001I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Effective September 1st, 1991, chapter 9 of the laws of 1991 requires that we inform persons other than students who attend meetings within a school of the proper procedures to evacuate a building in an orderly and timely manner in the event of a fire emergency. If you must evacuate this room because of an an emergency, you may exit through the doors in the rear of the auditorium, proceed across the hall and exit through the doors which lead outside or you may exit through the doors to the left or right. Proceed across the hall and exit through the doors which lead outside. I'd like to take a moment to
002thank the Baldwin Middle School for their hospitality, wonderful building, and the refreshments provided during the executive session. And at this time, I'd ask that we take a moment of silence for Mai Roberts family. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family at this time. Thank you. Just a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question or make a comment, please write it in the comment cards which are available at the back of the room and place them in the blue comment box. The cards will be collected for the questions and comments portion of the meeting. A a reminder, public discussion on matters relating to staff and students at which their reputation, privacy, and right to the due process or those of others could in some way be violated is prohibited. At this time, we'll have
003the approval of the treasures report. We have a different pronounce. Okay. Can I have a motion to accept the pres um treasures report? >> So moved. >> Moved by Mr. Smith. >> Seconded by and I have to say Katrina Smith. So we have two of our I just want to stop and say we do have two of our trustees present. That's Annie Dlesca and Sue Kohl's that had previous in um business engagements. Okay. Um all those in favor of that motion. >> I I Okay. Any opposed? Okay. The motion carries. >> Okay. The board of education assess the minutes for the February 11th, 2025 board meeting as detailed in the Friday mailing. So moved >> moved by Mr. Smith. >> Second by Katrina Smith. All those in favor? I >> opposed. Okay. Motion carries. Okay.
004At this time, we'll have our budget presentation by Dr. Robinson. And we have the superintendent. >> Mr. Go to the front. >> Okay. So then would you like us to? >> Yes. Good evening everyone. Thank you for your patience as we uh ran a little bit late at the exec session. It's wonderful seeing um some familiar faces this evening. Can everyone hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay, great. I just want to thank the entire business office including uh Miss Walsh before we begin and and um I forget to do that. So, thank you to Miss Walsh and the entire business office for all the work behind the scenes to make sure that the budget is prepared properly for us this evening and of course Dr. Robinson as well. Uh so today Dr. Robinson and I
005will present to you uh the budget. Um this is the second and third session um of our presentation and we like to start with the purpose of a school budget. It's very important for everyone to know the why uh this is such an important process. So think of the school budget as answering one big question and that question is how do we use our resources to best support our students, your children. Um we want to make sure that there's fiscal responsibility. We want to make sure that it's aligned with um spending towards achieving the district goals and of course ultimately supporting student learning and opportunities. And that's what you're going to see this evening. So just give you a quick glimpse. Um the budget process starts started a while ago. We started really in like
006uh early November. Um there's meetings that are conducted between the business office, myself and all the uh building leaders, department leaders um where they present their their budget. And again behind the scenes, Miss Walsh and the business office is working diligently to pile all those numbers together and to make sure that everything is accurate. Um and then we present to the public. That's why we're here tonight. And some of this we already presented at the last um meeting and uh the hope is by the April board meeting the board has to um hopefully adopt and approve the the budget. Um and then in May is the vote. So the budget has three parts. There's an administrative component, a capital component, and a program component. Um and you're going to hear from me tonight about the
007program component and then Dr. Robson will speak a little bit more towards the capital. Uh think of the program component as everything connected with learning from uh classroom to outside classroom um services. Uh think of capital of where students learn that's our facilities and think of administrative as everything operating behind the scenes from operations to management to leadership. Okay. So I like to start with some of our program highlights. You're going to hear throughout this um presentation that uh Balden is future focused. We see a lot of that as we're visiting other schools. Um and we're very should be very proud of that. I'm not going to read all these, but we have a extremely comprehensive and rigorous future ready K12 program um that's really ensures that all students have access to meaningful and challenging
008learning opportunities. Um and through the course of the year, we've done some presentation about some of these opportunities. Um, and I just going to highlight some at the high school level. We have more than 30 dual enrollment courses. Um, just recently New York City Education Department came out with a statement saying that dual enroll courses are an essential part of a high school and they came out with a way for schools to report back now about dual enrollment courses. We've always had that belief here and that's why we already have over 30 uh dual enrollment courses. Those are college level credits. Um, again, we're ahead of the curve. We've always been a future focused. We have currently 29 AP courses including the AP capstone diploma program while some other districts are still trying to implement
009that capstone diploma program. We've had some very unique and innovative programs with Nassau Community College where students go there full-time. Um unique college civics and news literacy program where our students are learning uh media literacy. Um we have a started an economics program for dual enrollment for our seniors and New York State just put out a mandate that that should be covered in different bands for all schools. So we've something we've implemented even before New York State put that out as a mandate which we are going to have to share back at um with the state in the future. And uh this year we launched a very unique certification program for students to work independently. and our student board David is taking one of those courses and uh maybe later David you can share how
010that's going for us. All right. So this year is a pilot program for that so students could obtain credentials like Google certified credentials Adobe certified credentials so they could be uh college and career ready um in high school. Uh we have ongoing uh what we call our schools career program which is really kind of think of our CTE programs. We have our prestigious academicies at the high school, senior experience, um the mock trial program. Middle school has our pre-academies and today Dr. Taylor in the middle school did a wonderful job showcasing some of that and we'll talk a little bit more of that later. Um and we have our mentoring program. So tremendous number of opportunities for schools of career including our Schubert program where we have a sound studio state-of-the-art sound studio um collaboration
011with black and jewelry coalition for our future jewelers program a criminal justice program that's run with our collaboration with OC's and medical office assistant all at Schubert schools. So uh this is something we should be extremely proud of. um all the our rich program has led to amazing endto-year results. So this is our um cohort graduation rate study. Um it's the past five years and you'll see we are the blue um tower. We're 98 97 99 98% graduation rates over the past three years. And when you look at the red line going across that's Nassau County's average which is hovering around 94%. And then when you look at the green line, that's New York State's average hovering around 87 88%. So Baldwin has been doing an amazing job with our program and insurance. Our students
012are graduating and there's no um subgroup of students that's not graduating, which is something we should be very proud of as a community. Um and really the budget helps drive that, right? So this is a critical piece of the budget. threearters of the budget is spent towards programs and opportunities for students. So please keep that in mind. Um we've also have seen a tremendous increase in the number of AP exams taken. Um this is a long trend 7-year trend and you see several years ago in 2018 we had about 630 exams taken. So I could take one exam or I could take two exams counting the number of exams taken. And uh most recently we had 1,221 exams taken in the high school. Uh students between grades 9 through 12. Another um point of pride
013that we should all be extremely proud of. Our students are challenging themselves. The guidance counselors are encouraging students to challenge themselves. Um and we appreciate parents also encouraging their children to take these rigorous courses and challenge themselves. Remember AP courses with a certain score could yield to college credits. dual enrollments with a certain grade uh yield to college credits. So, you have students that leave the high school, go to college with enough credits to go in as a sophomore. And some of our students are getting even more than that. So, this is one of the opportunities to reduce the um ultimate cost of a college. Other ongoing initiatives that are coming out programs are the wellness initiative. So, we have a wellness center at the middle school and at the high school. Um, we have
014the Yale rule program at elementary schools. We have restorative practices at the middle school and high school as well as a mindfulness elective in the high school. We also have our technology initiative. Um, you know, children in grades 3 to 12 all have a Chromebook. We have an vast array of instructional technology applications to support learning. Um, we should be very proud of our offerings of technology applications that teachers and students could use. Behind the scenes, we have to have a very robust and strong cyber security infrastructure. Um, which is not cheap. Um, and we are constantly looking to incorporate new technology to augment learning. Uh, most recently we were on channel 5 news for our patient simulators in our medical academy. Uh, these are simulators to actually communicate as a patient. teacher could set
015up certain simulations for that student to examine and the student has to diagnose whether that patient exhibiting a heart attack or diabetic a diabetic shock. Um and we also purchased some Misti2 robots for our AP um computer science program for students to use. So they're coding but then applying the coding language to the robot and they'll be using those more after they take their P exam at the end of the year. Uh some other very important programs which need to be highlighted is our fine performance art program. We have student artwork displayed everywhere from the courouses to hospitals to um our hallways to the Hexter Museum. Miss Barillo and the art teachers do an amazing job. Um we have our theater program. Most recently the middle school musical Beauty and the Beast Jr. was outrageous.
016Actually this space was sold out. It was completely packed. 80 students up and down the aisles all over the stage. Miss Wild did an amazing job with her team. Um so we're very proud of that program and hopefully continue to see it grow. We have a a super strong athletic program um that we're very proud of. 24 varsity teams, 14 JV teams, 16 middle school teams. And just so everyone knows, middle school sports start in seventh grade. That's not because of us, that's because of the regulations. um K through six would be PAL. Um so we hope that students are involved in PAL, strengthening their um athletic skills, staying off their cell phones and being involved in um outdoor activities. Um with over a million dollars in athletic scholarships being awarded. Another focus of uh
017the districts has been to maintain small class sizes at the elementary level, especially um to really allow us to implement tier 2 instruction. Um we are currently at an average K6 of 17 students in the class size which is the best rank in Nassau County. So you should be very proud. We're using um the program cost of the program wisely to um allow for small class sizes um and better student outcomes. All this has led to some notable accolades. Uh we were invited this year to join the league of innovative schools by digital promise which is a fantastic organization that really studies schools and systems that work. Um they do a lot of R&D and research with the schools in the um program. Um best high schools from the US News report, AP Scholar um
018award, silver award from that organization, No Place for Aid award, um great schools, college success award winner, so on and so on. We should be extremely proud of all the accolades being given to teachers and to students and to our schools. Um, also past couple years we've been given the U New York State School Board Association Champion of Change Awards and we're very proud of our new programs that we're going to be offering. Our budget not only maintains the programmings that we have, but we're also looking to advance and add programming as we look at uh the careers that are being available for students in the future. So, we are starting next year with this budget a new science research program, some students in 9th grade. So, the there's already a pool of uh eighth
019graders that express interest in that. Uh we are starting a 3D design and engineering technology course that's going to be part of our steam academy. Um AP cyber security that was one based on student feedback. Students expressed interest in that area. Um so AP has a new cyber security um offering. I'll be part of our steam academy as well. AP business principles which really focuses on financial literacy. That's going to be part of our um global business academy. Investigative journalism and film studies. Two new electives which will be part of our uh film news and media academy which we're reinventing. always looking for new courses for our students to get them more interested in school. Um, and advanced Spanish for native speakers. Um, a lot of our seniors, our native speakers don't have a class
020to take because AP they're taking an AP class as a junior. So, we make sure they have opportunities to take a language as a senior. Um, we're revising and adding TV studio course. So, we're having a TV studio 1 and two in our state of art TV studio um class. And we're looking to expand some middle school athletics. We're looking to continue to expand our school's career opportunities, expansion of elementary enrichment and club opportunities, um, and expansion of UPK program luckily. So, um, we started our UPK uh, lottery much earlier this year than in the past and, um, currently I believe there's about 140 or so um, families that were on the lottery and all students have a seat for our UPK program for next year, which will be at Schubert. So, we're very happy
021to be able to offer that to all those families interested. So, uh this is a part that we're proud of. Again, we're always looking to provide opportunities to our students. So, we thank the board of education for uh allowing us to put this into the budget. Um this past year and past few years, Dr. Taylor has constantly been advocating uh to us for an expansion of some athletics uh as well as uh the coaches. So there are about I would say 70 or 80 students who try out for one seventh and eighth grade combined basketball team that could only really roster 18 to 20 students. Um so unfortunately a lot of students were unable to participate in something that they love. Right. So we are going to open up next year if the budget is
022successful and passes a seventh grade boys basketball team and there'll still be an eighth grade boys basketball team. Same thing for girls basketball. As you know, our basketball teams are meeting great success all over the news and media with their um victories. Um high interest at the middle school. Again, 60 70 kids yearly trying out for one team. So, we're going to have a seventh grade girls team and a eighth grade girls team. Our girls volleyball team at the high school was undefeated and for what I understand and we look at the numbers, 60, 70, 80 students trying out for girls volleyball. I know Dr. Taylor actually last time I was here um spoke passionately about making sure we added the girls um volleyball team there too. So we have a seventh grade girls volleyball
023team and eighth grade girls volleyball team opportunity next year. And then based on numbers and speaking with our athletic director recommending some support in some of these varsity sports. So um there's a large number of students in varsity wrestling. Um so we're going to have to add an assistant coach there. um girls, varsity, track and field assistant coach. Right now, there was one assistant coach that was a swing coach that supported both boys and girls. Our track program is also flourishing and growing with um tremendous um athletes. So, we need to make sure that there's enough supervision and support for that organization and club. Um the indoor track team has also um received numerous accolades. So, we're going to have a varsity boys and girls assistant coach for the indoor track teams. And um our
024cheer team has grown substantially um maybe from like 15 kids several years ago to over 35 kids doing stunts. And um it's time for them to have an assistant cheer coach as they're looking to compete a little more. Um uh I think nationally is what the coach was asking us. Her goals, intentions are. Um, so this is new for next school year uh pending the successful budget. >> Schedule as the eighth grade teams like how would you do that? >> Yep. So the athletic director, Mr. Cronin, is already going to work on creating the schedules. They're going to have a similar schedule and they're going to play schools that have seventh and eighth grade teams as well. Um, it might not be the same day, but they're going to have the same number of games.
025Um, they'll have to practice, you know, we have to figure out the gym space and practice schedule. um but they will be able to enjoy the same type of competitive schedule that the eighth graders um have. Now, thank you. A lot of this I just want to make sure everyone knows our philosophy is really predicated on looking at the future and foundational skills of the future. So, you probably hear a lot about this in the news about AI, how things are changing. Um we study as a team as administrative team with a group of teachers um the world government summit reports and reports from McKenzie and company that really look at the skills needed for the future and more and more and more it's not about content but it's about what can you do with
026that content so the critical thinking collaboration um uh teamwork etc. And we've taken those and created what we call our future ready competencies which is our profile a learner and a leader in Baldwin. Um, so when you look around, it's aligned to New York State Education Department's New York Inspires Plan, which was recently uh released by NYC. Uh, these six competencies really foster deeper learning and what to do with content as they leave Baldwin. Um, so citizenship, communication, critical thinking, creativity, character, collaboration. And within each of these competencies, we have our domains um where students can self-evaluate. And that's where we're going with this next year ourselves, right? We're going to have to build this out. New York State has mentioned that they are going to have opportunities for alternate pathways to graduation. Regions are
027still going to be around. They were very clear with that, so everyone knows. But this is something that we're building out in advance for New York State's um announcement of those what those alternate pathways could look like. All right. So, that's our program part, which is a major part of the the budget. I'd like to now have up Dr. Robinson who's going to speak towards um the capital component of the budget. >> Thank you very much. So, we've talked uh over the past years about our multi-year multifunded capital projects initiative. Uh it's really there's only three ways that we can really do the capital work in the school district. It's our transfer to capital which is an appropriation in our general fund budget. It's through the use of our uh capital reserves and then it
028would be uh a bond and as you well know we just recently had passed a very successful bond uh in 2024 and we are uh and as a matter of fact tonight the first project will uh it's anticipated to be awarded uh based on recent bids. So, we have those those three um major categories. Some projects recently completed. Everybody is familiar now with the high school wellness center. Um we've had a fire alarm replacement districtwide. Um the roof replacements that are ongoing. We had done the elementary schools last year. We are uh have open bids and are prepared to do a bid award for the high school, another phase of that as well as the middle school here. Uh and the toilet renovations. We are not done with that scope of work. Uh we won't
029be doing any additional toilet renovations this summer, but we do plan on reallocating funds uh in uh the next year. We uh are still uh going through a little bit of a struggle with the contractor doing the remediation work at Schubert Elementary, but hopefully we're getting closer to a plan of action. um the electrical service upgrades um throughout the district and our Plaza Elementary kitchen was the first one that we started. Uh that work, I will say, is still underway. We're nearing completion, but we do anticipate that being up and running for the next school year in September. So, as I mentioned, this is now the our first phase of the bond, which is the athletic center behind the high school. Uh the bid process is complete. Um we had uh forecasted that we would
030be ready to award uh this month. In fact, we are. So, it is on uh tonight's agenda for the board to consider uh the award to the successful contractor. Uh we would anticipate that work to start uh as soon as school is out this summer and it will take approximately uh 18 months or so to complete. These are just some renderings. Uh we've seen these before. We've talked about it a great deal. Uh oops. But it is um it will be quite the u addition to the campus. In addition to that, uh the projects that were related to the elementary school kitchen and cafeterias are uh getting ready to get underway. Again, we anticipated that award this month and we are successful in that. They are on the agenda. Two of the schools are on
031the agenda to be approved tonight. uh and then we would anticipate that the second two schools would be awarded in May. We'll talk a little bit more as the presentation continues about uh some details in that, but essentially when we opened the bids for all of the kitchen and cafeteria work, uh the bids came back significantly higher than what was originally forecasted. So, we have gone back to the drawing board and looked at our multi-year multifunded plan, and we have a plan to make sure we can implement the second two schools in enough time for them still to start at some point over this summer with an additional capital reserve allocation. And I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment. This is just a rendering of what Brookside would look like. And
032this is on the back side of the building. Uh these are renderings for Lennox. This is over at Steel and an outdoor education space as you can see on the bottom right there. That would be incorporated as well. And in addition to all of that work, we have the high school uh roof replacement, middle school, and the middle school turf field, which will be in the back here um to the west of where the football field and track is. Uh that work is anticipated uh the the bids are anticipated to be awarded tonight and that work would start this summer. This is the uh just the rendering and elevation of the middle school turf field in the back that I was referring to. So in addition to that, we have new work that we're proposing.
033This is that transfer to capital I referred to and this is a long list of projects that uh are ongoing throughout the district. We look at our five-year plan and it's called AVIS, an annual visual inspection that we do with our architects just to assess the quality of our facilities and make sure we're staying up to date on some things that are certainly in need of repair or replacement. Um, I will point out that uh the second line down um is the new gym bleachers at the middle school here. We've identified that it was part of our plan and we were finally able to fund it. >> You're welcome. Mhm. >> Dr. Robert, the main office uh commerce improvement >> that's at the high school. Uh that's been an ongoing conversation. Um we did uh
034set money aside for uh some refurbishing of the artwork in the bond uh for the high school. Um but the general space and its use right now we use it for um cheerleader practice and a whole bunch of other things. We're just trying to improve the space overall. Um, and the main office, um, I'll say specifically is a hub of the school district and it is severely outdated for, you know, as many people that come in and out of there on a daily basis. Um, this is our proposal for the use of our technology reserve. You may recall in the aftermath of the word we don't like to talk about anymore, the COVID uh experience, um we took a very proactive step of uh introducing and creating this reserve because we knew the replacement cycle
035and the costs associated with that for all of our technology would have a very adverse impact on our day-to-day budgeting. So, we introduced this technology reserve and were able to fund it uh you know some years ago. So this would be a use of that reserve to the tune of 475,000. And it's critical to note that this is not an increase to the tax levy. This is money that's already set aside on purpose for this very particular purpose. This is what I was referring to earlier. This was not in our previous uh budget presentation, but after further evaluation and the bids that did come back for the kitchen and cafeterias, we do need the supplemental funding for the elementary kitchens and caps and that will enable us to do all of the buildings as opposed
036to just two. Um so, uh we're in the neighborhood of $ 8.3 million. This is a not to exceed number when we introduce something like this. Um, and again, it has no additional impact on the tax levy. This money is already set aside and was part of our original multi-year multifunded strategy to accomplish all of these capital projects. So, uncertainty and sustainability are key focuses for us certainly in the business office every day. Um, we're looking at basically all of the market trends. We're looking at the news that we all read about every day. Uh there certainly has been a lot of downward pressure on budgets certainly in New York with multibillion dollar deficits forecast in years to come. We look at our major cost drivers in particular uh it's been transportation health insurance just
037general our general liability insuranceances um and um and special education costs as well. And I would point out that these are not major cost drivers unique to Baldwin schools. It is literally across the landscape in public education. Uh and it's something that we have to keep very close eye on. Uh there are major federal governmental actions that uh make us concerned every day. We keep a watchful eye. Some things that we can plan for and some things we get surprised by. But in in a multi-year plan, we can mitigate those uncertainties to the best of our ability. I mentioned the New York uh deficits that are forecasted. These numbers change um almost every day. Um but they're not good numbers. So, it's one thing that we have to really pay close attention to. It directly
038impacts what our foundation aid forecast is on a year-to-year basis. So, these were the items that I mentioned earlier. They're mandated and certainly unpredictable. Um, this gives us just a financial picture. These are the scores, the blue numbers on the right of Baldwin schools. And you can see basically no designation is really the best financial score you can get. We are certainly within those ranges. That will fluctuate yeartoear given a few certain points. Um, but we don't anticipate being outside of that um designation for I would say multiple years uh looking forward. So those are our uh three components that we've talked about. Administrative, I'll just point out we've talked about it every year. It's administrative. It's not administration. So it's really as uh um Mr. Mella pointed out earlier, it's really all of the
039background workings of the management of the school district. um our pie in terms of how our total budget is broken out. You can see the green uh piece of the pie is uh consistently been above 75% and um traditionally that's where it should be. That's the program component uh overall. This gives us a summary of our budget expenditures. Um those are the three components and our budgettobudget uh increase would be at 4.12. We are awaiting eagerly the legislative budget which is the final adoption of the budget um anticipated in April. Um we'll see how that goes. This gives us uh component by component basically a line by line summary. I've highlighted some of the major changes. They are up and down. Some of them are reallocations within codes. Um but you can see if you
040look down towards the bottom that line for workers compensation. That's a huge jump. Uh and that's part of that insurance that I was talking about. We're seeing vast increases in categories like that. This is our capital component. Um this is a reallocation there. Uh in particular in the middle of the page um and other funds we have uh the debt service that is now coming on. You can see that second to last line that is the debt service that is associated with the bond work. So as this bond starts to progress, we will see uh larger numbers in that category. We are mitigating that with other plans that we've had uh in how we distribute our funds overall in budget. And this is the program component. Um these numbers again are reflective of as Mr.
041Minella pointed out basically everything that happens in the classroom. So on the revenue side uh you can see the same 4.12% increase. I will point out uh the state aid at the top line that is basically our foundation aid. Uh miscellaneous sources are various different fees and and uh lease payments and so on. Um the Baldwin library debt, that's the third line down. Uh that is has to be carried on our books. We've talked about this previously, but we do get the revenue from the library. So, that's just an offset, but we do have to show it on our books. Uh, our um appropriated reserves are the money that we use uh from the reserves that we have, and that would be for things like unemployment um and and so on. You can see that
042that number remains flat. I would tell you that's a very very good sign. If you looked at the landscape in Nassau County, there are school districts that are using a lot more reserves to basically balance their budget. Um, that's a useful tool shortterm, but it's only as good as your ability to replenish that reserve year-over-year. So, uh, we're in a really good spot in being able to maintain that at the same level. Uh, our appropriated fund balance is a category, uh, that we use to basically lower the tax levy in the subsequent year. uh it's surplus funds that are left over in year one that get applied directly to year two. We've maintained that at $800,000 as well. The payment in lie of taxes is that pilot concept that acronym that we hear all the
043time and that's basically when uh a commercial property in most cases is awarded a tax reduction. they take a they charge a flat rate but then the difference gets distributed to other uh taxpayers in the community. Um but we do have to show that number. And then the last line is the property tax revenue and that is our tax levy and that will be at 3.21% this year and that is within the tax cap calculation. What goes into that is a lot of the debt service and capital projects that are quote unquote exclusions. That's why the number is where it is. Uh when you hear about the tax cap, everybody thinks 2%. It's not 2%. It's based on a very complicated calculation. So this is the tax levy 3.21. It is within the tax cap.
044So we will not be quote unquote piercing the cap. And this is that calculation. We're going to practice this tonight. So if you take out your pads and pens. No, I guess not. Um this is available on the state controllers website if you did want to look more carefully but it is a rather robust uh formula to get to the calculation. So we do talk about this the rules for contingency budget if the budget is defeated twice uh there can be no increase. So basically the same tax levy you had last year is what you'd have to have this year and that would require uh significant reductions in our budget um to basically be compliant. So our balance our budget is balanced at this point. The new budget would be 180 001342. Uh our expenses
045meet or our revenues meet our expenses and we just await the legislative approval of the budget to finalize everything. So, as we've talked about, innovation is important here in Baldwin. Uh, we've navigated, I would say, rather successfully all of the challenges that we've been faced with. Um, I won't read uh all of these, but these are the things that on an ongoing basis we're reassessing constantly to make sure that we're thinking a few years ahead. And I will turn it back over to Mr. Mella. And if there's any questions from the board, >> if there are any questions the board, we take them now or we can sit down and uh continue on with the uh agenda. >> Yes. Couple questions. Um you talked about uh because we have the smallest elementary, we're able to
046start here. >> Yeah. So when you think of instruction there are some uh something called tier one which is the uh core instruction the instruction everyone gets basically um tier two to meet some students that might be struggling slightly in the class. So, um, a lot of what we do and our elementary teachers are absolutely amazing. Um, they juggle a lot, but they're able to pull a small group of students and retach and provide some strategies and explicit instruction and use some other other um, research based evidence-based uh, protocols in the classroom while other kids might be using I Ready Station or Magma Math Station or doing independent reading or some other layer work. So to balance that small class sizes is critical cuz you have 2830 in a class, you can't really do that
047as well, right? Um so allowing us to have that um class size average of 17 um really allows teachers to use the space well and be able to identify students who need certain um have certain needs whether it's to close a gap or to enrich right could be used both ways. question I have was um on the chart about the uh AP exams taken such a noticeable jump from last the last few years. >> Yeah. Um so the high school is certainly bribing students. David might be behind that shift a little bit himself. Let's go back to that chart real quick. Um so basically that's a result of us adding every year different AP courses for students to take. So there's more opportunities and more offerings um which has led to the increase. So we
048have some students who are taking three, four, five different APs over the past few years. We've added um AP African-American history. We've added um AP like I said the the capstone. The high school does an amazing job also identifying students. There it is. Um, identifying students who might not ask for the AP and whose parents might not ask for that AP, but they know that student could really challenge themselves uh because they're running 95s and regular courses and running 98. So, you know, meeting with that child and their families to say, "Hey, why don't you try this AP?" Um, and actually starts with our ninth grade students. You know, the middle school works with uh Dr. and GEO and and Mr. Butler, a social study supervisor, and which eighth grade students could challenge themselves and
049go into our 9th grade AP um human geography class, which is uh about 50% of our ninth graders take. Wonderful. And hopefully that trend continues. Remember, we are seeing a decrease in enrollment. Um um but hopefully this trend continues because now we're adding the AP cyber security as well as the AP um business principles. Thank you. Great question. >> Um, there was a slide regarding uh replacing technology or phone books and I think it focused on third and eighth graders this year. What was the driver behind picking two grades? >> Y >> and are we replacing Chromebooks for everyone at a more frequent just knowing you know how my children's phone books are. >> Yeah. So the reason why the um technology reserve we are picking third and eighth grade is because third grade students
050is the first grade where they take a Chromebook home. In K1 and two the Chromebooks stay in the classrooms. Um they are replaced but um it's they're not there's less wear and tear on them because they stay in the classroom. Third graders get the new one and the reason why they get a new one again in eighth grade is because the average life with battery wear and tear the operating system is about 5 years. Um, and that's how we decide on our replacement plan being grades three and grade eight. If for some reason a student's Chromebook does not make it to eighth grade, um, of course they could be replaced if the wear and tear is not something that was done intentional, like you know, I broke it. I dropped my school bag and the
051screen cracked. Um, so there are um, we promote families joining an insurance plan for like $29 where all that damage is covered. >> Okay. And then um, I believe the fund money is going to benefit for what the elementary school kitchen. >> So different funding sources. >> Yeah, >> there's um capital reserves uh transfer to capital and then uh the bond. So for the kitchens elementary, it's not the bond money that was passed uh in 2024. Those all capital reserve funds. >> So bond is totally high school this year. >> Correct. And then there'll be phase 2, three, and four, which is going to be an addition to the 600 building. Um, a new performing arts center and CTE portion of the high school and total demolishing of the 300 building and and redesigning that
052and building a whole new section. >> Is there anything that would be done at the middle school this year? >> Yeah. So, the middle school turf field that Dr. Robinson presented is with um that same type of savings account, the capital reserve. >> Okay. So, can we protect this PTAs and parents going to have a full view of every school that's being touched either bond or capital reserve. >> Correct. >> You have the first one. >> Yeah, we'll have that. We'll have a pamphlet also um like a little booklet to provide to the families as well that attend those meetings that that we could distribute. >> Okay. >> Yeah, good question. >> Any other questions? All right. So, thank you. >> Yes, we could go back to that. Yep. >> Absolutely. Yes. Um when Dr.
053Robinson and I in the board we do the the the road show, we will make sure this is clear and explicit. And again, uh this is because uh this money is already there. It was already in a capital reserve to be used with some of the projected work that was going to be taking place down the road. But because the kitchens came in higher cost than what was anticipated, um we kind of need to use that savings account money now to make sure that all the elementary kitchens work is done, but we need voter approval to use that money for that purpose. The money is there. There's no additional impact on the budget. So, this is not part of that budget uh increase. It's just we need authorization to be allowed to use the money
054um for the kitchen work. Um our district clerk is uh contacting PTA organizations actually as we speak and to present the options to them. Um so that will be available soon. We just wanted to confirm with the uh PTA presidents first. You guys asking some very challenging questions this evening. >> David >> um the program section discussed expanding school and career. I don't know said any specifics there anything else that entails? So as you know David school's career is a massive umbrella. Um part of that is the academy programming the courses within that uh the budget for all the learning to leaves which is growing. Um all that transportation costs those partnerships um so um Dr. Frans does a great job with that. So that's all part of that uh school opportunities. >> So thank
055you Dr. Thank you for sustainable budget. >> Very transparent. >> Thank you. Wonderful. Oh yeah, >> started. All right, our next order of business, we'll have our report um from uh Superintendent Mella. I felt like we already heard from you, but sure you have some wonderful things to let us know about what's going on in the district. I >> think President Green is getting tired of hearing me speak this evening. Um there are so many absolutely wonderful things taking place. I'll try to be uh quick with this. Um I want to start since we're in the middle school with um a celebration that uh the middle school team sitting here uh today um put on was our Black History Month celebration which was supposed to been in February but during one of the snow days
056was was changed um to today where um Dr. Taylor Misochi and her team, everyone sitting here, put on uh performances from students, high school students came down um and they honored our very own uh Miss Green, President Green as a change agent. Um it was very thoughtful. The students from spoken word, our pre- academy spoke uh and uh really extremely impressive with the whole um celebration. So, thank you very much for that. Um our steam academy, there were two students from the high school. We have a partnership with Lheed Martin. Um they have um one of their um locations is behind um like the um Nassau Coliseum and uh we had two students interview with them for um a job right out of high school plus uh full tuition full tuition to a two-year college
057which is probably be Nassau. So two students were accepted into a highly competitive program and it's basically um a pre-engineering type program. Um so right out of high school they'll be working going to school. and flexible for them. Um, so we're appreciative of the partnership with Loheed Martin and our um um students. We had our first robotics competitions uh this weekend. It's a fantastic um competition. If you've never seen that, Hopstra, they host it. Um students are challenged to design and build uh robotics. They design them in school in the class and then they have to go and u are challenged with different authentic uh challenges. And there's about 48 schools there. There's international schools there. It's extremely competitive. Uh Mr. Lee Mr. Danger just does a fantastic job. And they ended with an impressive
058six and three record. Um there's a driver. They have to build repair. Uh all on site. So they bring their tools. Something breaks. They have to fix it. You talk about really like job embedded performance. Uh you have to see the robotics competition. Uh just give a shout out to the students in our first robotics program. uh our student board David and uh Leila um probably heard this also qualified for the national DECA competition. So a big shout out to them as they're about to um move forward and I'm sure David will tell you a little bit more about that as he speaks. >> Our VE students uh we have two businesses. VE is virtual enterprise another um really a program that surrounds uh provides students authentic experiences in the business world where they have
059to create their business plan they have a CEO they come up with the business so we have two businesses one of the businesses um has made it to the final round of the national competitions which will be held in April at the Javit Center and that's Dorms Deluxe um and they're going to be presenting on their finance and marketing um plans and human resource plans so um kudos to to the students and to the teachers, Mr. Rudish and um Mr. Riley for all their work. Um again, there's a lot of great things going on. Going to go fast though. Uh also in the global business and entrepreneur entrepreneurship academy, um there are several students in Mr. Kelly's class who participated in Junior Achievement Regional Competition at HRA. Um, and they their accomplishment was first in
060third places and they're actually advancing to the Long Island and New York City Championships in April as well. Um, athletics I I mean I don't know if we have enough time for athletics awards, so I'm going to try to recognize everyone. Most recently, um, from basketball St. Jean was just announced as conference player of the year. um and large school Nassau County player of the year as well as all county coach Darius Burton was just announced as the news News Day coach of the year. Um congratulations to our track students uh Brandon That and um Brianna um Barnett who also received all sorts of accolades. Um they both received Nassau County Track Coaches Association most outstanding male and female sprinter awards for indoor track as well as some other awards. Like I said, we'll be
061here all night long if I keep going on with their awards. And there's one more um awards that were kind of given out. Uh the Scope organization, which is an organization on Long Island that um supports schools and teachers, um had an award dinner last night where they recognized individuals who have demonstrated outstanding services to their district. And we had three different people um who received award there. Uh Miss Mia Phillips for her partnership as a parent category. uh Miss Michelle Curry, our elementary um technology specialist for her outstanding work with elementary students in schools and augmenting um instructional technology. And here tonight, our very own Russ Randazzo uh for his outstanding work in facilities department. Oh, wait. Pull Russ down real quick. Do you want to be >> Yeah. Mr. Randazzo was not unable
062to attend the uh due to conflict the um award uh ceremony. So we have his plaque here and actually he's perfect. So we get to present it to him uh this evening. So um say you can take a picture. >> Take a quick picture for Sadi please. No quick picture. James, you want to get in there? >> Yeah. Great. >> Okay. And those are um some of the wonderful things taking place in district. Thank you. >> Awesome. Thank you. Okay. So our layers on reports let's see reports from any of the trustees. I should we start with David? >> Let's start with >> David always has a wealth of information. Right. >> Let's start. Um first off great to be back here at B Middle School. So I'd like to thank the administration who are
063here. Um it's fun. I've been here in a few roles. I worked here in the summer program under Mr. Randazzle. So it's great to have him here as well. And of course, I was a student here. One um notable student accomplishment I wanted to acknowledge before I dive into some other personal things. Uh Science Olympiad, we had our first ever first place team in the right do it category. That was Ariana de Santos and Ariana Foster Guy. They're the first ever first place winners at Science Olympiad for Bowwin High School. So, they did a great job representing our school and I want to recognize that they were in the Bowwin Herald very recently for what they did. So, they did a great job there. Um few things going on with some of our clubs including
064the ball and student government. They just completed a fundraiser for the month of March. They raised over $350 with an intramural rock paper scissors competition which they call Battles. So students were able to battle each other all four grades 9th through 12th. And the winner came away with a Baldwin t-shirt and I believe a $50 gift card as well uh courtesy of the student government. So, they did a great job in fundraising and that funding will go back toward more events for the student body. National Honor Society is looking to host another event for all grades. They're doing an academic tournament which is highlighting the top students in the senior class. So, basically, they took four teams with students from the top 40 and they're playing each other in a volleyball event. That'll be the
065final day before spring break. That'll be April 1st. So, um we encourage all faculty to come. We'd love to have teachers and faculty come to help support some of the students they might have had in their classes before. It'll be a great deal. The lineups are posted online and if any faculty's interested, I'll make sure to get the info out. There's a lot of great students who went through the middle school, they went through the elementary schools. They would love to have your support. Um, I was able to attend the DECA state career conference and as you know myself, uh, Leila Gentles, we qualified for the international career development conference. Our DECA program is part of our school degree program which we talked about in the budget overview and this is our second year with
066the DECA club. So it's been expanding rapidly. This is only our second try and a very select few amount of students out of the 3,000 who went to the state career conference. Fewer than 500 are going on to international level. So that's a huge honor for the school and and I'd like to thank Mr. Min who's our chapter adviser. He's taken on the role. Dr. Franza and the school do career program negotiating to help us get travel with Freeport and all of their accommodations. Uh we had a great experience. It was wonderful to meet many students from all across the state and we were able to understand how they prepare for the event, how they get fundraising. So that knowledge is going to be taken not only to DECA but the school of career program
067as a whole. We can take that information of just competitiveness and having the mindset to go out there and compete and bring that back to the virtual enterprise program and bring that back to other school of career. and it was a great hands-on experience and that's the sort of knowledge that we can pass down for students um for the next coming years. It was a great experience and it's always an honor to represent Bowwin. We've now won at the Long Island level and at the state level and we're looking to compete in April to represent Bowwin High School. Um one thing else that's going on with the student government is the next string of elections for the next student board member is set to begin. I'll be speaking with students sometime within the next coming
068months. I'll run it over with Dr. Testa and our adviser um Miss Healey. But we should be looking at that procedure coming to an end somewhere in May. So it's going to be another student probably going to be upcoming senior. It's the only two grades eligible. So students who are in grades 10 and 11 currently are eligible to run. So that's currently what's going on with the student board member program. Overall, it's been a very successful month. It's been a busy one and it's been a privilege again to represent Bowwin and again a congratulations to all other students who have done such great things. One final thing, the TOSA Isagrad program which was what we mentioned about the Excel certification. So that program just started. We got the registration in on the first week of
069March. Um right now I'm going through the Microsoft Excel certification. So everything is built into our Microsoft Office suite. Students don't have to purchase the software. The certification course is also provided by the school. So if they're interested in registering, I'm sure that's going to come up again for the fall semester, right? >> That's the plan. >> All right. So it's basically just going to be open registration and students will be able to go through it for free. It's all self-paced. It's independent study. So that's just it's another thing to keep in account when it comes to scheduling, but overall it's a great opportunity for students to jump ahead. And to this point, it's been really accessible. It's been easy to use. You can use it on your Chromebook or you can use on your
070home computer as long as you're logged into the Bowwin account. So, it's it's been a really simple process so far. And our superintendent advisory council, our meeting will be next week, believe the 31st. So, students have been preparing pitches. We've been talking about it over the past few months on what they would like to see in the school. So, I'm very excited to share the results of that at our April board meeting as we'll have multiple presentations and multiple ideas to outline. So that's what's been going on in high school. >> David, where do you compete in uh April? Is that out of state? >> Yeah, that'll be um in Atlanta. So the international conference is in Atlanta, Georgia. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Next. Um so I experienced my first Bullwin Middle School
071musical recently. my daughter participated. Uh she was adamant about trying it this year as a sixth grader and I just want to say I was completely blown away. Miss Wilder, you did a phenomenal job. Um, I invited some non Baldwin residents to support the play and they were they were just blown away to to see that caliber of talent um in at a middle school level is just you should be very proud of yourself and your team for bringing that to Bowman Middle School and hopefully the program continues to grow. So, you know, round of applause to and your team. That was that was phenomenal. Phenomenal. Um, I also want to thank the community for supporting the boys and girls varsity basketball teams. The girls won Long Island Championships, the boys won Nassau County. Uh,
072my daughter plays on the the varsity girls basketball team and it was just great to see all the community come out and thank you for arranging that the games don't play at the same time when we we both went to the Nassau County Championship. So, um, you know, we just I I always mention this to you, being a scholar athlete, seeing my daughter come home 7 8:00 p.m. since probably October through March, it is hard. My daughter also takes four AP classes this year. Um, and to see, you know, them working after they get home from practice, we just really need to support our students. So, thank you to the community for coming out. Um, thank you for administration for supporting our students. and let's continue to make sure that we we you know put
073emphasis on our scholar athletes. >> Thank you. >> Um I I I think the district is doing a great job. I think the budget is very comprehensive. I'm looking forward to the road shows. Um coming from elementary school, knowing that elementary school parents and being a board member now, I get texts all the time. Um I didn't realize I was signing up for that by by becoming a board member. But one of the main things that parents are looking for is how is the budget benefiting my specific school? You know, the the school that my children are attending. Um I had the benefit of just graduating from Lennox, being at the middle school and the high school, but I think we need to really paint the picture of how our funds are um you know,
074being utilized at all levels so we can make sure that the community comes out. So, I I think we did a good job and hopefully we can have kind of like a one pager just to show um what we're doing at all levels in terms of capital improvements, in terms of bringing new programs to the schools. I think parents will be very interested in in seeing that. Um and it will garner support for our district. Um I think we should definitely prioritize that when we do our road shows. Other than that, I feel like the schools are doing an amazing job. Um and I'm happy and proud to be a Bowwin resident. I will report on I'm going to go back to um I had the opportunity to attend um the banquet for um sports
075night and um I want to say that um even though the numbers have um dwindled with the participants, the competitiveness is still there. Um, Miss um, Watts and Kirsten did a continue to do an amazing job with the group of girls. um mentoring them. And I I thought I had the opportunity to attend with my daughter who was um uh on the blue team and won when she participated in sports night and um luckily blue won that night. But both teams did an amazing job um working together. So I I continue to want to just address how we can get the participation for those girls. Um and we talked about it as as a board. So we are um looking at community support in getting not just for sports night for but for uh blue
076and gold as well at the middle school level. Um again um thank you to Dr. Taylor and her administration for this um for the recognition uh today. I was just blown away with the spoken word and the performances. This the confidence that the students have and the courage to perform in front of an audience in front of their peers which are their biggest critiques. Um that speaks volumes. So thank you your team. Everyone is doing a wonderful job at Baldwin Middle School. so many programs that they have um access to. So, we're grateful for that. Thank you. Um nothing else to report on. We're good. Okay. So, next order of business would be questions and comments. >> Yes. >> Okay. So we can move on. >> Questions? >> Done. >> This is just the one
077thing that came up this. Okay. All right. So, I >> Yeah, we do have a um comment from um one of our community um members and it is um I'll just address it. It's it just says basically when concerns are raised that the board is um take takes active um pursuit and that more importantly uh the concerns are met with action. The level of engagement does not go unnoticed and reflects a genuine commitment to our students, families and the integrity of our school community. Thank you for your continued dedication and for setting a strong standard of accountability and responsiveness. Please keep up the good work. They actually said great work. So, thank you to um Dr. Cunningham for this um acknowledgement. Did we have any other questions? Okay. All right. So, next order of business.
078Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education approves a personnel actions report dated March 25th, 2026 as detailed in the Friday mailing. >> So moved. >> Moved by Tom Smith. >> Seconded by Katrina Smith. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? No. Okay. Motion carries. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education approves the recommendation for services of the committee on special education, subcsection for the months of November and December as well as January and February 2026. six as detailed in the Friday mailing. >> So moved. >> Moved by Tom Smith. >> Seconded by Katrina Smith. All those in favor? >> I. >> Okay. None opposed. Motion carries. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of
079schools, the board of education approves the home tutoring and special education service report for this month as detailed in the Friday mailing. >> Moved by Tom Smith. >> Seconded by Katrina Smith. All those in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Be it resolved that upon the excuse me, upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education accepts a donation in the amount of $500 from Northwell Health to be used by the Baldwin Youth Change Leader Collaborative Climate Justice Group. Wow, what a long name. when they participate in the youth climate change challenge on April 23rd, 2026 as detailed in the Friday mailing. So moved. Okay, we changed orders. Moved by Katrina Smith. >> Sorry. At what point are you allowed to ask questions about item after we vote on it?
080>> Where will this be? >> The the competition or the donation >> competition? Um I I'm not sure but this is part of the school's career program. Dr. Franza runs the YCLC youth change leadership collaborative. Um and there's students pick passion projects. So this is a group of students that were passionate about climate change and they're involved in this. >> The competition itself I don't remember David is the competition do you know at the high school or is there another location? >> Looks like they're getting a stipen which makes me think that they're creating something. >> Yeah they have to create something for the competition. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not sure where they're competing, but competes. >> You were looking for a second. Second. >> Okay. So, motion by Katrina Smith, seconded by Tom Smith. All
081those in favor? I >> Okay, none opposed. And we thank them for that donation of $500. Thank you to Northwell. Okay. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education accepts three donations totaling $1,500 from Jovia Credit Union for the funding your ideas grants program. One award is to Nicole Shagy, special education teacher at Plaza School, and the other two awards are to to Terresa McCabe, general education teacher at Plaza School, as detailed in the Friday mailing. >> So moved. >> Moved by Tom Smith. >> Seconded by Katrina Smith. All those in favor? >> I. None opposed. Motion carries. So, as board president, I'm calling for consideration of a consent agenda for business items 1103 through 11.23. Are there any items members would care to withdraw from consideration?
082>> No. >> Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda, including business items 11.03 through 11.23? Two, three. >> So >> moved by Tom Smith, seconded. >> Seconded by Katrina Smith. All those in favor? I >> none opposed. Motion carries. You have approve all the items because I was still approval consent. So we just approve. Okay. Where is mine? See? All right. Do I have a motion to approve business items 11.03 through 11.23? >> So moved. >> Moved by Tom Smith. >> Seconded by Katrina Smith. All those in favor? I. >> None opposed. Okay. All right. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education approves the updated use of facilities report from July 2025 through June 2026 as detailed in the Friday mailing. >> So
083moved. >> Moved by Tom Smith. >> Seconded by Katrina Smith. All those in favor? I fine. Okay. None opposed. Set agenda to 20, right? >> 1123. >> 223. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. So then that's the next one. policy. >> Okay. >> Yeah. The board of education has a first read of a of revised policy as detailed in the Friday mailing. Policy 8130, school safety plans and teams. >> So moved. >> Moved by Katrina Smith. >> Seconded by Tom Smith. All those in favor? I. None opposed. Okay. Be it resolved. The board of education approves the legal notice for the 2026 annual budget vote and election to be held on May 19th, 2026 and authorizes publication of the legal notice in accordance with legal requirements and further resolve. The district clerk is hereby authorized to take
084all necessary steps to publicize the notice. >> So moved. >> Moved by Tom Smith. >> Second it. >> Seconded by Katrina Smith. All those in favor? Okay. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education authorizes the administration to prepare and file the 2020 tax report card, the administrative salary disclosure, the 6-day budget notice, and any other 2026 2027 budget related documents as required by law. So moved >> moved by Miss uh Tom Smith. >> Seconded by Katrina Smith. All those in favor? >> I Okay. Be it resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education approves the resolution and agreement between Baldwin Union Free School District and Hostra University for the 2025 2026 school year to accept Hostra students who are completing
085their student teaching a required component of the New York State Certified Teachers Program as detailed in the Friday mailing. You have to read that before we read the resolution. >> Yeah. Whereas the board of education has the obligation to provide student teaching experiences in accordance with eight nicer well NYCRR and part 80 of the education department regulations of the commissioner. And whereas the board of education expressly acknowledges that a benefit received by a school district educator in the form of stipen or academic voucher from a private university or college is an incidental benefit to the school district educator that furthers the proper public purpose of providing student teachers with the requisite opportunities. ities for field observation and or supervised student teaching experiences. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the board of education hereby declares that
086school district educators that supervise student teachers may receive the incidental benefit from a private university or college in the form of a stipen or academic voucher. So good. >> Moved by Tom Smith. >> Seconded by Katrina Smith. All those in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Any new business? Are there any items to discuss? Speak now. Okay. So, just wanted to note some important dates. April 1st is the end of the third marking period for the middle school and high school. April 2nd through April 10th, spring recess, so schools are closed. The next board of education meeting will be at Meadow and that's on April 15th at 8:00 PM. PTA reflections which were rescheduled, right, will be on April 15th at Meadow at 8 p.m. Okay. So, can I get a motion to adjourn the meeting
087at 8:42? >> So, moved. >> Moved by Mr. uh Tom Smith. Second. >> Seconded by Katrina Smith. All those in favor? I. >> All right. Thank you everyone for coming out. Have a wonderful evening. We got out before 9. Yay. >> And wonderful recess. >> Yes. Happy holidays. >> Yes, definitely. Enjoy the time off, right?