001e e e here uh good evening everyone sorry we're starting a little bit late we're coming out of executive session uh but I'd like to call this meeting uh to order and ask that everyone please rise for the national or the Pledge of Allegiance okay thank you we have uh a lot of great uh information and things on the agenda to go through tonight so let's not waste any time uh I'd like to first uh recognize any uh visitors who wish to come forward and make some comments please grab a microphone state your name and um would love to hear what you have to say thank you hello everybody my name is Cynthia fillo I am one of the uh supporters and advocators for Universal pre kindergarten um I want to first start off by
002thanking our Board of Directors for all your time and dedication and some of the board of directors that came to us specifically to talk to us more about different children's issues and I'd like to thank you for that time and of course to our superintendent so I'd like to just bring up five major points about Universal pre kindergarten uh first point that I like to point out is the 10% return on investment research shows each dollar spent yields a return of at least 10% uh second point is the low cost to District residents to add an additional 20 slots the district cost is a total of $ 52,6 with that being said that is a cost of 75 cents more in school taxes per month per household at the same rate we could provide an
003additional 20 seats to our children for just $2 a month so that's less than your Dunkin Donuts coffee uh we can support working mothers like myself and other mothers here uh the urgency of now is the last point I make children entering upk in 2425 are the children born during the pandemic so Orange County and elsewhere has seen an uptick in the service intervention you know otpt speech so we 'll be able to with upk detect these these delays earlier and therefore save more money in that sense as well so I look forward to hearing uh how the board is going to make the additional 20 spots happen for our earliest Learners and thank you thank you anyone else good evening uh Brendan coin 13 Paul C cor and Hudson I just wanted to speak
004in regard to diversity equity and inclusion um I'm so glad that you folks are addressing this it's so important to the children to our students of course and as I said last month it's also very important to the folks of Greater Cornwall um I've been very involved in the community for for many years including on the the school board and um um I'm I'm very pleased and I want to congratulate you for taking on this difficult task and that um you realize how much good you are doing for the community as well as your students you know probably that many other districts in the area have already adopted such a policy including Valley Central and Pine Bush I cover them myself as a journalist and it's a Time more than more than than Pastime for
005us to have it here in Clon wall uh so I I just want to thank you and congrat congratulate you on taking this important step thanks thank you hi uh my name is Julia dll I'm a mom of a cooh student and I'm here to support the district's Dei policy and ask that you vote to implement it um cornal schools I'm I'm an outsider I've only been here now 5 years but um Unfortunately they have a reputation of being really really good for already high achieving and maining kids but frustrating difficult and even unsafe for kids who are religious or racial minorities living in poverty lgbtq plus and those who have learning differences and disabilities and that reputation is only going to change if we kind of meaning you decide that it should and take
006action embracing differences in ability and experience make us stronger and crucially It prepares our children for the World outside the Cocoon of Cornwall and that's our job as parents and Educators to create a space for our kids to learn about the world as it is in all its beauty and ugliness and to grow into independent responsible capable citizens the Dei proposal helps assure that our district is in line with best practices to help us create an environment that welcomes and learns from all students giving them the best chance to thrive and succeed I was hardened uh to hear board President John edel edel how do I edelin Adel thank you edelin sorry I had Edelman written but that's not what it is um last meeting reiterate that this policy is not political but specifically tailored
007to Cornwall he said and I'll quote it because I thought it was really good um it's about individual Merit and making sure that our kids who are being developed and educated and sent out into the world through this school district are armed to contribute to society here here thank you anyone else okay so uh with that um let's move on with the agenda and tonight we have a a special Spotlight presentation um ter you want to kick it off for us please all right so uh we wanted to spend some time tonight uh just reviewing our year thus far particularly as it pertains to superintendent goal number two uh which was around purposeful use of technology in the classroom so remember our journey uh a quick review back we started with the pandemic and our
008o no moment of could we actually stream in our buildings focused in on infrastructure then we move to let's make sure that all of our students have a device that will connect them whether they're at home in the classroom or Beyond and then I talk to the board and the community and our staff about the importance of the devices uh less than 10% of the equation when you talk about this work it's really about that purposeful use of Technology as it relates to the education of our uh students uh so uh Megan and I uh at the end of last year uh started thinking about who could we engage with that would really support our staff in this work uh and uh a friend of mine uh in marbor uh Central School District invited us
009uh as administrator so my uh cabinet along with some principes and directors uh went to a professional development over the summer uh where Mr Eric Shiner was the uh presenter uh for uh this workshop on how on his past work um his work with school districts um so when we came back we got our feedback from our administrators and it was a no-brainer for us to engage with Mr shenar for this school year particularly as it relates to professional development for our um administrators and teachers uh so Mr Shiner is here to kind of share a bit about his work um Beyond Cornwall and then he's going to focus in on uh the work that he's been engaging in with us uh this year uh uh for uh this uh goal uh Mr shinar has
010written numerous uh books that are uh well received uh you're working on one or one's about to be uh published uh very soon uh so I'm definitely an expert in the field uh he was a high school uh science teacher a coach system principal principal owes uh the work from the uh classroom to Leading a building to um uh work our work where I met with him uh I met him at a conference um model schools conference when I was an assistant soup so um we're thrilled to have Mr shinar here um Eric with us so uh if you could come on up uh thank you very much thank you all right I almost said good morning but good evening everybody uh what Terry did not say is that I was a non-believer in all
011this I wrote the policies to ban devices to block social media and at the time I lived in Stan Allen New York where my kids went to school until we moved to Texas and I didn't see any belief in technology because I didn't see the value and I'm only here not because of what I did as a principal I'm here because of what my teachers did and we were the first school in New Jersey to go bring your own device 15 years ago a lot of the stuff I'll show you today we were doing that all 14 years ago but we improved achievement with a population that spoke 40 different languages onethird of our col population classified special needs a building built in 1928 and no money and what we really focused on as you're
012going to see was not a free-for-all being on technology all the time but how does it support and enhance learning for kids when is the not the right time but the most effective time to use technology so as Terry said I am only here because schools were visiting my campus from all over the world to see what what my teachers were doing and probably the proudest thing as a principal for me wasn't all the awards that our school won but the fact that CBS Channel 2 New York City came 14 times to do positive stories on our culture and I will tell you right now everybody I'm gonna show you stuff that we saw today but first and foremost you have amazing kids here I get to visit classrooms every week all over the country
013and I'm telling you right now your kids are great even the ones that try to give me and I say no no no no because but I mean your kids are amazing but when we talk about kids and we think about today the world is different it is different many of us grew up with technology such as the at Trak the Commodore 64 The Apple 2E Atari and now the technology that our kids have in their hands is the worst technology that they're ever going to have and it's up to us to think about how do we help them navigate students know how to use tech for the most part they don't understand how to use Tech to support their learning and guess what sometimes as adults we need more help with that but when
014we think about this world I'm here to tell you even though I love tech technology is not a silver bullet it's powerful but I want to show you right quick how technology is not a silver bullet Long Live paper everybody I love showing that video because it's not about just putting a kid on a device we want discourse we want collaboration we want critical thinking but we do know that just putting a laptop in the hands of Learners is not going to result in learning Miracles and what we want to focus on is how does it help kids learn in ways they couldn't without it that's the main thing how does it help our kids learn in ways they couldn't without it think about what all of you do with technology for your own professional
015means there are things now that I'm doing with AI that is saving me precious time but again I still write paper notes I still love paper but then I lose the paper but we want to make sure that it's not replacing ineffective practices how does it unleash the genius of kids and when we think about not right or wrong answers and this was created by a grade six teacher but I love it because it helps us focus on how does technology help kids raise awareness start conversations find answers to their questions join Partners change Minds make a difference take action draw Drive change technology is a tool and tools can be used effectively or ineffectively what we want to focus on is how does that tool support and enhance what your amazing teachers and administrators
016are already doing not an add-on not another thing they have to do and when we think about oh boy little bit of a typo there but hey on my technology if I have my computer on now I can fix that so ignore the typo but when we think about digital learning creativity effective pedagogy feedback reflection collaboration oh now I know it changed the font I work on a Mac everybody and this must now be on a PC is that on a PC yes see there we go but digital supports all those things that we know are important but what does it do it can focus on higher order thinking skills in different ways kids can create things with amazing teachers that can demonstrate conceptual Mastery they can make it make the curriculum more relevant contextual
017gives kids voice and ownership challenging transparent assessments and I'm going to show you what this can look like through the lens of your students and your teachers but most importantly it's not about efficiency it's not about Effectiveness how is technology helping kids learn pedagogy are pedagogy the strategies that teachers Implement to move from instruction what the teacher does to learning what the kids do and that's the main piece how can it build that stronger foundation for how teachers are Teaching Standards and how kids demonstrate learning and after this slide I'm going to walk you through some examples some examples that I've been fortunate enough to capture and when we think about the benefit and you know as I work with people the whole idea is how do we show value we didn't change in our
018school my teachers didn't change until we showed them the value how we're going to help them do what they're already doing better whether it's innovating the way we cess improving collaboration instant access ownership of learning improving how we use time and I'm going to try to hit on all of these very quickly through the lens of your learners today I spent my time here with Robert and his teachers and oh my goodness we saw amazing things amazing but what I loved about this this was Kindergarten Robert this kind this teacher comes up to me and she's like and she starts to tell me what she's doing I'm like I'll just watch she goes no no no I want to show you how I implemented something that I heard from the last superintendent's conference day I'm
019telling you everyone that is what any educator wants to hear a teacher coming up saying I'm doing this not because I have to but because I want to these are all the rotations set up by the teacher and you can see she's got the kids names he's group them based on ability and what you see here is you got one task on iPads trick wordss uh CVC eggw spring sentences read the self reading with the teacher the main point here one Center involves Tech not all of them so let me show you what I saw and it's hard to see you TC two students there on Tech and you saw another one that's textbook everybody you want to see learning going on you want to see that talking you want to see kids reading but
020most importantly you see the teacher and the adults working with those kids maximizing time to provide them the support that they need uh here are some more examples Robert again help me with the Great here third grade okay and great stuff going on what you have here is these students paired they're all paired up they are actually solving problems with a partner on their whiteboards then once they solve and they talk it out then they go on to the technology and add their responses where they're manipulating the screens but what's the teacher doing there's the teacher right there no Tech but focusing on targeted support instruct whatever you want to call it again everywhere I work but providing that support maximizing time another great example and you can see here these students working together collaboratively
021they're having conversations they're talking about math the technology is not driving what they're doing uh here's another example uh from today and what I loved about this when I was here in a conference day I actually showed an example very similar to this meet with teacher at my seat technology handson so that teacher saw an example from a third grade classroom in Georgia and replicated it half the battle is everybody not giving people more work showing them what other teachers are doing and then the technology bam here was the uh Choice board that the teacher created and you could see what is a teacher doing working with two students again and then other students you see them actively working actively on task this was at the middle school and what I loved about this example
022is one of the benefits of technology is this is a tool called near pod you see kids actively drawing on their screens the teacher can access student work in real time and by through the technology that teacher then can support the students in class right then and there while other kids can work ahead at their own pace and again you could see all all the responses here I love that example and here's an example at the high school where the teacher set up a task right here and then students are actively working in groups collaborating on Google Docs on issues that are relevant and pertinent to them so I think that is my last slide I just want to say that you know these images are great and I get and when I was here
023in the fall and a couple weeks ago people see examples from other districts I want to tell you that so the examples that I have with Terry's permission people not only in the country are going to see but people from all over the world and I'm actually leaving out of the country on Friday and I I mean telling you everybody really really good sound practice but what I hope you took from this was you don't see technology driving the learning it has purpose the teacher is maximizing their time but the kids are are doing real world work that is more reflective of what's going to happen in today's world and I don't know what happens next so I'm gonna give this to Terry but I also I want to thank all all the parents all
024the community members all the board members thank you for what you do thank you for supporting your kids and you have a lot to be proud of and I will say because I see him here his classroom when I came to his classroom one of the best math lessons I saw it it didn't have it didn't involve Tech but all the kids were working on whiteboards solving problems collaboratively he was given realtime feedback and I'll be honest I told him when I asked can I give you feedback and we talked about it I show that image all over the place everybody a lot of great stuff happening thank you Eric uh so um Wanted like we've said all along to try to make this an ongoing conversation about goals in the district and things of
025that nature uh so here we are um in the spring before we get to the end of the year um the primary focus of of this goal was really support for teachers and administrators it it was really focused on that and that's what Eric has been able to help us with so we've had days devoted with administrators to talk about how do you lead this work how do you really focus on kind of what's next for your building make Eric's feedback make sense to your uh building is what we've been impressing upon them uh for our teachers how do you make this actually practical so that they're walking away with tools that they can use in their classroom the very next day and that's what Eric was able to show you not just standing in
026front of them and talking to them for four hours about um Utah it's really this is an example of how you can integrate this right now into your language arts classroom and that's just what we're seeing at the high school at the middle school and um at our elementary school so we're really excited about um the work one of the key metrics in uh my goal for this year was you know how do we know where we're moving the needle how do you know where you're going from point A to point B and that's really where you know uh I think it was 135 I got the feedback from Robert School in my um inbox and Megan's inbox of this is what I saw these are the things that I uh thought were great things
027that were happening here's some suggestions for what um you could do moving forward so um Robert has that uh feedback Megan and I have that feedback to talk about if that's the case in March of 2024 what would we what might we expect to see at the end of next fall and then into next spring so um we're excited about uh the work and uh thrilled to be working with uh with Eric so before he leaves he's had a long day he started here first thing um but wants to see if the our our board had any questions for me or Eric I'll I'll break the ice and give people an opportunity to to to think up a question for you Eric appreciate you being here um and and reviewing with Terry um this technology
028initiative I think it's a very important one to get right especially you know we're we're already into the 21st century by a generation and uh catchup is always a tough thing to do so I appreciate you helping us get uh caught up if you will um my question has to do with technology as a tool you mentioned technology can be a uh an enhancer and it could be a detriment as well it's not used properly could you give me an example of each where you've seen it used to and we're not going to I I don't want John Hines to be pointed out anymore this evening it's unfair to point out an individual and it's against our policy to point people out so we we we don't want to engage in that anymore but can
029you give me a an example of you know where it does work and work well and where you know the downside risk resides and you need to avoid first I'm going do ineective or ones that have opportunities for growth is interactive whiteboards all right interactive whiteboard is interactive so that the kids can use it a use that we want to stray away from is when the adult is using it as an overhead projector or something like that another thing we want to stray away from is students just passively consuming watching a video or going into Google classroom and just accessing notes that might still be dictated to them so those are some more passive consumption low-level learning tasks that we want to move away from um also which I've not seen here is I haven't
030seen kids off task on technology which is in terms of their own devices which is a Real Testament to the relationships that your teachers have but when we think about you know those good uses as I highlighted some the biggest one for me is how can a teacher maximize the time they have with their kids how can they get that real-time feedback whether it's from an Adaptive learning tool like Exel that you have here at this school and some other ones where the teachers can group regroup Target their instruction to truly meet the needs of kids that might need a little more support but also to challenge those Learners that are already getting that already getting um how can kids create an example that they Dem that they understand where writing I'm not we need
031kids to right but what if they can draw what what if they can compose a song what if they're more comfortable doing it on a video if learning is the goal and technology is that Catalyst but that does not take away from the fact that we still focus on the standards we go deep we scaffold our questions we have closure at the end so I could go on and on again but I think again the examples that I tried to share were ways that supports and enhances we should be doing yeah thank you Brendon thanks John yeah that was great um one thing that you mentioned that I thought was uh potentially really helpful for teachers learning is learning from other teachers you know they're seeing really relevant examples of how to do it in
032a way that we assume these other teachers aren't adding to their own time so it's very efficient I'm just curious how do we convey those examples to our own staff is it anecdotal is it kind of woven into our PD do we have like a collection of resources that teachers can can look to learn from other teachers I'm going to start and then I'm going to turn over one of my feedback to all the principles is I model by creating these artifact libraries showing the quality of evidence because teachers across the country and leaders are like Eric how do I do it and what does it look like and I agree 100% your best leaders are the ones in your District that know your kids that know your community so as the principles begin to
033gradually release the whole goal is to create those Exemplar libr liaries from K to 12 that is your work I don't know if you want to add to that uh so another great example is effective use of superintendent conference day so during our last one uh early March we had the opening keynote with Eric just sharing examples from not only our district but from across the country and then we broke it up into by level so the high school's goals are very different than the Middle School than the elementary school developmentally where we are with uh um uh what our Focus areas are for each uh building so that is that's the way that you can really assure um that you know you're sharing those examples across um across all uh levels a great example
034at the middle school is they have Team meetings every uh week so that's another opportunity for teachers to share with other um teachers our sip structure um at the elementary middle in high school is another uh opportunity what we're really trying to St uh stay away from is you you have to use near pod or you have to use because it it makes no sense as soon as we say you have to use near pod someone's going to find something faster more effective something more useful for them but when Eric says let me show you an example of how I'm going to save you time rather than trying to figure out who am I going to cold call in this classroom to see who's getting it I can look up on the screen the kids
035don't see each other's names but I know which number is which and I can key in on the three kids that may need to see me the next day in a small group that's a timesaver rather than collecting all the worksheets spending your time at night grading uh papers and developing your lesson the next day this is kind of real time examples uh thanks for the excellent presentation uh my question is uh if we were to draw a line uh and speaking rhetorically if I want to do a division or a multiplication with a paper and a pencil versus pulling my calculator and punching numbers so how would you draw that line you bring up a key tenant of personalization and that's all Learners getting what they need when in where they need it what
036might work best for you as a learner might not work best for me and that's part of a culture is what is the mo the most effective way for kids to learn so if it's paper and pencil and that's going to help that learner go for it but if the students feel that they're going to be able to master that concept more with doing it on a calculator I'm a big proponent of both ways because again when we think about how assessments change and what kids are going to be asked to do but again we all know if we're forced to do thing a certain way that might not align with our learning preference we used to talk about learning styles from Howard Gardner well that's been debunked but we do of learning preferences and
037it's like what makes you I like writing things down because it helps me remember more than on my device so I think it's giving that autonomy to the teacher but also making the teacher and the administrator comfortable with allowing kids to choose the most effective Pathway to for them to learn thanks I I just maybe like followup uh you uh you answered the question based on the preferences of the student uh again rhetorically student who prefers to use the calculator what would happen to that students if he doesn't have the calculator so this is uh this is what I was going to add that um that um Eric has seen kind of across uh the country one of the non-negotiables is they're they have to learn how to utilize devices period full stop I don't
038care if you're going into career in Tech if you're going into college and university um the SAT is uh electronic our State assessments are moving uh to electronics so even if you have a preference there is still the expectation that you um learn it uh with a device as well the whole um debate over um what happens if I don't have a calculator is is a very very real um debate that I'm struggling with um my team had an interview uh last week that hit us in the gut because we asked someone kind of a similar question of where have you seen effect use of technology and what are some of the risks that we might see moving forward and this individual said said something that's still kind of sticking with us is my fear
039with AI is that we be we turn our education system into a transactional system I'm listening and typing into AI what my teacher is saying I boys and girls you know we just studied the Civil War I want you to talk a little bit about the pros and cons and our students are just typing it into chat G PT and spitting out whatever it becomes so how are we really making sure that we're still honing in on those critical thinking skills and things of that nature while also not being blind to the fact that chat GPT and AI is here to stay and it's going to continue to evolve so we ask the question of what happens if they don't have a calculator we also kind of asked the question of when will they not
040have a calculator we're we're all walking around with with a phone so are we making a student do it long division just because or are we actually getting to know the concepts behind division so that whether they're on a calculator or doing a paper pencil they understand the function and and um functionality of why might you engage in a division problem why might you need to add um uh numbers together to uh come up and solve a problem this is thanks DD this is my biggest worry about technology pretty much I mean I ordered it in a form of question but definitely uh you see my point uh Chad GPT AI what everybody fails to ackn I shouldn't say everybody most fails to see the point that they did not create themselves there are some
041people behind them writing the code they can be biased they can be is set in a way to influence whatever right that's one and again I mean going back to the calculator example if I don't have the calculator I can do math education wise they failed me I would counter that because I think that um I just went to a County board meeting where there was a presentation about Ai and a lot of discussion in a lot of the districts about this is here to stay right so and it's not Elementary School we're talking about what the discussion we had was around High School how do we use this as a critical thinking tool so that when you're reading something you can fact check it you can gut check it you can look at it
042and say this doesn't seem right because it's biased or it's not right so there's a lot to be learned in that space so that when they're out of school and they're using it on their own we've given them the skills to use it WI wiely that's wasn't what I was going to say but that is relevant um I think what's so powerful here when we think about our students with learning disabilities and that's you know the train I'm on um I went to a conference in New Jersey probably 10 years ago because my child has a severe dyslexia and uh they were using technology and I'm like oh my God this is this is amazing and I came back here and with all due respect it was like I was talking a foreign language I
043just wanted books on tape right it wasn't much but if we can get this in the hands of children young and they know how to use it as a tool um then it's not such a stigma later when they need it when they can't keep up with the reading necessarily or they need a calculator to do the math problem but they have the critical thinking skill to figure out what are they really solving for so um I I just love seeing it being used so wisely and really integrated into everything so that kid that needs it for full inclusion or Equity is not standing out when the time comes and also for the teachers when when a child has to do speech to text or they're allowed to type versus writing because writing is difficult
044you know we have teachers not disrespectfully but who are like well they have to write you know because it's this it's this thinking that we've been always brought up with and you don't have to think about that until your child can't do it right and so I think it's um I'm so glad to see the district focusing on this and using it really as a tool to help learning styles because it's about the knowledge being transferred not the ability to to you know just reiterate or or teach back report back exactly what you were heard so thank you for the investment Christian um I think I could have extend this meeting by two hours getting into a debate about instructional technology but instead I'll just share a story and just make an observation um I
045was once doing a tour with students um at Mediacom which arguably is the largest employer and especially for a technology company in Orange County and I was walking along with the the VP for human resources and we were having a conversation about this and how what kids are learning and skills and things of that sort and she made one of the most interesting convers uh comments because it was kind of what you didn't expect and what she said is that um what we're doing right now and what we're seeing that the employees that we're getting is that actually they're almost too engaged they're always supposed to be on task they're always being focused and she then showed me some research on that fact that boring teachers actually make great students and promote creativity um and
046the idea that when you're being bored and you look out the window with the Charlie Brown teacher you know your mind wanders and actually that's where a lot of creativity comes from and I think that's an important thing about you know made me think about what are the jobs and the skills of the future um even here in Orange County and the observation um so Mr sheninger I know I've consumed quite a bit of your your work and I one was the um the education Innovation and Technology ology podcast and you're asked about what do you do when the community board members teachers oppose this and this is mostly about virtual learning and you said they don't know what they don't know they have to be educated and I'm not asking necessary for an answer
047but it seems like um there's a different conversation going on with that technology and I'm a little bit skeptical as a teacher myself and someone who's been doing technology about as long as you've been in education as well and what I've become is more skeptical and not just simply that a tech skeptic or that technology is not the answer it's that um technology is often as much of a distraction um as it has been a helpful tool so just uh two things to highlight and then I'll let Mr shinar decide whether he wants to address that podcast from I don't know how long ago um uh one is example after example remember Eric said in this series of tasks in this classroom one involved technology the other one involved meeting with the teacher the other
048one involved students sitting um and conversing with one another the other one they were sitting contently by themselves reading um a book same thing with a third grade class Miss Le was sitting with three students while the other students were either engag in technology or completing problems so we we know that that is a concern so we made a point of of making sure our staff knows that it is not technology all the time it's how do you purposefully utilize technology to enhance um learning um the the second piece that I'll say is um Eric didn't share it because you know this is his humility um we provided our staff with an opportunity to provide feedback you our staff is not shy about providing feedback when it comes to professional development and this last superintendent
049conference day it was through the roof with regards to positive comments about thank you for bringing someone that's allowing us practical answers to ex uh this use of technology and and the like so I can share that with the board our staff found Eric to be ex extremely um helpful and insightful um and that's that's the purpose of um of our time and I just want to piggy back on the fact that our classrooms are exciting they're engaging it's a new time it's a new era um I can't even even tell you how often I have conversations with adults and our staff to say I wish we learned like this I wish that we had the opportunity to learn in the way that our kids are learning so one of the classrooms that Mr sheninger
050um observed today is a self-contained special education class and I challenge you to figure out what class it is on there because the opportunities are so exciting for the kids the choice boards that they have for what works for them is amazing and what the teacher was working on which is technology was at her table with a dry erase marker and she the kids were circling um four groups with one sixth in each because they needed that visual rep representation then they got their Hands-On manipulative and they used it in that manner that's technology it's exciting in our classrooms and it should be telled for the way our kids are learning because when they leave here we may give them a calculator we may give them a Chromebook we may give them a marker and
051an erase board they have to figure out how do they make it work for them once they're out of our doors so Eric do you have anything you want to add to that I oh and we have more questions but but I oh no I'll remember my CL I'll remember my closing thoughts okay leis thank you um just a few brief comments um you know you you you relative off the heels of the um the the calculator we have fantastic teachers in our district we have a high level Integrity here in our district I'd like to think um it's it's about the intellectual Integrity as well you know that that student may excel on that piece of tech and that's where they learn but somehow somewhere be before that you have to know what to
052input you have to have some basic knowledge of what to input it could be a cheaters device and so on and so forth um but you you I believe in your in your presentation are reaffirming the positive application of the technology in the school district thank you for Robert for exposing your classrooms and your students um but I I think in that you know that that intellectual int or uh uh intellectual Integrity is not something that poofs in it's something that happens over time it's something that's ingrained and taught from a very early age and it doesn't just you know happen overnight um you know a quip you know I joke and I I say you know when when I learned when I was younger it was very linear learning and a plus b then
053C then D then e and you know I call it survival math you know the math that the kids are learning today as a matter of fact is math that I call survival math that I had to figure out on my own throughout my my my older years and how to make things happen faster and quicker and more and better um that these guys are learning these kids are are learning just second third fourth grade you know cranking it out you know so um just in the end thank you for reaffirming that the tech in in our district is is coming together it's happy to hear that um the professional development you know comments are are are are skyrocketing that's that's fantastic thank you yeah and a few things really quick um Tech should not
054drive what happens on the classroom relationships Clarity in form of the standard High effect strategies but I will share a quick quote one of my favorite movies don't judge the greatest Showman in the greatest show man Hugh Jackman's character said Comfort is the enemy of progress as humans we are impacted by experience we do many things because that's what we've experienced that doesn't mean it's the right way or the best way and the biggest thing is to challenge our own mindset it's not about right wrong effective ineffective it's about understanding what can we do to best serve our kids and I will not tell you what my students told me but when I changed it was because I started as a principal talking to my students and their reactions were very harsh but we knew
055that we were not meeting their needs and that we had to work better to try to meet their needs as best as possible so I'll will end on that you're doing great stuff thanks everybody thank you thank you Eric um you know you ended up on a high note and having a growth mindset not doesn't apply just to kids right it applies to all of us so thank you for for closing on that uh that high note for us okay so um let's continue on with the agenda I think next item is the consent agenda oh correction deflection thank you Jim um committee updates um let's go around the the horn we'll go uh alphabetically first audit uh so we have uh the audit committee has worked with Harvey to select uh two areas for
056internal audit and he is working with the Auditors to get that scheduled uh hopefully to have a follow-up meeting um in late May or early June depending on the auditor schedule thank you for that Jim Brendan communication yep uh we have some uh exciting developments for on the communication front so we um we are moving forward with a couple of things we will be developing a uh basically like a communication Capital project asset Suite we'll call it there's going to be uh uh a large display of the a rendering of what the High School Athletic Facility will look like um and we want to uh we're beginning to to produce that now that will be uh we're looking to get a display version for the high school itself but then also have that displayed at
057each School kind of like you you walk in and everybody just gets to see what uh you know what's on tap and to support that we'll have the uh trifold with both what's been done and what's to come just making these uh as accessible as possible throughout the district as as people come into and out of the buildings um then we'll also be um moving forward with the typical budget season communication budget newsletter um and then scheduling the uh the budget typically we do a budget Forum so that'll be uh we have to pick the date for that um by next meeting I'm sure we'll have that date but you can figure uh it's always in that first week first to second week of May period thank you for that Brendon Lewis facilities um so
058as a historical reference um for the new board members uh existing board members um were here and and know about it a planning document was generated five or so years ago or uh yeah about four or five years ago four years ago BAS Bas on our five-year building condition survey and that Consolidated document is what drove the items to be um selected to be in this bond that we're currently under right now and and in the work and the phases that you hear us discussing so akin to that akin to that um the the current facilities committee is is so I should back up the the the the document was voluminous to the point where we couldn't afford it all in one in one fail swoop so we had to pick and parse out what
059was was was a of the most highest priorities that needed to get done things failing in the district B um money and we couldn't a afford it all what what what priority were prioritized inevitably some portion of that document was left off because again we just couldn't get it done all in one shot so what the facilities committee currently is doing is working towards the balance of the original document um coupled with any Rising needs that's happened between the last Bond and today um things that are that have may been risen to the the point of failure or needing attention in the district we're looking on finalizing that document and potentially proposing this as a as a future as a future effort to get work work done in the district um another thing that was
060broached that we're going to be focusing on in the coming weeks is uh the population increase of our district and our in our schools and our buildings um we invited in the principles of our elementary schools uh our Middle School principal is a member of the committee so she was there uh regardless and we invited them to talk about what a population increased meant to their day-to-day operation what it looked like on the ground with the teachers and Educators their space Etc and we went for like a three or 5% increase I have the information on what that increase is per student I won't we don't have to bore everybody here today but in general to float the idea and the summary was that pretty much all the elementary schools were at a at a
061capacity to where if they imported or or or new students came in and they took on new students um that major modifications of the educational day would have to happen for example um the art spaces the music spaces they would have to be turned into educational environments and um music will grow on a car potentially artw going to car potentially all things that no one wants to hear being you know said but it's it's it's something that's potentially out there so the general notion of of a district expansion SL population increase what would we do what would we do as as the board as a district just to kind of float that and get that uh pinned that's on our Horizon um and our our next meeting is April 22nd couple weeks hopefully we can
062get this um this planning document kind of honed in a little bit better and have something for the for the greater board in the coming weeks great thank you Lewis U ju just to clarify one thing about the initiative which was somewhat of a scenario analysis it was to see what would happen if we incurred growth in enrollment it right and and the Assumption was a 5% growth for your individual building would result in X exactly whether correct sustainable or it would interfere with the current way that that that education is occurring in those buildings that's right and and that's a building experiencing it not a district it could be an influx of 5% of Elementary level students over three schools and it's and it's moved or it could be an influx to one one
063area and it's you know what you're at capacity we may have to borrow another classroom right right and so and so having this kind of a strategic mindset of what if how scalable is the district everyone knows that uh uh the governor Tred to uh reduce um what I'll call Foundation Aid as a result of declining enrollments at at various districts I don't think that's going to pass um but still we don't have a budget the the issue that we're confronting is our our enrollments have been somewhat steady since the pandemic and our worst case scenario is what would happen if our enrollments were actually to increase because the good news of Cornwall gets out and we have an influx of more students than we've had over the last couple years how scalable are we
064and the answer looks like we're not that scalable on to the upside which would require Rees some modification but this is all initial but thank you for for for running that down for us and we look forward to continuing just to know as as as a fact um CES this school is the one school that really took on a lot of students post postco everything was kind of sustainable we lost a few because of covid people making their own decisions and then this this school is the one that really took the the increase postco great stuff thank you leis uh policy Jim I know we're talking about two policies tonight yeah policy committee you will see the fruits of our labor on the two uh policies and number five on the consent agenda and then
065we are going to have one more meeting to close out the year uh still need to schedule that uh to just our normal review that three-year review cycle uh of policies and I think we've got somewhere between 10 and 15 to tackle before the end of the year great work going on in the policy committee appreciate your e in leading it all um that takes us then to the consent agenda and before we get into it I just want to for for ease of everyone's time I'm going to ask that we remove item number five which is the um second reading of two policies uh that's policy 0105 and 4810 we will discuss those separately as not as part part of the uh consent agenda items leaving us uh with items 1 through four and
066uh uh six and seven is there any other item on the consent agenda that someone would like to talk separately about so can I have a motions for the items one through four and six through and seven so M all in favor any opposed all right approved thank you for that so what I'll do for item number five just for the interest of of time is I would like uh uh to tee up the 015 item which is the new diversity equity and inclusion policy I have a motion please so move second okay uh discussion uh bass mic on talking hey bass could you put your mic on if sorry thanks um let me repeat I'm sorry for that uh my question regarding the policies both of them uh now John you're discussing 0105 but
067same goes for the other one 4810 was there any uh revisions done on the text since the first reading I'm not aware of anything but I just want to state that okay for a fact um that's my question but I have some further comments I mean you're discussing the policies themselves right right just 0 one05 for for for the moment um any other question or or comment that someone would like to make about 0105 yeah so uh what I like to say is that uh again uh I went on the record uh during last meeting with my comments regarding 0105 and since the answer to my question whether the text was changed since um I would still object uh if were to vote today I would still have my uh my two objections that I
068listed last time now my first objection was regarding uh the way the policy is written there was a paragraph talking about the superintendent uh regularly uh reviewing and doing work on that and my take was that would that would take too much time on the part of the superintendent that in my view uh should focus his time on some other things because the way the text was read right right uh uh I was kind of you know hoping that the text would change giving us as a board me as a board uh a good idea how about the level of effort if you want or the time I mean any estimate on how much effort that would take on the part of the superintendent that was my comment number objection number one uh for me
069to approve the policy my second objection was uh again there was another uh paragraph another section of the policy The Way It Was Written uh talking about the recommendation that the DI committee brings forward to the board and to me the way it reads was that the Dei committee uh is going to dictate on the board what needs to be done what needs to be changed again the way it was written and I requested some clarification so not to give the impression that the Dei committee comes to the board hey board you need to change this hey board you need to do whatever uh maybe that wasn't the intent of the way uh we needed to write the policy but again I mean I needed some clarification so we don't give that perception that we
070have to report to the Dei committee as a board I might not be here in the future future but the board in itself shouldn't have to kind of report to the Dei committee uh all I needed is some clarifications that would not let anybody think that if the Dei committee comes with the recommendations the board the board would say okay we're going to do it so so bass I I appreciate your two two comments there let me try to address that and I'll turn over to Terry when I'm done but but I I thought last time at our meeting we we talked about the role of the board and the process that we follow on all things and and and that process includes this Dei committee and any new initiatives that may come out of
071it will always come to the board for approval for for the board's agreement and so the board is not as the document currently reads delegating any authority to anyone other than the board to do what its role is in terms of overseeing and establishing policy for this school district I I I understand the the desire to to to prevent any kind of confusion but I can't be more emphatic about what the board's oversight responsibilities are and how we're not giving that away through a backdoor loophole in in some word Smith policy that you may see here in terms of controlling what people think I I that's a Fool's errand I I I'm I don't think anyone thinks that we should even be in that tried of business right people are going to think what they're
072going to think and the all we can do is provide people the best information about what Dei for this school district actually represents they may think of a different School District in a different part of the country maybe somewhere in California it may work in California it may not work here in Cornwall and I think the committee has been very careful in terms of vetting this policy and providing appropriate feedback not just to Terry and his team but I think it Al actually filtered back down to to the committee and so what this document represents is the best effort today now does that mean in a year or two or three the policy gets enhanced I'm all for that because we always are improving the policies that uh come before the policy committee and the
073and the board in general but make no mistake that nothing in terms of our responsibilities as a board is being usurped by the adoption of of this policy in terms of the first note which was this notion of reporting I'm for reporting I I I I'm actually an advocate for more reporting not less but that's just me I I I I believe it's incumbent on the board's role as overseer to get as good and as timely information from Terry and his staff as possible so I would be an advocate for more more not less knowing that that more information that is pertinent is what's required we could get into an exhaustive level of reporting that would be farsal not necessary and not pertinent to educating our kids and so I I understand the the concern
074that you have about the time that any enhanced reporting or additional reporting might have but I think knowing Terry and how he's elevated the reporting to the board since his time here as our superintendent I'm willing to let it go and see how it goes out of the gate and make any additional uh refinements over time that's just me let me give Terry the the floor because I probably spoke too much on that go ahead Terry uh so just as a reminder and um bass I think you know this I worked really hard to Wordsmith this thing so I just want to take us back to in the policy committee I think there were two go back so there was round one I was like okay I'll take this feedback in and I'll make revisions
075and then we had a second meeting we're right there at the table we revised this document to kind of address concerns that each policy Committee Member were bringing with feedback from the community and the and the like so I just wanted to read two areas that we we revised based on your input B which was with commun with committee input the superintendent is directed to develop and Implement a plan for ensuring the Equitable Educational Opportunity so not the committee the committee is providing input to the superintendent and then the Dei committee specific part of the policy says the district will establish a Dei committee that meets periodically throughout the year the purpose of this committee is to assist the superintendent in creating and implementing a detailed plan um as needed the Dei committee will provide
076the superintendent with recommendations for how the district can better promote diversity Equity inclusion so that was one of the examples of how do we really make sure that it's staying in in board Lane and as John said it can never get out of the board's Lane it's it's the board's uh role and then just the last thing I'll say is um our standard operating procedures just remember this year we had a slate of all board members saying like what do you want to hear more about special education Athletics that that's going to happen every year and then the board directs my team as okay we really need an update on X Y or Z and I follow suit so there's no way that this policy would circumvent all of that all of that work I
077remember I mean there's a language where it says the superintendent will regularly report and the word regularly I mean this is my kind of it's like you know regularly is subjective word I I mean we're not saying monthly we're not saying every other week it's a Cadence where we'll get information back from the superintendent but I don't think on any other policy we dictate what percent of time Terry spends on any initiative we we trust him to get the work done and I think if something ever got to the extent of being so out of whack I would trust John and Jim would have a conversation privately that listen this is off track this isn't where you know the goals are focused on but I I think we're splitting hairs on words that don't really
078impact the overall essence of the policy plus regularly could be once a year it could be I mean regularly just means that it's regular per per calendar or per whatever your your your time and that's why I'm raising the point yeah I and I I asked what what do you mean by regularly I didn't get an answer I mean but to Christine's to Christine's point I mean it's it's this it's the language that we use on on every policy we don't we don't say Terry will will pump out a report every you know every other Thursday on on this like monthly so but it's it's not it's just not a standard that we hold any if I could just to correct the record a little bit there are some policies that we do actually State
079like within x amount of dates and like but and they're comp but but but but in in general getting back back to the the level of reporting that occurs it it really is when there is something significant to report um to establish a bright line or happy to Glad in terms of regular versus periodic regular doesn't mean when there's something significant regularly does not mean that I my my my my point to you is something that is new which I believe this policy is the first that we've adopted in this space related obviously to other policies of which we will talk about in a second but I understand you've expressed your concern about that the term regularly and I'll just make note of that Christian has a a question or a comment go ahead so
080um as I kind of said and I think this has been covered by several people already um this policy is a product of people listening to each other um people on the Dei committee administrators the policy committee and even the people who I think disagreed with it or have issues with parts of it made it better and I think that voting on it tonight does not end that process and if we are serious about it this is just our commitment to engage with it and if it is to have an impact the community is going to change the board will change uh staff will change and we're going to have to update this policy and come back to it and wethink it to make it in a sense more resp responsive to our students our
081community our staff Etc and if it's going to have any let's say impact it means we're going to have to look at other policies whether code of conduct professional development curriculum and I think that you know I look forward to engaging in that process and I encourage you know the members of the committee and anyone else in the community to come forward and be part of that and I think you know this is just a start not an ending of that process thank you for that Christian you know the the the district's policy manual which includes all these policies it all is a a work in progress um and as you know opportunities present themselves to enhance refine and improve I I would expect that this policy would undergo the same type of process as
082all the others have before it okay um any other let's uh um we have a motion it's been seconded we've discussed it I think uh all in favor I I any opposed um no uh uh Nays but we do any any abstaining B so you abstain vote no so so just to clarify we had the majority of the board has approved this policy as written thank you for that I just want to understand bass you're what are you a uh a no Vote or have you abstained which is the equivalent of a no vote because any vote other than a yite I just want to understand for the ref no more discuss no more discussion no just just but for the record I need to know how to record your vote that's he wants to
083record your vote for the record is it abstained for clar because okay thank you all right uh that would be policy 4810 um I have a motion some for consideration second second thank you okay uh discussion uh Christian um this is a little bit what I said last time um I'm opposed to the expansion of this policy to events and activities Beyond um the classroom I think it takes us out of line with what the New York State School boards association's template is I think it has it brings a lot of different activities under the Ages which is not even um thought of in let's say the underlying legal cases and commissioner decisions that are cited in the policy and I just want to talk about one of them like the Malin decision which was
084the case of a social studies teacher who included a letter to the editor that she wrote herself in the materials um talking about the racism of Jimmy De Greek and his firing by CBS back in the the late 80s early 90s and she was suspended they moved to dismiss her because she included in that um and then it was found by the commissioner soel at the time which is still I believe the governing language on this that they had aired and they had not protected her academic freedom and that the teacher in a sense uh had the right to make these decisions even to include their own opinion in that and if we are going to vote on this policy we should at least I think delete that because we've gone far from that legal
085decision in adopting this new policy Christine go ahead delete which part I just want to track so um in the policy there are several different like tinker and de Mo and uh malver versus Etc um I'm talking particularly about the malver uh legal uh commissioner decision which was made I believe in 1990 I I got it you just want to remove that case I got it okay any other discussion on 4810 so I just want to be clear Christ do you are you suggesting we we change text within the policy or we remove a reference that is made within the policy I think that if you know we're going to vote on either the policy as written and if we are think that we should delete that because we have decided to go past that
086and that's no longer the governing Language by the policy we're adopting my preference would be to delete the addition of that language as I said last time but I think that we're going to vote on that policy I think and my point is that to be consistent it should at least delete that okay I just want to go back to my initial question is that language in the policy or is that a reference that the policy is making is it like in the there are references at the bottom of the policy but it okay but that's but it that's one of them so you're you're just looking to remove the reference or you're looking to remove the language that the that makes the reference refence the language that the reference is like Associated to this
087is kind of like they're two pass so if we are going to vote with the language I think we should delete the reference if we're keeping the reference we should delete the language language I think we're going to vote on The Lang it has written I'm making a suggestion at this point um and my point is is that we base our policies based on legal decisions Commissioners decisions Etc and we site them underneath most of our policies I don't expect that everyone actually reads them or you know in a sense has to live under them um but I think the point is that we are kind of going well beyond what we're citing as our sources which kind of are completely contradictory to to the policy that we have proposed going forward so my point
088I guess it's an either or um we can vote it as it is but I would suggest for the policy committee to go back and make you know one of the one of those uh amendments going forward if I may propose a path C uh I wasn't here last week uh I was one of the tens who watched it on YouTube uh so I got a good flavor of the uh discussion I think um we have support for the Poli policy as written uh I'm going to suggest we vote on the policy as written here without removing that reference but that we ask Terry to send it up uh to Mr Honeywell uh just to get his thoughts on including that reference with the expanded language and whether or not he feels uh it's still
089appropriate um and then we can take that up as a policy uh committee uh based upon Mr honeywell's analysis so so help me understand that uh that option C are are you SU table this policy until we I'm suggesting we vote on it as written and just as a back check on this one specific issue uh that Christian has raised in terms of this reference that we asked Jeff is it still appropriate to have this reference and if he says no you shouldn't have it anymore then we will remove it and vote on it again I don't think that I I'm I'm taking the educated guess here that going to say you can leave it the can I support option C as Jim suggested okay great so with that um all in favor of 4810
090I I any opposed one any abstain let the record reflect that 4810 has been approved and that we'll ask Terry to go back ask Jeff for some legal interpretation about that case uh and its relevance in terms of being listed as a reference within that uh specific policy thank you okay so that then takes us [Music] to our second uh Spotlight presentation which um is a continuation of the upcoming uh budget for 2425 school year um um Harvey the floor is yours or so just ter you want to Tee It Up go ahead please so just to uh Tee It Up um John and I had conversations we were going to be in one of two spots unfortunately we were in spot two uh this evening so one was the governor adopting a budget and
091we would have some real numbers to look at the needs assessment and things of that nature we are not uh there so that would be a fruitless um exercise uh so in spot one John and I talked about um the board being updated on you know what happens if we get to the 18th and we don't have a budget just making sure the board knows Eyes Wide Open um we also want to make sure that um we start looking at our calendars should a special meting special meeting be needed so um wanted to tee that up just so that folks are used to seeing um Professor suland uh up at the um up at the screen but uh unfortunately we don't have updated numbers so this is really more educative for for the board thank
092you so in terms of moving forward and and en able to give the board the information they need and be fully educated to make the decisions we we are going to have to modify the budget calendar uh the reason for that is because we really only had two sessions left we had tonight which would be we were we were supposed to we were scheduled to look at Revenue needs and and really see what we can afford and not afford uh accordingly and then next Thursday we're going to approve the budget and that would be it um unfortunately we do not have the state uh state aid numbers um we haven't heard Boo from the state uh you haven't seen it as well um there's there's nothing coming out which is really not good they're already
093a week late um I think that at this stage we can try to hold true to the 18th where we would adopt and approve the budget but we would need an additional meeting presumably perhaps next Monday in in lie of tonight's presentation so that we can we can go through everything now with that said if the state continues to not come to terms um here's what we're looking at we still do need to meet on the 18th because we have to approve the Bose's budget the administrative budget that is typically why we also conjoin with our budget adoption so that we don't have to meet two different days on this week but we still would need to meet on the 18th in terms of how much time we have we we don't know how long
094the state's going to take we would have to make a decision by the 26th of April which is a Friday if for any reason the state does not come to terms with their own budget we still have to adopt a budget and what that would means is that we would have to go with what we know it's not a good situation but um I would hope that we would have numbers before then okay that's just a worst case scenario and if you might recall we were in a slightly deficit situation we would have to go with that situation and address that deficit under the assumption that we would not get any additional Aid because we really truly do not know but I'm I'm confident I'm optimistic and I think hopefully at the end of this
095week perhaps there will be some breaking news and um so my recommend Commendation is to keep the 18th and perhaps have another meeting next Monday so so Harvey to that to that point of having to meet again Beyond or before the 18th it seems conditional as long as there's actually a resolution and in a budget that's actually been passed correct absent that meeting is would be the 18th I mean the 15th next Monday would would be moot exactly exactly so so so we need to not that we don't keep up with current events because that's how we got into this this conversation in the first place but but we need to to to to at least pencil that as a possible date for us right but but my my question to you actually is not
096about when we meet next or anything like that is that you made the statement we can only go with what we know what does that mean what we know is that the governor's we would be going with what the governor proposed we have heard things to the contrary yeah the go the executive budget the executive budget proposal correct got it correct okay because we have not definitively had anything else okay um hypothetically if the board wished to change the to address some of the needs and perhaps look at the tax levy that is an option as well it's just that with respect to state aid I think we have to be very cautious with making any assumptions until they come up with a budget right I agree with you 100% Jim goad um I guess
097my question and I I might know the answer but why do we can we not do this all on the 18th it's because once we decide you'll need time to work it up and get the language and get the resolution and is that why we need two different meetings um there's a very specific reason we can do it um the problem is there's something called the property tax report Court card that I have to put together and the board has to adopt now if we make if we if we come to the board and say this is what we propose we as you know the district the cabinet Terry um and there's a change it's not just making one simple change on that report card there's so much information it would probably take me two
098hours to reconfigure it so that's typically why we do it at the next meeting and that's a state band that you release that before we vote on it so the public has the chance to review it and can come in front of us and and make their comments right right yeah thank you I mean I can come with that but it's based on our assumptions and it's too premature on where we are in the process with we haven't discussed the needs list and what we can do and we haven't had that opportunity to discuss it because we don't know what the revenue side is going to be so thank you Christian um so everything Harvey I know there's legal requirements but I did have a conversation with the senior staff or from one of our
099legislators and their understanding is the education portion will be we will get what the governor's budget is the J to Foundation Aid are mostly to make whole the ones that lost money um and that is not what's and education is not what's holding up the overall budget and that they plan to have it done by the end of this week now that's not factual that's just what someone said who might know something um but as far as planning and like what we might have available that's what they think is what's going to happen and um and I know that they are up in Albany right now um because I was just yesterday they weren't able to be there because they have to be up in Albany for this vote they weren't in session today because
100they were released to go watch the eclipse that's exactly right so that's why it didn't get done today but it's uh it's government but they all up and all so do do they work over the weekend in these situations or NS they voted yesterday to extend another week basically a day off for today but but that's that's another issue so so as it pertains to our way forward here Brendan next yeah I mean I guess on the point of the schedule I think what you mentioned what you outlined makes sense we pencil in uh Monday you know pending uh some actual news what I want to do is uh ask you Harvey some questions to to get us maybe emotional prepared for uh you know all of these uh potential paths so let's say we
101we the 26th the 27th the drop dead date we pass a budget based on what we know and then the next week the uh legislature passes a final budget it gets approved by the governor and let's take both both possibilities we get more money in state aid than we budgeted for that money is still coming to our district what is our process to allocate that money now that we have a budget that does not Factor it in okay so you you cannot change the budget at that point but what you can change is if you you you're getting more Revenue you can bring the levy down so you're getting more Aid so you can bring the levy down to accommodate that so let's suppose hypothetically you say you remember we had 1.2% on the levy
102I'm just making these numbers up for example sake let's suppose you increase it by 1% so we're up to 2.2 and and that's how the budget's adopted if we get more Aid after the fact you can change that Levy coming down because remember we don't set the tax levy definitively until August okay so you do have that little bit of flexibility there but there would be nothing to backfill programs for instance and say we're going to add this well again if you increase if you increase the levy you're bringing more Revenue in you can remember 1% is about 500,000 okay that that's what I'm asking like it not after we adopt the budget right you adopt the budget you can't say oh well that that thing that we didn't fund we have money to fund
103now so we'll do it it just gets reflected in the the tax levy and I'm assuming then if the opposite happens then we we approve a budget and for whatever reason the final budget state budget gives us less Aid than we thought we would just have to raise the tax levy and that's our that's the only action that would we would either raise a tax levy or we could just not Implement that expense so you can take programming away you can't add it I wouldn't say take programming away just not initiate it so you are inherently the budget would the actual amount spent would be less so in other words you just have to figure out a way to make it work yeah it's a strategy that we'll you know as the decisions are made
104up at Albany we we'll know which way to go but for clarity you would be propos if we got to this worst case scenario of April 26th or 27th whichever you said you would be proposing something based on what is almost certainly the minimum of what would pass so that this this scenario we just described is very unlikely right right right so that's the the what we know is the minimum sorry correct if it were to come below that minimum for whatever reason the only lever that we have to address that well actually we have three I guess right you mentioned one of them the the other would be um incre inrease tax levy correct and the third would be uh increase the uh um use of unassigned funds correct as well right corre so
105so we do have levers at our disposal you do but they're they're each repete with their own dangers of of use which is important to to understand okay that's that's quite helpful Christian go a question for Harvey just so we can't add things to the budget but we can assign more to reserves in the future that doesn't have to be decided by this budget we can assign more to reserve so let's say for example we have you know some extra money that we you know we got a surprise right so we have some extra money because of the state we can still make the decision later this year or in the next year to move that Surplus to a reserve yes that right so that's not part of the the budget that's just a decision
106to take on assigned correct to and assign it to a reserve that's part of the year-end process when we have the year- end audit correct let me ask my question one more time uh and I'm asking it only because I came to New York in 2017 so from what you know kind of institutional memory if you want does the legislator meet on weekends and situations like this have you seen this before or not yes we have and it's typically up to the governor to call them into a session special session or whatever just to get them up there okay um not the the best of news actually but uh um look the the good news if there is any is that it's not as dire as one might think and we do have some options
107at our disposal to make sure that we continue our Our Winning ways here as it pertains to the budget so let's just hope that uh reasonable heads up in Albany Prevail and and we can uh um at least go with what we know that's uh so are we penciling in a special meeting on the 15th yeah so I think we we we need to do that it'll be a special meeting um I'd like to have it done here because it needs to be I think a public meeting Terry's going to to to look into that for us um in terms of uh the venue for that for that meeting but it is contingent on actually having uh an approved uh budget from the governor I think we need to draw that pencil very lightly because
108I'm I'm forgetting the name of the state senator but as they were preparing the resolution today they made a comment to the Press basically saying we've got one ready to go for Thursday so they're kind of already contingency planning to extend again on Thursday so yeah there are lots of POS being played I understand so I'm just saying that 15th pencil and light drawing with your pencil not like a hard sketch yeah yeah yeah yeah it um but going forward I just want to get a a sense of of of people's availability uh make sure that we we we can cover down on this I know it's it's really really important but uh I know people have busy lives that are are already like SK scheduled um next week meeting twice okay Monday hopefully and
109then uh Thursday wait great okay so let's let's go with that as our uh uh initial uh plan and if things change we'll be flexible and and adjust as necessary okay great well well thank you Harvey for that tutorial on uh these wh if scenarios um hopefully they don't manifest and we can just move forward with what we know all right um takes us to our second round of recognition of visitors is there anyone who wishes to come forward if so please grab microphone state your name and and provide your comments okay I'll take that as a no and uh being the case I'd like to then ask for a motion to adjourn the meeting so moov second second all in favor I all right meeting closed thank you every everyone and have a uh
110good night and enjoy the championship game