001couple years >> like you don't want me to sing. >> I think >> testing testing. >> Yeah. I just need to sign it. >> All right. Are we ready to go? >> Almost. [Music] >> Yeah. Thanks. >> Sorry, we're having a little technical difficulty, but >> are we good? >> I think so. >> Okay, we're we're going to get started here. Um, welcome to our September 4th board of ed meeting. We saw you last week, some of you. Uh thanks for coming again. Uh we're going to start with the pledge. So please rise. Join me in the pledge. >> 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. >> All right. So we're
002going to start with the roll call. I'm going to start down here and please state your name and your role in the district. >> Good evening everybody. Scott Ashan, assistant superintendent for human resources. >> Dana Schultz, board trustee. >> Bill Hender, board trustee. >> Dr. Cox, superintendent. >> Gus, board president, board vice president. >> Nicole Goldstein, board trustee. Tim Russo, assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction and assessment. >> Mara Harvey, attorney for the district. >> Okay, with that, I'm going to start with our administrative report. Oh. Oh, sorry, Deb. It's late to the game. >> Debbie Bergen, district clerk. >> The kickoff's at 8:20, so we're trying to make this work for those NFL fans. Yeah, I'm a Chief fan, so we're not going Eagles tonight. Okay, we're still hurting. Um, okay. So, we're going to
003start with the administrative report with Dr. Cox. >> Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Huber. Um, before I get started with the administrative report, we do have a uh special recognition. If you haven't noticed, um, this year we have this beautiful board table um, with the addition of our exopicio student board member and some additional members. We wanted to extend it for our presentations, etc. Um, and we invited Mr. Matthew Vieiraa um here this evening who was one of our craftsman works and facilities who built this board table. So Matt, we just wanted to take a moment to say thank you. You're uh I have to say that our facilities crew, Mr. Palipolei, we do so much of our work inhouse. Um you're going to see some of that tonight. Mr. Palpoli is going to highlight it
004in his facilities presentation, but this is absolutely gorgeous. Um it's amazing that we have staff that are able to um put together something as beautiful as this. And this isn't the only work that they've done in our district. They've done a number of things inhouse which saves uh the district a ton of money when we have staff members that are that are this talented. So Matt, thank you so much for your contribution. I really appreciate it. So um just if we could get a quick picture. Um >> yeah, sure. >> Thank you, Mr. R. Yes, stand right here. You're good. Right here. If the board wants to come and join. [Laughter] >> Thank you. >> And thank you, Matt. really appreciate it. Appreciate it. >> Okay, so to get us started tonight, we have a
005community a couple community connections. So, one of our uh board goals is to is to enhance our community connections. So, we come up with some events over the course of this year. We say time and time again that our schools are our main street. So, we find every opportunity we can to invite the community out. Uh, and we wanted to let you know of a few updates. We're going to do a quick back to school update. Um, we have a couple security updates and facilities which Mr. Palipoli will take us through. So, just to get us started, some community connections. Um, I have to thank Mrs. Burgerer. Mrs. Burgerer, how many years have we been have you >> 24 years. >> 10 years old when I started. >> So, um, if you have the opportunity,
006please join us uh next week on September 11th at the uh, high school football field each year. It's an absolutely beautiful ceremony. Um this is this is something super special. We have dignit dignitaries that that show up. Um tremendous volume. They um come out in droves and they'll be coming next week and you know sharing a few words at our ceremony. It's at 6:30 p.m. So please uh join us. Couple of other exciting events. Um one that's new uh that we're that's going to be in place this year is a Friday night lights game. Um, and that's on September 12th at 6:00 p.m. So, our boys football football team will be playing and the Grid Iron Club had donated lights. So, a special thank you to them. And then also on September 30th, we have
007our annual soccer under the stars where our varsity boys team is going to be playing at 6 p.m. and our V varsity girls team is going to be playing at 8:00 p.m. under the lights. And I have to thank the COC Youth Soccer League. Um this is probably we say hopefully one of the last times that we'll um need lights to be donated as we're going to be um installing stadium lights um at the Comarmac High School stadium. Um so just a couple a quick back to school update. Um it you know it's just it's a it's a special day the first day of school. Um I miss it. You know my my children I have six twin 16 year olds and a and a 13-year-old daughter. and to be able to stand out there
008and see the kindergarteners come to school with huge smiles on their faces and to think that they're about to embark on a 13 year journey here in Comarmac. And um it was just it's a special day. You can see even some of our parents dress up in these blowup unicorns and greet the students as they come in. It's uh it's a great day. It's a celebration. The energy in the buildings has been tremendous and it's just been an incredibly successful um first start of the of the school year. So, at this point, I'm actually going to turn the presentation over to Mr. Palipoli, who's going to take us through some security updates as well as some summer updates. Mr. Palpoli, >> you're welcome, sir. >> Pierre and the board, without you guys, your support, I
009couldn't do what I do. So, thank you all for everything. Um, but yes, uh, first off, security update. So, as we all know, we actually went with a new initiative having armed guards in our buildings um this year. Um currently we have 11 armed guards in the district uh and 81 regular security guards. So, we have two guards at the high school and middle school just for the sheer size of that building for coverage. One at Cedar Road, one at Sawmill, one at Burr, and one at each uh intermediate build, I'm sorry, primary buildings. Um, it's also worth noting that all the armed guards remain outside the buildings at all times unless there's a trained I'm sorry, a scheduled trained operation that might be doing after hours on the weekend, but no guards enter the
010building any times during the day whatsoever. Um, another thing worth noting too is the hours of operation. Um, those are only during um, excuse me, those are only uh happening um, during um, arrival and dismissal. Um, exact times, you know, we won't share those, but obviously each one varies based on the building's opening and closing. Um, and as Dr. Cox mentioned earlier this evening, um, it's this summer is a little different as far as what we did over the summer. It wasn't a big capital and bond project summer besides HVAC upgrades and, um, door jar. It was a lot of in-house projects we did, which I'm very proud to say we able to do those, including this table that, uh, Miss Ever Mr. Vieier completed, which is amazing. Um, I have to, you know, definitely
011give a big shout out to my custodial crew. um they're kind of the unsung heroes of the summer. They're the guys in the trenches every day for two months, you know, cleaning, painting, scrubbing floors. Um as you see there, they're actually painting the uh real life space of the high school. Uh the discovery dens on the bottom left. And you know, I just really want to give them a big thanks for everything they do for us all summer long. Uh flooring upgrades. You know, I've been started uh two or three years ago here and I really want to start improving our floors to start off. So, we have a lot of older VCT tile in our buildings. I want to go to more of an LVT look, which is a more of a resilient floor.
012So, you'll see the wood floors on the top left there. That's actually a teaching center at the middle school. Um, Dr. Larson has a kind of a new way of maybe innovative place. He's going to have like a teaching center there. Also, the Sea House offices, we redid the floors there, too. Um, the Rolling Hills music room, complete new floor there for that facility. Um, and also new gym floors, complete sanding down to Bearwood, rebranding, so the middle school is complete now, the high school is complete. Uh in addition, we did some in-house floor projects. So obviously CMS stage that was complete sand by our in-house team polyurethane it um and also Indian hollow floor completely scuffed that ourselves and polyurethaneed it. I actually had a company come in and give my staff kind of
013a training on how to do that. So now moving forward we start doing that more and more in-house floors scuffing them uh staining them ourselves and again another cost savings for the district for sure. Again, more inside house projects we did. Uh, innovative spaces we call them. So, on the top left there, we have the new faculty lounge at Wood Park. Completely ourselves in house. New cabinetry, countertops, uh, relaminate tables, new kitchenet, uh, new bur student union space. That's kind of conjunction with the uh, Beaver Den over at Sawmill. Um, they have a green room now where they can kind of do voiceover stuff or uh, camera type things with the students and staff. I know uh the principal there is very excited about that. Uh the real life space at the high school that's
014complete. In conjunction with that space, we're actually doing the the room across from that which will be a kitchenet type area that'll be done probably beginning of this fall at some point. Um Burr and Sawmill got completely redone with new cabinetry, uh a see-through window, so when students enter the the nurs's office, they actually can see who's walking into nurses space, which is really exciting for the the nurses there. Um and all discovery dens are complete this summer. So, it's a lot of projects in house that we're doing and the savings, like Dr. Cox said, is just second to none. And we have staff that can do this, which is huge for us here. Some additional security updates. The door jar project throughout the district is now complete. So, the K through five buildings of
015Cedar Road are done. That was done this summer. Uh, in the middle picture there, I actually had some of the the monitors at the buildings come in last week to kind of get a feel for what the system is. so they didn't come off come in and not understand what was going on. So, I had the company installed the uh program for us, do some training for them, which I know they appreciated that. Um, new exterior door upgrades throughout the district. And as always, we're always trying to work with uh Elise Napoleon and her team with camera updates and stuff like that throughout the district. So, we did a lot of those this summer as well. HVAC upgrades. I am very, very happy to report that every common space has AC now. So all auditoriums
016or gyms or cafeterias are completely aced. Um and I have to say talking to a lot of my counterparts throughout Long Island, we are in a very good place for air conditioning. Um many others not where we are. So I'm proud of what we've done the last year or two with that. Um truth be told that rig on the bottom left there was actually at the high school last Monday. Um Miss Mrs. Lienhold had a fresh orientation that Friday and I had to make sure definitely had AC in that space for that freshman orientation and we did get it done. So, I just want to make sure that we did have take care of that. And I know she's laughing behind me, but we good to get it done, right, Miss Leven Holtz? Uh, but
017anyway, the project's uh done. I'm very happy with it. And uh we're in a very good space place. >> I I will say and just add that it's a very different feel walking into the buildings and hearing the students say they're freezing in uh some of these new spaces and that so the ACs are working very well and they're being fine-tuned. >> Yeah, it's it's a it's a good problem to have. It's definitely a good problem to have. uh diamond cutting project. You know, this is actually a project that me and also my maintenance crew leader uh Mr. Trial spearheaded and he's ran with it for me doing a great job. Um so this is as we talked about during the board walkthrough. All these floors were actually wet sanded. It's like a stone that's
018wet sanded down to a fine smooth uh coating and sealed so eliminates any more waxing. the labor of doing this throughout the summer and if you walk into the middle school now it looks like you're walking into like as I call Macy's as kids you know this looks like amazing the floors how resilient they are and I know the staff when they walked in they couldn't believe they thought it was wet um so again another project we're doing throughout the district and I think it's a really good initiative we put forward and we have a turf tank now in comarmac it's not a people look at it go was that a turtle what are we doing out there in the field what's running around there but no this is actually a turf tank and what
019it is is actually an automated field lining uh machine. Um, and I did a lot of demos on it, a lot of thinking about it. You know, like we do in CMAC, we don't jump into anything. There's a few of these in Long Island right now. I did some research and this is the best one on the market. Um, and what it does is literally eliminates hours of manpower lying our fields. You know, like I have in the bottom right there, some of my team being trained on it. And you know, it takes sometimes for a lacrosse field uh four hours to stripe it, line it, where this machine does in 40 minutes. So you can break away, have staff members do other things, and as we all know, the schools run slower now. They're
020busier and busier. So, uh, it really saved a lot of time, uh, a lot of labor cost, and I think it's a great addition to our our team. I tell you, our head of grounds promised made me promise him to never get rid of it. He goes, "Frank, you got to keep this thing. I love this thing." So, um, it's definitely been well worth it for sure. If I could just add, we we got to see some of the demos and it's almost you have sort of this iPad that has like a Google Earth image of the field and then you can drag over the field a soccer field, a lacrosse field that there's so many different templates and then you know you basically set this up on one of the corners of the field
021and >> and and set it to go and it'll line the entire field. It's pretty it's pretty amazing. >> It also does logos too. We can make paw prints with it. even when we have the school pictures, we have the, you know, the big Wood Park WP or we can do that with as well. So, again, the grounds team is uh looking forward to playing with it, you know, doing some fun things. So, it's exciting. And actually, they're looking actually brand it for us. So, we might brand it in gold and black, have a paw print on it, too. So, you know, as we do in Callback, we brand everything. We're going to brand this, too. So, uh it's definitely definitely an added uh bonus to the team for sure. >> And 25 26 capital
022projects. Um, so actually right now those are pumps you see in the top left there, the heating pumps that delivered yesterday to the high school. They're actually being installed right now. So it'll take about a week or two to get those pumps installed and we'll go on to the middle school. Um, but again, it's not those attractive things you see when you pull up to the building, but I guarantee you if there's no heat in the building, we'll hear about it. So we're replacing those pumps in the buildings. Uh, exterior door upgrades. Uh, again, the door jar project throughout the district is complete. and the Smiths Lane boilers. Uh they I was I'm gonna hold off on those until spring. You know, I I definitely like to cross my tees and dot my eyes. And
023I feel like I'd rather wait till spring to put boilers in somewhere. I don't like the idea of maybe putting boilers in in the middle of fall and god forbid there's a little cold spell. So, I'm going to put those off till spring, but they'll be done before the summer of next year. >> And keep your eyes on us. Uh like Dr. Cox said, we have lights coming to the high school. uh school of medicine coming um and also uh awnings at the uh saw mill and bur that at the state level right now. So exciting things to come and I'll update you guys all on those as we get further along. Thank you so much. >> Thank you Mr. Palol. >> This time we'll open it up to the board for any questions >>
024questions comments. >> Is there any mercury? >> Absolutely. And I've already confirmed that we're environmental consulting company. So yes, we're in good place. I know exactly what you mean by that. >> No, I just wanted to uh take a moment and thank everyone for um you know, their foresight and fruition to get that door jar project uh completed. You know, obviously in light of recent incidents in other districts on Long Island, you can see how important of a project that is and for us to already have that in place in all our K through5 buildings is tremendous. So, thank you for that. >> Yeah, Dr. I saw that as well today. So, thank you for mentioning that. Thank you. >> I was just going to say having gone through the walkthrough uh again, it was
025just uh it was a great feel walking through the building, seeing all the upgrades, um the branding, it was really a very special place. So, I can imagine the kids were uh welcomed in a very positive, pleasant way. Yeah. So, thank you. >> Thank you. I appreciate all your support. >> So, next up, our presentation in October is board appreciation. Um we can't tell you what it is because it's a surprise. Um but we'll be working now until then on our uh board appreciation month in October. I look forward to that meeting at which is going to take place at the high school. So make that >> and at this point I'm going to turn it back to you Mr. Hubert. Thank you Mr. Palley. >> Thank you. At this point we're going to move
026into our first public participation. So I'm going to ask Miss Hermer to read the board statement. Okay. Good evening and welcome. We're so glad you're here with us tonight. Your voice matters and we truly appreciate your involvement and interest in our schools. There are two opportunities for public comment during this meeting. The first is for comments related to items listed on tonight's agenda. The second, which takes place at the end of the meeting, is for comments on any general school district matters. If you'd like to speak on an agenda item, please take a white card. If you'd like to speak during general public participation, please take a green card. The district clerk will call speakers by number. When it's your turn, please come to the microphone, say your name, and let us know if you're
027a resident of the district. Each speaker has up to three minutes to speak, and we'll kindly notify you when your time is up. Please direct your comments to the board only. These public comment times are for listening and gathering feedback. We won't be responding in real time, but if a question is raised that requires followup, we'll be sure to get back to you afterward. To maintain a respectful and welcoming environment, please avoid discussing individual students or making personal remarks, positive or negative, about specific staff members. Speakers should remain respectful and avoid being repetitive or disruptive. And lastly, we want to make sure everyone feels heard. So, we ask that comments remain respectful, focused, and not repetitive or disruptive. Thank you again for being here tonight and for your ongoing support of our students and schools.
028>> All right, Miss Verger. >> So, if anyone has a white card, white card number one. Uh, anyone with a white card? Okay. >> Okay, let's move on. Um, we are going to start with I need a motion to approve the minutes from the board of education meeting from August 26, 2025. Can I get a motion? >> Can I get a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. All right. I need a motion to approve the personnel agenda. Can I get a motion? >> Second. >> All those in favor? Hi. >> Yep. And I think we have some new hires here today. >> We do. We have one hire. Uh I haven't seen her yet, but that doesn't mean she's not here. We have one probationary special education teacher that is coming
029on board. Kimberly, are you Oh, there you are. Congratulations, Kimberly. >> Welcome. All right. I'm going to have an ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda items as presented and or amended numbers two through 10. Can I get a motion? >> Motion. >> Okay. Second. All those in favor? >> I uh acknowledge receipt of professional services from Bon Shonik and King PLLC for the month ending July 31st 20. There's none. Yeah. >> Oh. Uh, so acknowledge receipt of professional services from Bon Chonik and King PLLC for the month ending July 31st, 2025 in the amount of $23,21055. Um, and the board of education of the comfree school district should hold its regular meeting on Thursday, October 9th, 2025 at 6 PM at the Com High School, One Scholar Lane, Com New York. It's
030anticipated that the board will make a motion for the purpose of adjourning into executive session at this time. And at 7:30 p.m., the board will reconvene in public session for the purpose of holding its regular business meeting. And at this point, we are going to open up for a second public participation. >> That would be the green card. If anyone has a green card number one, it's okay. You could come up. Anybody else just has a green card? Okay. Hi, my name is Heather Gordon. Um, I have two children in the district, one an eighth grader at CMS and a second grader at Northridge. I get emotional just thinking about the end of the year already. Um I just have a couple of kind of comments and things that I've been hearing from the community
031that I wanted to share like with regard to a couple of things. Um one in the middle school and the high school there seems to be a lot of confusion regarding um you know without being able to access cell phones when is the appropriate time for students to email their parents. How does that work? um and you know what is the procedure? If a parent needs to get in touch with their child, how can they make sure that their child is actually getting the message? There have also been a lot of concerns expressed, for example, with the announcements, you know, at the end of the day if something changes last minute, like how am I supposed to know if I have to pick my child up? So is there any possibility that those types of
032things like oh last minute kickline gets cancelled or something gets canceled or changes to maybe like blast out on parent square so that people are aware of those changes. I know it happened several times last year and my daughter in middle school she doesn't take the bus and it was like oh kickline got cancelled come get me. I'm like I'm not anywhere remotely near home you're going to have to wait for me. Um so that would be helpful. And also with regard to Wittens and the food service, it's kind of an issue every year that the incoming people don't really know how to order and effectively use the app and there's always confusion um within the respective buildings like you know K to five should order on the app. The older children don't have to
033order in the middle school and the high school. And how is the free breakfast working? Does it get delivered to their classroom? Breakfast has to be ordered by one time. the lunches have to be ordered by another time and there's just generally a lot of com confusion in the community on how it works and it would be really helpful if every year Witson's gave us something that we could include in that great packet that's like on the desk when you walk into school especially for like the incoming kindergarters and I know I called Witson's to get some clarification for people that were reaching out to me and I got some answers that weren't accurate and for example they told me that if you had a positive balance on your lunch card, you can use that
034to buy snacks." And I said, "At all the buildings or only the middle school and the high school?" And he said, "No, all the buildings." Some of the buildings went cashless, but some of them didn't. Um, but that's not true. In the primary school, they can only use that for milk or water purchases, not for snacks. So, it would be great if we could just get something, you know, bigger out to the community. And it's helpful at the beginning of every school year just because you know new people that come into the district and again the incoming kindergarteners there's a lot of just a lot of like confusion and it would help tremendously if we had that you know or even like some place on the website where people could go and get it and
035you know see it. So that would be really helpful. >> No thank you Mrs. Gordon. So that was a lot of information and uh I would I would ask um >> if you could email me some of these concerns. I wrote as many as I could while you were >> I know I talk fast. I'm sorry. >> But um I would say if you have any concerns specific to the cell phones, reach out to those buildings directly. Um as for food service, I wrote down just a couple of notes. You know, maybe there's a possibility we put together an FAQ and get it out to the community. Sure. If you can, you know, >> I'll email you. No problem. >> Email me. Then I'll sit down with the team and we'll figure out the best
036way to communicate that out to the community. >> Great. Thank you. And I just want to say back to school has been great. Like my kids are coming home happy and a lot of changes. kind of bittersweet, but everybody's happy. So, thank you. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. >> Green card number two. Anyone have a green card? >> Nope. Nope. Okay. >> You could come up. >> Hi, my name is Mel Poland. I have two children in the district. a second grader at Wood Park. I'm sorry, third grader at Sawmill and a seventh grader at the middle school. I think Mr. Palpoli, I have some questions for you. I just want to know if there was any um I guess conversation about the tennis courts in the middle school or maybe someone else
037should answer. >> Oh, no. if there was any like discussion about like redoing them or just making them a little bit >> so I'll share that that hasn't come up um but it's something we look at in middle school and high school in particular at the tennis courts so if that's a concern you know we'll definitely take a look at the >> I I just know I I played over the summer and like you know just playing around with my friends and you know the courts were a little bit like you know like I mean I don't have children that play tennis but if people that do. I was just wondering I guess no one really was concerned. >> Yeah. So, this is the first time we're hearing it. So, we'll definitely follow up. >>
038And then I guess I'll I'll follow up with that. How about the tennis courts at Wood Park, >> that area that that should be a tennis court? >> Yeah. So, those right now have been closed down just because they're not um they've been closed down for years. They're not um >> they're not safe at at this point right now, and they weren't being used at that point in time. We've had conversations about how we could possibly repurpose them, but there's a significant cost that comes that's associated with that. So, that requires a little bit more planning, long-term planning in terms of how we're going to um fund those things. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Okay. Anyone else have a comment? >> Think we're good. >> We're good. All right. So, at this point,
039I'm going to make a motion to adjourn the meeting. Can I get a motion? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> All right. Thank you all for coming out and have a a great evening. >> Just one minute. If anybody anybody going even here, try to avoid Vets Highway in front of the Candlelight Diner. The uh Vets Highway is closed. There's a a Suffach County PD crime scene in that area. >> So, that whole road is closed. Don't go another way. I'm just trying to save you something.