001for 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 sorry Nick I didn't check with you we were good right sorry about that he's on autopilot has anyone seen John planning it oh there he is okay okay I'll need a motion 1.4 to adopt tonight's agenda I'll make that motion a second is there any discussion all in favor aye any opposed I'll need a motion 1.5 to approve the board meeting minutes of March 22nd 2023 second is there any discussion or any issues with the draft I had no issues nope that's good okay all in favor any opposed and that'll bring us to tonight's presentation we'll start with the
002fun stuff good evening Mary Kate how are you I am well good evening thank you for having me Mr sambits Miss O'Hara for the bed um I have a little bit of a lengthy report but that's just because so much has happened over the month of March and beginning of April so I'm just gonna Dive Right In if that's okay go for it okay uh as I always do I'm gonna update you on our Choose Love calendar that we use to enhance our morning announcements every day the April Choose Love calendar theme is hope when we Face challenges finding things to be grateful for gives us hope this month enjoy the things in Spring that you are grateful for and make you feel happy and hopeful enjoy the flowers blooming warmer weather and longer and
003longer days remember to practice choosing love every day to continue the ripple effect that reaches far and wide I don't know if you all realize what I am choosing love every month with you guys as well and sharing that message because I think it's important uh district-wide um March was music in our schools month we had various events throughout the month that showcased the talents of not only CES students but the Academy students as well on March 16 the 16th the CES jazz band The Academy band and the academy boys Ensemble students performed for the entire CES student body throughout the week of March 27 CES students played instruments in the lobby during dismissal each day it was really a lovely way to end every day for both students and staff typically Mr Sparkman plays
004music on the way out on a daily basis so we switched it up a little and had some of our students partake in it was really fun on March 30th the entire fifth grade led by Mrs Rachel scally performs the play Lion King kids twice in that day one performance was for the entire school in the morning and then his second performance was in the evening for an audience of 400 people in our Cafe gemitorium at CES uh the performance was very impressive and the talent of our students surpassed my expectations I think the expectations of many as well thank you to all the fifth grade students for their dedication to the fifth grade teachers for giving up time for extra rehearsals to the families of the fifth grade students for being so supportive and
005of course thank you to Mrs Rachel scally who the very next day started texting me about securing resources for next year's play um she really is an amazing asset we have her for a brief time every single day over at the elementary school but we truly do value her as a teacher and her time and dedication to the musical arts okay PBIS the March assembly was held March 24th we had many students recognized in the Winner's Circle for earning 10 chips in each category which is responsible respectful ready and safe the PBIS committee is calculating data and realizing that we have students that have exceeded the expectations of the Winner's Circle of more than 50 ships in certain categories and we are planning to recognize them additionally for their continued positive behaviors what that means
006is they earn their way into the Winner's Circle but they haven't stopped there so we are feeling that there needs to be a continued incentive for their continued hard work and we are working on that community business Partnerships continue at CES throughout the month of March during March we had a local farmer visit our kindergarten classes and discuss how what they are learning now will be utilized in a career in agriculture in the future the Chester Historical Society also presented the history of the Chester black dirt region also in line with Agriculture and farming to our fourth grade students um Odyssey of the Mind Region 5 competition was Saturday March 4th as I had discussed previously our division one team led by Miss Victoria Garlock and Mrs Audra Cutler is headed to the state's competition
007in Syracuse this coming weekend I want to wish the team Stella Dunn Brian rocktoff Sawyer McElroy Jaylene de Leon Emily cassetta and Kristoff Kristoff Newhouse and Zach Ferraro luck this weekend I will be joining them in support of this amazing amazing opportunity that they have again I want to thank the coaches and the families for their continued support of our CES students as they advance in the competition I'm really looking forward to an exciting weekend on March 20th the cesk kids club which is part of the Chester Kiwanis had their induction of officers and pinning ceremony Mrs keglovich the fifth grade teacher and Regina robillard who is a kiwanian are the advisors of this club and support students throughout the year and we are encouraging these students to stick with it and hopefully join the
008builders Club in middle school and the Key Club in high school um we had a significant reading initiative in the month of March that spanned about a two-week time and it started with a PTA event Suites and stories under the stars which was March 13th it was a fun event where everyone came out in PJs and read under the stars in our gymnasium and ate ice cream what better books and ice cream we had some guest readers that read to the various grade levels during that event that event was the kickoff to our readathon and our various reading events throughout two weeks time we had an entire day of guest readers inclusive of various administrators from the academy including Mr Flanagan Mr Aguilar Miss O'Hara Miss Loftus as well we had several kiwanians come to
009read to the students including Miss Sandy nagler various other cufsd employees and community members came in to read to classes as mystery readers and it was really great to have so many visitors sharing their love of reading with our students during these weeks of reading initiatives we also had two therapy dogs come in and students were able to read to the therapy dogs in one day two therapy dogs followed a very tight schedule that I created and saw every single student at CES and students were able to interact with the dogs and read to the dogs I want to thank you Mr and Mrs Ringle the parents of our own Miss Lisa Ringle for bringing there to rescue Greyhound certified therapy dogs they will be sending updates and times to return to Cas with their
010therapy dogs as well during these weeks we had upper grades CES students visit our lower grades classrooms and read to students it was all really nice to see everyone sharing their love of reading inclusive of our own students sharing with our younger students yesterday we held our 2023 2024 school year upk Lottery Mrs Tandy joined me and Mrs ianuzzi for the drawing this year and she pulled and announced the numbers we thought it was a nice addition to the drawing to have the teacher of those very young CES students be a part of that drawing a first introduction if you will um there were 28 registration packets that came in and the first 20 numbers pulled will make up our 2023 2024 upk class the remaining eight numbers were pulled and they make up the
011wait list if someone chooses to forego their spot or moves out of the district we do fill spots if they are mid-year moves out of the district and we do maintain 20 students in our upk throughout the entire school year um Mrs zionuzi will be contacting the families to complete the registration process of our upk class for next year I would like to recognize our art teacher Mrs Emily downick for being recognized by the New York State art teacher Association region 7 as the outstanding elementary school art educator for the 2022-2023 school year her award will be announced at the region 7 symposium theme art is a verb on Saturday April 29th which Emily will be attending as well there will be a celebration of all the awards recipients and the annual region 7 at
012the annual region 7 Art Exhibit in the fall so I just wanted to say a very special congratulations to Emily donut lastly I always finish up with talking about our PTA we love them so much as mentioned the PTA had another successful event in March tweets and stories under the stars their next event will be this coming Friday family bingo night thank you to all the staff and community members for contributing and developing great baskets with family night themes as the prizes for this event and their next PTA meeting is Thursday April 20th at 7 30. and that is it for me and if you have any questions I'm happy to answer them are there any questions or comments aside from we could use a therapy dog board meeting are there any questions or comments
013from the board The Lion King was not just from the music and the performance and what the students put together but also the costumes the makeup the props and the participation with parent volunteers with that too it just created so much excitement around it and the social media that went out it was just so wonderful I don't think we've had that many parents attend an event altogether I don't think so either and I think that something really unique to note is that every fifth grader was a part of that play and most of the rehearsals besides some very close to the end Saturday rehearsals happened during music class there was not after school rehearsals before school rehearsals there was music class to prepare for this very well done play it's I mean Mrs galley's skill
014is is is quite impressive it is so I'm very proud of her and the fifth graders there's a lot of talent in that fifth grade group so that's also amazing well Mary Kate I would say there's a lot of talent in front of us in in you and your presentation and your report as a board you know as budgeting is coming up you know it's it's the top of the front burner we have right now and every District in New York state and as a board you know our concern for you always is if everyone hears everything that's going on at elementary school it's but we say it every week you guys are doing phenomenal work thank you and like Caroline said just you know from the social media aspect alone of what's happening in
015the building in the district and our always concern for you uh from the disciplinary standpoint that continues I always like to remind people that if it seems like we're done I have a throat issue I'm sorry uh covid um malaise or whatever Cloud that's you know just seems to hover over everything I think the one thing for people to remember is really the effects that it's had on our students all the way down to Elementary maybe even more in elementary that continues really to manifest itself throughout the course of your everyday that goes on and it's not missed by the board I know we're we're talking with Kathy and our budgeting for next year like we've done in the academy where we've added um staff as far as you know psychologists and help in that
016regard that we have that equal if not more concern obviously in the elementary so that you have that full support it's amazing what you do in any given day um and that you're still facing you know those issues and we know it's it's a constant grind for that but there you guys are doing everything that that we can see and we're impressed by that first of all thank you but we also concerned on the same time that you know it's an ongoing it's it's going to be an ongoing situation for school districts as we move forward coming out of this but I don't think it's smart to forget that it's still going on and it's affecting it affected our students it's going to continue to affect them and it affects our teachers staff and professional
017counselors that you know that we need to help bulk up the elementary and we appreciate all the work that's going into that it's not all sunshine and Roses every day you know we used to think about these things you know in the Middle High School you know across the last years where you'd have those kind of issues that you never really saw in this kind of size in the elementary so yeah um that's just my soapbox I want you to know that well even with that we are doing amazing things you are on top of it so um yeah I am proud of that I will take some pride in that book no you should you should and your whole staff is really doing incredible work and we appreciate it great thank you thank you
018Mr Flanagan and don't mind me I'm just going to change out this one computer for a minute no problems put that right about there that's good Nick Patel has taught me well here I think you saw me well the wrong side wrong side yeah it spoke too soon foreign there we go looks good it looks great there we go um so before I start tonight I have some guests that are here joining me tonight and I'm very appreciative uh we have um Yolanda Maldonado Miss Laney villette and Ava here from our our today students tomorrow's uh today's students tomorrow teachers program and they're going to tell us we've been talking about the program since the beginning of the year a lot of lead into into next year and the program's been going great so far
019so who better to tell us about the program than the people that are in it so if you guys want to come on up [Laughter] well hello and thank you very much for having us here inviting us we're excited that you're here be present um as um Yolanda Maldonado The Mid Hudson Regional program manager our names are up there um and we are our first year here in the county and in your school so we're very grateful for that as you know our program is a career development program with the aim of bringing in students into the helping them become interested in possibly being teachers in the future and the idea being that they would return back to the district that they came from so it's like a full circle model we're also trying to
020encourage as much as possible to increase the number of students of color to bring diversity to the schools all right so we have a presentation we have a very brave student that's joined us today her name and we call her Eve but Eva Perez and she'll be presenting as well and everybody knows right and I have a type of Jennifer Barretto I don't know what happened with the Tio sorry okay all right so if you want to turn around and look at some of the pictures we did have a couple of other students we were hoping we showed up but I think drawing it wasn't easy for them to get a ride you know parents schedule and all that so um this is a selection process in order to get into the program they had
021to go through these various steps so there was an interviewed by a group of us which was the administrator Mr Flanagan myself and a teacher Mentor which is Miss villette we had a series of questions that they had to answer they had to submit a writing sample answering the following question why I want to become a teacher everything goes in a file and the idea being that all of this gets documented they can look back when they graduate and they start their college career but also what I'm trying to do is create a portfolio for them to take to the universities and colleges when they apply we do work with we partner with 21 colleges and universities to help our students go right in and they get tuition assistance with the program okay so they
022also do a selection questionnaire that they complete and they have to go and obtain two letters of recommendation which I think was a challenge for them right so it's a it's a skill with teaching skills not only the program but a lot of skills that are going to be useful for them in the future so that whole emailing how to write a formal email how to approach a person and all those other things so we've been this is ongoing we're doing uh academic experiences um this these two visuals that you see uh thanks to an activity that we did after school where Miss Maldonado kind of Acts the kids like are you aware of your surroundings like and they were they were questions like wait did you know you know did you see that infographic
023and then you're like where so then we walked around the school and they took notes I'm talking about observations so those are a few of the things and many more that we're currently kind of working towards um and it's you know I look forward to seeing them grow since the majority of them are ninth graders and they'll have them as English students next year in 10th so it's you know just further so we'll continue that but yeah we've done all these and continuing too good evening everybody hi nice to meet you um here's a slide of our SUNY New Paltz University um tour here we were able to do workshops at in the AM um it was called youth inspiring you to be a part of the solution and our PM Workshop was called transforming
024educations visions of change here we were able to kind of experience diversity equity and inclusion and just spend quality time with one another you know being a part of this program here we have a picture of a classroom observation that we did not too long ago at the elementary school we studied the physical environment emotional social environment the instructional environment and the classroom management here's some more pictures of us exploring literacy and reading to the children yeah okay um we do want to say thank you to miss Bosch for having us and last minute yeah I wish they were phenomenal yes they made the students feel very comfortable and they were very very welcoming I wish I could have videoed the students when they left because it was non-stop chatter and how much fun it
025was and how many you know like the little ones are so little and we didn't think I might want to work with the little one I want to shout out like Christian in the middle like he actually gave Mr Knight a hug and we all got emotional when he said like you're the reason you know like so that was like you know yeah put the dicing on it this experience is really at the beginning of their Journey so along with teaching them the skills and ex this year it's all about awareness we're with the very Fringe of the the next three years right we have a four-year program so we're at the very beginning it's a journey and it's just exposure awareness and positive experiences and I know that this one always works but what
026I also found interested interesting is we brought a whole bunch of books and if you focus on Christian in the middle and if you look at the book that he chose to read to his to the students and the title and then the picture of the character and we were like oh my word um so it just shows like you know when they can identify themselves with teachers or a person of color right how that changes the experience for the students and all of them are showing a huge amount of maturity I have to say they're flourishing one on the right it's a very quiet so he came to us as a very quiet student no more he's voluntary and I do want to add that they observed middle school and uh in high school
027in the building and it was this like seeing I think they needed that like leave the this building to kind of feel because they did observe teachers but it was that that moment when they saw the kids that they were like oh this is what it's like so it was a like a light bulb moment yeah being able to stand in front of I always say to them oh you've been a student you know what that's like but you've never stood on the other side you've never stood in these shoes and and they felt that when when they did it the activity and again the excitement when they left and the sharing of information was phenomenal all right so still to come I know we only have a few minutes there's a lot to talk
028about but still to come um it's uh will we have a trip scheduled to New Paltz University this is second trip but this one's different it's not the Multicultural it's actually a stem Workshop looking at 3D printing and I'm trying to link it into what it's going to be happening at the library right with the Makerspace that we also and that will be the director of engineering who's going to actually be speaking and working with the students we have Career Development Workshop where they do a tour of the campus University find out about University offerings and financial aid information so it's more of a practical nuts and bolts of their future they'll be shadowing teachers intense they'll be introduced to tutoring formally tutoring other students Chase Bank will be doing a financial literacy workshop with
029them this week this year and two more the following year preparing them for that part of life and then we are constantly building communication skills and team building skills thank you thank you I do want to shout out Eva because she what she had the whole day of classes club and then she did she went to work and then two hours and then she came here so she's ready we had five students that were going to come and I want to ask even one question yeah I just want to not to put you on the spot because I'll always preface it that by saying this it's a no-brainer this program we take pride in it we also take pride in Chester that sending our high school and Academy students down to the elementary for every
030event that we do that you know they're the role models we always say to our elementary we say to those kids you know this is what you're striving to become so that's I love that we do that for every event all the way up to graduation when our graduates walk through the elementary but if I want to ask you what's the going into it and thinking about teaching what did what's the number one thing you say or the best thing that you've got so far that you've learned so far in doing this is there one thing that you've taken from it that was either what you expected or not expected well I kind of expected myself to like join and like maybe not love it like love it love it but doing it because I
031felt like it was necessary and like my growth and my process you know but you know I didn't really expect to like love it so much and like really appreciate like the people I'm surrounded with not only like my peers but also like my mentors and my teacher and you know it's it's brought a lot of like connection with one another it's not just like we're doing this because you know this is your future and we care about you but you know this is more important kind of thing we've grown like a real relationship with one another and it's helped us to like have a better time when we're going out and just you know we're able to make jokes and you know just have a good time but I really like appreciate everything that
032I've gained from this um community and from this program I'm just super grateful and you just started move to Chester right and that's let's say you've just begun and just that's good validation for our whole staff everywhere um but I would ask you the board usually does this for any presentation but as you go forward in this program however it felt maybe something's coming you're like oh I think I might want to do this or that but to share that with the board I think it's important and if you guys could come back if you could bring Jen if you guys at different points and junctures just because this is so important to the board when it was presented I can't even think of because I just think of the stages of talking about it
033and teacher shortages and how do we get our students to want it it's it's been a conversation now for years um so if you could just keep sharing that with at what at your leisure but I think it's important to school boards and and districts that it's really a valuable insight and you can see what it sparked that it gives students so we would appreciate that thank you all right thank you yeah thank you any other questions yeah any other questions or comments so much of what you're sharing is resonating um because somebody that wasn't a formalized program but 39 years ago someone invited me into their classroom to see and then I started tutoring um and I I really think it was those connections early on that you know pushed me you know to
034get my degree in teaching my Master's and you know to proudly say after 30 years I don't feel burnt out I don't I love what I do um and I think it's those early seeds um and to see you know again 38 years ago there wasn't it was just kind of I was interested in autism and someone said well I work at BOCES and we have kids with losses we want to come see I was writing a report and then it kind of you know woven to me going over and tutoring kids um but to see something formal with with objectives it is just even just going to make the world of Education that much better in terms of how we educate children and the professionals that will be in it so Bravo and just
035it's wonderful thank you thank you excellent thank you guys appreciate you I'm sorry you can always Escape out of the room yeah yeah when you always Escape we don't make you sit through it thank you well we appreciate you being here you know when you started you said you didn't want to put Eva on the spot I just want to say I don't think you can put Eva on the snow she's so sharp and since getting here she started this year as a 10th grader here at Chester from Washingtonville as we are here and you know I just wish I knew that absolutely she has been so involved in a lot of aspects of our school from clubs and activities and Athletics and extracurricular academics she's really done a lot here so I'm really proud
036of her and she goes out the door there but she's going home but uh you know the program's been great we have 10 great students in it right now and we look forward to its continued growth here it's excellent thank you thank you and um and now for the remainder of my report I know now it's all yeah you're going to sound like Charlie Brown it's all down here Hill from here um so uh I really I really wish I would have met the therapy dog I could I can all use one some therapy dog my dog you know if I brought my dog hair would be taken by Animal Control you'll be riding your dog around my tongue's a bit of a mess so um but we're almost to the fourth quarter this is
037actually this week we we finished the third quarter and start the fourth quarter um so I sent an email home last week with just a reminder of that just with a little bit of motivation for those that that need it down the stretch here um we continue to to move along with our students we're seeing nice nice progress with our ninth grade um that we we put some after school programs together for and they're actually meeting Wednesdays after school the ninth grade team with students that are struggling helping getting them together getting that motivation organization to kind of push through as we talk about that pandemic and those a lot of you know learning loss and skills lost and and that big transition from eighth to ninth grade that our ninth grade teachers are doing
038a nice job and stepping up and providing that for for students and you know in terms of we also with music in our school months here I want to be able to to give uh Miss hi Sani um a big shout out because she brought the band over to marching band over to the St Patrick's Day Parade which was back in Goshen this year and they did a great job so that was really great to see and Miss scally always doing an awesome job with with the play at the elementary school and as you said she's been texting you she's emailing me about all kinds of the online ticketing all kinds of things for for the future she's already organizing everything in her mind which is great um also our this month our Newsies collabed
039here with the elementary school our Newsies and the elementary school you learn something from those podcasts it was quite a quite a Collide I walked down into the Newsies broadcast room slash senior lunchroom and it kind of functions it's a multi-purpose room here now and the Newsies were in there with the elementary school students and they were doing different things and green screening and and it's really nice to see that that collaboration so I was really proud of that um we have our prom coming before you know it so that's uh that's about a month out it's a little over a month away so that's once again we had such a great experience with West Hills Country Club last year that we're returning to West Hills Country Club I personally love it um as it
040is a a location that is pretty centralized to us it's only about 15 minutes from here and it it's a it's a pretty straight drive I feel comfortable and confident with our students going there and and coming back um that that we can have a nice safe evening and it was just a beautiful venue so we're excited um we'll have the mock DWI accident to show our students in advance you know about making positive choices and decisions along with the speaker um to to be able to to share an experience that helps them hopefully make good decisions um so that's that's coming up in less than a month as you know I went to Orlando I went to Disneyland and Universal and all these good things as a chaperone it was a lot of hard
041work because we were constantly on the move but I did get to to do a lot of fun it looked exhausting it was very exhausting my feet hurt very much and I might have been the only person on the trip that didn't get sunburned surprisingly because I just kept reapplying the whole time um with my sunblock but it was a it was a great experience we stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside Resort which was beautiful our students had a really great time I got it was nice spending time with them even the bus rides to Disney you know waiting on a line to go on a ride with people and students that you talk to you know here and have conversations about school and sports and other things but at Disney where it just opens
042up a whole realm of conversations you know a couple of the coolers I'm still dizzy from that Harry Potter ride at Universal or sitting there and flying around through Mr Olive and Miss styler and nurse Gina and so so his overall was a great experience I hope our cat classes continue to work hard to organize these trips because these are student-led initiatives so when people say we go to Disney annually we go on these trips it's not the administration or anybody putting this together this is a student organized student-led trip and that's what I think makes it important we're you know we're we're kind of along for the ride so to say but everything is put in place by the students until we get there and so thank you to Mrs Styler especially because she
043really helped the students focus and organize as that lead advisor and and really focus and organize all the chaperones too so if we knew where we were going we got our meals and everything like that the big thing that that's coming up from basically from now until the end of June is testing and especially at the middle school level so as we we look at we essentially have testing going on in this building starting next week through the end of the year because you go from the ELA exam to the nicest slot exam which is it which for our for our enl students we have our then our math exam for for three through eight then we're going to have our I ready assessments we're going to have our New York State science exam we
044have our Regents exams our AP exams so uh there's no shortage of of exam time coming up here so it's a lot of logistical scoring and a lot of mandate compliance in making sure that we're doing everything in compliance and uh observing test security at all times it's really important so we have a lot coming up here in the next few weeks and we're uh we're proud of our students as they continue to prepare for these exams um anybody that's not busy on May 6th at 7 pm or anyone come with kids or you know your kids you want to come you want to bring Nick along you know I'm sure he'd love it here we are we are the the Chester hamiltonian Steph has taking on the Harlem Wizards I really think we have
045a good shot to beat them this year yeah I do um if they want us to we will that's that's generally what it is it's a great show uh they are I've been involved in Wizards games for for many years in in other places and it is such a great show and it's really for kids they put on a great show for kids it's family friendly it's fun the Wizards get out there they they invite the kids on the floor at the end there you could have if you really if you're a big Wizards fan and there are people that religiously are very big Wizards fans that follow them around from school to school district to District I mean you can get anything from a Courtside seat or sitting on the bench with the Wizards
046right up to general admission so there's a lot of options tickets are on sale we've almost sold 100 tickets already and we're still you know essentially a month out so I encourage people if you're looking to go to buy your tickets before we do anticipate this event selling out so you might want to get Rachel scally to help you sell those we could she would she would have us orchestrate a song or something like that to make sure we're you know where we look well um and then we're excited once again just as today's students to Mars teachers have their field trip coming up to SUNY New Pulse to with which is really a stem based field trip we have two College fairs coming up which we're taking students to one at New Pulse and
047one down at stack there's a lot of different events and I'm really excited as you and I'm sure as you looked at my report with things that are coming up the return of mcteachers night on April 26 which is always a community favorite so last year I was on the the drive-through headset I was very stressed out it was a lot of work so I'm hoping Mr agler got the window he got the good one he just had to pick up the bag and give it to people I had to take the orders it was a lot um so we're looking forward to that return it's it's a great fundraiser and it is also for the uh the junior class as they one of the things people don't realize is we do wizards we do
048junior class fundraisers uh like mcteachers we're trying to make up for essentially for this particular class uh essentially two years that they lost with with their routine fundraisers to support this prom so that's where a lot of this is going for and people say what are they raising money for what are they doing they're really raising money to to support this prom coming up so anybody that that wants to come to any of these events we're excited to see you and I'll take any questions I want to say you you all do an excellent job on that night it's it's fun it really you guys do a great job and there's some chaos back there let me tell you well it's it's not an easy thing to do I told the manager they can ask
049anyone to leave if they need to you know usually what they'll do if someone's messed up you'll see somebody standing on the side of the road with the arrow sign to come in yes if that's where you want that's where you wind up if you mess up in the kitchen so are there any uh questions comments from Mr Flanigan and I also like to thank Mr Aguilar your report in there for that being in report John I'd like to thank you for bringing in that presentation tonight and I meant when I said it we it's we talked about I know at the college level there they were doing that I think Mid Hudson about students and continuing to teach and I think that's where that grow out of back in the day so it's really
050energizing to see it happening here and when you see the students so we appreciate that you brought that tonight and what we're seeing is that other Orange County schools are now finding interest in today's students tomorrow's teachers we were kind of the the Trailblazer on that here in the county uh along with Valley Central and we were kind of we both signed the same day I'd like to say we we beat them to the punch but I guess that's debatable we're first on the alphabetical list absolutely C before V so we are you know we're excited to see other schools getting involved in it too because it's a great programs really a great program it's it it makes no sense that it's it's not in every school so I would keep pushing that anything else
051for Mr Flanagan thank you you're off the hook you know to berate you a little more but great job thank you sir thank you oh I did have one comment for you because as you mentioned you went on your trip to Disney and you I got all sidetracked by the thought of you getting sunburned and putting sunblock 99 on and you didn't get a sunburn 75. right so that that threw me off of I'm hoping I'm just surprised it didn't happen tonight that that you don't have a gaggle of students here with you tonight to talk about how great the trip was because the this board you know when we we talk about when it gets presented like you said student run student plan student thought out right that they please come back to us
052I love hearing about you lathering on hot uh you know sunblocks but because the image is just yeah it's the best part of my day but right we we really you know they always do it they usually come in here I think Colin went on that trip right Colin without Colin here I didn't want to steal too much of college that's what I was going to say he will be back right doing a Night with Colin because that would really I think it really means something when you know like the students standing in front of you saying why it why it's such a good trip you know so we would appreciate that Colin and his friends took a lot of my sunblock too oh I bet they're going to present Colin needs a lesson thank
053you John thank you and uh the presentation of all presentations tonight Mr Brennan well thank you tonight I'm going to rely heavily on my assistant Ms O'Hara to help with the presentation is tonight we're going to be talking about the individual programs within the buildings and how we've structured the budget to support those I will of course jump in anytime there are any questions or to go over the highlights and the numbers but to that end I will turn it over to Ms O'Hara okay you can go to the third slide um so we'll begin programs Focus specifically to the elementary school and our programs are based on our registration figures that we have at this point and we have for the 2324 budget the level of staffing has increased by 1.0 full full-time staff
054to enhance the SEL supports with the addition of and this was just referenced with Mrs Bosch and the challenges with behavior so we are adding an additional SEL support with a student behavioral support specialist specific to the elementary school so the enrollment is expected to be approximately 378 and those students are supported by programs that are led by 25 classroom teachers Aid education Specialists and that's specific to our special ed program reading and math AIS which is academic intervention supports academic instruction services four and a half special edu special Area Teachers and that point five is not a half a person obviously it's shared staff and that's our music teacher Mrs scally um we have a school nurse a psychologist one full-time psychologist and a psychologist that is shared between the elementary school and the
055middle school high school social worker Ms rendy teacher and special assignment who has done a phenomenal job in leading our stem initiative and as I mentioned the additional student behavioral support Specialists which we believe will be truly impactful for the students and the success of the program we also have support for co-curricular activities and that will continue to maintain at the current level and this surprise this provides students with opportunities Mrs Bose had just mentioned we have our students in Odyssey of mine progressing to Syracuse this weekend which is phenomenal our intramural sports program field trips which are extensive and it's great to see them back in Action this year and then our extra academic support with regard to the Middle School the enrollment is expected to decrease slightly we have 12 classroom teachers specific
056to the middle school education support and AIS staff are shared between the middle school and high school programs and then our special Area Teachers are also shared between Middle School and High School inclusive of phys Ed art music the level of support for educational materials and supplies has increased so the bulk of these costs provides for consumable resources that's resources that we have to purchase each year textbook allocations and it's not textbooks as we used to think of years ago but this now includes software and other applications in place of the typical old school bound texts for Middle School extracurricular activities we are able to with this proposed budget maintain current offerings we have Middle School assemblies we'll continue and um focused funds will be provided in areas such as the moving up recognition ceremony
057character education social emotional learning assemblies anti-bullying efforts our Multicultural club which had done a phenomenal you heard earlier this year actually in the last word presentation just a phenomenal presentation from that group coding Club Builders Club student government and the list goes on in high school the enrollment is expected to decrease to about 343 students from Chester and Greenwood Lake served by 22 subject Area Teachers we are adding a full-time math instructor and we do have shared staff as I mentioned between the middle school and high school so that's 13 and a half special Area Teachers school nurse workplace learning coordinator which is really instrumental in progressing our business Partnerships and the internship program that our students participate in our social worker psychologists three guidance counselors which really support the preventative needs of our students
058and their social emotional support and then of course full-time librarian in terms of the program enhancements a lot of the restructuring and realignment of scheduling and Staffing assignments allow us to continue to offer an increase our AP and college credit opportunities for our students these have increased each year and are continuing to do so so the current budget or the proposed budget includes six sections six sections of SUNY orange and SUNY Oswego College credit courses in the subjects of English math U.S history Spanish and Technology providing up to 37 college credits which is really phenomenal and we continue to improve upon that each year it also includes sections of In-House AP classes as well as virtual AP offerings for our students and our educer high school electives which include AP offerings as well in addition
059to program enhancements that we look to improve with this proposed budget electives in Psychology accounting history sociology marketing statistics arts and we expand our stem program with robotics engine engineering which will be very exciting to take place in the constructed maker space that is seems to be progressing significantly each day I was just visiting the toward the area today we have extracurricular opportunities in student government and mock trial we have accelerated classes in middle school which allow students to enter ninth grade with four high school credits in foreign language living environment algebra Advanced art and intro to mechatronics the budget Arsenal also would support our safe School ambassadors program which is a component of our SEL supports that trains 40 students and five to eight staff members in conflict resolution and that's in support of
060what we've been discussing throughout the year with diversity Equity inclusion cultural responsive classroom and that welcoming welcoming positive School clamp climate and then also support for an additional Ela programs aligned to the New York next-gen standards pre-k through 12. so I mentioned I would jump in when we talked about the numbers some of the highlights in this area include increases for Staffing you'll see the amount for the new AIS at the secondary level you'll see also at the later on in the presentation The increased SEL supports are noted in a different section of the budget whereas this is simply the face-to-face teaching portion one of the things that this presentation didn't particularly focus on is security but our budget and our approach this year has overwhelmingly focused on increasing supports in the security area we
061focused on that earlier and we will certainly come back to that when we talk at the summary level of the budget as a whole but that is also included in the teaching regular school section and also some increases as we've mentioned for supplies materials textbooks and the sort and that is to support our stem programs as well as some of the other areas highlights an awkward is an increase in the BOCES tuition based on a number of students that are interested in that number continues to be tweaked so we may have to revisit that as well I'll be meeting with Mr Flanagan I know we had the the first visits and the first sign ups but we're getting to that cut off point so you'll see increases in that area special ed section and I
062can talk a little bit about that but I would rather turn it over to Ms O'Hare because she is my expert fine and I do want to mention the improvements that were in place this year in security were shared with our CU FSD parent advisory panel and I'll be speaking later this evening on a parent informational night on Safety and Security that will be taking place on our budget vote on May 16th there's been significant improvements put in place this year that we have budgeted for a continuation and improvements next year with regard to safety so with special education that is specific for services for students that have been identified to have special learning needs by the committee of special education or CSE and approved by the Board of Education so these Services as mentioned
063on the slide are prescribed by comprehensives federal and state requirements that must be met for each student special education includes a Continuum of services ranging from related services such as speech OT PT and counseling to full-time residential placements that care for the physical emotional and educational needs of students in District services that we have and will continue to offer in this budget speech counseling otpt and vision services content support so that's additional classes that support the learning curriculum for special education students integrated co-teach model which we have expanded this year and will continue to expand for inclusion support special classes those are self-contained classes specifically designed for special education students that's a smaller classroom setting for our students it also includes one-on-one support So individual support with students that have greater needs and also Section
064504 accommodations which range from simple Health Plan supports to direct individual support within with an aid the out of District services are employed for those students whose needs cannot be met by the programs that we operate and those are provided by BOCES which is the alternate Public School setting a private day school and that's for specialized Educational Services that are not offered at an area BOCES and also residential placement and these placements are for students requiring Around the Clock supports and services the cost of providing these educational students to our most needy students represents a significant portion of our total budget and the cost for providing these services are offset in part by excess cost aid from New York state and federal grants and again the the highlights you'll see something jumping out the nursing
065Services that's a portion of our budget that we've had to increase just because of the individual student needs the students that we're serving in most cases require a nurse to travel on the bus to and from school as well as be with that student both at home and in the school setting and you'll see that we've got a decrease in the BOCES tuition costs and that's just based on the needs that we identify currently as well as an estimate of what needs are going to be coming from our Pre-K Services as well as just knowledge of of the environment psych Services that's you'll see a decrease there that's not necessarily a decrease in Staffing just how those costs are assigned within our budget and within our grants and as I mentioned before the behavioral specialist
066is identified as an increase in a new staff member under the social work Services now that has not yet been identified whether that person would have the credentials of psychologists or social workers so that piece is flexible and we may ask to ask the board to transfer that to the section just above if if that's where that credential lies and I also I know this is probably been talked about a lot maybe even enough to already be in the minutes for tonight but this presentation as well as all of them will be available on our website tomorrow and certainly you can go there for information as we go we present to the board in the audience in front of us first and then provide that for everyone at home the next morning and so not
067too uh call it a night we're going to actually move on to a second presentation which is a little bit strained this year and we'll get to that in a second and that is to talk about how we support all of these programs we talked about a lot of exciting programs increase in student supports increase in security all of that but we have to support all of that with a zero budget it's called a balanced budget where we have to identify revenues to offset all of those costs so to start with is the excuse me the tax levy and that is is often the focus of of the voter and and those at home because it is a substantial cost to each of the homeowners and businesses within the community the maximum allowable tax levy
068which is also known as the tax cap is going to be at 20 million 434 for the coming year which represents a 5.72 levy increase but I do have to warn the board the community that that is not going to be reflected in your tax bill there are changes this year that have artificially increased that amount but not to put that on the taxpayer the biggest piece of that increase is the Hudson Transit line pilot they are coming off of a pilot where they would provide us with a separate check off of the tax levy well that's going away we'll no longer be collecting that amount but the good news is that property then goes back on the tax rolls and will be paying about half of that increase just in one tax bill so
069the increase to the homeowner will not be near that 5.72 percent that we just indicated so the decrease you'll see that a large portion of the tax bill will be paid by that one property but they will not be providing us with a separate check or a pilot payment payment in lieu of taxes of 361 000. it's a big loss on one end but the formula knowing that lets us add that back to the levy in general um the calculation for the tax cap is shown here and you'll see that we take out anything that was excluded from the tax cap last year and added back in so that would actually lower what we can raise but then we look at what the current year is bringing and we add those back in so what
070we did for Pilots last year we received 440 thousand dollars in Pilot payments and if you go down to what we're expecting for the coming year it's only 79 000. so that actually increases the bottom line in this formula the other big change is the capital Levy you'll see above it was 600 000 below its eight hundred thousand that increase is due to the oncoming cost from Orange elsterbosi's project that's our first year of that cost flowing through the districts to fund that Capital Construction so I the the board I think knows that I'm not a big fan of flashy colors in that but on this screen you'll see a big red not yet this is a little bit scary we have for many years been in the position where the state budget has been
071on time that's not the case this year and normally by April 12th I will have gotten rid of this warning and said well here's what it is they'll let no they've had the legislature has passed a budget extension through the 17th so we really don't expect to have a budget in place at least through the middle of next week if we do get news hopefully it's good news but right now we are basing most of our our planning on the executive budget proposal that is the the sort of the first shot over the bow that the executive or the governor presents her budget and presents then that to the legislature for fine-tuning I read that there are things that are outside of of dollars and cents that are to holding up the budget so hopefully
072these figures will be safe to move forward with but unfortunately that's all we have to work with right now um the good news there is that the budget proposal puts New York State finally back on track the foundation Aid will be fully funded in the coming year we've talked about it since the 90s I think where when Foundation Aid was first rolled out that the effort was to get there and then 2008 credit crunch happened and an item called Gap elimination adjustment came to reduce that so it's not until now that we finally gotten to the point where we can say Foundation Aid will be fully funded also there are increases planned to our expense driven AIDS so for transportation and BOCES Aid when we spend money on a BOCES coaster or cooperative service agreement
073the state recognizes the efficiencies than that and then funds a portion of those costs but of course they do it in the following year so that we know what our costs were this year so we can plan on what that Revenue increase will be for next year Day School tuition this is sort of a a bit of a bummer that we are not seeing as many students coming to Chester from Greenwood Lake I know that that our populations have been a little bit down maybe we'll see a turnaround with all the the great things that we're presenting in these meetings tonight and where our budget is headed but for every downside there seems to be a really nice upside is interest earnings the the FED increase the the rate and we're actually in a position
074now where we can generate interest earnings revenues on our money in the bank and we've been comfortable enough to increase that from ten thousand dollars which seems like almost nothing in this budget to where we're actually starting to see earnings come in on a month-to-month basis from our investments and we've been able to shift from the local bank account quickly over to a class which is a group of school districts within New York State and other municipalities that have all come together to maximize our earnings and that's how we're able to recognize quite a bit more in the revenue from interest earnings and you'll see a significant increase as I mentioned to the basic formula Aid which is also Foundation Aid known as as well as some of the other increases here now there are
075some decreases in the areas of excess cost Aid I'm hoping that there are New pieces in the in the legislative budget that come to restore all of that funding and again this is based on their estimates as well as the amount of appropriated fund balance we the board was able to fund the capital reserve with excess fund balance in the past so we were looking to go back to the normal nine hundred thousand dollars from that fund balance that we apply to reduce the tax levy last year we were able to increase that slightly but I think the the standard 900 000 would be prudent moving forward until we close out all of the cares act revenues and federal funds that have been coming through and once again the reminder May 16th is the vote
076for the budget as well as one board seat and again these presentations will be posted online tomorrow and if there's any questions from the board I'd be glad to try to answer those are there any questions comments for Mr Brennan you know as always very straightforward Aaron well thank you and I'll thank the rest of the administrators for all of their input and patience with me and thank you to the board and I'm hoping for some good state news as far as the budget goes that'd be great I yeah I'm not sure it's supposed to be a state budget but it seems to be more than that yep okay very good we shall move on then so that'll bring us to our first public comment section of tonight's meeting if there's anyone in the public
077who would like to address the board pull us a little extra there so that'll bring us to Round Table I'll turn to Miss O'Hara okay I just have a few announcements thank you I wanted to thank the representatives of the coffsd parent advisory panel actually with Mr duvico in the audience here he is a member of the panel and we very much appreciate their participation we recently met on March 29th to provide input on the topics of Safety and Security as well as promoting the importance of student participation in testing and the value of data in supporting Student Success and I know our building principles Mrs Bosch and Mr Flanagan recently sent information to parents in regard to State Testing which is taking place on the 20th and the 21st at Chester Academy and the
07825th and 26th at the elementary school the information sent is really again reiterating the importance of assessment and data and how State assessments provide valuable information on instructional needs for your student whether it be additional support or a challenge it also extends to the ability of a teacher to look at her her classroom performance we're able to track grade level in subject area performance building and district-wide which allows us to plan and budget as you've heard this evening for additional program needs staffing as well as professional development in support of student growth and success in learning so it is so important to take part in these tests so we could support ongoing success for our students and again as mentioned several times we have our budget vote on May 16th and I'd also like to
079announce that on that evening we will be thanks to our art and steam and stem teachers we will be uh hosting an art and steam exhibit as well as an informational session on School Safety and Security that will be offered to our parents in collaboration with the Town of Chester police so we're very excited for that evening there'll be a lot to come and see and take part in and also certainly hope that you'll come out and vote for our budget that's it any comments or questions for Miss O'Hara we're looking forward to that night with the um Art Exhibit and the steam exhibit in the building so I know we vote and that side room in the back in the music room so we want to make sure that um everyone coming to visit
080the school just let's say they're coming to vote that they know that the exhibit because it used to used to come in a different ways right we'll have a lot of signs out to direct folks to the main area Lobby uh to to look at the art and steam exhibit to take part in the informational night which will include a lot of the improvements and the safety initiatives that we've done thus far and are included in the budget for next year I know the panel was appreciative of having that conversation and did give input on what would be helpful to include for parents in that night so there'll be signs directing everyone to go to that location as well as specifically to go to the voting location as well so we certainly hope to have
081a great showing perhaps as much if not more than showed up at the Lion King play certainly hope for more than that which is pretty impressive so hey anything else from Miss O'Hara I guess you're off the hooks here okay all right 40 seconds anything else Round Table board I wanted to add that the next Orange County school board meeting will be on May 3rd at seven o'clock in person in Goshen in BOCES in cursive okay yep so I'm going to move to the consent agenda if I can get a motion I'd like to make a motion that the board approved consent agenda items 5.1 through 5.10 is there any discussion all in favor aye any opposed I think that brings us to our second uh public comments section of tonight's meeting anyone would like
082to address the board please come up to the podium state your name address you won't need your blood thank you Mr Stephen Stephen Maynard okay first of all I have to make a plug or else I'm gonna get killed on April the 29th uh Knights of Columbus and Ladies Auxiliary are putting on the spaghetti and meatball dinner uh I believe it starts at four o'clock uh so if anybody's not doing anything uh please come out and support us uh Mr sandwich got a big place spaghetti waiting for you thank you I appreciate that Steve okay normally I get up here and I say different things and but um I'm going to go in a different direction okay um as you all know I went to school here in Chester and grew up here I've seen
083many changes you know you name it and I've seen a lot of people uh better themselves myself being one of them we also have a board member I'll call her Caroline over there and I remember when she went to school here in Chester and she'd go when she's on the board which is fantastic and uh I think you guys have a really tough job you know you can be criticized like anybody else but I could not do it you know it's it's a really tough job you've been through a lot especially to covid and you guys handled that very well also the elementary school you guys really did a great job with that of I looked at the budget and uh what the numbers were and I think it's fair um you know one of
084the things I'm a little concerned about and everybody is concerned about is security because you can't have enough security you know there's recent things you saw something happened you know where they had security but somebody found their way in so I'm a little busy uh concerned about security um so I don't know how you guys feel you think you have enough or so uh as I mentioned at the last parent advisory panel meeting I went through a list and that list was not even all inclusive of all the security improvements that we've made this year through the support of the board inclusive of in January we added uh in partnership with the Town of Chester so we previously had one SRO a police officer officer Perez for the entire district and as of January through
085the again the support of the board we were able to add an additional police presence so that now we have Town of Chester police not only district-wide but allocated to each building the entire school day and and the individuals that we have have a wealth of experience beyond the Town of Chester police department we also have Atlas security the majority of which are retired NYPD police officers with significant background detective and otherwise in addition to that we've expanded our lockdown initiatives any staff member in any room any building is now able to initiate a lockdown where previously we had to call into the main office all of our systems are automated it's an automated phone call once that code is initiated once a call is initiated it is an automatic call to 9-1-1 our doors
086automatically close our 911 call is automatic it is not an additional call it is automatic we also have increased Wi-Fi outside of our buildings which allows the police to view all of the action into inside in the interior of each building that has been expanded our security cameras have been expanded at specific locations on our playgrounds in all specific areas through the building where we were missing that has been added and I'm just rattling this off this is not even all of the improvements that we've done um it is extensive and it is ongoing the thing that I've always mentioned or the aspect that I've always mentioned is we don't in all of our decisions with regard to safety we are not having those conversations in isolation so we have a very uh intentional partnership
087with local law enforcement that's the Town of Chester police the village of Chester police it includes the New York State Police it also includes the Orange County Sheriff's department and the orange Ulster BOCES health and safety committee so we have been working with all of these law enforcement expertise who are also on site on that one day that we had the early dismissal inclusive of the Woodbury task force so we we do take it very seriously and those are just a few of the improvements that we put in place this year and their significant improvements that are also included in the budget which we didn't even discuss but as Mr Brennan mentioned will be addressed in the summary well what you're trying to say is I couldn't even get in here even if I wanted
088to um so it's great I have to ask Mr finding in something here I think I should go ahead and say it or no I mean it depends on I go right ahead Stephen okay um all right um I spoke to a couple of individuals here and let them know I didn't know if it was appropriate but I'll say it anyway all I'm going to say is the people that are watching at home I hope they're sitting down okay um as you know I'm very active in the community I do a lot of things Knights of Columbus and so on and so forth so I was speaking to a gentleman uh not too long ago and he got me involved in this thing and all I'm going to say is that get ready Mr sandwich
089I just became a ordained minister oh congratulations so I'm known as uh Reverend Steve Maynard um we had it's called Universal Life Church and we do a lot of good stuff and everything and you know um so thank you guys for letting me come here today and God bless you all thank you Stephen thank you congratulations congratulations anybody else no okay appreciate that Steve and I appreciate all the words said about the work of the board and this Administration my one point on the security there's also I know Mr hair was able to Rattle off of the top of her head which was amazing to watch as it is but there's also a plethora that we don't talk about because a lot of what we do we obviously don't talk about and that's the things
090that you don't see but we appreciate your concern and it is always top priority of the board the administration like you said with everything that goes on in the world it is always Paramount in everything that we do planning and executing so we appreciate your input I guess to go back to your original question whether we're comfortable I can tell you as someone who has two young kids in the elementary school I'm very confident with all the measures that Mrs O'Hara referred to um even with a child who has tremendous anxiety who's a little older after the last lockdown was very comfortable um and I have even younger one who said what lockdown because he the it just went so seamlessly and the staff have just been so well trained and the faculty are wonderful
091that you know I I think all the measures that have been put in place as a parent make me feel very comfortable just to go back to the original question that you had that helps it was excellent okay with that I believe we need a motion to adjourn if I'm not mistaken I'll make that motion is there a second second all in favor any opposed thank you everyone for coming our next meeting believe it or not is the 20th and with that everyone have a great night