001young. But the thing is, you're screwing up the investigation. Oh, really? >> Oh, really? Good evening everybody. >> Welcome welcome to uh this evening's meeting. Um we will call the meeting to order this evening at 6:31 p.m. Beginning with the pledge of allegiance. All right. Um, for those new to our board meetings this evening, um, each month the board likes to recognize students, um, staff or community members whose achievements are outstanding. they go beyond the call of duty um or generous generosity, excuse me, is greatly appreciated. So, this month we are very pleased to recognize the entire building and grounds department from this from Dwayneburg Central Schools. Um I'm going to call them out individually because they all deserve to be called out individually. So, we have our uh our director Ananson, Dan Peacock, Richard
002Clinbell, Dan O'Neal, Bill Dara, Sherin Powell, Angelica Pier Lucy, I hope I said that correctly. uh Nicole Chase, Christina Snyder, Deb Walpole, Chris Slater, and all of our student workers. Um, as you may have noticed, we are still actively in the midst of construction, and about four business days prior to school opening, we couldn't have opened. So, um, all of these people worked overtime, um, and and were here well beyond their normal duties to help us. Um, and we'd also like to give a shout out to schoolhouse construction project manager, Mr. Cedway Goodwin, who's sitting right over there. Um, I think we may have given him we may have we may have erased a couple of years [laughter] or at least a few gray hairs um over the last couple of weeks. Um, the associate
003project manager, Henry Gent, and then our construction manager, Paul Kaine. Um, we really appreciate you guys being here and helping us um, open up uh, and and carry on with what we've got going on. >> [clears throat] >> Um, next, um, our first board meeting of the academic year is a special one where we recognize folks that are being inducted into our Dwayneburg Central Schools Hall of Fame. So, I am going to relocate and we're going to start with our presentation of the inductees. How about now? All right. All right. [clears throat] Again, thank you for joining us this evening as we proudly induct three exceptional individuals into Dwayneburg Hall Dwayne's Hall of Fame. For those of you who don't know me, I am uh board president Melissa Them Peterson. This is my fourth year
004on the board and my second as president. No, my third as president. I think it's my third as president. Um [clears throat] uh before I introduce them, I'd like to take a moment to share how we arrived at this point. How these three remarkable individuals were nominated and ultimately selected for the Hall of Fame class of 2025. The annual online nomination process begins each January and it continues throughout the spring, closing on the last day of school in June. Nominations are open to everyone, staff, students, families, and community members alike. Over the summer, the district's Hall of Fame committee carefully reviews all of our submissions. After thoughtful consideration, the committee selects three to four individuals who best meet the established criteria for induction into the Hall of Fame. DCF staff nominations can include current or
005former staff or retired staff. Nominations [clears throat] can also be made postumously. Dcs alumni nominations should meet one or more of the following criteria. Connects experience at DCS with what the person has chosen to do with their lives or career. Serves as an inspiration to current students. Makes students want to aspire to be more. Maintains a connection with DCS after they graduate. Or brings a sense of pride to DCS. stands out as a DCS graduate. Inductees are notified over the summer and invited to attend a reception and recognition at the first board of education meeting of the new school year, which you're all here for tonight. [clears throat] The Dwayneburg Hall of Fame induction class of 2025 features three outstanding individuals, all of whom are proud graduates of DCS. Before I move on, I do
006want to just put a thank you out there to I think we have a couple of nomine uh nominating committee members here. So, if you would just raise your hand and for thank you for your service in selecting these folks this evening. So, um our first inductee is Francis Bore. Our second is Mar Margot Bloomstein and our third is John James. So, first up we have Francis Spore. I think I'm going to invite you after. So, if you'd like to stay seated, you may. But if you'd like to come and stand, that's also okay. Okay, I hit the right button as well. He was teasing me about the right arrow. All right. Mr. Francis Bore proudly graduated from Dwayne High School in 1997. Since then, he has remained a dedicated and active member of the
007school community, building deep connections and demonstrating a lasting commitment to giving back to the place he credits with shaping his early years. After graduating from DCS, Mr. Spore earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from the Rochester in Institute of Technology, followed by a master's degree in computer science from Union College. He began his professional journey as a software engineer and currently works at Team SNAP, where he contributes to making youth sports more accessible and manageable for families. In addition to his professional work, Mr. Spore has remained deeply involved in the Dwayneburg community. He and his wife Samantha chose to raise their family here and their two children currently attend DCS. He has volunteered in a variety of local programs including Cub Scouts, Odyssey of the Mind, and the Dwayneburg Community PTA. Through the PTA,
008he also maintains the website for Light Up Dwayneburg, a community initiative celebrating the holiday season. Mr. Spore was elected to the Dwayneburg Board of Education in 2021 and currently serves as vice president. He is also a trustee of the Dwayneburg Education Foundation where he helps support programs and initiatives that benefit DCS students and schools. His focus remains on creating opportunities for young people to thrive and ensuring the strength and success of the district for generations to come. Being part of this community, first as a student, now as a parent, volunteer, and school leader, has been one of the most meaningful parts of my life. Mr. Bor said, "I'm grateful for the chance to contribute and proud to be part of Dwayneburg's legacy." We proudly introduce you to Mr. Francis Bore, a Hall of Fame inductee
009for Dwayneburg's class of 2025. Mr. Spore may have more things to say later. We don't know. [laughter] Okay. Um, our second inductee this evening is Margot Bloomstein. Ms. Margot Bloomstein is an internationally acclaimed speaker, consultant, and one of the most prominent voices in the content strategy industry. And she just also happens to be a 1996 graduate of Dwayneburg Central School District. She earned her BFA in design and anthropology at Carnegie Melon University, one of the country's most prestigious institutions for design and communications. There she honed the analytical and creative skills that would define her career. She is the author of Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beatat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap and the web industry mainstay content strategy at Work: Real World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project. As the principal, [clears throat] excuse
010me, of Appropriate Inc., a Bostonbased brand and content strategy consultancy. She has taught workshops, keynoted conferences, and advised marketing teams around the world for more than two decades. Forgot to change the slide. [laughter] Her clients include Harvard University, Fidelity, Love Honey, Mailchimp, Scholastic, Sally May, Timberland, and the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority. Her groundbreaking work in the fields of communications and design combined with her commitment to civic discourse and mentorship make her a standout representative of Dwayneburg's legacy of excellence. A participant in the inaugural inaugural content strategy consortium and featured speaker of the famed South by Southwest conference, Miss Bloomstein advises women talk design, a platform for speakers in design and teaches in both the content strategy graduate program at FH Yuanoom University in Gratz, Austria and the experience design department at Bentley University in
011Massachusetts. Her nomination reads, "Margot Bloomstein represents the best of what Dwayneburg Central School education can empower a graduate to achieve. National leadership, intellectual contribution, and a lasting positive impact on society." We proudly introduce you to Miss Margot Bloomstein, a Hall of Fame inductee for Dwayneburg's class of 2025. So yeah, Trisha told me that we were supposed to or could prepare a few words to say Francis. Um well, I'm not going to respond on that. Um but it would have been a good response. So, I just wanted to say um thank you so much both for for this opportunity, this honor tonight um and for uh for the 13 years that I had at Dwayneburg. Um wow, like getting choked up. That shouldn't be happening. But, um thank you so much to my parents who mentored
012and guided and steered me through the the process here. And um and I guess I just wanted to share how my education at DCS was such a a lesson in community from from seeing like so many schoolboard meetings that my mom was always going up to. So for the longest time it was my dad that was tucking me in at night during those schoolboard meetings and always reading me like the same book too. Um and uh and then when I got a little bit older going to those schoolboard meetings too because that was how you participated in community. And that idea of community at DCS was was so intimate. Um, I graduated with with 63 kids and I think we were one of the bigger classes at that point and everybody knew everybody um and
013their parents and their siblings and for better or worse. and all of our teachers knew our parents and vice versa and they welcomed them in the classroom and um and in the halls and in field trips and that was such a lesson to me for how to be a parent um and also how to be a an individual in community that it was everyone's responsibility. it was everyone's opportunity so it was everyone's responsibility and I think that idea that everyone has a stake in building community um for that example I am so grateful my education at DCS was also marked by so much creativity um when I was here at least we didn't have the most it wasn't the wealthiest school district it wasn't the biggest school district um we didn't have the greatest variety
014in courses but we were so good at problem solving and We were so scrappy about it. I remember when I was here, it was hard to come by AP classes. So that was when the district started exploring distance learning and we installed a special classroom with cameras so that we could take classes maybe taught by teachers in Middberg or Skohairy so that other rural school districts could partner together and and have those classes together. Um, we also learned a lot about creativity in that process because we discovered how you could exploit being off camera to pretend like your school was having a fire drill at that point or something like that. Um, and then as I started in school to start look beyond and look at universities with with daunting and impressive colleges of fine
015arts, my teachers were so incredibly creative to help me put together a portfolio that would compete with students at bigger high schools with more advanced opportunities and classes. And it was teachers like like Mrs. Rem and Mr. Richards and Mrs. for Zasco, especially Rosco in the art room, that were always willing to meet me where I was and help me move forward. Um, it was Mrs. Rem's lessons in in feminism and activism taught in the Spanish classroom. Even though I wasn't a Spanish student and at the helm of the school newspaper, they still carry me forward. And Mr. Richard's teaching me so much about communication with lessons that I bring into my classrooms um into my clients today. And it was Rosco's patience and creativity in the art room and the generous attention that was
016something that I felt for my teachers through my whole life. One of my first experiences with a a DCS teacher was actually when I was probably about two or three and um my mom had brought me to the old Quaker Street Library, the old one that didn't have a bathroom and we had to be creative with that too. And uh we were sitting on the lawn in front of it and I can still remember it. Mrs. Rosasco, the the lofty high school art teacher. She was there teaching toddlers how to make, I think, woven placemats and potato stamps and all. And uh and then 15 years later, I was still learning from her when she was helping me put together my portfolio for college. Just a few weeks ago, I reached out to her on
017Facebook because I was like, I'm working through this problem with watercolor. I don't know what I'm doing. It's a humbling medium. and she was like, "Okay, let me know your questions. We can move forward on this. We can I can meet you where you are and and help you move forward together." And like my parents, this community has been with me every step of the way. And I think that's what so many people in Dwayneburg know, and I hope so many students know, too, that this place doesn't leave you. You bring the best of it with you. And I think that's what being in a community is. um that it is about the unflinching communication and scrappy creative problem solving that makes all of this and and frankly me possible. So, thank you all so
018much. Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you so much, Margot. [clears throat] All right, last but certainly not least for this evening uh is Mr. John James. Uh John James is a lifelong residence of Darby resident, excuse me, of Darby Hill in Dillansen and has remained a steadfast and dedicated member of the community following his graduation from Dwayneburg Central School in 1963. He has played an instrumental role in organizing and hosting reunions for his class, helping to preserve the strong bonds of friendship and school spirit across the decades. Following high school, Mr. James attended Sunni Cobalt and went on to serve four years in the United States Air Force where he was stationed in England and honored with assignments that included work on presidential details. In the 1970s, Mr. James drove a school bus for the
019Dwayneburg Central School District, a skilled carpenter by trade, he founded Tri City Scaffold in Dansen in 1988. Under his leadership, the company grew into a highly successful business with a team of 40 employees, earning a strong reputation in the industry and the community. Mr. James has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to youth and the growth of the Dwayneburg community. He is a founding member of the Quaker Street Cattle 4 Club and served as its leader for many years. In addition, he volunteered as coach for Dwayneburg Little League and served as a member of the Dwayneburg Historical Society, gladly giving his time, expertise, and his heart to his community neighbors. John and his wife Cheryl raised their three children here locally, all graduates of DCS. His deep roots in the community continue through his 11 grandchildren, five
020of whom have also graduated from Dwayneburg. Today, a third generation of the family is carrying on the tradition with his great-grandchild entering kindergarten at Dwayneburg Elementary School this year. His nomination reads, "John embodies the values of service, integrity, and dedication that the Dwayneburg High School Hall of Fame seeks to honor. His life's work has not only enriched the lives of those around him, but also strengthened the fabric of the Dwayneburg community. We proudly introduce you to Mr. John James, Hall of Fame inductee for Dwayne's class of 2025. Mr. James I'd just like to say uh I have nothing but fond memories of the Dwayneburg Central School. uh mainly the teachers who had confidence in me and they always came to me to give me little ideas, a little help once in a while. Um and
021I learned a lot from them. Uh even when even when I started the business, there was a couple of them that still came around to pitch in to tell me what they thought. And it was something I learned from this area. I think it works works good in this area is uh when you're doing good in life, pay it forward. and help people who aren't doing quite as good. Um, and I learned that from this community and here at the school. That's all I can say. Thank you. [applause and cheering] That concludes our um Hall of Fame induction. We will now move on to our regular business meeting, which I promise will be riveting, but probably not as exciting as what we just did. So, for those who are here for our um our inductees
022and would like to scoot out, now is a great time. We don't blame you. [laughter] Okay, moving to our next item um which is for discussion of this evening's agenda. Any comments or questions on this evening's agenda? Next item is uh changes uh to the agenda. We are I'm going to ask for a motion to strike the oath of office for student board members. Um our student board members had some conflicts this evening. So we are going to uh deliver that oath of office at our October meeting. Um so may I have a motion to remove item 3.01 from tonight's agenda? >> A motion. >> Thank you, Francis. A second. Thank you, Michael. Um comments or questions? All in favor? Any opposed? Any abstensions? Uh so then I think we'll do the uh next resolution
023resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board of education approve this now amended agenda for the regular meeting. May I have a motion? >> Thank you Lissa. A second Tony. Thank you. Comments or questions? All in favor? >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Serena, do we have anybody that signed up for public comment this evening? Okay, we'll move past that. The public, is it? Not all of them, but Okay. Uh, all right. Next item. Uh, be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board of education approve the minutes of the regular meeting on August 26th, 2025. May I have a motion? Thank you, Tony. A second. Thank you, Ray. Comments or questions on the minutes from our last meeting? All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Any abstension? >> I. >>
024Okay. Our next item is a capital project update. I think that means you, Mr. Goodwin, [laughter] and and Drew and and company. testing. Testing. All right. Uh is everybody okay with me being over here? Okay, great. Um so we're here today to talk about uh an excellent opportunity for district and the community in extending what we have called the Centennial Project. Uh because we're celebrating 100 years when we were originally conceiving of the project. Um this work is going to be doing a lot of the same things that we were doing in phase one and phase two which are ongoing right now. And we thought it was interesting to look back. What did these buildings look like when they opened and what can we do now to extend what we've done already? So, we want
025to reimagine these facilities with your help with modern usage in mind. That's a a key theme that was uh started in when this project was originally conceived. So, we'll do a short agenda. We'll give you some intros to who we are. We'll talk about the planning process we've done so far and what remains ahead. Talk about the guiding principles that we established early on, review the scope plans, talk about the budget and estimating and then open it up for questions. So, district leadership, Miss Kim Ross, Jeff Rivenberg, Anson have been helping us throughout the entire process. Uh, I'm Drew Jones with Ashley McGra. I'm at the bottom of the list somehow. Um, but Nick Signarelli is here. He's the leader of our K12 uh department and Katherine can't be with us today, but she's also
026a principal and a learning environment planner who's helping us on all of the educational design that we're doing for schoolhouse. Today we have CJ Goodwin who all of you know so well. Uh Era Proar is also leading up the effort and we also have from fiscal adviserss Christine Crowley who can answer any of the financial ins and outs that I'm going to gloss over in about a minute. [laughter] So what have we done so far? Uh so we started this process in July and we immedi immediately met with district leadership and the facilities committee to start honing down into what is this project going to be. We also met with fiscal adviserss to make sure that we knew how much available funds were and what we could uh approach for a project. We worked with
027uh CJ and his cost estimation team to make sure we understood the current costs and what we could achieve. And then we updated the board a couple of times about where we were in the process, what we were thinking about doing and answering questions about roofs and what are we going to continue to do about the roof situation. Future tasks uh in October at your next meeting uh you will do the project SRA uh resolution. You will also certify the amount that the referendum is going to be for and set the date for when that vote is going to be. Then through November, there will be project marketing. And then on the second, you go back. Thank you. On the second, there will be December 2nd, there will be a public meeting which is required
028for prior to any referendum vote. And then we're looking to tune the referendum vote date to align with the holiday programming uh so that people who will want to be here anyway uh and again give them a reason to be here and to vote for the project. So the guiding principles that we've established for the project with the district's leadership really started to frame out what we wanted to achieve. So we wanted the facility improvements that we're doing to reflect the need of the students, educators, greater community, and the programs that they serve. We wanted to instill and deepen the sense of community pride. Prioritize the relationship building and positive connections to create self and welcoming experiences for all. Ensure an additional safety and security measures are integral to the work when they're completed, not
029secondary. If that makes any sense. So, what we have in front of us is a $6.9 million project that would be phased over the next three years. Um, a brief discussion of programmatic scope. It's not very long. Um, but it was born of the prior building condition surveys that we've done as well as the district's desire for the future of the facilities. So when we talk about programmatic scope versus building conditions survey scope, think of programmatic scope is where teaching and learning and things like that are going to be happening. Whereas building condition survey scope are things that need to happen or would like to happen because they need to be repaired, replaced, so on and so forth. So, we're going to be looking to renovate the guidance suites renovation, which includes, and we'll see
030this on the plan, the current guidance suite as well as the CES suite that's down uh on the lower level. Uh the high school gymnasium is going to get uh renovated. And there's a small bit of flooring replacement and repair that's going to happen at the high school. And at the elementary school, we're going to be installing a couple of bus charger chargers and some infrastructure to support future. and we can talk more about that when we get there. Building condition survey items are the flooring replacement, the high school baseball field fencing, and selected roof replacement at the elementary school. Thank you, Francis. We have not coordinated this in in before at all. Um, so it's the only roof that's left. And when we were going to talk about the summers when this work is
031going to happen, usually this amount of work wouldn't need to span two summers, but we need to reach the summer of 28 for that roof warranty to expire so we can actually get aid when we replace it. So let's look at the scope plans. Again, it's not a long list, but here at the elementary school in area one, this is where we're doing the electric bus charging infrastructure. And working with the board and the facilities committee, we really honed this down to just what we feel is necessary. So, there's going to be the electrical upgrade that's required to serve these chargers. There's going to be the uh the other electrical infrastructure so that the chargers can be installed. We're going to install just two chargers now. and the underground infrastructure for a total of 10.
032And that's not getting too far out in front of ourselves with doing all the things that we could possibly do. Um, and it's getting just a small footprint of install with a with a little bit more expandability that isn't going to be costing us an arm and a leg. Um, the cost is relatively high because the infrastructure that you have to install to charge at all is relatively high. But once you get pass that barrier, it gets re it gets a lot more cost effective to add more. Um, we're only adding again eight more possible install locations that would be very easy to drop the charger and you're done. We needed to extend that farther. It would just be doing a little bit of earthwork, extending those services and doing the same thing again. Um,
033the roof is mainly over the elementary wing and the main entry. And again, this is the only roof that we couldn't do uh that we wanted to do because of the warranty issue. That warranty doesn't expire until 2028. Otherwise, it would have been included in the phase one roofing work that we've completed at the at the building. At the high school, uh we're going to be doing gymnasium renovations and the guidance suite renovation. Both of those are in the darker purple. Um again, that just differentiates between programmatic scope and then building condition survey scope. The only building condition survey scope here is classroom 113 and a related crack in the Turzo in the hallway. Um, basically they're both from the same situation. A little bit of building settlement and they think we think that they're
034critical to do and so does the district and it it it works from a cost standpoint. We move to the next slide. At the on the site, we're really only doing one thing, and this was uh an alternate within the phase 2 project, which was to do the baseball field fencing. Um, so that's going to be uh fencing along the uh first base side to protect the the building from foul balls. It's also going to be a new back stop with a proper can lever so we're not popping balls back up over to parked cars. Um, and that is that's it. So again, the preliminary budget for this is 6.9 million. That's what we would be looking for voter authorization for. Um, this is a preliminary budget, but as we go through design, once we're
035once we're approved, um, there will be periodic design estimates that'll happen throughout the process, that'll make sure that we're staying on target, we're not overdesigning anything, and that we can continually adjust what we're doing to stay within budget. Again, the summers for this construction would be 27 and 28. And I don't, and you know, I'd like you. >> Yeah. So CJ and his team did an excellent job in helping us understand current costs. Um, a lot of these items had been estimated in 2022 way back when when we were planning the original project and they needed a serious update for us to be collectively confident and you did a great job with that. Um, I don't have much else to offer, but if you've got questions, I we'd love to hear them. And we've got
036resources here both in construction management and fiscal adviserss if you've got any. So, I will now see the floor. And >> yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just >> Hello everyone. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, as Drew mentioned, I'm the numbers lady. And so, I like to look at all of the aidability within the scope so that we know how much we're going to receive back from the state by way of New York State Building Aid. So, that's the revenue that the state reimbures back to the district over a 15-year period. And then we want to look at how we're going to borrow the money and what our payments are going to look like. And so our goal is to come up with a schedule for the borrowing that aligns with the building a coming back. So in
037any one year we're not having a large expense without that offsetting revenue coming back. Um and then the difference would be local share or tax levy. And so we look at a lot of different factors when we build this financing plan that you're looking at. Um number one is if there's any capital reserve available. At this point we're not using any capital reserve in this financing plan. Um the other piece is is there any retiring debt that is falling off the books and is there a tax levy associated with that? And if there is, can we backfill the need from this project with uh or from the retiring project with this project so that we can create a level tax levy for our taxpayers. And so that's what we've done here. Um and so I
038know there's a lot of numbers, but let's kind of just follow the flow for two seconds. Um and the columns are labeled at the top. So we have our fiscal year. We have the balance of debt outstanding at the beginning of each fiscal year. Uh capital reserve which we're not having um any applied at this point. Columns four through seven are the district's expense. Those are payments that you'd make each year. The first two um four and five are bond anticipation notes or bands. That's short-term borrowing. And then column six or se and seven are the bonds. That's the long-term sort of a mortgage if you will. Um, and then column eight is a sum of all those. So that total debt service, those are the total principal and interest payments you'd pay back to
039the lender each year. Column 9 are those building aid payments that we calculated. And for aidable expense, um, the district receives a reimbursement of 79.8 cents on every dollar spent. So that's why we want to make sure we maximize that. Um, and the difference is what the taxpayers would be responsible for. Um, so column seven or excuse me, column 10 is the difference between column 8 and column 9, our expense minus our revenue. So that's the tax levy that's needed for this project. And then column 11 shows the local share of all of our prior projects. And you can see in the first year 28, the local share, the tax levy is about $365,000. And then it goes down to about $248,000. When we add this project in, we retain that $365,000. So, we retain
040a steady tax levy for the taxpayers and are able to accomplish the capital needs of the district. And you can see that in column 12. And you can see that that flows down uh for a few years. Then we start to see a drop around 2033. Again, a smaller drop. Um so that's another opportunity to layer in a project that could be tax neutral. Okay, does everybody follow that? Awesome. Um, so that's that's where we are at this point in time. Uh, we've reviewed the scope, we've looked at everything. Um, and Drew mentioned the timeline of the three years, and that is to make sure that we're maximizing that aid ability specifically at the elementary school. Um, so any questions on the numbers? And if you Jeeoff, if you want to go to the next
041slide, it's just this is just a little um simpler version of what I just showed. It just shows the fiscal years, the tax levy um prior to this project and you can see that drop um the tax levy at this project and the tax levy after. And then the far right column, that's the only difference um that wasn't on the prior slide. That's just the difference in tax levy from year to year. So you can see it's substantially level. >> Yes. >> In um 12 is $5 million and we are looking at excess of $1.9 million. >> Um what is the $1.9 million uh excess used for or is that going to go back since we're not using capital reserve? >> Where are you seeing the 1 >> okay 5 million 34 >> Yep. >>
04285 >> y >> 385 and 6.9 is what our proposal is. >> So we have we have a 1.9 million roughly. >> Yep. So that is so column 12 is the total of this project and the prior projects. So column 10 plus column 11 equals column 12. So that 5 million is the total local share over the from fiscal year 28 through fiscal year 43 that the taxpayers would be paying. >> So if I may I think I'm tracking with what you're saying right? You think that's the total of what the project will cost at >> and it's actually the total of how much the taxes will increase over that amount of years total together. Is that accurate? >> Um it's the total amount that will be levied over those number of years. So right
043right now it's at 365,000 and instead of going down to 248 if you weren't to do a project and then coming back up in a future year when when you needed to bring a project on. >> So instead the 365 is built in. It'll continue continue to be built into the into the budget. There won't be any increase but that is that five million is what will be levied between now and 2043 for capital projects is that are you following that? >> Not really. So the 6.9 doesn't have anything to do with that's the proposed amount of but the aid you receive and the tax levy is I guess >> not to steal your thunder. >> No, [laughter] sure. Go ahead. >> Not to steal your thunder, but the tax levy >> the the total
044is just it's really not that important. It's just the 365 is the important number that that is somewhat maintained for a series of years. um versus column 11 where it's right now um you know it drops from 365 to 248 to 198 which means that there's a gap in uh where you can actually put a new levy back into the into the project. >> Correct. Exactly right. I feel like you're still not following. Do you still have a question? >> Okay. No, that that's >> sure understand it. Absolutely. Um, it's to sorry column he was asking if column 12 was to meant to show that um tax levy decreases over years. It's shown it's column 12 is to show that we're uh maintaining the tax levy for capital purposes from year to year. >> Right.
045>> Microphone please. >> Sorry. >> Yes. Okay. I was just saying that instead of the tax levy going down at the completion of the project and then having to make a larger jump for the next one, we're kind of backfilling it so that it stays steady and there's not a giant increase we then have to ask ask the taxpayers for. >> Okay, now I get it. Thank you. >> Okay, >> got it. >> But I think what's um the confusing part is using the word tax levy. >> Sure. >> Right. So you think that we're having to increase taxes to cover when you see that because >> it is a term that's interchangeable, >> but we currently make payments towards previous projects from five years ago, >> seven years ago. >> It's to keep it
046stable so that like Alyssa said, so we're not levying more taxes. >> This is just the payments we make year after year after year after year. Correct. So it's not it's like you said tax neutral. >> We're not levying more taxes. It's just based on this is the payment we have to make that we currently make and have been making on previous pro projects. >> Correct. Correct. >> Jeff >> is that 365 about the range we've been at roughly? >> Yes. That >> rough idea how long I was gonna Yeah. Um, it it's been it's been a number of years that it's been at the 365. >> Um, I can give you that exact I don't want to throw a year out there and it be off and but I can get that for you
047and give it to Jeff. >> We've done a number of revenue neutral >> of the of these tax neutral projects trying to maintain that value >> so that our capital payments stay stable year to year. >> Exactly. Correct. Right. And the tax neutral projects like what we're doing now, and please Chris, correct me if I'm wrong. The current project we're in now, and this this is just an extension of the Centennial project is a tax neutral. We didn't have to raise taxes for the construction that's going on now. Correct. >> It's intertwined with bonds maturing. And like Alyssa said, when a bond matures and if we don't backfill it with another project and keep that stable >> and we wait say five years, when these things that need to be restored, then we do have
048to go out to the taxpayers and ask for a very large increase in the tax levy. That is exactly correct. Yes. Well said. Any other questions on the finance side? >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Thanks. >> Any other questions on the building side? >> Is there any way you can get rid of the interesting things like the fences and the electric charging and just do more roofs? >> Well, it's funny. >> Running out of roofs. >> No, I don't care. There's got to be more roofs. >> There are still some, but you are running out of >> Yeah. I mean, that was a that was a focus from day one. And you know, this roof, what the roof that we're going to be doing in this project was the outlier that needed
049to be done. Um, and we're hopeful that when we're done, there won't be any roofs that need to be done um for for a while. You know, there are there there are other roofs at the high school that will age out eventually, but they're not problematic at the moment. I want to mention it's not in the scope of this work when it comes to the bond and the vote that um Mr. Ryvenberg, myself and the team evaluated um remaining smart bond fund monies and a few other um resources that again it won't be in the scope of the work that we necessarily put out to the public because we have other grant monies available to us including -ate things like that of replacing the PA system here to a more secure PA system. So that's
050why it's not listed there because that's not what we will go out to the public for a vote for and or some um you know contingent upon SND. >> Any more questions? Thank you team. We appreciate you. >> Travel safely back to >> Thanks guys everywhere. >> Travel safe. Okay. Next up we have Miss Ross's report. Okay. So, you should have a copy within electronically P or paper. Um, this is going to fall out. Okay. So, I like to do at least once a year kind of update a year in review about our assessment and accountability data. I just want you to understand that the accountability data that you're going to see, this actually isn't going to work. The accountability data you're going to see is will be updated in February. So, state ed has
051a weird cycle. They don't let us know our accountability status until then. Preliminary usually comes out in December was the fastest, but sometimes it can go as late as January or February. But we're we're going to recap some of it. Oh, I guess I do have to touch it. All right. So, when we talk about accountability, New York State Education Department looks at all 700 plus school districts and they look at 3 through8 assessments. There's several indices. They look at 3 through eight assessments, regions, exams, uh, graduation rate, chronic absenteeism, and ENL or L's. This is just overarching. You may remember this from last year when we got our accountability data last fe uh last December, January, and they weighed it from a scale from 1 to four and school districts. A little later on,
052you're going to see a comparison to our neighboring districts, but green is good. Green is very good. Um so we have the elementary school and we have the high school and we have the composite weighted and we have the composite core. What that is is it's ELA math and science. The difference between weighted level and core is that weighted level uses the denominator all students continuously enrolled from beds day to test day. all students is the denominator and then they multiply by 100 so on and so forth. The um composite core level are the students who are continuously enrolled and actually take a test. So, the true number, fun fact, it is very unusual and I I I I haven't been able to figure out it never really happens the core level being less than
053the weighted level because when you have all students versus students who just test. Haven't figured out how that happened. I've never seen that before, but we're happy because it's green. So then we have the high school as well and our um I don't know why the um when I pull from the accountability website it doesn't have students with disabilities but um they take the different subgroups and they and they figure and that's where they go from a scale from one to four. So that's great news. Yep. We know that some of our students and Mrs. Marvin works with her team or MTSS team about where were two and chronically absent. Chronically absent means a student is absent more than 10% of the school year >> or 18 days. >> Just >> sure >> because I'm
054kind of curious. Uh do you have a rough idea of the the size of that economically disadvantaged pool? >> I do. I actually have access to what students are considered economically disadvantaged. Um I can absolutely get you that number and put it in my weekly update like the number like the percentage of students. Um I think the last time I looked we were in the um high 20s low30s. All right. So here's I like to call this the heat map and it is looking at and I always like the comparative to previous years like where are we going where have we been and we look at three through eight assessments and this is just this past spring. So, we have each grade level. And it's also fun to look if you say um you looked
055at third grade in 2021, what happened in 2022, what happened in 2023, 24, and then 25, right? So, you're going down diagonally. But the bottom line is is that when we look this past spring, because we want to not get hung up in the rearview mirror, right? We want to make sure we're always looking forward. You're going to see that other than eighth grade and that's that red, right? We talked about they have dark green, light green, yellow, and red. The red means we felt the eighth grade ELA um students fell below state average. And here they came out with a memo that talks about how did the state do compared to Dwayne'sburg. And I've said this for a year and a half now that um here's 2023 2024 but this is how um statewide
056this is just statewide. It's not compared to Dwayne'sburg. So if we look at grade three 54% were proficient in the state. So that's why we have more of that yellow cover color. In grade four 54% we had 66.67. Grade five 57% we were at 69 so on and so forth. So this is they only gave me for 23 24 and then 24 25. So that's why in grade 8 it was 52% was proficient across the state and we only hit 40%. Okay, here's math. We actually did really well in math this year. there's been a lot of effort um when we look across right third grade through 8th grade and other than 8th grade slightly missing the mark compared to students across the state. So that's why it's in it's um that yellow. Pretty proud
057of those numbers for the the kiddos who took this test in the spring. We also have to take science in because that's part of that composite score. And again, it looks a little wonky, but they changed the test. Do remember they changed the grade levels. But we know this year 56% in grade five were proficient. Now, the reason why we don't have an eighth grade science is because we accelerated all our eighth graders in science to a regent level and the state has it's nice because we do overassess our children that if they take an accelerated course in eighth grade in either math or ELA or science, um they don't have to take the state assessment. So, all our students took the living environment regions and then below is the state average. All right, I
058wasn't going to put the school district's names, but please know it is within 15 miles of Dwayne'sburg. So, here we are. Here's our neighbors. So when I talk about Dwayneburg does a lot of good things and does a lot of things right, look at the yellows and a little and one red. The only thing that we're really focusing on is the economically disadvantaged attendance rate. So that's a feather in all our teachers caps. Just let's just look at that for a minute. a hu significant difference with our neighboring school districts. All right, let's move on to regions exams. Um, we did accelerate in life science, biology or living environment. Was it living environment or or life science? Li living environment. Okay. Um, and then we had biology. We knew we we had some kiddos struggling
059in chemistry. Um and we also had some kiddos struggle in geometry. Here's the thing. We we heard this across the state that the living environment test Oh, no. I'm sorry. It was the uh life science test, the life science, old earth science test. living environments. But right, but we also uh space science, the earth science, space science. We heard across between those two tests that a lot of uh districts across the state were like the kids said that it there was questions that weren't even in the curriculum. Um I had thought that with enough noise, especially from our Long Island districts, that the state would have um made it made adjustments, but they didn't. So here is that this is percent passing percent passing and again it's colorcoded graduation rate we had um 52 completers
060six local 24 regents 18 with advanced advanced with honors three and we had 15 CTE endorsements and this is kind kind of broken down by students with disabilities, um, economically disadvantaged and other subgroups. Oh, where did my Okay, that slide should have been at the bottom. Chronically absent. This is changing this year. The state used to look at chronically absent at 10% collectively, like all kids, right? all kids um as a percentage of children who are chronically absent. So if you see here right we know this is our attendance these are the kids who were percentage of children who are absent. So September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May and June. Here it's broken down by grade level. And then it's always fun. Like I mean we probably could guess kids are absent
061mostly on Fridays, right? Who doesn't love a long weekend? I prefer a Monday. So 18 or more days. It's changing this year. Instead of doing it collectively all kids as a percentage, it's becoming an indicy. meaning little Melissa is going to have her own assigned level, her own attendance. Little Francis is going to have his own. And it's almost like a growth model for the individual student. So, it's shifting. I actually wrote it down because I want to make sure I said it correctly. It's moving from an attendance indicator to an to each student being assigned into an individual indices. So when you look at chronic absenteeism again historically, but we're not going to get stuck in the rearview mirror. Um we've had an uptick this this past school year in the number of students
062percentage-wise who are chronically absent. If we look at grade levels, right, we know sixth grade, eighth grade, and is this a surprise? Senioritis, right? Senioritis. Not that it makes it right, but yeah, 38% of our seniors who just graduated were considered chronically absent. [snorts] All right. College, career, and civic readiness. This is kind of exciting. It's it's on the heels of the portrait of a graduate. So they assign points for for each of these categories. Local diploma and CTE gets two points. Regious diploma high school credit through advanced placement courses 1.5 a local diploma one and equivalency diploma 0.5 and obviously no diploma zero. And I actually p I wanted to focus on this past school year. Um we are really doing very well and this is a component within um accountability. Starting this year
063the seal of civic readiness and biiteracy will be assigned points. I'm not sure how many points. I couldn't find if it's going to be worth one to 1.5. Um I'm happy to announce and I'm proud of Mrs. Marvin and her team, they applied this summer because you have to apply to be able to give the seal of civic readiness and she just found out a few weeks ago that we were approved. Um, so congratulations to you and your team. um biliteracy seal will be very difficult because we only offer Spanish but maybe down the road we figure something out with the distance learning but um we're doing very well and a lot of it has to do with um in addition to the CTE endorsement we have a lot of kids going to CTE but
064we have a lot of advanced placement courses AP courses that we offer kids and um a lot of kids really try to go for that uh advanced region diploma. >> Okay. And then the last one was supposed to be questions. I don't know how I got messed up. Questions. >> Yeah, I have a question on page six. I think I asked this question last year. >> Which one? >> I forgot. Um page six on regional regionally. >> Okay. >> Um the comparisons of school A, B, C, and D. >> Uh the subgroup names are Why are the categories different in some of them? So, some some um districts may not have any Hispanic or Latino. You have to have at least 20. I think it's either 20 or 30. You have to have at least
065that number for them to be able to consider as a subgroup. Does that make sense? >> Okay. Yeah. >> So, if ENL or L children >> because I know we have Hispanic, >> but we don't have enough to create that. >> We don't have that. We don't have the indices that indices indicator which would be 20. Okay. >> Right. So that happens as well if you saw over here. Let me go back. >> See ELP English language proficient. >> It's blank because we only we actually had two more children register. So how many are we up to now? Five. A year and a half ago, we had one. So, still won't be enough to be constitution. >> I I asked that question last year. >> That's okay. >> I forgot. >> No, that's great. I'm
066glad you asked it again. Don't don't be, you know, >> curious. It's a function of having a a large enough n to do statistics on them. Right. >> Right. The end. >> You can't can't do statistics on two kids. >> Sure. page. I'm just curious, what is the rubric for the scoring to get to these? >> It's not a rubric. It is actually um a math problem. Which page are you on? >> So, it is not um it is not a rubric. What they do is and I probably can pull it up for you here. I'll show you. That's why I put it here in case someone in case Tony was curious. All right. So, here is um let me get down here. I'll show you the formula. So that's why it said the denominator
067is either all students continuously enrolled or the denominator are the students who took the test. It is here. It might be page 39. I'm going to keep going. >> [snorts] >> Hold on one second. I know. I whiz by it. Please stop me. Right here. >> Right here. There's a formula. Sorry, you're so tiny. So, you calculate uh calculate English, math, science, and achievement indices. Here's the formula 100 times and the denominator is continuously enrolled and that is so it's not a rubric it's a mathematical equation the state uses and that's so that is we have the composite and then as I said before >> I'm sorry >> that that 100 is per 100 is that what that is the formula 100 >> it makes a makes it a percentage. >> Percentage. Okay. And I
068I assume the four colors are the four quarterly cohorts. >> The colors are based on percentage compared to the state. So like if we're green, that means within all 700 districts and then so we have the as I said that's the same formula. What changes is the denominator. Uh the composite weighted is those three assessments by all students continuously enrolled from beds day to test day. Beds day is the first Wednesday in October. Somebody comes in November and tests and tests, they're not in this formula. If that student comes in November, continuously enrolls until test day, they'll be included in this number. So this is just the students who took the test by the number of students who took the test. Does that make sense? And [snorts] by 100 is because of like you said
069percentage. So it is the [clears throat] denominator changes. Does that make sense? Yeah. That make did that answer? Yeah. >> Good job for a social teacher. >> I'm sorry. What? >> Good job for a social study teacher. >> This was my in my previous life. I lived and breathed this in every district I worked in. So, um, and one of my dearest, oldest friends is now has been. She's the assistant commissioner for accountability. So, she's always a phone call away. >> All right, that's all I got. >> I have a question. >> Sure. >> Um, on page five, you mentioned that the reason that's there's not data on some of those rows >> is because science is accelerated. No, no, this is because this the the test changed. It was given in fourth grade and
070there was a gap year and then last year was given in fifth grade or the year before. And then for here is because in 2025 we don't have it because all our eighth graders took a region's exam in science. >> What about 2018 through 2023? >> It was a different test. That's why it shows in a different row. >> So you see where it says scale >> and then it changed. >> It changed and then now it's here because last year we uh in 2024 I shouldn't say last year because that was last year 2024 we had eighth graders taking that assessment. >> Okay. So do do the eighth graders who took that assessment do they appear on page seven um for science living environment? >> Yes. eighth graders, >> eighth graders. So, here's the
071thing with um accelerating students. I am a big believer in giving more bites at the apple because some of our students, it's okay that we know they may not be successful, but we can take that class, that science class, slow it down and give it to them over a period of two years so that when they do hit nth grade and they have to take that course in ninth grade and they really need it slowed down and cut up, you know, more chunks, um, um they're not behind the eightball, right? So now those students who took it in eighth grade that did not pass that exam, they're going to continue and take it again, take that course again, and they'll be the likelihood of them being more successful increases. If they had it in ninth
072grade and they weren't successful, now they're going into 10th grade and they have to take a ninth grade class. >> Understood? >> Yeah. >> My my question specifically [snorts] is are those students that took that living environment regents indicated in the 2025 cell right there on the right. >> Yes. >> Yep. >> But what's also interesting is the eighth grade students that took algebra 1 are there, >> but the eighth grade students, if you go back to the math >> that were not accelerated, >> not accelerated. >> This is this is actually the the the bad thing historically that eighth grade math is very low because they accelerate off the top part of the curve. >> Oh. Because that's all that's left over to analyze. >> Yeah. And the kids in eighth grade math aren't
073it's your average kid, right? Um but we also saw in ELA that they didn't do as well in ELA and they were one of the cohorts that were chronically absent. Connect the dots, right? Like if you're not here, >> you're not going to learn much, >> right? If you're not here, you're not you're going to fall behind. So Mrs. Marvin's all over this. She knows. Do you want Oh, that's right. [snorts] I completely forgot about that. You're right. So, what Jod's talking about is if you weren't aware when when the eighth graders were taking because we do it all computer-based something. Who was the new vendor? It was a new vendor, wasn't it? It wasn't I can't remember their name. It was a new vendor that the state contracted with to do the computer-based testing.
074Not just us, but across the state. It crashed. So, some kids started it and then it crashed and then some could kids couldn't get back in or it was a mess. And you're right, Jody, I completely forgot. I pushed it out of my mind. So, that as unfortunate as it is, that's definitely a variable in that in that lower score. Some kids weren't able to finish it, right? They weren't able to finish it because it crashed. The system crashed. Tony, >> and chronically eighth graders are done. They they don't want to take them. I mean, I literally would get papers where they designed their answers in diamonds or whatever. >> I >> Yeah, >> I did very poorly on the eighth grade ELA because I didn't want to do it. I read a more interesting
075article that I wrote about instead of what I was supposed to. >> They're very What is the difference between the regions diploma now that's on here and the local diploma. >> Usually local diploma is what we um it's like a safety net for our students who with special needs. >> Yeah. >> [snorts] >> Right. And again, like Jody said, there was it was across the news within superintendent meetings and and I'm sure principal meetings and and ASI meetings that like what was up with this test and it nothing changed with state. I'm I'm even with these numbers when accountability comes out in February, we're going to be fine. I could show you schools that are in the bottom 5% of the state and it's all red, right? So, it's all relative to comparative. So, we'll
076be fine. Um, but it's it's good, you know, for the the principles and their teacher leaders to kind of see what our trends are. Like I said, the third graders in 2021 when they hit fourth grade, when they hit fifth grade, when they hit sixth grade, and when they hit seventh grade. Okay. All right. Thanks. I love talking about data. I think you can turn that off, Dean. Thank you. >> Okay, [clears throat] moving on to our financial items. Okay. Be it resolved based upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board of education approves the uh financial items 7.01 01 through 7.07. May I have a motion? >> A motion. >> Thank you, Francis. A second. Thank you, Tony. Comments or questions about any of these financial items? Okay. All in favor? >> I.
077Any opposed? Any abstensions? >> Oh, I do want to thank the sheriff's department for >> Oh, yes. how to keep the two >> our SRO's. Yes. Okay. Uh next we have instructional personnel items. Be it resolved based upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board of education approves uh item instructional personnel items 8.01 through 8.03. May I have a motion? >> Motion. >> Thank you, Ray. A second. Thank you, Tony. Comments or questions about instructional personnel? All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? >> Okay. Next item, non-instructional personnel. Be it resolved based upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board of education approve, excuse me, non-instructional personnel items, uh, 9.01 and 9.02. May I have a motion? >> I'll move. >> Thank you, Alyssa. A second. >> I'll second. >>
078Thank you, Sarah. Comments or questions on these items? >> All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. Next item. be it resolved based upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board of education approve the cse and CPSSE minutes from the meetings on August 21st and 29th as well as September 2nd and 3rd of 2025. May I have a motion? >> A motion. >> Thank you, Francis. A second. Thank you, Tony. Comments or questions about this item? >> Just as always, always impressed with the number >> work there. Thank you very much. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Uh to my knowledge, we are not in need of an executive session. Does anyone have an a request for executive session? All right. Uh then may I have a motion
079to adjourn our meeting this evening at 7:50 p.m. Thank you, Tony. A second. >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Ray. Comments or questions? All in favor? Opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you so much for being here this evening. We appreciate you guys. Happy happy beginning of school. [laughter]