001Good. >> Yeah. Okay. Uh if we could reconvene our meeting to open session. The board has been in executive session since 6 o'clock to discuss two legal issues, a tenure recommendation, three personnel matters, and a student disciplinary matter. We could please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> We can have introductions. John November 1st. >> Good evening. John McFillips. Dave Hurst. >> Lauren Graham. >> John Walston. Mayor Mari, Holly Denbomb, Jodie Monroe, >> Robert Tun, >> Dave Demell, >> no. >> Okay. You and McN story. >> Um, do we have any pig or super students here tonight? Welcome. Thanks for coming. Um, you
002guys need to stay until the meeting is over or 9:00, whichever one comes first. And don't leave without signing out on one of the handy signout sheets that are up here at the board table. That way you get credit for being here. Um, first up is our approval of minutes. Um, it is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the minutes from the January 21st, 2026 regular board meeting. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> Any opposed? Any extensions? That passes. And then uh B, the minutes of the February 3rd, 2026 capital bond vote. Um it is recommended that the board of education approve the minutes from the February 3rd, 2026 capital bond vote. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Thank you to the public. >> Um
003I agree with that one. Um all in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. Um and item three, meeting reports. First up is our superintendence report. Sure. >> Thank you. Um I just wanted to do a quick followup with the decision the board made in regards to the elementary zones changes. Uh so Tyler Technology is updating the neighborhoods uh in our software. So they do that in the transportation software and then that comes over to Aspen for our student management system. So some people especially for the kindergarten registration who are registering now uh we don't have that information correct yet in Aspen but it will be within the next probably couple of weeks. So also we haven't directly reached out to the families of the incoming fifth graders to find out from them yet
004if they want to stay in their current school or go to their new school because we're waiting for that data transfer. But once we do, we'll send direct communication to them. Um, then that will help us with planning our number of sections we need at each elementary school, but it's still a bit of a work in progress. Um, the initial data transfer we saw looked pretty good, so we're just fine-tuning it before we send any information out. >> Question. Jody, if um if a parent in an in a neighborhood that is intended to move next year were to sign into Aspen today, >> would they see no information or would they see incorrect information? >> I think it still shows the old information. >> It still shows the old information, >> I believe. Yes. Because
005I don't think that's been updated yet in Aspen. >> Okay. And we'll be will we like just send out a a notice when the information has been updated so that everybody knows that that's okay. Great. >> We'll do that. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> And when do they have to make a decision by for for a rising fifth grade? >> Uh well depending on once we get it out to them. I think most families probably know what they're going to do. So we would probably give them a few weeks to let us know just that that'll help us with our sectioning. So, um, also I just I wanted to also thank, um, the community for coming out and voting on a relatively cold day, not as cold as some, uh, but we had a
006good turnout. Uh, really it was a great success. I also want to thank uh, people kind of behind the scenes, our on&m department and construction managers who put everything together. Uh, all of people who shifted uh, when we had the snowstorm. I know John did a lot of work uh coordinating the voting machines because I I think everyone knows um Alb County will no longer provide voting machines for us for um any of our votes including the uh spring that are made budget vote. They've notified us last year. So we will actually have to purchase our own voting machines. >> Um so we we actually borrowed these from South Colony who had them on hand luckily. So, I'd love to thank South Colony for their help. Um, so there's a lot of lot of pieces
007that go into it and Britney who does all of the ballots and the absentee ballots twice this time. Uh, so just a general thanks for everyone. And finally, just a UPK update. So, we did send out the RFP for UPK providers for next year. Uh, we'll see what we get. And also uh just for everyone's information, we did um notify Child Time, our current one of our current providers, that we'll no longer be continuing with them for the rest of the year. And we are going to move that program for the rest of this year to a room that's vacant in Slingerlands. And TSL, who's one of our other providers, will be providing the teacher and assistant for that program. So that's the updates on UPK >> Catherine. Um, okay. So, so it right now
008it's just the students who are currently at child time, >> correct? Who will be going to a Slingland's classroom? >> Correct. >> Um, do we anticipate continuing hosting UPK at Slinglands beyond this year or is this just a >> This is just a just a stop gap. Um, that was part of I think with shifting enrollment, we'll have we won't have some of those classrooms available, right? But for now, we do. So, we were able to make this accommodation u with a lot of um you know maneuvering, right? So, >> are we able to speak to what's behind the shift at this point or >> just staffing shortages? >> Staffing shortages. Okay. >> Um anybody have any other comments for Joey? when will um with respect to the the enrollment the uh elementary changes when
009will parents start to hear information about transition plans? So we um we've already discussed some of them. So we will be doing uh in the spring we met with the principles. We'll do a visitation uh similar to when we have the fifth graders go to six the middle school. uh we'll do a day where any students who are transitioning to a new school, we'll have them go to their home school. Um and then we'll uh transport them to their new school, we'll do something where they do some fun activities, maybe they have lunch, get to meet some of the staff. So that's one thing that everyone will participate in. Uh and then each of the buildings will be doing kind of their own things. They have a group of teachers in the principles in each
010building who are planning some activities for transition and they'll be in touch with those families directly. >> But districtwide, we're going to do a general visitation. Just have to work out what date works best for everyone, which could be the biggest challenge. >> Sure. >> Okay, >> great. Uh, next is the board report and I just wanted to echo um the all the thanks for everybody who worked on the vote and the community um for supporting our schools. Um, I'm excited to get this project underway um and um especially to see some of the um updates to our elementary school buildings. Uh the policy committee meeting um was this past um Monday. Um we had uh rescheduled it from because of the snowstorm um the uh prior Monday. Um and we went through a bunch
011of policies, but the one I wanted to mention in particular to you guys tonight because it you'll be seeing it I think probably at our on our next um meeting for a first read is an emerging technologies policy. Um, you know, we've had some discussion um in the policy committee about whether or not to have a AI specific policy. Um and at the same time um internally the um the staff and administration were working on sort of AI guidelines um uh for the schools and um ultimately uh the concern with having just an AI specific policy was that it could be too narrow um given that we don't know what might be coming down the road. um in terms of other technologies. So um just keep an eye out for that. Um and it is
012a um as it is a brand new policy um definitely if you have feedback please um share when it is on for the next uh next meeting. Anybody have anything else they wanted to share? you went >> I think it was last board meeting we had the presentation on you know micro assemblies that so we were invited to go observe those I was able to go observe some of the high school students teaching middle school students about stuff and it was really enjoyable our board member Cla was one of the people doing that Lou Lua was the person in the my classroom but it was just a delight and they were exceptionally able and really good at bringing the middle school kids in having that conversation so kudos to everyone involved >> great anyone Rose.
013>> Um, so in terms of elementary school students, there's an upcoming winter carnival on Saturday at Glenmont, um, which is really fun and they're looking for volunteers, high school volunteers. Um, also looking for volunteers at Glenmont, there's a STEM night at on March 11th. So that's pretty far in the future. Mark your calendars. for juniors and seniors. The junior awards and the sen senior scholarships have opened up. So the due date is sometime in March. So that's something to keep on people's radar. Um if there are um teenagers who would like to volunteer for either of those events at Glenmont, how would they go about doing that? >> Um reaching out to Mr. Irons and um let me look for his name. Um and David Flores. Thank you. I have questions for those. Uh next
014on the agenda this evening is our um Oh, and I almost forgot. I don't think we have any There's nobody here from the middle school, I don't think. >> Okay. Uh you want to skip over them through here uh is our presentation this evening. Um and Jody will be presenting the 2026 uh state of the schools address. Okay. Thanks. Okay. So, I am going to highlight a lot of different things tonight. This is kind of the kickoff to our budget process as well. So for tonight, we'll talk about the mission, the core values, and strategic plan. I'll provide an update um and highlight some things regarding our annual goals. Uh talk a little bit about our capital project uh and where we're going next steps. Um some tenative information on enrollment, although more of that
015will become uh for specifically for next year. We'll be providing updates as we get some of that data transferred um moving forward. and the budget development. So, the mission of the Bethlehem School District is to educate and prepare all students to reach their potential, discover their purpose, and be engaged community members. And that really is uh what we look at when we're setting our goals on an annual basis. So, I want to highlight um our core values. So academics is our first and really we focus on equity, access, opportunity, interventions and success. The next core value on character uh we're really focusing on student leadership, trust, respect, inclusiveness, and engagement. Sorry, I need my paper here because I can't see that far. uh community uh focusing on communication, participation, participation, outreach, partnerships in stakeholders. And
016finally, our last core value of wellness, focusing on health and fitness, safety and security, mindfulness, uh seal or positive psychology uh for our major strategies. I want to take a look at our annual goals. Uh our goals are developed um during the summer generally starting really looking at the spring summer and these are presented uh to the board of education in the fall. Our instructional leadership team uh meets four to five times a year and when we're meeting we look at how we're doing on our annual goals uh looking at our data um and I'll touch on a little later in the presentation the data dashboard and where people can find updates to that. So our first goal is cultivate culturally responsive faculty, staff and administration and really highlighting um some of the areas looking
017at continuing to continue to implement culturally relevant pedigogy, inclusive teaching practices, uh fostering civil engagement, strengthening parent and school trust uh through transparent equity focused communication and prioritizing staff and student well-being. And I want to highlight just a few of the things uh that we've been doing this year. Uh we have been doing professional development focused on supporting students with disabilities, specifically English language learners and economically disadvantaged students. And this is a a data point also that I mentioned last year and we've been monitoring through our M MTSS process. Also, uh TCIS training. Uh we have been doing an extensive training with all of our staff, not only our teaching staff but our support staff uh which is basically uh a training program to strengthen trauma informed and deescalation practices. And this particular training is
018role specific. So if you are for example an aid to students with disability, a classroom teacher, a bus attendant, a noon aid, uh there's some different training and practices that go along with those roles. and we have um I think over at this point we have over 20 individuals who are trained to do the training in district and we're looking to grow that. So uh we have a really robust team uh that's offering this on a regular basis. Um Holly actually kind of mentioned this a little bit um and look we looked at this the other day in regards to the new policy on emerging technologies. So we have in the district a professional practices council and that group has been looking at AI for this is second year correct Dave >> years >> um
019in coming up with guidelines as to how we use AI um in our classrooms and within our district. Uh this is a um something that the committee decided to adopt uh for the coming year to address how AI will be used within our classrooms. Uh so all teachers next year will be using this to help students uh identify how AI can be used in certain classes. So it can be AI free, AI assisted, AI enhanced or AI empowered. And you can see by looking at this, this basically provides um some clarity and provides students with guidance as to what's appropriate given the assignment. So for example, AI free, uh you're probably looking at pen and paper um and no screens. Uh where you go down to AI empowered and this is really helping with creativity
020um and helping you create things on a more robust level. So all of the some of our teachers are already using this uh but next year uh we'll be using this throughout the district and how AI can be incorporated uh into our classrooms studentled equity work. Uh Euan just uh mentioned this and this is something that we've been doing now for a couple of years. Uh we heard a presentation last week uh or two weeks ago actually at the middle school on uh this work that's being done through NCBI. Uh it's really been a great model and um I wasn't able to attend the Hamigrell uh presentation but I heard great things that the eighth graders going down were did you go down to it or oh your car didn't get there right? Is that
021was it? >> Yeah. Uh but anyhow I heard great things and all of their planning to do this with all of our elementary schools. So hopefully you'll be able to get to uh one of those programs. Next, uh we've also talked about in one of our goals is continuing our restorative practices. Uh so we do have an upcoming restorative practice training in March. So a couple of years ago uh we provided some extensive training in restorative practices where we have many staff who are uh with steam train the trainers and they became certified. Unfortunately over time uh some of staff leave and so we need to train some additional staff to build those up. So we will offer training in March uh which will allow every building we do have people in every building now
022but we'd like to get particularly more classroom teachers uh to be trainer trainers and we have some new counselors we want to involve in this and so when we talk about restorative practices really the base of that is talking about building relationships and how do you build classroom communities. You can also use restorative practices in regards to having conversations or discipline. Uh really uh when there's problem solving and conflict resolution, restorative practices is a great tool that we've been using. Uh we also will do uh additional training in the spring with all all of our faculty. So some of our faculty who didn't go through the overview will also have that which will help with them thinking about for the fall how do we set up our classrooms with a restorative approach. Our next goal
023is increasing academic rigor and accountability while also maximizing student social emotional growth and mental and physical health. Really focusing on expanded learning opportunities, resilience, accountability and agency. Uh how do we build uh use data to build support systems with families and promoting uh consistent school attendance and engagement? So you've heard a lot about and we've uh really been working on refining this process MTSS which is a multi-ter system of supports. Uh so this year we had a district team uh the last year uh this year that team has been expanded to ensure that all levels are representative and there's a broader base that MTSS team district team meets five times a year and that goal is really the this year's goal we focused on um focused on closing the achievement gaps particularly with our subgroups
024of our special education students, economically disadvantaged students and our EN L population. The district team sets uh the uh parameters and the focus for the building level team. So all of our buildings um K8 have an MTSS team. The high school is a little bit different just because of the structure. And they may on a monthly basis, sometimes more, looking at student data. How are students performing on diagnostic assessments? How are they performing on some of the curricular assessments? what students might need. And you look at that uh pyramid, you're looking at tier one is basically universal instruction and support both for academics and SEAL. Tier two is looking at how do we provide this is where you start getting into some of the building level team data. How do we provide some targeted supports
025for certain students and tier three is really looking at higher level individual and intensive needs of students which is a smaller percentage of your our population. Uh also we have uh been using an instructional coach this year. Um you've heard a little bit about bookworms and the implementation and our instructional coach this year is focusing on what we're referring to as elementary lab classrooms. Uh this is where the elementary teachers co-plan lessons with the instructional leaders. There's monthly collaboration sess sessions which allow the lab teachers to analyze what's working, what's not working, come up with strategies, share best practices and ideas. Um they also can serve as observation sites. So there's been some recording of that or some professional training that those teachers have enabled you to do across the district uh to f and
026this is really focused this year on bookworms um uh the implementation of that program. uh wellness and integration for students and staff. One of the areas that we've been focusing on uh for the last couple of years, if you could go to the next slide, is on attendance. Uh so we have an attendance committee. This is a K12 committee uh made up of a lot of different stakeholders. And the goal is really to look at improving attendance. And I know I've mentioned this before is since the pandemic, our attendance rate has have not come back to where they were pre uh pandemic. So we still have a higher percentage of students missing more school since that time. Uh one of the um action steps the attendance committee um wanted to do this year and actually
027I believe these letters went out today. today. Perfect timing. Um is that every family will get um a snapshot. So there's a letter that talks about the importance of attendance. And this graph kind of if you think of your national grid bills or I always get one that says I use more electricity than my neighbors. Um this shows what the chronic absenteeism rate is as of today. So for this year, uh if you've missed 7.8 days, that's deemed chronically absent. Then uh that next row below is your actual student attendance and the average absent this is done on it's not done by individual buildings at the elementary. So that 2.8 is K5. Then we did for the middle school there's a 68 and for the high school it's 912. Uh the other thing that so
028this eventually was this is the first time we did this this year at the semester break but this will be shared quarterly with parents similar to when report cards go out. We also have been trying to do the committee wanted to really reinforce with positive messages um the importance of coming to school tying them to special events. So there was a message as people came back for February and you know kind of come to school and trying to highlight uh the importance in some of the things that are happening that that are worth coming to school. So that's an area that we've been focusing a lot on. Also looking at equity and academic enrichments. I think this is uh really impressive when you look at this and I know Dave in his um academic update
029earlier in the fall highlights a lot more with our AP success and our college courses. But you can see that um when you look at our AP scholar, the number of students who are not only enrolling in AP courses but the number of students find really great success. Uh you can see these numbers have uh just are really impressive. Um from AP scholars with honors going from 36 in 2020 23 to 66 and 25 and then scholars with distinctions from 62 to 128 uh is really impressive and that's a tribute to our faculty who are really trying to and our counselors who are encouraging kids to take that risk and take more AP offerings that are available uh to them. Our final goal uh is increasing community engagement. Uh looking at curriculum access, transparent curriculum
030access, promoting some of the youth leadership activities which we've we've touched on a little bit. Developing some long-term partnerships, and promoting a safe, inclusive, healthy environment. A couple things that I always love to highlight are um holiday or our holiday drive. I know some of you came this year and helped walk boxes down to the gyms with foods for the the pickup. Uh we were able to provide support for 92 families um for the caring and sharing program. Uh we had liaison at each building. Those individuals actually aside from the caring and sharing program, many of those serve uh on an annual basis all throughout the year for families who at any point in the year reach out and say they need some assistance. Uh through our holiday drive, we actually do ha um get
031additional support. So we have gift cards and some other things that we can utilize and help families um even in the spring if they need that. So that is available and it's I think a really great um community resource for families. Um another um thing that we've added this year is we have enhanced translation and accessibility. Um I think everyone knows that with parent square one of the advantages to moving to parent square is it provides translation in the home language uh which we didn't have the capability before. Uh we also have uh translation services in many more documents that um we've really been working on. And this year for the curriculum handbook for 2627 you can see that uh that handbook has been uh translated into 11 different languages which are listed there. And
032environmental stewardship uh we have great gardens. Everyone knows that. I don't know if you've had a chance to look at the high school garden. That is just really impressive. Uh so some of the things we've done is the fall recycling event. This is a partnership with the town, a green team, and the farmers market. Uh we still continue to do the recycling presentations with our high school students. Uh the garden produce in the school lunches really from up through December. We're able to do that. Uh middle school has a huge salad for kids day. And we have um the Elmir Earth Savers are um you know, they're they're the club to go to in elementary. They're really advocates for gardening and sustainable practices. Uh, but all of our elementary schools have been really improving some
033of the gardens and many of them look tremendous and I have to give credit to Mark Warford who is the he is the green guy and community partnerships and workforce. So a few meetings ago uh we had a presentation on this just highlighting some of the things we've really been working on uh with the workforce development in fall in the fall we had the manufacturing day and that was a connection with plug power SEIC owns Corning in the mobile manufacturing training unit which we um had some pictures of we are hosting in March a summer job and hiring fair uh there's a working on a partnership with the department of labor or Dream Link to help link students with disabilities uh to career pathways. And um the high school is looking at potentially doing a
034future a medical career day with um HVCC has a mobile uh medical training unit. So that isn't established yet, but that is uh something that they're looking to do. And this is where I wanted to just highlight the the data dashboard. So we moved our strategic plan the you know the document the goals every year we update this on our website and there's a lot of information there's a lot of data on this and I fortunately we were actually uh sharing this at president's council the other day and president's like where do we find this again um so it is there's great information I know it's a lot I mean you can get as much or as little as you want but all of our academic data is here all of the goals are here
035and this is relatively current So, as we're going through our goals uh with our instructional leadership team and we have updated data, we're updating that. So, it's pretty much it it's in is a real time as it can can be I guess. But if you want to uh find the data dashboard, it's in the featured links under our uh goals and our strategic plan. There's a QR code there also. But um just as a reminder, it is available and it's public and everyone can pretty much find all of the goals and how we're progressing um or not uh on on our goals and our capital project. So again, thank you for everyone who came out and voted and supported that. We did have an 80% uh pass rate for our $60 million project and now
036we will begin uh all the details of planning that and submitting paperwork to um SED. Uh so classroom renovations um is a huge component of this. 34% of the bond is focused on classroom renovations. Uh, as we've discussed before, uh, some of the elementary classroom renovations will, uh, require us to look at, um, some relocation of students, um, for on a temporary basis, um, into the fall mostly. Um, so we'll be looking at that. We are going to that is going to be strategic and that we're going to start uh, in summer 2027. in the board um did ask the our architects to begin with Ellir and that was part of the discussion with the re resoning uh so that will be the first uh building to receive classroom renovations at the elementary level air
037conditioning is about 17% uh and then a lot of the others infrastructure and safety upgrades the capital project timeline um so this is estimated we're hoping that this uh stays true. So, we had the vote on February 3rd. Uh we will do uh begin doing more of the postdesign works um submitting those designs to SED um in 2026 27 with a goal of actually beginning construction in the spring summer of 2027. Uh this is some of the improvements from our last bond project uh that uh we concluded and we can't wait to see. I mean these are some great spaces. Uh I think if people haven't been to them going to the LMC's, the turf field, the theaters um really are impressive and I know everyone's looking forward to some of the classroom renovations um
038and what they'll look like when they're when they're done. some of the highlights. Uh we have a great district and our students work really hard. We have great parental support. So we continue to have national recognition. Uh we were up um we were at 301 for the best school districts in America and we are up um from that's up from 3:30 sorry in 2025. And you can see our teachers and staff get rated uh very highly um as they should. Uh some of the rankings also in our national ratings, uh 74 New York high schools, number one in the Albany area. Um in the the national rankings, uh we're 693 up from 838 in 2025. And we did have uh recently, which was a great experience for for our district and for our middle school,
039we had an exchange. Uh we had a group of educators from South Korea that visited the middle school. Uh they did um they had time to not only observe classroom but to also speak to our teachers about methodologies and assessments. So it was a great experience for for everyone and enrollment. So the the enrollment projections this is uh generally from the capital region planning commission. So over the next five years, the total enrollment is expected to increase slightly, a little over 3% um to about 4,200 students. It's currently at about 4,000 students. Uh so 9 through 12 is expected to go up a little under 2%. 6 through 8 is expected to go up a little two and a just about 2 and 1/2% and K5 is expected to decrease slightly by 203031 by 1%.
040Um, so not much of a change overall. And again, I remind people this doesn't that doesn't really account for housing turnover. Uh, which is one of the discussion points we had when we were looking at uh some of the uh elementary zone changes is that's that's there's really not a great way to predict that. So that does not account for uh turnover of housing. It does account for new housing developments. So you can see our total enrollment. Uh you can see that we had a significant dip um as many districts did um during um a a period of time and you can see it's relatively flat and slightly increasing uh over up to 203031. Uh when the capital region planning commission does their projections for us they look at birth data and you can see
041over time that births in the district have been on a downward trend for many years. Um I don't think this is um unique to Bethlehem or or to the state. Um this is just the trend overall. Uh there was a little small spike in 2021 um which is expected to potentially translate into a little bit larger kindergarten cohort for um this coming school year. So kindergarten is always the unknown generally. So we'll see if if that's what we end up seeing once registration is is completed. and housing uh existing home sta sales still do remain slow. Uh there were more building permits issued in 24. Um some of those uh we were kind of uh in looking at when we were doing the zones work. Uh the committee did look at uh the building uh
042permits and what was happening. relatively speaking, there really was not any housing developments that were going to make a big um impact on the district in regards to a big increase in school enrollment. And we do have our registration open for kindergarten. Um we mentioned at one of our meetings that all of the we have sh we have upgraded the Aspen system so uh everything can be done online. all the parents if they want to um can actually do all of the registration on a phone if they prefer that. All of the documents can be uploaded through there. Um so if you have a child before December 1st, 2026, it's open. Please, we ask people to register as soon as they can. It does help us with our sectioning and we do guarantee that your
043child will be in their home that homeschool if you're registered by March 1st. uh universal prek. Um as I said, we're seeking partners. We did send out an RFP. Currently, we have 83 students who are attending the up UPK programs. Um the providers have anyone who's interested who um wants to do a partnership with the district has um uh the ability to send that in until March. Yeah, March 6. Uh so we do have funding for up to 235 spots. So well more than the 83 that we're providing for. Um if we have multiple partners identified, we'll do um we'll do a lottery regardless because we're required to do a lottery. Uh but if we have multiple partners, what we did last year is uh we did that based on each of the providers and
044how many um how many spots they could hold. So we would follow that same process. We are looking to move that process up a little bit. Last year it was a little bit later than we'd like just to give families more notification. So, but we'll be sending more information out about UPK registration and the lottery system um when it gets a little bit closer. And finally, uh budget development. I said this is kind of the start of our budget process. So uh obviously our goal in budget development is making sure our expenses each equals revenue. That's always a plus when that happens. Uh we have um basically looking at the next slide please. Um the you skip one. Oh no sorry I skipped one. Uh the budget history. So this is the 10-year average. Our
045budget increase generally has been 2.19% uh over this time period. So you can see there's a little bit of fluctuation but um overall uh just under 2.2% increase when we talk about budget and John loves to talk about this the tax levy tax rate tax cap. Uh you can see there's all these things that go into um that but only one is determined by the school district. Uh so we will get into that. It's a little bit confusing, but those are the three factors that we use when we're looking at our budget and budget development and how that impacts the taxpayers of the community. Our tax levy history, um, so the 10-year average annual tax levy increase has been just about 1 and a.5%. Uh, and we have been actually at or below what we
046were allowed for the tax cap. So if you just a reminder the tax cap is um set with a formula and we can go up to that amount without going to a super majority vote for voters to approve the budget. Uh but generally we have been at or below that for for those 10 years. And just to uh give you a um different perspective uh each town does it does vary from year to year. So, this just shows a chart of the different um the tax rate history in the town of Bethlehem and then the town of New Scotland. And you can see although there's not huge fluctuations every year uh they do tend to be a little bit different. There's a few years where they were um the same, but overall they're they tend
047to vary based on the equalization rates, and we don't actually finalize those until the summer when we get those that information from each of the towns. And our voter turnout. Uh so we last year, you can see we have um aside from a couple years, we have a relatively uh stable voter turnout. Last year we had a little bit higher uh numbers than we had we've had the last couple of years, but overall we have a good voter turnout. And if you look at the next slide, you can see um comparatively uh we have a a really robust voter turnout compared to all the other districts, even districts that are significantly larger than us. Our vote our community tends to come out and vote for the budget, which is great to see. And for our
048per pupil spending, uh, you can see in New York State, uh, and this is basically from 2324. This is the most recent data. There's always a lag. At New York State, the per pupil spending is just over $30,000. In Albany County, it's 276 and our per pupil spending is 217 uh for all of our students. And if you look at uh our comparison just in the Albany County schools, you can see uh this doesn't list all the schools, but you can see we where we stand um in regards to per pupil spending compared to Albany County schools. And finally, the budget calendar. Next week, we will be kicking off or John will be kicking off the budget. Uh we'll also be doing our overview of transportation technology and operations and maintenance, looking at their budgets
049and any budget proposals they have. On March 4th, we'll be uh presenting the athletics uh program, the instructional program, and special education. On March 18th, uh potentially uh the board would can adopt the budget uh that the voters will be presented. And then May 6th is actually the public review of the proposed budget, the budget hearing. May 13th is tenatively the meet the candidates night if there's a need for a meet the candidates night. That's the date that's scheduled and the budget vote will be May 19th. So that concludes my overview of a lot of information. Uh but I'm happy to take any questions if people have them. >> Anyone have questions for Joey? Um, thank you so much for a really excellent um, overview and presentation. And as you said, there's a lot in
050here and there's a lot to really be proud of. So, I just want to say thanks to you um, to the whole administrative team and to all of the staff and teachers that allow for these kind of great reports to be shared with the community. Um, one of my questions is just regarding kind of the way that the presentation is structured. We've got each of our goals and then there are action steps that you're reporting on for each. When how how do we determine which action steps we're working toward each year? When does that could you just walk us through that a little bit? How these particular action steps were chosen? >> Sure. So that's those are decided some of them are carried over from the prior year. So for example, MTSS is one that
051is a work in progress in the specific action step may have changed a little bit but we still keep that as an area of focus because it's a it's a large undertaking. So you're not going to accomplish all of that in one year. So during this uh summer during the spring and summer we start looking at our data and determine are there things that we've we've met and it's kind of done or are there things that we need to carry over or adjust and that's done during the summer with the instructional leadership team. Uh so that's a combination of building principles, district administration, our curriculum supervisors who are working with our teaching staff directly. Then from there, we establish the specific action steps that we're going to work toward that year and refine that and
052look at our data uh to see where we are, where we need to go. And then after those are drafted and presented, that's presented to the board of education uh in the usually in September, we present that to ensure that the board knows what our action steps and goals are um and what we're looking to accomplish. And then from there that that's kind of where we meet as an instructional leadership team on multiple occasions during the year. Um looking at those areas and how we're doing. And then actually on this data dashboard if you remember there's under I forget the heading is it indicators or you can actually see like we update um the progress like how far are we are we still at zero are we about 50% accomplished and that's how we've been
053kind of monitoring our progress um toward the accomplishment of those action steps. >> Cool. Thank you and just kudos again for the data dashboard. That's a great resource for people to have a peek into what's going on in the schools. I've got other questions, but I don't want to. >> Sure. You have a question? >> It's not even really a question. It's just data, right? Um, births went down to about 2009. Over the past 16 years, they've been slightly increasing. So, we shouldn't expect births to go down further. It looks like they're on an upward trend. >> It's marginal. It's basically flat. It's not going down. >> Great. I keep >> go ahead. I'll go after you. >> Just a comment, I guess, more on on the AI. Uh, I looked at the chart. It
054looks, you know, like it's it's, you know, got some utility to it. Um, however, there there does seem to be a little bit of squishiness in there in terms of um usage beyond spec spec specified tasks. So, this isn't really a a question. It's more a just a I guess a comment that um I would I guess hope that the instructors would be extremely clear about the delineation of what's acceptable and what's not within their class either overall and potentially for with regard to specific um tasks or assignments. Because to the extent you're talking about potential violations of the student policy and negative repercussions, then I just want to make sure that the instructors are clear with the students what's acceptable specifically and what's not. >> Therefore, you can avoid, you know, well, I didn't
055know that, you know, because obviously the temptation of AI um is is is quite great. So I think I think the again that the scale seems functional and and and has a lot of utility to it. But I would just >> comment that I'm I would hope that we stress to the instructors to just be clear about the expectations so the students are on notice of what's appropriate and what's not. >> DPC talk about that at all with the scale. >> I mean that's just the graphic that kind of gives a >> you know a pretty picture to sort of say what types of things are acceptable. Um we have other documents that are much much more detailed that we're providing with teachers and giving them training on but basically um similar to the way
056courses have to grade in a similar fashion AI usage is going to have to be done in a similar fashion. So for example if you have two different teachers teaching um you know AP US history and they both give a common term paper teacher A can't say no AI and teacher B have at it. Right? So if we're going to be grading on the same system, then we have to be allowing AI usage on that same system. So there will be consistency at the course level and at the assignment level and teachers are going to have to routinely remind students before assignment any basically anything that goes home. If you don't give guidance, your assumption needs to be students might use AI on this. Right. Right. So you're going to have to be explicit with
057every single assignment that goes home. This is what it's allowed. This is what's not allowed. And there's going to be some growing pains in there obviously in terms of how much specificity we give, but we're going to have to get better and better at it over time because as you know this, I mean you see um you know the academic infractions that are happening at the collegiate level all the time now. So we have to set our students up for success. We have to set them up for success in the in the job place as well. You see instances where folks are using AI not really giving it much oversight and they're you know they're they're providing false information to their employers. There's a really when AI um when Chad GBT first came out, there
058was an attorney that decided to use it to basically present his case and it had within the argument um the case law that he used was a completely bogus case. Right. So, we have to teach our students how to use this appropriately um not just in an academic setting but in in the in the the work setting as well. Yeah. >> No, thank you for that. And and quite frankly, the consistency among the classes hadn't even occurred to me. Um, I was more and even, you know, despite my general lite tendencies, I'm not even saying that I don't think it should be used. It's an incredibly powerful thing. And you're right. I think we have to set them up. All I'm saying is I think we have to just be clear that the students are
059on notice about what's allowed and what's not allowed. >> Yeah. and at a base level. So next year um we did work as part of the PPC. It's going to be a requirement that all teachers discuss with when they do their syllabus at the beginning of the year the AI usage scale and how they're going to approach AI throughout the year is going to be part of these beginning of the year discussions now as well. >> Thank you. Yeah. >> Um, on the topic of UPK, can you just walk us through again the when we say that? Sorry, I'm getting back to that slide. Thank you. Um, when we say anticipate New York State funding for up to 235 spots, >> does that mean we have 235 spots available? Can you just give us the
060the thumbnail of how UPK works and how Bethlehem implements it? >> Sure. Uh so currently we partner with providers and they can have to have a certain ratio in a classroom. So if they have 18 students um under they they fall under OCFS. Um so they have to have if there's 18 students, a teacher, and two teaching assistants. I believe if they have 16 students, they only need one teacher and one teaching assistant. So depending upon staffing and depending upon their space, there's also a space requirement too for how many kids they can have in a square footage. So currently um at TSL they have classes of I believe they're all 16 and the one at Child Time currently has 15. That's who's actively attending. Um so based on the number of slots that they
061are able to provide, the amount of sections, then that's what we're able to offer. So last year I think we were able to offer based on the five classrooms we could have offered about a hundred or something like that and we ended up with initially 90 that actually enrolled um and now there's currently 83 who are enrolled. So, it's really dependent upon who are the partners and how many sections they are able to offer uh with and how many students are able to provide for and that's how we we've we've been able to this is only the second year we've had it. Uh the first year I think we only had two classrooms that TSL was able to provide and that I think was 32 students >> that we could provide for. But yes, we
062have funding for that many students. Um to my knowledge, there's very few schools who actually fill that the allocation that they're provided just if they're doing partnerships uh with other outside community providers >> and and I've you know I've been learning about this over the years as as we've done this and learning more about the way the um the state h has set up this program. Is it fair to say that we administer a UPK program, but we rely on providers to deliver it? So, we're actually it actually matters whether or not we have providers coming in through this RFP process. >> Correct. >> That is what determines whether or not and how many seats we have. >> Correct. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> Yep. >> John, question. Jody, for the community
063partnerships and workforce development, um are we like tracking numbers and trends and the effectiveness of those programs or I guess how are we deciding what programs to involve the kids in and >> right um with the well with the looking at the workforce development. I know that Kim and Jim Smith have been working a lot together and some of the way we're tracking how many kids are interested is through our CIP program and how many students we're getting involved in that. We talked about really trying to get more students enrolled in that particular course because that provides them with an internship. We also have the G webb number. So those two classes inhouse are easy to track. Are we seeing increases in those numbers? CTE is easy to to track. How many students are interested?
064How many students get in and how many actually enroll. So are we seeing which we have seen increases uh certainly in the CTE opportunities over the years. some of the other programs, the workforce development, um like we had the the fair in the fall. Obviously, that's open to a lot of students. Uh I don't know if we're actually tracking anything regarding the summer jobs fair. If we are able if there's a way to actually find out how many kids actually ended up with a job as a result of that fair. To the degree that we can, we'll do that. um it's easier to track it when there's a registration or enrollment or something like that, but some of the other, you know, opportunities or providing learning opportunities for kids are a little harder to really
065track. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you very much. >> Great. Thanks, Next on the agenda um is our recognition of public comment on an agenda item. If we have any visitors who would like to address the board on an agenda item, now would be the time to come up to the microphone. Uh item six, action items. Um, first is the resolution to certify the uh capital bond project vote results. So, could I have a motion to approve the following resolution? Whereas, the board of education has examined and tabulated such statements and determine the number of votes cast for the 2025 capital bond project from the February 3rd, 2026 vote date. It is hereby declared that the 2025 capital bond project referendum passed with 80% Uh, 1450
066votes voter approval and 20% 352 votes against. >> So move. >> Second. Any discussion? >> All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? That passes? >> Uh B, finance action items. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following finance action items one and two. >> So moved. >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any extensions? That passes. C. Professional personnel action items. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following professional personnel action items 1 through 18. >> So moved. >> Second. Any discussion? >> One question I guess. So we're appointing 5.2 time people. Is that existing people that are increasing their load or those new appointments to replace this one person? >> It's an extension. It's Yeah, it's an
067additional class for that temporary time just until the new the other individual who's below starts. >> I see. Cool. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Uh all in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any extensions? That carries. Um, and I just wanted to recognize uh Dave Del um who with that um vote has been appointed to be the um new elementary school principal at Eagle and he is here this evening. I don't know if you want to just come up and say a sentence or two. >> Sure. >> Well, thank you all for your support as always. Um, I'm extremely grateful and excited uh to join Eagle um be part of the Eagle family. I also want to take a minute to thank uh all the families, the students especially um and staff at the high school
068for all the support they gave me. It'll be really hard to leave uh but I'll be across the street able to support them and uh cheer them on. So, thank you everyone. >> Thanks, Daisy. Uh D, support personnel action items. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following support staff action items one and two. >> So move >> second. Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> I opposed. Abstensions. That carries. E. Other action items. It is recommended by the superintendent that the board of education approve the following action items one and two. >> So move. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? That carries. Item seven, recognition of public comment on a non-aggenda item. Um, if we have any visitors who would like to address
069the board on a non-aggenda item, now would be the time to come up to the microphone. And if you could just state your name, please. >> Hi, I'm Katie Miller. Um, now that the vote on resoning is behind us, I wanted to I wanted to focus on the successful transition of our students. Um, tonight I want to talk about a specific critical piece of that transition for the students of MPU 54 moving to Slingerlands. In previous meetings, you've heard from families and other MPUs who advocated to remain at Eagle because they walk 15 days out of the year on a safe route. By contrast, this board has received a steady stream of emails and testimony from parents and even a crossing guard confirming a different reality for MPU 54. These students walk or bike every
070single day. These stu these kids have shown incredible resilience navigating their commute in all weather conditions for nearly 3 years. Many of them fully intend to continue walking to their new school. However, as we transition to Slingerlands, there are no sidewalks for the majority of that route. We are all aware of the safety concerns on Broccoli Drive. Concerns so significant that a digital speed sign was installed to curb dangerous driving. We cannot in good conscience transition a group of dedicated walkers and bikers into an environment that lacks a basic safe route. I'm asking the board to take a leadership role in this transition. Please work directly with the town of Bethlehem, the bicycle and pedestrian committee to ensure that transitioning doesn't just mean a change in building, but a commitment to safety and continued wellness.
071We need a viable protected route for MPU 54 kids to get to Slingerlands. Specifically, I'm asking for direct parent involvement. Don't plan for us, plan with us. Include the parents who navigate these streets every day in the conversation. Granular details. We need to know the specific steps being taken to improve visibility, create separation from traffic, and address the gaps in the sidewalk network. And transparent communication. Use Parent Square to send regular detailed updates. Don't just tell us a meeting happened. Tell us what was proposed, what the timelines are, and how safety is being prioritized. Many of you likely run, walk, or bike in your personal lives, and understand the importance of seeking out safe paths. I'm asking you to afford that same standard of safety to these students who have already proven their dedication. Let's
072make sure the reward for that resilience isn't a more dangerous commute. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh item eight, future meetings and events. Um our next regularly scheduled board meeting is on Wednesday, February 25th, uh 2026. So that's after the February break. Um anticipating executive session at 6 and reconvening um to open session at 7. And then um and that will be um our budget kickoff meet. Not that you're >> John's budget kickoff. Um and then the meeting after that is on Wednesday, March 4th. Um again, anticipating executive session at 6:00 and reconvening to open session at 7. Um seeing no need to go back into executive session, could I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> So moved. >> Second. All in favor? >> Meeting adjourned. >> I wanted to share. I
073said I wanted to share something earlier.