001e e e good evening and welcome to the March 26 Board of Education meeting for the Chester Union Free School District Mrs II can you please take R yes please respond with pres when I call your name Mrs deio present Mrs nersi present Mrs arette present Mrs Johnson forum is pres we now proceede thank you can we please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation under God indivisible and justice for all can I 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 board meeting minutes of March 19th 2025 I'll all in favor I motion passed that brings us
002to tonight's presentations Mrs Garcia good evening everyone I would like to begin by discussing goal number one and give you a TST update uh participating students will begin their peer tutoring sessions at Chester Elementary School in collaboration with principal B and participating teachers students will conduct tutoring sessions once a week for for a period of four weeks starting in April and May uh tsct participants will tutor the CES students inside their classrooms teachers uh will fill out a Google uh sheet that I created um identifying uh participating students by grade levels in grades two through five and I want to thank Miss Bonito Miss Franck Miss uh Corola Miss Brink and Miss Kraken Bush for already updating and expressing interest uh so I'm excited about that uh District goal number two uh our superintendent conference
003day took place uh in March 7th uh you have the agenda there but I will give you a brief uh highlight of the topics that were addressed at Chester Academy and at Chester Elementary School they received Magic School AI student uh platform training and we're given time to apply and explore the student side of the features that they can actually utilize inside their accountant area classrooms we were focus on data informed Focus that was the focus uh CS faculty and middle school math uh teachers received I ready training called Helping all students succeed using I already data reports at Chester Academy The Faculty analyzed and interpreted uh their midterm data to identify Trends and learning gaps and we all need time time is what we all need so professional time was provided to faculty uh
004to apply what they have learn through the professional uh learning sessions and I would like to give you a science curriculum pilot update so at Chester Elementary School uh the teachers reviewed three uh Pilots Foss amplify and Smithsonian science presentations were evaluated and Amplified science and Smithsonian science are in neck and neck right now Mary kid and I uh evaluated the survey and things are closed so teachers have until this Friday March 28th to complete all of their evaluation uh survey so we will know what the winning pilot uh is uh by Monday uh principal B has been working closely with the CES curriculum committee through the selection and evaluation process of the Pilots uh Chester Elementary School also during the PD day received uh inner orbit overview and training and received a year-long free
005pilot access so inner orbit is a nextg science uh standards assessment tool that provides tiered based questions and item analysis reports for teachers and students based on the standards and it is currently used at Chester Academy m middle school science uh update so the Middle School uh science teachers reviewed four uh different curriculums uh amplify science Elevate science lab AIDS and open Sayad Carolina were reviewed I want to thank uh principal Flanigan for providing the teachers with scheduled time to meet and collaborate uh one afternoon uh for them to review they received two presentations and lab AIDS received the highest evaluation so far so they were blown away by the program so that has the highest rating so far uh and teachers received demo accounts to review the science science Pilots uh in the meantime
006uh District goal number three uh our family instructional uh Academy Workshop took place on last week on Thursday uh March 20th uh and it was called Let's Get Physical uh Family Fitness the importance of physical education in schools I want to give a special thank you to Mr John marcilio Jennifer Daly James Ellers and Patricia Gans for organizing the activities and collaborating on uh the physical education presentation uh we had over 40 participants combined between CES and CA um I started with an overview of the different courses that were provided by our school district then um Miss da that everyone on stage was doing yoga and then after that uh they gave a tour of uh of the weight room the locker rooms and then we had an amazing uh pep rally style performance uh
007from the drum line but then we had the step club do a opening performance of Let's Get Physical on stage so that was amazing there was team building activities project Adventure uh challenges mini game of nitro B and badminton and we closed the night with Miss da doing a family choreography dance and then Mr agila and myself provided uh participants with certificates that look like this so every family uh it was team whatever the last name was and me they all came and we did a photo so it was uh pretty cool so much so that it was 8:00 and no one wanted to leave and we ended up leaving around 8:45 so that was a plus um and what the okay and our next family instructional Academy will take place on Tuesday April 29th
008so at 6:30 and I'm doing a poetry Cafe so I'm calling all Community poets to come out uh we're going to have some fun writing poetry reciting poetry reading poetry so come an out and I will close my presentation with a public public service announcement on Wednesdays we wear pink hence Chester Academy's drama club presents Mean Girls version high school version of the musical on April 25th and April 26th at 7 pm so save the date and that is all any questions I don't have any questions I just want to tell you that I've heard nothing but awesome things about the family instructional and I I love that you have so many different things added I love that you have step club come I love that you you know you brought um the drum line
009it just it gives students who are younger and parents such a a great lens into everything that's going on and it makes them a part of it too and it gives them something to be excited about it also lets those students showcase what they've been working on in such different ways and I think that's awesome thank you thank you building momentum so and I was able to go and I it was such a wonderfully organized event I give you guys a lot of credit because there was uh I think an unexpected amount of younger students who were very over tired so how Mrs daily was able to get them to settle and participate in yoga and then they just jumped from one thing to the other you guys just packed in so much information in
010such a short amount of time uh it was just very engaging and a great way also for some of the older students who are in fifth grade coming into the school next year to get a tour of the locker room see what you know the program will look like for them for for PE so it was just very well done so thank you for all the sh out to the department who did it all thank you I mean it's always wonderful to hear all um we relay it to us all the great things that we're doing to try to get as our students but as well as you know get the community in different venues so we certainly appreciate all the coordination and hard work thank you that brings us to Mr duet good evening
011everyone so my report so there was a theme in my report this month that you hopefully picked up on collaboration we had a lot of it going on in the last few weeks uh spring once we get into spring season it's just a lot of the work goes on in the fall that leads to getting trying to get through the weather of the winter leading into the spring there's a tremendous amount of prep work that goes into the fall to get things ready so they're smooth the first couple weeks of the spring and uh I was uh having a conversation Mr doosa about I was sitting in his office we're trying to make sure we get everything set and given them dates we've got games on this day this is where we start this hopefully
012this is when the blankets are going to come off the field and um if you take a walk outside you'll see that everything is looks great it's been ready for our spring season and none of our teams have been delayed this spring so that was a tremendous collaboration uh but in addition to that some of the things that went on inside some of the buildings uh if you were down at Maple Avenue and checked any of the softball or baseball workout things that are going on down there we have a brand new uh net system that was down there uh that allows us to not necessarily have to go off campus to do certain things and we save a tremendous amount of money by using in-house services for this so uh Mr D and his
013crew installed a py system for us down at Maple Avenue that allowed us to raise our 70 foot net down there then now it becomes a basketball and a baseball and a softball uh multi-use facility and also that some of our outside groups like little league and things like that are also able to utilize in addition into that I was working with Mr uh schwarzkoff about the academy sound system we had a little malfunction in the gym and we took the opportunity to rip it apart and redo it and put a brand new state-of-the-art soundboard in there that's Bluetooth and and just sounds great when you're in the gym now all of these things that we've been working with these different departments we did it for ,000 for this project $1,000 for that project as
014opposed to tens of thousands of dollars so the SA savings to the district was incredible and that's something that both uh Mr D Ro and Mr squ talked about before about how much money they save the district so I kind of jumped on that bandwagon and worked with them to help save a lot of things through the athletic department as well so I just wanted to thank both of them on the tremendous amount of work they've done helping me improve some of our facilities and some of the things that we can provide for our students the Chester parent athletic advisory panel uh met for our our second meeting of the Year talked about a few things I have a few updates so I did want to update everyone the lights of the commons have arrived
015they're here they were uh cleared customs and they're in and they're hopefully going to be installed shortly so that's good news for I'm not sure about how spring is going to work out but definitely for the fall for football we looks like we're back in store for uh our Friday Night Lights uh we have uh we talked about our Morgan's message uh project that's coming up so the the Chester Academy game changers which we've talked about before we were doing those monthly events and I know I mentioned it in the last board meeting that we were working towards a big Morgan message event that Paige Niles has presented on earlier in the year May 14th is going to be our event we're going to be at the Rock and the rock is donated night games
016to both the Varsity softball team and the varsity baseball team we're going to try and include some events for lacrosse and track as well uh to bring us all together at the Rock for one night we have some ideas that we want to share with the elementary school and some other groups in the middle scho high school as well uh about how to get everybody involved in this and also some of the youth groups some of the little leagues and and town and some of the travel teams and all those places as well uh it's going to be a Morgan message themed game night and uh Paige is going to lead this as part of her workplace learning SL Club group that we have going and uh she's already secured her father as our DJ
017for the night and she's going to be our Master of Ceremonies at the beginning where she'll announce the other schools what we're doing and why we're doing it working on some T-shirts that teams are going to wear things like that both visiting schools have agreed to be part of it these will be night games 7:00 on The Big Field at the Rock and the softball field at the Rock so you'll be able to stand on the second tier and watch both games at the same time hopefully we pack the place we're planing to have lots of signs different things some different educational materials for everybody and I'm hoping it's going to be a great event the next uh meeting for the parent athletic advisor panel is going to be early in June and the idea
018for that is going to be to wrap up our school year and to also look ahead to next school year one of the things we did during this meeting which we highlighted some of the things that we've done since October when we had that first meeting we had a long list of things that we thought need to be looked at changed adjusted and a lot of those things did happen and we did highlight that for the group as well the ocia boys basketball all stars were announced Brandon Jenkins Quenton Carlos were our two all stars that were recognized League wide for their successes in basketball I just want to congratulate those two and also congratulate John Marcelo our coach on a spectacular season I wanted to thank the board for allowing me to attend the
019New York state triaa conference so the triaa conference it was Upstate and every director of Athletics and physical education for the most part at some point heads up to this conference for part of the week I was fortunate enough to go as well something that I found very interesting during the week um was the law portion of this there was there's always lots of law every year when we go to this and always at least one afternoon of this conference is dedicated to that talking about Title 9 title six this year there was two interesting topics that came up uh executive orders versus New York State education law and what to do in in certain scenarios so a lot of time was spent on that as well as name image and likeness which a lot
020of you have heard is nil everybody thinks that's College it's not just College it's High School in New York state has a lot of things on the table of how to deal with this and it's an Ever evolving topic that really needs to discussed every year because of how drastically it's changing every year and the amount of money that's involved for individual athletes who cannot represent their high schools while they're doing these things so it's just a good way for athletic directors to talk about this to make sure we're protecting our student athletes from doing something that's going to cost them their eligibility so being well-versed in this is something we need to protect our student athletes so um and as always it's always great networking because we can talk to the other athletic directors
021um each section kind of goes up together and then we work with other sections to discuss how things are being done in other places and it's interesting to see some of the ideas that other people have spring sparts we have a 7% increase in registrations which is fantastic um and we didn't have to chase people down this year for it uh it's everybody registered they registered nice and early thank you to the nurse's office who made a lot of phone calls for families about make sure you have your physicals in and almost everybody was cleared on day one and it's a far cry from where we were four or five years ago where half of our teams weren't eligible in the first day because we didn't have what we needed those days are gone and
022family ID has helped with that as well as the nurses office taking that that step about calling people ahead of time what I end up doing is I submit last year's rosters to the nur's office in a shared file and they look and say who was on the team last year and then they call those families at home and say hey we're coming up on Spring again make sure you have your physical make sure you have this paperwork in it's a tremendous help we have our merges for the spring uh under our border ed approved contract with Seward for the Florida unit Free School District varsity lacrosse uh varsity girls lacrosse and baseball have merged this year and we are continuing our shadow agreement for girls and boys varsity track as we have for the
023last several years one item that came up and it was part of our Chester parent advisory panel and I wanted to highlight this at the end because it was uh it's important and it's something I wanted to highlight and and make sure the community knows about huddle messaging so we've been searching high and low for a program to kind of get us through the spring to make sure that we are uh messaging with our students on something that is always School District monitored and we've used Google Classroom we' have all these great tools that we use but Athletics is kind of different when it comes to some of our communication so huddle opened up their huddle messaging this year so we Dove head first in the last couple weeks so we have started registering our
024students because Cuts were made and our rosters have been built starting this week so we are currently registering our students I would say probably 75 to 80% of our students are currently registered for huddle I expect that to be 100% by the end of the week once we get our modified roster set because modified is always a week after JV and varsity once we get our roster set parent invites will go out we will send it out through um direct through email because we have we can't send a parent Square message out to everybody because it's specific to rosters so we will go through every roster and send a personal invite to every family to make sure they have their code they need to get into huddle and that will allow them to see all
025conversations see any announcements anything that's made and it gives us one nice centralized location for all of this in addition to that's where all of our students are already registered for the most part because it's where our game film is and when we uh stream our games live it's on huddle TV so all of our game film is already in there which is why a lot of our students are very familiar with this this started with football years ago and it's kind of bled into the rest of our Sports we still have our other school monitored uh Communications such as Google Classroom the one thing I want to say just to be clear is Google classroom and huddle two different communication programs Platforms in season is where we're using huddle that is specifically meant for
026members of teams if you're on the varsity girls lacrosse team you are in huddle in this group and that's where you receive your messages for just members of the team Google Classroom is designed to make announcements to everyone that was interested in the sport and the reason why we do that offseason workouts right so huddle access is very specific to people because of game film and things like that but we still want our student body to be able to go and participate in offseason workouts throughout the year which is why we give them those Google Classroom codes and those classroom codes are always posted in the back hallway of the fizzed there's a whiteboard in the back of the fizzed hallway and all students know that those those codes are there and eventually we'll we're
027going to find a few other ways once we gear up into some of our new systems next year how to distribute some of those codes so everything is monitored everything is transparent and an opportunity for everybody to get the information they need to make sure they are involved if they choose to be and that is my report for this month questions anyone any questions I think it's great that streamlining the into huddle and that way there's a more formal way to communicate is there access for students who do not have a cell phone or a device so huddle can be accessed through the Chromebook so there is any we don't need an app for it which is nice and the good thing about huddle is this is something that the SE section 9 requires huddle
028for football how that's how we do our film exchanges so this is something that all school districts have already anyway it was just a matter of educating our students that was there and how to use it and we what we ended up doing was we put the invite codes with the links into Google classroom and we sent it out to our students who made the teams hey use this code use this link and even if someone who didn't make the team or wasn't supposed to register once we get the once they use the code as an administrator or a head coach you were able to go into huddle and approve or not approve that student come into that that program so you don't need a cell phone you don't need anything anything you just need
029your cromebook and that's it thank you hopefully huddle will be as um successful as parents parents wear was you know a game changer for us so it's very similar and huddle is talking about rolling out what they call a family feature so starting in September uh you'll be able to sign up as a family member because right now you have to sign up as kind of in the athlete platform but the family feature will allow us to to uh separate students from athletes us students from parents and so where parents get access to the things that they really need to see and don't have to waste their time with all the other stuff they have to navigate through so that's I've had a conversation with actually the Huddle rep up at the New York state
030triaa conference about this and he said yeah this is something that's coming they already have it for youth groups going to roll it out for schools probably in August September thank you so much Mr Roa hello um so March is the most difficult time for school facilities uh we are faced with limited uh opportunities in weather to open our Fields I'm happy to say that all of our Fields have been opened uh and we're really proud of the way they look so our team did an amazing job uh I I really believe they have um stepped up their game from the fall until now uh um and the playability on these fields being a baseball person I think is I'm G to boast and say probably the best it's been in years so um congratulations
031to the buildings and grounds team those guys worked very hard uh and they did a fantastic job so speaking of fields I would like to direct your attention to the screen real quick big haps in the world of of uh facilities the Maple Avenue property has been progressing since really before October but uh since October 22nd we have been attending planning meetings and zoning board meetings to Foster the transfer of the Maple Avenue School to the Orange County government so kind of refresh right this started I I'm I feel like it's back in February when Miss oara led a team of community um a community team to talk about what the next steps are for this building um and we heard pretty pretty loud from the community that this is a staple um it has
032a historic value to it and the big problem that we were faced with as a school is we we couldn't spend money on a school that didn't have an educational purpose so our our options were pretty limited um petitioning some of the local politicians um Mr new house stepped up and he offered um to to take this building that part of it obviously is not done yet but the process leading up to the inevitable transfer to the Orange County government is is finally complete so what that looks like is on your screen you see a map of the entire Maple Avenue facility this is one single parcel so on the left hand side of the screen is the Maple Avenue building on the right hand side is our Fields so as uh in I think
033it was one of Miss O'Hara's presentations she indicated that the gym was not going to be part of the transfer um so I thought it was a good opportunity to show what these lot lines are again to back up for a second in order to transfer the property we had to legally separate this single parcel into two separate Parcels once that was done right we could take the parcel that includes the school and transfer it over to the government so the new lot line that was approved Yesterday by the planning board is on your screen right here so you could see this dotted line um which uh this dotted line which on the Le hand side shows the Maple Avenue School and on the right hand side is the Maple Avenue gym which will be
034retained by the school district uh also the fields uh will be retained for our student athletes and just to plug one more time uh those fields are in fantastic shape um so after yesterday uh having finally uh officially uh uh separated these two lots we can now proceed with the Trans ER of this property to Orange County government and keep this um staple of the community within Chester it's a tremendous win for the school district um Miss ohhara has been diligent about meeting the needs of the community when it comes to this building and this is in my personal opinion I didn't see an Avenue in which this was going to happen and uh to fast forward now a year later uh where we're just about at the finish line is an amaz amazing accomplishment
035and I'm super proud to be a part of it so that is where we are right now I know Miss oara has some word she's going to talk about in a little bit uh the final thing is our Safety project so our Safety project has been approved by Architects and engineers at sat which is the most arduous part of the review now it is a financial review I'm told this will take about week right I know I've been saying we're we're we're right on the on the cusp of having an approval um we haven't received the approval yet it is my belief my hope my anticipation that by the end of next week we should barring any unforeseen issues have an approval of this Safety project once that happens we will go out to public
036bid um and and uh and continue on our track of having this project completed by the end of the summer this year so that is my updates for you this month you have any questions how are the fields again so I you know I I'm a little bit biased uh but the fields are they they they border on fantastic uh no I I I I can't speak enough right we we hired some additional um an additional knowledge base said one of the one of the folks Mike Perry that we hired for the grounds crew this summer has extensive experience with the Rockland Boulders and um so he's really been an asset and he's kind of led the charge with you know how to properly maintain these fields and get them up and running but you
037know Mark Reed uh Brett Sutton Tyler kryer Brian Rogers these guys for a a very short truncated period of about two weeks were out there every day uh battling the elements and um and I I I'm really really proud of the field so if you have an opportunity to drive by 95 take a look 95 94 uh take a look those fields are fantastic I just want to say to you on the beautiful field and on the Maple Avenue project yeah I I I mean I can't speak enough about it it's an honor for me to be a part of this project uh it's something that will resignate with the community for years decades to come so it's it's one of those things that you're kind of proud to be u a part of so
038thank you absolutely agree I mean the maple La has been part of as Caroline and I is the longest sitting board members part of our entire wardmans and to have such a positive um win-win is is more than we could have I think dreamt of early on yeah so um but that being said that has come with hours and hours of you sitting in meetings at Town including last night um so we we thoroughly appreciate um sincerely thank you I and I'm sorry I'd be remiss if I didn't say this uh so Steve new house um assigned uh one of his his uh lawyers to this project her name is Stephanie Midler and Stephanie was instrumental in making this project happen in the timeline that it did and how smoothly the project went we are
039not experts in the lot line delineations right and you could tell even uh some some of the board members it was kind of new for them as well she was an expert in guiding this process uh so really uh a lot of effort on her part as well and uh just shows the dedication by Mr new house um to make sure that this remained in the community and that the the transfer happened seemlessly so I I I have to mention Stephanie she was really great to work with and just for the record I have driven past those fields every single day for the past 25 years and they have never worked as good thank you very much I I am I'm super proud of the fields this year I mean I can't uh I can't
040speak enough about about about uh about their conditions um and every year incrementally we make changes we make uh upgrades but um this year I think yeah we've got aside just last week I was coming into into town I truly drive past them every day and just the way the sunlight was I was like and I did actually Mark I'm like darn we look good this year so you know Kudos again that's a labor of love for your your crew and there's only 5 days left in March so you're almost to the zfe safe Zone yeah and if we could just scold Mr ducet for a moment uh him having mentioned that there was no delay in opening the fields we're due to get two inches of rain over the next couple days so knock
041on wood I hope he didn't jinx it but I did see sleep this afternoon too I I am not happy with that but yes we did see sleep uh we packed away all of our winter equipment and it was almost a bad move but it worked out so we're in good shape but sincere thanks to you and your crew thank you so much thank you Mrs O'Hara and Mr Susa you have thank you uh so this evening Mr Susa and I will be presenting the proposed budget for 2526 school year on facilities getting our beautiful grounds I repeatedly mentioned this evening transportation and Athletics this is the third presentation in our series of budget presentations for the 2526 school year all presentations will be available on our cfsd website under Board of Education followed by
042budget information our budget priorities for 2526 are centered around investing in excellence which directly aligns with our district vision and Mission to be student centered future focused and team driven through continuous Improvement in all areas this budget is designed to support growth development and success for all students ensuring our tester graduates are prepared for future College and Career Success to achieve these goals our budget focuses on three key areas strategic investments in educational programs and Staffing strengthening Community engagement and advancing safety security and infrastructure with each presentation we intentionally return to these areas because they reflect what this budget truly supports and why we're all here investing in excellence for all students our district remains committed to responsible Financial Planning in facilities transportation and Athletics in direct support of student achievement prioritizing safety efficiency and
043long-term sustainability ensuring Investments support day-to-day operations and reinforce our focus on providing all students with a tools spaces and opportunities they need to succeed now and in the future regarding facilities our investment seal here tonight will focus on ongoing improvements to ensure safe modern and well-maintained learning environments that support Student Success Through targeted upgrades routine maintenance and sustainable long-term planning as we present on Transportation this evening the proposed budget carefully manages contracted Services while proactively planning for future growth and increased demand driven by residential development in the community this approach is intentional in ensuring we are responsive to evolving Transportation needs while also maintaining services that support access to school and activities for all students in the overview On Athletics you'll hear allocations in support of student athlete safety dedicated coaching staff and competitive programs
044through investments in safety protocol Staffing and overall program development so in beginning to take a closer look at facilities buildings and grounds this area plays a critical role in safeguarding The District's assets while providing a safe well-maintained and supportive environment for our student staff in the community a 2526 budget includes essential allocations for supplies utilities and Professional Services to support these ongoing responsibilities buildings and grounds represents less than 8% less than 8% of the total budget yet supports the cleaning maintenance and repair of over 200,000 square foot square feet of building space 40 acres of outdoor grounds and 100,000 square foot of pavement the buildings and grounds departments ensures our facilities are ready to welcome students every day from daily cleaning and maintenance snow or sleep removal preparing fields for athletic events setting up for
045field days in graduation and completing summer projects to prepare for the new school year their work not only supports instruction extracurriculars and Community use but also results in significant cost savings for the district by completing many projects inhouse rather than relying on higher cost contracted Services the 2526 budget includes targeted facility improvements including hot water boiler and fire door Replacements District sidewalk repairs and the final phase of sink upgrades at the Chester Elementary School we also have facilities approved carryover capital projects from 2425 into 2526 these include the Chester Elementary School HVAC controls upgrade aimed at improving temperature regulation air quality and Energy Efficiency and the district safety Capital project with which uh Mr D recently mentioned which uh overall improve excuse me includes comprehensive safety upgrades districtwide which we expect to begin construction hopefully
046this summer following the Final Phase of nysed State approval New York State approval so our dedicated facilities team demonstrates budget efficiency by accomplishing significant districtwide improvements with a limited number of staff so if you look on this slide we have our director of facilities responsible for the oversight and management of all district facilities including daily operations long-term maintenance planning safety security staff coordination he serves as the primary leison with nysd Architects Engineers County and state safety officials also serves as the district licensed Asus coordinator and as of recently supported our uh very impactful transfer of ownership process uh with the county and the list goes on uh it would take about 20 slides to truly list all of the things uh just this one individual here in the audience does in support of the district
047and then our our team uh small but powerful in terms of what they're able to accomplish in the district and as mentioned before the significant uh savings that uh we're able to see through their areas of expertise with regard to Transportation our District transportation route are carefully analyzed for safety and efficiency year-to year the 2526 budget reflects increased cost due to anticipated growth from the greens of Chester and expanding District transportation needs our longdistance specialty routes are provided through a shared program with UB bosis um I will add that costs are not yet finalized as boses is currently uh securing their providers for 2526 through request for uh proposals or RFB with regard to Athletics the proposed budget for athletics supports continued access for our students to a full range of opportunities in 2526 with
048final programs and team levels determined by student interest in participation uh which Mr ducet recently spoke of specific to this year with spring Sports we currently support 35 a letic teams across three seasons with 465 total student athlete participations that's not 465 different students but 465 athlete participation each time an athlete participates in a sport it's counted as one um so that's individual involvement in each sport a majority of students in grade 7 through 12 participate in at least one sport and that truly highlights the important role Athletics plays in student engagement school spirit and overall well-being in Chester the 2526 proposed budget also supports a safe Equitable and competitive program in athletics it includes coaching stiens required New York State safety training and certifications and equipment and uniform Replacements on a rotating schedule to
049ensure to ensure Equity across all teams it's important to note that this year's budget allocates stiens for assistant coaches what is the purpose of that with the proposed assistant coach compensation previously uh and currently as a volunteer unpaid position uh we hope and the Board of Ed uh is hopeful in terms of the proposed budget that with this assistant coach compensation we're enhancing student safety and supervision we're certainly uh supporting through the expectation that we would have more assistant coaches SK development and mentorship strengthen program sustainability and growth and attract and retain qualified coaching staff to support our athletic programs it is designed to increase interest in coaching roles and provide the support needed to maintain safe positive well structured and engaging experiences for our student athletes we do have some programs that do not
050have assistant coaches and as such uh this is an initiative to support that uh in the 2526 proposed budget uh with that said regardless of uh pay all coaches are required to meet New York state certification and training standards including first aid CPR AED concussion management and daa training to name a few the athletic budget also includes critical support services that ensure safety organization and compliance of the overall program uh with that said uh specifically medical coverage so that is our ambulance services and or EMS our budget for 2526 that's identified for high-risk athletic events ensure immediate Medical Response and student safety uh first aid supplies shop runs and security are budgeted for select events to ensure appropriate supervision um and a safe environment for those High uh spectator events that we have and then
051of course our clerical support um and the list goes on with that particular role in the school secretary role in supportive Athletics who assists with scheduling documentation uh communication with parents compliance Logistics um a crucial for the success of the program further supporting our Athletic program are budget allocations for officials and referees to ensure fair fair play um that's the obvious for what officials and referees uh role is with regard to Athletics uh league and sectional fees and certainly our insurance and administrative costs which provide necessary coverage risk management and operational oversight for all of our athletic programs it's important to note that while the athletic budget directly supports many aspects of the program there's several key services that are funded through other departments so these additional supports include transportation to and from competitions that's
052funded through the transportation budget which uh Mr dussa will speak in more detail shortly uh facility maintenance and field preparation we certainly heard this evening is supported by the facilities budget the Staffing for the Athletics program includes the athletic director who oversees the entire Athletic program including compliance scheduling communication with leagues and officials and coordination of coaches and events uh this for our district is currently not a standalone position as responsibilities are shared with teaching duties Staffing also includes as mentioned before an Athletics uh secretary providing that clerical uh component of support and then certainly the coaches and assistant coaches uh responsible for team leadership supervision safety development and once again uh assistant coaches are proposed uh to receive siphons in support of expanding programs for 25 26 we also have additional Staffing to support
053Athletics uh inclusive of shop RS for student supervision at home games game support staff such as scorekeepers and security Personnel that we have for crowd control at High attendance events as I recently mentioned and then last lastly the boosties portion of the athletic budget accounts for County and section dues as well as the payment of officials for all home games including ociaa uh section nine and uh New York State um fees so with that I'm going to turn it over to missusa assistant superintendent for business who's going to give further details with regards to the budget thank you okay starting with our buildings and grounds budget it is divided into two categories which are operations and maintenance uh operations covers the day-to-day cleaning and utilities most of the codes shown here have been adjusted to
054reflect actual expenditures so we have factored in a standard increase for utilities and as you can see the biggest portion of this area is our continued partnership with bosis for our contractual custodial services on to the maintenance side which covers building repairs and maintenance as well as Browns upkeep and any District vehicle Replacements will be found here um the first thing you'll notice is we put all salaries in the districtwide code as we don't have school specific maintenance as we we had those in Prior years but now they're designated districtwide so they've all been lumped into the first line there um as mentioned earlier we have some repairs planned for next year and some equipment replacement as well as a vehicle replacement so that is why there are some large increases in the lines below
055next is our transportation which we've been able to reduce some costs to align them with actual expenditures you'll see under the garage building nothing is listed for the proposed budget and that's because we have we don't actually have a garage designated to Transportation so those costs have been moved to other budget codes in the budget um in addition you'll see the biggest increase here is for the non-public Transportation line as construction has progressed within the greens of Chester we are being proactive with our planning for the future Transportation needs of our community so we have budgeted for additional routes and last we have our Athletics budget the increas is shown our result of the additions for the assistant coaches Miss soara spoke about as well as increased medical coverage the only other change you'll notice
056is we combine all our general materials and supplies to one line as opposed to having them separated by season and that's it for our budget presentation tonight our next presentation will be April 9th where we'll talk about the undistributed expenses which are expenses that are not for a particular school or program and our Central Services and our Bose admin costs so these presentations can be found on our website under Board of Education and budget information thank you to both of you for your very thorough um presentation on our Athletics and Facilities that brings us to our first public comment seeing that there was no one here in person we they'll move on to Roundtable discussion some things to share with us with r I just have a few things few announcements so the March edition
057of our cfsd monthly newsletter will be shared with families next week via uh excuse me parents square and will also be available on our website and we encourage uh we have some community members that have opted to receive the newsletter on a monthly basis so we encourage any community members who are interested to please reach out so that you can also receive those updates if you so choose uh looking ahead as mentioned to our next budget presentation uh scheduled for the 9th um we also want uh want to welcome our representatives from orangel Ser bosis our partners who will provide an overview of Bose services and expenses as they relate to our district so again that's on April 9th uh and I and I do want to U reiterate what Mr doosa had shared and
058so on on behalf of the Board of Education uh I would like to express our sincere gratitude of the many individuals who have played a vital role in advancing the proposed transfer of ownership of the Maple Avenue building so as Mr josa conveyed um with a recent uh Village of Chester planning board approval um there were so many um behind the scenes effort um and certainly I want to make mention of our director of facilities Matt doosa in close collaboration with Orange County attorney Stephanie Midler um you know who've been attending all these planning board meetings um in support of of really the the biggest hurdle which was uh getting that lot line approval and so now we're entering the Final Phase of the process which includes the development and re uh excuse me review
059of contract language between the district and the county uh I I do want to make mention and and thank uh Village Chester police chief Tim Maguire who initially brought this partnership opportunity idea forward and absolutely certainly to County Executive Steve new house for his continued collaboration and leadership in ensuring that the future use of the building reflects the needs and voices of both the Chester community and the county at large so this is truly very exciting time uh really historical for the district I also want to make mention um started meetings actually in October November um so I want to recognize the contributions of our cfsd parent advisory panel who initially supported uh input on the uh slides that were going to be presented to the community the Maple Avenue task force uh that was
060initiated last year and the many parents and community members who opted to share their perspectives uh through the community survey that was truly impactful for us and that was at a time as m Mr D Roa mentioned when the only options being considered were to sell demolish or quite frankly mothball the building uh because there was while so many uh community members spoke out in having a community center as Mr doosa pointed out we don't have uh we do not receive New York state aid unless we are using it for educational purposes so the only opportunity for us which we didn't have at the time uh was for a gift of D2 municipality and uh so many thanks to Orange County and certainly Steve new house for having this significant win-win opportunity for the Chester
061Community our students family and the county at large um so we will continue to keep the board and Community updated uh as this process moves forward and lastly a reminder that spring break begins on Monday April 14th through Monday April 21st there will be no school for students during this time and students will return on Tuesday April 22nd certainly there'll be more reminders between now and then anything else um just one thing so I wanted to share that our Special Olympics uh practices are well underway in the last three years we have gone from three student participants to five and now to 11 so we have 11 athletes practicing this year um the event is on Saturday May 17th and Goan um they are looking for various um volunteers and and donations so if anyone
062is interested they can contact the special education office and we will get you the contact for that um but it should be a really great event and we're excited to be working our way to be ready for it thank you does anyone have anything to share with ground table how about the beautiful ladies at the end of the table yes thank you again for having us um I'm glad that I could make it here tonight because there was trip to Broadway today and we made it back around 10 minutes before the meeting started so very grateful for that um and I would like to preface this report by speaking about the senior trip to Disney World and Universal Studios last weekend we fundraised a lot for this trip and it was so worth it because
063we all had a great time and made wonderful memories of one another a lot of us have been going to school with each other since basically kindergarten and it was really nice to reunite with all the people that we don't normally talk to on a day-to-day basis many pictures were taken because this will also have a dedicated page in the yearbook um so thank you for approving this trip as you do every year um the drum line and step club successfully performed at the instructional Academy that was mentioned today which happened last Friday the 21st um this was a fun and educational event that children and parents attended and our groups were always are always very excited excuse me sorry to perform at these events um it was also interesting because few seniors on that
064team who had to leave that night so we were grateful to be able to make it um to that event the mck trial team had their tournament um consisting of rounds one and two at the Bose center on March 22nd our team won against Port Jervis but lost to Goan which still allowed us to Advanced due to our one toone score and placed us six out of 13 schools we are so proud to say that our team Advanced even though none of the senior members were present due to the Orlando trip um so we will be going against Monro Woodburry in the upcoming a tournament the book club is currently in the process of setting up a trip to go to Barnes and Nobles their purpose for this is to observe how their Stores um
065geny their books so that Chester Academy can organize our books similarly excuse me especially with cases of books falling under multiple genres the book club has been creating their own bookmarks and will be selling them as a fundraiser to support their group and the trip the senior members of our art Club have been diligently preparing for their murals to be painted on Des Walls Within our school many of them have been working on these designs for four years since the beginning of nth grade and they are ready to finish them and display them by the end of this year the drama club has been rehearsing daily for our show that is in one month today we have recently been recruiting teachers to play certain roles so it is very exciting when we get to collaborate
066with adults in a student-driven Endeavor thank you Mrs Garcia as well for wearing pink today we always love to see it and before I hand it over I would like to mention that the makea Wish Foundation is collecting donations at shoppr during their presentation this Sunday morning a lot of student students at Chester will be volunteering at this event and shoppr personally asked the drum line to perform as well so our team will be there to show support and we would love to see you all there and without further Ado book will take it over onch 20th Multicultural CL discuss their plans for future leadership and the continuation of the they decided on was to create a panel of student Leaders with representatives from grades 9 through 12 to ensure that everyone has a voice
067in the club on March 24th student council recap the Middle School spring formal which was the Friday before and they said it was very successful and they raised a few hundred and then the fundraiser for the class of 2026 was also discussed which will consist of a snack sale after school in the upcoming weeks and it'll probably go on for about like two weeks the junior class selling prom tickets at $80 each these sales will begin April 1st during 5ifth and seventh period lunch Checker money payments will be accepted and we were very excited as prom approaches on May 15th and then today Youth and government planned a County service St field trip on April 4th the club will be participating in the Orange County Youth and government conference at the government center Goan followed
068by a launch on at West Hills Country Club in Middletown on March 31st guest speakers will be coming in periods two and six to discuss careers in athletic training and exercise for students who are interested in related professions but didn't have the chance to take exercise science this year and then finally Miss brto announced today that the partnership appreciation breakfast is being held on May 13th at 8:30 a.m. and this annual event is held to show appreciation for both the students taking part in internship internships and their mentors and that's all thank thank you for your very thorough and upto-date we love hearing about you know what the students are doing I'm glad you guys had a very successful was the weather good for you guys it actually was very pleasant yep it didn't rain
069at all that's wonderful that brings us to consent agenda I would like to make a motion to adopt consent agenda items 5.1 through 5.8 second all in favor I consent agenda items yes that brings us to our second public comment and since on the community has joined us in person can I have a motion to adjourn I'll make that motion second all in favor I for those of you that tuned in at home thank you so much and please join us for our next board meeting on April 9th take care