001I 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. All right, as a matter of formality, we're going to do some introductions in case you don't know people up here at the table. So, if you start here down at my left here. Good evening, Scott Ashworth, assistant superintendent for human resources. Kelly Nevin, assistant superintendent for business and operations. Dana Schult, board trustee. Bill Hender, board trustee. Dr. Cox, superintendent of Comsewogue schools. Justin Huber, president. Sue Hamer, board vice president. Nicole Goldstein, board trustee. Tim Russo, assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Debbie Virga, district clerk. All right. Um, thanks again for coming. We're going to turn it over to Dr. Cox. Thank you, Mr.
002Huber. >> So, good evening, everyone. Welcome to our March 26th uh, budget workshop number two. So, just to give you an idea of where we are at this point, we had our first budget workshop on March 12th, where we discussed the proposed uh, budget, the tax levy, as well as um, enhancing and maintaining many of our instructional programs. On tonight's agenda, we're going to be talking a little bit about facilities, uh, some of the capital projects, an update on the 2019 bond work. We're actually coming to a close on our 2019 bond. It's hard to imagine that it's already seven years later, but some of the projects that you're going to see tonight have been several years in the making. Um, but this summer is pretty much going to be the uh, closing out the
003remainder of our 2019 bond projects. We'll touch a little bit upon some security enhancements that we're going to be looking at um, for next year, which includes a little bit from technology and innovation, as well as Mr. Palapoli, our director of facilities. And then on April 16th, which is right around the corner, the board will have its regular Board of Education meeting. We will adopt the 2026-2027 school budget. And at that point, it will be a presentation on just the numbers. Budget hearing on May 7th at 8:00 p.m. and our budget vote on the 19th. So, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about presentation. Not everybody may have seen this. It's from our February 12th meeting and I provided a little bit of an overview of the governor's budget process. So, I
004would like to reiterate that because I think it paints the picture not for just Comsewogue School District, but school districts across the state in terms of what we're looking at in the area of state aid, what some of the trends are over the last couple years. So, in mid-January, the governor releases their first the first run of school aid. Uh then the legislature in early March presents the two houses present their budgets their budget proposals. It's a bit of a negotiations that takes place back and forth. And then eventually, the goal is for the governor to release an on-time budget on April 1st. We would hope that the budget that the governor would do that. There are times where it has been late. And if you can imagine not knowing what the final budget looks
005like and that you're looking at adopting a budget on April 16th presents its challenges. But, I wanted to share this so that the community and that the board can see a little bit of the history in terms of state aid just in the last 3 years. Uh we used to receive over a million dollars in state aid. And you can see that it has gone down close to $700,000 in state aid or revenue that the district was receiving and now is not receiving for the 2026-2027 school year. So, you can see right there the increase is 304,000. I'm actually going to show you on a later slide that because of other additional aid items, the total package of state aid is actually going down. So, although we're seeing a three $304,000 increase in terms of
006in terms of foundation aid, um there is an overall decrease, which I'll get to in a minute. So, what what are some of the reasons for that? I would like to share with the board, and many of you are familiar that over the last 10 years we have gone down a thousand students. I think this slide really depicts it. You can see the enrollment trend here in Commack has gone down in 2015 from over 6,600 students to now less than 5,600. So, over a thousand students. Our enrollment has for the most part started to level off. However, when you have decreased enrollment, you have a decrease in the amount of aid that you will get per pupil. There's less students, there's less aid. One of the things that you need to do in a situation
007like that, when your revenues are decreasing and your expenses are going up, you need to scale back. We have been scaling back for years. Since I have come to the district, probably close to a decade, we have been scaling back. So, when you go down a thousand students, there are some departments at the secondary level that when you have less students, you have less classes that need to be taught. We have been very fortunate. There have been a number of retirements over the years. So, if you go down a certain number of classes on any particular department level, and you have a and you have and you have decreasing uh classes, then you have the ability through attrition to reduce staff because you can keep the class sizes basically the same, but you can reduce
008those expenses. So, that's what happens when enrollment goes down. You need to scale back. And yes, we are scaling back. I do want to share that when we build the budget for the 2026-2027 school year, this is not done haphazardly. It's not done overnight. This basically starts when we passed last year's budget. We begin immediately over the summer in August. We start to roll over the the budget for the subsequent year, which is 26-27. The revenues are the revenues. Our expenses are going up. We needed to find ways to scale back. We looked at uh over the years, there are departments, there are um reductions that we have been able to make. We have been able to scale back. Next year, we're scaling back across the board in many different areas. We're scaling back here
009in the hubs administration building. Um we're scaling back in areas. And one of the ways in which we approach this was with certain priorities in place. When we look to scale back, we look to make sure that not only do we prioritize our student outcomes and we protect class sizes, but we preserve secondary opportunities. I'm sharing with you that every single service and program that we have in our district right now is in the 2026-27 budget. And that is my goal. I am absolutely committed to providing the services and programs for the children of this district. And when you have decreasing enrollment and you're getting decreases in revenue from the state, you have no choice but to look at areas to scale back. The areas that we look at are areas that have the least
010impact on our students and on our children and the programs and the services. And so that is the approach that we took. One of the things that we prioritize here is our elementary class sizes. This was in a previous presentation, but I wanted to share it with you. We are not scaling back a single elementary school teacher. We are committed to keeping our class sizes low. You can see the projected 26-27 school year that some of those class sizes are actually going down in the third, fourth, and fifth grade. Now, we monitor this. So, between now and over the summer, we look at the new entrants that we get. And if we get to a point, you can see the do not exceed numbers that are on the left side of your screen underneath each
011grade level, you can see it's 23 at kindergarten, 25, 26, 27, 28, and 29. We have always committed to keeping them well below the do not exceed numbers. So, we will monitor these as the year goes on, and over the course of the year, if they happen to creep up and they get to a point where they're at the do not exceed, we may look to add another section to bring it back down. So, here is our budget for 26-27. It's approximately 234 million. Our proposed tax levy to the community is a hundred approximately 162 million. And you will see that our tax levy for next year is 2.03. That is considerably low when you compare it to some of the surrounding districts. I won't name names, but surrounding districts right now are looking at
0123. 92, 3.29, 3.31, 4.29, 2.76, 2.26, 2.43. Comac is at 2.03, which is lower than what we went out at last year. That is our allowable tax levy for the 2026-27 school year. So, here's what I shared earlier, a little bit about the revenues. You can see where it says the dollar change in parentheses, you can see the decrease. So, where the total package of state aid is approximately 51 million dollars, we did receive a $300,000 increase in foundation aid, but there were other aid categories, whether it's transportation aid or building aid. So, for example, if we were able to pay off debt, we're no longer getting aid on that, so that will decrease. So, you'll see that some of these areas have decreased. This slide depicts our application of our proposed use of reserves
013and fund balance. Every year we propose a certain amount of money to balance the budget to support the budget out of our reserves. And we've been utilizing them. We have been utilizing some our reserves. And we are committed to reducing that number so that we're relying less on our reserves. The only way to do that is to reduce expenses. So we're looking to reduce what we are dependent on out of our reserves to balance the budget. This shows just a three-part budget. You can see where the majority of the program where the where the budget is is living in program teaching and learning. Followed by capital costs and operations as well as administration. In this slide you're going to see our proposed spending plan. So you'll see that there's an increase in the program teaching
014and learning. I know this was a question that came up at our our last meeting. The primary result of the $4.5 million increase in program teaching and learning is contractual salaries, but one of the major cost drivers is special education is increasing. We have a number of families that are moving into the district with students with special needs. Um and we want to be able to provide those services for those children. So we're seeing increase costs in special education. We did scale back in the area of capital. We we paid off some debt. We also scaled back on our capital budget. You're going to see in tonight's presentation because it's facilities that there are a number of projects that are going to be presented. And I hate to steal Mr. Palapoli's thunder, but whether it's
015the School of Medicine, whether it's playgrounds that are intermediate, those projects, those capital projects are aidable. We receive 64 cents on every dollar that we spend on a capital project. So if it's a million-dollar project, we're getting $640,000 back in aid for a one-time cost. It allows us to improve our interest infrastructure. We have roofs on some of our buildings that are 60 years old. Some of them are going to need to be replaced. We utilize our capital to do that, but we were able to scale back the capital budget again because some of the debt we were able to pay off and we were also able to look at the projects that we wanted implement over the course of next year and we scale back on some of that budget line so that we
016can maintain the services that we provide in the program teaching and learning. You will see a reduction in the administration and general management. There are positions here in Hubs administration building where we had some retirements and we scale back. We absorb them. Um we also decreased in that budget line legal expenses which went from the administration line to the program and teaching line. They actually live in both places. There's legal expenses in the administration line and there's also legal expenses in the program teaching and learning. But it's important to note that our focus, our priority is on the program teaching and learning. And even with we had a significant number of retirees and there is a cost savings, but you still see program teaching and learning is still going up 4.5 million dollars. So in
017order to get to that budget increase of .69 which is 1.6 million dollars, we had to decrease in other areas. We had to scale back. So for next year we're looking at a tax cap levy increase of 2.03. Our budget to budget increase is .69. I could pause here if the board has any questions before we get into the rest of our presentation which is on technology and innovation and Mr. Palapoli is going to be presenting as well. Or we can continue through the presentation and if you think of anything there'll be another opportunity for questions at the end. Okay. >> Good evening, everyone. It is a pleasure to be here tonight in order to present um some technology and innovation highlights in regard to the 26-27 budget. Hi, Elise. Digit, what I'm here to
018talk about the robots and Discovery Den. Oh, Digit, we talked about the robots last time. And isn't it past your bedtime? Okay, I'll check back next time. Have a good night, everyone. Are you even supposed to be driving? So, uh well, before I begin, I just want to say um a big thank you to the technology team. Um and whether we're in the AI world or the real one, there really is no better team than Comal Technology. Uh much of what I'm here to talk about tonight comes as a result of the really hard work of the Comal Technology team. What you see here pictured is really um the IT staff, our data office, uh Dr. Inferno, who I could not do this without. Um but there are library media specialists, technology TAs. There are
019a lot of people on staff that make this dream happen for us. So, while I get to be here speaking about it, uh I really do have to thank that team. Uh this is uh part of the technology highlight I want to speak about is our software. This budget uh maintains our softwares, uh our instructional softwares, as well as some softwares that we use on the back end. And I really want to talk a little bit about my process when it comes to software. This is a video uh that we put out um around um the the December break into the new year that really highlights my process and it's not uh done in isolation, right? So, when I look at our softwares and what we subscribe to, I really look at what the students
020and the teachers are using. So, I don't know if any of you have Spotify, but this year was kind of really a little spin-off of what you get at the end of the year when you have a Spotify accounts, well, which was what our most utilized software was. That is a pretty impressive number, if you ask me. I also found it interesting that Clever ranked themselves as number one. However, there are, uh, some amazing other, uh, top 10 software usages there. Um, and our investment in Parent Square has paid us back tenfold because we are using Parent Square, not only is the district using it, but there were 185,000 direct messages sent in Parent Square and that just highlights how much our teachers are really using it to communicate, our coaches with our teams. Um,
021I think it has really enhanced the communication in Comack. Canva has also been a huge hit. What I love most about Canva is that it is free for education. So, we do not pay for Canva. Uh, Book Creator has also been a huge hit. Sawmill was very excited. I got a lot of emails about this one, um, that they had the most books created, but we had, uh, in just half the year over 15,000 books had been created. That is a large number. Um, so, as you can see, I don't just purchase software or put software into the budget. I take a lot of time and care in seeing what people are using. Uh, when we take requests, uh, we really look at at the why. If, um, a teacher requests a software or wants
022to use something with students, I take a look at what what might already have that we can leverage. Um, and as they get we get requests in, if there's a software that does not have that level of usage, I try to sunset the use of that software to bring another one in. So, just so you know, um, much of what's gone into this budget, it does go with a lot of thought, um, from not just myself, but from the whole curriculum team. Uh, we are in our AI era here in Comex schools. I would like to say that, uh, we do our best to try to, um, leverage some of the I don't want to say free because we do pay for Google for education as a school, but Google does have a lot of
023included, um, AI features in it now. So, we've been doing a lot of trainings and talking about that. I will say that Brisk is, uh, our student-facing, uh, AI software. Um, that is the only one that we buy. Um, I work very hard to like work smarter, not harder. think you need everything. I think you need to be fully invested in what you do have, and you can see that our usage has increased 408% since the 24-25 school year. So, um, Brisk is, um, our most widely used kind of student-facing software. Teachers can create it does, if you could even actually look in the lower corner there, that little B is hovering over the presentation because Brisk works where you do, which means that, uh, it's it's an ease of use for teachers because they
024can utilize it on websites, on, you know, PowerPoint and Google, anywhere that they have it. Um, and you could see in the lower left-hand corner that is an intermediate school student working, um, in Brisk. Uh, I think I mentioned this once before that, uh, they got to act, uh, and chat with an Australian animal expert. Um, and we were really impressed by the output that it had, and they were actually checking their own facts on the research that they had already done. So, this is a very exciting time. Um, it has been a real pleasure to continue to work with all of the building principals, um, and all of our directors on how we are very thoughtfully and intentionally including AI literacy in our curriculum. Uh the 2026-2027 budget does include a transition to Incident
025IQ. This is a photo of me with the Incident IQ dog. Uh this just kind of highlights how much time I do like to spend with our vendors. When we are purchasing a software here in Comack, I make it my business to make sure that the vendor is here to support Comack schools. If a vendor's not going to get back to me or a vendor's not going to serve our purpose here, then they might not be the vendor for us. So, I was very excited when I walked into a conference and I happened to see Incident IQ there with their dog. Um but the idea of transitioning to Incident IQ is that it comes at a lower price point and it has a greater impact. Um Incident IQ does come with an app that both
026teachers and the IT team will be able to utilize. Um right now, uh the teaching staff can only put in an IT ticket when they are on site, which as all of us know as a former teacher myself, you are doing work at home, you're doing work on the weekend, and it can be kind of annoying, I would think, for a teacher to not be able to say, "Well, I'm having this issue and I want to put the ticket in now." That is a thing of the past. As well as the IT team, um will be able to check their tickets before they go in the morning, and if they know that they need to start at bird, they'll be able to do that. So, we are very excited about this transition. Um this will
027be kind of all-encompassing. It will cover our Chromebook inventory. It's It's a one-stop shop um for everything that we do here, and we're looking forward to that transition as well. We are going to be continuing on with our asynchronous uh professional development. This is such a wonderful addition. I uh don't take complete credit for this. I'm very thankful for the curriculum team that has helped support that. We do have an online technology catalog in Frontline. All of our softwares come with certifications along with them. The teachers can Uh how many of us, you know, we are on the soccer field with our kids, we're doing something on a Saturday morning. This gives teachers and TAs the ability to uh get their professional development on a day and time that works for them, as well as
028the district benefits from that in getting teachers that are certified in all these areas. I think one of my, uh, happiest moments is when I get an email from a teacher and they love to put their little badges in their signature line. I'm very proud of the teaching staff for the growth that they have, um, kind of gone over in the last few years years when it comes to technology professional development and I'm very happy they were able to offer this to them, uh, and it is at no cost to the district. All of these softwares are are, um, partnerships that I speak with each one of these vendors and make sure I vet each of these programs. I take them myself to make sure that they are apropos for our, um, for our district
029and I'm very proud of this. Um, finally, I just want to talk a little bit about our infrastructure. This budget means our infrastructure, all of our cybersecurity support. Again, I, I, you know, I speak a little bit about this publicly, mostly that you know that we have proactive data protection, we have endpoint detection. We are doing our due diligence in making sure that we have full visibility into our digital footprint. We do have, um, 24/7 management on our network and, um, that comes, you know, already worked into our budget. One way that we were able to, um, not have to increase our technology budget despite the fact that some of this did go up in cost was that the team did their due diligence in researching, um, one of our programs. We used to use
030Kaseya. We are now transitioning to NinjaRMM and in transit that this is something where the IT team is able to kind of remote in to desktops, solve issues, download items. Um, NinjaRMM, we did a lot of research into this. This is the most widely used K-12, um, endpoint management when it comes to like being able to help from your desk. Um, and I and I love that we have a are able to do this. We made the we're making this transition and this was able to actually help us defray the increasing costs in other places was to go to this product. And I'm happy to turn it over to Mr. Palapoli. All right. Thank you, Ms. Palapoli. I'm always a hard presenter to follow. I'll do my best, as always. Um so, thank you all
031again for having me this evening. Thank you, Dr. Cox, board members here. Without your support, as always, I couldn't do what I do, and we truly appreciate it, Ms. Palapoli. So, thank you so much for your support, as always. Uh so, again, as Dr. Cox touched on earlier, you know, we're at the tail end of our 2019 bond projects. Uh I want to review some of those things with you this evening. Uh the main structure of focus of a lot of those things was infrastructure, um curriculum spaces, ADA bathrooms, roofs, boilers, um science labs. There's an auditorium at Saw Mill. Uh so, we got a lot done with those funds, and I think it was definitely well-spent money, and I'm really proud of the work we were able to do with those uh those funds.
032So, I'm going to share tonight with you all. Um a major highlight of the bond as of summer is the medical lab. Um in my opinion, it's, you know, state of the art. Um nothing in Long Island has anything close to it. Uh there you can see the Anatomage tables. Um it's just so state of the art. I really think the professional-grade, hands-on science the kids will have is is second to none. So, I think it's very impressive. I think it's been a great addition to the high school, and I'm personally very excited to work on that project. I really am. Another big part of this summer's work is uh the digital media lab. Uh it's kind of a repurposing of a actually computer lab. So, they have a green screen, some flexible seating, kind
033of a fresh, updated space for students of media production. Uh I think the students are going to come back next year and see this space and be very excited. I know I would be. And I want to touch on some capital projects. I also want to point out, too, uh a lot of the funds that support this are transit to capital funds, which only be used for actually capital work and construction work. It can't be allocated elsewhere for, say, you know, uh you know, curriculum-based things or salaries, only for capital work only. Uh so, that's what the main focus has been, you know, some playgrounds throughout the district, um some roofing projects, um different boiler upgrades. Uh as I say all the time, I feel like I'm a, you know, repetitive so much is that
034these buildings are old. They're 60 years old. You know, we try to These are things people don't see. Uh to me, that's looks very nice. The boilers there. Uh but uh some people might say, "What is that, Frank?" Well, that's going to keep our building heat for 6 months, you know? So, I'm excited about that. Um but again, you know, the strategy was always a, you know, invest in infrastructure first approach, roofs, boilers, and heating. Um I truly, you know, work with Dr. Cox on a balanced approach to all of this, um making sure the boot bones of the buildings are always ready to go. And we start focus the last couple years together. Another major highlight for the community is a stadium lighting. Uh I I I think it's a win-win for everybody. Uh
035huge benefit for the athletes and the entire uh Comsewogue community. Uh I think it's an amazing project that's going to start this summer. And uh we're excited for the the night games. Everything is ready to go. Another very exciting project of mine uh that we're doing with the the community here is uh the intermediate playgrounds. Um one big thing about these after looking at them that they're fine, they're in good shape, but they've been used. You know, they've been around for a couple years. And when we decide to kind of redesign them, we wanted to make a focus on kind of like all-inclusive playgrounds. ADA accessibility, as you can see there, there's a ramp for students to go on with different disabilities so they can utilize a space like everybody else. Um there's also a
036sitting area in the right sitting area in the right corner there with tables. So, I'm envisioning maybe if there's not recess going on, maybe outdoor classroom space for different kind of experiments, uh some meeting space for people even in the in the weekends, a communal space for the community members. Uh so, I think it's going to be a great place for these both buildings, Burr and Smith Melvil. I'm excited to get those going for sure. And I always like to show again things before and after. So on the left there you can see an old pump that I'll be honest with you, it's original to the building, about 60 years old as Dr. Cox said. You see all the fraying of a old bearing and pump that bearing and coupling there. On the right side
037those are brand new pumps over at the middle school. So it just goes to show, you know, where we're going with things, reinvesting not only in the curriculum spaces but also infrastructure too. Again, on bottom right there is an old boiler at the middle school. There's a welder in there. I spent countless of dollars replacing these boilers, fixing them. That's why I've definitely worked with Dr. Cox in trying to replace these boilers so it's more of peace of mind for all of us during the colder months for sure. And these are some plans for capital work this summer. Some courtyard work, that's Rolling Hills. We really want to enhance that space, maybe put some turf in there, make it more accessible throughout the whole year for students and staff. A big thing too is a
038tennis court throughout the district. You know, they're aging. Sorry, but we plan to really kind of skim coat those, crack fill everything, repaint all the courts at the high school middle school. In addition to the 9/11 memorial, this year as we all know unfortunately is the 25th anniversary of it. So I really want that place to look good for that ceremony, Mrs. Verga. So we'll work on putting new turf there for you. And also ADA bathrooms throughout the district. We're going to update some of those ADA bathrooms. They're aging. So we're trying to kind of complement that with other work we're doing throughout the district. This is some flat work. You know, we have these winters have been hard lately. You know, they're beating up our parking lots. So we're going to start replacing the
039asphalt, some of the curbing, sidewalks. And again, it's really a balance we always try to do, you know, between infrastructure, you know, curriculum spaces, classroom work. And it's a real balance we're working on but I think we're trying to do a really good job of doing that. And a big thing I want to point out too is you know, it's really trying to maximize, you know, like as Dr. Cox said, dollar for dollar. Anything we do capital work, if we can attach it to the state aid, we'll get 74% of every dollar we spend. That's huge for us. Never turn that's really good compared to other districts, it really is. And of course, I have to highlight my crew. Um, you know, my opinion, they are the best in Long Island. Um, they go above
040and beyond every single day. I mean, I remember this day vividly. These guys were out there in 10° weather trying to clear blockage in the snow. Um, they just go above and beyond whether it's, you know, my facilities team, security. That was a water main break at uh Wood Park. That would happen at 11:00 at night. Uh, we have made sure we got the water back on for the Monday morning before school. Uh, so again, it it just goes to show. I just want to thank them, you know, publicly and personally always for the work they do. Without them, I couldn't do what I do. So, I really appreciate them. And here are some projects in house this summer. Some ceiling replacement work in Sawmill cafeteria at SUSBIN nagging and fading for a while. Some
041updated lighting. This is again the all in house projects. And as Dr. Cox said, any way we can kind of offset going out to the vendors, we try to do it in house. So, a huge savings doing that internally. Uh, the Burr faculty room needs to be refurbished. We're going to do that in house. New cabinetry, some seating, painting. Um, some classroom floors and space improvements. That's something we always try to do every year. Uh, furniture upgrades. We have such amazing carpenters. We actually build the furniture ourselves. I mean, the desk we're at right now, we built that in house. So, it's been pretty impressive what these guys can do. And with that, I'll go over to my partner here. Uh, so so much of the work that uh facilities and technology do is together.
042Um, while, you know, part of my job does require a lot of front end instructional um work that I do in the classrooms with the teachers and with the administrators, um a lot of the work that I also do is in partnership with Mr. Palapoli and the facilities department. And we really take pride in, you know, supporting every student every day even if it is from the background, right? So, a lot of the work that we do together is in the area of security. Um so you'll there you'll see part of my team. They are replacing cameras. We are continuing to upgrade additional cameras. Uh the team has been doing a lot of work in training on on cameras and and upgrading in-house and doing all those types of things uh so that we do
043not have to outsource and that has been a lot of um work that Frank and I or Mr. Palapoli and I have been doing together. Yeah, I I wanted I talked to Dr. Cox earlier she had by actually creating a true uh person trap at the middle school. Currently right now we do have a a vestibule there but after you get to come into the building they actually have to go through another checkpoint. So I want to create a true person trap where actually they can be vetted before they come to the building. They come into the person trap, security's there, speaks with them, goes to the Raptor system and then they enter the building. So I just something we want to do. Every building now will have a complete either transaction window or transaction
044I'm sorry a person trap like this throughout the district. So I something we work on this summer. Yeah and and I will just have to highlight again the level of communication that has to happen between both of our departments to make sure that this is operating seamlessly on a daily basis. Um I don't think there's a day that we don't speak about it because we take a lot of pride and care in making sure that this is like fully operational um and we take it very seriously. Uh one of my favorite things to talk about is our partnership in renovating computer labs specifically. So I think a lot of times when you hear about innovation you you think about like shiny objects, right? And and and that's not actually what I do in in that
045in that area. Uh what I do is try to look at spaces and places and items and ways to kind of take what we already have and make it more user-friendly, make it better, improve it for student learning. And um I enjoy designing these spaces with Mr. Palapoli. Him and his team do a beautiful job of doing this in-house. But what you see here um is a computer lab in Sawmill um that we would have otherwise had to replace all of these computers. And that comes at a really high cost. But together, um Mr. Palapoli and I worked to say what could this space look like? And we speak with the principals, you know, so Ms. Tancredi had had a had a hand in in the three of us were able to collaborate and say
046what could this space look like? And it is innovation at its finest because we were able to do this in-house at a low price point with an absolute money savings because that room now only has a few PCs on it as it is important that our students learn what is a mouse, what is a tower, what are the what are what are these? They need to be able to use a PC, but they don't need to be on it all the time, right? So, it's a flexible learning space. They're doing all different types of stations activities in that room. Teachers will be able to utilize that room going into next year. Right now, we we did this work and we will continue to work on this space and spaces like that. Yeah, this space is
047actually I think when Mrs. Polian approached me, I think pre pre prior to the February break. Of course, I usually say, "Yes, we'll get it done." So, we we jumped on it. But again, this was done within 4 days. Literally, the whole room was gutted. The seal every ceiling tile grid there was painted. When I walked into the ceiling, this the the grid was actually looking yellowed. I said, "Guys, we're painting the whole grid." So, every ceiling tile was taken out, replaced, the whole grid was painted. And that's another big savings versus replacing the whole entire grid. It's it's a huge savings. The walls were painted, the floors were scrubbed. But again, the turn us over in four four days >> Yeah, it was it was truly amazing. >> she was pretty excited about it.
048So, I was proud of the project. >> Yeah, it also include as you can see the removal of power poles. I don't you know, as since we took the computers away, I didn't want those in the way of student you know, in the way of students. So, we really the three of us spent some time talking about the design of these spaces. This continues is that's just what we're highlighting now, but we did remove another lab at the high school. So, I we are looking in every building and the principals have been wonderful and amazing in support of this and saying, you know, in going one-to-one, there's an investment in that for the district and how can we better utilize spaces if we don't need them since we are now one-to-one. Um and it really
049truly is a partnership between uh facilities, technology, and our building administration. I agree. Questions from the board? Comments from Comments? I just wanted to say something. This past Monday, everyone sitting at this table went to the SCOPE Awards ceremony at the building where we celebrated Elise, who won the SCOPE Administrative Service Award, and I just wanted to say we're very proud. Thank you so much. The only question that I would have, I know we're talking about we looked at the class sizes. Um should there be growth to the contingency staffing that you put into a budget? Because there are number or certain should you need add an FTE or partial FTE like Yeah, we look at we look at the historically what the new entrants are. Um coming in this year, we saw an increase
050in the number of students enrolling in kindergarten. Um so we had to make sure that we maintain those those sections there. Um we did you know we we kept our elementary flat. We were at one point we added a section at the intermediate because some of those numbers started to get close to 27, and I know for a fact, based on the historical analysis, that if you start at that point, the new entrants, it's going to put you well above that. So, we added the section back in into both of our intermediate schools to to drop those numbers down. But again, yeah, we do keep a contingency, usually like one or two in the in the budget should we uh should we need to uh break a section. And then the other question has the
051the 2. 03 tax cap for Comsewogue. Why is ours so much lower than neighboring districts? And then to any other question that might be out there, like we could go higher. The response to that would be what? >> Sure, that's a great question. So, when you when you put when you put your numbers into the tax cap formula, it is a it is a a very thorough formula. You put in last year's numbers and then at some point um and I'm abbreviating this and Mrs. Nevelin would agree I'm abbreviating this, but about halfway through everybody hears about this 2% cap, 2% cap. So, when you get to a certain point, you apply that 2% cap and that's your new starting point. Then you add in your additional numbers, what you're looking at in terms of
052debt service and aid and things of that nature, building aid for the following school year, and it tells you what your allowable tax levy is. So, the allowable tax levy for Comsewogue is 2.03. If you would go above that, and I'm sure you've heard and read in some of the papers, if school districts are looking to pierce the cap, that would be going above your allowable tax levy. So, anything above 2.03 would be considered piercing the cap. To pass that, you would need the 60%. And to pass that, you would need a 60% of your community vote voting yes. Okay. Questions, comments? All right. Oh, oh, sorry. Questions for Mr. Palopoli. Mr. Palopoli, you know that the lights are near and dear to me and since 1997, I think. But, um you know, I heard
053that this rumor out on the fields this past weekend that um perhaps the lights won't be ready because uh the electric companies are it's very difficult to get transformers or different equipment for them. Uh can you please dispel that rumor for me? Something like that. Yeah, I'm not aware of that nasty rumor. Uh we're actually kind of self-sustained with our electric right now. We're not bringing any additional transformers. We actually have the power for it. We really looked into that, so we should be fine. That's perfect. Thank you. I appreciate that. >> it. Will that be done over the summer? Yes, it will. Yeah. Complete for the fall. >> That's the plan, yes. Question. And just the new floors that you're doing, are you doing those same new floors that you're doing in like the
054middle school Uh the LVT flooring, yes, the wood planking flooring, yes, that's the plan. I'm trying to create that theme throughout the district in all the classrooms, so that's the plan, yeah, absolutely. It does. It transforms the Yeah, I agree. So, just a comment um and to you and to your staff, to the teaching staff, uh facilities staff, tech staff, um based upon last last presentation we did and then some of the highlights this year. We do a lot of great things in Comac, and I think that is a credit to all of you in the field. Uh the talents of the teachers in reimagining, you know, instructional options for people, the facilities in which the kids are in every day and the teachers work in every day and that we drive by every day.
055Um it it's a credit because it's not easy putting the budget together, uh having been through it myself a lot of times, um but it does require a cooperative effort with everybody in the field, uh entertaining feedback, uh reimagining what you did because it's not just a rollover from the previous year because of different changes in state aid and other expectations and uh mandates, etc., tech needs. Um so, I just wanted to thank you guys for the effort and the diligence you put into it. Um it's impressive. It really is impressive that we can offer this as a a manageable uh percentage to the community and still sustain uh, all of the things that we're offering right now. Um, so thank you. That's it's a lot of effort, I know that. It's a lot of
056time. So, thank you. Well, thank you, Mr. Huber. I think I am so proud to be here in Commack. I had the opportunity to attend a unified uh, bowling match the other day and um, you know, you when I was growing up, I didn't know what a superintendent was. And to walk into the unified bowling match and have um, one of my little buddies, Tyler, scream out, "That's my superintendent!" And uh, and a couple of the others ran up and gave me huge hugs. Um, it would it it's it's the most rewarding profession to be in, whether the administrator and seeing the impact or or being able to walk around the hallways and see the impact that our staff have on changing students' lives every day. I had a parent come up to me at
057that unified bowling match and said that they had one student who graduated from the high school who was an IB diploma candidate who enrolled in the most rigorous program that Commack High School has to offer. And then they said they have another student at the other end of the spectrum who is of special needs and is so proud to be a resident of Commack because that family that felt that he and their words that there's something for everybody in Commack. And that, you know, is the approach that we take each year when we put the budget together that we want to maintain all of those services, all of those programs for our students. These spaces that you see that we're developing at the high school are changing children's lives. You heard from our students in
058the last board meeting, they were talking about learning through failure, um, the fine arts and the engineering program do not have real-life spaces and you can see just by shifting the language and creating, you know, branding and schools of study at the high school. It's changing children's lives. The programs of bringing in professionals for free to speak to the students in their careers is changing lives. The attendance has gotten better at the high school. Um behavioral incidents have gone down at the high school. When students feel connected to school, they want to come to school. They want to be in school. They find meaning in their learning. And to see that each and every day when I'm walking through the hallways of every single one of our buildings makes me so proud. And it is
059challenging. It is very challenging to put together a budget year to year um when you see decreasing in revenues and you see increases in your expenses. And we have to be creative and we have to, you know, move with the times and there are other districts in the in the along Long Island, some of my colleagues that are in, you know, very, very difficult situations. I'm so proud to be up here to be able to present a budget to the board that not only encompasses maintaining and in some cases enhancing our programs, but also being able to update our facilities to make sure that, as Mr. Sapone said, um as much as we're trying to forget this last winter, although they're calling for snow on Saturday, um we want to keep our heat state-of-the-art and
060current. So, I appreciate all those additions that you've been making. And I know that was long-winded, but that's my thank you to to the board and to Mr. Huber and to the staff and community here in Commack. You can. If there's anybody in in in this this the seating out there that wants to approach and have a question or a concern or ask us to look at things differently or reconsider things, uh you know, feel free. If not tonight publicly, at least you can send the board a message, email us, contact superintendent's office. Um it's not finalized yet. It's it's still work in progress. So, um I'm sure we don't have every idea down pat, but um if there's feedback that you could give, uh, it's definitely appreciated and definitely listened to. So, anybody want
061to choose to speak tonight? It can't be negative, though. It's not negative. >> let me qualify. It's not negative. I have a loud voice, so um we were talking about the middle school they're putting them in trapping. Can I make a suggestion? Can you go and talk to the people that are going to be using it? Okay. The people letting in what goes on, what parents bring in and everything else, so that we don't have to have any design changes after it's in because parents do bring things in. You're making a small room. I was there one time when the architect came in and the doors were going to be like here and we said, "You got to make them like this." And just to talk to the people that handle everyday operations so you
062know what you need. Because every school is different, as you said, and they do a great job. But, there's little things that you may not know about that you have to do at that door. Sure. Okay? >> Exactly. >> That's it. >> Well, thank you for that feedback, huh? I did hear that someone brought a canoe for anything but a backpack, so that might be a really valid point. Somebody brought a canoe. All right. We're good. Just one thing to make it funny. Uh-oh. Like we You just said they had in the middle school bring not your backpack in, the kid brought a kayak in. >> Oh, yeah. It is. Okay? Yeah. I I mean, we were standing in. I said, I didn't know what to tell the kid. I was like, "You really want
063to carry that around?" It doesn't fit. And we had to decide every kid in the school wanted to sit in it and try it. So, we put it there and we let it on display, but we had to keep somebody there. So, that's what I'm talking about. You guys want it in the school? We'll take it in. Thank you. All right, so we can wrap up. Do you have Do you want to do this? Oh. Elise, you can you click to the next >> Did you have uh slide? So, this is just the completion of our March 26th. So, just again, I reiterated that April 16th is our next Board of Education meeting and the board will be adopting the budget. Um budget hearing on May 7th and then the budget vote on May 19th.
064It'll come up quick. And the last I think is there one more? It is 37 more slides. Is it That That wraps it up. Thank you. >> Yeah. Uh there's one more. Thank you for coming. >> There you go. All right. Thanks for coming out and uh for this part. Appreciate it.