001Present. Thank you. Will you please stand for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Can I please have a motion to adopt tonight's agenda? I'll make that motion. Second. All in favor? I motion pass. Can I please have a motion to approve the board meeting minutes of May 13, 2025? We'll make the motion. Second. All in favor? Motion pass. That brings us to tonight's presentations. Mrs. Garcia. Good evening everyone. I have a couple of updates to provide you all. I would start with goal uh district goal number two. Uh last week, Friday, May 16th, we had our superintendent have day professional development session, uh the focus was
002on our new student information system to faculty and staff. We will be transitioning from school tools to synergy. Next year, uh we thank Daniel Schwarzkar for working continuously with the synergy team and coordinating the districtwide professional development session that took place on that day. He facilitated workshop at Chester Elementary School while Dennis Lri facilitated the sessions at Chester Academy. They are truly our district's very own data ninjas. We have a awesome shirts uh on our social media pages so you could refer to. Another highlight of the half day session was faculty and staff appreciation. To show our gratitude, the administrative team hosted an ice cream social. During the faculty designated lunchtime featuring sweets from the ice mother and son's food truck, rain or shine, it was ice cream time as teachers redeemed their tickets at
003CES and at CA. We had 30 minute intervals during the lunch time. So, um it was a a rainy day, but it was uh pretty uh well received by the teachers and staff. Uh next, uh district goal number two and three. I want to provide you with an inservice academy update. So, the teacher leaders have been currently participating in our May Chester UFSD inservice academy kickoff that took uh place uh last week was the first session. So I will give you an update of the different workshops that took place last week and this week. We had SCCL for educators strengthening the hearts behind the work. This was led by Jennifer Cuomo and Jenny McKenzie, our Chester Academy guidance counselors during the teachers appreciation week on May 8th. uh guidance counselors, teachers and instructional aids attended
004and all the participants found the workshop very meaningful. I want to read uh some of their testimonies. Uh Miss Cuomo stated, "Miss McKenzie and I provided an inservice workshop on self-care for teachers and staff. We were able to discuss suggestions for stress relief uh conduct hands-on meaningful breathing strategies together and discuss the importance of having people to work to share your needs people at work to share your needs with and get support from. We really enjoyed this opportunity and had a wonderful group of participants and two teachers had these things to say. Miss Christine Cisco said, "As teachers, we pour so much into our students, and this session was powerful was a powerful reminder that we need to care for ourselves, too. From reflective journaling to attention release strategies like meditation, I left feeling empowered
005and confident, equipped with practical tools to focus inward. It was also comforting to know that I am not alone. It is encouraging to see our district investing in the kind of this kind of meaningful and support meaningful support for teachers and staff. I need to update my glasses. Sorry. Our new uh math teacher, Alexis Max, stated, "In the workshop, we learned about mindfulness and different ways that we can reduce stress so that we can give 100% to our students. The activity that I enjoyed the most was the guided video. It had our minds focused on relaxing and not on the current stressors. We also had our readytouse ENL strategies for grade 6 through 12, which was led by our ENL teachers, Charlotte Petrop Paulo and Jennifer Randio. This workshop took place on Thursday, May 15th
006after school. Miss Petropalo stated, "As an ENL educator, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to share my knowledge with my colleagues. Preparing for this presentation has given me time to reflect on why I chose this career path. It's encouraging to work in an environment where educators are given the chance to highlight their areas of expertise. I was looking forward to facilitating this sess this training session as well as attending my co-workers sessions in the upcoming weeks. And uh today we had uh executive functioning the brain management system and how EF relates to our students with ADHD and autism. And it was led today by Rebecca Davis. Um this was a popular uh workshop because we had to hold two sessions. So, one is being held today and another one will be held tomorrow uh
007with Rebecca and Monica Gonzalez. Um it will also take place at Chester Elementary School on May 29th before the start of the school day and it will be facilitated uh by Rebecca Davis and Emma McCay. And Miss Davis stated, "When I first saw the initiative to be a facilitator for the inservice academy, my initial reactions was excitement. So many staff at Chester are knowledgeable and come from various backgrounds and experiences. This provides a unique opportunity for me to partner with my amazing psychologist colleagues and also give colleagues that I don't ordinarily work with an opportunity to collaborate. And today we had uh Miss Diorio led a workshop called unlocking the power of your library resources to support you and your students. She led participants through the various research and digital resources that are available to
008students and faculty on the library database access and the Sora ebooks and autobooks. You can access it via the district website. If you click on academics, then the library services and then you can select Chester Academy or CES catal catalog link. Miss Diorio stated, "I love sharing with my fellow teachers the fabulous tools available here at in Chester. There is a wealth of information available for teachers to use with students to spark imagination, differentiated learning, and meet students where they are socially, emotionally, and academically." And then next week uh on May 29th, we have Mr. uh Joseph Moral's presentation on smarter progress monitoring tools, tips, and templates that work identifying, gathering, and organizing data already present in your classroom. And that one has a lot of high interest teacher participants, too. And lastly, I'd like
009to share that this school year's final FA U family instructional academy workshop took place on Tuesday, April 29th. It was the end of um National Poetry Month. The poetry cafe and open mic session were truly inspiring. I'd like to thank all of the teachers who encouraged students to share their poems and offered extra credit as a motivation. Afterwards, students were awarded with open mic performance medals recognizing their courage and creativity. Uh it was also heartwarming to see how the parents were in attendance proudly supporting their children. Um, I also want to thank community poet Daniel Vijgas for serving as our special guest performing and for demonstrating how to play the kongas while doing poetry um to Miss Hassani's jazz band who were an attentive and captivating audience. And I have some pictures of the event
010provided for you as well. Do you have any questions for me? I just have a comment. as you were presenting and you kept saying teachers stood after school or signed up before school and that stuck out because that just shows the level of of investment um and the level of motivation to just continue growing in the profession um because sometimes it's not easy to stay after school or come before work um and so the fact that teachers um want to just shows um you know it it just it means a lot and we appreciate as I'm sure I can speak for the what that we appreciate that um because it just shows that there's care and there's investment in our children and so um I just wanted to point that out that stuck out and
011we received I received several emails from teachers wanting the sessions to be offered again next year because due to conflicts after school they couldn't attend the workshops like oh come on can you do another one so um sometimes it's bad timing but we're going to try to redo them again for next year I was going to share the same not just that they took the time to do the workshops they put together meaningful staff that were able to attend and I love that we also extended to guidance and to also building aids that are in the building as well and I also think it's something very powerful when our own staff is turnkey other staff members you know it speaks to the talent the depth and the breth of it's just here in our own
012home own. And it's great when we take time, you know, to share, you know, that talent. I was just going to say also, I think it's great because it's it's team building, right? So you you may be learning something from an individual that you really haven't worked with before. So this gives them the opportunity to get to know each other and to learn different areas of expertise in a building, about the building, and about the students from each other, which is great. Thank you so much. So, we're going to move to Mr. Schwarzport because Mr. Ducet is out coaching in the rain. In the rain. As always, you guys have my reports, so I'm just going to highlight some of the things that aren't on it. Uh, we did have the fourth round of our
013synergy data got pulled yesterday. So, we are very very close to being live with that. The teachers and staff got the training last week. Um, the report is slightly off. We installed and finished all the outdoor access points uh for our Wi-Fi. So, we have Wi-Fi outside of all both of our buildings. As of this morning, we have 58 access points replaced. Uh we did purchase two new firewalls as well. Well, three. So, we're going to bring Maple Avenue building into our network. Right now, it's kind of a standalone um location. So, we'll be able to have a VPN set up between those two buildings. So, we can do cameras and door access and everything over there if we wanted to in the future. Uh those are the only things that aren't on my report.
014You guys have any questions? Was thorough as always and great that we're we're just keeping expanding. Yeah. Wonderful. Thank you, Mr. D. Rosa. Supposed to be rain all week. It is supposed to be rain all week, which we do not like. Um, first off, uh, congratulations, Mr. Kersio and Mrs. Naggermith on your election. Look forward to working with you for a bunch more years. Um, as always, thank you for the opportunity to update you on buildings and grounds. got a couple of topics uh I wanted to cover. First and foremost is the summer custodial job. Uh I thought it was important to present on this publicly because of the amount of interest we've gotten. So we have seven positions that are approved. Uh in the past year since I've been here, we've averaged five or
015six candidates, right? So, we've always floated one uh position because we didn't have enough candidates to to fill. This year, we have 26 applicants, which is, for lack of a better term, bananas. Uh so, we are uh currently putting all of the resumes into a matrix and we're trying to figure out the best way to approach this. Right? So, we're we're um prioritizing current students who graduate this year. Um uh or I should say current students and students who graduate this year, returning summer custodial staff, and then external candidates uh who are not currently enrolled in the school. Interviews start tomorrow and they will continue through next week. So, we fully expect for um all of those positions to be filled and notified by the end of next week. Um it's kind of a tough
016position for us to be in in that 26 applicants have applied uh in only seven positions. So um you know like I said interviews start tomorrow um and uh we're looking forward to hiring this crew. Uh first off, super grateful at the interest uh and I think it's amazing and we're very happy to have this many candidates and and a big thank you to the guidance group who has advertised and pushed this pretty vigorously. So I think that's a big part of it. Um the second topic I wanted to touch on was the safety capital project. So this project is finally fully approved. I I know every month I've sat up here and I've talked about an impending approval is coming. An impending approval is coming. Well, finally we got it on uh Wednesday, May
01714th. And just a reminder, this project was submitted in October of 24. So, it has been quite the journey and this is the battle that school districts have been facing um getting projects approved. Um the bid process started I I would say parallel but actually before the approval of the process uh and that was geared at speeding up the awarding of this project. So in in kind of a a watered down version of this process the um the project gets bid out. We award a general contractor and then the general contractor at that point can start ordering materials. We have some materials that have significant lead times. And part of this is to kind of express to you and the community that we may wind up with uh a delay in the end of summer
018completion. And we'll know that once the general contractor is awarded and they're able to then bid out their part of the project. The the uh issues of concern are the storefronts. So storefronts are the glass and aluminum structures. as you walk into the main entrance of the building. Those are called storefront. So, they're customized um um materials and they can have up to a 16week lead time. So, that puts us right at um right at the opening of school. Um in the event that these materials are delayed, we will uh look to reschedule the pro the that part of the project over a long holiday. I'm hoping that doesn't happen, but that was um one of the ways we we were we're were trying to combat that is by bidding this project out before it
019was approved. So, the project went to bid. Uh we conducted a bid walk the same day it was approved, ironically, on May 14th. Um and we plan on opening the bids and vetting the contractors on Wednesday, May 28th. So at that point we will um have a recommendation for the board and hopefully we can um we can expedite that process. So there are some risks right? Um the physical doors for the elementary school do have a lead time. The openings or the enclosures will be uh completed and roughed in and safed off. So um but there are there are some items that are uh of a concern. And then the third uh topic I wanted to discuss was or to touch on was our um revised facility use policy. So this is something that we've
020been talking about for a while. Um and I think uh together with uh Miss Duza and Miss Mr. Ducet and Miss O'Hara and of course Miss Inuzi. Um we were able to draft some significant changes to our current policy and we think um the the purpose of these revisions are first and foremost aimed at protecting the assets of our taxpayers. Right? So it includes all of our fields, our indoor facilities. Um the policy establishes clear rules and regulations on use. Um it establishes a standard process by which to apply which is really important. Uh defines the amount and type of insurance by event. So in partnering obviously with our insurance carrier um some events like a carnival uh it require a lot more insurance than other events like a baseball game. Uh so establishes a
021detailed list of fees for organizations who wish to use our facilities. So, this is probably the biggest change that we're proposing for you guys. Um, each asset that we have that typically gets rented out is put into a matrix and there's a cost associated with a rental um or uh application of use. So, um if you look over that policy, uh you will see um those costs. Those costs are based off of the CSEA's um collective bargaining agreement, right? So the union, our custodians, our maintenance staff, our IT guys um they they work off of collective bargaining. So their hourly rates are defined um and we have anticipated the amount of time it would take to prepare for or um to repair um um fields and facilities or clean up right after these events. So
022that's that's the basis of those costs. Um any group who wishes to apply will be defined into one of three categories. Uh the first category being a school sponsored group. So these groups consist of PTA groups uh any student councils, school bands and choirs, choirs, etc. Class two is a school community or notfor-profit uh group. So these type of groups uh their primary mission is directly uh supporting the district district students and uh primarily related uh to the school. They provide a civic and educational or cultural activities like the boy scouts, girl scouts, Kuanis, CIO uh and so on. And then the third group is a group that's not affiliated with the district. um they are typically for-profit groups um and they uh their costs are a little bit different than the other classes. So
023with that, I'd like to open it up for any questions or concerns you might have um on on any of the topics I've uh I've brought up. So first I wanted to acknowledge how great I think it is that we were able to get the approval through NISAD in six months because I know sitting in on the Orange County School Board meetings. We have districts that attend these meetings who have had some of their projects in review for eight months to over a year. So, I think that really speaks to how detail oriented and thorough the paperwork must have been as it always is from your team in and being submitted. So, I I don't know that Nice is uh is a fan of ours at this point. We've we have called them weekly uh
024to follow up on this, but but I appreciate the acknowledgement and and it's it's a definite struggle. we bid projects and then they're awarded a year or more later. It's very difficult to capture those costs. So, thank you. And then the only other piece with regard to um as we're doing the first reading for the use of the school facilities, um I had just two suggestions if the board and the team were open to them. Um the first one being that under rules and regulations, we do have in here that organizations who are renting from us um have to ensure that all participants and spectators are remaining in designated areas. But it might be worth also adding in there that they also should have a policy or a procedure in place to have somebody designated
025to make sure that all of the students are leaving the premises. Um just knowing from different rec programs who have rented before, some do have a strong polic with regard to that and others don't. And it just seems for some of those common sense that you'd make sure the students leave, but um there have been instances where coaches are running out just to make sure that someone remains there. Yeah, it's an excellent call out and um we did put in verbiage uh to kind of capture that. Um I don't know if you want me to read the uh Okay. So so to to capture that we have put um it shall be the responsibility of the person applying for the permit to ensure that all participants and spec spectators remain in the designated area and
026have left the facility at the time prescribed in the approved facility use permit. Um so yeah, appreciate that. That was uh a great call out. Great. Thank you. And then I saw also that um the at Chester Elementary were added as well. So, thank you because I know there's a lot of programs and PTA events that are held there as well. So, Yep. That was uh Yep. We we captured that. Thank you. Thank you for your insight. I have one more. Um in regards to the safety capital project, I know you mentioned the lead time item. Any concerns regarding potential cost changes or cost implications? Yeah. Um certainly hope not. Um but tariffs, right, could could be a potential impact and we won't know what the impact on those tariffs will be until we start
027um contacting the vendors and and and procuring the materials. Um again, this is the challenge with school districts who are budgeting projects and then receiving approval a year later. Uh you don't things happen, right? New new administrations, new laws are passed. So it is definitely a risk. Uh hopefully um these materials are are abroad and I'm sorry uh domestic I guess right uh not overseas. So we'll we'll find out but it is it is definitely a risk and we won't again we won't know that until we start procuring the materials. My last thought is um once again you have a very impressive summer uh to-do list. Oh, summer hasn't gotten any longer. So, summer has not gotten any longer and the but the list did from the time I wrote the report until now. So,
028yeah. Thank you. Very impressive. Thank you once again for your very thorough. Okay. Thanks, guys. That brings us to our first public comment on agenda items. See, we have no one. We'll go to round table. This side of the table. Uh just a quick thank you and shout out to Goan School District for hosting the Special Olympics. We did have our 11 athletes compete this past um Saturday. They did a terrific job and we're grateful for the opportunity. So, thank you to Go. Sure. I'll just follow that up with regard to Special Olympics. Many thanks to Mrs. Loftess and Mrs. Bosch for being our lead coaches um in supporting our students participating in this program and this is fairly recent for the Chester school district. Uh and it is in place solely due to Mrs.
029Loftess's leadership in addition to Mrs. Bosch in supporting students. So um great opportunity agreed on thanking gosh and and thank you so much for efforts to our students. I know that uh Mr. Dette is not able to be here this evening because he is coaching. Um in his report, which the board of education has, he has referenced, uh you know, updates for spring sports, uh including senior celebrations, I think it's important to highlight on behalf of Mr. Ducet, uh the Morg Morgan's message dedication game that took place. And I'll just uh read from his report. We had a great turnout for Morgan's message varsity softball and baseball night games held at the Rock on Wednesday, May 14th. The weather was not cooperative as it rained most of the night, but that did not dampen the
030energy of the special event. A brief ceremony was held prior to the first pitch and both teams took the field in two took the lead held in two thrilling games uh with a large crowd and DJ filling the sports complex with music throughout the night. Uh Mr. Just would personally like to thank Paige Niles for her hard work and dedication to making this club and event possible and Mr. Rolando Aguilar was instrumental in helping uh with custom t-shirts that both teams wore as the uniforms for the games. That's that's really an amazing event and uh led by Paige Nile. So that's outstanding. And then uh one other component with regard to Mr. Det's report which was extensive. Um we as are now in our third year uh third consecutive year of earning either the New
031York State School of Distinction or New York State School of Excellence. Uh this year 14 of our 15 varsity teams qualified uh which extends our streak uh to three consecutive years dating back to our first year uh ever in the district being awarded in 2023. And Mr. Jette would like to extend a thank you to the coaches, teachers, administration, parents, board of education, and student athletes of course uh for their dedication to maintaining our academic excellence and the rest you have uh in front of you. Uh I did also uh in terms of what I'd like to share in roundt is to thank again our Chester community for standing behind our students, our programs and the future of our schools by coming out to vote on behalf of the board of education. Uh we're proud
032we are proud and appreciative of a community that supports public education, values student success, and continues to invest in excellence districtwide. And again, congratulations to Mrs. Neggermith and Mrs. Derscio for continuing on in the board of education. Um, and it's a great opportunity uh to progress forward with a unified board and a strong board in support of uh academics and student opportunity all around. Uh, also in terms of uh, districtwide and excellence, like to take a moment to recognize and thank several of our outstanding educators for the incredible work they've done to showcase student creativity and innovation across our schools at yesterday evening's CES book themed art show and the CUFSD art STEM expo. So, a special thank you to CES art teacher Emily Downik, robotics and STEM specialists Jen Rendy, Chester Academy art teachers
033Marie Crryer and Amanda Lamdy, and our technology and engineering team Tim Jordan and Jeff Rodman. I truly just publicly want to thank each of you for the outstanding effort you put into showcasing our students creativity and innovation. Uh, and I would add on behalf of the board, truly especially grateful for the time and care our teachers took to share students work with our families and Chester community, highlighting the outstanding instruction that takes place in their classrooms and across our schools. On that note, the art and STEM expo uh planned on the same evening of the budget vote was purposeful because it provides an opportunity to share what supporting the budget brings forth and investing in excellence for our students. So with regard to the budget, I want to extend sincere appreciation to our assistant superintendent
034for business, Mr. Isusa for her work in preparing uh at length all of the complexities that are involved in developing a budget, collaborating with the business office, the administrative team, and certainly the board of education develop a fiscally responsible plan that meets current needs while keeping long-term goals for our students and community in mind. Her efforts reflect the board's commitment to sound financial stewardship and strategic planning and support of student success. So, thank you so much I thank you as well in preparing for our vote, our Mad Rosa and his facilities team for their efforts in placing signage throughout the community to remind students and residents and uh community members to vote for the budget. We did have students come out and vote um and for ensuring everything was in place for a smooth and
035wellorganized day. Uh really always appreciate the attention to detail and the behindthe-scenes support. Uh and certainly last but not least, Lindsay Inuzi, our district clerk, for managing the very early morning and the late hours with her team required to administer the vote itself. Uh truly Lindsay, your organization and uh dedication ensure and the entire process ran smoothly thanks to you. So um to everybody, board of education, certainly our community, thank you so very much for your support. Uh it truly is necessary and will result impacting positive change for our students throughout the district. It is a team effort and we truly thank you for that. Uh lastly, just a reminder that uh our schools and offices will be closed Friday, May 23rd and Monday, May 26 in observance of Memorial Day, which is a time
036to honor and remember the military personnel gave their lives and service to our country. Um, so I thank you all for again your continued partnership and support uh as we continue to work together to impact positive change. Thank you. I don't we have not had an Orange County schoolboard meeting um since April since one in May had to be postponed. So the next meeting will be the annual meeting that is scheduled for June 4th which I believe where all our student representatives. Yes, if you don't mind. Thank you. We are in the home stretch. So hello. Um um oh excuse me. Sorry. Is the second to last meeting and Brooke and I were talking about that earlier. We are very grateful for this position and um I'm sad that it is going to end soon.
037In the last meeting um on May 16th and 17th we had our NISMA performances. There were 11 high school band members and four high school chorus members participating and several of the 15 performed level six pieces which is the highest level. 18 middle school students and 10 elementary students participated in NISMA as well and it's always very nice to see musical engagement in younger students. We all did very well and we have a very good group of students carrying the music department for next year. Within the music department, the band and chorus are diligently working on the pieces that we will be performing at graduation on June 26. It will feature several senior solos within the pieces as well as the national anthem. Yesterday, May 20th, members of the Key Club volunteered to restore the
038military bulletin board in the lobby. The pictures in the frame um were in an unpleasant condition to say the least. certain pictures were peeling or falling off and it was collecting dust and this is not a state that we want a very honorable board to be in. So, we repaired it. Um, they were able to fix and clean every individual photo as well as the surrounding wood and the paper behind it. And it looks a lot better and being the first thing that you see when you enter the building. We felt like that was very important. Several high school seniors in the portfolio art class had a trip to the local senior center tomorrow to paint the windows spring themed, but due to the forecast that will be rescheduled to June 9th. On May 28th,
039there is a project adventure trip to the street Treecapes ropes course, which is an aerial adventure park in New Jersey. This will be our last project adventure trip of the year. We are so grateful for all of the opportunities that this class has given us, and the junior class is in good hands with Miss Gans next year. And now that we are towards the end of the year, many of our clubs that we have mentioned in many of these meetings are hosting celebrations for their final meetings. The Key Club awards ceremony will be held on Tuesday, June 3rd at Carpenter Park. This is where the senior members will receive their medallions to wear at graduation as well as other Kowanas awards to certain students that Miss Baron will give us. The book club will be
040hosting their end of the year celebration on June 3rd as well. They recently made team shirts featuring a book club design that we'll wear to show support and send off the seniors who built the team. The Jazz Bin will be going bowling on June 10th to celebrate the concert and other activities that they have been invited to, which Brooke will also mention. The mock trial is planning a last get together, which will be very special as we send off our team captain and seniors who built the team two years ago from two members to 19 as of current. And the minimum requirement to be able to participate and compete against other schools is 12 members consisting of six attorneys and six witnesses. As seniors, we know that we have prepared them very well and we
041know they will keep the team spirit alive after we graduate. Finally, the National Honor Society will be meeting on June 4th to distribute the graduation cords for the club as well as the cords for those who donated in the blood drive. Thank you. Hello everyone. So, last Thursday was the junior and senior prom, and it went really well. It was fun and everything went smoothly. The class of 2026 is now focusing on planning the senior trip next year to Disney and Universal. For the senior trip, sadly, the option that we picked of staying at the Hard Rock Cafe will have to be revised because the flight and hotel prices increased pretty significantly. So, once the grade votes again on the next best option, we'll be able to have more details regarding the trip. Tomorrow is
042the chorus and voice ensemble Broadway trip to see the Great Gatsby musical which they're very excited for. May 24th is the Kuanis 5K event. This is always a very popular event and it will be held at Carpenter Field. After the race, awards will be given out to the top placesers in each age category along with food and beverages. May 29th is the high school academic awards ceremony to celebrate those who have won high school awards for their high academic achievements. Uh June 4th, I'm sorry, June 1st is the outdoor band of Palooa concert. It will be held at the amphitheater in downtown Chester from 1 to 3 p.m. and it will feature the drum line, the elementary and high school jazz bands, the elementary school rock band, as well as three Nisma solos during transitions.
043Key Club will be selling goods to raise money for the club funds for next year's projects. And then lastly, June 6th is our annual band Music in the Parks trip. The band has been working on the piece Aladdin for the judges among other songs. And then awards will be given out at Six Flags. And the students are really looking forward to this one. This trip is always a favorite. I think it's probably the favorite for band. So that's all I have. Well, thank you. And I'm so sorry to hear that the prices um are increasing significantly. Yeah, you guys have to pivot. But thank goodness you started so early in planning. So hopefully your fundraising will not be, you know, as impacted. I hope so. I think it should be fine, but we'll see. I
044I wanted to thank you guys for how thorough your reports always are and how I love the collaboration that we have between a senior representative and a junior representative because um not all districts have that. And and what I've noticed too in the conversations that you have is how you're passing the torch. I like that collaboration and how much focus there is on after you leave how like certain clubs are going to continue and how you're going to support the junior class with being able to start um fundraising early. So, I think that dialogue is just so important with being able to help the incoming class that are going to be seniors next year. So, thank you both. I I love that partnership that you both have. And in fact, I believe um student board
045representation is the topic of our Orange County School Boards the last meeting because it is something that districts are working on refining and you know bringing to a higher level. So we thank you guys for setting the bar so high. Thank you. Thank you. And I have two things to share. Um first of all, I have the very good fortune to honor one of our board members this evening. I would like to congratulate Carolyn Neggermith for earning a level three board mastery award under NISBA's board excellent recognition program. At this level, you qualif qualify for recognition in our board newspaper as well as the following items. A certificate, a certificate of rec of recognition, this nice portfolio. Thank you. The program is designed to acknowledge schoolboard members who strive continually to expand their governance, knowledge,
046and skills. It is comprised of four achievement levels that are reached by accumulating points for participating in NISBA training, workshops, events, and activities as well as for taking on board related roles such as board president and NISBA's advocacy liaison. So it is with heartfelt congratulations as your fellow board members to share this honor with you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. It's my honor and my pleasure. I really am very very grateful to having another three years with you and for the opportunity and to work with everybody at this table. So thank you. I appreciate that having you and keep us excelling to that level. Thank you. Um and in closing our round table, Carolyn and I just wanted to share um we're incredibly grateful um to have the opportunity to serve the
047next three years, the Chester community. Chester Union Free School District is a place where childhood happens and where our futures are formed. Our district belongs to all of us. It belongs to the students that learn and the hardworking families who support them. It belongs to the educators and the staff who ensure children from every background have the opportunity to lead fulfilling lives. We need a strong Chester Union Free School District to unite us and be the center of our community. Yesterday, the community helped continue that strong connection by passing the budget and reelecting Carolyn and myself to the board of education. We immensely appreciate the faith you have in us to understand the importance of our public school and the people who work here. Elected board of education members and past budgets allow for us
048to remain student centered, future focused and team driven. On behalf of the board of education and the entire Chester UFD family, we thank you for your continuous support and look forward to our continuing partnership. And on that we'll move to consent agenda. I would like to make a motion to adopt consent agenda items 5.1 through 5.8. Second. All in favor? Motion pass. That moves us to public comment. Yes, I actually uh do have one that I'm going to share via email. On May 15th, we did have um Diane Marusco contacted the board via email inquiring about the timeline for budget newsletters. Um so I just wanted to remind everybody that in accordance with New York State law, school districts must hold legal budget hearings between 7 to 14 days prior to the vote. the Chester
049Union Free School District held its legal budget hearing on May 13th, seven days before the vote um on May seven days before the vote on May 20th, excuse me. Um and as required, the budget notice mailers were sent out on May 14th following the hearing and in accordance with the law. Um, and then we did also in addition to the mailing, we did put the full budget newsletter on our district website which was also provided um with the previous budget presentations and the complete budget packet that Mr. Souza has made available for the public and it was also available in both of our buildings. Thank you. Anything else for public comment? May I please have a motion to adjourn? That motion second. All in favor? I motion pass. That brings us to the end of
050our meeting. Our next board of education meeting will not be till June June 11th. So please come join us then. Good night.