001Sorry. Are you Good evening everybody. Welcome to our April 10th board of education meeting. Will everyone please rise for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, sir. Thank you. All right. Good evening, everybody. Board Docs is doing some interesting things tonight. Uh now asking me to change my password a second time. So I will start with a roll call starting with my left. I'll do it by name. Mr. Scott Ashin uh assistant superintendent for human resources. Miss Laura Newman, associate superintendent for business and operations. Miss Dana Schultz, board trustee, Dr. Bill Hender, board vice president. Dr. Jordan Cox, superintendent. myself, Steve Hartman, board president. Uh,
002unfortunately, Miss Sumer has a family emergency tonight, so she'll be unable to attend tonight's meeting. We have Mr. Tim Russo, assistant superintendent for instruction instruction and curriculum. Miss Maril Harvey, district council, and Miss Debbie Vera, district clerk. With that, I'm going to turn over to Dr. Cox for our student recognition. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to our April 10th board of education meeting. So, a couple of agenda items that we have tonight. We will be recognizing some of our students who are in our audience. We have a couple of policy updates. Uh we're going to share with you our budget proposal. We've made this presentation a few times, but we're going to make it again this evening. Mrs. Newman will take the lead on that. And then we have a couple committee updates. So, without further
003ado, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Russo to kick off our student awards. Thank you, Dr. Cox. Thank you everybody for being here. Uh, one of the most fun things we get to do, especially as we get towards the end of the year, is begin to recognize all the incredible work that our students do and and the support of faculty that works with them. So, at this time, I want to ask Dr. Cenello if she could um present our awards for our legislative advocacy group that we have here tonight. Thank you, Mr. Russo. I'm also going to ask Mr. Baji, my amazing co-chairperson to join me. Um, as you know, legislative advocacy is a group of students that travel uh every single year up to Albany to advocate at both the state capital
004as well as the state education department. This year was truly exceptional. Um, it was probably the first time in our experience where both groups of people were really interested in what we were doing and asked a tremendous amount of questions that I don't necessarily know any of us were prepared for. Um, but the students were amazing. Uh, we meet so often and I would be remiss if we didn't thank so many of the staff members that helped us along the way. Um, of course um, Mr. Hartman, Dr. Cox, and Mr. Russo for supporting us through this. um Miss Curtio, Dr. Inforna, Miss Longo, Mr. Mali, Mr. Meyers, Miss Princiata, uh who are uh on the committee with us who support our students each and every week. And I just wanted to send a special thank
005you to um Brian Frank and Frank Palipolei for meeting with some of our students who worked on uh security and facilities. So, thank you so much to them as well. Uh these students are absolutely amazing and we're we're really really proud of them. So, without further ado, uh Mr. Dr. Baji is going to call all of our students, many whom not could not be here tonight because they're amazing and do so many things that they're at a bunch of other events as well. Um, but we're proud of all of them. So, we will recognize all of them this evening. Uh, as Dr. Senell said, we'll read all the names. Um, those that are here, please come on up. Uh Aiden Bart, Pricia Chada, Ashlin Ki, Grace Demacopoulos, Alishba Farz, Cassidy Gil, Kenneth Halverson, Alisa Khan,
006Alexandra Martin, Alexandra Mitnik, Forest Meyer, Michelle Okanakwix, I always say that wrong. Sorry. Michael Patritzo, Natalie Pasani, Mahek Sahonyi, Noah Sokal, Ethan Strime, Kevin Suzinski, Luke theer, and Michael Wagner, our representatives from legislative advocacy. Get a picture. Invite the board up. Hey, Michael. How are you? Thank you so much. Congratulations. [Applause] Um before I hand the microphone over, I we just wanted to announce one more awesome uh thing that's going on with legislative advocacy. Uh because of our advocacy work, uh we had a few students that were invited to represent Comarmac Schools um to be on Spotlight on Long Island Schools, which is a weekend radio show. Uh so that episode will air featuring some of our students on May 10th at 10:30 a.m. It is on the actual radio. It is not a podcast.
007Uh but we will be sending out the link after the airing of that. Um it's on 1039 FM on the radio. Uh so we're really proud of the work that they've done and we just wanted to congratulate them all for everything. So uh I am going to hand the mic over to Dr. Joanne Fenessy to present the next set of awards. [Applause] Good evening. It is my great pleasure to recognize two outstanding young scholars whose achievements on the American Mathematics Competition truly set them apart. Founded in 1950, the AMC has become one of the most prestigious mathematics competitions in the world. Today, more than 300,000 students from all 50 states and over 30 countries participate annually, using the experience to build confidence, deepen their problemsolving skills, and fuel their passion for mathematics. Eastston Wang, an
008outstanding eighth grade student, has achieved a remarkable distinction by scoring in the top 5% of all participants on the American Mathematics Competition 8. His math teacher, Mr. Turosini, praised his achievement, saying, "En is an exceptionally intelligent young man whose academic ability and work ethic set him apart from his peers. He possesses a natural aptitude for mathematics and his analytical and problem solving skills consistently place him ahead of the curve. There's no doubt he is destined for a bright future. We are incredibly proud to celebrate his achievement and eagerly look forward to the mathematical heights he will reach next. Congratulations, Easton. [Applause] Do you want to take a picture first? Yeah. Come on. You go first. Congratulations. Congratulations. [Applause] Senior Edwin G has earned a place among the top 5% of all participants on the AMC
00912, qualifying him to participate in the American Invitational Mathematics Exam or Amy. It's an elite challenge and exam featuring 15 open-ended questions to be completed within 3 hours. Needless to say, Edwin made the most of every minute and performed well. Miss Palanis shared high praise for Edwin, stating, "Edwin has been part of our enriched and IBM math programs for the past two years, consistently taken the most advanced courses CHS has to offer. He is our top math student and brings valuable insights to every problem discussion and discovery. As a member of the varsity math team since freshman year, Edwin has often competed on the A team and frequently emerged as the highest scorer. He is also a member of the math honor society. He's a humble mathematician, always eager for a challenge and ready to
010support his classmates. I had the pleasure of watching Edwin today compete in the first ever Math Honor Society Math Decathon, and he won first prize. No surprise there. These achievements reflect Edwin's remarkable work ethic, intellectual curiosity, and passion for math. We are incredibly proud of all that Edwin has accomplished and can't wait to see what the future holds as you study computer science at NYU. Congratulations, Edwin. Your dedication and humility inspire us [Applause] all. Congratulations. [Applause] Good evening. I am Laura Longo, the science director, and I'm here to acknowledge some outstanding students in our science research program. Um, not all of them are able to attend tonight. Um, they are just so busy. Um, but I am so proud of every single one of our students. They work tremendous hours. They um do so much
011research. Their skill level is just extraordinary. I know that every time that they work and they present and they practice, they put in so much effort and they probably have a lot of pressure and anxiety. However, they don't have as much anxiety as every time I have to stand here and read the titles of their projects. So bear with me. Um we have Mahek Sonni. She did a project on characterizing the secretion signal in the C terminus of Francila Tul. Hold on. Tula Tula Lorenis FTL 1123 insights for type one secretion and therapeutics. MC I know you're here. Michael Petrizo did his project on advancing psychotherapy, harnessing training for psychotherapists. Michael Liza Zelkin did her project on the antimicrobial effects of uniquely coated sutures on stylus epiderm epidermis. Are you here? [Applause] Eliza Seth Schwarz
012um did his work on the effects of epinephrine on early onset Parkinson's disease in Drosophila melan melanogaster I would like to also acknowledge the students who are unable to attend tonight but have done fantastic worksh Shauna Chhattahadi Bacherara um and Shiovani Mufukumar um as well as Michelle Okonowix. Thank you. There's a few of them. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. [Applause] Is that it for the awards? Yeah. on the policy. But I want to say one more thing. I just want to say again on behalf of the board again congratulations to all the students out there but also big round of applause. And I said this for all the years that have been here. Also goes to some of the parents. So to all the parents out there please stand up so you can recognize for all the
013hard work you put in for all these kids out there day in and day out. you know, you blink an eye, they're in kindergarten, before you know it, they're off to college. So, again, congratulations, such raising such fine children, and thank you for, you know, being part of the com school district itself. So, I'll turn it back over to Dr. Cox. So, as much as I know the students want to stick around for our policy update, um I know that this is a busy time of year. Um, and I'm sure you have plenty of homework to do and studying to take care of. So, at this time, if you would like to leave, um, we're going to let you, um, exit gracefully while we continue on with our presentation. As much as policy is going
014to be exhilarating, always exhilarating like the thunderbolts. Mhm. You good, Mike? All right. Good evening everybody. It is my pleasure to be your policy MC this evening, although the crowd has decreased by like 80%. Um so with that said, um there's three parts to tonight's policy update. Um we're going to do the first two parts uh within one slide and then we will move on to the larger part which is part three, our annual audit of the 7,000 and 8,000 series. So with the first two parts, um what you're looking at on the on the screen is essentially three different categories of changes. Um for these three, I will speak a little to each three, although it's not my intent in the further slides to speak on every policy. Um but I do want to
015point out on the first uh or lefthand side of the screen, um there's a series of policies there that all follow a thematic change um to what we're recommending to the board. So those policies listed there are around the idea that we are identifying a specific position if an employee wants to report a uh complaint of harassment discrimination to a specific position. for example, assistant uh superintendent for human resources. Rather than just saying supervisor, this is a clarifying tactic within the policy. In the middle column is our table of organization. Um last board meeting uh the executive director of instructional technology shifted to executive director of innovation and technology. So we're looking to update our table of organization. And then very exciting um the last one or the the third here in this one is
016the new policy related to students as board members. So, this is a new policy, one that COMAC currently does not have, but yet we're looking to adopt uh to govern our actions related to the associated uh law in which a student will serve as an exeicial member of the board of education uh which means there are certain things they can and cannot do which is out outlined in the policy as well as eligibility, terms and uh criteria for um uh applying if you will. So, those are three um different sets of policies updates. I'll pause maybe just for a second Dr. Cox and Mr. Hartman on just those three if there's any questions and then move on to the next series. Can you just give a little education Dr. For again regarding the student like
017how that's going to work at least for the because that person will be serving as part of the board in July. So just give a brief overview because there will be then an additional member here at the table starting in July. So the public needs to be aware of that. Correct. So it is an annual term for the student as a board member. um a student uh who rather I should say our guidance counselors at the high school will each recommend one student that will then be presented to the high school principal. Uh the high school principal will chair a committee who will interview these students. Uh from there one um individual will be presented to the board for recommendation and that individual will serve excitingly this year as the first COMAC student as a
018board member in which they will be able to act on an advisory capacity. um cannot vote um you know cannot do some other things but essentially they're there to advise the board from very important perspective our student groups right and they're not part of like executive sessions correct like is as Dr. Forner said they're they're not a voting member but they're they're basically participating in the board conversations certainly you know as we get into different budget season different parts of the curriculum certainly Dr. Cox will be working you know with Mr. slip and holes to kind of get them in tune of what goes on as part of the board meeting. So, it's an exciting exciting time for COMAC to have a student representative because, as you know, we're doing this all for the students.
019So, it's a uh it'll be very interesting starting in July to see that person be part of the board. Yeah, we're looking forward to this. I think they're going to be a big part of helping to develop our admin report that we typically have over the course of the year. Um they'll be touching base with uh different administrators throughout the district to provide updates on what's going on. Um and they'll get a feel for what it's like to to be a part of a board. um uh unit. So looking forward to it as well. Absolutely. Y All right. Thank you, Dr. Ford. You're welcome. So the third and final part tonight is part of our continuing annual audit. Um just as a quick recap, policy book was redone in 2019. It's been our charge ever
020since to keep it as updated as possible. Um we do have a number of ways that we do that. Um and tonight we're looking at the 7,000 and 8,000 series. Uh we've already completed phase 1 and phase two, which was essentially the rest of the book. Um, so this is the final phase for those two series. And as we've done in the past, I'll kind of just again give a brief overview of some. Um, so the policies you'll see here as an example, you can see in the green and purple letters whether it's a revision or it's a rewrite. You can also tell in future slides if it's new. You can see here whether or not the policy is legally required or not and whether or not COC has that policy. uh just as an
021example um you know comprehensive student attendance there's some language added to the uh as the state definition of chronic absenteeism is included when you look at student records um we're really doing a great job of keeping our book clean and we're removing a comp a repetitive paragraph that lives in a different policy um here are a couple of others I'll just point out in the sports and athletic program it addresses the um sudden cardiac arrest prevention act which um certainly provides some uh guidance to the district on how to support children who may have had sudden cardiac arrest, god forbid. Um here are four other policies, whether it's dealing with student voter registration that has some revisions or revisions to child abuse and malreat and maltreatment and who's responsible for reporting um such things if
022they're observed. And that would be it for the 7,000 series. And then in our 8,000 series, oh fast 8,000 series, uh it's two new policies. Uh we are adding a policy related to instruction for ELLLs. Um that is governed by uh commissioner regulations part 154. However um our population over the years has been growing. Our instruction for ELLs under the leadership of um Mrs. Lascano has been growing and um doing phenomenal for our students. So we are looking to solidify inboard policy our efforts. And there's also a new policy related to home hospital and institutional instruction. We have always had those things here in COMAC. This is just codifying what we do in policy. Um, so that is it for the 7,000 8000 series. Um, if there's any questions from the board, then I will
023end with this guy because I love him. We did it. Um, that is the most cutest kid I've ever seen. Thank you so much. Um, we'll start again in July. So, thank you. Thank you, Dr. Informer. Thank you, Dr. Informer. I know this is a huge undertaking and we're looking forward to starting this back up in just a few months. Yep. So, at this point in the presentation, we're going to switch gears. Uh, we're going to have Mrs. Lumman Newman present uh our 2526 budget proposal, and the board will have an opportunity during board business to adopt uh the budget, the 2526 budget. Mrs. Newman. All right. Well, thank you very much, Dr. Cox, for the introduction. I just want to thank Dr. Infora for clearing out 80% of the room. Perhaps next year we'll
024do budget first and retain all those people. Well, good evening. So, tonight we want to review a little bit about our budget process, where we've been, what that development uh process did look like. We did a number of workshops on uh during the month of March we did two followed up by last week we had our informal uh budget hearing where we again reviewed the entire budget. Um what we can also make sure that everyone who possibly was not able to attend or and has some questions or not sure what was in it those presentations and the slideshows are all on our website. Um the culmination of that is this evening where we've present for the last time the proposed budget to the board of education under board of ed uh the board of education
025is charged with adopting a budget under New York state law that will be tonight on the agenda next steps. You'll all be able to come March on May 8th and see another budget presentation. I know we're excited about that. Um but most importantly on May 20th is our budget vote where we ask the public to please come out and vote. That is the one area of feedback from our residents to certainly the district the board of education if we are succeeding and fulfilling what the district residents want in our educational program. So it's very important and we do ask that please come out and vote. Last year we had an 80% approval rate. Dr. Cox, congratulations. So, of course, above and beyond. We're looking to exceed that. So, please come out and vote. There we
026go. So, quickly to review, our budgettobudget increase is about $6 million next year. To support that, the tax levy increase is proposed at 2.29%, which does not pierce the tax cap. So, we're very happy about that that we're able to provide all the educational programs. When we review what our revenues look like in the state aid category, we are using the governor's budget proposal. Uh the state is mandated to have a state budget in place by April 1st. They missed that mark. We are here still without a state budget. So, we are using the governor's proposal. When the state does pass the budget, more than likely the state aid number will be different than the number that the governor right now they're going through a series of negotiations. We don't know where that will land.
027Historically, districts receive more state aid. If we receive more state aid, what we have proposed is that we would look to put that additional funding to the appropriated fund balance line. I'll point that out. That is the last item on the revenue slide. A number of years ago, the board of education, the superintendent has tasked all of us to try to lower that reliance on the school district. We've been doing that through multi-year fiscal planning. Uh this year, we continue to reduce our reliance. Uh any of the additional state aid that we may see, we would put towards that line. The other areas of increases interest income. We have some students that do not reside in COMAC that attend COMAC programs. We charge tuition to those school districts. So, we generate revenue to offset our
028expenses. We have some increased interest income projections and also leases. We do have some buildings throughout the district that once were school buildings. Now, we rent those out to outside entities. They pay the district rent. All school districts in New York State have to present in the same format. The state calls it a three-part budget. That's exactly what it is. It breaks down the budget into three areas. Um the largest of which, as it should be, is teaching, what happens inside the classroom. The other area is the cost of operating the school district. And then the final area is general administration. And what that allows is any district resident could compare our COMAC school district budget to any other district in the state to see if those numbers uh are in alignment, if they make
029sense, etc. Again, we're looking at a 2.62% budget-to-budget increase of that $6 million. The largest portion of the increase, as it should be, is in the program area. That would be all of the expenses in order to present, teach, and educate our students, followed by the cost of operations. The increase in that area is basically two areas. Number one, uh we had presented previously, the district would have armed guards next year. The cost of that becomes part of the cost of operations. The other piece of the cost of operations will be our final phase of the bond that was passed in 2019 looking to complete those projects. The district will go out and borrow that money. We don't borrow all the money up front. We borrow it as it's going to be spent to keep
030our interest expense as low as possible. Again, just to restate, the tax cap levy increase would be a 2.29%. We are not piercing the cap. The overall budget is 2.62%. What we want to make sure the public understands and we had done much more in-depth presentations throughout the budget development process. They're on our website. But in the 2526 budget is everything programmatically that is within this year's budget. And then we like to say, but wait, there's more. Also included next year are a number of enhancements. The first of which are SEAL enhancements. Many of you were involved in the voting for our COMAC champions. uh the 10 learner profiles that is going to be incorporated on a K12 basis. So an incoming kindergarten student will start hearing the same words, the same characteristics that they
031will hear all the way throughout their 13-year career as a senior. So we're excited about that. We have our real life spaces. We talked about the discovery dens in all of our primary schools and also our likes life skills suite at comarmac high school that will give many of our students opportunities that would be outside of school again that was done thank you Mr. Palpoli by our in-house maintenance uh team financial fluency our Bloomberg lab at the high school one of Dr. Cox's uh innovations is to make sure that when a student graduates from Comic High School that they have financial literacy that they understand credit cards are not free that they understand the importance of retirement savings start with your first job many of those items Cedar Road we're upgrading the PA system there
032uh very big one stadium lights we did do a presentation so anyone who is interested Please go back and see uh the presentation on that. We are talking about the high school turf field. This has been talked about in our community for a number of years. Again, in com we try to do things very purposefully, very thoughtfully. The technology of stadium lighting has changed and come a long way. Right now, the capability for LED dimmable dimmable lighting now exists. What that means, again, we want to be good neighbors to all of our residents, but stadium lighting is now extremely limited to lighting up only the area that you want lit up. It does not suddenly light up the two acres surrounding you. So, that's very important. Our facility upgrades at the intermediate schools at Burn
033Sawmill, any parent who has had to go there when it's raining or snowing, very little area for shelter. Uh there is awesome renderings also in our previous presentations of what that would look like or could look like. Um so we're very excited about that. And at Mary and Carl Farm, we had piloted agricultural program this year. Next year we're looking to roll that out to more students and utilize that property. We like to say how many school districts can boast that we own a farm. So that's been exciting. Again, as I mentioned in the three-part budget slide, armed guards, the school district uh did perform an RFP, we had five proposals. Those were narrowed down, interviewed by the board, and we made a presentation to the public on that. The Dora jar security upgrades. We
034currently at the secondary level, com middle school, com high school have that system in place. Many of you have seen the monitors that our security team looks at. Everything is green when doors are locked, pops red if a door opens, allowing our security team to immediately inquire and to find out as to is it closing within a few seconds, is it a door that never should be open and to send someone right away. Uh we're also refreshing our touchable Chromebooks for our students and then also many of our desktop computers. Uh Windows 10 will no longer be supported next year by Microsoft. I guess that's planned obsolescence like our iPhones. So we will be doing that replacement as well. So again there is a lot for everyone in this budget. Uh we are concluding the
035budget workshop and uh budget development process this evening. The board hopefully will be adopting the proposed budget, but you'll get to see it again on May 8th. And just to remind everybody on May 20th to please come out and vote. And with that, for the 14th time, if the board has any questions, we would be happy to answer them. Can you spell budget backwards? Ouch. Thank you, Mrs. Newman, for the hard work. We know that uh March and April are your favorite time of year putting all this together and wonderful. Exactly. So, we know it's been a lot of good work and es especially to the audience listening um certainly watching some of the older videos has a lot of the content which we kind of shorted for everyone tonight. We didn't want to give
036people another hourong presentation of all the things we've done and highlights which is spectacular but certainly uh all great and wonderful things. So, thank you. Yeah, I just wanted to take a moment also to thank Mrs. Newman, all of our administrators, and everyone who helped participate in creating this budget. Um, you know, we talk a lot about responsible and purposeful, and this budget definitely accomplishes that. Um, we do, from what I understand, Mrs. Newman have one of the lowest tax rates that um will be in out of our surrounding districts. While many districts are uh either excessing staff, closing schools, or there's talk of neighboring districts even piercing the cap at 4%, we're at a very responsible 2.29. So, uh thank you for that. And um you know, the other piece is our budget is
037on time. uh unlike the state which we're still waiting for uh we are responsible to have that budget done and uh we have done so and uh done so well so thank you thank you clicker Mrs. Okay. So, if there are no further questions, we're going to move on to a couple of our committee updates. First being the legislative advocacy committee with some great pictures from the students up in Albany advocating on behalf of our programs. Mr. Hartman. Yes. Thank you, Dr. Cox. So again, we thank all the administrators, everyone who helped put this event together, and it was certainly a great event meeting with Senator Mata, Assemblywoman Brown, and Assemblywoman Fitzpatrick. I think this year the students got an earful on what was going on in Albany, which I think was really important to
038them. Um, they got to hear unfiltered views of what's going on and they got to understand and advocate for COMAC, um, you know, to those different groups. Um, as well as talking to Dr. Alison and the assistant commissioner Alvarez and uh that was a great education there probably 40 of their staff in there in there basically having these conversations. Um I did love the fact that they put them some of them on the spot and asked them some very pointed questions which which again they answered very well and did a wonderful job and certainly was a good experience and a good another highlight for COMAC of what we do and put together and how our students really rise and go above and beyond. So, um, certainly looking forward to listening to them on the radio
039station and certainly again each year. Thank you to everyone who kind of puts this together and organizes it. It's a great part of the com what makes us so proud. Thank you, Mr. Hartman. Next up, our update on our technology steering committee. Okay, so I'm not as loud as Elise, but I will give it a whirl. Um we had our uh last meeting on the 2nd. It was our last in-person meeting. All the subcommittees came together. I'm really proud of this work um that was done in the first year. I think we accomplished a lot. There were some really good conversations. There were some grants we're waiting to hear back on. um looking to enhance the features in Parent Square, hopefully with some absent um the ability to record um an absentee from your phone,
040which is good for the people who forget every time, not me. And um uh we are piloting a couple of coding programs for the primary students. So that's really exciting to get them started in coding and uh working on some resources for teachers for different ways to differentiate for all the students. So all of that work happened this year and we are going to um come back together in the fall. So if you'd like to join us next year, please feel free reach out to um Miss Pium. And that's it. Thank you so much for the update. And I think Mr. Russo is going to give us an update on the multicultural festival which just was this past uh weekend. Yeah, it was amazing this weekend. Thank you to everybody that came out throughout the
041community. Um thank you especially to uh Miss Lano and Miss Denzo just for their leadership. Um, you know, this is something that has has has really transformed over the last couple of years and to see it this uh this past weekend. Um, over 100 student volunteers that were there to help us out and that really is is what's being done at the high school to to get those students to be a part of it and the excitement that students have and uh the ongoing ideas they have. One of the things that we did this year was um they they provided our students that were at each table an opportunity to offer some insight about what else could be different or what's better for next year. And they gave us a ton of great ideas already.
042So, uh, I love the fact that our students are not just involved now, but looking at ways that we can always, uh, look to improve. So, really proud of the work that's being done there and and it was unbelievable to see the the community come out and come together there. And, uh, just really for for a fantastic day. So, thank you all. Thank you for all the work. Dr. Larson and the middle school team, thank you for for your building. Uh, to the high school admin, thank you for helping us get those students organized whenever you could. Um, we really do appreciate it and it was, like I said, a wonderful, wonderful day. So, thank you, Mr. Russo. So that concludes our budget presentation and committee reports. Our next meeting will be in May which
043uh on May 8th which we have our regular scheduled board of education meeting and our budget hearing. Back to you Mr. Hartman. Thank you Dr. Cox. With that we'll return to our regular agenda and we will start with Dr. Hender reading the board of education statement. Thank you Mr. Hartman. Our board meeting has two opportunities for public comment. one where the public can comment on specific agenda items only and one at the end of the meeting where the public can comment on other school district matters. Please take a white card if you have a question on specific agenda items and a green card if you have comments during public participation on other school matters. Comments must be no longer than 3 minutes. The district clerk will call each person up by a number. We are
044monitoring the time and we'll let speakers know when their time is completed. When called up to the microphone, please take please state your name and whether you are a district resident. Please only speak to the board directly. The board appreciates the community's feedback. The these commentary periods are not times for public debate or for answering specific questions where a direct answer cannot be provided. We will make a note of any questions where the answer is not known and provide a response as soon as possible to the person asking the question. Public comment does not allow for positive or negative statements about a specific employee as it relates to his or her job performance. Any matters related to specific students will not be discussed. The president shall terminate the right of any speaker if they are
045overly lengthy, repetitive, disruptive, disrespectful to anyone andor offensive as well as if the public becomes unruly and lacks respect for others. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Hender. I'll turn it over to the district clerk to start the comments on specific agenda items only. Okay, this is the white card. If you have the white card number one, please come up. You're going to pick them up. Thank you. For the opportunity for a high school student to be a board member, do you think there's a opportunity for a intermediate school student to be a board member? That's a great question. I think that right now the ex official or the student board member is scheduled to be a senior, but I'm sure we can arrange um some meetings even at the elementary schools to get feedback from
046our elementary students if you would like to share. All right. Thank you. Um yeah, my name is Max and I am a um resident. Max, what school, Max, what school do you go to? I go to Saw at Saw. Yeah. All right. Third grade. Third grade. Thank you, Max. Thank you, Max. And great job. [Applause] You don't have a question. Okay, so white card. There's no number two. Uh, number [Music] three. Please state your name. Uh, Seth Schwarz. Uh, so I'll just be following up on what Max said, I guess, with the student exeicio tw uh 1211. So, my name is Seth Schwarz and I'm currently a sophomore at Com High School. So, my first question is I know you guys are leaning towards seniors, but do you think there'll be like any availability for
047underassmen or juniors? Um, at this point, uh, we looking at one student board member who would be a senior, but you know, it seems like there's quite an interest in students participating in this. So, we'll we will find avenues for you to be able to contribute. Even if it means um setting up appointments with the senior student board member for you to be able to share things that you would like to see shared out or if you would like maybe we can set something up for the student board member at the high school to go back and meet with high school students, even if they're underassmen, to share and just to get feedback on that process. It's going to be new for us here in Comarmac. Um but you bring some great ideas to the
048table. So, thank you so much for sharing. All right. And then uh once like I get to the age of being a senior, do you know how the application process will work? Sure. So it's part of the guidance department is looking at students who are interested in becoming student board members. So they will recommend a number of students through an interview process at the high school. The high school administration will meet with those students and then they will recommend somebody uh to meet with the cab and eventually that student will get to meet with the board. All right. And like is there any way to like confirm interest in that or is it just like they handpicked? If you're if this is something that you're interested, I'm sure that the high school is going to
049advertise this for students who are interested in becoming student board members. Thank you so much. Oh, you're welcome. Great job. Thank you. [Applause] Nice to see the students coming advocating for themselves in front of the microphone. Right. Love it. So, thank you both for coming out tonight and talking. Uh, white card number four. White card number five. Oh, that's it. Okay. Thank you, Miss Miss Verger. So, with that, I'm going to continue onward. Uh, we do not have any correspondence to this from this board meeting, so there's none to acknowledge. Yeah, there it says it says nothing here. Mine says blank. Mine's blank. It says correspondence of nothing. Okay. So, I'm acknowledging the correspondence of something that the board president can't observe on his board docs. So, there's elite unless you have Yeah, you might
050have the public agenda. Maybe my public agenda. Maybe switch over to public agenda. So, I got it. So, thank you. Okay. You good? I'm good. I'm good. I think there's a boardog glitch. This is what happens when Elise isn't here. So, this is the curse of Elise. That's it. She's around here somewhere. Her mojo. She's watching. She's watching from afar. So, apologize from the audience. So, Well, I don't want to talk. Okay. Thank you. All right. Let's go on to Let's go on to our donation section. So, a motion to adopt resolutions to accept the following donations as listed. One from the CHSN class of 1974, one from Mr. Chris Galuso, and one from the from the SOS Awareness Foundation Incorporated. Could I get a motion, please? Motion. Can I get a second? Any discussion?
051All in favor? I I motion carried. Can I get an approval for the minutes from the March 6th, 2025 board of education meeting, the March 27th, 2025, and the April 3rd special meetings? Can I get a motion? I get a second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I I motion carried. I get a motion to approve the personnel agenda. Motion. I get a second. Second. Okay, in the audience we have Gabrielle Puro in social studies. Can you stand up? Congratulations. All in favor? I I motion carried. Can I get a motion to approve consent agenda items as presented and or amended numbers 2 through 21? I get a second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I I motion carried. There is no legal consent agenda items and then I'll be moving on to items removed
052from the consent agenda. Be resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. The board of education approves the first reading of policy revisions of policy 3420 non-discrimination and anti-harassment in this district. Policy 3421, Title 9 and Sex Discrimination. Policy 6121, sexual harassment in the workplace. Policy 6190, Workplace Violence Prevention Policy. Policy 6550, dignity for all students. And policy 4211, Organizational Structure. Also the revisions for the annual audit 7,000 series students series their students and series and 8,000 series instruction and new policy number 1211 student as the official exofficial member of the board be further resolved that the board wave the second reading and move to adopt these policies tonight. Can I get a motion? Motion. First second. Any discussion? All in favor? I I motion carried. Second item move for consent agenda. Be it
053resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. The board of ed education approves the proposed 2025 2026 school district budget. Can I get a motion? Motion. Can I get a second? Second. All in favor? I I motion carried. I'm going to acknowledge services from the from Bon Shook and King for the month ending February 28th, 2025. I'm going to acknowledge receipt of the February 2025 financial reports as listed below. Acknowledge receipt of the internal claim orders monthly update. Acknowledge the receipt of the committee on special education dates as listed as well as I will acknowledge the receipt of the committee on preschool education dates as listed. The board of education shall hold a special meeting on Tuesday, August 22nd, 2025 at at 5:00 PM at the Hubs Administration building 480 Clay Pitz Road for
054the purposes of voting on the Western Suffach Bosey's annual budget and for the Boseies trustees. The board of education shall hold its regular meeting board hearing on Thursday, May 8th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. at the Hubs Administration building, 480 Clay Pitz Road, East Northport, New York. As anticipated, the board will make make a motion for the purpose of a journey into executive session at this time. And at 8:00 p.m., the board will reconvene in the public session for discuss for the purposes of holding its regular business meeting and budget hearing. God bless you. I think someone's trying to see if I was paying attention. There you go. So, with that, turning back over to the district clerk for um green cards. Go for it. For public participation number one. Okay, please state your name. Thank
055you. Hi, good evening. I'm Sharon Penn. I'm a resident of Comarmac with the fourth kid finishing up in two months and three days, I think. Um, I wanted to say that I was at the multicultural festival on Saturday and when I walked in, I was just taken by the blast of color, music, sound, welcoming faces. um completely beyond what I expected. Many more tables than last year, much more participation. The staff had t-shirts on so we knew who exactly was a part of I think the t-shirts were new with the multicultural symbol on it. Um the number of tables and cultures represented was wonderful. um I ate too many candy sushi. But um what really was remarkable is to walk over with my son to the Muslim culture table and to see Jewish kids having
056henna of Jewish stars of David applied to their hands, which is a Jewish cultural symbol. And then you walk over to the Hebrew culture club table and you watch a kid with a Muslim head covering decorate a hamsa which is culturally embedded in both Jewish and Islamic cultures. And to see that cross of cultures was just wonderful. I left with feeling of warmth. And I said to myself, I didn't leave a multicultural festival. I left an intercultural festival and that's how you build cultures and bridges by crossing cultures, crossing borders and I just hope that the two I Lazero I think was the the two names of the two teachers who are in charge of it. I hope they expand on it and I hope there's even more music and dance and culture next year.
057Thank you. Thank you so much. [Music] Okay. Green card number two. Uh number three. Any other green cards? Okay. Thank you very much, Miss Ferg. Um I felt tonight was an appropriate night. I got to put something out to the community. So, I wanted to uh I put a letter together that I wanted the public to know, especially with our board meetings and other things coming up. So put this together and I want to read it to the community. So tonight is a very bittersweet meeting for me. I stand before you to let you know that I will not be seeking reelection as the trustee for the com board of education. As the board of leader for many years has been my greatest honor to serve here. It has been a journey filled with challenges,
058learning, and most importantly hope. Hope in our schools, hope our teachers, and most of all hope for our community. When I first joined the board back in 2013, the district was at a very crucial juncture. Our fiscal situation was dire. We were letting teachers go. Our school program had very limited opportunities for our students. I never would imagine how deeply I would come to care for every decision we made, every policy we reviewed, every budget we approved, every late night meeting we did for one reason or another to give our students the best possible chance to succeed. Today, we are the COMAC champions. We have numerous opportunities from K through 12. We have a very strong fiscal plan and continue to grow our programs on a yearly basis. I want to thank all my fellow
059board members for all the collaboration, their wisdom, and the unwaving commitment to our schools. We're all guided by the same goal. To all our educators, staff, and administrators, a very big thank you. You are the heart and soul of our district. You show up every day with compassion, strength, and a belief in the power of education. and that inspires me dearly and endlessly. And to the parents and community members, thank you for trusting in me. Thank you for pushing me to be better, to think harder, and to listen more. Your voices have shaped the direction of our schools in a way that matters deeply. And last, to our students, you are why we do this. Your resilience, your creativity reminds us of what is possible. Watching you grow has been the most rewarding part of
060this role. Though I'm retiring from the board, I always will be an advocate. I will be supporter and I always believe in the power of great of the great public school we have here. I am hopeful that whatever county can replace me stays focused on the three pillars of foundation of a board member. One, fiscal responsibility. As you can see, the budget is the most crucial part of our of what we do here. Policym and lastly, advocacy for public education. They need to have passion for this role and serve it that serves the whole district. Again, thank you for allowing me to serve for these 12 years. It has been my honor and [Applause] privilege. Thank you again. And with that, I'll have a motion to adjourn the meeting. Before you Hey, go ahead. Before
061we adjourn, Mr. Hartman, I just want to, you know, take a moment to acknowledge what you just said. Um, you know, it's been an absolute pleasure serving alongside you for uh the past eight years that I've been on the board. Um, your wisdom, your guidance, um, you know, putting students first has always been at your forefront. Um, and I appreciate all the work that you have done through the years. I'm sure we will have um more fanfare to come in future board meetings. Uh, so I'll save some of that. But um, you know, thank you not only to you for all you've done, but to the Hartman family for allowing um, you know, them to share you with us for the past 12 years in com. Thank you. So TW 12 years is just an
062incredible milestone. Um this is a volunteer position in case those are unaware. This is a volunteer position. Um and there's a lot of late nights and there's a lot that goes on just behind the scenes in terms of keeping the board updated on all the happenings that are happening in the district. And for all the years that I've been here for the I guess about eight years, seven, eight years now, we I've always seen Mr. Hartman that every decision you make is always in the best interest of the children. It's what we believe in. It's what we're here for. And we can't thank you enough for your service to the district. And we'll celebrate this journey as we as we continue through the rest of the school year. Thank you, Dr. Cox. Again, definitely we
063missed definitely a heartfelt decision, but definitely looking forward to, you know, you know, you go out on top, I guess is what they say. Exactly. So, thank you again. So, all right. All right, I'll give you that motion now, Mr. Hartman. Motion. I'll take a second. Any discussion? All in favor? I I. Motion carried. Have a good night, everybody.