CUFSD BOE MEETING 04/24/2025

001Good evening and welcome to the Thursday, April 24th, 2025 board of education meeting for the Chester Union Free School District. Mrs. Newi, can you please take role? Yes, please respond when I call your name. Mrs. Dersio, present. Mrs. President, Mrs. Mrs. Johnson is present. We can now proceed with the meeting. Thank you so much. 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 please have a motion to adopt tonight's agenda? Make a motion. I'll second. All in favor? I. Motion carries. Can I please have a motion to approve the board meeting minutes of April 9th, 2025? I'll make that motion. All in

002favor? I. Motion carries. That brings us to tonight's presentations. Mrs. Garcia. Good evening everyone on this beautiful spring day. Uh before I begin my report, I would like to provide a message to families watching at home. Before our board of education meeting, come take a look from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. explore a new book at the Scholastic Bookf Fair at the Chester Academyy's maker space where you find a reading adventure for every little face. So, if you're on your way to our board of ed meeting, stop by the maker space and purchase some books for the families and I'll begin my report. Um, I would like to begin by addressing district goal number four. I want to give many thanks to Matt D. OSA for uh organizing and scheduling our district safety training. We had

003a CPR AED and first aid training for our administrative team, our buildings and ground team and our office staff during our spring break. Uh it was dur on Tuesday, April uh 15. It provided us with an opportunity to sharpen essential and life-saving skills that can make a huge difference in case of an emergency. So uh it was a refresher course for most of us but it was uh meaningful and informative. Uh goal number two uh Chester UFSD inservice academy uh all the teacher leaders are currently planning their workshops for our May uh inservice academy kickoff. Our we're in the process of creating a course catalog uh where faculties will be able to sign up for professional learning opportunities before or after school on designated dates uh offered by their colleagues. Uh participants will obtain continuing

004teacher and leader education credits known as CTLE credits. And I want to remind that the development of the inservice academy is one of the professional learning plan committee goals. So we're starting uh we're doing a kickoff and teachers will be planning and the courses that don't get kicked off in May. We they're planning it for the following school year. So it actually extends the professional learning opportunities for teachers in addition to our annually scheduled professional development schedule. Um, I provided you with uh a list of course descriptions. Um, but I will just I'm just going to read you the titles of some of the courses and giving a shout out to the teachers who are currently planning it. So, we have ready to use ENL strategies for grades 6 through 12 and it's organized by

005uh Charlotte Petropalo and uh Jennifer Vanashio. We have concentration on mathematics topics using the T184 graphic calculators and that will be organized by uh Mr. Patrick Higgins. Uh we have incorporating movement in elementary school classrooms uh with Jennifer Daly. We have executive functioning the brain management system. How does EF relate to our students with ADHD and autism? And that will be provided by Rebecca Davis. We have seal for educators strengthening the heart behind the work and that's a going to be a collaboration between uh Miss uh Jennifer Cuomo and Jenny McKenzie. We also have sparking student voice socratic seminars across the curriculum with uh Laney Vallet. We have smarter progress monitoring tools, tips and templates that work identifying, gathering and organizing data already present in your classroom with uh Mr. uh Joseph Marvel and Miss

006Dick who's busy be uh organizing the art show is uh working on u a session that will take place after uh me. So her uh workshop is called bringing uh learning to life with stopmotion animation using the hue animation studio. And lastly we have unlocking the power of your library resources to support you and your students by missio. And last thing I want to share is that we have the family instructional academy the last one uh for this academic school year. Uh it will take place next Tuesday, April 29th at 6:30m and it's a poetry cafe and open mic session. Do not be afraid, those of you who are watching. Poetry is not for everyone, but it's going to be a safe space. It's going to be fun. Um I collaborated with some uh local

007uh poets uh that live in our community are going to come out and share poetry with the participants. Uh we have uh Daniel uh Vijgas who's known poet in Warwick that does poetry with the drums and stuff. So he's going to come in. Uh and then we have some parents who are poets who are going to share too. So it's going to be a great opportunity. I provided you with two links there of these musical jingles that I created. Um so um we're hoping to have a pretty a continuous turnout. So if you're on the fence is a safe space. I suggest that you come and explore your creative side with culture. Any questions? I don't have a question. I just want to share that um it's hard to prepare to present to your colleagues

008and so the list of of the different workshops that we do shows collaboration that takes place here in the district and then something to celebrate and shout out to the teachers because I know this is not one and done. I know it's always consistent but We highlight that enough, but it's very hard to present. And not only that, but it shows the talent that our teachers have, those tools that they have in order to share with others. Very important in the class to share that knowledge with their colleagues. Shout out to the teachers and kind of tong with that when she was reading through um Mr. G was reading through the depth and breath like it's not just oh about curriculum like it it really in multifacets that we we deal with in education. So

009kudos to those teachers for taking a risk and for you for organizing everything. Thank you. So thank you to start it have a good kickoff. Thank you. Thank you. Okay Mr. you set. Good evening everyone. So I had some surprising statistical news that I shared in my report this week. Uh last report I initially reported that uh we had we were looking around a seven or eight% increase in our year-to-year uh participation in our athletic programs. And I did mention at the time that I was expecting the numbers to fluctuate slightly depending on what happened with modified registration as well as we always get some late JV and varsity registrations to kind of pile in. Ended up being an 11% increase year-over-year, which for a school our size is huge. And something that I did

010mention in my report that makes that number in my eyes more impressive is the fact that our beds numbers and for anyone who's listening watching um our beds numbers represent what we are within the state from a classification perspective for for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association. So there's AAA, double A, A, B, C, and D. And depending on what our beds number is, that tells us what classification we're going to be. and our beds numbers have gone down a little bit. So that means our enrollment is slightly down. Not a huge decrease, but it is, you know, a statistically significant decrease from an athletics perspective. And for the fact that our numbers are going up anyway is a testament to how successful our athletic programs have been the last few years

011and our our efforts to get more students involved in athletics. And some of the things I highlighted as to why I believe that some of these numbers are going up is our communication. uh our social media class, which our sports media class, continues to push out highlights of all of our athletic teams, including personalized posts that we have from the yearbook committee that we've been working with in addition to uh our announcements on what's required to play sports at Chester, our physicals, and all the uh family ID signups that we have through our website, which everything is directly linked through our website. And also every season, we've been sending out parent square messages. We sent up parents care messages of, hey, this is when you can register. This is what you need. Then we sent

012in another one with, hey, this is where our tryyouts are. This is, you know, here's our coaches you can contact. And then over the summer, something that we started last year was uh getting a hold of those sixth grade students that are going into the seventh grade. Hey, next year you are eligible for modified sports. Parents, here's what you can do to register your children for sports. Here's what you need to do. And we're starting to see that trickle up through the program. As a result, our modified teams were very strong this year. all of our traditional modified programs ran and ran with large rosters. So, I expect that to continue over the next few years to increase our JV and varsity in the next few years. So, this is all fantastic news for our

013for our offerings for athletics coming up uh next month uh as we start getting into our playoff runs for all of our varsity teams, which all of our varsity teams are heading in that direction. Most of them look like they will qualify for the playoffs. I'll have that for you in my May report. Uh we do have senior nights coming up. So within the next week or two weeks, we will have our senior days locked down. We spring is always tough because we have to look at the weather and see what we're up against and try and plan as best we can, which is why we avoid those last games of the season because we don't want them to get rained out. So usually that second week in May is when we try and uh

014get that rolling. Some facilities update for you. We have the Maple Avenue softball camera up and running. It was a uh labor of love because we had to go through after we put the um the pipe in, ran the wire, everything went through. Just weather kind of held us up because it was it got cold, it was raining, it was all kind of stuff. So, uh I'd like to thank Nick Patel because he went out there with me on a cold day and we got up on the ladder and put the camera up and we flipped the switch and crossed our fingers and it worked. All right. So, we are now live streaming our varsity softball games from Maple Avenue, which is quite the accomplish accomplishment because there's no power at that field. So, we

015did it without power. So, that worked out very, very well. Um, in my report, I mentioned that the baseball would be done this week. We put that up, uh, yesterday. So, uh, uh, Mr. Sportskoff, myself, Nick, we were out there again up on the ladders putting a camera up and that is now up and running. So, every varsity sport is now live streamed if it's on campus everywhere. The only one that's on demand is football because that's played at the Commons and we can't get, you know, internet service over there, but those go up the next day or actually later that night. So, every varsity sport, same with lacrosse, lacrosse is also um on demand. If you are looking to find these games, uh you can go to the Chester UFSD website under athletics and

016click on live stream and on demand Chester athletics. If you go to that page, there is a link that will bring you to the huddle Chester fan page. All games that are scheduled, you'll see them. Just click on it. It opens up. You can watch it. It's on Amazon Fire Stick. It's on Roku TV. You can put it on your big screen at home and watch all of our varsity contests from your living room. Although, we would love to see you at the gigs. Um, you can also Google search Huddlefan Chester Academy and it will you will also find it there. And lastly, uh, we've had an increase in field use. This is good news because all of our youth programs are thriving lately. We have a lot of travel groups. We have a lot

017of community groups, little league. Everybody's looking for more space, which is awesome because that also leads to our larger modified teams and then our larger JV larger varsity teams. Everybody wants field use right now. So, one of the things that we did want to do was uh kind of give a little bit more of a visual as to who's using the fields, who's doing what. So, uh, Matt Dross and his crew put up, you'll see these bright red boxes at all of our fields outdoors, and we'll have some nice bright blue Chester per uh, field permit use signs that we put in when our outside groups use this. If you see that permit with the Chester logo on it, it's amazing news because that means we have the youth of this community using our fields

018all the time. And it's it's Chester kids getting out there and doing their thing. and all these travel groups. Again, it is nothing but good news for us because we're getting the youth of this community involved in things that are constructive and productive and, you know, promoting, you know, lifelong fitness and health. They're doing it right here in Chester. So, anytime you see those signs up, you're going to know those are our teams working out with our different youth groups throughout the community. And uh it was a brief report this month, but that's a lot of information, a very short period of time. And uh again, I'll update you on playoffs and things like that next month. But uh that's all I have for you. Question. I have a quick question. The 11% increase, does

019that include the merger with Florida or is that just That's just Chester. I excluded those numbers. I didn't want it to skew the information. That is Chester only. That's great. and thank you for all your hard work of trying to get the camera. That's really on on the softball field. We had some bets going when we flipped that switch. It was going to happen. It was it was all good news. That's just wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Schwarzoff, good afternoon. Um, you guys have my report, so I'm just going to go over the some of the stuff that's not in there. I wanted to thank Mr. Rodman and his class. Me and D went in uh yesterday morning actually um to look at some of their projects that they just recently did. They did

020they made these 3D printed LED lit um lamps that I taught 3D printing for years and they were absolutely spectacular. I think did you put photos up? Uh the lamps there were absolutely amazing. So if you were one of those those kids, um great job. Um and thank you for inviting us in there. Um we an update some of the news with the tariffs is affecting our pricing with Chromebooks. So just know that moving forward we don't have any all of our quotes got cancelled. They won't give us current ones right now. Um, so that's out there. We're just got to wait and see how that permit plays out. Um, I was going to mention the huddle camera and thank Mike and Nick for getting out there with me to uh to install it. While

021we were doing that, we actually replaced um the two outdoor access points out there. So, we should have Wi-Fi access at the outdoor classroom now. and we um have pretty solid Wi-Fi access throughout that entire field. We're replacing all of the rest of the outdoor access points um in the next month or so. So, we should have as you are in any one of our parking lots or playgrounds, we should have very very good Wi-Fi. Um I'm testing if you walked in um to CA tonight the announcement TV a lot of times it's on a Windows login screen we are testing out a different tech to run that it actually downloads the cycle day and the weather daily. Um so as you walk in at any given time um you know what cycle day it

022is and you know what the weather is outside. Uh we're going to try it seems like it's working for the last week. We're going to try to get CES TV upgraded the same way. Um, next week for just a notice for parents and and students, we have our three third through eighth grade ELA tests Tuesday and Wednesday. Um, I did want to thank Dennis the pre with this whole synergy project for the student information system coming next year. Um, it's a it's a lot and I could not do it without Dennis. um he has been just a rock star through that entire thing and he reminded me yesterday that I have never thanked him in a board meeting. So I wanted to do that. Um so our third round of data is in and he's

023been doing the uh data check and it's and it looks really solid. Um all great stuff happening. Thank you so much. Mr. D Rosa. Hi guys. Uh thanks again for the opportunity to update you on behalf of uh buildings and grounds. I have two topics to discuss tonight. One of them kind of exciting, the other one is really exciting, I think. Uh first is the safety project. So, the safety project is not fully approved yet. Super frustrating, but we are beholden to state ed. Um, the academy portion of the project is fully approved and we are still waiting on a financial review from the elementary school. That is a cursorary review. Um, it should happen very quickly. I don't know what's taking so long, but we made a decision to proceed with the bid. Um,

024so we're putting together the bid package now. Uh we anticipate the bid will be public. So any general contractors out there listening, uh we anticipate the bid will be public early next week to mid next week. It'll be posted in the newspapers. Um we'll probably post it on our website. Um but uh looking forward to getting that that bid. Um really anticipating an approval from SED any day. I know I've said that over the last two meetings, but again, you know, we follow up with emails. there's not a whole bunch we can really do. Um they work at their own pace. So that project uh is still on track for completion by the end of the summer. In the event that when we bid the project, we find out that there may be a long

025lead time in materials, I will certainly report back to you and we will have to get a little creative with the project schedule. Um so now on to the really exciting part, Maple Avenue. I prepared a little presentation. Um, I want to start off by saying I can't really believe that I'm presenting on this, right? It's super exciting. When I first started, uh, Dennis, uh, Petrolac was the superintendent and he said to me, you know, we we have a we have a problem, uh, at Maple Avenue. We need to figure it out. And I kind of, you know, I spent a lot of time thinking about this, talking with him about it, and it was somewhat of a dead end, right? and uh Miss O'Hara when she took over her one of her main priorities

026was let's figure out Maple Avenue hit the ground running and now uh we're in a tremendous place and wanted to put together a quick presentation just to kind of recap uh what this project entailed or what the ultimate transfer of this o ownership of this building entailed. So, Maple Avenue. So, real quick, Maple Avenue was built in 1935 as part of FDI FDR's work progress administration. Uh, it was sold for or bought for $232,000, which is kind of m mind-boggling in these numbers. This building really stood as a staple in the center of the community and still does, and graduated tens of thousands of Chester's residents. So very prominent building in the community. Um fast forward 90 years to 2004. Um Chester was faced with a growing student population and it had to make a

027very difficult decision to build a new high school, the Chester Academy on Hamiltonian Avenue. That this building opened in 2006. At that point, Maple Avenue sat vacant. um Chester would enter into an agreement with U Boseies um which was a tremendous opportunity for us. It offset a lot of the maintenance costs and operating costs uh and it was somewhat of a win-win for Boseis and uh the Chester school district. However, in 2019 U Boseies ex uh exited the building really breaking the lease um citing deteriorating conditions. So there were issues with lead and asbestous as I've talked about in the past. Um so they they they said it's just it's going to be too expensive for us to stay in this building. So we had to move on. Um that posed that posed a tremendous

028problem for this district. Uh we were maintaining that building as if it was an occupied school and it was very costly to the tune of probably three $400,000 a year to maintain. So, uh, the, uh, decision was to mothball that building with the exception of the gym. And just to kind of recap, mothballing basically means shuttering the building, severing all the utilities. There's no heat. There is electricity for lights and security walks, but there's no water. Um, and the building just sat in that condition. We'll get into talking about mothballing as we move forward. But real quick, mothballing over time deteriorates the building, right? So you have fluctuations in heat and cooling. Sheetrock starts to peel away, ceilings start to crumble, it deteriorates rapidly, and we saw that happening. Um, in 2020, the district came

029up with this idea, which I thought was kind of interesting, to maintain the facade of the building, which has historical elements to it, um, and incorporate an athletic facility. it didn't have many of the elements that the community was looking for. So, that project was voted down. Um, and now in 2020, we now have a building that we're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to operate. Uh, we've mothalled it. Um, and it kind it sat there for three years, right? And and the conditions rapidly declined. In July 3rd of 23, a micro burst, an unexpected micro burst tore the roof off the 1965 portion of the building, as you guys are aware, caused tremendous damage uh within the building. As as you know, the building did have uh asbestous and lead. And as the water

030uh cascaded from the roof down to the basement, it took with it and made fryable the asbestous and lead. So, it became an environmental cleanup. as you can see in the top picture, but every floor of that building had no less than two inches of water. The ceilings, uh, the electric, all utilities were damaged. It was really a disastrous storm, uh, for for that building. So, not long after this incident, uh, the district, Miss O'Hara, said, "We're going to form the Maple Avenue task force, and we're going to make a a collaborative effort here to figure out what the next steps are with this building because it's it's a problem for the district. So, we assembled a group made up of the Chester Alumni, the Chester Historical Society, the Chester Kowanas, a parent advisory panel,

031local residents near the Maple Avenue School, uh the town of Chester, the Town of Chester historian, the village of Chester, and the Village of Chester historian. And we met um we met several times. uh this group also put out a community survey um which was quite eye opening. So um the results of this survey would be released um shortly but I kind of skipped ahead a little bit. The three options on this survey sent out to the community were one the building remains vacant and mothballled which as we discussed even though it's vacant and mothballled it will continue to deteriorate rapidly. Um, so it's not just keeping it vacant. It is still a deterioration of the building. We could list it for sale uh and by rule, right, the building would go to the highest

032bidder or we could demolish the building. Um, none of these options were were great for us for the school. We weren't thrilled about any of them, but it did solve uh all three of them would somewhat solve a problem for the district. Oh, and these options did not include the gym at Maple Avenue. I had to make a note of that inside joke. So, uh, of the almost 400 responses to the survey, uh, 18% said we should keep the building vacant. Uh, 30% said we should list it for sale and an overwhelming 52% said, uh, demolition of the building was the way to go. Right? It was difficult. That was our direction. Uh, at that point, we said, okay, uh, the community has spoken. Looks like we're going to have to start making plans to

033demo this building. Um um and and just before that uh we we had some interest which again I kind of stepped forward a little bit but um there was a lot of talk in this survey about repurposing the building for a community center. Um, we we answered this question and and we were fielded this question multiple multiple times and we wanted to just reiterate the fact that a school cannot just repurpose a building for a community center. Um, one in order to do that it would have required a almost $9 million in environmental remediation of which we will not receive aid for and that would be borne 100% by the community. Um and uh but we could we could gift our the deed to a local municipality and they could achieve the goal of making

034it into a community center. At the time of this survey, we had no interest from any municipalities. Right. So demoing was the option. However, the last minute, the uh village of Chester and the county executive uh came to us and said, "Hey, we might have uh some use, some really good use for this building, and we're interested in acquiring this from you." Uh through a series of negotiations, um Mr. New House agrees to purchase the former Maple Avenue School. Um there's all different ideas and hopes of what this building will become, but what it will not become is demoed. Um at this point, there is no plan to demo that building. I know he's bringing in different uh businesses to revitalize uh that building and the community at large. So, tremendous win for the district.

035Um Mr. New House set an aggressive timeline for the transfer of this building. It was one that kind of made us all gasp a little bit. Uh a transaction like this takes typically a year more. Uh we did this in a few months. So it was truly a partnership of folks will get to uh shortly. But um our our partnership with with the county executive's office, our district administration, the Chester UFSD board. Without uh you guys and your guidance, this project does not happen. uh our county attorney's office, the village of Chester building department, land associates who's our architect and engineer, and the Orange County DPW. We worked very closely with all these organizations almost daily uh to facilitate the transfer of this building. Everybody on this list was completely focused, laser focused on transferring

036this building. Um, and it was extremely smooth and took place on April 21st, which was this past Monday. So, these pictures are of Monday. On the left, obviously, is Mr. New House and Paul Wy. He's the director of Real Property, um, signing the deed. So, they're taking ownership right there. On the right hand side is a small group of folks who were very active in the facilitation of this transfer. Um, and that's a picture I'm super proud of. Uh, I I have to give or we have to give a special thanks to several people. One of them being Stephanie Miller, the Orange County attorney who was assigned to this project. She helped guide and navigate us through this entire process, which is extremely foreign to all of us. So, she was a tremendous help. Gan

037Winters, who I was hoping would be here today. Uh he is the uh the chair of the village planning board. Um Gan really spearheaded pushing this through administratively on the planning uh and zoning level. Sandy van Riper, the village clerk. Um she is amazingly organized and on top of everybody making sure we all met those deadlines. Tim Maguire, who was a huge catalyst. Tim, sorry, Tim McGuire is the chief of police. um he was a huge catalyst in making sure that this project happened. He petitioned Steve New House and us um uh to make sure this happened. Matthew Webb, he's a lead uh architect at Land Associates um and surveyor. Matthew Milimo and Daniel Ferrell are both project architects um from LAN Associates. Lindseay Inuzi, our district clerk, who helped in every facet of this

038way, from the mailers to keeping us all in check. Uh, super appreciative of her efforts. Ron Brazelle of Orange County Facilities, uh, did our final walkthrough with him and a team. Um, there were certain things we needed to do in order to hand the building over. Ron was instrumental in that. Um, and and ultimately the board of education here. Um you guys through your leadership made this happen. Uh and it's a tremendous undertaking. The building was going to be demolished. Uh and it is now been revitalized. Uh and it has hopes of a new life. So it's tremendous opportunity for the district to give it to the county and a tremendous opportunity for the county to make uh some economic uh revitalization in Chester. So super proud. This is one of the most important things

039I've done in my career and I'm super proud to have been a part of it and I'm thankful uh for the trust to help uh help guide this. So that's all I have for today. With that, you guys have any questions? Just excellent presentation. Just a really clear concise way to take us from the beginning to the now in a very Thank you. Thank you. And I think it goes without saying um your name should be up there too. You were the cornerstone of getting this just like you know we are the board that you know my signature was on it but this would not be possible without you know previous boards under the leadership of Sandy Naggler and Frank Sambitz to get to this point. this um was at least a decade in the

040making. Yeah. Um so we are just internally grateful for helping us get it to the finish line and there was many pieces going from when the micro bars hit right before a holiday weekend. You know, every step of the way your name was associated with immensely appreciative of that. I I appreciate the recognition. I feel like it was certainly a collective effort and um yeah I appreciate that bill you know just like saying that you know we are the board that you know was going down closing the deal but would not have been possible without you know at least 10 years of boardmanship before us. Thank you. That brings us to our presentation by Miss O'Hara and Mr. SUSA on the budget. Okay. Thank you. And it's it's hard to transition right to that. I'm

041going to hold my added comments on on the excitement for a round table with regard to Maple Avenue and uh transition with due credit again to Mr. D. Rosa. So this evening uh as a component of our ongoing budget presentations uh this evening's presentation is a summary uh with regard to the adoption of the proposed budget. So uh it is a budget summary and one that is taking place without an adopted state budget which Miss Dusa will speak to in more detail. So, our budget for the 2526 school year reflects our commitment to investing in excellence, supporting student centered decisions, a future focused vision, and a team-driven approach to developing leaders with a global perspective as reflected in the skills and character traits outlined in our portrait of a graduate. These are the key attributes

042we strive to instill in all our students as they progress through the Chester Union Free School District. So, continuing uh as mentioned in prior presentations, the budget aligns with a focus on three priorities. The first, strategic investments in education programs and staffing. The second, strengthening community engagement. and the third advancing safety, security and infrastructure. Summarizing the first of our priority areas, strategic investments in education programs and staffing, the proposed budget support strengthening instruction by aligning programs with the New York Next Generation Learning Standards, investing in meaningful professional development, and using data to help every student reach their potential. At the same time, we're expanding innovative hands-on learning experiences, offering more opportunities for students to explore career pathways, think critically, and prepare for success beyond the classroom. Continuing with our focus on strategic investments in education

043programs and staffing, we're committed to investing in staffing for instruction, effective staffing for instruction, which means strengthening educator support to maintain small class sizes, which Chester is known for, providing individualized instruction while supporting student connections with peers and teacher and teachers impacting academic performance and overall student well-being and success. Furthermore, we aim to empower student growth and well-being by promoting a collaborative environment that supports social emotional growth, personal responsibility, and resilience, tools we believe are important for lifelong success. Our second key uh key strategic area is strengthening community engagement with the objective of progressing communication platforms and fostering community collaboration. We're working to strengthen how we communicate across the district, both with families and the wider community. This includes expanding our use of parent square to support communication between teachers and families, while also improving

044our website, social media presence, and the monthly C CUFSD newsletter to make information easier to access and more engaging for everyone, including our community. In addition, the budget supports modernizing our systems, our transition to synergy, a new student information system, which will give families and staff better access to real-time updates on grades, attendance, athletics, and student supports. It's a move that will enhance transparency, safety, and overall efficiency across the district. under strengthening community engagement. We're also committed to expanding opportunities for parents and community members to get involved. So whether through advisory panels, forums, or other collaborative efforts as mentioned this evening, such as the Maple Avenue task force that was in place, those community forums will be ongoing and the budget supports those to invite the input and help shape our district initiatives. We're also

045focused on building stronger connections with local businesses, colleges, and community organizations to give our students more realworld learning experiences through inter internships, mentorship, mentorships, and career exploration opportunities that support their future goals in their decisions. Our third strategic priority focuses on enhancing safety, security, and infrastructure, making key improvements across our facilities to support a secure, efficient, and opportunity rich environment for students. We're continuing to strengthen school security through close collaboration with the Town of Chester Police Department, Atlas Security, local law enforcement. This includes maintaining a consistent police presence in our buildings, upgrading our surveillance systems, and coordinating regular safety drills to ensure readiness across all buildings. We're also deepening our commitment to emergency preparedness. That means expanding staff training in crisis response, CPR, and the incident command system while continuing to work closely with local

046first responders and risk management professionals to ensure clear protocols and coordinated action in preparation for anything that may come our way. Continuing our focus on advancing safety, security, and infrastructure, we're also investing in facility upgrades that prioritize energy efficiency and sustainability. These improvements not only help reduce long-term costs, but also create more modern, adaptable learning environments that support student success and enhance the overall experience at Chester. So, following our review of the district's three key priorities, you'll see how these same focus areas are reflected in the budget highlights for the 2526 school year. For those I will say for those seeking a more detailed or more detailed information, I want to remind that all budget presentations and supporting materials can be found on our CUFSD website under board of education budget information section. So, our

047highlights, the budget maintains fiscal responsibility by staying within the New York State budget cap supports early learning, investing in universal prek, literacy, mathematics, and foundational programs with the addition of three kindergarten teacher aids at the primary level. Again reiterating maintaining small class sizes, allowing for individualized instruction and stronger teacher student connections, advancing instruction aligned to the New York Next Generation Learning Standards, that's programs, that's assessment, that's researchbased curriculum, data supported instruction, expanding our STEM and innovative education through dedicated staff, preK through 12 opportunities in robotics, engineering, design, technology, and inquiry based instruction. Supporting career connected learning experiences that link classroom instruction to real world applications. Answering the question, why are we learning this? Expanding the workplace learning internship program that provides opportunities for our juniors and seniors to explore career interests, making informed decisions about

048their future college or career pathways. The budget supports providing advanced academic opportunities including up to 40 college credits they can earn through Sunni partnerships and other partnerships that we have with colleges and universities. Uh ongoing advanced placement courses and electives that provide future focused skills some of which include financial literacy and public speaking. And also the budget supports maintaining which we heard this evening our athletics program, our co-curricular programs that support and promote student engagement, leadership, and enrichment beyond the classroom. The budget also supports expanding student pathways for achievements for our graduates through earning the New York State opportunities to earn the New York State seal of biiteracy and this year the New York State going into next year the New York State seal of civic readiness along with opportunities to create digital res digital

049resumes reflecting their entire experience at Chester volunteer efforts community service extracurricular engagement and that's through the platform supported by the budget passport for good strengthening our student support services through expanded social emotional learning initiatives and targeted staffing investing in ongoing professional development reflective of data and our needs and expanding the parent square platform as I stated support uh to support teacher family communication and unique to Parent Square, it broadens our community outreach, revamping student information systems through our transition to synergy, improving access, efficiency, safety, and data management. And lastly, some of the highlights, and again, these are not all-encompassing, investing in long-term infrastructure through proactive maintenance and system upgrades. strengthening district-wide safety through upgraded security systems, continued police presence, and our partnership with Atlas Security. And then certainly expanding our cyber security measures, strengthening data

050privacy protocols to protect student and staff information. So with that, I just want to reiterate the fact that this information beyond highlighted information is available on our website. So I encourage everyone to go to the website board of education budget information section for more detail. At this time, I'd like to introduce our assistant superintendent for business, Nicole Dusa, who will provide an update on the current New York State budget status and present a summary of our proposed 2526 school year budget. Thank you. So, as Miss O'Hara mentioned, we still don't have a state finalized budget. So, our budget um proposed budget tonight is based off the governor's budget proposal. So getting to our proposed budget summary for the 2526 year we're proposing a budget of 38.22 million which is a $1.718 million increase or 4.71%.

051So we have our proposed expenditures of the 30.2 million. Then we have our projected revenues. Uh our property tax levy including other tax related items is the 21.4 million. Our state aid is 14.1. other items 1.3 million which leaves us with 37022 in projected revenues. Um you see there's a shortfall of 1.2 million. So we're proposing to appropriate fund balance of 1.2 million. So that will give us our balanced budget which is required to adopt a balanced budget. Um next looking at our proposed expenditures by the three-part budget components we have our admin program and capital. Uh admin is the only component that has actually decreased. Program, you'll see a big increase, which is where you want to see the increases because that's all our instruction related items. Um and then capital increase. So you

052see our total budget increase is the 4.71%. And if you look at the pie chart, you'll see program takes up 78.4% of the pie, which is again is what we want to see. That's our main main goal here. Um, admin is 8.1% and capital is 13.5. So, now moving on to our projected revenues. Our state aid is increasing. Um, other items increasing, they're all actually increasing. So, you'll see the equal change in the revenue because again, we need to have an equal budget. So, if you look at the pie chart, you'll see our property taxes takes up 56% of the pie. Um then state aid is 37% and then we have other items at 3.4 and our appropriated fund balance which is higher this year than last year. So at 3.14%. So you know I

053never like to talk about a contingency budget but it's something we need to address. If the budget happens to fail the board has three options. We can present the same budget to the voters um for another vote on June 17th. We could present a modified budget on June 17th to the voters or the board can adopt the contingency budget that must be supported with no increase to the tax levy. So that would be a reduction of $587,000. Um and it's for all non-contingent expenditures and we have guidelines when it comes to that. But that's something if it came down to it we will work directly with the board on. Hopefully that doesn't happen. So that's all I have for you tonight. Our next meeting is May 13th, which is actually a Tuesday, and it's our

054public budget hearing. So, I will be presenting again. Um, and you again, you can find all our information, all the prior budget presentations on our website under board of education budget information. And then after that is the budget vote one week later on May 20th, which will be here held here at the academy in the band room from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. And that's all I have. Thank you so much. Anyone have any questions? As always, thank you for your thorough both of you and explanations. Make something seem that's very complicated user friendly. That moves us to our first public comment. Anyone wishing to share down? Okay, seeing that if no one coming down that will move us into round table. This will have something to share. I do. Uh so first and foremost

055hope everybody had a restful and relaxing and fun spring break. We're back in the groove and I just have to of course reiterate the significance highlighted by Mr. D. Rosa this evening regarding the transfer of ownership of the Maple Avenue building to Orange County. I feel like there should be confetti. uh coming down following that statement. It it truly does mark a significant milestone in the district's history and the achievement reflects as mentioned this evening the collective efforts of our community, the leadership of the COFSD board of education, current and prior administration and the thoughtful work also of the Maple Avenue task force. I just wanted to make mention um as Mr. D. Rosa stated that the task force was formed last year. He did discuss all the folks that were involved who had very

056uh different opinions at the time as to what should happen for the future of the building but so important to provide an opportunity to have their voice and input heard. So Chester Historical Society Kanis Chester parent advisory panel local residents alumni representatives from both the town and village as Mr. Froso had already shared um really just ensuring a wide range of perspectives guiding the building's future decision for the board consideration as well. Um but survey again that was mentioned this evening was so impactful. But um really more important we're so grateful for County Executive New House, Orange County for their partnership, chief of police Timothy Maguire. Um Mr. D. Rosa um really presented all the folks behind the scenes and that list was there because as our director of facilities uh Mr. D. was imperative

057in this happening. Uh showing up at ongoing meetings with the planning board, the zoning board um and really providing all the information information necessary to make this happen. So with that said, not to repeat everything that was already stated in the presentation. We're just so proud and excited to see this transition uh take place in a way that honors the building's legacy and positions it to serve the evol evolving needs of Chester and the surrounding region for years to come. It's it's truly very exciting. So, cheers. That's all I have. Anything else from this side of the table? No updates on my end except um just a reminder that the next Orange County School Board meeting will be on May 7th at 7 p.m. Do our student reps have anything to share? Yes, if you

058don't mind, we do. I'd like to start off by saying that this is our first week back after spring break, so there's not too much to report on. Um I'd like to thank everyone for the presentations tonight because it's always lovely to recount the positive aspects of our district. Um I would also like to recognize my closest peer and best friend, Ava Stoby, who received a medal in the last track meet that Mr. Ducet was talking about. Um, she's the one to the left. So, on April 10th, the Chester Academy juniors attended a college visit and toured Sunni Newalts. This trip was very well attended and an exciting step towards their futures as they come to find out what schools fit them best in their college journeys. On April 16th, Elvin Mmani who is in

059the audience today and Yamallet Lopez Cortez attended the humanities awards breakfast as honores. They received this award a few weeks ago and were able to celebrate it with Mrs. Husini, Miss Galley and other administrators. The book club is hosting their book club book fair this week and I would like to recognize Alma in the back there who is the president of book club. The first day was yesterday and it will continue until the end of tomorrow. What the money will go towards Scholastic and our own book club for select items. The book club is also hosting their field trip to Barnes & Nobles on Wednesday, April 30th which is quickly approaching. And today there was a college fair uh trip to Sunni new for the junior class where a lot of colleges in the New

060York area were there to distribute information about their colleges for the juniors. Tomorrow is the opening night for Chester Academyy's musical Mean Girls. And today was the all day rehearsal where we successfully ran through the production and ironed out all the kinks. I am playing Katie Herren and James Ray is playing Mr. Duval. And I really urge you all to come because we have put in so much effort for this production and it is our senior production and it's going to be very very nice. And I will pass it over to Brooke. Hi everyone. So although he is not here tonight on behalf of the varsity club we want to acknowledge for handing out blue and orange wireless speakers to all the club members last week. It was very appreciated and they have come in

061great use for game warmups and bus rides. I also want to thank you all so much for the class of 2026 senior trip. A meeting is being held tomorrow during 9th period auditorium to discuss the trip with all the juniors and to ensure everyone has an appropriate amount of time and fundraising as it is a trip. Next Wednesday, April 30th will be your last day selling prom tickets. The tickets have been selling quickly and we anticipate many more sales in the upcoming week. has been going and along with that the wizard thank you cards have also gone out acknledging adults who volunteered their time for games. April 30th is also big teachers night and teacher sign up shortly. The profit will likely go towards the trip or graduation expenses for next year. The deadline to

062preing is May 8th. The yearbook club has vigorously finished designing and getting pictures before May 1st. And the club is on track so far. The year looks fantastic with the ride representation of students and a lot of schools here. And lastly, May 6th is the high school concert where the chorus ensemble band and jazz band will perform their musical pieces. A lot of preparation has gone into the concert and we're expecting it to be a very successful and special night as this will be many of the seniors as we perform. I would like to mention one more thing if you don't mind. Um, one last thing that I would like to elaborate further on is that the spring concert is quickly approaching on May 6 with which Brooke just talked about and a few years

063ago I recall the concerts being in very late May giving us much more time to prepare than recently. This transition happened because music director, excuse me, directors are not asked for their input on whether um the concerts should be sooner rather than later. They know we will speak against the band room being used for the budget vote since we cannot hold practice there at this time. So, their solution is to prevent that um by giving us less time holding the concert before the vote. This is much worse for the students and teachers. And what I'm about to say, I think is much larger than our band not having an ideal amount of time to practice for the concert. I usually come to these meetings and deliver positive news about the excellence of our district. But

064if we want to make a real difference in this school, which is something that I really harped on in my application to be on the board, then we must shift our focus to something that is really going on. In the days and weeks leading up to spring break, the band has been facing some major changes that we would like to address here tonight. My role in this board of education is to be the student representative, and I know that any student who has ever met Mrs. Husini will feel represented by any part of my speech. Some incidents that occur with the less passionate members of our band have negatively affected her as well as us. To elaborate further on what has been occurring, we are no longer able to use the practice rooms within the

065band room. We cannot leave our instruments outside of the bamboo door, even though the door is locked at all times. The lock on the door itself is faulty, and there is painters tape holding up the window on the door, which has been there since the year of 2012, which is the year that the graduating class was in kindergarten. We either have to wait until someone sees us and opens the door, which can easily disrupt lessons, or carry our instrument around all day until the band period, potentially risking more damage to the instruments. These are only some examples of problematic changes that we as a band are encountering. It is our understanding that these changes have been made because of select few misbehaving students and not anything that Mrs. Husini has done wrong. The teachers at

066this school who are ambitious and who strive for the children to be successful are the ones who the students look up to the most. Every day, Mrs. Husini is advocating for us. She's advocating for the drum line to have a place to practice or for us to be involved in non-school events that we are invited to or even just the existence of a spring pep rally that we can perform. Excuse me. She is advocating for fundraisers for us and even for us to have spaces to practice. She devotes so much of her personal periods to give private lessons to middle and high school band students totaling 126 students. She continues to try every single year even if her plans are rejected. Mrs. Husini's dedication is nothing short of remarkable. This is someone who at my

067little brother's funeral gave me two pairs of his favorite drumsticks that he used in pant. She knew the exact sticks that he uses to play his instrument and she gave them to my family. She still visits his grave on his birthday and the anniversary of his death. On the last day of school before break when a lot of these major changes occurred, she gave me pearl earrings and the shape of music notes for my 18th birthday. Even though she was preoccupied all day with these changes that were occurring, she's allowed me to cultivate a love for music and passion so strong that it is tangible. To conclude, a couple members of the board of education have told me that they want to follow my plans after I graduate high school to see who I become.

068I truly value that the board appreciates me. So please consider the things that I have spoken about today and the things that my peers will speak about and consider that knowing who I am and what you have seen me do thus far. After we graduate and become adults, any student of Mrs. Huseni will become an individual that treats other people positively and with the utmost respect. After seeing how she handles discourse and other problems as of late, most of which are not her fault at all, I hope to become anywhere near as amazing as her and treat people the way that she has treated her students and her colleagues. Thank you for listening and I look forward to your interest as well as the second public comment section. Sincerely, thank you for your cander, your

069honesty. Um that is the way change um happens. So um you're right, your reports do not always have to be sunshine and roses. Um we will certainly I am grateful the board is grateful that you have brought this to our attention. Um you know we like to be present and in the know of everything but that's not humanly possible. So again, um we appreciate that and um on behalf of the board, we will certainly look in into this and we sincerely appreciate bring Thank you so much. Anything else for that? Okay, we're going to move into a consent agenda, but this evening we're going to pull out two items. Um I'd like to pull out first item 5.1. It is the approval of the orange count orange olster Bosey's 202526 administrative budget. Can I please

070have a motion to vote on the administrative budget for the 2526 budget? I'll make that motion. All in favor? Motion pass. The second consent agenda that we're pulling out this evening is 5.2. It is the election of three OU Boseis cooperative board members. The motion is to cast one vote for each vacancy to be filled for the three vacancies on the 2526 Orange Oster Boseis Cooperative Board as follows. Can I please have a motion to elect William Boss, Edwin Ashrada, and David Eaton to the U Bose's board. motion. I'll second. All in favor? I. Motion carries. We will continue with consent agenda. I would like to make a motion to adopt agenda items 5.3 through 5.9. All in favor? Motion pass. That brings us to our second public comment. Anyone like to share? Please feel

071free to come down. State your name and your residence, please. Um, hello. My name is Quadro Suani. You guys know me as Jojo. Um, I'm the drum line captain. Um, before I start speaking, I'm I'm going to try to keep it short because I know that everyone has a lot to say, but I'm this is something I'm very passionate about. Um, I've been a part of music in general my entire life. Um, since before I was even in in class and band class in fourth, fifth grade, music has been something that's been a part of my life. And I believe that music has a greater impact than many, many people think on their lives dayto day. Um, and I think as somebody who's a part of music, it has an even greater impact on me

072personally as I grow, as I develop. Um, I cannot remember anything from the grades six through 10, but I can definitely remember that I played Pirates of the Caribbean my seventh grade year. Um, I think that band as a program and as a room, as an idea, music as an idea is an important thing. And I love what you pointed out in uh your in your presentation about what students should desire here, growth, um, knowledge, and being able to develop creative ideas and stuff like that. And I think that band as a class and band as a room is everything that it needs to be in that. I can recall as the drum line captain being in a little ninth grader watching an Emily Petramal lead and you know now for the last two years

073I've been the captain and it's like we're growing so much and I can see the students who at first joined and the way that they were disrupted to their classes or the way that they talked to certain people it's starting to change and I don't believe that's just because of me that's just because of anybody else. concept that music has a big impact and even going on who else has a big big impact. I want to uh go back to what Ariana said and I think Miss Usini has one of the biggest biggest impacts on the people in that room. Uh like anything like any hobby you can't really go in it unless you have time effort and of course the desire to go into it. um she pointed out that there's people in that

074room who don't have the desire and to graduate high school, you need that credit, that art credit. So, I think that it's there's just a few people that have caused it to be troublesome for the rest of us. Um as a person, she I can't like emphasize this enough. She is one of the most genuinely naturally caring people I could ever talk about. Ever talk about. There was a time last year I was sitting in the back of that road during a concert. It was a difficult piece of course but I remember it was not sounding super good and I was like you know looking up looking around but she was had the biggest smile on her face as if she could just like fly off and be the happiest person ever. It was it

075was mindboggling to me how somebody could listen to something that maybe doesn't sound the best in front of people who expect the best and they come out, but she's always smiling. She's the type of person to come to a first year band student and devote all her time to that first year band student in order to make sure that they come out the best that they could ever come out. And um I could literally go on and on about all the stuff that she has done. And as a senior, I can't really experience the future of the band and the drum line and all that stuff. But I just hope that I can come in as an alumni in future years and just watch these concerts and think, "Wow, our band has grown." And I

076hope that you know as the situation has brought up the things with the practice room and um outside I understand the safety concerns. I do but it's not all of us and it's not it's definitely not Miss Usaini. I think that there's a wider problem and I think that it's not stemming from Miss Usaini or the people who want to be in band. And I think that even for the drum line already with the scheduling, it makes it makes it difficult for us to practice. But we used to practice in the practice rooms, you know, get a lot of done, but without the practice rooms, it's either disrupt her class while she's teaching or don't practice at all. And I'm not going to disrupt her class while she's teaching. That's not that's not something I'm

077going to do. Students obviously needs to be learned taught in a classroom. So I'm not going to disrupt it. But that takes away from the time that we need to put into doing things for drum line. For example, if we have outside events like we have the 5K coming up, we haven't really had a lot of time to practice for that event because when would be the time to practice for that event? So, you see what I'm saying? So, um I'm just going to stop it right here. I thank you for your time. Uh thank you. Thank you very No, no problem. Thank you. Hello, Board of Education. The first time you saw me, I was here presenting book club to be an official club and luckily became one. Thank you again for that. I

078knew I'm here today to speak for something I'm very passionate about. Um, and I would like to add that we're here on our own accord because of how passionate we are about it. And we weren't sent here by anyone but our own passion. And I hope that you listen to everything that we have to say. I have been in band for nine years, meaning I've also been playing my instrument, which is the trumpet, for nine years. And I've also been section leader for all those years. And now I'm president of band. I have grown as a leader in band and become more confident than I ever could have imagined myself becoming just from freshman year. And I truly have blossomed. And a big part of it is because of band and Mrs. High. I'm now

079in my senior year of band. And I wanted to be my best year. And seven of those nine years have been spent in this school with her. And she's someone that I can confide in. She's someone who I've told things I've told no other adult. And she's always understood and supported not only my feelings, but I do have a different unique personality. and she's always supported that as well. I kind of like attack myself for being rude, but I'm very just upfront and she's always understood that. She's written me like numerous cards that I've kept and they've had words more meaningful than my parents have ever told me and shown me love that I lack. She shown nothing but respect to the people around her. And I would like to highlight a moment when she

080did that which I'm sure you guys are aware of the money situation that happened this year regarding Nisma. Are you? You could share. Got it. Thank you. So Nisma is where we like play a solo or duet or whatever you select in front of a judge and you do have to pay for it. That's why it's like special. And she had it stolen from her purse and she sent a group text to us when she found out. and I would like to highlight something she said. Lastly, if it was for some reason a poor moment of judgment, as someone in this text did take it, I would like the money returned to the main office in an envelope with my name on it and no questions will be asked. I love you all and the

081whole band like family and it's heart-wrenching to have this happen. And she even said in band herself that she doesn't want to know who the person is because she doesn't want to have a bad image of that person. And I don't know about you, but me personally, if someone stole money from me, I would have a very different reaction than the reaction she had. The love that she has for people in band in a year is more than I could ever have in a lifetime. And she did end up needing to pay all of that money out of her pocket. I did give her $20 cuz my NISMO was $20, but obviously that didn't make a difference in like the money. And it's kids like the person who stole the money that give Band a

082bad reputation, especially this year. And I would like to highlight on the freshmen and how they make them look bad. Now, I can't comment on the eighth graders and below who I know are a problem because I don't know them. But as someone who spoken to the freshman in band, I would like to comment on them. I will say the school loves to paint the freshman as these awful kids. And don't get me wrong, in the classes, they are lacking motivation, but it's just that they are behind and slow on behavior and I do blame it on COVID because I've talked to these boys and they are actually like nice. like I've talked to them and they're genuine and it's like they notice that there's no consequences for their actions. So, they kind of keep

083doing it and uh but to speak positively on them, I've seen some of the biggest improvements from them out of anyone even with this like subconscious knowledge that they could just go on their phone and it won't matter. Um, an honorable mention would be Tyler Clark who's not here today. He literally admitted to me one time when we were like just talking very nicely that he used to get ISS all the time. like literally all the time you would see him in that office and he didn't care. But he loves band and he loves those drums. I will admit it annoys me because he's always playing his drums, but he loves it so much that he does not get into any trouble anymore. And they used to be a problem of band because they wouldn't

084play, but now like they actually try. And I don't know, just to see them have a passion for something when they don't have it in their classes is it's like when you're an older sister and you're like proud of your siblings for doing something. That's how I feel when I see them back there. And like even if they're lost, they'll confide in each other and be like, "What's going on?" But they're like helping each other out, trying to like figure out what's going on. And they listen to Mrs. Hassani when she talks, when she asks them to play, when she asked them to get their music out, even organize the stuff back there. And I will also like to add that they do listen and respect me. And they've shown more improvement and growth and

085respect just being in band than I have seen the rest of their grade do. Um, I will say that when they do bad, I ridicule them and I yell at them, but I also do make sure I show them the appreciation when they do well, which I think is important. I think we expect so much from them that when they do what they're supposed to do, we don't acknowledge it, but for them, it's like they need to know that what they're doing can positively affect other people and get them rewards. And it's people who, as stated before, there's 11 kids we've counted, who aren't doing anything, who are kind of just in band to get rewards and like not do anything, that are making the band look bad when so many of us, like the

086people who show up here, are putting in so much effort to do our best because of how much we care. And it's those people who got the practice rooms banned, unfortunately. Um, it affects the band in tremendous ways because a lot of kids are doing NISMA. As I stated before and an example would be me, a trumpet player, and Ava, a flute player. If we are in the same room, my my trumpet is loud and boisterous, and I do play a lot of high notes because I'm first chair. And she, even though she plays high notes on flute, it's such a petite, elegant instrument, it couldn't compare to my trumpet. And so, out of respect for my peers, I will go into the practice rooms because it's more muted. Um, and with the practice rooms

087being banned, I can't practice my instrument because I'm not going to play my instrument when someone's quieter than me. I'm just not that type of person. I will respect that it's their time and I will let them play. But I do have numerous solos this year and a piece that actually has the same name as me where I have two very big solos in. And the only way to perfect it is to play it a lot like over and over and over again. And while I'm may not be annoyed by it, other people might be annoyed by it. So, the practice rooms really helped me to just get out with the nitty-gritty. And finally, um we have yet to receive the permissions for a music in the parks trip. I don't know what's caused by

088this, but we usually get it around this time because our Mother's Day flower sales already given out. We usually know how much we need to pay by this time, so we can get a gauge on like how much we need to sell more if we want to get a free trip. and we don't know what it's caused by, but I would like to state what music in the parks even is in case you didn't know. So, Mrs. Hyen picks a time for us to show up at a school and perform in front of judges and we get like judged and then we go to Six Flags and we play and you know we do whatever until the awards ceremony where we find out if we placed or not depending on our section because there's like

089jazz orchestra and we play for the concert band. Last year we got third place. Yay. Sorry. Um, and it's nice to be also professionally graded and be awarded for our hard work at the end of the year. And it really has been a big part in the band members trying their best in band because let me tell you, these people, they want to go to Six Flags. And I know the ones who aren't trying are going to be devastated when I don't hand them them that permission slip because I won't because they didn't deserve it. But the ones who did work hard, I know they're going to love getting handed that permission slip to be able to, you know, get rewarded for their hard work. But thank you for taking the time to listen to

090me and consider what I said. What happens to Mrs. Henny directly affects the band and the students. Thank you so much. Hello, my name is Ava Stoie and I am the secretary of Key Club. And Missy Sy has been my band teacher since sixth grade. and she is not only one of the best teachers I've ever had, she has had an immense amount of passion. She has had such a significant impact on my life and on my musical endeavors. And Missy Si's dedication to her profession is remarkable, a quality often lacking in many teachers. She consistently dedicates time and effort to supporting her student growth stu to supporting student growth and their musical skills, aiding in drum line efforts, and participating in community service initiatives for Key Club. And she also effectively helps numerous kids

091with their nisma performances. She stays after school every single day for the betterment of her students. And she does this out of the purity of her own heart. Even when she's clearly tired or stressed, she helps us grow, not only as musicians, but as people. She always gives everything that she has to make our music program thrive. Yet, numerous things constantly get taken away from us. Despite all the time and effort she puts in, she doesn't always get the support or recognition she deserves. Many students in our band don't return the same passion that Mrs. Sami has. These students are placed into our band due to scheduling conflicts and some of them misbehave which already creates a barrier towards the advancement of our band. But the consequences often fall on the kids in band who

092perform and behave well. Recently we've lost the privileges lost the privilege of using the practice rooms not because the entire band misused them but because a few people exploited their privileges. Um, now that now everyone who puts in the work, the effort, and who respects the space is being punished. I personally use that space when I have to practice a really difficult part or my NISMA pieces so I don't disturb anyone else or throw anyone off track. And that's what they're made for. And numerous numerous schools have their own practice room. Many students who use that space may sorry many students use that space so that they can hear how they sound on their own without the compliments of other instruments. and some don't have a space like that to practice on their own time.

093I personally live in an apartment and if I were to practice in my home, I would disturb my neighbors. The removal of this privilege hinders our ability to perform well and it's not fair to us and it's not fair to Miss Huseni. Discipline is necessary, but it should be but it should be fair to everyone that puts forward their best effort. When a system punishes everyone in the program, it creates frustration and makes it significantly harder for teachers like Missy Seni to do the incredible work they already do. I hope by hearing us today, we can recognize the people who make us great, not the people who bring us down. Now, I'd like to transition to Elvin, our co- captain of drum line. Thank you. Hello, my name is Ela Mumi and I've been I

094have the honor of being a student of Miss for the past four years. I can honestly say that I wouldn't be the person I am today without her. When I first arrived at Chester Academy during the COVID 19 pandemic, it was difficult to connect with anybody. All I could see was mask and bully faces on Chromebooks. That changed when I met Miss Mr. Zany. I shared her the fact that I used to play the violin at my old school and from that moment on show me reignite and grow my love for music. Today, I'm proud to serve as a co- capture our drum line, a group that has become essential part of who I am today. I've seen the drum line growing tremendously. We're studentled, focused on problem solving and building performances from scratch. We

095form at multiple prep rallies and I've been asked to play at numerous school and non-school events. Joine has become a special place beame place where I can continue to grow as both a musician and a leader. Mrs. Z has become more of a teacher to me. She's like a second mother. Her passion for her students grows far beyond the band room. I have never met anyone else who brings who brings as much kindness, energy, and heart into her teaching. She's widely known among students as one of the most kindest and most dedicated uh teacher at Chester Academy. But unfortunately, I ain't worried about the future of our program. Band students are no longer allowed to keep their instruments in the band hallway, expected to lug them around all day or just wait outside the locker

096room and hoping somebody will see us. But that's not safe or reasonable. And now that the back and and now the back door which we used for years has been labeled inaccessible where we used to used to use it just fine uh for before we had to clear it out. Recently we have been banned from using the practice room a place where we kept the drum line instruments and practice so we aren't disrupting anyone else practicing in the main room. This along with being banned from going outside which in years prior was fine and yeah which years now was fine and now this year we have been forced to make a dramatic cut to the people in the club as this all this has left me to wonder what's going to happen to drum line

097next year. We have been adapting to the new rules in all but in all honesty I don't know what we can or can't do anymore and I fear that drum line is just going to dissolve. But we're not here to cause problems. We're here because we deeply care about this program and this teacher Mrs. has built something special, something meaningful to for so many of us. These are your support, not blame. Please listen to us. We're not defending your We're not just defending our teacher. We're a space where that's just helped to shape who we are today. Thank you. Hello, my name is Tyson Riley and I think that I do a lot in this school. I do track, I do mock trial, I've done soccer, I'm in the I'm in drama club, I'm in

098key club, I'm the NHS president. I would say that I do a lot. One place and one area that I've neglected, I would say, is the music department. I've never taken band before, nor have I been in chorus. And honestly, I don't think I've ever taken a music related class outside of my seventh grade general music. However, what I can do is attest to Miss Usaini's kindness and dedication to the students of this school, hers or otherwise. I will start with the drum line because the effort put into this club pays off every single time. Seeing them perform during pep rallies and the creativity oozing out of every performance is one that I see and can say only at Chester. It's a group of people who do what they do because they have a genuine

099interest in it. A passion that has clearly been fostered over many years. I look around this room tonight and see not just outstanding students, but upstanding people. I see some of the most charismatic, funny, kind-hearted, and driven people who I've ever seen. People who I would call my best friends. And there is no doubt in my mind that they would not be who they are today without their time in Miss Usaini's band. Even with my limited time in Miss Usini's class, I too have been affected by her. I am not and never have been good musically. Yet the support I received in that class made it not only bearable but enjoyable. She taught me that no matter where you end up or what you're doing, you can always find a way or a person who

100can make it fun. While I haven't picked up an instrument since that since that class, I still have a passion for music. I'm not here tonight to bring up any problems or concerns or anything really. I'm simply here to try and recognize a hardworking and amazing staff member, teacher, and more importantly, community member in my school. I also want to put a spotlight on the passion from my peers who are here because they chose to be. They put their own time on the line, came up here and wrote their own speeches to present to the board to deal with problems that they see. Thank you for your time. Hi, I'm Daniel Gonzalez and I've been a longtime band member uh since elementary and I didn't really start that good of a band member. I struggled.

101I struggled a lot, but Misseni was always there for me. She she loved me. She was passionate. She was caring and she really brought me up. Uh I'm still not a the best B best trumpet player. Alma clearly is. But I've definitely improved leaps and bounds since where I started. I could barely play a C like a regular C note high C I mean. Uh but over the years I've really improved even in co where it was hard to improve. She cared. She cared so much and it was I could really see it and I just love learning in it. Band has been one of my favorite classrooms throughout high school and it's still my favorite classroom. Um, and my Misseni is still my favorite teacher. She cares a lot about the students and she

102cares a lot about uh the music program and band and it it's a shame to see that sometimes it's just neglected a little bit. Uh every year I come in and there are students who are clearly not passionate but they're just placed there. They're placed there because they want they need the credit and she has to handle she has to deal with that. She has to deal with 106 students and it's really sad to see that uh she doesn't get the support she would need. Uh and like you were saying Mr. O'Hara uh about maintaining smaller classrooms. It's hard to maintain a band cuz it's a big classroom, but we can give her some support. We can give her uh maybe a par teacher or par education, someone to like help her uh and just

103maintain the friendly environment. But yeah, thank you. Um, hello. My name is James Ray Hernandez. Um, I didn't prepare anything before, so sorry if this feels less flowy, I guess. Um, I would consider myself a logical person. I'm not really into emotional things. I don't like to fluff up things. I just say it how I see it. So I joined band this year. Um the only other experience I have with music is in elementary school where I played the recorder for like general music and I can say certainly that I am not very good at instrument music. Um so therefore I have to frequently I have to go down to the band room and I have to practice uh the work I have to do. Um and in doing so I think it was either

104yesterday or the day before where I went down to the band room and I knocked on the door. I waited for the answer and someone who was already practicing within the room they were like you can open it. I was like what? So I went in and the door was open. Now as we've discussed already and again just how I see it having an open door during class period is a safety hazard and I don't need to explain to you why that is but we uh Miss Hussein has discussed in class before how she needs to start locking the doors and she agreed to do this. So I was confused when the door was in fact open. And then I I was proceeded to be told that the door that was opened was not opened.

105It was locked, but it was made in 2012, which was again, as Ariana Dowy pointed out, I was in kindergarten when this door was made and placed. So there's uh masking tape or no painters tape keeping the glass up and the lock for whatever reason. I I'm not an engineer, but the when it gets hot outside, it does not lock properly. So sometimes, despite Missy's best efforts, the door is still unlocked. And she was explaining the different solutions that had been presented to her. So, and I don't remember I don't know who gave this order in faculty, but it was one of the higherups that gave her this order where as she presented to them the locked door and how it still would not lock. Uh, she was told to tell students to not use

106that broken door when they enter the class. Now again, I don't personally see how that would fix the issue of it being a safety hazard as opposed to like fixing the door, which is a greater issue, and I understand this, but my point, I suppose, is this would not fault, right? Is the fault of a what is it now? Like 13year-old door. Um, and while I'm not an emotional person, I, as I've said previously, not very good at instrumental music, but I do have experience with music in general and just the performing arts. Um, I'm a theater kid. Sorry. But, and before we start each piece of music in band, Miss Usaini counts down and she goes, "One, two, try your best." That's what she says to us before we start every time. And and

107again, I've been in the performing arts since I was like maybe 10. So like about eight years of my life I've been doing this. And never before have I seen like just that level of authenticity and caring about your students. Not because of the work they put out, but because of who they are as people and the effort they're putting in, right? And she's just the greatest. And I met her like maybe two years ago in the passing in the hallway because it's not very large school. I don't know if you're familiar with this but and just getting to know her over the course of this year has been just it's been an amazing experience and as my colleagues have previously pointed out some of the um unfortunate happenings in band are not the result

108of her especially not her and it is not the result of the band as a whole misbehaving. It is as we've stated there are a select few group of students who are not giving their all who are not uh behaving the way they should and I hate seeing such a amazing teacher have to suffer the consequences for a few students actions. One last thing before I go. Um the instrument I play is like a xylophone looking thing. Um and we were on a uh marching band for St. Patrick's Day uh back in when St. Patrick's Day was. And my instrument is like on a desk, so it can't move, right? I can't just play it in the air like a trumpet or flute, right? Uh, it can't move. So, the only alternative was Miss Husini

109had to go buy these pool noodles and these PVC pipes and so so much duct tape. There was so much duct tape. um and then make a makeshift kind of strap so that I could carry around my instrument so I could perform. And she didn't have to do that. There was a different version of the same instrument I had, but it was just less convenient for me to use. And out of the kindness of her own heart, she made this for me to use. And even after all this, I heard afterwards that she felt bad for me because it didn't, again, it was makeshift, so it didn't look professional. She felt bad that I had to walk around with that. But and I haven't told her this directly, but I am so grateful that she

110did that for me so that I could do that, you know, and yeah, I guess I'm just here to say I don't know how the board works exactly, but I would like to show the utmost gratitude to Miss Usaini and petition for I guess a spotlight to be shown on her. Thank you. Anyone else have share? Um just for your typically when there is public comments um you know the board thanks you for comments but I am going to take the liberty to break with protocol and tradition for two reasons to sit. First of all to thank you for the eight of you who came this evening um and that the board and administration will certainly um you know look into your concerns. Um, most of you are familiar faces and I'm getting choked up

111because I saw you as freshmen and I am absolutely blown away with the poise, the respectfulness, the articulation. Um, my son was a senior when most of you were freshman. Um, and he sat in classes with you. It is um, you have so much to be proud of. Um, you respectfully articulated your concerns, your love for Chester, your love for your teacher, your love for the program, and not only the here and the now, but that they will be something after you walk out the door in June. We are so immensely proud of you and we thank you and you have our word that we will look into this. Thank you. Thank you. Anything else for public comment? Can I please have a motion to adjurnn? I'll make that motion. All in favor? Thank you

112and we'll see you at our next board meeting.