CMSD BOE Meeting & Budget Workshop 3-26-25

001We're going to go into the superintendent. Uh, good evening everyone. Sorry for the slight delay and starting time. Tonight we are going to have the third presentation of our budget presentation. Tonight we're looking at enroll in the moment. We're looking at some of the great things that are happening within the buildings, within our department. So, we actually have the majority of our administrative team here tonight. They will be presenting the presentation that is going to be led by our assistant superintendent of business, Miss Kelly Lachland. So, at this time, I'm turn. So, good evening. Um, we are nearing the end of the budget cycle. Um so today we're going to talk about the 2425 current programs and just kind of recap where we are, what we're doing, what we're offering. Um that's where each of

002our building administration will talk about each building separately. Um and then we'll go into our 2526 program and curriculum proposals. Um this is now the bulk of the budget. We've done all of the components up until this point in time. and then we'll just give a brief update of what we've already presented for the 2526 and some information we've received since our last presentation. So I'm going to kick it off with uh Miss uh talk about thank you. Good evening everyone. Um so a couple of things that have been going on at elementary school this year. It's been a big year for us honestly. A lot of major projects are finally coming to a close. Um we have our report card committee which uh convened this year had started last year with equitable grading practices

003uh professional development and kind of morphed into uh a huge overhaul of our report cards K5. Um it's been a really great learning experience for all of us. I think our teachers did a phenomenal job of putting together a draft that we'll be proposing at the next board meeting for approval. Um, and it's something that uh they they committed a lot of time and energy to and did a lot of collaborative work with their teams to be able to put together something that's going to be very meaningful for parents and their students. Um, we also this is our first year of the PYP uh international balorate exhibition for our fifth grade students. Very exciting project. I was able to actually go up to a couple of the classes this week and one of the girls

004looked at me and actually said this is like the fun part of it. We actually like really like this and that was like really powerful. So if you're not familiar, exhibition is an activity for our students where in fifth grade they basically are uh researching a passion project of their own. Um we did use a lot of new technology which I'm going to talk about in a second to kind of enhance the research experience for the students. But they are so proud in the the next coming month um actually in about two weeks they're going to be doing their presentations for exhibition. So, we're very very excited to be able to kind of put that together and for the public for the first time. Last year was the first year they did PYP, but it

005was only presented to the fourth grade students um and to their own classmates. This year, we took it up to the next level and they're now prepared to um kind of bring it to our our community and families. So, I talked about increased use strategic use of technology. There's that's both um with students and with teachers. Um as a part of our literacy pilot, which I'm going to talk about in a second, we did uh research another um diagnostic assessment tool that we're considering with um the pilot program as well. So that's a new uh form of technology that we're investigating. We have done a lot of work looking into AI for teachers and for students in the fifth grade PYP program. They actually were allowed at certain strategic points throughout the process to use

006AI to help generate questions, find information, um, and learn how to site all of that information from an AI source, which was a really good learning experience for not only our students, but I think for our teachers, too. Um and for our teachers for planning purposes, efficiency purposes, uh better communication um and with that same uh idea also with our roll out of parent square being able to use that technology going into next year for our entire program and it's going to be really beneficial for our community. Our literacy program this is uh been a major over uh overtaking for probably going on about two and a half years now. Our teachers felt extremely passionately that this is something that we needed to continue to pursue um to find the best program that we can

007bring to our students. Um it is no secret that our you know reading levels are not exactly where we want them to be. And if there's a program or um initiative that helps us get there better more efficiently then we absolutely were willing to explore that. They did an amazing job of really doing a deep dive into so many different curricular programs. So really proud again next month big month for us we'll be presenting once again with literacy committee as well um with our findings of that uh committee report and increasing the breadth and depth of our professional development. One of the things that we looked at over the summer um was just kind of being able to look at are we hitting enough topics and areas or are we so focused on one priority

008item right now that we're leaving things on the table. We had professional development with our ENL teachers this year. Professional development where we actually took our special education teachers to other schools to do a uh Suffer County cohort of special educators to just share best practices. Um we had training in executive function uh school visitations. I mentioned uh training in assessments, training in mathematics instruction at the beginning of the school year as we both have our second year of of envisions mathematics. um literacy program pilots. We had uh tremendous professional development through that experience as well. Um our special area teachers kind of took things to the next level with their PYP planning this year. Really doing a lot more collaborative work with the classroom teachers to figure out how they can enhance the experiments

009of our curricular program in the classrooms. Um just oh and science of reading training throughout the entire experience as well as well as the parent square and AI trainings I referenced to Dr. question. Um, she has a question. Yeah, I'm I'm basically this at this point it's easier for us to kind of talk about the literacy piece. You know, two years into it, have we seen achievement gap start to raise or are we still like status quo? So, with the program like what the literacy committee is investigating is what program is the best for us K5 to have a consistent continuum program. Okay. So you're not typically going to see massive, you know, change in students because the pilot program only went from it was about January, March. So to to institute a program mid

010year like that, we're really just trying to give exposure to the teachers to be able to get a feel for the program to see if it's going to benefit the students. I will say I don't want to kind of like give too much information and take away the No, I just This is the time like questioning for I'm just trying to get an idea of where Yeah. In terms of academic achievement, they saw things throughout both pilots for the two programs that were kind of the front runners that were very appealing and the students did seem to show improvements throughout the program. um improvements that we otherwise hadn't been seeing in certain specific areas of literacy. Um but in order to say that the program was strictly the cause of that change like we're we're

011just trying to make sure that right now we have the best program especially because the teachers are just learning the program. So with that moving forward like a pilot program is great but at the end of the day we're still struggling and we're sending them forward. So, have we thought about how we're going to get that short reader pushed forward? Whether it's summer program, evening program, whatever it is, have we any thought in this budget process for that? Well, we had talked about uh summer programs over the last couple of months um due to budget issues. I don't think that that was part of the planning to my knowledge right now. Um I'm not trying to put you on spot. I'm just trying to figure out because like if we're going to have struggles on

012the raiders at the end of the day, we got to find a happy medium because we're just going to keep passing them passing them. Our cap's going to keep growing. Our scores are never going to grow and one of our board goals academically is academic growth. Sure. So, you know, I think this is just a generalized thing. It's not towards anything. This is a team I say this um you know, we do have to find ways to allocate funds to make sure these kids don't continuously keep falling behind. And then how do we truly identify gaps in education if we can't look at standard deviations for special ed services? So like we're missing the pie in key test. If we pass the ball then we're never going to know when that they're going to hit

013nth grade behaviors or seventh grade and their behaviors. Why? Because their reading levels are low. So I guess a request for myself would be is like we look at something so that we're moving forward. Pilots are great, but two years is two years of a kid. And I think that's just too long. Two years. I'm sorry. Meaning two years of a kid waiting for a pilot to be okay. He's already in seventh grade. So I guess I understand what your point is. Um the pilot itself did not transpire for two years. So the pilot the reason that the literacy committee had convened initially was just to look at our programming when it first started because there was a lot of conversation going on in the world of literacy instruction. Science reading research was coming out.

014Literacy research New York State were just coming out. So there was a kind of um I want to say there was an initial overreaction from a lot of schools across the island to try to jump at the first thing. And I think our teachers actually did a really good job of being calculating in not overreacting and being impulsive and just saying we need something new now. They really spent the time and effort to invest in going and talking to other schools uh that are already instituting these programs, talking to the private uh the uh what do you call the vendors um doing the deep dive in the research and not only just in the programs but also in the science of reading which we still were learning at the time. So as we learned about

015the science of reading research and what kind of changes we should be looking for in programming that is what kind of led us to looking at well we had gaps in our curriculum that we needed to address and that they felt very strongly that the way to do that was for us to look into a program that could be consistently there was one other piece too just that I it's not directly in the literacy program uh review but our MTS SS and RTI plans really do help to kind of enhance the literacy instruction piece. So in conjunction with the work that we're doing with the special ed department having those other programs we have new uh intervention programs that we've been doing for many couple years now s they're important gillingham based programs those types

016of things are we're also seeing tremendous growth in those where students are exiting out of RTI uh programs and you know are starting to meet their expectations. Yeah, I guess again I'll just go back to this. If we could have some type of remediation plans that were casting these kids younger rather than later, I would support 1000%. Because part of the problem was our program that we had, our curricular program that we had, the more we learned about the scientific community further exposed the gaps that we had in the program. So without having the resources available to the teachers, there was going to be no catching up. it was going to be asking our teachers to, you know, make by the miracles with resources that weren't at their disposal. And now these programs that are

017coming out right now are extremely comprehensive and have really done a good job of intentionally layering things within the program to make sure that all of the big five areas. So, I guess to put it plainly, if we have students that are behind, it would be awesome if the teachers can identify and if we can build them a summer program and that allows them to offer it in some form of capacity. Um, whether we have the program or not, our teachers believe are strong enough to be able to understand how to teach the kids fundamentals of reading and writing, etc. Sometimes just like speed training, right? You got to continuously keep doing it and eventually we catch on. So, I guess that's really the request is like let's not wait. Let's kind of give the

018opportunity this summer if we can. Mike, I just I um want to jump in on behalf of our teachers because um while we are looking for a new program to ensure that all of the the strategies are role are being addressed in the science of reading, um our teachers have been doing that sort of the hard way all along. Um so it it has been that they're supplementing and using a variety of programs to try and meet the um individual needs of our learners. Um, and it was really important for us and for them to um, unify around a system that can help to best identify learning gaps and specifically what they are so we can really fine-tune the remediations or the supports for the enrichments that we're providing and that's been the basis of

019I guess to be clear I'm not copying anybody. I'm just saying the obvious. No, no, I don't think you are. You know, I want to put it as clear as day. It's just I want to help the kids that are struggling and the kids that are are just there like let's get them off like let's do what we have to do for them. Yeah. I think this will go a long way for our teachers in um was the program followed with fidelity or was there any kind of flexibility that the teachers found that they supplemented say assessments or resources. the pilots done with complete fidelity. Um we're in the finalization of our implementation plan and um as we did with the MAP um program uh our committee members working with the professional developers uh of

020the new program we'll be defining what um implementation of fidelity means so that we preserve the continuum K through five and can share with our secondary colleagues um exactly what those non-negotiables are to hopefully impact the secondary campus um simultaneous And then I think the other thing this is a big thing that I think is hard is like it's about change like theory of change for change management you really have to embrace that it's learning science is saying one thing and we've thought all along with saying another. So to systematically change that requires a lot of effort cultural change within the district and in the community and parents too. So, I want to make sure that parents are understanding the why and the how um and how to best support their kids up as well.

021So, that's important. And I'm also just curious when you say research because um academic research, you know, could be longitudinal looking at um studies and how nent is this um research that we're looking at in this program. Sometimes a tech companies come in and they're like, "Oh, there's a research." But I've done a lot of digging and sometimes it's just like a white paper. But just making sure that when we're making choices and I'm on a tech committee like you know so I want to systematically look at all of our ed tech programs and making sure that um these programs are um they have good research behind it. Thank you for Okay. Yeah. I have a question. Um, so in this pilot program, curious about metrics, right? Because we we've been talking a lot on

022the board about how to set goals um to measure progress. Are we really getting what we need in order for students to improve and of course a big part of that is you need to know um you can't keep changing your metrics. You need to have good metrics from the start. Um did did the pilot program offer an opportunity to think about metrics? What are we going to use to determine if the students are important? Is it the same assessments we know about? Um yeah, where are we going to go? So, absolutely. Um I don't I don't know how in depth we want to go because it's our presentation for next month and we're still in the finalization pieces. You know, we still have to make that recommendation to the curriculum committee. We have a

023rating day on Monday. Um so the teachers are still tidying that up. Um but we will these are all really great points that we'll be sure to incorporate in our presentation. Um so we're committed to that. Thank you. Hey [Applause] Dr. Everyone thanks for having the opportunity to present Middle School. Um I'll start with our middle year's program evaluation. Um really just started in 2020 over the past five years. Um you know our school has been working um here to be an international baloria school. Um, in this school year in particular, myself, Dr. Beio, and our I coordinator, Mr. Sepski, we've been working uh to prepare for our review, which is going to be coming up on May 19th and 20th. Um, we have preliminary reviews already in November and January. And we've also conducted

024um a number of self assessments up to 10 evaluating our school culture, our student support, and even our teacher support in the building. Um we're looking forward to you know what's coming up in a little less than two months. We see it really as a culmination and also celebration of the last five years and I'm looking forward to working hand in hand as we work towards that collective program for the next five years as well. Um another point of pride is our sources of strength initiative. Um it really sources of strength is a program really to support our students in the area of mental health. um it allows our teachers, our staff members, our administration uh to lean on some of our student leaders within the building. Um and it's it's really them who kind

025of uh build relationships um in the community within our school. Um and really what it allows us is that as an extension of the adults in the building. It gives every uh student someone that they are in need someone that they feel more comfortable coming to that that person can connect them with an adult that can support them. Um and we've grown over um this school year a number of projects, a number of campaigns as well. Um really just um enlightening our school uh culture um bringing that uh support to all the students. Um even last month in February, our school was featured on 12. one of the campaigns that we did decorating our school walkways um as well as um on the morning show our students had a little uh segment in which they

026introduced themselves to the building and really brought that happiness and um to everybody else in our school. So we're looking forward to expand that over the next two months. Our student leaders are going to be going to different classrooms um really to those conversations and we're looking forward to building that uh next school year. Um, another point of pride for us is our interdiciplinary instruction opportunities which we've been really made a focused effort to increase the school year sixth grade. You know, we're proud of some of the opportunities we've had Greek fest which really was a combination of social studies, English, um, math and all content areas. Uh, really looking at Greek mythology and the different aspects. Some of our students really served as um almost like a museum when you walk down a sixth

027grade hallway classroom and here you have our Aphroditis who's telling you the history of Greek mythology but it's not really acro it's one of our students who knows everything about so it was really great to have that opportunity to see um how excited our students were uh to share that and then also um really the innovative ways that they engage with the content and that's continuing across all grade levels and our eighth We had our comma and culture day where students got a chance to uh with combination and foreign language and social studies really explore another culture um through their flu and their history um and really celebrate the diversity of a different culture which is really a great opportunity for our students. Um this year for the first time we had our halfway hoopla

028and our seventh grade which was a culmination of the school year. Um what a wonderful way to review everything we've done for the first half of the year. Uh by having a day where we can follow a special class schedule and we can engage in all the different uh content areas from math to social studies to science um to uh our English classes. So um this is an effort that we've really worked on with our teachers to for that collaboration. uh we have our uh grade level meetings um every month with each team uh separately so that opportunities of course content uh learn opportunities and we're looking forward to continue that effort on that next school year as well. Another point of pride is really our morning show and really the growth and expansion of

029it. Um I think you know maybe it started as an obsession of our pledge of allegiance. Uh we've really grown this year to be emblematic of our identity here at Central Middle School. When we own our own show um which used to feature only eighth grade, we've now grown the platform to feature sixth graders and seventh graders and open it up to more students. Um we use it as a platform to share uh different messages whether it's um celebrating our diversity uh different cultural months such as black history month which just passed last month um as well as different initiatives that are going on as I mentioned social was first featured on the morning show uh but even things such as you know what are we having for lunch today all that information can be

030found on our morning show and it's really our students who are doing it so it's been great to see them have that platform and really turn it over to them to help them grow that platform. That's what we want to continue to do for that independence. The last thing I'll mention is our middle school makes the subgra which has really been a focus for us um throughout our building looking at whether it's wall structures um different areas where we can improve the aesthetics of our building. Um, one of the things that proud about is um, plumbing upgrades which are in our bathrooms since that time. Haven't had any issues in the bathroom. That's no, but really um, you know, what we want to do is how we see it is that um, we make an

031effort to make our building, you know, feel good for our students. Um, then when they come to school, they'll feel good. and if they feel good um we think that they'll learn a lot better and improve achievement. Uh so those are really our points of pride for middle school. We're looking forward to continue the effort in all those areas as I mentioned um and all right um I am here to present Mrs. Mangonia for the high school. She is up in Albany with our robotics team at the regional competition. So I would like to start by wishing Mrs. Mayo high school robotics. Well, I know she's watching live and um sad to miss this event, but she's excited to be with our robotics team. So I'll be presenting um high school. Um so for the

032high school, um some points that she'd likely emphasize are unified athletic expansions or unified um athletics started in basketball. I know it was expanded basketball, golf, and bowling. Um, so that's been very exciting this school year and also in our run series, the mental health run series that high school student leaders are running using our voices. It actually had a unified division this year at the run series. So, it's been a great um connection of students um and we look forward to seeing that unified program continue to grow and kudos to those high school teachers that I love the charge um with the unified has really taken off this year at high school. We're excited to see that. Um, next for teacher curriculum alignment. This has been going to focus effort this year to provide

033the high school teachers with common planning time um and collaborative department days for those teachers that teach resource classes. Um so with that she has seen vertical and horizontal alignment across the high school. Um and that's going to continue next year for curriculum alignment. Um K to2 alignment and communication under Dr. to leadership. We've had two bi-weekly principles meetings um in my office and that has been a great way to connect um all three buildings further. You may have noticed this year um in the past spirit days have been spirit day. both on spirit day high school then on spirit day this year um with unified across division so you're welcome so that is one small example that was the initial example you know the homecoming example right um but there has been many many

034other examples of how those bi-weekly um meetings have unified us across the district and been ultra small um as small as we are but obviously deeper you know in curriculum wise so we are going to be continuing that this year that has really um led to communication um and alignment across our our buildings. Um student achievement was exciting. She wanted me to share some very specific things about high school student achievement. Um recent successes include a national merit scholarship finalist, two Mathcon finalist, and a National History Day participant and college acceptances are starting to come in office. Um, so our class of 2025 acceptances um have included recently, but they're certainly not limited to Cornell, Villanova, West, Providence, University of South Carolina, Jio, Bingington, Bryant, Stony Brook, Basser College, um, and many more. So, congratulations

035to our seniors who are receiving those amazing college acceptances. We look forward to seeing uh, where you choose to go and spread your wings. Um, and also our most uh, students are excelling at the high school. She's very proud that in addition to receiving their diplomas and their certificates, they're um many are on the honor roll this year at Sun High School. So, congratulations to our students and our students in our program and the success that you're finding as well. Um arts and robotics, like I said, our robotics team is up for regional competition in Albany. Um so, we look forward to seeing their success. They were third round in the finals at our Long Island competition last week. Um and in the area of the arts, we had over 90 students participate in the

036Little Mermaid between the band, uh the pit band, the cast and the crew. So huge participation um in our drama program at San High School. That was an amazing musical. Um and our artists are producing work that have been showcased in the Paris Museum this year. Um musicians have received national and regional recognition, which you saw at our last board of education meeting, including our first in a decade um at Penny's meeting Eastern. So that is the first in 10 years. So our music program is also continuing to thrive at center high school. Um so I'm behind those are some of our high school highlights and I am host when we look at the high school and the middle school you're right when we look at the music performances. Um the pitman played nonstop. It

037was amazing during that little period. I don't even know how they did it. Um, you know, a couple things that that I look at from a high school and middle school perspective that I would love to see support for is that theater program, right? I say high school and middle school program because they're both doing phenomenal jobs. Obviously, yesterday I didn't make amazing things about the elementary school as well. So, I mean, it's something that our kids are passionate about. if it is part of building curriculum, it might help a kid read faster, too. You never know, right? Um so, you know, to me, those programs are they're timeless for kids. Like, we just need to make sure that we're putting that our efforts forth. And if we can support them in any way, um

038I would love to also see that, you know, somehow be built into what we're thinking about for our future budgets. I'm sure the community would love to see that, too. Um I looked at robotics in the high school. I stopped in. I honestly didn't know much of the language they were talking to me about, but it was awesome. Um, when you when you look at that system, it's not in my wheelhouse, but it's amazing to see their passion, their growth and looking at from an engineer standpoint. Um, and then the growth, you know, when you talk to the adviserss there, they're passionate about it, but then they're also looking at it from a youth perspective saying, man, if we can get like uh the first Lego club back in play, and I think that was

039the elementary school, and if we can get something in the middle school. So, you know, sometimes when we do clubs, we're organically creating curriculum without realizing it. And those type of programs would be amazing to be have, you know, whether it's now, later, however, whether it's through my I'd love to see that dialogue continue so that we can kind of help enhance the work that these advisers are doing. Um, and I guess clubs, but really I don't consider theater club. I think it's just a number thing there. But at the end of the day, like those programs are doing great work. I'd love to see support head that way um within the high school and just continue to grow for those kids and we all so we're looking at increasing our support to the drama

040clubs across the board. We do acknowledge the fact that our kids do amazing and our staff do amazing work with that as well. So we are looking at uh ways to kind of offset their cost. Most of the funding that is that supports the High School Musical is generated through ticket sales. We do fund all the cycles that are associated with all of the adults that contribute their time to produce and manage the uh the musical itself, but we are looking at allocating additional funding for different items that are course items of the musical. So, we are having that conversation. We are possibly looking at robotics, but this is part of our conversation because we want to to the best of our ability enhance and support what our kids are doing in all areas. Not

041just we talk about reading, we talk about math, but looking at the arts, that is another way that a lot of our kids can express themselves. Sometimes that is the only outlet just like sports. Uh so we do we are looking at ways to increase the level of support that the district has for those particular programs and another thing the high school we do a lot of great work you get a white workbased learning coordinator in there that working count towards credit we've talked about this a little bit over time um you know I know we had a company that used to do job fairs you know we're still working on that right now um job fairs are essential for the community for the kids sense of pride in how we help these kids you

042We have to just as we're working through everything, you know, it's something to be mindful of. But then that works is not here tonight. We all working on a job after this. And I So that is going to come to the that is coming. And again, no pressure. I'm just speaking openly because we're building the budget. Um it's items that enhance our school, enhances our kids opportunities. Um workbased learning coordinator is is a phenomenal thing. the money, you know, if you find that money, you know, you're talking about different options for kids, different pathways for kids, but you're also putting kids in the community to work. And, you know, now that we're doing the budget, you have some time those programs. Thank you. All right. So, um, we really just wanted to highlight a critical

043across the district. Um it's not one of those big flashy items like the programs. Um but our our teachers have been doing a lot of work around our K through 12 continuum. Um so as Mr. Richie shared um as we've been co-f facilitating the report card committee for elementary and the literacy committee, there's been so much work um time and energy by our teachers to really um ensure that they're doing what's best for um not only the students within their building, but their the students P through 12 and Rich School District. So, I can't stress enough um how much how much work and attention they've given to these things. Um we've implemented parents square uh this year and it was sort of a soft roll out at the district and building level um with uh

044the potential to move next year to uh teachers using it in order to have a one-stop shop for all district communications. Um we have some really fantastic um data to show um parent engagement and all of the stories um and even direct messaging communication that teachers are engaged with. As a result of putting in this instructional technology, we've also been for the first time able to um distribute our star reports in an almost seamless distribution. Um it it went out earlier this week. Um there was one glitch where we um at Clayton Huey sent out um literacy and math and and parents got two maths but um Mr. Noi and the and the tech team really jumped on that and um fixed it very readily. So everyone should have their right reports. Um but the

045ease of just sharing information with our parents has really increased with um a technology such as parent square. Um, and what's really nice for that is while your teachers are in the classrooms every day advocating for students and helping to individualize instruction, these are really important tools for parents to um use and and and know and and be able to use to advocate for their for their children. So, we're really excited about just increasing the transparency with what's happening with your with your students um and hopefully helping to foster more rich conversations around your child's progress in literacy and math. I just wanted to say thank you for um like sending the STAR assessments out. I really loved and I I said this to Dr. But I love the level of like the granular level

046of information um because as you're moving towards a holistic report card and then that that transition we still have we let parents know that there's many data points we're looking at assessment and that was a great one. It's really good to see and I love that it came to parents where I Yeah. Yeah. As I share, you know, I often compare it to the medical profession that, you know, when you go for a physical, you go for blood work, but there's a holistic piece to it. You know, there's a conversational piece to it. There's numbers and metrics, yes, but then there's also the conversation with the doctor. So, the same thing should be happening with your children um with their with their educators and and so we're trying to get that information to be readily

047available to you to help facilitate those conversations. Um and our teachers have been really supportive in that work as well. Um you know, when Miss Mania and I met this summer to plan the next generation planning teams, um it was really important that we did so in alignment with our previous year's regression results. So, our teachers not only have been co-planning at multiple points throughout the year um with their middle school colleagues as a high school and a middle school together, they're collaborating around common unit planner templates and they're also using the information that they gleaned from last year's assessments and trends over time in order to inform that work. So, really impactful work um and just giving structured time for educators to really collaborate and innovate in education. Um we're seeing wonderful things in

048the classroom. Um our IB evaluations for DP uh and my it is a bi cycle. Um but what's wonderful about that I mean the building leaders and Mr. uh Roberts and Mr. Chowski are really doing the heavy lifts in evaluating all aspects of our program. But what comes with that is collegial conversations again with teachers about our continuum, about our culture and about the way we do things and our essential agreements. So that's a very valuable process for us. Um, and again, I can't stress enough how hard our teachers are working in all of these curricular areas to ensure that we are doing the best to um provide a robust MTSS plan, to align our curriculum, and to really start to harness data. um to to make it more powerful and inform the instruction. And

049finally, teacher le workshops during conference day I think was really important. Our teachers um have come with a wide range of expertise and you know sometimes the tendency is to go seek out that national expert or to go out of district. Um but we have so much within and so it was really wonderful to be able to plan over the summer for the teachers to lead their own workshops during superintendent's conference day. I think we see all the teachers I spoke to really appreciated it. Um, and it was a nice way to one honor their craft. Um, but two teachers got to sort of select the things that they were either passionate in or realized that they might have challenges or needed enrichment. And so it was a wonderful day for all. And those are

050just some of our curriculum points of pride. Um, question. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. How are we using the STAR assessments to identify gaps? Are we using it to help us and you know what are we going to do for the students who are recommended as well? So as Dr. said earlier the star assessments are just one point of data. Um however they are um used in both the elementary and middle school. They don't exist as the high school. It's just a a K through 8 um universal screener. Um, but our child study teams do use that as one of the data points when they're looking for students who are possibly in need of intervention, when they're progress monitoring students that are receiving intervention, and also when we're looking for students who perhaps need enrichment. What

051What is your um planning for kids who need enrichment? Um, that might score really high. You're seeing that they're not meetings are not being spent in the classroom. Sarah talks about how that assessment would inform practice. So oftent times in the example of enrichment because our um learning specialists have very tough schedules and providing um remediation or supports for students who might not be quite making the proficiency cut. Um it's conversations um and and both our buildings do a wonderful job with this um supporting the teacher in finding ways to enrich the classroom. That's a hard thing especially if you have a student who's way above or the rest of the group is um but that is the design of child study team to really collaborate and talk about individual students and how to make

052the best out of their journey here in Sanes. Um, so when we're calculating elementary class size, I think it's really important, you know, we have our cohort, those students that will graduate in their graduating year. Um, but we also have special needs students who are self-contained. Um so for example in first grade next year our um kindergarteners that are rising to first grade have 89 students total but when we're calculating um the elementary class size we're really taking that bottom red bar because the others are in sort of alternate placements. Um so our next slide will show you uh the elementary class sizes by grade level. Um this is with one additional section added and the reason why the administrative um team really collaborated around this and we really um felt passionately that we should

053have comparable sizes across the grade levels. So you can see that in this current school year they were a bit higher in in the intermediate grades. Um and I think this budget and and our projected enrollment does a nice job of lowering those sections across the board. So they're hovering around 20 um in the general education side. middle school productive enrollment is kind of going to remain static. You see that eighth grade um is going down next year, but some grades is going up um and sort of cancels itself out. Um so there shouldn't be much impact to class sections and things like that in the middle school. And it's basically the same story of the high school. So again, pretty static enrollment there. have really shown and altered the number of sections that we

054need to provide in order to make sure that our master schedule works. So with regards to that um that visibly now staffing so that's our enrollment and now we need people to teach these children that are coming through our programs. Um so this is just showing what our percent growth in salaries are and that's just strictly instructional salaries. Um and you can see we have been growing and that is we have contractual obligations for raises every year for all of our staff. Um but you can see the bubble there in 23 24 and the 2425 year and that was um a planned bubble because we had all that federal funding with the COVID money and we hired new staff with that money and we were slowly starting to absorb those positions within the budget so

055that we can remain fiscally stable going forward. Um so that was part of our long-term financial planning. we were successful in doing it. Um so now you'll see in 2526 we're kind of back to leveling off with a steady increase in salaries um across the board for our instructional staff. We do continue to budget a contingency teacher in our elementary building strictly because we don't know kindergarten enrollment. So right now we're projecting four sections. We currently have five. Um and that's based on our enrollment numbers and our census data that we have. Um, but we could and typically last week of August, first week of September is when we see a a larger influx of enrollments and people wake up and it's summertime and oh my gosh, my kid get on a bus and I

056forgot to go take care of that. I just moved here. It's those type of things that happen. So, we do add an additional um position in the budget to cover for those um situations in case we need to add another section. And not necessarily just in kindergarten, but that is really like the primary area that we're watching. Um but it could happen in any of our grades um even at the high school depending on our student requests for programs and what the needs are for those for the kids up there for graduation. Um and as I mentioned all the federal funding that has expired it ended as of um September of this current school year. So those grants are gone and we have absorbed all those teachers within the general fund now forward. So with

057regards to what we have in the budget for next year for program and curricular with the technology we're continuing with onetoone profile replacements um we have it now in all buildings all grade levels teachers are onetoone um and now we're just on that replacement cycle so we do this through a lease through Boseies it's a five four year lease that we go through Boseies for these purchases um in addition to that our smartboards we're continually replacing those as they're aging out um our Chromebook charging stations for those kids that um in the elementary building to have more charging stations there as well as in the upper grades when they have it and they need to charge their Chromebooks. We're finding that we need a little bit more and put it into more um areas of

058the building so that it's easily accessible to the students. Um and then again some u technology enhancements for our board of education meetings um moving forward whether it be here in this building or in the auditorium um which we'll talk about a little bit. Um, with regards to athletics, we have a combined girls swimming um, team being offered next year in conjunction with the Wing Floyd School District. Um, enhancing our unified bowling program. As Dr. said before, we have been enhancing our unified sports for our students. Um, over the past two years and that is continuing to grow. We have added in our inter murals for our offseason students. So, those are mostly on our high school. We do offer inter murals in our middle school. Um and now we're looking to expand that so

059that we can enhance the offseason um training and weight rooms and practice um not necessarily practices but training for um and again we're continuing on our uniform replacement. So we it's not cost effective to do them all at once. We have a um Mr. Do has in place what he's doing with each team to replace uniforms. Sometimes we need to um just buy uniforms based on kids sizes. kids are too too small then from what we have or larger than the sizes we're offering. So we always make sure we have enough in the budget for those particular areas as well. In regards to curriculum, as the team already mentioned, the literacy literacy curriculum is being budgeted for for next year. Um the new elementary report cards are budgeted. The um someone has to tell me

060about sorry New York State Science Learning Standards. Um and then our next generation curriculum planning which got Dr. before as well question um regarding the so I'm curious what what the change of philosophy and having smaller class sizes for indirect versus making more uniform how has that developed where it come from philosophy so the philosophy behind this is that when you have especially at the primary which you describe K1 and two the thinking and the research behind that is the small class size you have you allow for more individualized work so you you allow for more individualized attention to students and students do have a difficult time because they're transitioning to a full day of instruction sometime so the smaller class sizes allow for more individualized attention to students and it's it becomes a lot

061management for kids as well. Right. Didn't I see that kindergarten first grade got bigger? No. No. Right. 17. Right now we're from 17 to 19, but we're projecting four sections. There is a contingency teacher in place in the event that that uh the class size grows. We can add that teacher to reduce the class sizes to a management. Yeah. It's not it's not as as noticeable. The fifth grade goes from 24 down to 20. So that's a change in 20%. Kindergarten goes from 7 to 19 first grade from 19 to 21. Just to clarify, so the year-to-year enrollment, you're going to take that kindergarten five sections and you're going to look at the first grade four sections. So they're going to go down for all sections. So it's not direct correlation across the number of

062sections that were the the number of four sections are now expressed as 19 256 is just an estimated projection based rough numbers we have no idea and we we only project that additional section in the event that we have unexpected population there's this large group that comes in which we have it's more it's more section yes to your point Well, regarding going down from five sections to four sections was conversation that we would have had um it does increase the class size but just to give the historical context to that. We last year looking at enrollment data we were looking at a very large cohort when we were anticipating a large boom coming at the end of the summer and another. So we budgeted for it, planned for it, prepared for and staffed five sections

063and we had the fortunate unfortunate circumstance where the kids got a year of low class enrollments for this year, but going into next year we felt like it's still a very manageable group going to classes. I also just want to point out that on this slide, the only number that is um a bit fiction right now is that kindergarten number um because we're projecting we actually projected 20 students more than we we currently have told. So that number is um it's 85 as a cohort. We really only have around 65 students registered. So that number in reality will probably be lower anyway. We just would need to communicate the opposite, right? That we have super small class sizes and they get a little bigger. We're trying to give you like, you know, what it would

064look like maximum and then, you know, we might land a little bit lower in class size in kindergarten because that's the number we never quite know. Right. No, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't coming at the expense. Thank you. All right. So I'm for those that didn't meet me um I've been here it's a month now as the director of special education um it's been an amazing month of getting to know the programs getting to know the families getting to know the students um and and talking about those big things of how are we looking at identifying students and how are we supporting them whether it's on the building level or through special education services. So, um, right now the projection for the last three years, you'll see it in in three different

065areas, um, of what the tuition is for students that are actually currently at at a district placement, but that's not a booze program. Um, that number has actually decreased over the last um, four years. Um, the booze as far as the increase over the years, at some points, it's not just the enrollment of how many students are going, but the needs and the cost that's associated with the needs that they they need to be supported in. Um so that is definitely projected to increase for next year. Um but the contracted services so outside services of occupational therapy we contract out physical therapy and some speech services as well. Um that number has actually decreased and that's something that we're looking at too of how to support children um in making them successful staying in the

066classroom as much as possible but still then reaching goals that they have as well. Um so in district or special education programs we do have a a special class self-contained 811. So what that means is we have eight students at max one teacher and one teacher assistant in those classrooms. Um that is the most restrictive setting that we do have in the district. Um then we also have self-contained uh 1211s. Those are 12 students, one teacher and one power professional. Um in addition we have um a 151 not a 1511 um class. So that is um primarily middle school to help and assist students in a smaller class but also towards um taking those regions is being successful in those areas as well. Um then we also have a direct consult teacher DCT that is

067when a special education teacher pushes into and works in collaborative um with the general education teacher. So there is one for grade level. Some have two sections depending on how many students that we do have. Um and so we also have resource room and resource room um is primarily we see more on the secondary level that is one period a day with no more than five students in that that class. It's for one period and that's really to help assist students that are taking general education classes but need additional support whether it's studying skills, organization or of writing as well. So those are projected programs that are going to continue for next year as well. Can I ask you? Yeah. Any questions? So you're just getting here, so just take this with a team assault

068here. Um the reason there's a few things that we go I'd love to see breakdowns of where our kids are going. I don't mean you can't do that, but breakdowns of where they're going, but then I'd love to see yearly exit outcomes. how the kids feel, how the parents feel, and like, you know, what's the value of us sending a kid there, you know, moving forward. I know it's a lot. You just get Are you speaking more about out of district placements? Out of district placements. Yeah. Um, you know, BOS is particular. So, now we know like we're sending money. We're sending 2.3 2.5 million to these programs. If they're not effective, then we're just throwing darts in the wall. It doesn't want to stick. So, we just want to make sure that it's effective.

069Especially the New Year's programs. We all know where that goes. program is crucial for these kids. Um and again I'm saying this is a team effort. So please don't take it as like any red directed the um when the other thing is you know the parent support and train we don't have a SETO here. So if you look at other districts Septtos are tremendous. When we don't have Septtos a lot falls upon you know us staff to really pull a little bit of extra weight and you know to help the parents and the kids and even siblings. you know, you often see things happen at those schools with those SEO programs that enhance the household. Um, so in conjunction with everybody, I would say like it'd be amazing to start something in the future to

070help really hone in and help those families because there are families that don't know what to do. We used to have something many years ago. Unfortunately, we attended participation and it is something that I think as a district. I would love the test but in the future because not right now because we don't have it and I say those meetings to you. So that's why I'm putting it here. Um yes being on um the other side of things um I just remember because you have to pay a fee for both just one one thing I'm sorry I don't mean but we are going to reserve questions to the um portion of the agenda that allows questions for items on tonight's agenda. If you could just hold that question. I know. I don't have a question

071on this. I'm just addressing this way that that that from from the outside source people don't want to pay two fees and and then then you have two different meetings and then two different and we're such a small school and that's that's why that that will happen. No, I agree. I'll double session. I agree. Um I I'll I'm kind of addressing them here, but at the end of the day, it's something that we have to help with, you know. So that's really what I want to look at. These are questions. Um the the um the other thing is like, you know, how can we keep the kid connected here? the number one most important thing is how can we keep the kid connected here if they are part of or if they are and I

072think those are things that really help a kid grow um and things that I would like for us to be able to think about but sorry just to respond even today um we had a team that went to go to sea and to uh discuss observe to see if there was a student that was going to um you know be able to come back and be successful so those were things that we're looking at and that's a team effort that's talking to the parents and um because if we can have success here this is where they belong to right so um that is something we consistently look at we can talk about septa I think from coming from a district that did have septa as low enrollment that's what happens truly is how do we

073embed in typical PTA so that there is a connection there as well because then it isolates so if we are able to bring that knowledge and as well supported then we can talk about it from that avenue as well Um, but those are really good points and definitely this is the time to explore and see what we're doing and highlight what's great and then where can we even improve to make it better. And just to clarify, I'm not saying we need to set them. I'm just saying we don't have the benefit of a large district that has a set. So like what's nice is for us to support it is is I think so what I'm going to do now is go over 25 26 next year's um updates of things that have occurred or

074have not occurred where we are um at the process. So with regards to revenue we started the conversation back in January on revenue um our maximum allowable living limit is 2.95% and this budget does propose to go to that maximum number. Our state aid that we're using in the budget right now reflects the governor's proposal which is a 2% increase on foundation aid. Um the budget from the state is due on April 1st. Not sure we will have an on-time budget. There really hasn't been any inclination of that. Um there are conversations being had. The one house budgets do actually offer a little bit more money changing some of the factors in uh foundation aid formula. So we could potentially see additional aid as a result of that. Um but I don't believe we'll see

075anything less than 2% at this point in time. based on advocacy efforts that are happening at the state level. We are continuing to use our ERS and TRS, that's the employee retirement system, the teachers retirement system reserves that we have. Those are our funds that we put money to the side to help offset the expenses district has for um our employees. Um we are looking to use those at a lower level next year though um than what we have in the past. And we do have um tuition increase our total tuition for all students that come into the district whether it be um our Native American students, our special education students, our east students. Um that tuition number has increased at this point in time and that is strictly based on enrollment changes that have

076occurred throughout this process, projections that have changed as well as u the rate projection that we're using. So now as we start to get our budget for next year closer to actual um I'm I'm actually able to project what our rate will be because those rates are derived off of what your actual spend is in the current year. Um so we are projecting a little bit of an increase in the tuition line on the revenue side with regards to our expenses as a whole. Um this is just kind of showing you what makes up our budget and as you can see almost 50% is salaries. our people that are educating our students here um is the largest cost and then the benefits that relate to that are the second largest cost. Um and then coming

077in behind that is our recycling supplies and our Boseies. Those kind of go hand in hand um as a lot of that within there are the services that we're providing to our students, our professional development, um the tuition for our students going to Boseies, our occupational education programs at Boseies, um as well as the services um that we have coming in on our contracts for, as Mrs. Scott mentioned our OTPT and any other services that we might be bringing in by contractors. Uh transportation does increase each year based on CPI which is measured in May but we don't find out till June. So we have to continue to project that based on where CPI is trending right now. Um and that is what we're doing at this point in time. And then our debt is

078just that it's the debt the district has incurred as a result of um past bond votes. And that number we have a set schedule. So, um, we do budget for that each year as well. So, as we're coming to the nearing the end of budget process, um, we do have a few things sitting out there that we're waiting on. So, teacher retirements, well, we have received a few already at this point in time. Um, under their contract, under a certain clause in their contract, some of them need to let us know by April 1st. So, until that point in time, we can't project if any other teachers will be retiring. Um, we are also, as Mrs. Scott said they are still exploring placements for some of our special needs students. So as they're finalizing that

079over the next few weeks that could make some swings into our budget whether it be another expense or some savings if we bring some students back in from OCE. And then again our final state numbers which we're hoping to have on the first week of April. Um, but if we don't, we're going to stick with the 2% so that we can adopt the budget on time, which is the April uh 43rd after spring break. Um, and that's the board meeting we set to adopt. So the other as I mentioned before about the auditorium is um we are proposing another proposition on the ballot is using our capital reserve that the voters approved back in 2022. This reserve is being established strictly on savings on the budget year-over-year. Any monies that we may have at the

080end of the school year above our annual 4% allocated, we then put monies into our savings account, one of which is a capital reserve. We have slowly been building that up um to a healthy balance. We're just over 2 million at this point in time. Um and we're asking the community to allow us to use that reserve to upgrade the auditorium. Um the budget for that is about $1.2 million. Um and I just want sorry before you go on can you go back one slide I just for the public who is listening and I would love that last line should be bigger and bolder most important things on the slide that this will be no cost to the taxpayers. Correct. There is no cost because it's a savings account. We're not going out to borrow

081as we would in a typical bond. Um we're using our savings in order to pay for this uh renovation. So there's no cost to taxpayers, but the benefit of it is we do get building aid on it. So we are going through the whole process with state aid approval to do the work in order to get the 78% building aid, which that does get paid back over the course of 15 years, but that's just revenue coming into the budget to help support future programs. Um so yeah, there is no cost to the taxpayers for this u particular project. Um and the project proposal is to do full seat replacement. Um I don't think I need to explain much if you've been in the auditorium what that entails. the um sorry on the left slide two

082it also says use of reserve requires voter approval so that just want to make clear we need voters to approve that so we can use the funds but it does not increase you know anything yeah I guess one one perspective to look at this is you know we we've developed quite a list of things that our buildings need for parents here and there if you look at the auditorium that's you know the poster child work that our buildings need and past few years, we've put out a lot of proposals, um, fairly pricey ones, but but responsible nevertheless in terms of the work that we're doing. That's needed work. Um, and the community is not favoring. So, we're doing our best to try to respond to that, right? So, not only is this a smaller dollar

083amount overall, but it's not affecting the taxes in any way. So, it's true it's paid for already, but it's coming out of the general budget essentially in term of savings. So this is kind of we're evolving in how we're trying to fund this in response to what we see as a community sentiment for spending this and this is something the facilities committee has been worked on and you know as you've been part of it for the past few years um in developing what those bond lists look like and advancing okay how else can we start tackling these things what do we have so we're looking at our capital outlay projects we're looking at the big capital reserve we have in place we're looking at general fund expenses we're now starting to also do a transfer

084of capital find in order to start tackling projects. We're trying to find other avenues as the community made it very clear about what we propose, but we're not saying we're not going to propose one again in the future. It is continuing to be a conversation, but right now this is something that is an immediate need. It's the hub of our community. It's the hub of our district. Every building uses the auditorium. Um and we really need to get this fixed. Um the original proposal in the bond was a much larger number, but that was a complete the whole place, redo and replace it. This proposal is really just kind of giving a facelift. Um it is replacing all those seats, but once you pull out those seats, you realize that that cement board underneath is

085looking a little shabby as well. You don't really see it because the seats are there. Um and the new seats will kind of be in a little bit different placement. So those holes have to be filled that's already there. They're going to reap epoxy that the carpet and the runner the runners will be replaced as well. Once you're doing the floor, might as well just do the whole thing. Once you're doing the floor and the seats are out, let's paint the ceiling that if you ever looked up, it looks kind of gray. Um, once you're doing that, now what are the walls look like? So, it does start to escalate and evolve. And that's what we've done. I've been working with the vendors over the course of the past nine months of coming in and

086developing the design and what are we looking at? What are the costs of this? Our lighting and our sound. as you know, the students that stand in the coral pit, you can't see their faces. So, how do we fix that? Where do we add some light in order to um be able to see our children when they're performing for our Sunday concerts? Um then the other part, there are some fees that are associated with it. In order to have the project done at an expedited manner, you would go through what's called a third party review. So, instead of a state education department reviewing your project, you pay a fee and they'll send it out to another architect. um there's architects that contract with the state now in order to expedite it because the state is

087just so many projects out there um and they don't have the staff to oversee them. So in order by doing the third party review, you'll get that approval much quicker and we can hopefully get that work done over the summer months. Then we do have fees with the architects associated with it as for our contract with them. Um and then we did add in some contingencies because once you start doing these things, pulling seats out, opening walls, things come up. We don't know what might come up, but we want to make sure we have a budget in there in order to cover for that. Um, as this is a voter approved expense. Um, we can't go ahead and just use more money. If we say we're only going to do a million dollar project and

088it ends up being another $100,000 needed, we can't do it. It's not in the general fund. It's nowhere to be found. So, we need to just be um cost effective to make sure we have those contingencies in place. if the project does not fully expend to the level of these these are the you know the quotes that we've received but if we don't need those contingencies or costs come in at a lower rate for contract updates or whatever it might be um we will not spend that full $1.2 million. So what you're seeing is what is being proposed um and the spend would be the actual spend only. So if we don't use the 1.2 whatever is unused will go back into the capital reserve for future use. So, our uh budget vote is on

089May 20th. I should fix that. It's not the 20th. Um it is from 7:00 a.m. to 900 pm. And again, it will be held at the high school library. That will be our new voting location going forward. It ran rather smoothly. Um having it up there. Um it's a nice smaller area and it's the least interruptive to our students um during the academic day. Um so, here's where we're at. We have one more budget workshop which is April 23rd um where we are set to present the full budget um as we've been working on it with all these updates um we are to adopt the budget the property tax report card this is the latest date that we can do it by so um we are pushing it to the end which we will have

090an ontime budget we will have everything ready for the board to approve at that point time and then our budget hearing it does state it's on the 14th on the calendar under regulations we have to actually move it needs to be on May 7th the week before. So we have um adjusted for that. We made it on electronic calendars and everything. So um just please be aware that our budget hearing will be uh that's it. Any other questions from the board? Thank you for the information. Hopefully uh people understand that it cost zor. Thank you Carrie. Thank you everyone. I have one more item for the superintendent um update. So I think everyone knows that um over the last few months we've heard a lot of conversation surrounding the Thank you. That's okay. Uh so

091the board of education wanted to release the following statement which I'm going to read. We will have it available on the website as well. And the statement please read please as such. The district with guidance from our partners at the New York State Education Department is in the process of reviewing the new federal laws and executive orders related to DEI currently in effect. We are also discussing any legal implications of those executive orders and federal laws with our legal counsel to determine any corrective action or adjustments the district should or must take. Please know that the district, while committed to adhering to all applicable state and federal laws, will continue to ensure a safe, inclusive, and healthy school environment for all of our students. If and when there is any need to revise or introduce

092new district policies, we will update the community. questions and comments regarding tonight's agenda only. One second. This 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 the ship clerk. There's a signing sheet over there. Prior to approaching the board, indicate your topic of comment. to keep comments brief and to speak for no longer than three minutes. Members of the public will have the opportunity to speak about any topic at the end of the meeting. Lum so you sit with the constru that you get building aids from that. What what is that percentage? Um right now it's at 78%. It does fluctuate year to year to year based on um the wealth of

093the district and the community and all that but we've been around 77 78%. Okay. So um explain like okay so we have 1200 and so we're going to get 7800 78% of that from the state and what it gets paid out over the course of 15 years. Yes. The whole Yeah. The whole amount gets paid out of 15 equal payments. Yes. Yes. And so, so when you see that those funds, how do you classify that in your budget? It goes right into the general fund. We would budget, we would budget as revenue. So, every year we have a schedule of all our building aid. We know where our projects are and when aid is falling off. Um, this would fall into that schedule. So it would just be general fund revenue going right back into

094the general fund to assist the budget going forward. Okay. And now the cash reserves, how much is in there? We have about 2 million. Um we're and we anticipate putting more funds at the end of the school year into that reserve. We're allowed to go up to 5 million as for what was voter approved back in May 2022. Thank you. So I had a question Stephanie Holderson. So, I had a question about the the universal class size perspective. Um, I've noticed that the only cohort that's actually going to be increasing in class size is the current kindergarteners, rising first graders. And so, I was wondering what the perspective was there where I saw decreases in all of the other classes, all the other cohorts. Um, but just that one class is actually increasing. And I

095am all for smaller class sizes. Absolutely 100%. will need to impact on students. However, um I am more of an advocate for smaller class sizes for our younger students because they're still developing their foundational skills. They still have the tendency to need more assistance on one-on-one basis. So, I'm wondering what the perspective is on that. I think the perspective was to try to equalize the classes in most because we we've received concerns from parents as well as our teachers in terms of the larger classes in in the inter intermediate grades three four five as well because those are the grades that we are preparing them for assessments. We are preparing them to uh move over to the middle school and take subject specific classes. So in in our in our determination in terms of looking

096at that and this is something that we went back and forth I remember having the conversation with Mr. Richie and we were saying okay should we keep this class size in terms of K going into one relatively small and I think looking at it from the equal basis of all grades kind of outweigh the compensation. So we do have a an additional teacher in the budget. We have to look at what is going to happen in pay because as Dr. Maya indicated, right now we have 65 confirmed kindergarten enrollments. It does change. It changes a lot in the summer. As uh Miss Lynn said kind of jokingly, sometimes people just realize in mid July or August, I forgot to register my kindergart. So once we have a more solid number, we can look at those

097class sizes and make a determination as to whether or not the it's there's more value in first grade increasing that or decreasing the class size and increasing the sections to support that. Okay. I I appreciate that. Um my concern and I'm, you know, going back and piggybacking off of what you were saying before, Mr. Kennedy had um concerning about about test scores and worrying about whether or not they're ready to get to middle school. If we're already putting some of our younger students at a detriment because they have much higher class sizes than everyone else, you know, that's that's also causing a problem long term. Um, and so I just request that the board cons considers and that the school building personnel considers that if we do have that additional teacher that contingency if you

098would consider making sure that they go to that first grade section to open those up and have a smaller class size that very formative Christina um similar but also different perspective too that last year this time we're talking about how they want to really focus focusing on small class size and we're talking about literacy and looking to uh have different ways to have uh interventions in the classroom that if you have smaller class sizes for our teacher can better identify and also provide intervention when you have a smaller ratio. Um so um I know it doesn't seem like a lot but I know talking to the community kindergarten parents this year are very pleased with what they're seeing. I'm a first grade parent smaller class size. These are the crucial years. By third grade, if

099they're having trouble reading, it's extremely difficult to catch them up. The other to sixth and seventh, if they can't read, they can't do six or seven math. In second grade, it's all reading. Even in first grade now, um so I just think I I agree wholeheartedly that our small class sizes one two are critical. Um and it allows our teachers and all interventions to be a lot more effective as well. I think we'll get a better feel for our kids. we can have early indicators. We'll know our students better. Um and also just one more thing um parent support. So I know SEPTA um I've gone to at my my district where I teach they have very informative meetings. It's not a big um turnout for parents but I do think that when we have

100parent support and parents are knowledgeable of what they need to be doing and how they can be doing it and they don't have to have a master's degree. They don't have to be a teacher to be doing it. you get the buy in and when it's buying at home and in school is that and I think that's something that I know at the high school level I a lot of parents support they don't know how to support um it's not our job to teach parents how to parent but for some parents they don't know how to do like nor child maybe or what their child's experiencing or if they're behind everything so I just think that education for parents is also very I I couldn't agree more. I think we are doing more this year

101and we are going to continue to increase our outreach to parents, providing them with resources, providing them with information as to why we are doing what we're doing in the classroom and how parents can find ways to support students at home. This is a question. This is something that we cannot be successful unless the parents and guardians find a way to uh develop supportive ways at home. And sometimes it could just be a simple studying studying um facility where a kid where a child is concentrated on studying for uh an assessment or completing their homework. So we are looking at ways to kind of increase that communication, increase the resources that are available to our parents and our guardians. So they're all that's part of our communication efforts and initiatives that we began this year

102that we will continue moving. I I remember Miss Park had a really great um programming for that. And I remember when my older kids were younger, they introduced a new math program. And they had all the parents come in and sit in the um classroom in their kids seats and engage in the learning as if they were the students. So they were getting taught how to do the program and they understood why math was taught that way hands-on and saw how the instructional practice was being done and then it was easier for them to help their kids at home. I thought that was like a great model. And I I remember she did that. She also did the princip where she invited parents to come in and have conversations with her and talk about the

103curriculum, talk about some of the activities that they engage in the classroom. So it is things that we want to continue to incorporate as we go forward. Uh John Toms. Um I just want to talk about the um the renovation in the auditorium. Um my I have two children in that program of the 90 kids that were in the the little work. And uh I've been talking to a lot of people in the community, a lot of people that have children in the community, and then also a lot of people that don't have children in the schools. And by talk, I'm trying to, you know, spread the word because this is something that's very important to me and and also important to the community because going in there and seeing how auditorium is, you know,

104it's not something we should be proud of, but it's something I know we want to change. Um, but talking to people that don't have children immediately, um, they're saying, "No, I'm not voting for that. I don't want my taxes to go up." um is there any way that we can uh educate them or send out mailers or because immediately uh they're thinking that their taxes are going to go up. Uh I mean I I know we had a handful of people here when the presentation was going on. There was three people on YouTube that were watching it. So um so I just want to make sure that the word gets out that you know how this is being done. It's you know a lot of people immediately think that it's it's a bond. So John,

105we we definitely appreciate that question and it is something that we are working towards. We are working with a new communication firm this year uh senior communication. So we are actively working on developing promotional videos that we are going to begin to get out to the community as well as promotion of brochures and reallyformational events. Things that we talked about this evening in terms that it's not going to be a tax uh increase to the to to our taxpayers and the fact that we are doing this because we realize that we don't want it to impact our taxpayers. So that is going to be coming out. We are planning it I want to say in the first week of April and try to get it out incrementally over the next um six weeks prior to

106the budget vote because sometimes if you get something out too early sometimes community people forget. We also are um looking to invite as many people to our community connections meetings where this has come up uh numerous times. I presented a very similar presentation in terms of the use of capital reserves and the items that we are going to be identifying uh in terms of the improvements that Miss Lton just presented. We are also looking at reaching out to various community groups such as the firehouse, such as um Holiday Beach Association to see how we can find a way to just be invited to the next meeting so that we can go and just introduce the material in a factual way so that they understand exactly what they're just quickly add to that if we're missing

107a group and they want to help just reach out or tell them to reach out so that we know to get to them. If it's a one-on-one breakfast conversation to help understand it, I guess that's what we got to do because, you know, from our perspective here, we know that we have that duty to help kind of ensure that that auditorium is looked at from a clear perspective rather than one that's jaded based on the bonds of the past. And so that we can get the information out as properly as we can, but also allow people to make their decisions based on the knowledge that we can put forward. Um and then you know see how it goes from there because at the end of the day that's all we can do from here. Um

108and then the conversations if you hear them just you know we have enough people around that are willing to have these dialogue. So if you you have people asking questions I think budget can be complex and like Terry is brilliant and it's finance. It's not something that is like easy to me. So I love like the way she explains things but the public doesn't always understand all the the ratio and the formula and all of that. And that's one of the reasons we're doing these videos. So if you like if you see the video and it's really easy to understand um and somebody asks you questions or there's misinformation being spread around on social media, point them to the video so that they can see clearly that we're being transparent and it breaks it down

109really like in simple terms. And people got to remember we're meant to have savings so we don't fly a plane without gas, right? So it's not like we made the savings out of nowhere in 2022. You guys made a great decision as board I guess 22 to really start investing what we needed to get done. You know this is you know Marcus I think was on. I'm not sure what else was on at that time. Um but that set us up for today. You know so those previous board members that's what helped us set up when Carrie worked for them um to be able to take this opportunity. Uh we didn't just say oh we found this money. know this was saved uh money throughout the years that is allowing us this opportunity. So that's

110something I think people sometimes can say you have this money now it doesn't always happen. So we just got to make that clear too. Anybody else agenda? Consent agenda approval. We have resolved a motion to approve the consent agenda item 7 A through 11 C. Motion second discussion. Uh yes. Can we look at the treasury report? Sorry. Uh general financial summary has revenues. I was curious on the federal and other components from last year to this year. It's like quite a drop. So that's the um ARP funding all the co money. Okay. That we're no longer receiving. sure if that was that or just money others the same thing. Yeah. Okay. If I could if I could stop a second, I'd like to say a couple of things. Uh on the agenda, we have two

111of our professional staff, administrators that are deciding to resign from the district to pursue um their careers in other in other places. I want to thank Mr. Richie, our elementary principal, for all your years of service and your dedication to our district. Uh I' I've gotten to know Dennis for many, many years. He's a very competent uh dedicated professional that will be missed at employment. Congratulations. [Applause] And I guess uh the second one is our assistant superintendent of business, Miss Carrie Lachlin. She is resigning as well. They're both resigning as of June 30th. they will be pursuing um their careers in other districts. I've got to know Carrie over the last seven years. I was part of her interview process. I actually ran her interview process. I still remember interacting with her for the first

112time. She is I think was evident tonight. She is a very professional, competent, incredibly uh intelligent, knowledgeable business official. we will mess up tremendously and I wish her luck as she transitions too. Thank you. All right, we have also someone on the agenda that's retired. We have a special education teacher, a gentleman by the name of Scott Hicks, uh that has worked for the district since September of 1998. Uh we reflect on his many contributions to cinema schools beyond his classroom work. Mr. Ed Sheer Valley trip coach weight training and track and help launch the middle school football program. His dedication to mainstream resource group students particularly in helping them navigate the challenges of the region's program has earned him lasting respect. Known for his deep understanding of his students needs, Mr. Lakes excelled in

113balancing a grizzly bear teddy bear approach providing both firm guidance and nurturing support. His legacy of compassion, tenacity, and commitment will be remembered fondly. Congratulations to Mr. Hicks on your welldeserved retirement. Your impact will be not forgotten anytime soon. Thank you, Mr. [Applause] Congratulations to coach Hicks. Oddly enough, when I moved here, he was my JD coach in 1998. To learn that he then coached home and my son in the final year was kind of cool and the technique was still the same. So all of those he explains it so well. I'm like cuz he breaks down every little detail on the football field. So it was kind of a full circle moment when I walk on the field. I go I like it. and you know to see it kind of go over my

114son and then you know coach was a good coach back in 97 for us and at moment it was there's a lot of heat there so you had to really step in public comments Members of the public who desire to address or question the board on any topic related to board work are welcome to do so at this time. Speakers are requested to sign it to the district clerk on the side over there. Prior to approaching the board, indicate your topic of comments, keep comments brief, and to speak for no longer than three minutes to appoint a spokesperson if the concern is concerned and to supplement verbal presentation to written reports if necessary or desired. Anybody have anything? I'm just um you mentioned about getting message out about the budget. Our next general membership meeting

115is April 18th. Did you um contact them? It's it's April 18. You said hopefully we'll see you at the next connection too. Get some info. Uh, so I I have two questions, both completely unlawsuit against the New York State Education Department as well as if there were any monies that were extended in order to do that. There hasn't been any and there hasn't been any money spent and there hasn't been any updates far. The motion's filed. Nothing done so far. Nothing. I just asked that there will be updates on Yeah, sure. Thank you. I appreciate that. Um, okay. Second, completely unrelated. Uh, the district's calendar, I was just questioning why is not being observed by at least the students this year as it is in other Suffach school districts and will that be observed by

116at least students next year? So in terms of looking at general holidays, we have to look at our uh population in terms of the amount of individuals, parents as well as students that would observe that. We have made um a decision not to necessarily observe that. It it is it is not a national holiday. It is something that is open to each district to observe. You are correct that certain districts do observe it and it's really truly based on that bond. You can you can also look at other districts that do not. Um this year has been a very challenging year in terms of accommodating all the different holidays. We are obligated to provide 180 school days as well as teachers are obligated to attend 183 days of school. So we have to accommodate that

117and we have to fit it in such a way that makes sense to the community and makes sense to all of the different volume units that abide by that. So that was the decision behind. I understand. I appreciate that. Um for the families who are observing, do they have an excused absence from school? If they reach out to us, we would definitely acknowledge that and we will provide that excused absence as a result. Wonderful. Thank you so much. You're very welcome. Anybody else have anythingformational items? Uh the next community connections meeting is Wednesday, April 30th at 6 p.m. in the high school library. The one after that is Monday, May 19th at 6 p.m. also in the high school library. And our next board of education meeting is Wednesday, April 23rd. Executive session 6 p.m.

118Action meeting approximately 7 p.m. And that is also at the high school library. Motion to adjourn for tonight's meeting. Second [Music]