's uh pushin lessons that are uh again designated by the New York State education department so those would be just your your classic push-in levels um there's Elementary level uh in middle school all the way up to high school then there's also times where uh parents might recom might request uh some time with a counselor to work through an issue that's been going on all year long having trouble making uh friends so there's there's buddy groups and and things of that nature how to work through self-regulation and things of that nature so if you're really impulsive how might you develop some skills that you're really thinking twice about what's coming out of your mouth or uh thinking twice about a particular action that might get you in trouble um or might

100have some un incented consequences great thank you thanks uh I think I have another question just um yeah the the federal part of the funding uh it was mentioned very briefly 611 619 I'm not very familiar with that can you elaborate a little bit more kind of what kind of funding we get from the federal government and the question is as you mentioned like everybody knows the federal dep Depart of education is kind of I don't know what the term is like it's going to be face down all the way down to disappearing so how much funding we always got and I don't know it's like speculations kind of nobody's GNA nobody knows at this point let's say they was give they were giving us $5 a year now the $5 is going to disappear

101I guess but anybody else going to take up that $5 and give it to us yeah so um the truth is it's it's unknown we've been assured that that money is not going anywhere but like you said whatever the value is and I don't know it off the top of my head I'm sorry about that but I can get I can get you what our federal funding looks like uh is how would that Gap get addressed right would New York State then step in and provide additional money um would the federal government provide that money in the absence of the uh Department of Education we don't know but there was there was quite a bit of flurry that took place a couple weeks ago um regarding that um so would the would New York State

102say that school districts uh would have to pick that up I would hope not because there are certain districts that are almost entirely federally funded they have tons of money you know our school district we don't have as much right and you can it's based on needs so 611 and 619 specifically refer to special education our title funds are uh based on some of our uh needy students so I don't have the best answer for you on that because I think there's just so much in flux and it's just something that I think we want to be mindful of and if there was a phase out process then that would probably be the way they go instead of just a straight cut Christian so I have some questions um on the slide the budg of

103parameters and variables the tax levy and CPI Trend uh so this is the the graph I guess is where my questions are okay no problem sorry uh so my first question is that you obviously have lagged the inflation so I realized that inflation is reported by calendar year at least for the annual rate and the school Year OB the budget year overlaps the calendar year so you have 8% in the 2324 Academic Year but 8% is for 2022 so why why are we lagging it what what is the reason is because that's how it you go forward into the ne following Year's budget correct that that's what we that's what in terms of uh reporting from the business official side those are the numbers that we're grabbing and holding on to for that year as

104the best estimate so why is that the best estimate because it would seem to me because you can get a quarterly measure quarterly analyzed inflation rate and then you can just allocate that more accurately to the actual cost in a particular like c a budget year well the inflation rate actually is not impacting us as a school district because of that 2% tax cap and that's why I put up there the tax levy growth factor you see that 1.8 1.23 2.0 2.0 2.0 we're that's the cap so even if it's eight even if it's six even if it's five we're still capped at two I understand that um so my question is so what is what is the CPI supposed to show here and I mean it does it seems like it's not lining up

105but also like the basket of goods that a school district purchases is not the same as the a con residential household which is what the CPI is constructed as and you know the element that really drove that infl and look I'm not saying this that the inflation numbers aren't real or that inflation isn't significant and that doesn't impact our cost I'm just trying to understand what is that 8% per supposed to represent because the main component driving that was rent and when rent is like you know when you have a rent moratorium and then you uncap it you see it P push up but that's not a cost that a school district and get has because we're not rent we're not renting an apartment so I was wondering like what what do we what costs

106exactly are going up that are driving up our cost as a school district in terms of what we're purchasing I use this as an example but you our the costs that are going up for example our transportation costs is based on fuel usage correct so so they they're purchasing gallons hundreds of thousands of gallons of gasoline that they're in turn turning over to us we saw that uh heating oil for our buildings we're using I just Illustrated the one of the uh sewer and the water we purchased that and I think that's the residual effects of the uh inflation is now coming back to bite Us in uh future year let's see so that was just one move on I had a second question is the TA they adopt a tax levy Trend and so

107I think so I watched the caramel budget development all the meetings last year which I'm sure you're you're familiar with and one thing that was pointed out by an outside speaker Dr Tims I believe was the adopted tax levy was too low for too long and that drove some of the budget issues how does Cornwall compare over the same period of time in terms of the adopted tax ly every time sorry over the same time Horizon how does cornwall's adopted tax LLY compared to what Carmel had over the same time and is that something to be concerned about the answer straight answer yes it's something to be concerned about because every time that you do not adopt the tax levy at or near the max you're leaving money on the table so the state is

108telling you you could raise $3 million but we only go out to our taxpayers and ask for 1 million we've left $2 million on the table that $2 million folds into the year the next year but that gets compounded so you've left $2 million on the table plus the compounded uh purchasing power of that $2 million into your tax levy growth factor and all the parameters that build our budget so is it concerning there's always going to be that concern from a business official perspective absolutely but you as board members as us as a community have to be mindful of the taxpayers that we serve here without reach uh without low out our taxes on our tax members on our our community members so what is so I mean that's whatever that parameter is is

109hard to say because the community is a large group of people and people might have different views on what that number is correct so how would Cornwall compare to the districts in the Hudson Valley region in terms of where we've put our tax ly growth compared to the 90 or so that are duchess putam Westchester Rockland in Orange County there's your answer corn world's done very well has steady increases throughout the past 10 years right that's why we did this this slide 1.66 versus a 2.62 okay keeping it consistent for your taxpayers is one thing increasing your taxes to meet the needs of your school district is another and you the the board of education is is empowered to make that decision on how far you want to go and you risk potentially having your

110V uh budget vote go down and I I don't know what that balance is but conventional wisdom would say every time you don't go to the max you're leaving money on the table that gets compounded for future years that you cannot use and just one last question just because uh Dr Shaker asked about the Department of Education Federal funding so the funding whether the Department of Education exists or not at the federal level the funding is appropriation by Congress and so that funding would still be allocated it would just be administered and supervised by a different agency at the federal level it could be ad it's allocated by Congress so so my my question is is that one thing that's been brought up is that it would be block granted by states which means the

111federal government would allocate to the state and then the state would then pass it through to school districts and how would block granting change it for our finances compared to the you know the entitlement of the district given the different parameters that that the formulas that go into that allocation I would say that by that block granting they would uh give more money than we receive to needier school districts so would we probably net I mean obviously this is a the future which we don't have a crystal ball for but you're you would guess that you probably would be a net loser if it was block granted correct anyone else I have I have a question probably for Terry or I'm not sure so are we going to dig into the needs analysis at a

112future meeting like asking more questions about those specific roles or is this the time to do that yeah if you have questions about any of the needs okay ask them now so then I do have a question um I'm curious about the csse chair I believe that was on the request last year as well um and it didn't make the final cut are what kind of increase are we seeing um in csse is it is it pretty steady or are we you know is it year-over-year it's a 5% increase uh So Christine whispered a really good question I just want to kind of vocalize that when um Mr Fink was discussing the early intervention she was like even with upk we're still seeing these needs and if you ask our kindergarten teachers first grade teachers

113we're still seeing um the needs a question I would always ask Cornwall public boards always ask you you just can't look at Cornwall hasn't changed I would ask what is our Mobility rate how many students in and out are we getting um each and every year that's a really important data point um to keep in mind with regards to the cpse request in that same Venture with 98 upk students we're able to put our eyes on um some of our uh students in need earlier so before they would inser into our buildings at the K level and we'd run our um processes to make sure that they're getting what they need and then ultimately could end up uh being screened for special education with upk we're catching them much earlier um with that comes an

114additional uh work load on our current um uh PPS department so if you could imagine we just we really added 98 students to The District 98 of our students that you know are at their youngest ages so that has increased uh the workload where we've had to designate someone to run those observations in our four upk sites to uh start the process of the cpsc so that's where that's coming from we've we've steadily grown over a time from 60 58 seats to 60 to 98 I know the English language learner is mandated and I'm not questioning the value I'm just genuinely curious how many students are res serving in the high school and I'm assuming that if we don't have that many students in the future this position could be reallocated to the lower levels

115or wherever the need is yeah so the the number is not going to decrease in my um my professional opinion uh it's grown slightly over time we're not seeing the massive increases that some other neighboring districts are seeing what I've realized really having dug into this for the past 3 years now um it's not the number of students being served at the high school level it's how complex those service hours must be so we have one full-time enl teacher who's has maybe a case load of 30 which 30 sounds it's doable but when that 30 is our newcomer students who might need English instruction to get credit um at the nth grade level a 19-year-old student who's a newcomer who might need have different needs and then our 11th and 12th graders who might have

116so she can't be split across so many different areas so it's not the number I I've been racking my brain with this with Joe and and the high school team there really has to be more than one um I will say we face this in other districts with the small school guaranteed Staffing that if you have 30 enl students at an at a a smaller Elementary School you still might need more than one staff member because you can't be in all places at all time it's hard to service kindergarten all the way up through fourth grade so that's where that's coming from is we've tried to do six periods we've tried to share Staffing and we're at the point now for the best interest of our of our students they really need a dedicated uh

117staff member in addition to chrisanthony and I I'm debating asking the question because I don't want to open a can of worms but but I am genuinely curious and I I it has come up in other conversations so our classroom size I know we're limited by the footprint of our buildings and that could be maybe a capital project conversation but in the short term has that been discussed at all in this needs assessment as it relates to creative ways to limit our classroom sizes or to give people classrooms they need Etc um so there's um just to go back um to last year we actually had our principles come in and uh do an exercise of if we saw a 5% increase in our population where would those students go Willow you're first cooh we're

118with the extra class go CES middle school high school um so we've been through that um exercise we are at uh Max in in uh my opinion um so I think that there's some uh things that we're uh considering with regards to reallocation of potential programs and things of that nature that we might need to do in the short uh term uh numbers wise uh I watch the numbers like a hawk so with the registration I get a monthly report of where each um grade level is and we're seeing what we saw at Willow before my time there was a bubble that existed through Cornwall that kind of worked its way up into the middle school and then disappeared Willow went from that three class working all the way through back to two we're seeing

119the same bubble that I've dealt with since I got here that started with kindergarten it's worked its way up um we're getting close to that bubble um working its way out there's still some classes that are class grade levels that are too high but it's hard to predict where those students are going to land so you can't just say we're seeing an increase at the second grade level all three buildings are seeing that same um level of of concern so right now I don't think we're at a point where we would be recommending additional Elementary um Staffing as as you heard uh from um elanora there's consequences that come with um allocating that space so we're solving one need and then creating um another so right now I think we're at a point where we

120need to let that bubble run through um and uh We've committed to providing additional teaching assist and and things of that nature to at least try to alleviate some of those concerns thank you any other last questions okay thank you very much comment um public comments if there's visitors I'm sorry yeah yeah public comments recognition of visitors if there's anyone that would like to speak we have microphones up here please just think back to my blur at the beginning about limiting to three minutes and not calling people out no one no one wants to hear me say it again no comments okay well thank you for joining us um oh can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting I didn't write that down second all in favor I I opposed thank you