001Good evening and welcome to the March 25th Board of Education meeting for the Chester Union Free School District. Mrs. Iannucci, can you please take roll call? Yes. This is all present. When I call your name, Mrs. DePrizio? Present. Mrs. Breslin? Present. Mrs. Bernard? Present. Mrs. Iannucci Johnson? Present. Tanya? Quorum is present, we can now proceed with the meeting. Thank you, Mrs. Iannucci. Can we please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Can I have a motion to adopt tonight's agenda? I'll make that motion. I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Motion passed. Can I have a motion to approve the board meeting minutes of March 18th,
0022026? I'll make that motion. I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Motion passed. That brings us to tonight's presentations, Ms. Garcia. Good evening and happy spring. I will begin my board report with district goal number two. On March 17th, 2026, I put 2025. Um, we had our superintendent's conference day uh to support multi-language multilingual learners and differentiated instructions. We provided workshops on two AI tools that enhance best practices and student learning. We had a Magic School AI literacy instructional support tools for ELLs and all learners, which was a virtual session provided at CES and at CA. Then I led differentiate with Diffit supporting multilingual learners and all students in content area literacy. It was pretty cool cuz I was able to do two sessions, one in the morning at the elementary school and then another one
003at Chester Academy and we were able to utilize the newly updated visual screen that the tech team installed at Chester Academy's cafeteria. So that was my first experience to there. We all fit. It was pretty cool. And and the teachers were provided the opportunity to actually implement and uh create tools that they can actually implement in their classrooms immediately and the Diffit workshop received good feedback. And the highlight of the professional day of learning was the the implementation of our CUFSD in-service academy workshop sessions that took place during the morning. So we had 10 uh workshops that were facilitated and led by faculty and staff. So that was amazing. I was able to update and create a course catalog of all of the 10 sessions that were being offered that morning regardless of the location.
004So the location was a surprise. So the teachers were able to rank their interest of the workshops on a scale from one to three and we were making sure to honor one of the top three choices. And then to balance out the workshops among participants, we made sure that every facilitator had at least five or four people. So all their hard work was in front of them. So it was well attended throughout. And then in the morning the teachers started the day at CES or at CA and what was wonderful about it was that teachers in both buildings were able to collaborate together. That was pretty cool. And um the day ended with Mr. Tobin uh leading volunteer participants in a session of Zumba and a movement stretch. So that took place at Chester Academy's
005gym. So we would like to thank uh Melissa, the teachers who led and facilitated our workshop. So Emily, a shout-out to Emily uh Patrick Higgins, Jana Sacasta, Angela Piskowski, Rebecca Davis and Monica Gonzalez. We had Michelle Thompson, Daniel Tobin, Jennifer Daily, Catherine Inkledon, Joseph Morrow, uh Charlotte Petropolo and Jennifer Randazzio. Uh we thank them for facilitating and planning the workshops and the day was successful collaboration between both buildings. Then I included some images that you can see on social media as well. And lastly, district goal number three, we have our March, which is the fourth family instructional academy session. Uh it will take place tomorrow, March 26th at 6:30. We are highlighting uh the family and consumer science program. So uh Miss Besson is going to facilitate it and she came up with this clever
006title, which is FACTS Blended Together Parents and Child Smoothie Lab. So um she will provide along with myself an overview of the FACTS courses and curriculum that's offered in grades 7 through 12 at Chester Academy. And then uh it will culminate with a creative parent and child budget-friendly smoothie lab session. Uh When we when I sent the parents square message out in one day we had like 20 parents. So I had to increase the number. So now we have 39 RSVPs including 21 adults and 18 children. So I might have to use another room to rotate. So we're going to work that out. So I want to thank everybody who signed up for it. And we have our last session is going to be in April and I we're going to focus on literacy supports
007at home and summer reading. So we're going to try to do a class for families to support literacy at home over the summer. So do you have any questions? Any questions for Miss Scorzetti? I don't know if it's a comment. I certainly appreciate the thoughtful planning ahead and thinking about the summer and making sure that everyone is still engaged in learning. So thank you for that. I loved um reading into the in-service academy workshops. Um these are not just like basic in-service trainings. The amount of thought and creativity that went into it. So kudos to you and the teachers who put clearly a lot of time and effort into presenting really fantastic topics. Um I'm like reading through them like, "Oh, I would have liked to have attend that one." They look great. Um as
008well as for the family instructional academy, the creativity and the thought. I'm so happy that you have a better turnout cuz there's so much work that has gone into getting this going. So the fact that you now have like 38 people for this week is great. So thank you. I I just like also with the family instructional academy that it you have crossed over the last year so many different areas of the school to bring that to the parents so that they're aware of all different aspects that are happening in the school. And I was so excited when I logged on to RSVP and it was full. Right? Because that's that's great. I hope that that turnout continues like that. >> have What's cool is that we have elementary school parents participate in the last
009session. They were the little kids were excited to come to the academy. So they get to see future focus what's going to happen when they come to this building. So I think that's a good collaboration. So thank you so much as always. Mr. Doucet. Good evening everyone. We have a lot going on. This is always one of our busiest times of year as we leave the winter season and venture into the spring. So a little bit of both. So we'll start with our winter sports update. The boys basketball team since the last meeting, they did qualify for the section playoffs as a number three seed. It was a good game. Antoine had a unbelievable shooting night. So we came up just a little bit short in that one. They did lose in the semi-finals but
010they had an excellent season. Sage Watson successfully competed in the section nine championships for swimming. Sage was able to advance in the prelims and made it to the second day where he swam in two two events in the in the championship Saturday. I was there. Just like I was there last year. It was the the swim meets are they're something else. There there is a lot of people in a real small space and the energy is just off the charts. So it's always one of the more entertaining championships we go to. Um Trey Edwards won the section championship and he wrestled in the state championship meet up at the MVP Arena in Albany. Also, I mean this was an entire arena full of wrestlers for multiple days in a row. Also, quite an amazing event.
011They have 10 mats going on at the same time. It's just nothing but They do the girls championship first and they do the boys and it is also a very exciting environment. Winter track and field, the girls and boys track teams competed at the state qualifier on February 28th at the Armory in New York. Zia Henny finished 14th and Zoey Arnett finished seventh in their respective events. Unfortunately, that was the end of our season for the winter but again, making it all the way to the state qualifiers is quite an accomplishment. Which brings us to spring sports. So I just want to give a shout-out to Dan Sports Goeffen and his his tech crew with I will say we had discussed this in a previous board report and we also discussed it with the parent
012panel, the athletic advisory panel about trying to smooth out our transition from cuz if you remember if you registered for sports in the fall and then had to register in the winter, you had to go through the entire process all over again and it was lengthy. That got cleaned up and I'm happy to report much smoother process going from the winter to the spring. But people still see a lot of questions but I want the parents to understand parents and guardians is that certain questions are required by New York State. So that's called the between sports review. And so all the questions that are there are all the questions that we must answer from season to season just to make sure nothing medically changed for a student from one season to the next. That alerts
013the nurses office to say, "Hey, you know, this happened." So they need to look into this, have a conversation with the doctor and make sure everybody's okay. It's all about, you know, student safety and make sure everybody's healthy. That being said, we added a little banner on one of the pages cuz a consistent problem we had was that some parents weren't hitting save and continue. Cuz they see a green box at the top that says completed but at the bottom if you read, it said, "You are not done. You still have to click this." So we had it highlighted in yellow. Banners at the top and the bottom of the page. We had very few parents who did not see that and if they did, I was able to call home, have a conversation with
014them, walk them through the process and every student that had that issue, which were only a handful, we were able to solve it on the phone in a in a 2-minute phone conversation. So, it was a big help, but kudos to Dan for working with me, literally sitting at his computer, working through that to make sure it was a smooth process. We have 150 registered student-athletes for the spring. The track team is busting at the seams, which is exciting cuz we're going to have a track shortly. Um we do have shadow program with Stewart coming to us again this year. We have almost I think we're up to actually 75 track athletes now just Chester and an additional 15 from Stewart coming over. So, we have almost 90 athletes out there for track. That program
015is extremely healthy and I anticipate that will continue. I do want to thank Burke Catholic because they have graciously accepted our girls varsity lacrosse players. So, we are going over there on a daily basis for practice. And in the midst of that conversation with Aaron Hasbrouck, their athletic director, we happened to talk about golf and it worked out that we did or we're able to send three female golfers to Burke also as a shadow program. It's actually technically a Chester team on our own. We can score our own. Our athletes can score at the They can't score at the golf matches because we don't have enough girls. However, they do accumulate points that will qualify them for sections even as a first-year program this year. Uh we we have our scholar athletes for the winter.
016Transition back to winter real quick. Um we are still on track as a scholar athlete program for our fourth straight year of being a school of distinction or excellence. So, we have one more season to go and as long as a majority of our teams qualify, we will be a school of excellence or distinction once again this coming year. All right. So, a couple of things that weren't in my report, but I wanted to update just because they happened between last week when I submitted my report and now. Um just so everybody is aware, when it comes to Huddle and our communication, we had sent out the communication I sent a letter last week saying that you know, Huddle was about to be online. Here's your links, here's your codes just like we did in
017the winter, just like we did in the fall. I just want to remind everybody that we don't give out the Huddle codes and links until the rosters are made. And the reason why we do that is we don't want players that are potentially cut or didn't make a team or made some other decision to switch sports. We don't We only want the players that make the team that are on those teams in Huddle. That's what we use the Google Classroom and Synergy for is the off-season communication. So, rosters were just finished this week because last week was the first week of modified. So, we had to wait till the end of the first modified week to make cuts if if necessary. And once that happened on Friday, then Monday we started to transition to Huddle
018just like we did in the winter. So, on Monday we flipped the switch on that. Tuesday, baseball, softball, those rosters got imported. Yesterday, track got imported. And so, everybody as of yesterday is now in Huddle. I had again I had sent that letter last week with codes. It's in Parent Square. So, if you're looking for the link, it's in Parent Square with code and all of the the link and the code to get into your particular Huddle group for your teams. We We set the deadline for today for all coaches to make sure they are sending everything through Huddle. We were kind of double dipping for a little bit. We had Huddle and we were using Synergy messaging just to make and the website and social media and Parent Square. We were doing it all
019just to make sure that everybody was seeing what they needed to see until today. And in the message I sent today was this is the last message you will receive on this platform. Here's where you're going to go moving forward. Huddle, look for my letter from last week. So, that's where we're at with that. Uh let's see. So, two things I do want to highlight from the spring sports so far is I want to congratulate coach Vanessa Marsilio, who earned her first victory as our varsity softball coach in an upset win over Washingtonville yesterday 6-4. The baseball team upset just about 2 hours ago Goshen 10-0 up at at the rock today. So, our spring sports are currently underway. Yesterday and today were the first days. We have our social media post pushed out. We
020are going to continue what we did in the winter, which is our every Friday, Monday, somewhere in between the weekend there pushing out our highlights for the week. The social media class will be working on that. We did a couple times over the winter. We're going to do it weekly for the spring. So, they did a good job with it in the winter, but I got to make sure that we you know, we were doing it every two two and a half weeks kind of highlight. We want to do it every week now to make sure we're highlighting our student-athletes. Uh the rest of the teams will be opening up their seasons after spring break with the exception of lacrosse over at Burke. They're going to open tomorrow. Golf, track and field, they and all
021the JV modified teams are going to open up as soon as we get back from spring break. We have two important nights coming up. Weather. Weather has been destroying our schedule for about a month and a half. We were trying to schedule the athletics panel for the parents and the meet the coaches night, but due to the fact that we ended up having an event almost every single night in the building due to rain, sleet, snow, whatever we had going on, we had to push it beyond spring break, which you don't like to do, but it's also just the second week of modified, so it works out. Uh Monday, April 6th at 7:00 in the makerspace is going to be the parent athletic advisory panel. Uh and then on Tuesday, we were going to do
022it all one night, but I decided to split into two. Tuesday night we're going to do the meet the coaches night at 7:00 just like we did in the winter. Everybody will come in here, have a general assembly, we'll talk to everyone all the parents, give them the highlights of what they need to know. Then we go into breakout sessions in the classrooms where you can meet your individual coach and have a question and answer and get all the information that you are looking for. And of course, if you can't make it any of those nights, just contact my office and I will I will share the details of that night with you. Couple of things real quick. Uh speaking of weather, I want to thank Matt and his crew, buildings and grounds, because it
023has been a challenge to get the fields ready. Um they were ready on that couple days we had 70 and 75 and the fields are ready. We're outside, everybody's happy and then it sleeted and did all kinds of fun stuff. But to their credit, the fields are almost ready again. So, they're kind of doing it twice. Uh we should be playing games. We'll be practicing We've already been practicing on it this week on all of our fields. We'll be having more practices over spring break and um once we get back from break, we'll be in in the our full schedule beyond all of our fields all over campus. C.L. Johnson, she's going to be racing. So, she had a successful fall for us with swimming. She's going to be at the Speedo Sectionals in Ithaca.
024Just wanted to make a shout-out for her this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday swimming multiple events uh this weekend just a kind of piggyback off of her very successful fall and I anticipate a successful next year. We should have an excellent season with her. Uh my next report, I just want to give you a heads-up because I went to this last week, but it was after my board report was due. I will be reporting on the New York State Athletic Administrators Association conference that I went to last week, which is very important for athletic directors go to because we have to look at some of the things that are very much going to affect athletics in New York State. The executive director of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association is always there and
025gives the keynote on the last day. And there some things that parents are going to hear about if they haven't already heard about it because there's been a lot of stories in the news over the last few weeks and I anticipate it's only going to get more attention. School to doubt boundaries is going to be a big topic of conversation as long as name, image, and likeness and also social media. So, in my next board report, I will touch on those. But uh these are topics that are going to affect interscholastic athletics and things we need to be proactive about, which we are as a district. Um we're definitely ahead of the curve when it comes to a lot of other districts in the state. But there are, you know, it's important to highlight these
026and make sure that the community knows what's going on and what we're doing to stay ahead like we already are. So, I do enjoy going to that conference. I just want to thank the board for allowing me to go again this year because it's something that really affects our student-athletes and something we need to be proactive about. And that's all I have for you today. Question for Mr. Russo. No questions. Thank you so much for clarifying about Huddle and then the athletics panel meeting cuz parents were asking when that was going to take place. And I also personally and know that other people appreciate you reaching out when um it wasn't able to go through when people were trying to sign up for sports. So, thank you for that. >> Uh Mr. Schwartz gave me
027access I've had it all year, but we've anytime I have a question, he takes the time to sit with me and show me what's going on. And I now have the ability to go in and and kind of sign in as the parent and say, all right, this is what you're seeing and I'm able to talk them through it on the phone. They're still doing all the submissions and everything, but I can see what they see at the same time they're seeing it. So, it makes things so much easier and that's just the way he has it set up for me. It's I can't tell you how much easier it has been and I can solve 99% of the problems without even having to to ask anybody else to help me, which is fantastic. Which
028is helpful. Yes. >> on your end that everything's gone through and then you find out it has not. And I can look and solve the problem without having to say, oh, let me go find out and I'll call you back. No, I just log in right there on the phone and it takes 2 seconds. I have a question. Thank you for all the highlights and updates. Appreciate it. >> Mr. Schwartz car. Hi, good evening. Um I'm just going to kind of highlight all the things that are in the board report that you already have. A couple two two new things. Um our MTSS platform is 100% ready to go for next year. So, we have all of our data that we need in there. And um we are going to be doing a training with
029the teachers, I believe, on the 15th and 16th of September next year that will walk them through um how to recommend a child for MTSS, how to um input a plan, how to monitor that plan, and um how to communicate back and forth with the team in real time as that plan is being implemented. Um we did spend a decent amount of time this month kind of not planned, but um Mr. Flanagan came to me before the senior trip and said, "Do we have a way um instead of texting all these kids to communicate with them?" I'm like, "Yes, actually, Parent Square. We turned on direct messaging for Parent Square in the beginning of the year. We haven't really done it with kids yet, but it's a perfect platform for that. It's already set up."
030Um so, we did a little bit of back end to get the groups set up properly. We were already in there to get the sports groups and the bussing um a little fine-tune. And so, they used that for senior trip, and it seemed to go flawlessly, which is a really awesome sign. Um we've also been working in Synergy, obviously. We have a couple of our first custom data dashboards are being built currently. We're about halfway through the i-Ready one. Um both for teachers and for administrators. So, we all should have that soon. We've also been working through um how to update gradebook for teachers for next year to make it as easy as possible for them while still giving them the options that they need. Um We had our first athletics registration. Mike was great.
031Um the parents were great. Um that really went off the best one that we've had so far. So, I'm looking forward to more going just as smooth as that. Um We spent a lot of time this week with Nicole this month with Nicole on uh our budget for next year. We're working through trying to make sure we're paying for things that we use, and um seeing what we can we can cut, and but really making sure that our programs themselves that affect children don't get don't get affected. Um Matt and his team I think got all of the double doors, and um the hardware for all of our double doors had not actually been in yet. So, all of our strikes were working, and our badges were working, but it didn't actually trigger anything. Um
032they were still on hard locks, and I think this past month every single one was installed. So, that's really exciting. Our door project is done. Um So, congrats to them, and it they came out really great as well. Um speaking of that, the our servers that I've been talking about down at Maple to get Wi-Fi down there, um our cameras in there and door access are all done. The servers are down there. They're programmed. The cameras have all been switched over to our camera server. Uh door access is programmed. We're waiting on the hardware there. And um Wi-Fi is officially down there and working. And last thing, kindergarten registration opened up on Monday. So, we already have seven or eight applications for kindergarten for next year, and that seems to be going pretty smoothly as
033well. There was a couple of hiccups, but um we've been dealing with them as they come, and so that is going very smoothly as well. So, our first year kind of inputting data into next year's system um seems to be going well. So, that's all I got for you guys. Do you have any questions? No questions. Just have one quick You were talking about the custom data boards. Is that going to be like uh school specific or topic specific? So, for for i-Ready specifically or just So, i-Ready is one, if you will. Is there another one, or is it just all i-Ready? >> There's about 16 of them. So, we've created a bunch of data dashboards. Um there's some on district discipline, some on school discipline, some on if you want to see all of
034the suspensions for the year, and then um So, it's topics. It's topic specific. And then we have enrollment, we have if you just want to look at a student holistically, so we can look at their attendance, we can look we can pull up that student. It brings up their attendance, their current GPA, their any discipline that's happened, any um siblings, any any information we have for them comes up all in one place. Uh we that data dashboard isn't just for administrators, we push that out to teachers as well. Um that way if they're looking at a particular student, they can see holistically not just do they have a 93 in my class, but what do they have in all their other classes? Have they missed um are they missing attendance in sixth period or more
035than other periods? So, it gives them all of that. They can drill down into each each little bit of that as well. If there's a piece of information that sticks out to them, they can click on it, it drills down into showing them more information on that. Um So, and then we have about 15 built right now. i-Ready's our next one. We're looking to do one for special education teachers. So, as you're going into IEP season, we need to sit down with special education to say, "What is the information you need on a particular child to make all of those decisions instead of having to go to 18 places? Let's get it all all in front of you all in one spot." Um So, we're slowly building those. It takes talking to each one of
036those stakeholders, and then back and forth, and then giving it to them, and them saying, "This isn't what we want, or we want this tweaked a little bit." So, and then we need to go back and change it. So, they take a little bit more time once we start getting into the custom ones, but um I think they'll be really helpful to us once they're all done. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Thank you again for your report. Mr. DeRosa. There's no snow in the forecast. I mean, now that you said that. Uh thank you. Thank you again for the opportunity to update you on behalf of Buildings and Grounds. Uh wanted to start with a bit of a detour and just thank uh Nicole DeSouza and her team, Donna Henyan, and uh Suzanne Tudigo. Um
037the the first topic I'm going to talk about is the safety project. That project is is favorable, uh and a lot of that is really a team effort, right? Uh internally, Buildings and Grounds was able to take a lot of the facets of that project, bring it in-house for a cost savings, but also having them on our team keeping us uh on track with budgets really helps the decision-making process as we go. And collectively, it resulted in um some some pretty big savings for the district. Um that project, the safety project uh in particular, is substantially complete. On Mar- March 10th, we conducted a punch list walk. So, the punch list walk is basically all the major items are complete. Um and we walk around and look for minor imperfections that that they're required to
038fix. So, that's the phase of the project we're in right now. Um so, big thank you to you guys um on that. Um The Maple Avenue building that Dan uh was speaking about, for anybody out there who's listening uh or or in this room, we are going to transition from physical keys to badge readers probably within the next 2 weeks. So, that'll be a big addition for uh Maple Avenue. Right now, the process is a coach will have a physical key, and they'll return it at the end of uh the season. Now, we'll be able to issue them a badge, and you know, either give them access or deny access um as we see fit. So, that's been something that's been in the works for a very long time. I'm really excited about that. It's
039going to make our lives a lot easier. So, uh thank you to Dan and his team uh regarding that. The Athletics Complex. So, I This is moving so fast that I can't believe I hadn't reported yet on the tree felling. That was only last month. So, as you know, the last report, right? We had uh awarded the contract to um Peter Downs and Sons, which is one of the largest tree felling companies around. Uh they cleared 13 acres in 5 days, which was unbelievable. Uh so, if you head to the elementary school and take a peek behind the building, you'll see there's a um 8-ft fence with a screen, but behind it uh the trees are down. And it's it's it's the start of something very uh very impressive. So, I'm excited. Um as we
040move along, there will be community meetings. We're not at that point yet. Uh where we stand right now, we are complete with the schematic design. They're uh SDs, they're known as. This is basically the phase where we have a a master layout, kind of, you know, what is what is the fieldhouse look like from the outside, what is the stands look like. That part has been complete, and that's the first step into design development, which we're about 75% complete with. Design development is a much more detailed rendering of plans. So, this looks at how big are the rooms, how many you know, bathroom receptacles are there? What's the width of the sidewalks? What kind of turf are we going to be using? What type of lights? The the sound system, all that. So, we just
041started the programming on that. We had our first meeting regarding high-level stuff, but it's going to get much more refined in the weeks to come. We are still on track for submission to SED in a May timeframe. But, we made a decision over the last week to separate the filings, and this is an important detail. So, initially, the project was designed to be five or or planned to be filed as one filing to state ed. So, you would have the land work, the buildings, the utilities, the tracks, all that. We've since decided to parse out the land work portion of this and file that first. So, it's a pretty detailed part of the project, but everything, the entire project schedule, is predicated on us getting the land work portion done, right? We can't put foundations
042in without all of the stumps being cleared, the ground graded, all that sort of stuff. And if we can't do that before the winter, then we can't put the foundations in, that pushes us to the spring. So, we're really trying to get a jump on on the timing of this project. So, we are we are in good shape. We have all the expectations that the ground work will likely be filed it could be as soon as April. We'll know more this week. But, we're we're moving along in that respect. And I just want to just preface again, there will be community meetings, right? If there are questions or concerns, go to our website. There's a tab for the Interscholastic Athletic Complex. It'll give you all the most updated information weekly. Lindsay Iannuzzi, who's been a
043tremendous help with this project in communicating everything, uh puts updated information as we have it, whether it's drawings or schedules or changes in anything. So, the most up-to-date information is on our website, and our contact information is there as well. So, in the event that you have a question about any aspect of this project, you can go on there, you could find the Interscholastic Athletics Complex email address. It goes through a group of people. My phone number and email address is on there as well, but please don't hesitate to reach out to us. But, you will be hearing from us in the near future regarding community meetings. Um And then, one last thing, just wanted to talk a little bit about the field openings. Thank you, Mike, for bringing that up. This is the most
044challenging time for buildings and grounds. I there's a lot of pressure on us and all of the school districts to get the fields open, and we're doing the best we can. The fields have been in great shape. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of work that went into our fields in the in the fall before closing them, how well they held up, right? So, we had 2 ft of snow a few weeks ago on the field, and we were able to get out there last week. Now, tomorrow we're going to get a half an inch of rain, and next week looks ominous as well, but we are we're excited about the condition of the fields, and we you know, obviously, if it rains every day, there's there's no promises, but but I feel like
045we are in in better shape this year than we have been in any year since I've been here. So, kudos to the buildings and grounds crew. They they really take pride in in opening these fields. So, with that, I will open it up to any questions for you guys. I I actually have one more thing, and I apologize. I I should have brought this up initially. Another really important aspect of the Interscholastic Athletic Complex project is the the hiring of a construction manager. So, we went through the process of interviewing construction managers. We went out to a formal bid. We we had extremely qualified contractors that bid on this project. We initially had a award date, and we pushed it back. And the reason we pushed it back was the final selection of contractors were
046so qualified and so evenly matched that it really we really wanted to spend some time parsing out who is the best fit, right? And it came down to nuances. So, hopefully at the next meeting, I will be able to introduce you guys to and the public to our new construction manager. But, just to kind of level set what this position is, right? On big projects like this, where you have multi-disciplined, multi multitude of trades, you need a person on site to coordinate all the activities, the scheduling. They're going to be responsible for presenting budgets to us, right? Obviously, with myself and and Ms. O'Hara and and other members of our team, but they're an instrumental part of this project, and they are basically the right hand of the district. Their role is different than a
047general contractor, which I think some folks in in the community who I've spoken with are kind of confused. General contractors are more of doers of work, right? So, they sometimes will perform work themselves, but they certainly hire the work the contractors who do perform the work. The the construction manager is a much higher level, kind of pulling the the puppet strings, so to speak, on the general contractor and any of the trades on site. So, they'll be our point person. They are, you know, the the person that we're going to rely on for the day-to-day. So, extremely experienced contractor, and I'm I'm excited to present them to you possibly at the next meeting. Thank you for explaining all like the differences between the roles. It's very helpful. Yeah. And thank you also because not just
048for all of the work that your team does during regular business working hours, but you know, also for some of those off, you know, hours phone calls that you guys are receiving in the middle of the night on a Sunday at 10:30 to respond to different situations, and when there's inclement weather, there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes outside of what are typical hours. So, thank you to you and you and your team for Thank you for recognizing that, right? This is the life we chose, but yeah, it's I appreciate that. Thank you. And also just taking, like you said, and Ms. O'Hara shared with us, taking the time, you know, as we've all said, we're excited about this project, but not letting the excitement overwhelm, doing our due diligence, and taking the
049time to vet. And and sometimes saying we need to push something out, we need to wait, we need to really vet more. So, we appreciate that. It's not certainly our level of expertise, and we appreciate makes us sleep better at night knowing there is such a a vetting process. Yeah, this was a difficult one. I've been in involved with hundreds and hundreds of bidding of bids and RFPs. This one was very challenging. So, I'm I'm comfortable I would have been comfortable with any of the contractors, but I'm I'm very comfortable with this contractor, and I think you guys will be, too. We appreciate that. Okay. Thank you. That brings us to our budget presentation, which will be done by Ms. O'Hara and Ms. De Sousa. Thank you. Good evening. Make sure you can hear me
050okay. Tonight, we will present a summary of the proposed 2026-2027 budget as it relates to facilities, transportation, and athletics. The specific details included each in each slide will not be presented in detail. They are going to be available for you on our CUFSD website under budget and finance. So, all areas of the proposed budget support student learning and expand opportunities aligned with our mission and vision, while advancing the skills and competencies outlined in our portrait of a graduate. To achieve this, the budget is centered around three key pillars, which you've heard repeatedly at each budget presentation. Strengthening academic excellence through programs and staffing, advancing college and career pathways, partnerships and communication, and optimizing infrastructure for safety, security, and sustainability. Safety remains a central priority embedded across facilities, transportation, and athletics to support safe, efficient environments
051for students, staff, families, and the community. Facility investments prioritize modern and well-maintained learning environments with safety central to all improvements. Transportation investments prioritize safety, efficiency, and reliability, while addressing notable cost increases and planning for continued growth. Athletics investments support competitive opportunities and leadership development with continued investment in student safety, dedicated coaching staff, and well-maintained facilities. Buildings and grounds supports over 200,000 square feet of building space, 40 acres of grounds, and 100,000 square feet of pavement, maintaining safe, clean, and well-maintained facilities that support student learning, athletics, extracurricular programs, and community use. Targeted facility improvements in the 26-27 proposed budget include boiler replacement, roof repairs, asphalt and walkway improvements, flooring upgrades, and water fountain replacements to strengthen safety, reliability, and daily operations. Facility staffing in the proposed 26-27 budget includes the director of facilities, recently just presented,
052maintenance mechanics, assistant maintenance staff, and grounds personnel who support daily operations, preventative maintenance, and timely repairs across district buildings and grounds. The director of facilities provides leadership and oversight of daily operations, long-term maintenance planning, safety and regulatory compliance, capital project coordination, and serves as a liaison with the New York State Education Department, architects, engineers, and state and local agencies. With a lean but highly skilled team, many repairs and projects are completed in-house, reducing the need for outsourcing and resulting in significant cost savings for the district. The 26-27 budget includes a new BOCES-supported aidable emergency planning technician to strengthen district-wide safety, coordination, and emergency preparedness. This role supports collaboration with district administration, building-level emergency response teams, OUBOCES Health and Safety, our on-site Atlas security personnel, and local and county law enforcement to strengthen proactive planning, prevention
053strategies, and coordinated emergency response. The position also supports align also supports alignment with New York State Education regulations and best practices, serving as as a strategic advisor to ensure district safety efforts remain proactive, coordinated, and sustainable. Transportation plays a critical role in supporting safe, reliable, and efficient access for students to school, academic programs, athletics, and extracurricular activities. The 26-27 budget reflects notable cost increases driven by anticipated enrollment growth, including continued development at the Greens of Chester and planning for current and emerging transportation needs. Athletics continue to play an important role in student engagement, leadership development, and school pride with the 26-27 budget supporting a wide range of competitive opportunities for students. The budget also includes expanded support for assistant coaches to strengthen student supervision, enhance skill development, and maintain safe and competitive athletic programs. This
054investment was begun This was the first year where we had stipends for assistant coaches, and it also supports mentorship program sustainability and the recruitment and retention of qualified coaching staff. Athletic budget investments again support coaching stipends, required certifications, and uniforms and equipment to ensure safe, structured, and competitive opportunities, while rotating while rotating replacement schedules supports long-term planning and cost efficiency. I notice these are not read in complete detail, so the further details will be available on our website as early as tomorrow. Health and safety remain central to athletic programming with medical coverage including ambulance and EMS support for higher-risk events, first aid supplies, training, chaperone security and clerical support, ensuring appropriate supervision, timely response to student needs, and safe, well-managed athletic events and competitions. Officials, league and sectional fees, and insurance coverage are essential to
055maintaining safe, regulated, and competitive athletic programs while ensuring opportunities for student participation in interscholastic competition. Funded outside the athletic budget, several supports for athletics outside of the budget include transportation to competitions, facility maintenance, and field preparation, which were just discussed in this evening's reports, ensuring safe travel, well-maintained facilities, and high-quality athletic experience for our student athletes. And on to staffing for the athletics program, that includes the athletic director, athletic secretary, and coaching staff who support program leadership, coordination, compliance, and student supervision. The athletic director role is not a stand-alone position in the budget and includes shared teaching responsibilities while overseeing the district's athletic program and ensuring safe competitive opportunities for our students. In addition, chaperones, game support staff, and security personnel are included in the budget and play an important role in supporting the supervision
056of event operations and maintaining, once again, you're hearing repeatedly, a safe environment for both students and spectators during athletic competitions and our larger events. BOCES athletic services, including league memberships, certified officials, and athletic software support safe, competitive, and well-managed athletic programs while enhancing student development and program oversight. I notice Huddle is referenced here, and that's with specific to performance analysis, game film review Excuse me, game film review and coaching and tools that enhance instruction and development. At this time, I'll turn it over to our assistant superintendent for business, Ms. Nicole De Sousa, to review the budget details and financial financial overview for facilities, transportation, and athletics. Thank you, Ms. O'Hara. So, looking at our total operations, it comes in at $879,000 proposed for the 26-27 year, which is essentially flat um from the prior year.
057Uh these are primarily non-discretionary costs such as utilities, custodial salaries, and the day-to-day expenses required to keep our buildings open and functioning. Where you see some utility lines slightly decrease, that reflects more precise budgeting based on actual consumption data. And next, next, we have our maintenance. This is where you you will see more movement. The targeted improvements we highlighted earlier, including the boiler replacement, roof repairs, asphalt work, flooring, and water fountain upgrades are reflected here. Total maintenance increases from 1.95 million to 2 million dollars, which is approximately a 50 55,000 dollar increase or about 2.8%. The goal is to stay ahead of issues so we're not dealing with larger, more expensive problems later on. So, transportation is one of the areas where you'll see the most significant year-to-year change, largely due to community growth with
058new developments. This reflects proactive planning for non-public route demands. Contract transportation services increase from 3 million 24,000 to 3.7 million, which is an increase of approximately 692,000 or 23%. Total athletics slightly increases from 532,000 to 536, which is less than 1% increase. It's important to note that costs for transportation to competitions and maintenance of the athletic fields are not included within these budget lines. Those are reflected in the transportation and building and grounds budget lines prior in the prior slides. And as a result, the district's overall investment in athletics extends beyond what is shown here. So, our next budget meeting will be in 2 weeks on April 8th, where we will discuss the undistributed expenses, central services, and the BOCES admin services. I believe we're going to have Mark Coleman here from Orange-Ulster BOCES to
059present their budget for us. Um after that, we will talk about the final budget overview and have board actions on April 21st, and our public budget hearing will be held on May 6th. As always, you can find this presentation and any budget information on our website under budget and finance. And our budget vote is May 19th. And that's all I have for you. Thank you so much. Do you have any questions for Ms. O'Hara or Ms. De Sousa regarding our budget? For this portion of it. No questions. Just thank you for the breakdown. The way that it's it was presented is just very clear and is just makes it very easy to understand where all the changes are occurring. So, thank you for the time and effort that went into that. Thank you. Moving along
060to our first public comment. Seeing that no one has joined us in person, we will move to round table discussion. Start at this side of the table. There's no hierarchy. We're all around the table. Briefly. Yes, thank you. Uh just a note of congratulations to Mrs. Scally and all of the staff that supported and certainly our students in the drama club along with our elementary students for their phenomenal performance of The Little Mermaid. I have to say the talent, dedication, and enthusiasm was off the charts. What a wonderful performance. Um and it's certainly in terms of supporting the arts, an area reflected in our proposed budget, and continued commitment to student opportunities. And just as a reminder, spring break begins on Monday, March 30th. There will be no school, and students will return on Monday,
061April 6th. We hope everyone enjoys a well-deserved break, and we look forward to welcoming students back refreshed for strong finish. I can't even believe I'm saying this, strong finish to the school year. Thank you. Break hasn't happened That's all. Thank you. This side for round table. I don't have any updates. Do we have any student updates? Yes, just a few. So, as Mrs. Harris said, the musical went great this weekend. Both nights were almost sold out. Key Club met yesterday to discuss the senior scholarships they'll be giving out, and then also the new officers, which will be elected next meeting. The Kiwanis town cleanup is April 11th, and they will be meeting at Wendy's at 8:45. And then there's also NYSSMA band performances the same day at Monroe High School. Our seniors have been selling
062Krispy Kreme donuts to fundraise for the all-night party. Yearbooks are still on sale until April 24th. This Thursday, there's Varsity Club to discuss the spring pep rally. And then lastly, Miss Brodo posted for those interested in the medical field, St. Anthony's Hospital in Warwick is accepting volunteer applications until April 30th for those 16 and older. And that is it. Thank you so much. Anything else? Okay. Moving along to consent agenda. I would like to make a motion to adopt consent agenda items 5.1 through 5.8. I'll second. All in favor? I. Consent agenda items pass. That brings us to our second public comments. Seeing that no one else has joined us, can I have a motion to adjourn? I'll make that motion. Second. All in favor? I. I. On behalf of the Board of Education, we
063like to wish all our students and families a very happy and safe spring break, and please tune in on April 8th, which is our next Board of Education meeting. Good night.