CMSD BOE Budget Workshop #3 and Regular Meeting 3-25-26

001Second. >> All in favor? >> Yes. >> I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Osar. >> Good evening everyone. Um, this proposes, this public hearing has as a main idea to consider the adoption of four four new policies for the tax exceptions uh listed in the new uh real estate property tax law. Uh the first one is for the spouses of police officers killed killed in the line of duty. Um we are attempting to accept 50% of that policy. Um also we have the surviving exposes for volunteer firefighters or ambulance workers with the same percentage of 50%. Uh we have a new extension exceptionally for the senior citizens and the last one is for veterans who have who have disabilities or as result of military service. Uh this one is an automatic one that

002will be approved. Um if you guys have any questions about these policies >> that would be the board. Any questions for the board? >> No. >> Thank you. Upon the conclusion of this public hearing, the Senate Mitches Board of Education intends to vote on resolutions related to these exemptions as it is a public meeting on March 25th to 2026. Uh we are up to >> motion to close public hearing. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Yes. Now I'm on the comments and sections, right? >> Gotcha. >> Oh, I got it. All right. So, now I need a motion to uh open public session or call public session to order. I don't need a motion for that. I'm just opening it. I take it back. We're open for business now. >> This was a different

003shift. I had never had this order, so I wasn't prepared. Um, all right. So, now I'm on to the superintendent report. So, we're going to turn it over to Dr. >> Sodtog. >> Oh, pledge allegiance. Let's go. >> Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> So, now we are on to the superintendent's report. So, I'm going to turn that over. >> All right. Good evening, everyone. I want to thank you all for coming out. It's nice to have a board meeting with a crowded space filled with parents, teachers, colleagues, and students. I want to take a moment to congratulate our valadictorian, Alex Gentiel, and our very own salute, uh, Claret Tubbins. They

004both did an amazing job and we're very proud of the two of you. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to a high school principal, Miss Mangonia, to award some student recognitions. >> Thank you. >> Hello. Good evening. Um, as much as I'm really looking forward to my budget presentation that I'm going to do in a little bit, um, this part I do like a little bit better. I'm not going to lie. Uh, so that's just me me being honest. I'm excited to have students here. Um, so I actually have um a few things that I'm going to talk about. Um, but first I would like to recognize a student, Kristen Luna. Kristen, do you want to come up? Where are you? Oh, there you are. Congratulations. Okay. All right. So, I'll let

005you clap for her again, so just hold tight. Um, so it is my honor to recognize one of our outstanding students, Kristen Luna, for being named a semi- finalist for the 2026 Operation Homefront Military Child of the Year Award. Kristen is one of only 68 semi- finalists selected from over a thousand nominees nationwide. She is one of only 10 representing the Army and National Guard. She is the daughter of Master Sergeant Sarah Luna, who serves in the 106th Rescue Wing. This family has faced challenges that come with service to our country. Yet, through it all, Kristen has developed strength and resilience. I know you have all seen on Main Street our hometown hero veteran um banners. That was Kristen was a big part of that. Um so, that is something that I know everybody really

006takes dearly. So, I'm very proud of you. That was before you were with me, but I that yes, Dr. Reio, that was an NYP. Um, but it is something that we are very, very proud of her for. Um, Kristen is a leader in every aspect of her life. Um, I'm I'm very proud of her. Um, Sergeant Luna, I would also like to thank you for your service and for raising such an exceptional daughter. So, if we could just give Master Sergeant And at this time, I would like to um present Kristen with a certificate. On a personal note, I see Kristen every day in the halls and she is just lights up the hallway, lights up the room, is a great leader. So, the fact that we here at Senator Mitches know that, but then

007you go outside of these walls, outside of this state, outside, it is just something that I'm I'm really proud of you. So, congratulations. >> I'm going to give you this. Okay, we're gonna have we're we're going to take a picture. Yep. >> Yep. >> You can stay next to take a step >> Janine member 16 landscape. >> Yeah. Okay. Okay. >> Okay. I have so many >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Okay. Okay. So I would also like to recognize our robotics team infernobotics for their outstanding learning growth um performance especially at this last Hofra tournament. So just so you know the week before the week prior to Hofra our students our robotics team went to Rochester for a competition. Um it was I got to go. It was great. It was a very big learning

008experience. every time they went and did like a competition, they would come back with all these different ideas of how they were going to make it better. It was amazing to watch. It was wonderful. Um, and then at Hofra, they did phenomenal. They did. So, they actually ranked in the top 10 out of all of the teams that were there. Again, they're international teams. It's not just teams that are local. People come teams come from all over the place. So, the fact that our students are able to really design this robot from scratch and make it work, code it, all of that. I mean, a lot of this goes to Mr. Spanis and Mr. Roy for really helping guide our kids, but they're doing the work. Um, so they were actually they earned uh the

009imagery award in honor of Jack Cayman. So, this award celebrates excellence in visual aesthetics and recognizes teams that seamlessly integrate their visual themes across the robot team presentation and pit display. It highlights not only engineering skill, but also creativity, professionalism, and the ability to showcase the attractiveness of STEM. On top of that, because that wasn't enough, they also received a $3,000 sponsorship grant um which students had to write an essay. They went through different interview processes. They went up against other teams um and they were selected for this grant. So, I'm very proud of them. That money will go right back into their program. Uh they um please hold. Yes, this is really a testament to their hard work, dedication, and the strength of the program that they continue to build. Um our adviserss do

010a great job with their time and effort and energy. Their leadership has helped our team grow tremendously. And what really stands out for me is like I said the growth even from just one week they came in and kind of came back hit the ground running right and then you were like okay I'm ready to go let's do this at Hofra and they really did phenomenal so I just wanted to take a moment to recognize them so if you guys want to come up that would be great if we could give them a round of applause know yourself. Someone might be standing in the chair. >> You want to stand on the chair and help her out? >> Hey, can you do that for? Come on. >> I'm hiding. Sorry. >> I'm trying. Great job

011to all my high Yes. Um, congratulations to everyone. Thank you for coming out tonight. We know that tonight is a school night. So, you can definitely stay for the entire budget presentation, which might be a long one tonight, or you can go home. It's entirely up to you. >> This This is your opportunity. >> You are not being rude. Have a good night. want to move to the podcast. >> Yes, there's a there's definitely a couple empty rolls in the front. Greg, if you want to want to move up, Teresa. >> Brett, >> yeah. Oh, there you go. >> All right. So we are going to start with our next part of the superintendent's report which is our budget workshop. So give me one second. >> And once again just to kind of explain to

012the audience the reason why we're standing here is because these microphones pick up the live stream that individuals at home might be watching the board meeting. So, they won't hear us unless we're actually talking into the mic. So, it's a little uncomfortable because you can't really move around much. You can't really be that animated. But, um, tonight I want to thank you all for attending because tonight is the third budget workshop that we have scheduled. And tonight, we are going to be presenting pretty much as an administrative team. So, it's myself, it's our two assistant superintendents, Dr. Botcher and Mr. Oserio, as well as our three building principles, Dr. Fernandez, Dr. Reio, and Miss Mangonia. So, the purpose of tonight is to predominantly look at a couple things. Look at the school plan. We for

013the last few budget presentations, we looked at predominantly departments. We looked at facilities. We looked at athletics. We looked at our revenue stream. We looked at state aid. We are going to look at state aid again tonight, but we're we're really looking at the buildings plans in terms of some of the things we did exciting at each building this year, our current enrollment and FTEEs in terms of allocations for next year and of course some of the things we hope to do in the buildings uh next year as well. We are also going to have a curriculum update. We're going to provide the board with the board and the community with an update of the budget in terms of where we stand as of today. And then ultimately we are going to look at some

014figures in terms of our of our international baloria program. This this is um questions that we've had from community members in the past. So for the sake of transparency, we want to put everything forward to the community and to the board so that everyone has a complete understanding as to how our funding is being spent in the center Richard School District. Okay. So at this time, I'm going to turn it over to our elementary principal, Dr. Fernandez, to present on the elementary school. >> Good evening. Before I start, I just like to in to congratulate all the award winners even though they left already, but congratulations to them. A that really is a great accomplishment. Um 22526 has been a great year. I can't believe that um we've accomplished so much in my short time

015that I've been with you all. As you can see, um some things that we've implemented this year were assembly programs really always involving bullying prevention and just be positive behavior management systems. Every month we've met as a building and we reinforced different aspects of respect yourself, respect others, respect your environment. In addition, we also started the I Ready Diagnostic in reading and math. Um, we've had a lot of professional development and we have learned how to use the data from this diagnostic to help inform our instruction. Then we have our magnetic literacy which has been going really great. Um teachers have asked for a curriculum that aligns across the grades and that's exactly what this has done and it's been really successful and I'm getting a lot of positive feedback from teachers and from students.

016We also started our new report card. We were able to implement a new report card and have meetings with teachers so that they can align their instruction and their assessments to that new report card and it fits really nicely with the I Ready literacy program that they can use that data also for uh to inform their um grading system. And then we have our PYP which tomorrow is our PYP fifth grade expos expedition and our topics are sharing the planet and people's actions may have effect on their world. And I've been looking at these presentations. The fifth graders are so excited. Um they have lots of different artifacts that they're bringing in and it's going to be a great day tomorrow. >> Excuse me. >> What time is that? >> 10 o'clock. >> This is

017our staffing slide as you can see. Yeah, this is our staffing slide. So, as you can see, this year we had 27 sections. Um, next year we're pretty similar. We'll have 26 sections, and our class size will stay relatively the same, between 19 and 20 students per class. And as far as our future planning, we continue to really work with the community with our PTO and involve parents and different kinds of events throughout the year such as our movie nights, a parent university. We hope to extend and get more events going for technology nights to inform parents. Um we'll continue with curriculum where we'll be developing and per uh working with the magnetic literacy and getting proficient with that implementation along with aligning some skills and curriculum for a portrait of a a graduate in

018integration with the the curriculum. And then with magnetic literacy we'll continue to have PD and work with teachers on that professional development as well along with working with teachers on co-eing practices. This year we had a lot of great clubs and next year we hope to continue with those clubs um and have a really great successful year and without further ado I invite up Dr. Ready from the middle school. >> Hold on Nicole. Yeah. So any questions from the board before we run away. Hold on. >> So if I could just say one thing uh if we can hold the questions from the board to the end of each presenter. Each principal is going to present for three slides to but this this is your opportunity to ask any questions. the elementary. No, please. >>

019Between each of them, we're going to >> Yes. Sorry about that. >> It's okay. I'll wait. >> Um I just wanted I just wanted to address the um slide you you flipped really quickly through the one on the average class sizes from 2025 to 2026. >> Yeah. >> To the 2026 to 2027. um just with the rationale for um what those numbers would be. So for example, second grade we had this year 19 students and then you're thinking next year 20. But then in third grade you have 20 this year and 19 next year. Wouldn't you want smaller um class sizes for the younger grades versus the older? And what do the teachers think? Have they um >> so so when you look at this, it's important um Dr. the Perry to look at the

020enrollment projections for next year. So if you look at the chart that we have on the right side of the sections projections, it gives you the counts for each grade. So when you look at let's say grade one in the 2526 school year, we have four sections that that that group of students are moving to second grade and keeping with the four sections. The same thing with second grade. Moving to third grade, we're going to keep it at five sections because that's a larger grade at 95 students versus 82 students in grade two. >> Okay. And you're losing one full-time person. Is that what that is at the bottom? >> Yes. What that what that means is that uh right this year we had two sections in grade four and five at five sections a

021piece. Next year the uh the student amounts don't require it. So we are going we're keeping the current section list that we have right now. So if you look at grade one into two it's four, grade two into three is five, grade three into four is four and grade five it grade four into five is five as well. So nothing is changing in terms of the section counts in the current grades nor is it changing in the average class size which I think is uh is an incredible thing. We are we believe in the mentality of keeping our elementary classes as small as possible to allow more direct instruction, more time for each student. So we really made a concerted effort to ensure that we kept the class sizes the same next year as they

022are this year. >> You're welcome. >> Any other questions from anyone else? >> Thank you. Good job. >> Thank you. Perfect transition. Those five sections are coming to me next year. So, um, they will be our sixth graders. So, let's Perfect. Okay. Um, good evening everyone. My name is Melissa Reio. I am the proud principal of my favorite place in the district and that is the middle school. Um, the middle school um to me are amazing years. I know they are frightening for some people. Some people I tell them what I do for a living and they look at me like I have 10 heads and say, "How do you go to a middle school every day?" And to me it is absolutely amazing. I love working with um middle level learners. The middle school

023is a time of tremendous growth and change for our students. They come in as young um babies as I affectionately refer to them as and they leave ready for Santa Merches High School with Miss Mangonia. Um part of what makes the middle school so wonderful is the staff. They're very devoted and supportive. Some of them uh are joining us this evening. Thank you for being here. Um and we uh are very excited about the 2526 school year and I'm proud to share some of the highlights of this school year with all of you tonight. um to start college and career readiness. Um this year we have moved our program called Naviance um down we used to start it in seventh grade. Now we have transitioned that down to sixth grade. Our sixth graders are doing

024introduction to career exploration and that looks like a guided scavenger hunt that helps the students become familiar with the platform um and encourages their curiosity about different careers, personal interests and goal setting like in a fun way. Seventh grade moves to career exploration activities and that looks like a little bit more of a structured career um exploration. The lessons allow students to explore a wider range of careers and identify their areas of interest. Um and in eighth grade, we really dig into Naviance a bit more before the high school and they complete like a formal career assessment. It's called the career interest profiler and the career cluster survey. They identify their top three career interests and they do a bit of research on each option. um and it helps support decision-m as they prepare for

025their transition to the high school. Next, we have excellence in the arts. Um this actually did not happen yet, but it is sure to be a highlight. So, I wanted to include it and let everybody know that Matilda Jr. is taking place on May 1st and 2nd. I actually met with Mrs. Harkin today, went over all the logistics of tickets and flyers, and they are so excited. She shared with me that she feels like this is going to be one of the best performances that have come out of the middle school. The children are extraordinarily talented and she is very excited for all of you to see it. Um so please join us May 1st and 2nd at 7 p.m. for Matilda Jr. Um it is a familyfriendly performance. The whole show including intermission is

026going to be about an hour and a half. So we encourage our youngsters from uh Clayton Huey to join us as well. Um students recognized as top music performers. We have some extraordinary musicians at the middle school. This year we have three students, Ryan, Dalia, and Sarah that are actually number one in all of New York State in their instruments. They are first chair for the entire state, and that is trumpet, baritone, and piccolo. We've never ever had that before. Um, so we are so so proud of them. We have nine middle school students that performed in the high school pit band during their performance of the Sound of Music. Um, that is a professional pit band level music. Mrs. screen has shared with me that music was not adjusted for the middle level player

027and they rose to the occasion and did a phenomenal job. Um, also in the area of music, we have 45 middle school students in band and chorus that have prepared NISMA solos. They're uh performing them tomorrow, which is a tremendous um number. And we also have a handful of students that play in a community band with Mrs. Green. Um, and that requirement is you have to have previously scored a level five in your NISMA solo the year prior. So we have a bunch of students doing that as well. Um so that's a testament to not only our students but also um our music educators. Um we have student artwork and many community art shows locally this year. Um another highlight of the year was our sixth grade parent night. On January 28th we held a

028parent night uh in the LGI. And that was the midway point of our sixth graders first year in middle school. That is a new event that we just started this year. And the idea behind that was to meet with parents. you know, once the the orientation time we really devote to reading a schedule, what's our locker, our let's find our way about the middle school and then the parent night we added this year to really dive a little bit deeper into what they can expect at the middle school and even the high school. So, we focused on the role of a guidance counselor. We focused on what will your child's schedule look like? What courses do we offer in seventh grade and eighth grade? Um, we also focused on acceleration and high school. So we

029talked about um the acceleration options op options that we have in eighth grade algebra and earth science and we showed them a flowchart and a trajectory of what will that look like if I choose to accelerate in in algebra and earth science what will my child be taking in 8th 9th 10th 11th and 12th and if I choose not to accelerate my child what will their path be and why would one look to accelerate and why would you not accelerate and pros and cons of that so we opened up that door and started um getting our sixth grade parents educated about the rest of middle school and even high school. So, we're excited to continue that. Um, we received a lot of positive feedback this year for that addition and that's something we'll be continuing

030uh for the years to come. Uh, individual student guidance meetings. Um, Miss Brown, our guidance counselor, increased her numbers of point of contact with all middle school students this year. Every single middle school student has had a private um individual meeting with our guidance counselor this year. So, that is new and and wonderful. Um like Clayton Huey, we implemented the I Ready Diagnostic in both reading and math for the first time this year. And that is um I know we've presented on it before, but it is an adaptive diagnostic for our students in both reading and math. Um that pinpoints their individual strengths and their areas of need and focus. And then it also has some um there's a my path that puts them on uh an individualized path for their individual growth. Um it

031also provides students with some instructional groupings and things that they can um get out of the reports. Um our my showcase is on April 24th. Um in advance I will thank Mrs. Sarvsky and Mr. Vat for all of their hard work for the my showcase that um the students have been preparing as well as all of our teacher mentors. Um the Kristen Luna's project on Main Street was her my project that has continued and really grown um in our community and I invite um all of our eighth grade parents, community members, our board of education on April 24th to the middle school to walk around our gym and learn about their projects. We are blown away every single year with the projects that our middle school students come up with and um the reach that

032they have, not just locally, but they, you know, what they're able to do is amazing and it's always one of the highlights of the school year and one of my favorite days of the year. So, we can't wait for that. Professional development wise, our teachers have learned about AI in the classroom, um teaching tools that can enhance their instruction. They did some departmental um learning bridging the New York State um nextgen gaps and the NYP framework. They talked about uh departmental goals and they had some departmental goal work sessions that they engaged in and as well as I professional development. Our teachers just had a session uh last week on the growth data. They looked at fall to winter diagnostic results and looked at student growth um and also the reports that I can give

033them to help uh guide instruction in the classroom. Social and emotionally, our physical education staff uh Miss Ross and Mr. Russo added a PS I love you day tournament for the middle school this year that took place period 10 for the month of February. And this um was a fantastic month in which students and staff played together um in the gym and it was really uh a wonderful day. We invited the whole school for the for the last day. Um Dr. Stoodto came and cheered on students and it was a great day that we we look to continue and uh we're doing restor restorative circles this year for our sources of strength initiative and that is taking place um period 10 on specific days. Middle school enrollment projections. We are going up 25 students next

034year from 25 26 to 26 27. That smaller class of 8th grade is moving up to the high school next year. So we will be up 25 students at the middle school for next year. And middle school future planning curriculum wise. Um I know Dr. will be diving a little bit deeper into this, but we're looking at assessment design, best practices for assessment, um, and ways to provide students with multiple opportunities to demonstrate their understanding of what they're learning. Um, grading and performance expectations. We're going to be looking at uniform grading practices both horizontally and vertically at the middle school. Um, using portrait of a graduate as our guide. of course, um it is very IB aligned, so we are already um using that portrait of a graduate um districtwide, I would say. And we're

035going to continue our unit planning and our subject group overviews at the middle school. Um the move student ID system u Miss Monia is going to talk about on our next slide as a highlight for the high school, but what I will share is that we are looking to move transition that we are have been piloting it at the high school. Um it is going very well. I'll leave that to Mrs. Mangonia, but we are going to be transitioning that move system down to sixth, seventh, and eighth grade um next year and implementing it at the middle school. Um professional development wise, uh like Clayton Hueie, we're going to be focusing on co-eing best practices both for our English language learners and our special education. And we will continue with the I Ready, um data

036informed instruction professional development. We've started this year and we will be in year two of the diagnostic and continue with PD as it relates to I Ready as well. Um, and we are in the planning phases right now of an exciting new language opportunity for our eighth grade students. I'm currently offering Spanish and Italian at the middle school and we are in the planning phases for also offering Anka Chug as an option for our eighth grade students. On the right side are clubs that we are offering and plan to offer next year for our middle school students. And I would like to turn it over to Miss Mangon so we can learn about the high school. >> So be before you run in. >> Sure. Um what? So for the um language acquisition that we

037um eliminated French um a couple I guess last year we were phasing it out and now we're adding back in a new language. Do we know the budgetary um numbers for adding in this new language and the number of students that are expected to take it? >> We're in the planning phases right now. So, we weren't able to offer this as a language credit before now because we do have a certified teacher at this time to teach this course um and offer it as a language credit. But we have Miss Mangonia, Dr. Reio, myself, um Miss Wallace, we've all sat down um Miss Herell to really look at um these numbers and anybody who might be interested. So, again, we're in the planning phases of being able to offer it. It won't hold any budgetary

038restraints in our schedule. We're not we don't have to um add any money to our budget to incorporate this course, but at this time we don't necessarily have all of the information on how many students are interested because we're just launching right now. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Hello again. I promise I'm also looking forward to this part. Um, so similar to the elementary school and the middle school, we have had some great things going on this year at the high school. Uh, again, we've had excellence in arts. We have had our student in regional shows. We've had them at the Paris Museum, East End Arts, Five Towns College. Our students are at these locations where they're showing their artistry and there are other people, professionals that also have their

039work side by side. So, it's pretty amazing. Our students are very proud. We're very proud of them. They're also then being acknowledged and recognized in the local newspapers and things like that. So, it's a great thing for us to just kind of keep in mind how far our students grow from elementary until they're really like almost like professional artists at the high school level. We also have students that are recognized as top performers. So, we have all our students that go to Nisma and then we have Jamia Schamya, all state um you know, we have some tremendous musicians. The Sound of Music was phenomenal. I hope you were able to see it. Our cast crew and pit were just it was one of the best performances. I mean, every year I feel like I do

040say that. I'm not gonna lie. But I this really was uh phenomenal. Miss Harkin, Miss Green did a great job. And every part of the cast, every part of the crew, the student directors, the pit, everybody makes that performance. Uh and I think that it was really seen across the whole community. People come out from other communities when they hear that we have a performance going on. And I know this is one of the highlights that I have on the other side, but our auditorium was a wonderful place to put on this performance. As far as expanding college and career readiness at the high school, it is really our job to get our kids and our students ready for the next steps. And that looks different for everybody. That looks different if we have some

041students that are going to be going into college, going to into the trades, going into the military, going into the workforce. So our job is to make sure that we are preparing all of our students. So with that being said, we put a lot of things in place. So we have sent a lot of our students to Boseis giving them hands-on opportunities so that they graduate with certifications and trades. We also have college readiness workshops just so that they're exposed to different things and different opportunities that they have later on. We run an SAT prep course that we started this year. We also do inschool SAT and PSATs which we just we just imp uh offered which personally I think is great for our students because they are able to take these exams in a

042place that they're familiar with. It's during the school day. It's in their library. It just sets a little bit of a different tone. Uh so I am very thankful for that and uh Mr. Adongo uh Long John is a part of that. So I appreciate his help with that. for expanding academic programming. One of the things that I just want to also highlight, um, so Clar Tebons is our on our board of ed, but she's also a leader districtwide in getting feedback from students. A lot of our expansion and growth comes from student feedback. So one of the things that we constantly do is try to see what is it that the kids want to take, what do they want to take, what are our teachers passionate about. And so yeartoear that is how we

043kind of grow our evolving course catalog along with different courses. We have an intro to athletic training which now has caught on even more and now we're going to run more sections of it next year. We have a principles of engineering class. So every year we're adding more. We also are adding um college level coursework. So I have a really good relationship with a lot of local colleges. So we work with Stonybrook and Farmingdale and Asiggo, Cobalt Skill, SUFFK working with our teachers to get them credentialed. Being able to offer classes for students so that when they leave here they get their high school credit and they also get their college credit is huge. And it's not easy. It's not easy for the students. It's not easy for the teachers. So, I'm very appreciative to

044our staff and to our kids and to the partnerships that we've built over the years with these different um colleges to make sure that we can provide those kinds of opportunities. We even just I was speaking with Dr. Botcher about a few um courses that we just found out were approved for next year. So, I'm I'm already excited for that. And again, a lot of that is based on the feedback that we've received from these like student panels and things like that that we that we've been offering. As far as our facility improvements, like I said, the auditorium has been amazing. And really the the biggest reason why I feel like it is fantastic is that our students feel valued. Our students are performing in a space that they're proud of. So seeing people walk

045out of the auditorium after their performance talking about the performance, talking about the talent and how amazing the kids are and not about, you know, the seats or anything like that is is what we wanted. And so again, I'll say thank you to the community, to the board, everybody for um pushing that through because I think the feedback that I've gotten from students and from the community is really that this is a place that our students deserve. So I'm very appreciative of that. We've also worked on our main lobby office enhancements, the renovation of the Ankug resource room. So we're constantly trying to make our environment at the high school warm, welcoming, a place that students want to be. It's not always everybody's favorite place to be as a high school or teenager. Um, so

046we're just trying to really make sure that we're continuously u making improvements along the way for the move that Dr. Reio was talking about at first. Um, what we Mr. Kazinski has done a great job, our team has done a great job in getting as much information as we can about how we can provide a safe and secure um and efficient tap-in system. So, we have already had student IDs that students have had and they've been tapping into the building. However, this takes it to another level where now students are tapping into their classrooms. The reason why this is so beneficial is because we now really know in case of an emergency where our students are every like the last place they were. So, that is huge because sometimes kids, you know, oh, I'm running

047to the bathroom or I'm running to a different class. I'm touching base with this teacher. we know now where they are and it just makes things a lot more as an administrator like that peace of mind of safety and security is really great. Also the the very big benefit that this has is it um it works with our SMS system. So it takes attendance live attendance which might not seem like a huge deal but as a teacher that is time saved. So the fact that the kids are tapping in and you don't have to physically take that attendance right then and there and then you know if a kid comes in late you have to adjust the attendance and those kinds of things. You do have to validate it. You do have to make sure

048that it's accurate but the students also have that responsibility. So some of them don't love that now we really know that you weren't there or were there. We know where you're supposed to be. So again I love it. Mr. Ski is loving it. Um there's always a little bit of glitch here and there but we've been working on it. Again, we had a panel uh discussion with the high school kids to say, "Okay, tell me the real truth. How do you feel about it?" And we got very good feedback. We then brought in um our representative from MOVE into the building, worked with him on any of the things that the students were talking about, uh staff feedback to really make sure that we got all of the kinks out of the way so that

049the middle school will be set up perfectly and they won't have to worry about any of those issues. Um, and then lastly, I know that uh we all kind of spoke a little bit about our professional development, but again with AI, that's a very big thing that we're trying to make sure that we're providing our teachers with professional development on that instructional practices um and our everchanging state standards. We need to make sure that we stay aligned with those. So for our enrollment projections, our overall number is going down because we are now inheriting the eighth grade that's coming into 9th grade. Um so that number does go down across the other grades. We're pretty we're pretty even. Okay. And as far as our future planning, so again like like I was talking about before

050in our high school, one of the biggest things that we have to make sure that we're doing is preparing our students for the future. So everything that we do is really based on growth learning and how to make sure that we're setting them up well for success. So that looks different in every aspect of the high school. That looks different in a math class than in the guidance office. Those everybody has their role to play. So curriculum, I know that Dr. Reio and um Dr. Dr. Fernandez both spo spoke about these different parts. One thing that I am going to touch upon a little bit more is the portrait of a graduate integration. So a lot of that portrait of a graduate is focused on academically being prepared, being a global citizen, being an effective

051communicator, future focused, all of that is really what we do in our curriculum in each course and in our curriculum as far as our, you know, social emotional learning, our mental health, our guidance. Um, so if you take a look at some of the priorities that we have across guidance and across really our entire building, we really want to make sure that we're helping our students plan academically. So make sure that each year that they go through, they go from 9th to 10th to 11th to 12th, that they're creating a schedule that meets their needs, that meets it has to be balanced. It has to we still want to push them, right? We want the rigor, but we want to make sure that we're setting every kid up for for success in those classes. We

052want and that is something that our guidance counselors do a really great job of of knowing individual students. We are lucky because we are small so we're able to really have those conversations um and make sure that we're placing them properly. We also want to make sure that we're giving them all those opportunities our students those opportunities about our college and career readiness outside all the different opportunities. So I know that all of our students we're in the thick of junior conferences. So there are the guidance office is you you see it all day every day. It is busy and our students are coming in and getting real good live. There's a lot of information for students to get and for parents to get. Um so I think it's important to acknowledge we are doing

053our our team is doing a really great job. We also are going to try to do a few things because again so feedback from parents but also feedback I was talking actually today with Claraara. We have so much information out there for parents. So we have what we do every month as guidance. We have a a list of all the things that we do in se well it starts in August right in August September. We also have all the dates of events that we do but sometimes it's not so easily accessible. We know what we're doing but as parents and students you don't always know exactly what it is. So we are going to we were talking with administration. We're going to create like a monthly planner guidance monthly planner so you know what's coming.

054You are a nth grade parent you know. Okay, this month the guidance counselors are going to push in. They're going to go over the report card and what it looks like after first quarter and how to reflect on that and different things talking about Navvian, different pushins that we're going to be doing. Um, and also a newsletter. So, I know that we have our district newsletters that have been going out, but we also have some great things going on that our students are doing and that our staff is doing and that our district is doing specific to guidance. So that is something that we were also talking about a few times a year just to get that information out so that people really know what it is we're doing in the building. We know everything

055that's going on. I am attached to guidance. My wall is right there so I know how busy and packed it is. Um but it is good to make sure that everybody is aware of all the things that we're doing. As far as professional development, we are going to continue with our co-eing best practices professional development trying to um increase align our curriculum and our data informed instruction. As a data person, as a numbers person, an Excel sheet nerd, I love data, but it has to be there for like a purpose, right? So, what are we going to do with that data? We're going to take that data and we're going to analyze it and then we're going to use that to inform our instruction to make our instruction better to meet the kids where they're

056at to fill in gaps and things like that. So that's what I want to make sure that we're doing as we look at our data. Our clubs, we have a lot of clubs at the high school. We have our um student council, so class of 2026, etc. We also have a lot of honor societies and then we have clubs that our students can get involved in after school hours. our kids are involved in a lot of things, sports, music. So, you know, and it a lot of the kids are inv I mean, Claire's involved in like every single thing we do. So, and that that's what our students do here at center. Um, but I think that's it for me. Okay. Yes. Um, I just want to say thank you to all three of you.

057You did a wonderful presentation. I'm um really really impressed with a lot of the new like um curriculum focused programs. Um and so a lot has been done in the last year. So, thank you to administration and all the teachers that are on the ground implementing this. Um, I just had one question. The um I Ready that I see was spoken about through the elementary school and then through the middle school. And so I'm wondering what we're doing with the data from elementary to the middle school to now through the high school now that you're going to be getting the eighth graders. um what do we do for remediation um with the eighth graders now that you have that knowledge so that we can address learning gaps because they still do exist in high school

058and they may look differently. It might come out as um poor writing skills or um you know and maybe Dr. Ro will answer this um but I'm just curious like what we're going what our plans are for that. That's a great question. So once the students take the uh last diagnostic of the year, which will be in June, um Miss Mconia and I will sit down and look at that eighth grade data to really understand um our nth graders coming in and then meet with the nth grade teachers on the gaps that we're seeing. Since we don't have the program in nth grade, it goes up to 8th grade. Um but we still can have access to all of the curriculum materials and tools for instruction for those students. So it'll be helpful to see

059the trends and really study them with building principles and then also with the teachers. So, I'm excited about that part of it. >> Great. I really I really like the program and the personalized adaptive nature of it. So, that's good to know. Thanks so much. >> Any other questions from anybody? >> Thank you. >> You don't want to stay? >> We spent all day together. Uh, good evening. Um, do I get the clicker or Oh, okay. Sorry. >> Okay. All right. >> Did it work? Okay. Okay. As we transition to curriculum from 2526 and the highlights from our year because it's going to be a little bit um of what you've already heard. But as we transition, I really wanted to say that this work is not necessary is I'm sorry, it's not possible without

060having the support of building leadership and teachers who really want to do the work. So when the board puts forth goals to us as administrators, it takes a lot of logistical planning to get people into a room to organize that work to be prepared to do that work and then it takes positive attitude. So I just want to say it's been an absolute pleasure so far doing this work with the team. Um, and everyone's just been so great and the students have been the center of every single conversation, every single workg group. Um, so I'm excited about what I'm going to share with you. So Clayton Huey um, really had two major changes this year in terms of curriculum and instruction. We implemented the K to6 magnetic literacy and the I Ready Diagnostic. Two different

061things, two different implementations. Um, they did a six-day comprehensive training. Uh, we had six days. We really separated them into micro sessions for teachers to really understand, digest the new curriculum and then practice it and come back. So we planned them in cycles of every teacher got three meetings. Um so it was an interesting cycle but it really worked out well and we plan on doing a very similar format next year. In addition to that at the building level, Dr. Fernandez conducted also some grade level planning and alignment sessions for teachers when we needed a little extra time to really go through those documents and understand how the curriculum is implemented. In addition to a brand new ELA curriculum that has aligned the entire building um and a new diagnostic assessment, we also implemented report

062cards. So the report card was created before um Dr. Dr. Fernandez and I arrived, but we did spend a lot of time over the summer going through every ounce of the report card to really understand it ourselves. Um, and Dr. Fernandez and Miss Jackson did a phenomenal job implementing that report card with their staff. We went through several grade level trainings, faculty meetings, really discussing what that looks like and how that gets implemented because that is not an easy feat to implement a brand new report card and brand new curriculum in the same year. As far as the middle school, we also implemented the I Ready Diagnostic, also brand new platform for our middle school teachers. Teachers went through a two-day training to understand the platform, understand the data. And in addition to that, Dr.

063Reio and Mr. Long John also conducted grade level planning and alignment sessions for their teachers to understand at faculty meetings and grade level meetings, department meetings, what that looked like and how that was implemented across the building. Um, we plan to continue that trajectory next year to really understand the platform because there are so many pieces to the data that we really want to dig in more and more. Every time we get into a room, we find out more information and the platform is everchanging. I will say they take our feedback curriculum associates and they really put it into action. So, they follow up with us and they let us know what the new developments are with the platform. Um, and teams also, as Dr. Dr. Reio indicated they met here in the boardroom um

064for a few sessions on datadriven instruction. We went through um Mrs. Horvitz and I and Dr. Reio planned some very intentional PD sessions where portrait of a graduate New York State um New York uh next generation learning standards and the and the NYPD were really integrated into one because they all do complement each other. And so we spent a lot of time planning that and executing the PD sessions. And the high school really spearheaded by Miss Mangonia and her team were midterm planning. So when I first arrived, Miss Man Miss Mangonia told me they had this plan to imple reimplement midterms. That is not an easy feat to plan an entire midterm schedule. So kudos to Miss Mangonia and her team for really designing focused department um goals in terms of midterm planning. So we

065really treated it, they really treated it as if it was like a regent exam. Um the formats are all aligned. The teachers worked together on what each department and what each course question types would be so that it did mirror a regent exam in terms of um short response, extended response, multiple choice. So students had were able to see a variety of assessment practices and again we also held professional development sessions here with data that we looked at all of the regions exams data. We studied gap analysis. We identified accomplishments for each content area and then we also identified areas for growth. Um and that information helped build the midterms. It helped inform our instruction. Um and we're we're seeing some improvements in our kids and really just understanding what our um next trajectory will

066be for next year. Okay. So future planning some of the things that um as we look to next year, we had some major initiatives this year and in order to make sure that those initiatives um gain traction into next year, we need to really focus on how our communication will be with parents. Um, and that's something that's very important to me is to, and Miss Mangonia touched on this a little bit, is like we do so much great work internally and we don't always advertise it so well because we're so busy gaining momentum with our goals and our focus. So, I really want to do some more parent outreach next year. What that looks like, um, we're still in the planning stages of it. Is it parent universities? Is it parent workshops? Um, also we

067implemented parent square. So all three buildings implemented parent square district-wide. We did a lot of training on parent square also with our clerical unit um so that they knew how to use parent square. So we really want to do some fine-tuning with parent square. Um there's some new features in it that we haven't been trained in yet in addition student square. Um and it's very important to me to focus on the website so that you can see the curriculum changes that have been done and just I really wanted to make like enhancements to the website that is like an information portal portal for parents. Um, so that's one of our goals. Um, as far as curriculum assessments, grading, and curriculum alignment, it's very important that we have a um a K to2 alignment. So that's

068one thing that we'll be looking very closely at next year is really merging the three buildings to be in complete alignment with our curriculum, especially as we've been changing our assessment practices and our ELA curriculum. And then of course there's the portrait of a graduate integration. as the New York State starts to develop this because they're giving us very little guidance at this point in time. But as they start to develop this, we will work alongside New York State Education Department to create and integrate the pathways that are expected of us um according to their timelines. Um we'll continue our data meetings to monitor student progress. Um another big thing that we we look forward to doing is designing and implementing a proper MTSS framework. And so that really just means how do we support

069students who are struggling or how do we support students who are excelling and need more enrichment. Um and then using that data to support our AIS program. So we've done a good job this year of using our I Ready assessment data to really support our AIS program and our ENL program. I'm looking forward to really expanding on that next year. And guidance. I think Miss Mangonia said it perfectly. We do so many great things. um we need to get better at making sure our community is aware of everything that we do. So what that looks like in terms of a guidance program K to2 that scope and sequence of what that looks like so parents can understand what your child is doing at each grade, what kinds of exposure they're getting and what kinds of

070supports they will always get from the center's guidance department. Um so that all of our students leave college and career ready. Uh another thing that I'm proud of probably should have been in the other slide but also in this slide is the literacy academy. So K to8 we implemented our literacy academy this year that was um we moved around some grant funding that we receive every year and I was able to provide that for K to8 the principles were integral in really looking at the data pinpointing who would be best supported by literacy instruction and next year what I plan to do is use this year's teacher feedback review the data of the students who attended and then really develop some next steps as far as professional development We um have co-teers in place. We've

071done a lot of work around um English language learners and students with disabilities. But one thing we really need to do as a state is really focus on co-eing. It's not been a very um popular PD I would say in recent years. Um but it's something that is really near and dear to my heart. Um, and I really think that we could really use some support around this because teachers want to get better every day and they want to have great relationships with their co-teers and there's so many great things in practice that really understanding what an integrated setting looks like is just best practice for kids and I think we have that under control but there are so many great things and so many great resources out there that we really the principles and

072I have talked about this and we really are excited about moving in that direction next year. Does anyone have any questions? >> Sorry for all the questions. It's >> okay. >> Uh, thank you for your patience. This is really great. Thank you. Um, I just had a question. You said something about K through 12 guidance. What were your plans for like um elementary guidance? Um, if if you had plans. >> We have a guidance council already at the elementary school counselor. So just organizing the curriculum and what we're exposing kids to uh career and college ready even at the lower grades and what those activities might look like. >> Okay. Um and then the co-eing best practices um are are you taking two teachers that are currently in the district and putting them together so

073they can learn from each other? Is that what you're saying? And then when that happens, um are there like are we having staffing issues with um classrooms? I I support it. I'm just like wondering the logistics. >> No, it's um so co we have co- teachers in special education classrooms in classrooms for ENL students, but most of the time many districts these are unfunded mandates saying you have to develop an integrated setting for students and so they don't offer professional development. So that's something that I would like to do. those classrooms. I thought you meant across the board. >> Well, it's good for everyone because you never know when you're going to be in a situation where you're co-eing with someone. >> So, the professional development would happen, but Okay, I understand. >> Any other

074questions? >> No. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Good evening again, everyone. The next slide that we are going to look at and I have to have it in front of me I apologize a lot of components to it is the international balorate slide. So I two things I wanted to accomplish tonight. One I wanted to provide the community and some of the board members sort of an understanding of how IB came into play in Sen Riches. How did it evolve in in the Senate Richard school district? When you look at IB sometimes you it starts it can start at the high school which is the DP uh program. It's a diploma program that's geared towards students in grades 11 and 12. Then it sometimes it moves down to the middle years program

075which is geared for students in grades 7 through 10 and then maybe it goes down to the PYP program which is a primary year's program which is the elementary which is K to 6. In Sen Richards, we did it a little differently. So in Sen Riches, we started with the PYP program back in the consideration phase back in 2015. It was about 11 years ago and I still remember the conversation where uh at the time with the board of education uh the superintendent and of course administration and teachers and staff and community members we looked at the possibility of just looking at bringing my toes school district. Uh so what we did at the time is that we visited other schools, we spoke to other teachers, we spoke to other administrators, we spoke to others

076to see what the my experience would be, what it would entail, and what it would mean to Senate students. So at that point, we did uh review it for a couple years. In 2019, we uh applied for the authorization through the international baloria program and in October of the same year, we had the NYP authorization visit. So, let me just kind of explain what that is. So you have individuals from the international baloria program that they uh they select a group of individuals to come to your school have frank conversations with your staff students administrators board of education members to see if you really understand what you're getting yourselves into and if you really want to tr hold true to the IB tenants. So at that point we were authorized 6 months later as an

077NYP school back in March of 2020. We then moved on to the high school which is the diploma program. So in April of 2018 we we became a candidate school once again. We began to explore it look at uh what it actually entails how we can incorporate it successfully in Santa Rich's school district. In January of T 2020, we became a DP authorization. We had our DP authorization visit where once again we had uh representatives from the international baloria program come to the high school, talk to staff, talk to students, see exactly what we were u offering and the commitment that we were willing to engage in. And then in February of 2020, which once again was actually like a month later, we were authorized as a as a DP school. Then we went we

078moved to the middle years program. So we began the candidate phase in 20 excuse me in 2019 in June of 2019. Three years later we went for authorization through IB and couple months later we became authorized as a PYP school. So this is the evolution of IB in Sen Riches and I do have to mention that this was a tremendous commitment by the community, by the board at the time, by the teachers, by the administrators. It took a lot of time, energy, commitment to really convert our in a sense our mentality in terms of teaching to an IB uh principle into IB philosophy. IB incorporates a more global perspective in terms of education as a whole. It looks at not just necessarily New York State standards, but it looks at more global expectations as to

079what they we as to what they envision as a student, as a global-minded student. It is very similar to what Dr. Bachcha mentioned earlier in terms of portrait of a graduate which is what the New York City uh board of education has um has instituted that we all will be obligated to uh abide by in in the near future. They just adopted it this year. So when you look at IB and you look at the evolution of Senate Riches, it is very aligned to where the state is moving now, which is great because I believe that we're ahead of the curve, especially considering the fact that we began this conversation 11 years ago. The one thing that I did want to bring to the floor for the um for the board of education and the

080community over the last few months, we were getting quite a few questions from community members that did attend board meetings and kind of question our investment in IB. So what you have in front of you is a chart. So every year IB, the international baloria program requires school districts to pay an annual fee to be authorized to uh to to hold the name of PYP, MYP or RDP. The cost of that annual fees is about $33,000 when you do the math across the board. These are annual fees. We have to pay it every single year. In addition to that, IB requires us as a school district to have a coordinator in place. A coordinator looks at the coordination of the program, works with professional development in terms of working with students every day. I mean

081working with teachers and students to in to ensure that the program is implemented with fidelity. Uh it looks at the assessment schedule. So it does a lot of the coordination of the program. So, with that, they do receive a $5,000 stipen. And I'm going to explain why the elementary column is blank this year because we did not have someone to fulfill that PYP coordinator position. We had someone in the past. The person that uh did do it for us in the past, chose not to do it this year. It is a big commitment. Uh there's a lot of time dedication that the person has to dedicate to the program itself. So the pro so the person that we had in the past chose not to do it this year. So we left unfortunately we left

082the position vacant but in future years we would have to allocate that $5,000 and a portion of that person's salary which I'm going to talk about in a moment. In addition to that we have to have what is called a cast advisor. CAS a creativity activity and service project. uh every two weeks uh every uh student that's a DP candidate which is a diploma program candidate has to do a reflection response that is submitted to the cast coordinator. Uh he or she reviews that responds to that response and also at the end they have to do a culminating project that is a service project that is a IB requirement. So there are there are quite a few IB requirements that I'm going to review throughout this um discussion. The other piece is the extended essay

083advisor. We have to assign an extended essay advisor. One of the requirements of all DP candidates is that they have to complete a 4,000word essay. With that, it is a very intense essay. It's a college level essay. It's a research project they have to do on a on a project of a subject of their choice that has to be pre-approved. We have to have an advisor that oversees that project. And also we have to have essay mentors. Each student that engages in the extended essay, they have a mentor that's assigned. That course is about 2640 a year. We also have community project coordinators at the middle school. And Dr. Rejo did a great job describing it exactly what it is. It's a great event. The students do an amazing job. They bring in the community.

084They work with uh businesses, outside individuals. They work within within the body of the community as a whole. And they do a great job in terms of demonstrating what it means what it truly means to be part of a community. So kudos to Mr. Votti and of course Miss Horoseski who co-run that. I think you guys do a great job. But with that as well, there are community uh project mentors that we have to pay as well. So that's another $6,000. The professional development, this is an average every year we allocate about 32,000 about $33,000 to professional development. So professional development for IB is very different than traditional professional development that teachers and administrators would receive. In my opinion, I think it's one of the best professional developments out there. It really is. Uh I

085actually did my dissertation on the professional development of IB versus professional development traditionally offered to administrators and teachers and it's by far phenomenal. But the what one of the things that you have to consider is that when they offer IB training, sometimes it's in different places around the country. So we have to absorb that expense of sending our staff members to the professional development. So that's where the cost comes in. Now the point4 coordinator so at every building as I said we have to have a PYP my DP coordinator with that contractually they are allotted a point4 which is 40% of their day to the coordination of IB within their building that point4 is 40% of their salary so that's what you see now I want to stress one thing if we didn't have the

086IB program, that 40% of their salary would just be to classes. It wouldn't be a complete savings to the district. So, if we didn't have that, maybe we would reduce the number of overages that we have, but it wouldn't be an automatic, you know, $180,000 savings. I just want the community and the board to realize that. All right. So, the total cost at least for this year is about $214,000. >> So, I know I I know some board members are going to have some questions for me. So, >> I No, I wasn't aware that you were going to go on this big speech today. So, um that was interesting. Um so, did we use this um $10,000 professional development fund this year? We did but we didn't allocate it directly for IB but in previous

087years we have. So what we do so when we plan for the budget we have to plan for IB. So this is what we plan for this year in terms of IB of $33,000. Next year we have new teachers on staff. We believe that we are going to expend the bulk of this in IB. >> Um and is this number for the coordinator 60K correct? Are you sure it's not 20K? Can we just um verify before we put this up? >> I know it is correct. I know it is correct. >> Can we triangulate that data, please? >> I I know I I know the teachers. I know exactly what the the payment is. It's 40% of that teacher salary. >> What was the ask in um budget workshop one for the total cost of

088athletics that we were asking tax um for taxpayers to pay um in comparison to this total number of 214,000? Um so in in one given year we're asking quite a bit for the athletics and this is this is quite a big number too. So I mean we can use numbers in different ways but this is curriculum. Secondly the IB program is aligned to the portrait of a graduate during the IB night. It was explained in detail how it was. So there's a lot of positives here. So I just wanted to put that out into the community as well. Understood. Any any additional questions from the board? H >> I do have a question >> please. >> And how many kids are graduating from this program? >> So right now I believe we have schedule five

089>> for this year. I think next year we have four DP candidates. >> And what did we have the prior year before >> 2024? Was it six? >> I believe it was six, Thomasina. >> Okay. Claraara, how many students did you um do we have coming up the following year? If Clara and Clara, would you like to talk a little bit about the IB program to the public since um it would have been nice to know we were going to have this conversation to have student input, the most important stakeholders of all. >> To clarify, this was shared with the board prior to this meeting. >> I know that this >> So, just I just want to make sure that the narrative is not false. Hold on. >> I just want to make sure the

090narrative is not false. This was shared with the board prior last Wednesday so people can review it and see it. That is not any administrator's fault if it was not read. >> Um so as far as far as I know next year for the current 10th graders that are going to be uprising juniors. Um I think there's over 10 people who are interested in the program and as of right now signed up to do the program which is I think one of the highest numbers that we've had. And I think that we've been doing a really good job this year with communicating more details about the program, the specifics about HL versus SL versus like what what is CASS, what are internal assessments, what what everything entails because there's a lot of details that I

091think students aren't aware of when they enter the program. So I think that this year we've done a really great job of tell informing kids about that. And to go back to your question about how many kids are graduating from it, I feel like though in the past we haven't had a lot of kids who have graduated from it, like that's pretty obvious. Um it's not just those kids that are benefiting from the program because I know everybody's familiar with AP programs and the AP test that you take you can later get college credit for. So, in Senator Merches High School, if you want to take an advanced, for example, English or history, you're going to be taking the IB program, not the IB program, excuse me, um IB English or IB history. So, you're

092also benefiting from the IB like IB learner profile and the way that IB teaches and also you're taking the IB test. So, it's not just me and my four other classmates who are benefiting from the program, but it's probably 40 other students in my grade, um, which is almost half my grade, um, that are also getting the amazing characteristics of the IP program. So, >> right. And the same teacher who is teaching it that is on here. Um, yep. >> Sorry. So, you're saying that students take these classes and also some do get the diploma and some don't. So this benefits you said 40 students. >> Yeah. >> In your class >> about. Yeah. >> Okay. >> About >> that wasn't the question. The question is how many are graduating with it. That was the

093question. I just want to make it clear. That's what I asked. I did not say what the 40 other kids. They're not graduating with it. So the community needs to know that. I'm not trying to pull no wool over nobody's eyes. Members here are getting very upset over nothing. It's just a question the community wants to know and we need we should be transparent with it. It's nothing to hide. >> Absolutely. It's not. But it is a nent program. So that means that it's a new program. It hasn't been around for a long time. As you see 2020 is only six years ago. So and it was started in the middle school. So the cohorts that begin in the elementary school in the kindergarten that move up through the program to grade 12 are going

094to be highly successful, more likely to finish the entire DP program because they'll have engaged all the way through. So you can't really assess the data accurately until we've seen a few cohorts come through the program. Um, so thank you. I'm just going to freeze everybody for a minute because instead of looking at the emotional side of this, our responsibility as a board is to look at the fiscal responsibility of a district. Can we sustain? Can we move forward? After that, it goes from superintendent down to administration down to teachers to evaluate and look deeply into programming. People get nervous when we're saying, "Okay, give us the feedback." At this point, this is not something that we're saying is going anywhere, but we need to know our numbers, right? If we want to close gaps,

095if we want to pay our our educators, if we want to pay for the programs we run, we have to be savvy and aware of what we're doing. That is the number one job of a board member of fiscal responsibility. It is not easy because we don't work daytoday in the trenches. We only get the information. We read it like we get homework. I guess you can consider it like an IB class because it is a lot, right? And then we start to move forward with the dialogues and conversations with the questions. This question has come up numerous times. You hear people speaking highly of the program. I think that's the good part, right? For us again, curriculum committee, that's where that dialogue takes place. You talk about buildings and grounds, buildings and grounds, that's

096where it takes place. Health and safety, all of that stuff is where the the data, the the the how, the why that comes forward. And then if you look at this presentation in this round, this is a very informative budget presentation because not only did they highlight our administrators highlight what we did, but where are we going? And that is not an easy ask because we're asking, well, if we're going to go at a budget increase, which naturally happens anyway, and we want to look for different things within our curriculum or what we're budgeting for, please give us the why. Where are we going? Because as a community when we're asking people for their money to help us sustain these programs to help us sustain IB to help us sustain we don't have AP anymore

097right to help us sustain any the theater program the auditoriums whatever it is the athletics program we never want to start singling certain things out right but at the end of the day you know there are budget lines that occur so if we can get a good vision as a board we then can answer those respectfully but then also not give false information if we're ever brought on the spot ourselves, right? So, we become educated. >> So, when we look at this, this is helpful information to understand what we are preparing for, right? When they did this 2015, 2016, I just moved into the district. I remember these conversations because the flesh educator in the elementary school is part of it. Well, when you do something from 10 years in the start, 10 years later,

098there's growth. If you don't re-evaluate the growth, you're going to eventually potentially run into fiscal issues. And that's what we just want to be aware of. And that doesn't mean it's this program. Trust me, we're evaluating everywhere, right? We've asked everyone to dive deep. The this poor administrative team has had to dive deep, right? So that we can continue to sustain what we do. Great. Because not only do we talk about this, we talk about music programs, we talk about theater programs, we talk about the arts, right? We talk about athletics. How do we keep building the pie, right? And then how do we develop the whole child and then make sure the educators are prepared for the whole child? So, there's a lot that goes into this. I know this was kind of like

099one of those awkward moments, right? But at the end of the day, just know that it's helpful information for everybody so that the narrative out there someone when someone's asking the questions, they can be informed so that we don't have to sit there and and go back and forth for an hour in the supermarket at Littlele. So naturally, curriculum committee, Jamie, Dawn is on there, myself, we have educators there. If this is something that ever comes to that point, that's where it starts. That's not not here. It starts there. Just to be clear. Sorry, I just wanted to make sure everybody's on the same page. >> Perfectly fine. Thank you. Um, Mr. Tennedy, at this point, any other questions regarding this one slide before we move on? No. Okay. At this time, I'm going to

100ask uh Mr. Oorio, our business official, to come up and deliver the last few slides for us. >> Thank you. >> My presentation is fairly quick, so don't worry about it. Um so before I came this night I have like many ideas that I wanted to explain about the budget but we are facing a difficult time. All revenues are coming less than we were expecting and all expenditures have grown you know mainly because our head insurance is going a million dollars above what is this year. Um we actually with all the calculations that we did we have a maximum tax levy of 2.93% that in numbers is $792,000. um in more revenues. We have seen a decrease in our revenues for the tuition from the um indigenous reservation and is moriches of $258,000 which that

101actually kind of gives us a difference of 500 in change of revenues that we will have allowed to grow this year. In the other side of the the coin, we have our expenditures. Just the employee benefits, we have a million dollars and the salaries for the next year have increased $420,000. We made like the addition a subtraction of those numbers is around $900,000 a difference. But we have worked in the last two weeks with the administrators um Dr. Bacher, Dr. Sodo in reduce that number. Right now the gap is around $460,000. Um we are continuously working in these numbers. There is a little there is more places that we can see and we want to be financial responsible of these numbers. Um we have been like I don't know if you guys are familiar with

102the budget but there is around 500 codes. Um within those codes there is codes that they have 500 items in them. We have review one by one with Dr. budget, every code, any curriculum, any supply, anything that is extra. The summary of all these revisions is this slide. This slide has been taking like probably like four weeks just to create. Um, we are going to continuously working in this uh process is no overdone. We have one more month to basically reduce the gap and that's the main goal. But basically, that's why I'm here. Um I'm sorry. >> Yeah. So basically what we can do moving forward, right? Like the first thing that we are going to see is like the state aid is not finalized. We are expecting to get the final numbers. As of

103right now, our foundation a is growing just at 1%. We are projecting that is going to be 2%. But until the first week of April, we are not sure of that number. We are waiting for that one. That will upset a little bit or like deficit. Um the scenario that is the worst case scenario is that the state aid doesn't increase and we still stay just with the 1% foundation aid that we have right now. What we will do if that happens, right, we actually we are continually reviewing our revenues. Um this is my four round reviewing like the tuition from other districts any extra revenue that we can have. We are counting every single penny that we are allowed to have. The next one we will be actually reviewing the special education students um

104all the private placing all the codes that they are going to bosses. um that those are like places where we actually can reduce our budget if we are mindful of all the services that we are providing to our students. And the last scenario that we are going to be looking is in staffing seeing if we can actually um reduce some staffing if none of all these other conditions happen. Um right now we have three people that have retired. we have to decide if we are like replacing on these positions. Um as of right now we are not u we are trying to avoid to eliminate any other positions after that. Um we have um um until April 21st we have to balance the budget and like that's where we are going to be working. We

105will seek for the board's approval on that date. Everything has to be settled by April 21st. Um, any questions from the board? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> My question to you is let's go back to number the first page. >> So over here in the box you said uh reduction in tuition. >> Yep. for the indigenous education. Yeah. Can you please explain to the uh community why is there is there a reduction? >> Okay. So we actually have previously two students that they were going to abos this program. Right now we just have one that actually when we actually give our voucher to the indigenous education it's around $100,000 for that student. Also, the enrollment that is leaving the school district um is bigger than the enrollment that is coming in in the kindergarten. So,

106just right there we have like the the $200,000. The other $50,000 is for the East Moriches, the students that they are not coming is the same situation. They are graduating five, they are coming four. So, right there we have less students. >> Okay. So, our enrollment is coming in less from >> Yeah. >> Okay. Just making sure. And another question I have for you. Um, prior, uh, there was a mention of our chug um, language class that's going into the middle school. We don't ask Senma riches for anything. We, all our money comes in through grants. I just want to make sure that you let everybody know that because another member was comparing it to the French and the completely right. We actually >> at the beginning of the year so there is two major

107things here right like you know we have like the the tuition is a revenue >> correct >> you know that's actually what is paying the education for the indigenous education the grants is a different side of the thing that's federal money that supports the services and >> right >> um project services and you know supplies that the indigenous education will have that's the side between the indigenous community and the administration Here we actually have a document that is called the budget for the for the grants. We agree in those things. We sign both of them and we will present to the New York State Department. >> They approve them and you know that's after revisions and we actually kind of have like a fixed >> document what the things that are being allocated. One of

108them being the the the language the language class. >> Yes. >> Okay. I just want the community to know that there's no money that comes out of this. >> No, it's not coming from general fund. That's actually coming from our own for federal fund. That is a grant. >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> No problem. >> No, I was just curious whether or not those students would are they would they not take Spanish or French? Would they would have the option to only take that language? So, they would be pulling from those classes then. Is that how that would work? I was just wondering about the logistics >> you could staffing. And and then would other students be able to take that class if they wanted to or they only reserved for >> um

109>> It would be open to any student that wanted to take the course and for language credit. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Any other questions? >> I think you're off the hook there. >> So, as I was mentioning before, like next day it is like our final workshop. That's April 21st. Um that's when the budget gets approved. Um by then we will have all the numbers sorted out and um we are working with all the administration together to have the that budget balance. Um the budget hearing will be in May 6th and the most important date the budget bowl. Please come to vote. That's really important for the district. Thank you so much. I just want to take a moment to thank all of the administrators. This is a lot of work. >> Um it's not

110easy work because it's emotional work on top of disconnecting those emotions to kind of look at what we need to be successful in Sen Riches and then also what we need to continue for future growth. Not easy. Um, anyone that wants to sit on the outside and feel like it is, I challenge you to go back to a math class and tell me how that feels, right? It's it's not easy because you're looking at every little thing. Um, you know, some of the things that we we talk about as a board, you know, we do our best to try to give as much information as we can, which isn't always comfortable, right? Like Clara just did amazing speaking about her side on the spot, by the way, right? for to give her student perspective and

111you know she's not privy to all of our closed door sessions. It doesn't work like that for a student member. So when when we're having meetings we are discussing things that look at our board goals. When we start in July we make our overarching board goals. Once those board goals are finished and they're adopted then the administration from Dr. Sodto down starts with his teamwork and then it goes to the teachers. that gives us our framework and we don't always get to review it but we get to hear about it and then now at budget time we got to see a lot of it which I thought was pretty amazing to hear about all of the the little things but most importantly for the for the community to hear it. Um so I just wanted

112to say thank you for that work. We're not done just so you everybody knows we're not done. We still have more time to go. Um that timeline I think did you put that out there? right that the timeline is here, right? Please don't go, you know, overthinking. Everybody is working hard um to do the best we can for the for Senate Riches. >> Uh the only thing I would like to add is that I really want to take a moment to commend the work that Dr. Bacher and Mr. Oserio did uh myself as well looking at all the budget codes. This is not a very easy process as Mrs. Senity indicated. It's I don't necessarily see it so much as an emotional piece, but there are motions when you add um like staff members attached

113to it. We have really truly exhausted our quotes. We are hoping that the governor will come in at a higher percentage rate in foundation aid that that will help us. But we are going to have a very challenging time finding the remaining balance. So like I said, thank you Fernando, thank you Jamie. Thank you for the to the administrators that really sharpen your pencils and really looked at this collectively with us because it was a very challenging process and we're not done. I just want the community to know that by April 21st, we will be presenting a balanced budget. Okay, thank you. >> We're going to move on to not so much of a daunting conversation, but we're going to go into the committee reports. Uh um the community connections meeting, the next meeting is

114going to be on April 15th. I added that. Sorry, >> I didn't share the information. Bad communication on my part. Red flag. No. Um April 15th. Uh we're going to look to kind of help with this budget information to push this information out to all of our groups so that people have another opportunity to hear it outside of a board meeting in case they are lost, confused, whatever they want to say, they can bring it to us. Just another opportunity there. Um curriculum and technology. Don, I think you got that right. >> Yeah. Um software updates. Um this has been an ongoing thing for the last couple of years. Um I've um really am really excited to hear we have reviewed all software use in the district for redundancy and usage. We'll be making changes

115to our software subscriptions based on the outcome of that review. So that saves costs. Most of the software removal is based on um apps or services that have been upgraded by new technology um but never rem but never removed or no longer used. um instructional technology plan overview. The instructional technology plan expires this year. So um they are drafting the new plan to be submitted in June and that would be in effect until June 2029. Um they've reached the goals of the previous plan and look forward to expanding goals in the areas for this plan. In addition, we'll be adding a goal focused on integration of professional development in AI. Um draft of those goals include the district will ensure all instructional technology includes students uh one-on-one devices remains current, reliable, and equitably accessible to

116support highquality teaching. The district will ensure all instructional tools and platforms are standards aligned and equitable. And the district will ensure all digital systems, networks, and data are secure and protected against evolving threats. This is increasingly important. The district will develop comprehensive professional development framework that empowers all staff to effectively integrate instructional technology and emerging AI tools. Um and then there um is a section here about elementary reporting cycles. Um the committee discussed moving from a three report card cycle to four in the elementary. Um this isn't decided but discussed. This would be done by adjusting the standards reported on over the course of the year. And um then PD for um PD and curriculum focus for the 2627 school year co-eing which is already talked about co-eing best practices for English language learning and

117special education and data informed instruction. >> Thank you. That was like a book report over there. Um, the facilities health and safety, their last meeting was on March 11th. >> Everybody loves to speak into the microphone, just so you know. >> All right. So, we met uh March 11th. Uh, we uh started off by talking about the building cleanliness concerns that were brought up at the last board meeting and how they were addressed. Uh went over the facility's use policy update. uh looked at some time frames for maintenance in throughout the district. Um uh we looked at um some capital projects for next year. Uh talked about the spring projects for maintenance uh being a little delayed due to uh those snowstorms that we've had. So like fertilizing had been put on the back burner

118because kind of hard to fertilize when everything was frozen. Um so uh incidents um I guess we had 27 employee uh student employee incidents uh since the last meeting. Um we had the homeland security came and checked uh did a check out of our security uh with the high school and middle school. Uh I guess we're still waiting on the results for that. Uh and then Clayton Huey will be looked at very soon also I guess the schedule. Um then also we talked about the a lot of stuff is being done inhouse now. So talking about the uh purchasing of a paint sprayer opposed to actually hiring an outside organization. It's actually cheaper to buy our own paint sprayer. Uh, so we can now do, you know, have nice, beautiful paints, uh, painted rooms. Uh,

119so it's going to save us some money. >> Sorry, John. C, can I just interject for one second? So, when we talked about the purchasing uh, spray paint um, gun uh, so that our maintenance um, crew can utilize it. It's really specifically for the APR. So, we painted the walls of the APR at the elementary school. The one thing that we can't physically paint with rollers or paint brushes is the ceiling. It literally has rafters. It's very intricate. So, we actually went out for different quotes. I think one quote we received was $45,000. Another one was $29,000. >> $45,000. Yeah. >> So, it was it's something that especially in considering the budget presentation we just delivered, it's not feasible for us to do. So, we believe that we could do it internally if we buy

120the right equipment, which is going to cost us about $1,000. Uh Chris Herell, who's a wizard with almost everything that we give him, uh assured us that he could do it within a week. So, we're planning that work in the summer. We're going to do it, I believe, the first week in August. And it would be a it would be um equipment that now we could use in other other spots as well because right now expending almost $30,000 to paint the ceiling of the APR is not something that is feasible right now. But we could still get the work done. It would be quality work and we could do it internally and and have the equipment for future use as well. Uh we also discussed the renting of a trencher to do some major electrical

121work again inhouse and saving us uh a lot of money instead of having a contractor come out. So uh stadium power um down by the football field which we've uh tripped many times during games uh made some Suffach County officials very upset that during the middle of a play we don't have a scoreboard uh or play clock. Um, also bringing power to the snack bar down at the field. Um, and then also running power to the softball scoreboard, which is currently a solar panel, >> uh, powered. So, uh, all that going to be done in-house and not having a contractor come out and do that for us. >> So, I do have an update for the board in the community. That work was actually done over the weekend. So, Chris and his team came in

122on a Saturday. They so let let me just explain. So all of the power was being generated by the one breaker that sits in the concession stand. So what was happening is that when we were using the concession stand, we were literally running probably 10 different things and we were uh it was getting shortened every time every 10 minutes. So what we did is that Chris Herrell and his team rented a trencher, did the work over the weekend. We have now a dedicated line to the scoreboard, to the press box, to the concession stand, and to the softball scoreboard. That was already done over the weekend. Chris came back on Sunday and into Monday and connected everything. I This was a surprise. I was going to alert the board on my Friday update, but since

123you brought it up, I just wanted the entire community to know. So that was once again work that was done internally that cost us a fraction as to what we would have paid if we had a professional outside vendor come in and it I think is going to work beautifully. We tested it. Everything is working. So we think we should have no other issues moving forward. This was the work of last year's board. Now into this year's when we enhance this staff it was meant for this. Right? when you're getting these quotes and you're starting to look at that wage, it's daunting. Um, what what Chris was like a gift. We'll say it every day. Chris was like a gift. Like for him to come in and take on the challenges that he takes on

124and doesn't even blink an eye. Um I I I can uh hug him for it because I was sitting there tripping the breaker about 14 times and a half one time, >> you know, and when you have our our parents and our volunteers coming out from booster clubs to give their time to bake pretzels, right, to do all this hot dogs and all this stuff and then they end up in the dark in the middle of a trailer. It's not really fun, right? But then we had to figure out like, okay, which breaker are we going with? So this is tremendous news because I'm excited not to have to sit at the breaker box during a game. Um, >> and one one last thing that I want to mention about Chris, when we hired Mr.

125Hero, he's a mechanic 4. So, he came in with a tremendous amount of certifications that allows him to do the work internally. So, we don't have to have a licensed electrician. We don't have to have a plumber to come in and do the work because he hoes the certification. So, I want the community to know that it's not just, you know, someone who's handy is just doing the work. He holds a certification that allows us to continue to get the licensing. >> Moving on to health and wellness. Chris, we're not going to commend you anymore. That's it. Sorry. Which, by the way, we did have Did you talk about the scope stuff yet? >> No. >> I'm going to pass it back over because you >> So, Monday night, we had a great evening that

126was uh attended by most of the board members. I know John, you you had illness in the family. You couldn't make it. Uh and John, I think you had a work engagement. Uh but the administrators, most of the administrators attended too, and we celebrated the service of three amazing uh staff members. One happened to be Chris Herel. Uh second one was Lisa Zatnitzky, a PE teacher who does amazing work with our students, especially in our unified program. Uh amazing educator, community member. She's been working with the district for now, I believe, 29 years. And the third was Miss Judy Martins who is an account um uh an account um person here in district office. She's been working with us for I believe 24 years. Also a community member. She does an amazing job. And one

127of the things about Judy that is so uh in we all like Judy that is so impressive is that no matter what happens, she always has a smile on her face. She's always professional. uh she's committed to the district and the three individuals. We had a great evening at Mama Labadis and Hobbrook. This is where Scope celebrates it. It's a pack room of almost a thousand people. Parking is always a nightmare, but it's always a nice night to kind of share with colleagues, uh different administrators, board members, family members, everyone that attends. So, uh congratulations again to Mr. Harel, uh Mr. and Linsky as well as Miss Mortens. Thank you. >> It was actually a perfect segue. All right. Uh, health and wellness. >> Done. >> Health and Oh, next meeting is April 14th. And

128then guys, policy. We're pretty excited to say we're ahead of the curve right now. So, we're waiting on them to send us the 5,000 policies. Then we will start to review again. Um, it's again, super exciting stuff. But, you know, we're making our way through some pretty important items with policy because some of these things were outdated by some years. Um, let's see. I think I skipped >> I got an update. >> Yes. >> Going back to health and wellness. Um, because the high school and middle school health teachers shared with me what they did. So, even though I updated at our last meeting since our February, um there is some stuff happening and I want to make sure that they get credit for all the amazing work they're doing. Um so, in the middle

129school, the eighth grade health students are focusing on social uh on a social health unit which covers how to interact with others and build healthy positive relationships. Um and in the high school all the fizzed classes received handsonly CPR and AED training um which I was in my previous life uh I worked in emergency services and that's very very important skills. So, I think that's amazing that um our students are getting that. Um and in the intro to athletic training that we talked about earlier, um that class that has a lot of interest, uh all the students completed the course and received a two-year CPR AED certification. And um high school health just finished substance use and abuse prevention unit. The next meeting is April 14th. >> Thank you. >> That's it. It's actually pretty

130good updates there. Um, so now we're on to questions and comment. Oh, do I have any questions about committees? Anybody's Everybody's good. All right. Questions and comments regarding tonight's agenda only. Uh, speak >> for what now? >> On the agenda, >> of course. >> But well, I'll let you start. Go ahead. Go. and then I'll go back to the >> I just have an um a question on item 11 consent agenda personnel. Um I noticed that we have somebody here um for tennis middle school boys head coach um low enrollment team dissolved. um that is an important um piece to building up the tennis program in the high school and I'm just wondering what was the numbers on that that we made that decision to get rid of it and then do we have the

131same policy for other sports and do we keep coaches on for other sports when we have low enrollment? Thank you. From what I understand, it was in the superintendent's update. There was two over at the tennis. And then Jeremy Thor also updated the board with the superintendent's update of the reasoning. >> Oh, sorry. I didn't see it. I apologize. >> All right. Questions and comments. Tonight's agenda only. Guidelines for public comment. This is the opportunity for persons who wish to speak or have written letters to the board regarding topics that are included on this agenda. Speakers are asked to sign in with district clerk. Indicate your topic. Keep comments brief. Speak for no longer than three minutes. Refrain from discussing matters involving specific district personnel or individual students. Please stand and speak into the microphone

132so that everyone here and those joining us on the live stream can hear you clearly. Members of the public will have the opportunity to speak at about any topic at the end that is not on the agenda. Anybody want to? Agenda is good. Moving forward. >> Oh, where's that one though? >> Consent. >> Oh, sorry. So, just want to take a vote. Be it resolved. A motion to approve the consent agenda items items 9A through 15B. Do I have a motion? >> You got motion. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Yes. It's about all the excitement we get is figuring out who's going to be the motion to the I'm just skipping ahead. This is my right here, right? Am I here now? All right. So, general public comment we're up to. Basically, same

133rules apply. Um, if anybody has anything they would like to say, this is the time that you can say. It's not on the agenda item. Everybody's good. We tired everybody out tonight. Um, informationformational items. Everybody's Anybody good? Just want to make sure. Any board members? Anybody not on the agenda? All right, we are on item number 17. If anybody wants to keep up uhformational items, I should say Clara, are you good? Do you have anything you want to add? All right, informationational items. Uh they are listed. We have next board meeting April 21st. We have the executive session at 6 PM. action meeting is 7 p.m. >> You want me to go backwards? I can go backwards. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. Just come up to the mic. Just uh give us your name and

134then just make sure you sign in the back on your way out if you didn't. Perfect. >> And then you can face us too, but when you speak into there, camera is there. There's a lot going on here. So, wherever you want to speak to and wherever you're comfortable. >> All right. Uh, good evening board members. Uh, my name is Luke Babalau and I'm a resident of East Merches and I'm here along with a few others on behalf of the Eastport Bible Church men's and women's softball team. Uh, I'm speaking to you all in regards to the use of the Center High School baseball field and its subsequent waiver or subsequent fee um for the use of the fields. So, uh, first off, we want to thank you for the use of the fields last

135year, and we really appreciate the ability to bring our community together because of it. We thank you for being willing to open your doors to these opportunities of com camaraderie and togetherness and uh, giving organizations like ours the opportunity to enjoy uh, the recreational areas that you guys provide. So, um this year we would also very much like to use that field. Uh and with that we would request that you wave the fee that uh has been established for the use of the fields for our team. Um, we ask this because half of our team does live and reside in the uh center Merches and East Merches school district and uh this field would allow us to be local and allow us to stay local uh with our families and be able to to play

136softball here as opposed to uh what our league's default field would be uh in Icelip. So, uh, as a community organization, we do look to promote these activities and we do, uh, strive to take care of the places that we use and we, uh, will do our our best to take care of the fields and use them appropriately. And, uh, again, with that, our ask is to be able to wave that fee um, for our requests to use the fields. So, I thank you for your time and appreciate the opportunity to speak. So this is the fun part for us. What we do is we pass it over and then we allow them to get back to you with that. Um I will say that within this obviously we had a policy update and change

137so that's why you know some people are looking at some adjustments. Um but what we can do is get back to you with the feedback. >> Okay. >> Does that sound fair? >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Sorry. I almost thought I was done for a minute and then I realized I still had the final closing comments. Um motion to adjurnn. John, you know you're going to have to say it, so let's go. >> Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor?