001e e e [Music] good good evening everybody Welcome to our Board Shop number two please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance 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 li and justice for all I'm turning over to uh Dr Cox to start our Workshop number two oh Mrs Newman you have the clicker already I was I wanted to give you the uh ready introduction so welcome to our budget Workshop number two we on our agenda this evening we have um we're GNA start with the numbers with Mrs Newman we have miss Ashen who's going to present a little bit on our staffing um for 2526 uh Transportation Mrs Newman will uh cover that piece Securities and Facilities we
002have um Mr paloi and Miss pum is going to close us out with uh an update on technology we have some really exciting things in tonight's presentation budget Workshop number two we're looking forward to it as you know we completed our March 6 2025 budget Workshop number one uh where we presented the superintendent's budget uh the tax cap Levy we spoke a little bit about some of the instructional enhancements that you will see in the 2526 budget we are now going to present on Staffing Transportation facilities security technology and then at the informal budget hearing we sort of um bring everything together um some of the highlights between both presentations of budget Workshop number one and two but at this point I'm going to turn it over to Mrs Newman to start us off all
003right thank you very much Dr Cox so tonight as we go over here um we're looking at a budget increase of just under $6 million with a proposed tax levy that is given an increase of about $3.5 million at a 2.29% increase when we look at our total revenues the largest portion for the school district and that's the case pretty much in New York state would be the tax levy which again was about generates about $3.5 million currently our state aid which is based off of the governor's proposal we would be seeing an increase of about $1.9 million uh we don't know exactly what that number will be uh New York state is supposed to pass a budget on or before April 1st uh we'll see if that actually happens or not but so for
004now we are going with what the governor's budget is we are seeing some other slight increases which basically uh relates to tuition interest leases Etc um we are looking at to decrease our Reliance on our fund balance and reserves by about 2 $50,000 this year um that will bring us down to a cumulative reduction of about two and A5 million over the past few fiscal years that has been part of our uh multi-year planning and our longterm fiscal planning to look to decrease that Reliance over time when we uh look at the breakdown you'll see that the majority is utilizing our appropriated fund balance and targeting some of our reserves that can only be used for the expenses that they relate to so you'll see that that remains fairly flat with our appropriated fund balance
005seeing the overall decrease tonight we'll be taking a look at the three-part budget um every school district in New York state must present in this fashion so that all residents can compare all different school districts within the state and is presented in the same fashion tonight's Focus will be on the programmatic portion of the budget which is as it should be the largest portion of the budget uh we are seeing about a $3 million increase in that area I would point out that that number would have been higher um Bittersweet in that we have a number of retirements uh and as a result of those retirements we were able to balance the budget um much more easily than we would have as much as we hate to see some of our uh seasoned veterans leave
006it does help to alleviate some of the budget constraints that we Face overall we're looking at a tax increase of 2.29% with an Associated budget to- budget increase of 2.62% um as I said tonight we'll be now looking into the programmatic portion and I will hand it over to Mr Ashen who will start with Staffing yes thank you very much Mrs Newman it is Bittersweet that um we do have a lot of retirees um we have over approximately 40 instructional retirees happening this school year um but we are proud to say that the Integrity of our programs remain intact or enhanced which you'll see a little bit later um also although uh our staffing plan may include efficiencies attrition additions and our enhancements the above does remain true taking a look at um our enrollment
007you'll see see the past two years are actual numbers and then from 2526 on through 2930 those are projected numbers based on a study conducted by Western suff bosis you will see over the past couple of years we've had um enrollment reductions by approximately 1.5% we anticipate that those numbers will slow a bit over the coming years but we have seen uh a reduction in enrollment taking a look at our Elementary class sizes um if you take a peek at the left you'll see our do not exceed numbers by grade level so starting in the garden our do not exceed numbers which are not contractual numbers our do not exceed is at 23 and then it goes to 25 26 27 28 and 29 if you look at the column to the right those are
008our projected class sizes uh by grade level so you will notice that all of our projected class sizes fall well below the do not exceed numbers so in kindergarten we are projecting class sizes of 21 when the do not exceed is 23 21 in first grade 23 in 2 grade 25 in third grade 25 in fourth grade and 26 in fifth grade moving on to secondary in comac Middle School you will see overall a slight reduction in enrollment at comac Middle School um on the right hand side the table will show that our contractual maximum case loads are in most cases at 29 students however in physical education it's up to 40 in all of our uh subject areas and also in grade six which is housed at the middle school you will notice that
009we fall well below the contractual maximums at comac high school we see a slight increase um if you take a look that's that's mostly at grade 12 um you'll see again our contractual maximums are at 29 where in physical education it is at 40 and in all of our all scenarios and all subject areas we fall well below the contractual maximum so one of the things that's really important to us here in comac is to make sure that we maintain small class sizes so that we can provide our students with the very best instruction possible in terms of our FTE count um you will see I'll draw your attention to the bottom where in secondary lands we had this year 28.5 FTE uh we anticipate going down um by 1.48 the reason for one of
010those uh reductions in English we have a retirement so we we due to program changes and course enrollments we do not have to fill that retirement in English also I highlighted in yellow um a reason for a reduction in math and an increase in business is we have a math teacher uh who will be teaching in the Bloomberg Finance and most of those courses fall under the business area so although you'll see a reduction in math it's just the shifting of the bodies in in that particular area I will say with um with our staffing program we are not accessing anybody we're doing a great deal of hiring I'd like to thank our administrative team for all the work that they're doing there's a lot of work going on in human resources and a lot
011of work taking place by our administrative team so so we're proud of all of that work in terms of special education we remain flat in terms of our special education teachers um there is an increase of 05 in the area of speech the reason for that increase is due to an additional 811 class over at Northridge that we anticipate coming on so there will be an increased need for speech services at Northridge Primary School um flat in the area of psychology social workers nurses we also have a reduction in teaching assistance um there is no excessing going on we have three retirements for teaching assistance and one individual who resigned due to program changes uh in student IEPs we do not need to replace those positions and same thing for Mida and computer Tas we
012anticipate remaining flat and now I will turn it back over to Mrs Newman for transportation I know any uh parents who have ever tried to arrange for car pools for their own children know how uh strategic and difficult that can be so uh we're always very proud of our comac staff uh the transportation office is uh maintained and manned by our transportation coordinator Amanda cavana uh an office assistant Mary Puglia and a part-time uh clerical assistant Susan Holbrook we have 129 uh Vans and buses in our Fleet and we contract with two different uh bus companies for those Services uh we trans transport over 5,000 students morning and afternoon uh that also uh in addition to that I should say includes field trips athletic practices athletic games out of District programs such as Wilson Tech
013uh internships and much much more uh we had 448 field trips last year alone all that is done by our transportation staff and Fleet the total budget for transportation is about $16 million uh we do generate Transportation Aid that is based upon the efficiencies of our routing system uh once every 3 years we have to submit data to the State education department uh which they then go through to make sure that we are running as efficiently as we can uh if they find that they're not they will reduce your transportation Aid ratio right now the governor's uh projections would generate about $6.3 million in transportation Aid with that I will hand it over to Mr palopoli to review our facilities and security departments thank you Miss Newman I appreciate it it's my pleasure to present
014this evening for facilities and security fix this maybe all right so right at the gate I like to show everybody kind of the projects we have planned for this upcoming summer they already pre-approved um we have the boilers at UCP Lane um those are probably original boilers to the district they're oldest ones we probably have here and conversation I've had leading up to this with Dr Cox Mrs Newman is kind of investing in our infrastructure um you know these buildings I've said before about 60 70 years old and it's time to start investing in in things like this of course you know these aren't the nice warm and fuzzy things we see with stadiums and and and turf this and that which we all love and I love it personally too but it's time to
015start investing in some of these other items as well so it's creating that balance between the two we're trying to work on including of that is high school middle school heating supply pumps again something we don't see but something we definitely will feel in the winter time if you don't have them running properly we will get some phone calls about that so we're trying to avoid that in the future as you can see a lot of those original to the building my staff has maintained a lot of those along the way um but it's at that time we to start investing in these pumps throughout the district um we're doing some door placing throughout the district the ones that more problematic as you can see there that's a set of doors at one of the
016buildings that's rotted at the bottom so we're taking time uh look reviewing all this and replacing doors as we go um not all of them but piece by piece we'll start replacing all of them down the road Cedar Road PA system um that Pro program is growing we've done a lot of work at that building um but you know with the summer programs they have there um they do have a PA system in place but we want to update it for the staff there so have better communication with the students and staff that are going there currently districtwide hbac we're getting very close um we have a few unites left we have two units three units at the high school and two at Burr and Sawmill so we're starting the week after April break I'll
017be kicking off that work over at the high school and we'll be finishing probably early uh uh summer so I'm excited to get that done I know the teachers and the faculty are excited about it as finishing that and we're getting very very close so I'm happy about that transfer to Capital yeah so I just want to touch I just want to speak specifically to transfer to Capital because this is a very specific budget line that can only be used for capital projects so transfer to Capital line cannot be used for salaries and things of that nature um just to give you an example we it we've been very strategic with developing a transfer to capital budget line um if you remember last year we used this Capital um money to pay for primary playgrounds
018um this year we invested heavily in infrastructure uh we looked at the building condition survey Mr palip had uh presented to the board earlier in the year it was one of those things where our architect comes in and they basically point out every single thing in the entire District at every one of your buildings that you need to improve so you can imagine if somebody came to your house and pointed out all the things in your entire house that need to be replaced over the next five years and then they turn around and they say that's cost would be if you were to do it right now 155 million after you fall out of your chair and pick yourself back up about what those costs are um you come up with a priority list because
019some of them you know don't need to be done in the first few years and sometimes it they can be spread out over the course of the years but transfer to Capital um is a very specific again budget line for capital projects one of the other things that's really important to note is that when I say we're strategic in creating a transfer to capitals because we are able to do a lot of these projects infrastructure whether it's playgrounds or possibly um we're going to talk a little about awnings I'm not trying to steal you thunder Mr or Stadium lights um things of that nature but they um they actually um generate Aid as well so we have the ability to um to submit to the state through the office of facilities planning the the ability
020to get Aid back and that Aid is to the tune of somewhere around 60 some 66% 64% sorry um 64% back so if you can imagine there's a million dollar project you know we're getting over $600,000 back in aid over time that is you know incredible um the other piece being strategic is the ability to not borrow money go out for a bond we're able to do these projects inhouse without paying interest on these on loans so the transfer to Capital is a critically important um budget line to be able to not only update our infrastructure but to improve some of the Aesthetics of our buildings so at that point I'm going to turn it over back over to Mr palopo because I feel like it's important to understand absolutely you know that transfer to
021Capital is definitely very specific on what you can spend that on agreed thank you for that uh so with that said I'll show you what we're proposing for this uh year with transfer to Capital um I think the slide speaks for itself um you know I was very excited when I saw this and again this is artist rendering this isn't our actual Stadium but we did actually have our logos on there shows comac cougars and what it could look like um again you know the first thing being said is that we'll be very conscious of the community and neighbors around the area luckily you know nothing we do in comac is knee-jerk so we kind of wait for the technology to come around and which it has now for lighting so it's directional lighting so
022as you can see there behind some of the bleachers it's basically dark behind the bleachers there when you go a few feet forward of the bleachers it's light and they basically they rate all this off foot candles um so fortunately now we have lighting where you can really utilize it just for your your spaces that you want lit um also they're diable they're programmable uh so for maybe track lighting for the community maybe for Youth Sports um and when I saw this I was telling Dr Cox Miss Newman how much remind me of soccer on the Stars right you know some of us went there for that and saw the uh uh the community together with the youth athlete also the student athletes and it was just such a smile and and great feel for
023the community that I just saw this and I thought that right away so how great would it be to have this moving forward whenever we kind of want to do something like that right um but again first things first is obviously you know being uh very careful with the community making sure the lights will work properly and also this they schedule properly for everybody so that's something we're planning on doing hopefully and I think it' be a great project for all of us just before you continue Mr paloy one of the things that we've experienced over the last well for for years is there are a number of our games that start at the end of the school day thank you um because of the lack of um finding bus drivers you know we're unable
024to really move some games up so they have to stay at five o'clock and then by the time that game gets close towards the end of the game you know it has to be canceled because of darkness and then what ends up happening is we end up having to pull students out of the school out of instructional time to try and start whether it's a regular season game or a playoff game where they're coming out very early to do a 2:00 start so you know not not only will this keep our children in their classrooms you know you know during instructional time um but I think as Mr pipoy had pointed out you know the community whether we create opportunities and dim the lights walking the track whether it's early in the morning or in
025the evening but also being respectful will consider you know the hours of use are going to be respectful of the fact that we are in a residential Community but I think it's important that the technology has come so far with the LED lights that they're more like spotlights and this is a great visual be because you can see a few feet Behind the Lights it becomes Pitch Black um so but this is also going to take time you know a lot of these projects that Mr palip is referring to um you have to submit to the office of facilities planning it takes months before they actually approve the architectural rending so um some of these projects um may not occur right away um they may actually occur in next summer correct summer of 2026 but
026we do our best in working with our architect to help expedites to try and get things like this in place as soon as we can but it's important to understand that this is not something that can always be rolled out overnight yeah the process correct thank you Dr Cox next uh the awnings Dr Cox mentioned earlier so um you know besides Aesthetics you know the functionality of these I think is the most important piece uh I know I've been personally at some of the buildings during uh events and it's raining outside and just 200 of us gathered around each other under an awning trying to get in through security which I love they do that but obviously this the functionality piece besides events you know drop off pickup for the students uh inclement weather uh
027snow whenever it case may be and obviously aesthetically this is so pleasing to my eye personally and again these are just artist renderings um that's all reinforced steel and gerss um the actually roof of that is aluminum but it has a wood grain look to it which I really like which kind of Echoes a little bit of the uh the lobby of the high school similar to that look um alled lighting underneath there and also if you can't you can see I'll show you next slide here inside those columns LED lighting as well um we've had discussions again as Dr Cox mentioned a lot is architectural rendering so maybe bringing the the gr out further adding benches uh there's different things we can do but this is a general idea also you if you see
028the triangle there that's stamped steel with the kogre print in there so we're trying to create that theme throughout the District of all this different uh you know gold I'm sorry golden and black and the theme throughout which I really like a lot so I think it'd be a great addition to these buildings if we move forward with it and just on that note the other piece if you've seen some of the cement you know as you're walking into burough Sawmill um it's really aging and creating more of a safety issue and all of that through this process would be replaced um when these awnings would go up so it would be all new concrete work all the way up to the building and out to the to the front of these awnings yeah if
029we're already basically cutting in footings for these it just makes sense so weedo all the walkways going back all the way um and again Dr Cox said some of these buildings have some walkways that are not in the best shape so this will cover that as well doing this and again finding that balance we talk about you know doing some things aesthetically and also re in invting in infrastructure you know we have a lot of flat work we want to update throughout the district additional security and Facilities upgrades with Mr polium as well next to me uh Roofing and flat work upgrades so these are things we want to kind of Encompass every year and try to find that balance between doing both which I think is a great plan and of course you know
030I love highlighting my uh my my maintenance team I'm very proud of my team so I like I'm showing some of the projects they do do um it's a great group of guys and and girls um so at Maryland Carl far I'm working con Junction with Mrs uh centell uh we're doing a lot of work over there with uh the farm and and and Mr graph we're actually expanding the farm for more uh crop growth um we're also adding um some additional irrigation uh as you can see the be Sanctuary there I mean I don't know how many districts have a working farm like we have here but it's it's incredible um and I'm just excited to be part of the pro this project I really really am another great space actually we're creating these
031real life spaces for students um this is the room room over here at the high school that my team's been working on and uh when I told my team about this project they were just so excited when they know it's going to such a great cause for students they put the Heart and souls into it so uh we're about halfway through we have some carpeting to do there um Coming the spring and then the room will be uh complete so I know Mrs uh lip and Holtz is very happy about this another uh update from my team we wanted to give the high school torm a little bit of a facelift so we we replaced all the mahogany paneling on the side with lighter color uh paneling new trim work everywhere also a brand new
032main curtain and Valance we added besides the stage where we painted uh last year so again it's not a complete redo but a really nice facelift for the the staff there and the students I think they'll really appreciate it um this is the entryway over to the gym area at the high school um it was a little dated um the doors need to be replaced so we did a complete new vestibule there brand new sofits brand new LED lighting uh plywood uh everything things Soup To Nuts we did in house which is I'm very proud of that project and it gives it a whole new appeal walking up to it so I I really appreciate the work my team did for that and these are the discovery DS in conjunction with Mrs pum next to
033me we've been working on these for the last few months uh we've finished North Ridge recently and that's kind of a pilot for these spaces as you can see there that's Northridge uh recreated which I think is a fantastic space so we met with the principles recently and uh went over their plans moving forward and uh was starting I believe Wood Park in the spring weeks and then we'll move into the other buildings in this summer but again a nice facelift all in house work and this goes to show what we can do as a group getting things done um during my budget process I meet with all the principles and go over what kind of things they want to do um whether it be you know projects Outside Inside and one of the things
034they share with me is maybe doing some upgrades to the nurse's office so I met there with my team and saw kind of looking through what we could possibly do for them so we're doing new Cabinetry new casework um even some picture windows to help them better interact with students and staff while they're there um and I know they are really really appreciate it we started some of this already at Burr and the principal there is really happy with it so we're continue on there and also at Sawmill and uh as Dr Cox mentioned last year we uh actually added all new playgrounds to all the primaries in addition to that was Gaga pits um my my son loves this it's something he can't get out of um but currently we have fry bar which
035is safety servicing it's almost like a wood chip type material um and to make it more of a fixed structure we're adding actually a rubberized flooring like this to all of them come this summer after the budget passes which think be very helpful to everybody there so um this is something we're looking forward to all right let's talk about com security to me in my eyes the best security team in Long Island um as we all know we've actually moved forward or we will be moving forward with armed guards next year that's in his budget for this year um again we went through RFP process uh we had five companies submit their their plan of armed guards after that we narrowed down to two based on the rubrics we sat down with them they were
036interviewed and uh at the end of that interview process and going with covert security um you know moving we've had a great relationship with covert security over many many years Miss Newman about 15 years I believe and it's just been a great model they have and we're really happy to be working with them moving forward especially with ar guards the door J door excuse me door jar project at high school middle school has been complete the plan now is this summer to incorporate that over at the primaries intermediate buildings as you can see there this is for all perimeter doors in a school building so as you see it's red if a door is left open indicates on the screen that a door is open in red and we make sure it's closed and it'll
037turn back to green so again it's another great checks and balances for security to secure our buildings this is our updated uh security base at the high school um you know again a great tool that we have where this is literally every camera in the district that they can see 24/7 7 days a week so at any time a guard will be sitting there monitoring they communicate through different buildings what they're seeing what's going on and this is monitored again 2477 days a week and last but certainly not least the Rave app so this is a great communication tool that we actually have in conjunction with sepher County Police department they manage it and oversee it and it could be as simple as maybe the police department is visiting one of the buildings we communicate
038that through the day everybody knows that it's not emergency they're here visiting it's a happy visit or God forbid there is emergency we communicate that way as well and we all on the same page know exactly what's happening real time all the time and most importantly the police department sees everything being going on at the same time so it's a great uh tool we have and with that I'll turn over to Mrs pan give your micophone you sorry I talk loud Frank but I don't know if I talk that loud all right so it is an absolute pleasure to be here tonight to give an overview of comac technology and some budget highlights for the 2526 school year I'd like to start with showing a short video um this was a video that we put
039together recently uh comac was lucky enough to be asked to host the um asset meeting um I as a technology director I've attended asset meetings for the last you know four or five years I am proud to say that there were easily 100 people from districts all over Long Island that came to comac that is the most I have ever seen in my time so we were actually very lucky and um humbled to really host that many people and to be able to show our stuff and show off what we're doing in comac so this is a little video that will give you a insight into what we have going on e e e I think that my favorite part of that video more than anything else is how it really shows the story of
040um the technology experience of the kids in comac from a k through 12 experience and more importantly I think what you'll notice is that it is not a video filled with kids in front of devices and isolation um and that is the most important part for me as a technology director that we are creating an environment where kids understand how to use technology they are more than digital citizens they are digital leaders and they understand how to use technology for good and they are able to take what they learned in their time in comac and bring that into future careers into their lives and uh the world that they're in in 2025 is just different than it was when we were all younger I think we all know that so um it is not just
041my goal but the goal of my entire team to be able to get that message across and I think that I am very proud of the work that they've done in the past few years in doing just that um most most importantly uh we believe that technology should Inspire students to be Fearless dreamers innovators and Believers in their own potential um technology is not something to be afraid of it's something that you know from the ground up everybody should be having a hand in help helping our kids learn how to navigate the Digital World um so with that um our 2526 budget technology budget it maintains our daily operations and it enhances both infrastructurally and instructionally so what do I mean by that I mean that everything Remains the Same as it is and then
042we are enhancing so everything from our endpoint detection to our cyber hygiene to our cyber you know posture everything remains exactly the same We are continuing to always be improving and looking into different ways is that we could leverage money and reallocate it and you'll see that um throughout my presentation um I'm very proud of my entire team because we are an all Hands-On deck team from every single primary building all the way up to the the high school and hubs whether it's a technology ta a member of the technical team teachers administrators you'll see that everybody has kind of really taken um real pride and being a part of the growing of of the growing of the use of technology in comac so some infrastructure and Hardware highlights um I have to just give
043out a shout to my friend Max uh he believes that he is going to be the next you know member of comac Technology he is one of our first members of uh our students that have actually been to Hubs his dad brought him here and he got to take a look at some of our backend technology and that is really a vision that I have here is that you know kids that are interested in technology it's my continued goal to get them that hands-on experience as they go through school and Max was just our first visitor so I'd like to give him a shout out when I can I know he's watching from home um so one of our uh 25 26 additional um items in the budget is additional security archivers as I am
044working with uh the security and facility staff in making some changes to our infrastructure in security uh the cameras are better now right so they're HD they're they're two-headed four-headed cameras the picture quality is better as we add cameras means we need more storage so that is something that we have to look into making sure we can't just add without adding on the back end that's a big thing I have to make sure that we're focusing on wireless access points um I am very thankful my team is amazing and they have upgraded almost all of the access points in every classroom uh to date um next year's budget is really focusing on continuing to add in spaces where maybe buildings or teachers are reporting that there might be um a need for additional access points
045as well as making sure that every space that's used as an instructional space has connectivity what I mean by that we we use instructional spaces all different types of creative ways right it's not just in a classroom so I need to make sure that if there are instructional spaces that are being used that are unconventional we have a way to add connectivity to them um as you saw in that video we do things like Goose chases over here those are digital scavenger hunts so we need to make sure that if kids are going into certain areas of the buildings to do certain things they have connectivity if they need it um one of the things we will be working on next year um is the continued PC roll out out so we are will be
046adding another 650 PCS into classrooms computer labs and more the continuation of the upgraded Chromebook Fleet um so next year's budget does include um Chromebooks for our incoming K And1 students that will mean that we have um Chromebooks touchscreen Chromebooks for K through next year will be 10th grade so there'll only be um a few grade levels that do not have them so we will be continuing to add to that Fleet as you can see this is some of our youngest Learners and the way that they are interacting with the touchcreen it has been an absolute game changer for our youngest Learners so I'm really excited to be able to finish that off as well um some instructional highlights uh one of the things I'm very proud of here is that I do work with
047the curriculum Associates and the curriculum team on uh a lot of professional development I I do a lot of professional development here and the district is amazing we have so many amazing curriculum initiatives and curriculum directors and sometimes the technology PD ends up being something that gets it gets pushed away it gets pushed away because we have a new science curriculum or nextg standards and um I'm thankful that I work with an amazing team of people who have helped me find creative ways to make sure that we are including the instructional P the instructional technology PD I am proud to say that we launched this I would say by the time we launched it was probably around October of this year we have over 114 certified teachers in The District in one software program or
048another so it's not all in the same but over 114 people have taken our asynchronous professional development in technology uh we partner with these um with these software platforms to get them these certifications they get their PD hours and I love the idea of PD in your pjs who doesn't have a kid who's on a soccer team or you know a husband who works nights I know mine does so the fact that I'm able to do these and not have to be in a physical place makes a big difference for a lot of people and I think that we've seen our software you I I don't think I know I see it every day when I'm looking inside clever our software usage has gone up since we have encouraged people to take these classes and
049earn these badges they even put them in their signature lines on their email uh one of the things I'm very excited about is that we are going to be transitioning um away from the use of screencastify as a platform and we are going to be taking that money and putting it into the use of we video um screencastify is a software that really became popular during covid and it does exactly what it says it does it gives you the ability to record your screen um and make a video of what's happening in the class well we video does the exact same thing in a Chrome extension it but it does so much more what you're seeing here is a video currently right now I have a fifth grade class in Burr working on an indigenous
050species project and the kids are actually able to create their own video talking about um that indigenous species they're able to talk about um they're able to actually make the video themselves and be a part as though they're in you know the the ecosystem where they're where they're learning so it's a really wonderful they're able to use it for news creation newscasting news channels teachers can use it to create videos for the students so you know there's a lot here um and and that's again just to to let everyone know that's a a large part of what I do is I examine what what our usage rate is on our softwares are we spending our money in the right place on the right softwares and is there something else I can get that will serve
051the same purpose and give the teachers more because you know my role is really in that of supportive instruction like what do the teachers need and how can I best utilize our money that's in the budget to get them what they need uh another addition um something that I would really love to bring to the primary and intermediate schools is a coding program right now we are currently uh piloting two programs in the district we are looking at codable and I do have uh three other people looking into learning.com so right now we're in a pilot for both programs there is money in the budget next year year to be able to purchase a program um and I really I'm relying a lot on the instructional leaders in the buildings to tell me what they
052like best and and we're going to be re-evaluating those at the end of the school year so that come September we can you know in invest wisely in a in a program that's really going to give the students the ability what you see here is the these are second graders coding a fuzz they're able to make their own fuzz by coding it using block coding and then they are able to actually use that fuzz that they created to go through all different type of types of coding challenges um um they love it and uh the teachers love it as well finally I know that uh Mr palip Hoy touched on the Discovery dens uh one thing when I got here um that I noticed PR primarily in the primary buildings is that the computer labs
053were basically the old school computer labs that you would have seen when we were in school you know computers scattered around the room in in a desk desktop computers um and you know in order to update to the needs of the students in 2025 we are reimagining those spaces and the discovery Den is not a class it's really a state of mind right it's a place where kids are able to come and just um as as Nicole alexandrovich one of our library media Specialists always says she says use their brains give them the time to just experiment and use different types of things within the discovery Den there's all different types of coding robots there's touchscreen monitors for pixel art there's green screens there's iPads there's opportunities for virtual field trips and virtual learning um
054and it really is a wonderful wonderful space the pilot uh Discovery Den in Northridge has been a huge success the kids don't want to leave they ask when they can come back um and you know it's it's a fun and exciting place for them to visit and I'm I'm thankful that we're able to you know provide for the for the students a whole new way of learning you could see there they're doing an unboxing of a of a turkey dinner of Thanksgiving dinner it was a mystery box they had to all talk about what was in the box and how they would make their own Thanksgiving dinner with what was in the box and they did that for a green screen project and finally we are in our AI era over here in comac um
055part of the budget uh does include for comac high school um right now we are currently piloting brisk AI uh brisk boost which is student safe AI what you see in this video is a high school class where they are doing a research project on a historical figure and they're actually chatting in a chatbot with the historical figure to learn more about that figure it's basically safe AI as opposed to having them going on to chat G PT or another site and just getting the answers it is um teacher monitored teacher generated through assignments and as you could see it did translate directly for that student and it does it into over 172 languages excuse me so that was the end of my presentation I hope that you enjoyed it thank you Miss Willam so
056that concludes our budget Workshop number two if we want to just go to the next slide I think we have an opportunity for um the board to ask any questions related to budget Workshop number two thank you both so much I'm really excited to hear that the um burrow walkway is going to be repaired because that is really a hazard um and Technology you know I love it I had the opportunity to to be at at the asset Tech conference um this week and I saw the Librarians talk about what they're doing and it's amazing um for the access points the Middle School anything with like the auditorium and the hallways and all of those areas that maybe aren't so instructional but are hard to access yes so um the auditorium the Middle School auditorium
057is not in the current budget that's a larger project it needs Wireless engineer it is something that we are planning to leverage smart school's money with in the next smart school's plan both uh the auditorium and both the middle school and the high school great um for Staffing um so the do not exceed numbers I know they are lower than the contractual numbers they're still kind of High um at what point do you decide to open another s El so M when I continue to monitor the as um as the Su starts so we constantly get the numbers on a we basis from the registration office once we we start to get close to those do not exceed numbers we'll come down to Dr Cox and have the conversations about whether or not it's time
058to open a new section so we're constantly monitoring um and I guess this is more of like um is there any plan to move the intermediate ICT structure model down to the so yeah I can I can speak to that so I think we're in our second year this year of the ICT model in 3 through five um we have created experiences where some of our primary teachers have come up to visit to see what that model looks like and we have decided that in year three is where we really complete that full evaluation and part of the 2627 budget we will determine whether or not we want to move in a direction similar to that the direction that we moved in intermediate and make the um primary school sort of an integrated co- teer
059model that's the plan thank you great questions all right uh one quick question I do have is um just looking at I know they're just rendering but um one question that that I do have is with uh saw we will Ure that even with this awning you'll still be able to see the John J mraa piece yeah we can certainly arrange that you know there's conversations about even the lettering at the top of the warning whether we want Sawmill intermediate school if we won John mrai or you know like so those are conversations that we can have I don't know if Mr palip you want to weigh in on that as well as you stated yeah these are just a renderings I mean there a lot of different variations we can still do to those
060um even ated benches possibly so any comments or concerns you may have we can bring those up to the uh to the the uh architect for sure great uh and I'll just uh comment and uh thank everyone for their hard work on uh the presentation here um I know after soccer and the stars I did uh mention at that board meeting where we highlighted it that I was um in favor of in investigating into what stadium lights might look like and um you know for this is eight years now on the board I can finally go back to uh all my constituents and tell them um that we know when the lights are coming so um I thank you very much for that that'll save me a lot of time when I'm on the sports
061field explaining to them um why we haven't had them to this point but I think um using the transfer to Capital is a smart smart way to get this done uh it's really the only way that we could get this done without floating a bond and um you know obviously this is a much more responsible way uh my question would be and I'm I I know the answer to this already but just in case there's anyone out there wondering we will follow all town and neighborhood or ordinances that would come into play and we'll have all the proper permits in place right 110% yes our main concern is making sure that the the neighboring neighbors around that area understand that we're very conscious of that that's the most important thing we're looking at with doing
062this 100% great and you know I love the fact that um you know even highlighted in the benefits is our youth teams being able to use it we watch our youth teams um you know really come August uh come October sorry come October they travel to other towns um you know and squish in on other Town fields and uh little corners of space just so that they can have lights um you know I've seen teams out there holding their own flashlights um so uh this is great and uh very excited about it and uh happy that we were able to bring it to fruition so thank you thank you thank you just picky back on the same thing with the lights we know this will be in 26 27 we know it's for some of
063the games but will be will the lights be on for the general public for just just say the summertime and something like that what's the anticipated light usage another times I think there conversations I've already been talking to neighboring districts about kind of their schedule how they handle that um those conversations I'll have a Dr Cox Mr Feld Mrs Newman how we plan that but uh you know again the beauty of it is they're all programmable so and also we can dim them so say maybe a few nights a week we want to make a walking Track we can dim the lights um then Friday night we have the light lit up for a game uh but anything's possible depending on what you guys all would like to do with it okay and I think
064when it does come down to that Mr Hartman I think we will have to uh you know look at putting a policy in place absolutely in terms of you know what what time that would be at but you know to security because there got to be more security during that period of time yeah absolutely but we always say positive but there's the you know the other cost to come with it so yeah and people the good point of Dr Cox mentioned it's not coming this summer right so I don't want anyone to think that you know September 2025 there's no lights on the it's years if you get in if you get in next summer I'll be pleasantly happy how's that yeah everything starts to go through SCD for approval architectural uh review uh engineering
065review I have to get with a PG and get a load letter depending on how much low we need for it so there's some there's some steps of we get to it to have it actually planned and done yeah okay and just um I'm not saying it's going to be in the budget or anything but I think we as a district need to consider it's getting pretty close so the public to know that the cell phone ban in school district sounds like it's coming as part of a negotiation package so the Govern just letting people know the governor is proposing that there's a complete cell phone ban in schools which again as a board member I'm completely opposed to it that it should be ruled by the district but it sounds like it's part of
066her negotiation package of a state budget um going forward um I don't see as Mrs Newman said I don't see them signing by our next budget meeting so I guess the impact of any kind of additional State a we may get we won't know maybe until even after we adopt the until maybe even after we adopt the budgets for people to know which happened last year that I don't I don't foresee them I think they're actually I mean we are closed Monday I think they're actually off Monday so they don't get something done tomorrow they're actually pass their deadline again for another year so um so again I think this is a great budget this year I think we're um just for the public again to know is that certainly a lot of things worked
067their AB benefit as you said Health you know like health insurance increase wasn't that great this year I'm amazed how low it was the ERS and TRS was also low but I'm I am putting out the cautionary flag people to be aware of that I think there are changes in the Horizon so I you know um from the federal government all the way down which affects the state governments will which will affect our schools so so um I'm glad for all the things we can get in this year and I'm kind of happy with it I'm also I see our numbers are even at a 2.29 is lower than most surrounding areas as well which is I think we should be very proud of as a district right so I mean we always you know
068other districts were in the high twos and we're still in the low twos and look at all the stuff that we're getting so but just make sure people aware in the public that yeah um I think the next couple years that most districts are going to be very tightening their belt a lot more than than considerations going to have to happen so but again great budget great great presentation I really need this that video blows me away great job everybody so thank you for everything you put together thank you any other questions so next time we come together will be April 3rd that will be for our informal budget hearing um and then our our official board meeting is on April 10th but uh the informal hearing will be on the 3D and I just
069want to thank everybody for uh coming out this evening and for those of you that are streaming in um looking forward to another successful uh 2526 budget uh season and um that concludes our budget Workshop number two right I did I did mention the superintendent the board has requested to go back into executive session for a few minutes just to keep it up so I need a motion to enter executive session at 8:06 yes oh I apologize you are correct you don't thank you for before we do that are there anyone in public that has questions on this budget Workshop thank you for reminding me if not you'll have your opportunity again to ask it a week from today so keep those questions ready same bad time same bad channel so any motion to J
070executive session now at 807 for purpose of discussing uh employment histories of particular individuals k get a motion I get a second any discussion all in favor I motion carried have a good night everybody see you next week