ERCSD - Public Hearing & Regular Board Meeting 05-06-26

001Good evening everyone. Like to call this meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Thank you. Good evening everyone. Fire exits are located in the sides of the room in the front and back. In event of a fire, you will hear a fire alarm at that time. Please move in a calm and orderly fashion to the nearest exit. We will now open it up. Um the meeting is a public hearing for the budget and districtwide safety plan. For that, we'll give it over to Mr. Eric Stark who's going to be presenting with the presentation of the proposed 2026 2027 budget. Mr. Stark thank you sir just getting there. So um we're just going to briefly review the uh summaries of the revenue and um expenditure budgets uh

002as uh everything has been adopted. The budget hearing is a requirement by uh New York State for the public to have an opportunity to comment on the budget. Uh but the budget is already adopted. Um this is something that has been um in law in New York State for quite some time. So um just to quickly review um you can see here that uh on the draft revenue budget we have uh property tax uh being equal to that of the 2526 revenue budget at 162 million 801 802. Um the large in largest increase and the the most of the increases in the revenue budget are within the uh New York state aid line. So we have an increase from 167 million and change to 185.9 million uh or an increase of a little over$18.5 million.

003Um as has been discussed in prior meetings. Uh the lion share of that increase is um from an increase in transportation aid based upon two uh items. Number one, an increased uh budgeted cost for transportation in the 26 27 year, as well as a change that the district um did uh in in uh concert with uh two of our consultants to change the non-allowable pupil decimal, which allows us to actually recoup uh a higher percentage of our transportation costs in aid. Um all told an increase in the budget of 19.36 million uh bringing the overall revenue budget to 367 million649590. And again as I have also mentioned we have a revenue budget and an expenditure budget. We can move to the expenditure budget now. Well hold on a second but the revenue budget and the

004expenditure budget will be equal as they always are. Um this is just the um graphical representation of a five-year history of our revenue budget and the way that it's broken down. Um what you can see uh very clearly in this um slide is that three years ago for the 2324 school year um the revenue budget property tax was more than 50% um and state aid was 45.4%. 4% of the budget. We have had substantial increases over the last three budget cycles in state aid. Uh and that has resulted in a flip-flopping of uh the pieces of the budget where um property tax is now just under 45% and New York state aid is um over 50% for the first time at 50.2% of the revenue budget. Moving on to the expenditure budget. Um, again, as

005you can see, the increase of $19.36 million is the same as it would be for the revenue side, as our revenue budget and expenditure budgets will always be equal. Um, the largest areas of increase, um, as I have mentioned on several occasions, um, are in the teaching area of, uh, just under $2 million. Um, and that includes all of the different areas. um special education, general education, and multilingual education. So, an increase of $1.925 million there. As previously discussed, that helped to increase the revenue budget with the increases in aid. We have an increase of almost $12 million in our transportation services. Um and then, um another highlight there because it is approximately a 25% increase is that we have an an increase of a little over a million dollars in our debt service. And

006that is uh related directly to the uh financing that we just approved um a few months ago for the energy performance contract that was approved by the board several years back that we were finally able to um get financing for. So we'll be able to uh begin work on that project over this summer. So again um all told um the same increase um to the budget, the same total budget. Here again the graphical representation of our expenditure budget. Um and as you can see uh the lion share of the budget is in teaching and benefits. Um which makes up over 50% of our budget. And then um as I've also mentioned on many occasions, transportation services is 21 uh a little over 21% of our budget which is a little unusual but we have such

007a large um population of non uh public students that we transport. So, our transportation services are bigger than most other school districts. In fact, I believe that we have the second largest public school transportation uh system in the state of New York uh outside of New York City. So, that is the uh breakdown of our expenditure budget and um that concludes um the the summary. Um again, we have our budget vote on May 19th, 2026. will also have a board meeting that night. Um, and we will uh be here uh to see the results which we hope are positive. Um, and uh, again, as I have said in a lot of our um, presentations to the community and other groups, um, as a former social studies teacher, it is your civic duty to vote. I

008can't tell you how to vote. That would not be fair or legal. But it is your civic duty and it is your right to vote and you should exercise that right. So, please go out to the polls on May 19th and vote on the budget. That's all. >> Thank you, Mr. Stark. We'll now turn it over for our presentation of districtwide safety plan by Mr. Tom Carton. Mr. Carton, take it away, sir. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Uh before I start my presentation, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Superintendent Rusco and Assistant Superintendent Stark for providing me with the resources to improve our plans through our efforts with Putnham Don Westchester Boseis which is a mouthful. I finally got it out uh and working with trust advisors. We had a security audit. Everything

009in the in the district is being checked. uh what the recommendations we could up upgrade with Boseies. They've trained our administrative staff, all the buildings, their administrative teams in the incident command system, the proper response to an emergency. The bu the district safety plan we have right now as a living document is always changing. After we have an emergency or something, we always sit back, we do playback. How do we how do we do how can we do better? What can we do to improve? What we have now is the basis for every emergency we could think of is a found is a foundation and you can build from there. They're adaptable, they're mobile, uh they're proven to work. We try to cover every emergency from human to environmental and over the years, as you

010remember, we've had uh structural u malfunctions, electrical malfunctions, but the plans work. So, um, we try to we update them every year. Right now, this summer, we're going to be doing an updated checklist. So, instead of having to put out the binder to go through it, it's going to be a checklist step by step. It will condense 200 pages to about 37 pages. So, I'll have that present to the board by the summertime. The public can comment on the plans until June 4th. Um, the it'll be up on the website. I welcome any comments. I'm always looking to improve. No matter how old I am, I get to learn something new every day. So, that being said, are there any comments from the board? Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Cland. We'll now make a

011motion to open the floor for public comment and speaking. Do I have a second? >> Second by Vice President McGill. All those in favor say I. >> I. And on oppose of say motion carries. Speaker number one. Oh Okay. Yeah. I'm I'm sorry. Hold on one second. Mine is not working. I think it's dead. important. Moment Superintendencer. ridicul. Auditorium. and we are here to hear us. This is a gentleman that he he said that he speak Spanish. To be honest, I don't believe you and you are here to hear our complaints. Why I speak in Spanish? because my community, most of us speak Spanish and I want them to know because you guys know what's going on here. Thank you. Speaker number two. Good evening everyone. My name is Paul Manzan Limas and I am

012the senior validictorian of Spring Valley High School. I want to begin by addressing a recent situation that occurred online after being recognized publicly as validictorian on the district's page. Negative and homophobic comments were allowed to remain, including one telling me to quote turn to Christ, turn to Christ, unquote, which was liked by the district's official page. I felt humiliated knowing that my parents, teachers, and peers would see these negative comments being perpetrated. I reached out to the official account and received no response. While the comments were eventually disabled, there was no acknowledgement or communication from that account. When students are placed in the public eye by the district, they should feel supported and protected. Accountability should extend beyond the classroom. It should apply to how students are represented in all district spaces. This connects to

013a broader issue that I want to address, the state of academics at my school, Spring Valley High School. So, while many speakers have come up forward requesting more AP and advanced classes, and while that is a reasonable request, it is equally important that we focus on the quality and effectiveness of the AP courses that are already offered. I've taken several APs and I just want to share some of my experiences in some of these classes. In some cases, teachers were unaware of changes to AP rubrics, exam formats, mock exams were never provided, and valuable class time was not consistently used for AP aligned instruction. There are also instances where courses labeled as college level do not reflect that standard. For example, in my RCC English class, we have never written a single full essay this

014entire time. In AP computer science principles, much of the class time is spent with students working independently on code.org with limited direct instruction. So, while independence is important, these approaches do not consistently reflect the rigor or structure expected in true college level courses. And these are not isolated issues. They point to gaps in preparation, oversight, and support that directly affect student outcomes. These classes are meant to prepare students for the demands of higher education. But when those expectations are not met, students earn strong ga strong grades in these exams. But when they enter college level spaces, they experience a culture shock. These challenges are compounded by systemic issues. Our students receive some of the lowest instructional time in the state, putting us at a disadvantage. And lab-based courses like AP environmental science. There's often not

015enough time to complete required labs. When AP chemistry was offered last year, much of the time was spent covering regions level material rather than AP level content. We should not focus solely on increasing the number of AP classes without prioritizing student performance and preparedness. Students deserve the time, structure, and instruction necessary to truly succeed in college level coursework. I want to be clear, this is not meant to shame any of my teachers whom I respect. My goal is to ensure that future students at Spring Valley High School are better supported both academically and as individuals. Thank you. >> Thank you, Pablo. That's horrible what was said and I would like to get to the bottom of what happened. If we can do please do a full and thorough investigation because that's not it's unacceptable. Okay.

016Um I'll now make a motion to adjourn this meeting and we're going to open up the call to order the regular meeting. They have a second to adjourn the public hearing and budget. Second by Mr. Cth. All those in favor say I. And on oppos motion carries and I'll call to order the regular meeting. Um being that we don't have any student voice here today, we're going to move on to our superintendent report. Superintendent Vusco, take it away. >> Thank you and good evening. >> We would um just to address the you know this student speaker. I want to thank him for his comments and um I want him to know that we are planning a presentation on our next meeting with the um content area directors who will be providing an overview of their

017analysis and recommendations to improve instruction 7 through 12 in each of the four major content areas. So we are aware of the challenges that this district has faced for years and we are making efforts to try to address them. So, uh, at our next meeting, you'll be receiving an update on that. Um, moving on, I want to, um, acknowledge that this is, uh, teacher recognition week. So, we want to, uh, acknowledge our teachers. Um, we have started a number of new initiatives this year. Um, especially at the elementary levels, um, and some middle school level with our reading initiative. Want to thank those teachers for embracing that work. It was a lot of work and with intense uh professional development. So, we want to thank them and we want to thank all of our teachers

018K through 12 who um are are working hard to try to meet the needs of our students. As already mentioned, we're hoping that um in the future uh there will be enough professional development and changes in the curriculum so that we can offer a more rigorous curriculum. But thank you to our teaching staff and it's also u recognition day for our school nurses. Um and so we want to thank them as well uh under the leadership of Karen Tentenbal the supervisor. They helped to keep our students safe. Uh we were able to really increase our nursing services our staff over the last two years under her leadership and rely less on um nurses for consulting nurses. So, we thank them for their hard work and for their focus on health and wellness. And uh now

019we want to talk a little bit about our kindergarten registration which we've been mentioning over the course of our several weeks, but we also want to introduce our UPK registration process. So, um if um we do UPK programs are available in our community um and if you are interested in having your child participate in UPK, uh the child has to be four years old by December 1st. Um and UPK is offered five days a week, five hours a day. uh you can apply um via our website and you can also come to uh this building to our registration department to register your students. Similarly for kindergarten registration as we've mentioned before so your child must be 5 years old on or before December 1st. Um and again you can register uh via online or come

020here to our office to um to register right here in this building. We encourage you all to do so. Uh, I'm going to ask our administrators, Jalisa Hurink, Tommy Zawa, our assistant superintendent for multilingual education, and Karen McConey, assistant superintendent for student services, to uh, present us with an overview of um, the next few slides, which represent some of the uh, summer programs that we have and I'll turn it over to them. >> Thank you. Good evening. So, for our summer programming, we are going to have our kindergarten jump start program again this summer. And that is really focused on incoming kindergarten students designed around foundational skills, social emotional learning, all through interactive activities including play that really focus on executive functioning and academics. So, we're really targeting students who didn't have any um universal

021prek experience. So, we're going to be inviting students to that program. Students will be re um families will be receiving invitations and they can respond that way. Um next, we have our summer learning program for our K through seven students. Our students this summer will experience literacy and numeracy through the areas of STEM, fine and performing arts, and sports. This program will run Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 100 p.m. from July 6 through August 13th. The program includes breakfast, lunch, and transportation. Registration is now open. You can use the QR link here to register as well as find information on our homepage to be able to register. Thank you. Good evening everyone. So I get to present for the high school. We have two programs this year for our high school students. Um

022starting with our high school summer academy which is intended for our students who are going to be 9th, 10th and 11th grade in September. And the goal of this program is to ensure that our students have an enrichment opportunity that it also focuses on the core academics. So, reading, math, science, and social studies through a hands-on approach to learning. This also includes um building high school success skills for our incoming nth graders, making sure that they have that transition. They can connect with folks at um at the high school level and understand what the transition would look like. Um learn some good um time management skills as well as um mental health, wellness, and stress management. So, how do we support our students across those areas? Transportation will be provided as well as breakfast and

023and lunch. The location will be at Spring Valley High School starting July 6th um and ending August 13 running four days a week from 9 to 1 p.m. Um there is no cost to families and registration information will be ready on our website on May 11th. >> Just a quick question, is this program uh summer academy um something that the district is running or WellCore? because I know Wildcore was looking to um continue running their summer program that they run every year. So, I just want clarification to know if this is actually the district that's putting this together or Welcore. >> So, we're running this program in collaboration with Welcor. They're supporting the enrichment component of the program. >> Okay. So, we're we're providing um what the day-to-day will look like. >> Yes. with the

024in partnership with >> as well as the curriculum and they're supporting our curriculum program with the field trips and some of the enrichment components. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Sure. The other program we have this summer is for our students in 10 in 12th grade. So currently students in cohort um will be supported through program at Rockland Boseies. The intent of this program is to help our students get to the finish line and end successfully um so they can graduate in August. Um the program starts Wednesday, July 8th. A transportation will be provided. Um our students will have the opportunity to uh take the regions as well as get regions prep um experience during that summer program. The summer program will be at Fieldston Middle School in um Fields, New York. Um, and the graduation

025for our students will be on August 26th here in the district. Again, transportation will be provided as well as meals at no cost to our families. And um, our school counselors are working with the building leaders to inform the eligible students for this program. So, more information is coming to those students um, at the building level. >> And what makes students eligible? What are the requirements to be able to be um eligible for this summer school? >> So, they have to be part of the 2022 cohort >> or earlier and who also need to pass these regions exams. >> And how many students will be able to attend? >> We're looking at 200 students. >> And how many for the high school summer academy? >> For the high school summer academy, we're aiming for as

026many as we could get 400 kids. We are able to manage and meet that need with our partners with the court. >> And that's that's both Rampo and Smooth Valley, correct? >> Yes. >> Now, what about um since it's only a 200 cap? I'm assuming that's what 100 Rampo from Rampo 100 from Swoo Valley. Is that how we're doing it? I'm not I'm not I don't think I could ex um share that information because I'm not sure exactly where like how many students in each school meet that criteria. >> Well, our executive director of uh guidance and um our um secondary leadership team are looking at students that qualify. We're looking at students that are likely to be successful in the program and who can make a commitment. So, we're making an effort to meet

027with um identify the students and meet with them individually as well as an attempt to contact parents to make sure that they have a commitment and they can actually attend because we do have to make a payment, you know, to Boseis. We have to say, okay, we want to hold this many seats and we want to make sure that whatever many seats we're holding, we at least have confirmation from the students and the family that the student will be able to attend. So, we're looking at students that um need it for graduation uh and students that are likely to be successful, meaning that they attend at least 70% of the time, attend school 70% of the time because those are the students that would be more likely to attend. So, um in the past, we've

028had struggles with, you know, we we knew a lot of students that needed to attend a summer program, but they didn't often attend. They often had, as we all know with our students, conflicts in their um responsibilities that that conflicts with school. Um and some of them have, you know, very poor attendance, meaning they're unlikely to attend. So, we're trying to to um identify 200 students that would that would participate in this program. >> And what about the other students who may need it? um we >> who may actually benefit for it from it in the summertime. >> We're not sure we can even get to 200. We're not sure that we can secure 200. Um so based on past pract um experience, uh it's been hard to find 200 kids that will consistently come.

029So that's been part of the problem >> and we have data on that. Yep. >> Yeah. >> That can be shared. >> Sure. >> So, and the other summer program being offered is a program exclusively for a set number of scholars at the middle school level who will participate in the Wonder Girls program, which is a summer leadership experience for um students at the middle school. This program is a continuation of a partnership with Wonder Girls and the Eastern Central School District. Um it launched um at sorry um it's uh it was launched here in Rockman County. The participating scholars are from Chestnut Ridge Middle School, Khaki Steam Academy and Pomona Middle School. And part of this program is that our students also get to experience mentorship for from other students here in the district

030who were previous who are considered Wonder Girls um ambassadors. So they'll be mentored during the summer with some of our students from Spring Valley and Ramapo High School who previously participated in this program. >> I'm sorry, where is it being held? Where is it being? Uh I don't see a location. >> Kak it's at khaki >> and it's only for 30 scholars um total from chestnut khaki and middle. >> Correct. So would those be students who are currently part of the program or >> so rising seventh and eighth grade scholars. So they're currently sixth graders going to be seventh graders and current seventh graders going to be eighth graders. So some of them may have been involved in it last year and then they would have graduated out and then a new cohort of um

031rising seventh graders would be added. So, so these individuals have not participated in Wonder Girls. Is that what you're saying? >> My understanding is that um that it it it serves two grades. >> So, when one of the grades moves on to ninth, they would no longer be eligible, but um the new incoming sixth going to seventh now would be the new uh cohort >> part of the cohort. So, it's two two grades. So 15 of 15 rising sixth graders going into seventh and I'm assuming 15 rising seventh graders going into eighth grade. >> Um I don't think we asked that level of detail. >> That's what it says there. I can't read it. Yeah. >> Oh yes. Sorry it does. Thank you. >> And how are they selected? Sorry, I don't have that note

032with me from um the lead on the on the project, but I could get that information to you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Sure. >> I I know Wonder Girls is a is a great um um it would be a great experience for the um young lady, you know, the um five 15 rising seventh graders as well as the 15 rising. >> The program does continue at the high school level. It's just the students that are in that program become the ambassadors for the kids at the middle school level. >> Okay. Thank you. We would like to move on to um some information about our hiring and vacancies and I'll ask Matt Kravitz, our executive director of personnel, to lead us through. Thank you very much. Tomorrow [clears throat] is our last in district job

033fair. It will be held here in the PLCC room from 10 to 3. We, as I mentioned last board meeting, we added evening hours as well. We currently have about four just over 40 people registered for tomorrow. Um that does not obviously include the number of walk-ins that we expect because we encourage that as well. Um as I mentioned last board meeting, we had on the Saturday um April 11th, we had just over 75 and we had almost 40 on Wednesday, April 15th um show up. The I was asked, we've been talking about vacancies. Last board meeting, I I showed the administrative vacancies in detail. I wanted to give you more detail about the the teaching staff. Um this is across all buildings and one of the things I just want you to keep in

034mind, we now have um now that our high school course requests are done, we are analyzing the exact needs of every um high school building. So we we have that we've looked at our retirements and our hiring season has is in full swing. We have a number of committees that are are working to get positions filled and our expectation is that over the next number of board meetings you will start to see um many more hires on on our list and that will take obviously take us through the summer. HR as all of you know is a very busy place over the summer. Um there's a lot of ins and outs and comingings and goings. Um but we are we are we have a good team and we are looking forward to that. I also

035just wanted to point out that we do have uh there was a question about related services and just breaking that down. So I just wanted to mention those are the numbers of um vacancies right now that we are uh looking to fill and you know some of these positions were created last year. Uh for example the AIS math positions that you see those were created as part of last year's budget and had not been filled during the course of the year and obviously they're still in this year's budget. We're continuing to look to fill those. >> Thank you. Um I'm going to ask our assistant superintendent for technology and information management assistant Bob and Gandhi to take us through the next three slides which will talk about parent square as well as um attendance information.

036Mr. Gandhi, >> thank you. In terms good evening board and community. Um so this is our bi-weekly reminder um to our community that East Rambo Central School District will be moving from Remind to Parent Square effective July 1st. So as previously shared u parents square will be our district's primary communication platform for school and district updates effective July 1st and families have already started receiving the invitation email as of April. Um just join parentsquare the email address on file with their child's school. Um, so parents can always log in directly to parents square using their email and the phone and and or phone number associated with the school. And we encourage families to download the free parents square app uh for the best experience by scanning um the QR code that's uh up on the

037screen, but um the the website is also accessible through a web browser on any computer for those who are without smartphones. So and and and if you any of your contact information needs to be updated such as email or phone number, please reach out to your um school child school so they can update it on their file. And for any other information um families can always visit the district website and we have a parent square page just dedicated on the website. Thank you. >> Can I just ask one question? Um with the parent square, I know it's it's good. Um are the teachers the teachers too have access to that as well, right? Yes, it's going to do everything that remind us onetoone communication between teachers and parents. >> Okay, thank you. >> Plus, uh

038other features as well. So, >> so um just wanted to quickly um provide an update and clarification uh about the attendance uh for our district. So back in December, we shared um attendance data from September through November and uh during their presentation uh there was a comment about um approximately 900 or so students uh being absent on um any given day um in our district. So we were asked to follow up on that point for clarification. So at our previous meeting uh when we shared our March year-to-ate data, the same questions came up again. So specifically um what the 900 students actually represent. So I just want to uh take that moment to clarify that. Um so as of April uh you'll notice two important two important updates uh on this slide. Average daily attendance

039um uh for the districtwide has increased uh and chronic absenteeism has declined from March uh to April. So April 30th was our uh data when we pulled it. So we're seeing a positive movement uh in the right direction. So now when we talk about the average daily attendance um currently at 89.99% districtwide that means um on any given day about 11 of our out of every 100 students are absent. So in a district our size that can look um like roughly 900 students absent on a given day. However, um so it's really important to know that this is not a fixed group of students and it's not the same 900 students every day and um attendance uh changes uh daily. So different students may be out for different reasons like illness, appointments, other circumstances, right?

040So and o over time most students um attend regularly. Um what we're seeing here reflects normal day-to-day variations um across the entire student population. not a consistent group of students who are um always absent. So while we remain focused on improving attendance um just wanted just we thought it was important to explain this data correctly and it it reflects the overall attendance trends rather than just a consistent group of students who are chronically absent um each day. And um I know this came up in the last board meeting about chronic um chronic absentism rate. So again, just to compare our data with the New York states um to better understand what we're seeing um and and just comparing East Rambo data to the most recently data updated on the New York State uh report card

041for the 2024 242 school year and a state controller report from 2024 for the 2022 23 school year. So, and and no official report has been released by the state controllers's office since that year. So, based on the 2024 New York State Controller report for the 2022 2023 school year, the statewide average um for daily attendance reported by the New York State is approximately 90% while East Rambo's um average daily attendance is um is 89.99% as of April 30th um 2026. So while our number may appear um slightly lower, it's actually closely aligned with the state average. And u when we shift u to the chronic ab absentism bucket um the category over there um this is where we see a difference um and East Rambo's uh district-wide chronic absentism rate is 36.55 as I

042mentioned on the previous slide um as of April 30th. So just just to provide the most current comparison, we're using 202425 New York State report card data which separates uh rates by grade level. So New York State average for elementary middle schools um it's approximately 204.6% that's their chronic absentism rate. And New York State average for secondary schools it's approximately 31.3%. And now not now just to provide additional uh context um to the slide um the range for high needs district it's 33% to 40.9% and that directly comes from the New York state uh comproller report which is based on 2022 23 school year data. So that range is helpful because because it shows where a district um with similar demographics uh typically fall and when we look at that comparison um east rompo's rate

043of 36.55% falls within that high need um district range and also from the countrolls report um we know that statewide um nearly one in three students are chronically absent and higher absentism um is associated with the econ economically disadvantaged population uh English language learner and students uh with disabilities. So overall um what we're seeing in East Ramp is not an isolated issue but it's part of a broader u statewide uh trend specifically among um high needs high need districts. So just the key takeaway is that our attendance aligns closely with the state and although our chronic absentism rate is higher than the statewide averages reported uh through the NYSCD report card uh uh portal, it aligns with the range um identified for high need district in the controllers anal um analysis and um we we

044we continue to focus on targeted support and strategies to improve student attendance. Um so just wanted to uh share that data for chronic absentism. Thank you. >> Okay. Um I so at our last board meeting there were a number of issues that came up. You had requested a lot of information and I think that we provided as much as we could through our presentations today. Some of it was information on the absenteeism and uh so we sprinkled it through our presentations but I wanted to mention a few other things that we haven't presented. Um you had asked about air conditioning and food services or one of the students raised um concerns about um kosher food and halal food and then there is the air conditioning concerns uh especially as we approach regions week. So I'm

045going to ask um Eric Stark, our assistant superintendent for business to provide us an update on those two. >> Okay. Thank you so much. Um first I will address air conditioning. Um so as you know we have uh the the state law that went into effect for this school year uh regarding um taking steps to uh remediate high temperatures uh when classrooms reach 82 degrees and then um actually having to remove students from any room um or in the event of a school actually reaching uh overall 88 degrees either um we potentially have to go to remote instruction so on and so forth or or uh not be able to have children in in the schools or the particular rooms. Um as a result of that um we're doing a couple different things. Um in

046terms of regent exams, we um cannot uh be in a situation where we would not be able to administer our regent exams. So, we have um our director of our interim director of facilities has been working on and over the past couple of days I' I've been finalizing with a vendor um to provide us with um portable air conditioning units in our high schools. Um we need 57 rooms to properly administer the largest number of regions exams on one day. Um so we need 57 rooms in Ramapo High School and we need 44 rooms in um Spring Valley High School to accommodate all of the students uh on the day of the algebra regions which also has another regions in the afternoon but because of um students that have um certain testing modifications um some

047rooms can't be used in the morning and the afternoon. So that's why the number of rooms uh is is what it is at. Um, so we have uh a quote from uh a a provider to uh give us rental units that we'll be able to put in the in the rooms. Um, in terms of that, um, we actually added to, uh, this evening's board meeting, uh, a walk-in item that I'll be walking around and handing to everybody a little bit later, um, when we get to the action items, uh, to do a budget transfer so that we have funds in the account um, to be able to rent these units. Um, and then, uh, also there are different rates, um, for these units. Um there's a daily rate, a weekly rate, and a uh monthly

048rate. Um as a result of the rates being very different, uh the most economical way for us to cover the entire period that regents are being given would be the monthly rate. So we're actually going to wind up u getting these units um at the end of May and we'll have them straight through the end of the school year and regions week um in uh the 40. We've actually uh we're renting two extra per building to make sure that anything that goes wrong or if we need an extra room. So, we'll have a few extras as well. And that will uh put us in a situation where we will not have uh to um cancel uh anything if we happen to have a heat wave um during the regions administration weeks. Um, in addition, we

049also um have um approximately uh window units that we were able to purchase um at at this time of we actually did that over the winter when it was a little bit easier to to get them. Um and we are currently working in our other buildings to determine the rooms that are most needy in terms of uh temperature issues. So a lot of those would be uh rooms on second floors of some of our multifloor buildings, rooms that face the sun all day. Um and we're working um with um our building staff uh and principles and custodians. Um I met with four of uh the buildings today to have those discussions and uh the work to start installing those window units and so those are for our middle schools and elementary schools. Um we're we're

050working to begin the installation of those units immediately. Um in some instances uh the electrical power in a room is perfectly fine for that. that in our elementary schools, our electrical systems are not as um necessarily as good as they are in some of our uh secondary buildings. So, we will also have to pull wires to um add circuits into um some of the panels. Uh but we're beginning that work um now as it's not necessarily at a point where we will need to turn those on so that as we get toward uh the end of May and and June when we can tend to have these uh more difficult um heat experiences uh we will be prepared. We will not be able to uh air condition every room in the district. We don't have

051the capacity for that. We don't have the electrical capacity for that in many of our buildings. But every building also has a plan for an excessive heat day that they can follow to take children to different areas that are air conditioned, gymnasiums, libraries, so on and so forth. Um, but we are going to be increasing the number of rooms, excuse me, I'm slurring there, the number of rooms that will have air conditioning in each of our buildings. So, that is the air conditioning update. Um, in terms of food services, um, we, um, I reached out to our, uh, director of food services as well as, um, the lead, um, from our, uh, vendor, uh, Mr. Eric Kaplan. And, um, we discussed a number of things that came up at the meeting. There was there was

052one particular student in one of our buildings um in Kaciat that um was unhappy with the choice in terms of um excuse me this was um the um >> helloutree no this was a different thing gluten-free that there were not enough gluten-free options so um this is not a widescale problem but um having that conversation. We are providing at least two different options per day in terms of the gluten-free. The other uh conversation which was a little bit um we heard from a student in in um I believe Ramapo High School that um there were issues with the halal um and then also in terms of the kosher options. We were being asked if those those are available um at all of our schools. So the the official answer is that yes, they are available

053at all of our schools. We do not have a regular usage at all of our schools. In fact, in terms of halal, we have daily um usage at Elmwood, Spring Valley, and Ramapo High Schools, Marquettes, and Caciat. Um the remaining So, those schools have multiple items and many um option menu options each day. Um at the other school, it is available upon request. It might not. So if it's needed and we find that we have more students that want those um meals to be prepared uh they can handle all of those. But um in terms of halal, those five schools um have regular um usage. In terms of kosher, Elmwood um Chestnut Ridge Middle School and Spring Valley High School are the three schools that have um regular usage there, but it is also available

054upon request at all of the other schools. So um other one of the other issues that we heard about was that there was no certification on the halal food. Um I made a request of our vendor to make sure that that happened. I my understanding is that within two days of the last board meeting all of the meals uh began to uh the halal meals began to uh be packaged with the proper labeling of the certification. So that is now available. And we also have signage uh new signage that was made for the secondary schools that have more options. Um, and we have always had both uh kosher and halal notices in all of our cafeterias. >> And and um Mr. Stark, we also have a um consultant hopefully that'll be coming in to help

055us with we're going to approve this maybe for next year. >> Yes. And I I believe that that was approved at our last board meeting, right? So, um we we will be working with a food service consultant to help us not only improve um the daily meals for all of our students, but also to focus on some of the other specific u meal options that we um need in the district um in order to uh in in terms of all the food to look at healthier, tastier and and better options for our students. Uh so we we fully expect to have changes in place in terms of all of that for um the opening of school in September. >> Have we shared um this information with our parents and students when it comes to uh

056having option for kosher and halal food during lunch? If you're asking if we have sent out a new communication since this has been to our attention, I would say no. We always there are always um communications um at the beginning of the school year and again in each cafeteria there are notices posted on the wall about the availability. >> So even though there's >> we can we can actually you know add something to our weekly um communications to to reiterate um all of that >> to send it out to parents. >> Yeah. >> K through 12. >> Yep. And uh my second question with that is uh for the halal, what options um do the students have? Because I'm hearing in some schools it's just pizza and other schools it might be something else. Um

057do they have options or is it just a set um I guess fix? >> Yes. So they do um and and with um I don't have the list of what all the options are, but there are several options now in >> now. So there was they didn't have options before. I I'm not saying that they didn't have options, but um they might not have been listed for all the students to understand. So now we have new um flyers that have been posted in the cafeterias in our secondary buildings that have multiple options. Um and in our elementary schools, there are four options which are that I have here which are yogurt parfets, crispy chicken salads, chicken patty or chicken nugget meals. So those are the four in the elementary schools and there are there are

058more items in the uh secondary schools. I don't have um there was a copy of the flyer in the email that I received but I didn't print that out so but I can get you those. So a question when you say for example the yogurt parfait would that be all they would be eating for lunch >> or >> that would that would be the main part of a lunch right but every lunch has to have no matter what type of lunch halal kosher so on and so forth in order for it to be a part of our lunch program it has to have all of the different um pieces that are required by the federal program. So if the if if you're asking the yoga parfait would be the main If it requires also fruit

059and the drink and all that then all those things would be provided as well. >> Okay. Um the next bullet is uh in reference to what I've already mentioned um and that is that uh in our next meeting we're going to ask our content area directors to come and to provide a presentation uh in regards to what they've learned this year uh um about our curriculum 7 through 12, the rigor of the curriculum, whether or not um it's aligned to standards and the recommendations that they're making for change for next year. Um, and in addition, any questions on that because that did come up last time. Okay. Uh, in addition, I did want to say before we go to the spring fling, um, I know that the board has not approved the agenda yet, but

060I do want to just mention that we do are making a recommendation for tenure for a number of folks, 31 teachers, two social workers, one school psychologist, one school counselor, four admins, a principal, uh, Pamela Deise White uh, from Elmwood Elementary, principal Taran Washington Peterson from, um, Pomona uh uh uh middle school and um Katie Davyy who was here our assistant principal at Grand View Elementary and Serita Thomas AP at Margett's uh elementary. So I just wanted to recognize that those recommendations are on the agenda today. And finally, I wanted to ask Dr. Shanahan to uh just provide us with an update on our spring fling as well as the two other um shows that we have available. >> Yes, thank you. Good evening. So, here we have an updated flyer for our spring fling,

061which is an event uh sponsored by and run by the family resource coordinators. It will take place on May 16th on Saturday at Spring Valley High School and it's a very popular uh program. It's an annual program. Last year we had 1,150 community members and um it is a day of games and giveaways, music and other entertainment. And many community partners um are there to meet with our families. We also have two uh musicals that in the middle schools that will be coming up very shortly at Pomona Middle School uh this Thursday and Friday. We have The Little Mermaid and at Chestnut Ridge Middle School next week, we have High School Musical Junior. And both are free admission and we encourage everyone uh who is able to attend these. They're really delightful. >> Thank you.

062And now uh we have been working as we've we've been speaking about this over the course of the last few months with um Mr. Tim Ammon who um represents Ammon Consultant Group. He is our consultant for uh transportation services. We've asked him to attend and he's here. Welcome. Uh he will be presenting us with um an update and an overview of his findings and recommendations. >> Terrific. Thank you. Uh thank you, Mr. President, members of the board, members of the administration. appreciate the opportunity to come here uh this evening. Oh, thank you. That's terrific. Um to present to you um what we want to try to do is provide an overview of all of the things that have been occurring as a consequence of some of the concerns from last year and where they fit

063into the broader strategic approach for >> Excuse me. May I interrupt? >> Sure. >> We were under the impression that this will be discussed at a transportation committee meeting before it's presented to the board. that that was not our understanding. Uh our understanding is that the board had been asking for updates and uh the committee meetings have been um >> the committee meetings have been postponed constantly. So it's unfair to present something that has not been discussed beforehand. >> It's very possible that a lot of this has been discussed beforehand. um >> and not not agree on. >> Okay. So, um President Rose, how would you like to proceed? >> Um Mr. Feder, would you like to clarify what what was the request and what was there's a full presentation which should have been discussed

064beforehand and it's unfair to present it. Eric, is there any reason why we didn't have this on during the facilities meeting as was I remember Mr. Feder specifically requesting multiple times and having this presentation the facilities meeting and the discussion. So there there was a a previous um presentation to the facilities committee at its uh at its at the meeting prior to uh the meeting that has now been rescheduled for tomorrow. Um that meeting was originally scheduled for the day after our last board meeting. Unfortunately um I actually had a personal issue death in the family that postponed that meeting. Um in other board meetings in full board meetings we have had requests from several of the other board meetings to have presentation uh in person um and that was scheduled for today. Um >>

065specifically >> that >> specifically we constantly said that further than phase one will not be presented. >> Um I think that if we have the presentation if you have the facilities meeting tomorrow. Why can't we just do it tomorrow by the >> Is there any harm in having since the consultant is here to have the presentation to the board now >> and some board members I'm assuming have some concerns? >> No, I hear that. I just think if this isformational to the board, is there a harm to having that information shared? I defer to the board. It just seems if the consultants is here prepared to present there. There's perhaps, you know, Sam, you're you're right. There's there's a procedural glitch here in that this would then go to the transportation committee first, but I'm

066not sure there's a a negative to having the information shared with the board. Now, since the consultant's here, it's your call. Um, Mr. Feder any other members of the committee be willing to chime in on how they feel about this? I mean serving on the committee as well, I just feel like it should have been presented to uh the committee before tonight. Um knowing that the last meeting was cancelled uh to be rescheduled for tomorrow, we should have held off on presenting this tonight and wait till tomorrow to present this at the May 19th meeting. Okay. Is there any opposition to hold off on this presentation until after the facilities meeting? >> Okay. I'm sorry, Mr. Understood, but uh >> we'll be here tomorrow. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Very well. Thank you. >> Thank you.

067I apologize. >> Take care. >> And I'll work to reschedule for the board meeting. I'm not sure that he's available on our next meeting, but we'll work to get him on at one of our uh next uh at the next one or the one after based on his uh schedule. We're not the only client. Okay. >> Okay. Our next section is the uh student outcomes and um I'm happy to introduce two of our administrators who will be presenting information for us. Ellen Andreello, executive director of elementary education and Samantha Shear, director of multilingual education elementary. >> Good afternoon, President Rose, Vice President McGill, trustees, cabinet members, community. Um, we're here to give you some updates about our elementary literacy initiative. We have some updates with student growth from November. We were here in November giving

068you guys a report and we're here to update you with some information in May. So again, just a reminder about ARC. ARC is American Reading Company. That's our core reading program um for K through five. And again, next year we're adding in sixth grade. So it'll be K through six. So this is a program that provides English and Spanish elementary literacy curriculum which is grounded in the science of reading. Um our core supports differentiated small groupoup instruction. We'll go into that a little bit more. provides culturally responsive texts and rich classroom libraries in English and in Spanish and uses ongoing student achievement which we'll talk a little bit about which is formative literacy assessments the ERA and the anneal which is the Spanish version for ongoing monitoring of our students. So just to um give

069you the picture of where we are in the implementation of this new curriculum, this is our first year where we are implementing this curriculum in all classes K through five. Um so as year one of the implementation with any adoption of a new curriculum, there's a lot of learning um that needs to take place for the teachers to understand all of the elements and how to utilize them effectively. So that has been the work of this year. Um, and that includes the assessments that we're going to be talking about. Um, Ellen mentioned formative assessments. What that just means is that they're ongoing um in the classroom as opposed to a more um formal assessment that happens like STAR three times per year. Um they're they're ongoing. So that takes a lot of learning on the

070teachers part. So that's going to be part of our data conversation. And then next year we're going to be deepening that practice. And as Ellen mentioned, we're going to expand to sixth grade. so that next year all of our elementary classrooms will be utilizing the same curriculum. Um and then looking ahead to year three when we'll really have teachers will have really sustainable understanding of the program and they'll be able to take ownership of it. Um and we plan to see um we hope to see a lot more growth um by year three. So just to go a little deeper into the ongoing the formative literacy assessments. We went over this in November but just to remind you what is the ERA? Earla is our independent reading level assessment which is English. All students take

071that K through five and also um a six sixth grade bilingual and in Spanish it's the eneal. So those assessments are also given to our bilingual students. So, just to help understand the data when we look at it, we wanted to give you um an overview of how those assessments work. Um so, teachers meet one-on-one with all of their students in the beginning of the school year in September and October. So, the data that we presented to you in November was from those baseline assessments where they sat with each student to go through a series of reading assessments to see what the students already know um and what they need to do next to grow in their reading level. Um and then since then, There has been ongoing assessment assessments happening continuously and we're going

072to talk um on the next slide about what that looks like. Um so we showed you this um cycle in November as well but just as a refresher right we start with that baseline assessment. From there teachers um determine a specific reading goal for each student. That reading goal tells the teachers what to teach the students in small group instruction. It tells the students what to practice when they're reading. And when teachers notice through that process that a student might be ready for a new goal or to move to a new level, they assess that student. Um, so there's no specific timeline. It's just whenever a student is ready, they can go ahead and assess them and then they set a new goal and the cycle continues. So part of that part of that um

073cycle, right, is that small groupoup instruction. I mean, we want to make sure we're meeting the needs of our students. So all students get small groupoup instruction from their teacher but depending on their level of need how often they meet with the teacher is determined by um what we call an equitable conferencing schedule. So those students who are far below grade level in literacy see a teacher three times within a two-eek cycle for that small group instruction. Students who are just below grade level those at risk students see the teacher twice within that cycle. And then our proficient students still see this teacher once within a cycle so that we can keep them staying proficient and then growing further. >> Okay. So this is where we have some good news for you from uh November

074till now which is uh first week in May we have some data to share with you for our from from our first year of full implementation. This is a student performance data update. So you can take a look at this chart here. This is for the ERA, the English assessment data. When you look at the colors from emergency to at risk to proficient, you can see uh the emergency level is going down from November to May. And our at risk, that middle level, that's sort of the transition. You definitely want the emergency to go down to move into the next level and then that to also bump into the proficient level, which we see a 6% to 18%. So it's almost tripled. So we're going in the right direction with this first year of implementation

075of this program. And again this data here are students the number of students projected to meet grade level expectations from November to May. This is the ERA and you see it on each grade level kindergarten very much from 46 students to 205 grade one. So you're seeing the trends of all of the data going up with the number of students projected to meet their grade level expectations. So some good news, but a little information about the bilingual, >> right? So just just to explain why you see that um grade six has a very small number of students. So just right now this school year only our bilingual classrooms are using the ERA um as part of ARC. So that's only six classes. So it's a much smaller um base of students that we're that we're

076looking at. So that's why that number is so much smaller. But again, next year all of our sixth grade classes will be using that. So we'll see um more evenly distributed numbers, right? Um and so this data is for the Spanish literacy assessment. So again, all of our students in bilingual programs K through six, they get the English assessment, but they also get the Spanish assessment. Um, so if we look at the students who are proficient, so they are on grade level or above, that has moved from 8% in November to 20% in May, which is is really great and it's it's helping us with um our goal of having students in the bilingual program be fully biiterate and eventually when they get to high school, hopefully getting to get that seal of biiteracy, right?

077So we see um students on the right track for that. um we can see our students in emergency um for the far below grade level has been reduced from 71% to 58% in Spanish and then we can see as Ellen mentioned that at risk is always kind of fluctuating on the depending on this number of students moving up from emergency into at risk and then the students moving out of at risk to proficient and then as we saw with the English data this is the Spanish side data for the number of students who are projected to meet the grade level expectations by the end of the year in Spanish. Um so again, we're seeing um for the most part across the grades a higher number of students now projected to meet those expectations as opposed

078to in November um when that number was lower for the majority of the grades. And so we know that as as much as this is good news because we're seeing growth, there is more growth to happen. You know, we're not done yet. We still have more to do. So what are we going to do to keep that growth happening and improve the rate of growth as well? >> So what is the district going to continue to do in the buildings with the administrators, the teachers, and the students? We're going to continue to monitor the real time Earla and ENAL data. We're going to look at the trends that are coming up, the needs, and the growth across all schools, all classrooms to inform our instructional practice. We're going to continue to align and refine the

079instructional coordinators. We have a number of them throughout the schools in literacy and MLE. Uh they help support teachers to provide high quality small groupoup instruction. That's where we really help close the gaps with that small group instruction. And during the daily literacy block, we're going to continue to provide ongoing professional development. Had a lot of it this year. We're going to go even deeper next year. um with reading goals, small group instruction, again effective use of the ARC toolkits. Those are the toolkits that we help retach and um help to close the gaps to bring those students up to grade level for intervention. And then we're going to continue to conduct district learning walks, progress checks to monitor the implementation. Couldn't we also um Oh, I see it. Never mind. I see the assess.

080Okay. Right. Um, so teachers for the rest of this year and next year are going to continue to assess students, right? So even though we're showing you the update for May, we're not stopping now. They're continuing to move through those cycles and assess students and utilize that real-time data to deliver instruction in those small groups to meet students needs. Um, they're going to continue to collaborate with reading teachers and um, English as a new language teachers to address students needs both in literacy and in language. Um and they're going to continue to initiate family communication um so that parents are staying up to date on their students literacy growth um to and facilit foster that home and school connection. >> I'm sorry just going back to that um other slide um where it says conduct

081the strict learning walks. Who exactly is conducting the learning walks? I know the last time we had this conversation at a board meeting um I we were told that we have consultants doing that. Um is it our team who will be in the buildings to conduct these walks or is it the consultant? >> Yeah. So, >> right. So, yeah. So, we do different learning walks. I I I did learning walks in several buildings in the past couple of weeks. So, I know that just our different departments, we go and visit classrooms and do learning walks um sometimes alongside our instructional coordinators. Instructional coordinators are doing them as well. Um and then we're you know keeping a surprise as well. So, it's kind of it's not the formal like a whole bunch of district um office

082people going to school at once and doing it as a district learning walk, but district staff are conducting learning walks. Does that answer your question? >> So, just to let you know um with ARC, we have coaches that come into the buildings. Each individual coach goes into each individual elementary building. We also have leader learning series that we have an ARC facilitator coming to also work with principles, assistant principles, all of our literacy and our MLE instructors. So they get the turnkey training that they can go back to the buildings and continue their learning walks as well. So there's a lot of coaching, a lot of learning walks and all of us district personnel, we do push into buildings and we do that with them as well. So, how can families continue to help at

083home? Just continue to ask your child about their power reading goal. They kind of readjust these every time they move up levels. So, it's always really great to ask them what they're doing. Read with them every day. Research shows even just 10 minutes makes a difference in any language. Uh gives them a lot of exposure to words. Talk about books they bring home. they can continue to visit the library together and just celebrate the progress. This is the first year of the implementation and we know we we're definitely going to we're seeing the right direction. We're going in the right direction and we're very excited to see what next year can bring too. Um before you move on, I mean to be honest, how do we expect families to help their students, you know, our

084students at home, um when they too struggle themselves to read and write? Um what are we doing to help families? I do know we have we're limited to seating when it comes to um our ESL ENL class for for um for our parents, but what are we doing to also help our families um be on the right track so they can help their kids? I will tell you that a lot of the materials that we do that do come with this program, they have family reports that go home in English and in Spanish. They give them tips on how to help. Some of the books are in English and in Spanish. So, just continuing to practice the skills of reading with them. And a lot of the buildings have, you know, this year we had

085a curriculum night. Some of the buildings have literacy nights just like they have math nights. We want to infuse more of those, of course, but those are the ways that we can partner with home and school coming together and we can continue to even strengthen that more. So, so I guess what I'm trying to say is that a lot a lot of our parents, they can't read or write English or Spanish. >> Correct. >> So, how how can they how can they be of help if they need help themselves? >> Go ahead. So I can't I know that we can speak to what the district is doing to support parents, but I do want to in in that way. But I do want to emphasize to parents that even if they themselves cannot they struggle

086to read and write in even whether it's in their um first language or in English. I don't want them to feel like they can't help students. The kind of the goal of this slide a lot of times when we do go to family events, the question we get from parents is how can I help my child? How can I help my child if I don't um speak English and they're learning in English? So this is really just meant to encourage them to say even if you're sitting with the book and asking them to read to you and even if it's a kindergartener who's reading is like telling the story based on the pictures that's valuable time um to be spent with your child. So I don't want parents who um yeah who don't speak the

087language to feel like they can't help because they are and that that time spent with their child um around literacy is going to be is going to be beneficial for their child. Um, and so I don't know if Yeah. So that's really that's really the goal for this slide here is just to help to encourage parents that no matter you know no matter your situation, you can help your child at home. Don't don't feel intimidated by the language. And then so just for to wrap it up, we just want to look forward to next year. We've mentioned a lot of this already um throughout the presentation, but we are excited that next year all of our elementary programs through all the grades and schools will be using the same program um using this our core

088program with the ERA assessment. Um as we mentioned in our presentation in November, K through two classes that are monolingual and special ed are also utilizing Wilson foundations um with those foundational reading skills and that's going to expand to third grade next year as well. um our instructional coordinators for literacy and for multilingual education are going to continue to support teachers in the implementation. They are there alongside the ARC coaches when they offer PD and then they are there in between those coaching cycles or between those coaching visits I'm sorry to provide support to teachers to continue that learning and deepen it um and help them with their you know implementation of the program. Um teachers are going to continue to use the assessments that we were talking about tonight. Um, and the goal here

089is that we're ensuring literacy equity across all of our elementary schools. >> I know it's hard to Can I ask a quick question? >> So, I know it's hard to assess, but you have big gains from November till May. Is there any way to prognosticate what you might see in November of 26 in terms of gains like or is it too hard to to tell? >> Don't want to get ahead too much that way, but you know, continue like Samantha was saying continue this effort up to the state of school and we're going to bridge that summer learning right summer programs and hopefully you know not have too much of a gap as they return and then we'll continue to assess them but we're hoping the right direction >> yeah as we as things become

090um just a little more solid as the teacher learning is is a little more um solidified I think we're going to see more gains next year than we saw this year, but yet to put a number on it. >> Yeah. >> So, if if I may make a recommendation, um, as we all know, reading is the biggest struggle for our students K through 12. We have high school students who are reading on first, second, third grade level. Um, is there a reason why we haven't looked into a K through 12 after school literacy academy or Saturday literacy academy or summer program, a summer literacy program for our students K through 12. Um, I feel like we spent this year more focused on um creating new positions and um providing different, I guess, professional development for

091our teachers and staff, but at the same time, our students are still struggling in the classroom. And I feel like, you know, they've been forgotten. And as much as this year, as you just mentioned, was more of a learning experience, um it takes away from our students who are struggling and still needs the help and support and guidance to be able to move um forward uh from, you know, to on to the next grade and to be able to be successful when it comes to taking these tests. I know it's been said that you know hiring and creating these different position is to help eventually um but we don't know how long that's going to take. So what can we do now to make sure that we have some type of program and resources in

092place not only in district but also maybe working with community partners and organizations um to where there is such you know like I said literacy academy or program K through 12 for our students. >> Thank you. Good question. Uh these are ideas that we are uh grappling with ourselves because we do have tremendous need in this district K through 12. No question. Uh and of course literacy is at the base of that as as you know educator here. So uh we have we can't tackle everything in one year. Uh but we have tackled a lot. So part of our plan has been and this started last year as well. This is not just this year's plan. Um was to uh strengthen our literacy component K through six actually seven and eight. We have Carnegie and

093seven and eight as well. Uh we do we are talking about what can we do at the middle school level to provide some support for those going to ninth grade. We so we're in the midst of talking about that. One of the um issues one of the things that we put in the budget was some money to assist with this very issue. uh high school programs, how can we strengthen it for next year? Um and so we haven't uh fully um you know fleshed that out. Uh but we are going to have our 7 through 12 coordinators uh I'm not coordinators, our directors come in at our next board meeting. They're going to talk a little bit about that because they see the gaps too. Um part of it is to strengthen the curriculum K

094through 12, to strengthen the PD K through 12. It is going to take time. Uh there's no question. This year we're focusing on trying to improve the graduation rates for our 12th graders. Um we're this uh summer program that we have for the eighth grade students going to 9th grade will be to will include the uh acquisition of skills that will are needed for success in the ninth grade. So, um, you know, again, this is going to take a few years and I, you know, I think we just have to be realistic about that. I think that we've done a lot of work this year. Um, you know, and I mentioned that when I said I I thought I wanted to mention the teachers. A lot of them did embrace this at the elementary. It

095was a lot of work. Um, and we are seeing the gains and these folks have worked really hard, the whole team. So, yes, there are gaps. Yes, there are holes. You're right. Um, and you know, as you continue next year, I hope that this work continues, you'll have a new leader here, and I'm sure that he or she will take the district forward. >> So, I just want to make it clear, too, I'm not saying that the team hasn't worked and did their part. >> All I'm saying is that as a recommendation, can we look into other alternatives in how we can help support our students? I don't think it takes much or even costs much to try to create um some type of literacy program whether it's like I said summertime after school or

096even on the weekends. Um once again it's been put in the budget to you know create all these different positions at high top you know six figure salaries and I think that could be more focus on resources and programs for our students. So just you know just looking at structuring things a little bit differently to help our students um so they can better themselves as we look at the bigger picture you know long term. And I just want to tell you, trustee Charles Pierre, that you know, I've been here about 12 years now and you know, I was a principal in the district and it takes a lot of boots on the ground to get into these buildings and these positions, I have to tell you, that were budgeted for and we hired for. They're

097doing the really great work in these buildings. and we need we need them to really get these children into the small group um you know the small groups so we can really close those gaps. So I will tell you that it definitely takes a lot of boots on the ground and you know a lot of work to really open it up and at minimum three years we need to see you know the results of this of this program the American Reading Company and you know the consistency and the coherency. So, it's definitely it's totally worth the investment and then, you know, doing the transitions into middle and then to high school. But I just wanted to >> not to take away from anything you just said. >> Yeah. >> Me serving on the board for

09811 years, I've been presented with a lot of different >> I know >> programs and, you know, literacy programs for math, for English. And, you know, it's always said that it takes time. It takes two to three years. It takes four to five years. But once again, we have to remember because there's no consistency in leadership. You're presenting this being presented to us now doesn't mean it's going to continue next year. So whatever we can do to help our students in the classroom now, I feel like that should be our main focus because everything we're talking about now that we started talking about July 1st up until June 31 30th maybe no more. So, I just want to make sure that, you know, whatever we can do to help our students directly and impact them

099later on, if we can focus on that and move that forward, it would be great. And, you know, hopefully we can continue and work on everything else that you know, your team and everyone else has been working on. But, like I said, we have no control over that. You've been here long enough to see the changes. So, I just want to make sure that whatever we're doing it it's it's it's good for kids, it's right for kids, and that we're not wasting money and time at the same time. >> And and really, when it comes down to it's not the program itself, it's that teaching and learning and getting those people in those classrooms, too. But, thank you so much. >> And the and the learning plan. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> And you do have

100a role. You do have the ability to take a look at the plan. Plan is being created for next year. There are plans that are being created at the building levels. Everyone's got a set plan. The long-term plan has has goals in it for literacy development, for high school, all the things that you're talking about that are legitimate concerns. So, if you know, as the board, if you support it and um you know agree that we should continue with the path, then then you will. So, there is an opportunity for you to have a voice and there are people who are planning a continuation of what was started. just before um you thank you for the presentation by the way um but I was just thinking maybe to um and you might do this already

101but um with the art core those students that are involved in the program um do we sit down with the parents at all? Is there time um during the school year where you make it just for like the parents just to sit down with the parents and and like you're saying you put it on the screen right to encourage them to read with their child but maybe perhaps face to face have that conversation. >> Yeah. I mean I just well parent teacher conferences is the you know just the given right. So that's time and we did encourage our teachers to talk about the you know their ERA and you know that that home that parent home update in a way that's just parent friendly for them to understand their literacy. Um and I know buildings

102have family events where parents are invited to come in during the day and in the evening to have conversations around literacy but beyond that I can't say that there's a set time where parents are coming one-on-one with the teacher unless that's something that an individual teacher or parent is setting up. >> Okay. I'm even thinking I'm just thinking like maybe during the parent teacher conferences have something set up in the library right where that's a place where you know books are so maybe we can have the parents come there and you can kind of encourage them you know you know read with your child as much as you can it's okay you know that there's a a language deficiency it's okay you'll be okay just try you know so maybe even in a certain setting

103I don't know I'm just thinking out loud maybe in a certain setting during those parent teacher conferences, we can encourage them then. >> Just a thought. >> Thank you very much. And this concludes the superintendent's report and I pass it back to President Rose. >> Thank you very much, Superintendent. Thank you very much for the presentation. Thank you for all the hard work that you do. Um, we'll now move on to consent and agenda items. Before we'd like to move on to consent and agenda items, I believe we were discussing about tableabling item number three until after exec um have any opposition. and okay so we'll now make a motion for items 1 through eight just minus number three and we'll leave it for after exec for discussion second by vice president McIll. >> All

104those in favor say I. >> I. >> Anyone opposed abstain. Motion carries. Moving on to action items one through 16. I believe Mr. Dark just gave us all um about the walk- on for the air conditioning. That's what we're looking at >> and the garbage services and gym and stage floor >> refinish. Okay. Hearing no further discussion, we have a motion and a second for items 1 through 16. All those in favor say I. I. And I want to pause up abstain. Motion carries. Congratulations to all who received tenure. Great job and congrats. Information provide and provided to the board. I don't have that. Any information and reports from the board? Any board members? Vice President? >> Yes. Thank you, President Rose. Um, just really quick, I had the pleasure of attending the East Ron

105Post Central School District Jazz night on um, Thursday at 7 p.m. and it took place at the Kakiak Steam Academy. Boy, was it a treat. They even had me out there um, dancing and singing. I was singing that night. But just, you know, hats off to our um assistant superintendent. Oh my god, I just gave him a title. Director of fine and performing arts, Mr. Michael Smith, as well as his um his um what do I want? His staff for doing a fabulous job um every year. Um and and you know what? Hats off to our students. East Rample Central School District students are phenomenal. They're very, very talented young people and I I always want to just, you know, give them praise where praise is due. Um, we had the Little Miracle Show choir.

106Um, we had the Spring Valley vocalist who uh sang Tomorrow from Annie. Um, the East Rampo Jazz Band. U Ramapo players, they did a little piece of the Mean Girls um play. We had the East Rampo drum line, the East Rampo marching band, and as well as we had some guests called the Strut. But it was a great evening. Um, a nice show, and I just want to say hats off to them and a job well done. And that's it. Thank you. Uh, so I just want to add, um, I had the opportunity to attend the ribbon cutting at Spring Valley High School for the new weight room. Um our students um are enjoying the weight room. We did get a chance to tour the weight room. Um I know there was a few students,

107our principal at Spring Valley High School, um bench pressing. Um which was, you know, nice to see, you know, all them come together and and enjoy that moment. Um, also I want to take the time uh to say during teacher appreciation week and school nurse week, we proudly uh recognize and celebrate the incredible educators and nurses throughout the East Rample Central School District. Thank you for your dedication, compassion, patience, and countless hours you you pour into supporting our student students each and every day. Teachers help shape minds, inspire confidence, and open doors to endless possibilities. Our school nurses provide comfort, care, and safety while supporting the physical and emotional well-being of our children. Together, you create a strong foundation for our schools and our community. Your work often goes beyond the classroom and nurse nurse's

108office, and the impact you make does not go unnoticed. Thank you for being mentors, advocates, role models, and everyday heroes for our students and families. We appreciate all that you do and celebrate you not just this week, but every day. I also want to say special thank you as well to our P PR team Emily, Trish, and Scott for the wonderful video video shared on social media earlier this week featuring our students expressing their appreciation and gratitude to their teachers. Um it was a beautiful reflection of the positive relationships, love, and support that exist throughout our schools. Uh thank you for capturing such a meaningful moment and for always highlighting the heart of our district. Thank you. Thank you. >> Do we have any word on the FAZ audit? >> They reached out to me.

109I've got a we got a circle back and they'll be able to present to the board shortly. >> Thank you. Um future meeting dates. A regular meeting is scheduled for May 19th, 2026. Going to get 8:30. Is that due to the budget votes? >> It's budget vote. >> Yeah. Uh right. It's a little shorter waiting time that way for everyone >> in the PLCC room right here. Administration building 105, South Madison Abby, Spring Valley, New York. >> I will now make a motion to entertake executive session. What are we discussing, Kathy? >> Uh to discuss the possible employment or termination of particular persons and we do expect action following because we're uh going to bring back the certificated. >> Do I have a second? Second by Mr. Weissman. All those in favor say I. I

110don't want to oppose. Say motion carries. Thank you all. Have a good night. >> [snorts] >> Okay, good evening everyone. Like to me bring this meeting back to order. Um, we will now I will now make a motion to approve certificated personnel recommendations for May 6, 2026 to correct the title of Donna Gordin Henry and remove the last two names of resignations. Do I have a second on the motion? Second by [snorts] Mr. Feder. All those in favor say I. I. Anyone oppose abstain. Motion carries. I'll make a motion to adjourn this meeting. Do I have a second? >> Second by Vice President McIll. All those in favor say I. I. Anyone in oppos? Motion carries. Thank you. Have a good night. >> Good night.