ERCSD - Regular Board Meeting 04-21-26

001Okay, good evening everyone. I would like to bring this meeting to order. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. >> [music] [music] >> Thank you. Good evening everyone. Fire exits are located on the sides of the room in the front and in the back. In the 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 the floor for I will now make a motion to open the floor for public speaking. Do I have a second? Seconded by Mr. Feder. All those in favor say I. And all those opposed, abstain. Motion carries. Speaker number one. Hello board members and members of the community. My name is Alfia Saeda and I am the sophomore class president at Ramapo

002High School. I am here today because students have raised several concerns and we are not seeing them meaningfully addressed. First, the removal of English 11 honors and its replacement with the RCC English course is a mistake. We are already have an AP language and composition for students seeking a college level class. Eliminating honors removes a necessary middle option for students who want rigor but are not yet ready for that level. It's also difficult to justify this decision when we're told that there is a limitation, yet a wide variety of electives, especially in areas like gym, continue to be offered. If we can provide choices here, we should be able to provide it in core subjects like English. There are also concerns about staffing. From what we understand, only one teacher at Ramapo High School is

003currently eligible to teach the RCC English course. At the same time, students are already experiencing understaffing, such as classes being taught online while students sit in a physical classroom. That is not an adequate learning environment and should not be normalized. And beyond academics, students have asked for a clear certification that the halal and kosher food options meet proper standards, yet have received no response. This is a matter of transparency and respect. Taken together, these issues reflect a larger problem. Student concerns are being raised but not fully heard. We are asking for options, support, and transparency. Decisions that reflect the reality of our classrooms. If student voices are being invited into these spaces, it needs to be respected. Otherwise, these conversations lose their purpose. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker number two. Good evening. Your job, which

004is the most important job as a school board, is to hire a qualified and experienced superintendent. It isn't fair to the children of East Ramapo to go into another school year without a permanent superintendent. You should interview additional candidates in order to find someone with the necessary qualifications and most importantly experience to serve the children of the East Ramapo Central School District. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker number three. Español por favor. Español. Okay. Yeah. Un momento. Por favor. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Speaker number four. Hello. Um our schools gets really hot because we don't have AC and it really makes us hard to focus in class. The last time we were in a classroom, it was up to 85°. But honestly, it didn't feel like 85. It felt way more than that. It was thick

005and uncomfortable and everyone was trying to fan themselves just trying to get through the lesson. Last year, my one of my classrooms I was in >> [clears throat] >> was up to 108 at one point. And we were basically sitting in a sauna trying to learn. In one of my other classes, it was 90° and it was really hot in there, too. You can't concentrate when you're sweating through your shirt and just hoping the period ends. It's just not the classrooms, either. We have the gym and there's no AC in the gym. So, we're running around and sweating even more. The air feels heavy and by the end of class, everyone's exhausted but from the heat and not just from the workout. It gets too hot to a point it doesn't feel safe or healthy

006and that's because we don't have the ACs to cool everyone down. I really want ACs installed in our classrooms, please, because students shouldn't have to choose between being comfortable and able to and able to learn. We need ACs installed in our schools and I'm asking that the Board of Education >> [clears throat] >> address these conditions. We need air conditioning in our schools so students can learn in a safe and healthy environment. And also, we deserve the same respect and new buses like the other communities. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker number five. Good evening, everyone. As we get into warmer weathers, I just want to emphasize that New York State law establish that classrooms and supportive spaces cannot be used temperature that reaches or exceeds 88°. Once it hit 82, temperature of Fahrenheit, the district

007must provide fans so the kids can feel better. But sometimes we know that that is not useful. Um last week I walked into Chestnut Ridge Middle School. I just want to emphasize also that I graduated 13 years ago. I went to East Ramapo and we still don't have ACs. That is ridiculous. Um over the years, the corruption shows that our kids have um been neglected and everything has been taken away to the point that we're stuck in time. Um even though some like the gyms, auditoriums are better now, they look amazing, brand new. I love that because I've been able to go to different schools and see that myself. They look gorgeous, but doesn't help when you don't have AC. Um in regards to this, too, I want to emphasize to the dress code. Um

008Superintendent, I hope that you can address this personally. Um I would like the language used in middle school, specifically in middle school, because there was an incident in regards to this, that the language used towards these kids are appropriate. Not focusing on their bodies. For example, if a child, specifically a female, has shorts, to not sexualize them telling them what a boy is going to think certain ways because they're wearing shorts. They should be saying, in other words, let's use proper clothes so we look professional because someone can come into the school, maybe someone from college to come and speak or something like that, instead of focusing on children's bodies. I don't think that children's bodies should be sexualized. Um besides that, I want to talk about the graduation because we're nearing at the end

009of the school year. Um I would like for graduation to be a closed event, meaning that tickets should be provided to families so we can make it into private because our community is going through a tough time with what's going on with ICE and all that. I know that the district can implement something that our families are safe and feel safe in a area where they supposed to be happy and celebrating in a wonderful occasion of a graduation. Also, I would like to know if we can um make it public how many kids are expected to be graduating and what can we help um to encourage those kids to act those who are not going to don't look like they're going to graduate, how we the community can help support that. Thank you. Thank you.

010>> [applause] >> Um before we move on, can I get can we get uh some clarity on one of the issues one of the students addressed about the halal and kosher food options? What do we currently offer halal and kosher? I believe we do, don't we? What's the Yes, those options are available. Yes. Halal and kosher. Are they available uh at all schools? >> At all schools or just which schools exactly? So, my understanding is that the the contract that we have with our vendor um requires them to have those options available at all schools. If they're if you have heard a report that that is not the case at a building, um please let me know and I'll uh check on that with uh our food service director to to find out >> Well,

011I believe we have a student sitting right here who's A student just mentioned that it's not being provided. And it's one thing to say that it's in the contract or, you know, it we we've been told, but has anyone actually looked into it to make sure that is being provided K through 12. And so I I do know that those meals have been provided. What I don't know is if I have if I have to look into a specific school, which I will I will get that information and and do that. But it is required. I do know that at the beginning of this school year, it was at all of the buildings. What I don't know is if perhaps there was no usage of those at a building if they stopped sending it over,

012but I will look into that more and give the board an update. Is it in the contract? >> it should be at every school every day. Is it Okay, I was going to ask is it in the contract for it to be provided every day? Yes. And if we >> It should be options for both halal and kosher at each school every day. K through 12. K through 12. It has to be asked or it's put in a specific place. Do you know the process of it? I do not know the process and I'm I'm sure that it also that that is different at the different levels, but I'll I'll I'll get I'll have a report put together for for the board and and I'll get that to you. President Yeah, before we move on,

013I do want to mention and I was going to mention it later that the classrooms are very hot. And it's very it's true. I happen to be in one of the buildings and the classroom I don't know how the kids are able to function because it is very hot. Now my question is if we don't have the central air, which we should be working on, aren't there ACs available because I was told that there's ACs and how come these ACs are not put up into these classrooms? Mr. Stark. So the district does have some window units. I think one of the things that did just happen is that we had a particularly hot day very early in the season, which I don't think anybody was ready for. We are working and in fact in part

014of our updates you'll hear from from Mr. Thurnau some of the the plans that we have in terms of air conditioning, but we in fact Mr. Thurnau and I are meeting with the two high school principals tomorrow morning to review the air conditioning in both high schools to ensure that we will have enough during Regents week when we obviously don't want to have issues with that. And then we also will be looking at the air conditioning in all of the buildings. So in each building we do have some rooms that have window units based on 504s and IEPs and things like that. So we're going to be looking at all of the buildings to determine which areas are in most need of of air conditioning because we we don't have enough to do all of

015the the rooms in the district, but each building has a plan for the excessive heat to move children around the building in the event that that we have days where as as was stated the temperature goes above 82 degrees. And then as part of our 5.25 million in capital that is in the budget, he'll be discussing um what we're looking to do with uh seven of our elementary schools. So he's going to be discussing that tonight. You'll be hearing a little bit more about that tonight, yes. Okay. Just one more thing that was mentioned from our student. Is there reason why the the English class was removed from the high school? Can anyone answer that question? I know it was brought up at the superintendent circle meetings and they weren't really given any information to

016why or what will be done moving forward. Sure. We we did discuss why I I asked the executive director of guidance to come in and to provide a detailed response as to why. >> can't hear you. >> You can't hear me? Okay. We did have a discussion at the student circle this week and they actually brought it up the month before, so I invited our executive director of guidance to the meeting to answer the questions directly. So there was um the the belief at the administrative level is that the Rockland Community College course that is offered is offered over an extended period of time and and compared to what it would be offered if it was just at Rockland Community College. And the belief from our administrators is that that level of support and that

017pacing is very similar to the honors level. And they felt that any student that would be eligible for honors would be satisfactorily supported in that class. That class offers both high school credit and college credit. So even you know, if they didn't get the college credit, they might still be eligible for the high school credit. But why not why why not provide both? I know even when I was in at Ramapo High School, we had the Regents honors APPA. So why wouldn't we allow them to have options that way if they feel that if the college is too much for them, they can take honors or if honors is too much for them, they know they can rely back on Regents. I don't understand how we go from Regents straight to college courses and skip

018honors classes. And is this both high schools or just one high school? >> to I have to look into it. I don't remember. So when this when you had the guidance counselor have this conversation, was that with students from Ramapo or Spring Valley? Ramapo. I was at Ramapo High School. So is there a plan moving forward as of when exactly was the class classes removed? Probably about a month ago. So what were those students now? What classes are they taking? Well, I'm not an expert at ELA. However, the students I I think it's an 11th grade class. It might be a 12th >> grade, correct. Okay. So these would be students who probably would be not as challenged as they as we want them to be for 11th grade Regents, right? They they could probably

019handle more. They believe that they can and teachers would believe that they can. And so rather than offer the two offerings, the honors as well as the RCC, there was a decision made to just offer one. Now that is a change. And in part Is everything okay? Oh. We I could I could gather more more specific information. At this point in time, I would say that I need to speak to our director of ELA and our um executive director of guidance for more specific information. There is a challenge with the structure of the high school schedule doesn't allow us to always offer a full array of offerings. And that's part of it. I'm not sure to what degree that impacted it. So English being one of the major subjects that they have to take, I

020would think that we would have a solution to that. And not only that too why would we remove a course with two months left in the school year? And I have a I'm sorry. It's for next year. It's for next. So it wasn't removed. So those So I just asked the question, where are those students now? Oh, they were in the 10th grade. I misunderstood what you asked me. >> So it wasn't As of right now, 11 English is still available to our students. Is that what you're saying? >> Whatever was available all year is still available. So the option to take for next year, they're creating their schedules for next year now. >> So it's being removed in next year. >> Right. Right. Right. But let me let me look into it and let

021me provide you with the correct details. And maybe whoever you had talked to our Ramapo students, maybe they can come in and give more information and detail. What I want to do is I want to find I want to speak more deeply to the administrators to find out exactly what the >> That's what I'm saying. Can they come and maybe speak to the board and the community? Sure. We President Rose, if if you want them to come and speak at the board meeting, is that something you would like us to do? Yes. Surely. >> it's it's like I said, it's a concern. I mean English is one of the four major subjects besides math, social studies and science that these students have to take. And like I said, they should have the option to not

022only take the Regents and college courses, but there should be a honors option as well. Okay. Right, because sometimes students fall right in the middle. And also is this happening at Spring Valley as well? I don't I'm hearing yes. I don't have the details in my head right now. I mean, you know, we we offer a lot. But I will have them come and I'll have them explain and we'll have a good report for you. Okay. President Rose, just one other thing. Cuz I know it was mentioned I heard about the Regents review and how we want to make sure that there's ACs in those particular rooms. I have to speak on the Regents reviews and a Um, let me ask the question. In terms of Regents Reviews, is that by invitation only? Um, okay,

023we we we are trying to make efforts to maximize the number of students that will participate in Regents Review. So, in the past, we've had a very small very small turnout. So, now what we're what we tried to do is, um, we tried to inform students earlier in the process. We made an effort to meet with them individually to the best of our ability to ask them if they would actually make a commitment to come. Um, and so we, um, prioritized the students that actually would likely come. For example, those that have, uh, attendance at a certain rate. Uh, because we don't want to hire all of these teachers for when the students don't come. They have really high absenteeism. Um, you know, that there is those are the ones that we keep creating the

024programs for if they don't come. So, we want a commitment from them. We want to know that they've been attendant attending, uh, because those are the ones that are most likely to succeed and pass. Um, and so we have seen a higher number of students, um, attending than we did, uh, last semester, for example. Just just I I think, and this is my opinion in terms of by invitation only, I don't think that should be the case. I think that for the Regents Review, that should be open to all students. There are many students that need to pass the Regents. Right? So, I feel like we're trying to up our scores. So, it shouldn't be by invitation only. And and and let me just say one other thing. Um, even if you have, and I'm

025quite sure there are teachers, educators that are willing to step up and do Regents Review for our students to help them pass the Regents. But it shouldn't be by invitation only. >> Right. So, actually we struggle sometimes to get teachers, and that's one. Um, and then when we do get them, then the students a very It's been a very very poor turnout. I might have teachers there with no students. Okay? So, If and if if that's the case, let me just give you using myself. Let's say that I don't have, uh, students that come for Regents Review. There's nobody. Right. >> Um, teachers for me, I As a matter of fact, I was talking to my colleague today. There was a There was no students that showed up, but she didn't put it in for

026anything. You understand what I'm saying? So, so, um, it has to Of course, you have to have students in front of you. But I I feel like that should be open to any student that needs to come for Regents Review. It shouldn't be by invitation. >> It isn't really that it's by invitation, it's that we decided to focus on the kids that are likely to come. For example, if we have some kids that are absent 50% of the time, you know, we have students like that. Are they going to come if we we we board appoint the teachers, we, um, we, you know, make an arrangement with the teachers, an agreement, then the students don't come, then we have to tell the teachers that we have to let them go, then the teachers could have

027gotten another job elsewhere. It's just been a very difficult. So, we're trying to create a different model where we're trying to meet individually with the kids, the students, and say, "Will you make a commitment to come?" You know, um, and and in addition to that, we're making efforts to call the parents to say to the parent, "We're offering this. We want your child to come. Will he or she be able to attend?" We know some of our our students cannot attend. They have other responsibilities afterwards. So, we're making an effort to try to, um, service the students that are willing to come. It's working. So, so what about if you have a student that you didn't speak with, and they want need to go to Regents Review? What do they do? >> We wouldn't say

028no. They could come. Well, I don't think So, then if that's the case, it should be open for students to be able to go for Regents Review. Because the students need it. >> They could come. We're not going to turn anybody away who wants to come. It was The issue that we had was who are we focusing on to to invite, to meet with them one-to-one, to bring them in. But any student that wants to attend Regents Review is 100% welcome. So, every student was told They know this. I'm not sure how they how this was communicated at the high school level. We could find out, but we could clarify. Go ahead, um, Ms. Rincon. How was that one? The initial invitation or target for the program were our ninth graders seeking the Algebra 1

029and the Biology Regents, um, as well as our 12th graders who required any of the Regents, uh, being offered in June to join the after-school program, while meeting also the the attendance thresholds. So, to be honest, when we wait last minute to provide certain resources to our students, we can't expect them to show up. Regents started April 13th. Regents are given out a few times a year. I believe it's uh, Ja- January is one, June is another month that it's given out. I know I mentioned this at the last board meeting. There are other programs throughout the district in both I I want to say in both high schools, Rising Stars being one of them, that provides Regents Prep. How do we Have we looked into those other programs to see how many students are

030showing up to their Regent Prep after school? Also, when we first came up with universal lunch, I believe one of the main purpose of that, too, was to, um, allow students to meet with teachers, uh, for extra help, Regents Prep, um, which I know over the years have not been done. Have we looked into other ways of providing these to their our students, that way they're not choosing between work and Regents Prep, um, sports and Regents Prep? Like, what other alternative or options do these students have besides being told last minute, "Oh, it's April 13th. You can come for Regents Prep if you want." And on that, like I said, it's something that should be ongoing and implemented prior to the school year. Well, yes. I I don't disagree that it would be great to

031have Regents Prep offered even throughout the year. I don't disagree at all. Um, and also to try to, um, um, include it in the regular schedule. Um, and I I'll just say that again, if we're able to, um, modify the schedule, we'll it we'll be able to, um, offer many more uh, offerings that will help students. So, I I agree with you. Um, even though we say that this is late, this is actually quite early compared to what we've done in the past in terms of our ability to offer a Regents Prep program after school. Um, in the past, sometimes we've offered it, you know, with very very little time. So, it's an improvement. >> So, I'm sorry not to cut you off. When you say in the past, what do you mean in the

032past? I've been here for 11 years. This is the first time we've had we're having this issue where after-school program from K through 6 is starting April 21st, which is today. Regent Prep is starting April 13th, which was last week. School started September. I Well, okay. I have to look at >> these are these are these are programs that we've had over the years, and for whatever reason it was taken away. Okay. So, there's no reason why it should be taken If it's If If it wasn't an issue, why was it taken away? Why aren't we able to carry on what we've done in the past? For I know you want to say something, but even with the credit recovery program that you mentioned at the last board meeting, when I asked, "What is going

033on with the summer program for our seniors who usually graduates in August?" These are all things that's been ongoing, and for whatever reason this year, it seems like it's been taken away from our students. Well, I don't I don't think it's taken away. I think that we did an analysis to some degree of the program in summer school, and, um, we took a look at how many students actually attended, um, and what we're trying to do is provide a more focused experience for them. Um, and we're hoping that, um, more students will be able to attend, will attend, and, um, with a better outcome. We could We could share that information with you. We could share the analysis of summer. That's not a problem. I mean, even speaking of that, you want a better experience

034for them. It's not going to be a better experience for them if they have to go to Rockland BOCES, which is not within our district, for them to have to travel. We used to do it right here in our district at Spring Valley High School and at Ramapo High School. There's no reason why we shouldn't be able to provide programs for our students within our district. Mhm. Wait, Trustee Charles Spearin, you just said something, um, in regards to programs being held at Spring Valley Senior High School, um, instead of our, you know, our summer programs having to go to BOCES. We all I don't know and I know that and I want to say this to you, um, Ms. Velusco. Um, Rising Stars, right, is a program that we have. And they receive grants through

03521st Century. There's no financial obligations to this district. They will provide the transportation, the resources, the teachers. How come we don't allow them to run a summer program if there's no expenses or no financial obligations from the district? I think that would be awesome. That would help the district. I don't I don't have uh the details of of uh the funding for Rising Star. Do Do you, Dr. Aisha Nan? >> they they have provided our helped um fund for summer residents uh Mr. Shanahan. Is that Yeah. So, a thing? It's a It's a grant program that is um a grant awarded to Wellcore, and we partner with them. We provide the space and the students. They um They've been working with us all year. Um and I believe that they do they can have a

036summer program as well. So, have they ever had a summer program with us or They have. They have. Is it still going on or do we do will they have one this year? That I don't know. I don't think so. Not a summer program. And that's we don't administer that grant. No. So, this is an independent grant. They would reach out to us to say that they want to run a summer program with us. Is that how it works? >> Correct. Correct. >> But once again, if it's a organization that we're partnered with that we've been doing that they've been providing service to our district for all these years all year round, I don't see what's the difference this year. Dr. Shanahan, could you provide some insight? I I can commu- I can find out

037from Wellcore. I can uh bring them in and we can discuss uh summer possibilities. We do have summer options and summer programs that we want to run, but we will look into Wellcore as well. Okay, thank you. Before we move on to the superintendent's report, I [clears throat] would like to address uh some of the concerns of the public and just to give you a short update about the superintendent search. As our commissioner stated, one of the most important jobs and the roles of a board is to elect a highly qualified superintendent. Um as outlined in the previous meetings uh all the steps that we took and followed the policies and processes of the as guided us by the New York State Education Department and the monitors and their appointed search firm. >> [clears throat]

038>> The board unanimously chose a candidate who we unanimously believe is what's best for our children here in the district. She's a seasoned leader and seasoned educational leader with vast experience in all other areas. >> [snorts] >> Um the board still believes so even after the rejection by our candidate. We truly believe that this candidate is what's best for the district. We are We agree that we need to move fast and to have a superintendent in here as soon as possible. Um We're doing whatever we can to get the candidate that we unanimously believe is what's best for our kids, and we hope that that process will be finalized shortly as soon as we finish our process that we need to do. Um We're do- working to secure the necessary option options to move forward

039with the original plan and candidates that were set forth by Southwest BOCES and vetted and approved by our state monitors, and we agree that this candidate is the best candidate for us. We all unanimously agree that she's the best for our students, and we hope and very much look forward that we'll be able to appoint her soon. Um and the board is doing whatever process that we need to do to get our candidate. Um We're hopeful that this process will be successful and ultimately serve the best interest of our children. Supporting our students remains the board's top priority, and our focus is and will continue and always will be our kids in this district. So, thank you. Um we will now move forward to our superintendent's report, Superintendent Velasco. Thank you. Good evening again. Uh

040so, um we start with our transportation update, and I will uh ask Mr. Stark to um summarize our updates today. Sure. Uh so, first an update on the April 1st non-public um application process. The district has received uh affidavits for 28,907 non-public students for the 2026-2027 school year. In addition, um uh just under 4,000 individual applications have been logged, and of those 1,684 have been processed. There are additional applications that um were received through various systems. There are emails, there's the the Jotform, and so on, that have not yet been la- logged, so that application number will still grow um as those are logged. And then also the the ones that are logged and un- processed will be will be processed as well. Um the legal ads for transportation bids for the non-renewals have been

041sent to the official school newspaper um earlier in the day today. The bids will become uh will be posted on April 24th, which is this Friday, with a bid opening date of May 19th. Um and the Ammon Consulting Group will present a progress update to the Facilities and Transportation Committee uh at their meeting tomorrow, April 22nd, and they will uh be here to present to the full board um on at our next meeting on May 6th. Just for clarification purposes. So, you're saying out of the 28, affidavits that 3,936 was logged and 1,684 >> No. No, no, no. The The affidavits are completely separate from the individual applications. So, the affidavit program is the new system that was put in place where the school collects the applications for from the parents, and then the school

042provides an affidavit to the school to the school district for all of the students in their schools. So, in that program, which is separate from the individuals sending in their applications, we have received um the affidavits and the um Excel spreadsheets uh which download directly into our system for those 28,000 uh 907. The 3,936 are the individuals who go to schools that are not part of that program and and do their applications individually. So, we we don't have to log and process that 28,000. That's automatically It's not automatic, but we receive We receive a file from them that we download. And that's been done already? That those downloads um So, they've been logged and processed? >> want to tell you that those are 100% in the system, but we have um we have been downloading

043them, and they uh it's much easier process because it's an electronic process. Um I I will I'll find out to make sure that um what those numbers are in terms of being downloaded, but that that process is is a much easier process, part of the reason that we we moved in that direction. >> for the next meeting, you can let us know how many of those affidav- affidavits were logged, processed, completely downloaded? >> to have that number [clears throat] for um tomorrow's meeting. Well, to share with the board as well. Yeah. Yeah. All right, thank you. Okay, kindergarten registration is still underway. Children must be 5 years old on or before December 1, 2026 to be eligible for kindergarten. All current UPK students must register for kindergarten, and you can do so online, or you

044can come and uh visit the the central registration office, which is in this building. If you have any questions, you can email, uh and all families are encouraged to register early. As we've mentioned before, we are transitioning how we communicate with parents and families from Remind to Parent Square, and I'm going to ask Mr. Gandhi to please provide an update on Parent Square. Good evening. Um so, as a reminder, just like previous uh board meetings, um it will be moving from Remind to Parent Square starting July 1st. Um We already sent out the invitation to all families uh public school families to join Parent Square. Um and we know that sometimes uh if the email is stuck in a spam folder, parents can always sign in using um their email and phone number that is

045on uh file with your with the child's school. So, you can always, even if you did not receive an invitation, you can always use your phone number, primary phone number, and the email that's registered with the school. And if you need to update your contact information, please contact your child's school directly so they can update your email and phone number. Again, we're going to be live with Parent Square on July 1st. Um starting in May, um May uh middle of May, uh buildings will be doing uh something called soft launch. So, they'll be they'll start using Parent Square just to communicate non-urgent messages. So, at least, you know, we want to make sure that both systems will run parallel from May to June, and July 1st is when we'll be uh uh just only using

046Parent Square. Thank you. We are offering a number of summer programs this year. We have uh the K Jumpstart program for incoming kindergarteners, the summer pathways for current K through 8th grade students, and summer school for our current 12th grade students. Registration will begin in May, uh and you will be able to register via website, remind, Blackboard, email. I will um ask Ms. Marconi to provide an overview for the K Jumpstart program. Good evening. So, our K Jumpstart program is specifically for students who did not attend any preschool program. So, those are the students that we invite to the program. Last year was the first time we launched that program. We had a um invited about 230 students, and we had about 130 students attend the program. So, we'll be running that program again this

047year. Question, if you have space available, and let's say there is a parent that wants to put their student their child um who wasn't preschool, do we are we taking them, or how does that work? The program is really targeted for readiness for kindergarten. So, we're really targeting the the students who did not attend any preschool or UPK programs. That's who the program is tailored for. But no, yeah, I understand that part. What I'm saying is if there is space available. So, if you have 230 uh spaces available for students, and you get 130, what do you do with the other 100? Well, we only hire for the amount of students who register. Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you, and I will invite Ms. Rincon Tomizawa to explain the Summer Pathways program. Good evening. Um so,

048our Summer Pathway Let me try that again. Our Summer Pathways program is for our students um who will be currently in first grade going into eighth grade. This program allows our students to participate in STEAM uh activities, athletics, and fine arts as well. Similar to last year, the program will run the same uh um weeks from July um 6th to the 13th. Um all at Kakiat, and our goal is to ensure that our students also experience a transition from um from sixth grade into seventh grade. So, they'll have part of the part of the Pathways program supporting them in building what social skills and um study skills as well as they prepare for that transition from sixth grade into um into seventh grade. And as well for our eighth grade eighth grade students transitioning to

049ninth grade. Thank you. Uh we are focusing our 12th our high school program on our current 12th graders uh with an effort to try to improve our graduation rates. Um we are planning or budgeting for 200 up to 200 students to attend the BOCES program. Uh obviously, if if we can't fill it with our 12th graders, we will consider um other options. But in working with Rockland BOCES, this is this is the um areas of focus that we have right now. We also uh are considering the possibility of offering some uh support um at on at district for um other students that may need a smaller number of courses that might be available via other programs such as Edgenuity and and um other credit recovery options. We're finalizing those plans now, so we'll be able

050to provide you more detail at our next meeting. Once again, um I think it's a disservice to our students to do it at Rockland BOCES. Um I think they could facilitate it at our um buildings. Um I really hope that the students who need it um are able to take advantage, and um like I said, this is something we've been we've done for years. It's it's I don't know what changed. Um but August I I'm assuming these are the same students who are 12th graders now, and for whatever reason they don't have enough credits to graduate in June. So, we'll hopefully meet the requirements, pass the Regents, um and take and graduate in August. Correct? >> Yes. And would that graduation still be held here in our district, or We can have a graduation ceremony.

051For Well, why wouldn't we have it? No, we I didn't say we wouldn't. I said we could. We could happily do it. >> Yeah, well, at this point in time, our focus has been to plan for these programs. We haven't gone as far as planning for uh graduation. If they were here, that would just be a natural part of the program, but we were happy to do that. So, the answer is yes, we can do that. >> goes back to my original question or comment saying that if we've had programs in place for our seniors in the past where they were able to attend, take the Regents, pass the Regents, and still be able to walk in August, why aren't we continuing that this summer? Well, last summer we did have it. The summer before,

052we actually sent them to BOCES. Um and I think that there was a number of inconsistencies in the summers. Dr. Shanahan, do you recall um when we have had our summer school programs here at the high school? Do you remember? Two years ago we had them. Well, last year we had it here, and then we had it at BOCES. We had very few at BOCES. Um last year we had Yeah, we had our program here, and before that we had more at BOCES. But um but last year was uh we had very few. We housed it here. Right, we had it here last year. >> When you say here, we had them. >> the program, but the year before, we didn't have it here. When you say here, here where? In the district. The year

053before, we did not have it at the high school. We had only BOCES options. Do you remember? >> Okay, that was the year before. Can you just All right, just explain then um why did we move it to BOCES? I'm just curious. Like why was it moved? So, you know, part of the issue is that we had None of us have been here that long. But uh in my in my conversations with folks, my understanding is that um we have not often run our high school summer programs. That's what I recall from an HR perspective, and we were trying to understand the pay structure for summer that that was relatively new. So, but but I could you know, I don't um I don't pretend to have a full historical uh perspective and knowledge. I'm happy

054to come back and let you know which summers we did and didn't, and how many students participated. And I'm happy to do that. >> the the minutes are available to the public. It's something that everyone can see. So, if we had to go back and see what was done in 2018, 2016, 2023, I mean, we can see what that salary looked like. We can see what teachers were um board approved for this program. We can see who was in place. We can I'm pretty sure I would hope we keep records to know what that structure looked like. I mean, just because we have you know, there's people who may have not been here as long that don't go back that far, that's not an an excuse to take something away and revamp or reinvent or

055just to do away with. So, what I'm saying is that this is something we've been doing for years. We've always had graduation, whether it's at um here at at the administration building. I know during COVID was as we did one at Spring Valley. We did one at Ramapo High School because of COVID. It's something we've been doing for years. So, I just want to make sure that like I said, we're not that our students get what they need to pass their Regents if they're not able to for graduation in June, so they can graduate in August, and so that they're able to walk like every student has walked in August in the past years. Agreed. Thank you. Okay. Uh so, um we have been involved in uh hosting some job fairs, and I'm going to

056ask Mr. Kravitz to give us an update. Thank you very much. As I stated last week, we had one um Well, last week I said we were going to have one on Wednesday. We had about 40 people show up during the course of the day. Um it was held in our Family Welcome Center, and our next one will be held on May 7th, uh both during the day, and then we added evening hours for those people who can come after after work, or who can't get here during the day. So. Um All right. Yeah, as the student stated, we need teachers because we have classrooms um where there's no teacher, and they're being taught What did she say? They're being uh taught um like online? So, we really need teachers desperately. Yes, we I I

057feel Yes. Can we be provided with um numbers, how many I guess people came the 11th, the 15th, and the 7th when once we do the 7th, how many people showed up in attendance for the job fair? Sure. We had over We had almost 80 on the 11th. We had about 40 on the 15th, and I will report out as soon as we're done with the 7th. I can put that in my weekly um update Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kravitz. We have a number of events coming up that are rather exciting. I'm going to ask Dr. Shanahan to um explain them for us. So, coming up in May, May 17th, we have our annual Spring Fling, which is an event for families and community members housed at Spring Valley High School. Uh, last

058year we had 1,150 attendees at the event and it is uh an event that is very popular. Uh, it's full of uh giveaways, uh entertainment, games for students. Um and we have a lot of community partners that are there for the community to interact with. Mr. Shanahan, the flyer says Saturday, May 17th. Wait, I'm lost and it says 2025. >> up. Look at the flyer. It says presents 2025 Spring Fling and then the date Saturday, May 17th. But uh May 17th, 2026 is on a Sunday. So, the flyer's incorrect. Okay. Well, thank you. Um one thing I would like to say that um >> Well, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Trustee Charlespierre. One second. Is are we Do we know the correct date? It is this Saturday if the You're saying the Saturday is the 16th.

059>> then it would be the 16th. >> It's on the 16th. All right. So, the flyer will be corrected because that one's wrong. >> Yes. Okay. The year, the year and the date. Um But the time is the time is the same every year. We also have uh two productions from our middle schools. Uh we have High School Musical at Chestnut Ridge and we have The Little Mermaid at Pomona. Um on May 15th and 16th at uh Chestnut Ridge and the 7th and 8th of May at uh Pomona and both of those are free and we invite everyone in the community to come and see those performances. These students are very excited about them. And finally, we have um the Ramapo Jazz Night, which is becoming an annual event and this is a night of

060really good quality uh jazz music uh put together by our Director of Fine and Performing Arts, Michael Smith. Um and his band. He has created this event. He leads the band um and he's the I'll say he's the star player of the band there. And just to make it clear, too, what I've noticed is that that Spring Fling flyer is a flyer from last year, which means that um we took last year's flyer to share publicly. So, if we can have that updated like Mrs. McGill said, that would be great. Another thing I want to mention is that um for someone who attends majority of the events that uh the family resource coordinators put together, it would be nice to see administrators come and support our students and the work that they're doing for our

061community. Um a lot of times um I would say that uh Mike Smith Mike Mike Smith doesn't count. He's with the marching band. He's always present. Um but at the same time, we have other cabinet members who can come out and show support. Um you know, to our principals as well, staff, teachers. Um this is something that we're not only doing for our communities, but we have a lot of times that our students are involved and just to show that a little support would be nice to come from others and I understand everybody's life is busy. I don't get paid for what I do. We don't We as board members don't get paid for what we do, but you know, we still find a way to show up and it would be nice to see

062other faces at these events. We want to take a moment to say thank you to our administrative assistants. It's appreciation time this time of year. I want to express our gratitude to them uh for serving as the welcoming face of our schools and the essential backbone of our daily operations. We see the hard work that you do behind the scenes every day and we appreciate your commitment to our district. Thank you. You had requested an attendance update. Here is the information. I'll ask Mr. Gandhi to provide an overview. Good evening, uh board and committee members. Um so, tonight we're providing an update attendance updated attendance and chronic absenteeism report. Um so, as of March 31st, um our year-to-date um district enrollment is 9,426 students. Um our year-to-date uh district-wide average daily attendance is 89.59% and

063um the year-to-date district-wide chronic absenteeism rate is 39.34%. So, as instructional days increase, the threshold for chronic absenteeism also increases. So, at this point in the year, students are identified as chronically absent if they've missed 12 days out of 119 instructional days in elementary and 120 instructional days in secondary as of March 31st, um 2026. So, compared to our um our real earlier reports in the fall, average daily attendance has remained um relatively stable. Um although we continue to see chronic absenteeism increase as the school year um progresses and our absences um accumulate. So, at the secondary level, we continue to see um higher chronic absenteeism rates um especially at Ramapo High School at 53.96% and Spring Valley High School at 49.87% and at the elementary level, um rates are um generally uh lower um

064though we continue to monitor schools with higher percentages including ECC uh at 44.1%. So, overall, um the data shows that while daily attendance um remains fairly consistent, um chronic absenteeism remains um an area requiring continued focus. Uh quick question. Back in December, we mentioned It was mentioned to us that there's about 900 students who were missing daily. Do we have an update on those specific 900 students? Have we been keeping Do we have an update on that? Have we been following to see if the student of the if those students have returned back to school or what's the update on those numbers or and those specific, I guess, students? So, I don't have the update right now, uh but we can definitely share that and um I know um Superintendent Velasco has talked about having

065the attendance monitoring team at the buildings level and district level as well. So, we can probably talk about that. So, I don't have the numbers on me right now. Okay. You We will provide that at the next board meeting. Sure, from December, right? That was Yeah, it was It was um I think November numbers year-to-date. >> mentioned to us in December. So, I've been asking for an update on that specific 900. Correct. Thank you. The 9,426, is that the number that we started the school year or that's the number that was in March? That's March 31st. What was the number that we started the school Um I think I believe it was over than 10,000. 10,054 is what we started with in September. So, we lost about 600 kids? 600 kids. Is this because they

066completely failed or or they failed more than a certain amount? Is they're completely absent >> Yeah, they're completely absent. They're not on our rosters anymore. So, they fell off the roster. >> Yes, as well. So. Yeah, I think they drop when they're 20 days out consecutive. Consecutive. >> drop. And that's when buildings start doing the reach out, right? Find out and they don't just drop them. They also reach out to the families and they find out exactly what's going on with them. So, that's how they're coded as well when they're dropped. What's the statewide average? I have to look at that. I don't have that on me right now. I know last time we checked, it was definitely in um 30s as well, statewide average. So, 30% or so. Okay, thank you. Um in addition,

067uh you requested um staff information on staff vacancies and I'm going to ask Mr. Kravitz to provide us with a summary. Thank you very much. So, uh similar to what I spoke about at the March 24th board meeting, this is an update um for this month. So, I broke this down to two slides. The first are administrators. Um the positions that are are vacant, some of them are currently in our our current 25-26 budget that have either not been filled or still need to be filled um on a permanent basis. So, the central office administrators that are there under the first bullet um are ones that are currently in the 25-26 budget. The deputy superintendent was budgeted but not filled. Payroll supervisor, I'm sorry. I don't want to cut you off. I just don't want

068you to waste your time at the same time. Okay. The vacancies staff vacancies that I asked that was asked for at the board meetings had to do with teachers and staff in the buildings. These are vacancies that was shared with us at the last board meeting of um positions that I believe the interim superintendent shared with the board that you wanted to add or has already been added to the budget. The vacancies that we're looking for are unfilled positions in the classroom at each building. Okay, this is This information um in does include what I shared with you last time, but also additional information. But we're happy to move to the next slide, which is about teachers and other staff. Okay, I'm okay if we if it's okay with everybody else, too. >> does um

069President Rose, do you are you interested in this information or would you like us to move on? Well, I'm just one board member here. We can continue with the presentations. This has been part of the presentation. This is information that Trustee Charles Pierre has requested in the next slide. We can do this slide and when we're ready to move to the next slide if if that's okay with Trustee Charles Pierre. So Is that what Can we continue? Okay. Thank Sorry, does anybody have any questions or comments on this slide? Um the proposed I see in the proposed of that the board didn't approve, but it stayed in the budget, I believe. Um Certain changes I see in the new positions in proposed budgets. I see changes that we didn't approve. Uh well, at the last

070board meeting I don't think you approved any of them. I think we I explained the rationale for why we wanted to include them and then I think we heard from two board members, uh but I don't think that the board uh gave us final answer on whether or not you're approving these new positions. So we didn't approve the new positions. So why is it in the budget? But I think that's also because we were told that it was already in the budget for next year. So which means if it's already in it this what are we approving? If it was put before we could even approve or disapprove. We'll have to look every month to see if they put between the points and then voted on. That's the next way to deal with it. Uh

071what I don't have clarity as to whether or not the board is approving the position. I don't I I [clears throat] I think the question is not so much about the positions as the question is that as we've explained we the board feels that these positions are best hired by our new superintendent. Right. Um It makes if these if these these these definitely look like important positions that we need as a district. We we feel that it's it's something that we'd like the new superintendent to make the necessary hirings and changes that he or she um sees fit. I I I think that we all agree that these positions at least [snorts] some of these positions are are are definitely necessary. Um We're just questioning the the the the idea of doing it so late

072in the school year when we're going to be hiring a new superintendent and we're actively trying to hire a new superintendent. That that new superintendent should have the be able to hire his or her team. I think that that's where we're at. Sure. Well, that's that's fine. So we'll keep them in the budget and then when the new superintendent comes you can make a decision. Does anybody disagree with The question was a few of the things which if this is the right way to since we are shaking What are you talking about the the deputy which specifically which Transportation for instance the wide two directors. This was one of the discussions and a few of the other ones which we weren't sure exactly about the grants and stuff if this is the way we need

073to go or maybe there's another way. People have different people have different views on learning systems. I believe it will make more sense that if we get someone to run the district to be able to have their input in these changes. I mean even if you look at the new positions where it says to hire two executive director of business and funded programs, I know my I've been questioning the director of attendance and funded program monitoring. So if we're looking for two executive director um for funded programs, what is why why is attendance connected to funded program monitoring and what's the purpose of it? I mean a lot a lot of this yes, this is what you would like to propose in the next year's budget, but at the same time, too, as mentioned um

074before this you know, incoming superintendent might have their own vision and might have a different setup organizational chart. Um so the fact that it's already being proposed in the budget, I don't see how I don't know. It it puts us in a situation where we kind of have no say, they have no say as opposed to just leaving it the way it is so they can come in and align and make their own decision on how they would like to see that chart organizational chart be uh structured. Sure. It could stay in the budget and if we won't use it it will stay as a surplus. That's maybe that's maybe an option to leave it there. So like this if he decides to go with it he should have the money for it. Right. Exactly.

075So you leave it there and then you know, you can change the positions. You maybe you want a different structure, then you'll have the money there for that. And if you don't want to fill it, then you don't fill it. The only thing I'll I'll say is that I feel like that takes away from providing resources and programs for our students. Um if we're not going to do anything with these positions in the next school year, we should be allocating that money if possible to something that's going to support our students. So if I could just comment on that, that is is still very possible. So as you know, um we have budget transfers that um the board approves. Um when the board adopts the budget, um what you'll notice when we get there later

076is the um the resolution is for the total number for the total amount. And when the voters in the district vote, they are also voting on that total amount. So we have presented you with a line-by-line budget with what um is known at this point this as the superintendent's budget. Um but there is always flexibility in that. What there's not [clears throat] flexibility in is changing the total amount of it after that amount has been adopted by the by the board. So you have backup for the line-by-line, but there's um education law does not tie uh the board to spend in exactly that matter. It's uh the resolution that you see um later in the in the board meeting specifically only has the total number of both the revenue and the expenditure budget. Um so

077there is flexibility to uh change programs, change the positions that are in there. Um is Is Mr. Honeywell on? So I'm aware of all of that. My only concern from what I've seen for the past few years is that there's always change in leadership whether it's interim superintendent cabinet level. So a lot of the times we start to implementing things but it doesn't get carried over. No one is passing the baton. We're always starting from scratch. We're always teaching those who are coming in or educating those who are coming in um what what what we've started or what we're trying to um see happen in our district. So I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page and if there is if there is when there is change in leadership that

078um things just don't get lost in the crack. Put it that way. What What do you suggest that we should do with the money instead of these people? You were mentioning stuff that we should do programs. What programs would you suggest? To be honest we have to approve this tonight. So for me to even see what programs and the fact that this was even okay by the commission and the New York State monitors I don't see how that's possible that this is even you know, physically sound at this point knowing that we still have a lot of a lot of questions in terms of what's being presented to us as board members who have to approve this to be able to bring this forth to our voters. So I don't I don't have an answer

079for you. I'm sorry. But again, I just I just want to reiterate that there is flexibility in how different parts of the budget can be allocated. I I see that Mr. Honeywell has is Correct. So I just want to echo what Mr. Stark is saying that um you're again the with the timelines you're under the legal timelines to get your budget approved in time before the public hearing and then the the budget hearing and then the budget vote, you are approving the overall budget, but you still have a little wiggle room with line items that can be adjusted. So certainly once you approve the budget tonight, that doesn't doesn't end any conversation on reallocation of certain line items of the budget before you go to the final budget proposal at the public meeting. Okay, are

080we ready to move on? If we do approve we approve those positions uh but they're not being used how are we secured that it's not going to be uh nobody's going to be appointed without us knowing prior? We still vote for that position. If someone being appointed you could download it. By certificate or civil appointments you could download it if you don't want. Uh sometimes we find out after that that a contract was done or whatever. If we don't need it three months after that. What was I'm sorry, what was the question? Question is if suppose we're not comfortable with those positions yet being appointed but we're approving it because the budget has to pass. So But to be honest, for transparency purposes, we're telling the voters this is what's being included in the budget,

081but I mean I don't want to say as a board, but I can say for as for myself, I don't agree that we should be sharing that this is what's going to be in the proposed budget if I don't if we don't agree with it. If we don't agree that this is something that is going to be a position positions that's going to be filled or I just don't want to mislead the voters, the community, and everyone else as we share this information. This is what's being proposed, but we as a as a as a board is saying we should also wait for the incoming superintendent to make these final decisions. And there the final decision may not even be what's being proposed in this budget. And in that case, there would be the flexibility

082to change. Right. Okay, so shall we move on? Mr. Kravitz? Sure. I don't have the I'm sorry, I don't have the clicker. Okay, thank you. So what I did for the the March 24th meeting as well, and I hear what you're saying, Ms. Charles-Pierre, so I can provide a more detailed one to the board if that's what that's what you need. I have the backup information for all of these. Um the teachers the teacher number is inclusive of all of our retirees, uh which is over 40. It's inclusive of our um as I said the last time, uh all of our FTEs that are currently covered by point twos, um which is almost 20. It's also any unfilled position from this current year. So we we typically have And Ms. Miguel you we've talked you're

083you've talked about this at different times. There are high needs areas that most districts, you know, have a hard time filling, right? Our ENL teachers are bilingual content area teachers, facts, technology, that every district really across the land seems to be struggling with. However, we are offering our teachers opportunities if if necessary to to take on additional responsibilities, but that is not that is not ideal for us and that is not what we want to continue. That's we want to be able to hire for all of those positions. So moving down from the the teachers to our related service providers, just so everyone knows, those are inclusive of our speech our speech and language pathologists, our school nurses, our occupational therapists, physical therapists. That's how many we we need as of today. Our security um

084is eight. So that includes it does include two senior security aides that were in the proposed budget. I didn't put those two positions on the first slide with those other eight positions because those were administrative positions and these are not administrative positions. Um we're still looking for eight clerical across the district, one maintenance worker at our buildings and grounds department, and five permanent building substitute positions. Um So that's where we are as far as our our current vacancies. And like I said, if you need a detailed breakout, I can get you those. Yeah, cuz I I see the 100 teachers. I don't know if it'd be too much, but I'm just curious as to okay, how many math teachers, science teachers? >> I have it by building, but I can get you I'll I'll I

085can get you that. >> That give us a better idea. >> [snorts] >> Um the next piece is um we were asked to give uh an update on the work that had been done uh across the district um for uh during the ARPA project. So uh Mr. Thurnau has put together um some information for you, and I'll have him come up, please. Thank you. Uh So um I pulled this information from the uh various um uh reports that were provided through the um course of the project from the construction management firm Jacobs, and we broke it out into major categories, and as you can see here, there was a significant amount of flooring replacement throughout all the schools of the district. Everything got hit, I believe, except um Ramapo High School. The vast majority of

086their floors were not, first of all, hazardous uh asbestos flooring tile, and they have a significant amount of uh terrazzo uh flooring, which is a more uh long-term permanent uh flooring solution. Kitchen hoods and abatements in in uh 11 schools, um and again, these were um significantly deteriorated uh utilities with asbestos uh ductwork. Uh so all of those kitchens were renovated, and that was uh a three and 3.3. I didn't mention the flooring, of course, was almost $25 million. Um mechanical and and electrical plumbing at Kakiat and Margate, that relates to uh the uh unit ventilators that we were able to replace in those schools. You will see in a later uh discussion that um we're trying to avoid what happened in Kakiat and Margate, and what I can relate there is that the unit

087ventilators were installed prior to the state requirements for the uh uh high heat days that we're talking about, and so those schools do not have uh condi- air conditioning coils installed in those unit ventilators that were installed during the ARPA project. So I uh you'll see in a later slide that I've suggested we put some money into um modifying those unit ventilators to put the air conditioning coils in there. Um ADA upgrades throughout 13 schools in the district. Uh doors and hardware, almost all the schools got uh I think all the schools did get new doors and new hardware. For uh making sure that schools and classrooms are all uh these are interior doors, excuse me, all the classrooms and educational spaces are lockable and have new hardware that allows uh safety protocols to be

088enacted from inside the classroom without having to uh go out in the hallway and use keys. Uh window replacements at 10 schools. Uh there is was a tremendous amount of poor quality windows around the district, including a significant number of windows over the years that were damaged uh routinely so that they were replaced with Plexiglas, uh very of course not energy efficient, et cetera. So we've completed a tremendous amount of window replacements to the tune of 11 million dollars in change, and um the vast majority of the windows in the district are done. There are still some that need to be done. Ramapo High School in particular still has a significant amount of uh window work that should uh be considered. Uh so in addition to the ARPA money, the district was able to uh

089from previous budgets put uh $1.6 million towards the overall work, uh and that it also uh allowed us to uh replace the 87 water coolers that you see started at the top of this slide, which significantly uh helped address the lead and water quality issues. So we are uh maintaining those on a regular basis. They have lead filters, and uh we are replacing those filters as needed on a regular basis to make sure our water supplies uh remains appropriate. So if I may make a comment or ask a question, too, about the water coolers. Um it's to my understanding that even though we've funded this project to install 87 water coolers, our students are not drinking the water. Um they still unfortunately don't trust that the full work was done um to be able to

090drink the water. And I think that if we as adults won't drink it um for whatever reason, there's no reason why we should be forcing our students to drink it. I know a lot of our buildings still have the bottle dispensers, and with the you know, the heat waves coming, the the hot weather coming, the summertime coming, I think if we can somehow someway increase amount of amount of bottles um that we that are delivered to the schools um so that our students can feel comfortable drinking the the the water from the bottle dispenser, um that would be beneficial to our students. Um like I said, I've received a lot of complaints, um concerns about these water coolers, and I think whatever we can do to provide other options without being an issue um where

091teachers or staff have to um complain, beg to get extra bottles for the bottle dispensers, that would be great. Um so uh respectfully, that's not a decision that I'm going to be making on behalf of the district. >> Yeah, that is I'm sorry those are for yeah, correct. >> understood. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I >> And I also recognize, and I have heard this as well, that there is a different taste. And I think that's correct. accurate. There is a different taste to bottled water, which contains lots of different minerals that may not

092be in a filtered water through the municipal system. I'm not sure how to address that other than to ensure that the education is out there, that the water is taste tested, it's safe, and it meets all required standards. Thank you. And is it also true, I believe, that the testing is monitored by the Rockland County Department of Health? Well, the municipal system is monitored by the Rockland County. These the water that we are testing through our filters, our end-use spigots, that all gets reported to the State Health Department, and >> Health Department? that testing data is required to be posted on the website, which we are in compliance with. Okay. So, maybe this is a um question that Mr. Lisco could answer or Mr. Stark in terms of providing more bottled water bottles for the

093dispensers at the buildings, especially as it starts to get hotter outside, and as we heard, it's hot in the buildings, we don't have AC. Can we Is it possible to provide more bottles in the buildings? To for the students also have >> refillable bottles for the students to use? Correct. I I think that we we might be able to, but I I'd have to check. Is that Is that something that we might be able to get through one of the grants? The The vessels reusable water bottles for our students? I would have to look into that. I don't know. >> No, we're we're talking about the bottles that goes on the dispenser, correct? Okay. reusable Right. Yeah, I You're talking about the five-gallon Correct. Correct. Correct. >> bottles that go on the dispensers. Correct. >>

094And that's why That's why I suggested that that's a decision >> Yeah, yeah, the five-gallon, not I don't know what you're referring to, but the five-gallon that goes on the the bottle dispenser itself. Yeah. I believe I don't know how many >> about different things, though. In the grand scheme of things, we spent that million dollars to eliminate $150,000 per year of bottled water. But that's something that's probably year-round. What I'm saying is with the last few months coming May, June, July, August, even with the summer programs, is it possible to have those bottles in whatever building or location we're going to have the after-school programs, and I guess K through 12 from May to to June, and then for the summer programs from July to August? That's We'll We'll look into what the need

095is and and wherever the programs are, what the what the water is that's available, and we'll look at into whether there would be a need for more, sure. Okay, and I think that's more so too for like high school, middle school, especially since they do sports. Um like I said, we um you know, not all of them are are able to bring their own uh water, Gatorade. So, I think if they have to go inside and get water, and they don't feel drinking the from the water cooler, we should be able to have some other option for them. Okay. Look into that. What was the total amount of dollars that we got for ARPA? The total um The The total that was on the report here was 80 million, I believe. that the overall total

096was closer to 90. Is that correct? Um yes, that that that total that's there is labeled as installed work um by the time you add in the various construction management, architectural, engineering fees, uh overhead and profit for contractors, etc., you know, that that was in the the low 90 to 93 range, as I recall. What's next? Okay, moving on to uh budget updates. Um you had asked that the department break down uh some of their budgets. Um so, we are providing highlights from the different departments. Um and I'll hand it back over to Mr. Stark for transportation. Okay, so um in transportation, obviously the the biggest piece, which makes up a a very large percentage of the transportation budget, um is the contractual line. Um the contractual line uh provides for all the different types

097of transportation from our vendors um to and from the public and non-public schools, um out of district transportation uh to um private to to both private and public uh placements out of district, um our interscholastic athletics programs, after-school programs, and field trips. And as you see there, that is uh approximately 77 uh and 1/2 million. Um other um pieces that are important there, they certainly don't make up as much. We do have um some materials and supplies, which is fuel, tires, and furniture, and office supplies. The fuel and tires are for the vehicles that we have uh that are safety inspectors uh used to uh move around the district. And then professional development, we have um educational programs with Tyler Technologies, we have bus safety training, and um there is some uh funding in the

098budget for some conferences for our transportation employees. Uh moving >> Do you by any chance know about in average the state how much each district spends per child for transportation per year? Is there such a number somewhere? Other districts? Not the total amount what they spend per child. What is the average per child in the state for transportation? I I don't know that, but I can certainly look to look to see if I can find that out. So, you're looking for a statewide average? Something like it, or maybe maybe region-wise, our region or something. Okay. Maybe different regions have higher because if they have kids living a lot more spread out, it's more expensive, I believe. They're more rural area. For people about what each district what the average of the districts are. Rural is

099probably a lot more expensive, but urban where we are. Mhm. Okay. I'll see if I can get that. Uh next is Um if I may ask just for a second. Uh does the district Does the district do anything requiring um AC in the buses for the upcoming year or something? Is there a requirement for air conditioning in the buses? No, there is not. >> Yes. No. So, this hasn't changed? I'm sorry? So, this doesn't change for the up- for the upcoming year? In terms of In the contract, putting into contract a requirement that the contractor has to provide that the buses has to be with AC. It have air conditioning? Yes. No, it does not. No. Uh quick question. I noticed that um when I add up these three numbers, um I get 77,584,375. Am

100I missing something? No. It might be It's probably a typo. It's probably a typo. I apologize. I'll have that corrected. So, what's the correct number? Give me 1 second. Eric, I think what you're trying to communicate is the total uh in the budget on transportation, what you noted up there, you just highlighted certain areas. You haven't put everything down, I assume. But it says 2026-2027 total, so I would think the total would be um we the reflection of that number should be with what's being presented to us. I mean, that extra 300,000 um It is It's the The number on the slide is supposed to be the the items that we've put on slide. >> So, that means that's incorrect. >> It is incorrect. It should be Yeah, 8 + 7 is 15. I When

101I when I add the the the three up, I'm getting 77,584. 375, correct. So, that's what I'm saying, that the total here is incorrect on the So, is there something here that Ah, okay. Say that again. We'll We'll have the slide corrected. I apologize. Buildings and grounds? >> Eric, on on transportation, you you haven't listed the salaries. We have what? You haven't listed the salaries. No, they're not on there. The department The department has salaries. >> right? We We didn't We didn't look at um uh salaries in terms of um any of these that are in the presentation as highlights. So, the total doesn't include salaries. The total there is incorrect. The The total on the slide is incorrect. It It will be corrected. Is there the now? Um regarding facilities, uh the uh again,

102this is uh as Eric just mentioned, this is a highlight. This does not include all the staff expenses. So contractual is is just under 2.5 million and that's everything that buildings and grounds department does with outside vendors from boiler maintenance to fire alarm maintenance to elevators, all of those systems and operations that we're required to maintain throughout the year. Snow removal when the snow storms are beyond our staff capability, all of those outside costs that we incur throughout the year. Supplies, a million three, basically our custodial supplies for all the buildings and that's of course everything from hand soap for restrooms to you know, cleaning pads for floor machines and and etc. Those are all of the supplies that we use throughout the year for the buildings and grounds department. Equipment, we are looking for

103additional transit vans for the staff to carry their equipment around the district. And we've had significant snow in the last two seasons and we've come to the decision that we would like to acquire some additional snow removal equipment that will allow us to to manage this operation more efficiently and hopefully reduce some of our reliance on outside contractors for that for that need. And then just our annual utility costs are about 2.3 million dollars, natural gas, fuel, electricity and water. So one thing I'll say with the highlights for this buildings and ground department is um what I was looking for was more so of also a breakdown of buildings where the work will be done. For example, Next slide. Okay. So I believe this is what you had requested. Um So we spoke uh earlier

104about the air conditioning and the and the heat days that we now have to be aware of and and and deal with. The board is aware of the energy performance contract that is was recently approved. And we through that project will be installing new unit ventilators for seven different elementary schools. And we have come to the conclusion that it really does not make sense to install those new unit ventilators without the provision for future air conditioning. We would have to modify that brand new equipment and or replace it if we were able to provide air conditioning in those locations. So we've reached out to the state education department for some guidance in trying to run a parallel project with the energy performance contract, allow that project to proceed and fund the potential air conditioning as

105a similar parallel project. If we do that, we estimate that the cost for that is 3.5 million for those seven elementary schools associated with the energy performance contract and that's approximately 500,000 per school. I'm sorry Carl if I could just add what that would mean in those in six of the elementary schools, the new unit ventilators are in every classroom and in Grandview, it's 50% of them. So it would mean that classrooms in six and a half of our elementary schools would be fully air conditioned if we're able to accomplish that. One other school we're only doing 50% so so the other half would probably have to have some ACs or something like that. Well, some of those already have window units for example and yes, in the future as needed, we would look to

106finish that building with future capital projects. This is what we're able to accomplish now based on trying to tie this work to the energy performance contract so that we don't waste those resources by having to install equipment that wouldn't also have the capability for AC. Um If I if I move to the next bullet, HVAC and electrical upgrades, this is the transfer to capital that we're looking for in the 2026-2027 budget and so for the high schools, Eric mentioned that we're going to speak to the principals tomorrow on making sure they're aware of their their heat plan and so forth. What we would look to do initially is air condition those large group spaces so that during those high heat days as needed students could be rotated in and out of those spaces as necessary

107if their particular classrooms were not air conditioned. So we would look for auditorium, cafeteria, gyms, etc. to make sure that we to the extent possible provide funding to provide air conditioning in those large group spaces at those schools. What about the library? The libraries I didn't mention because they are air conditioned already. At both high schools? >> Yes. Mhm. Um so that's why they're not included. And then you see the third bullet in that HVAC list is Kakiat and Margate. I've mentioned previously that we did unit new unit ventilators in those two schools under ARPA but because it wasn't included at that time and because the state had not required the heat guidance, those units were not included with air conditioning coils for future use. So we would look to spend some money to go

108back and retrofit those new units to provide the capability of air conditioning there. Mhm. Um exterior windows >> Why don't we put in fans or something? We can also do that and we have fans in every school. Um long term, I presume that it would be more comfortable to have actual air conditioning But in the interim The fans blow hot air, it doesn't work. They don't work. Um moving to the interior excuse me, exterior doors and windows. Um We are estimating that that those schools, Pomona, Spring Valley, Ramapo, Margate, etc. They have some of the worst conditioned exterior doors that don't seal properly, have significantly rusted doors and or frames. So we would look to spend those dollars there. Paving and sidewalk repairs, we did a tremendous amount of paving last year but we still

109have a few spots that we would finish up. And then in addition to that, we have some deteriorated sidewalk that are trip and fall hazards, safety issues. So we would look to spend that money there. Miscellaneous slabs here and there. And then I'm sorry, and that that would complete the paving projects throughout the district? It would. >> most part. And I think we also talked about the I think it's the columns in front of the schools. Um that some of them were deteriorating. Those have all been corrected. >> All of them? Okay. Thanks. And then finally there's still some district office flooring that would uh be desirable to get completed. So this would be the breakout uh for the total of 5.25 that we're seeking in the transfer to capital budget in the in the

110budget proposal. I'm going back for a second for the two units in the the two ventilators ventilators in Margate and Kakiat spending $200,000 to add AC coils. That's only the coil but that's not to have actual AC in those units, correct? >> That's likely correct, yes. >> Why don't Why don't we take that $200, spend it in a unit that's say for Elmwood or Colorado to have it completely with AC instead of only retrofitting the coils in a unit that won't serve as cooling? >> Well, if under the top bullet, we These are suggestions and these are where we initially thought that we would spend that money to make that provision possible for the future but you're right, if it was appropriate to spend money and get something completed. However, for your specific suggestion, we

111do think that if we're able to spend that 3.5 million in the top bullet, that those elementary schools would not only gain the equipment but be made operational for air conditioning as well. Okay. Moving on, I'd like to pass the baton over to >> Excuse Excuse me. If I may, President Rose, the student members have to leave and they're asking if they could present their Yes. Sure. Yes. Too long. It's late for them. Yeah. Got school in the morning. Okay. Good evening. One of the biggest issues right now is the lack of consistent staffing. Several classes do not have permanent teachers and are being covered by substitutes who mostly just supervise instead of actually teaching. For example, in sixth period in room 117, students said that their teacher's online but there's a long-term substitute with

112them. I heard that like the teacher's like actually in Florida or something. I'm not too sure about that. Wait, say that again. Teachers are The teacher >> teacher like the teacher teaching them is in Florida. Like she's not even in the Yeah, the one that they're >> teaching you mean? >> Yeah. Yeah. Um Because of this, they're expected to learn Spanish through a computer instead of actually having a teacher there to explain things in person, which makes it harder to ask questions, stay focused, and fully understand the material. On top of that, summer school is currently only offered to seniors at BOCES when it should be available to all students somewhere in our community. This is especially concerning because Ramapo and Spring Valley already struggle with their graduation rates, and limiting summer school access only

113makes the problem worse. Underclassmen who fail or fall behind have no way to make up these credits over the summer and are instead forced to retake the entire course the next school year. This puts them behind further in their schedule and increases the risk of not graduating on time. Having to travel back and forth at that length also makes things too complicated. Another issue is the condition of the bell system and intercom. The bells for the rotating schedule are often unclear and inconsistent, which makes it difficult for students to know when to switch classes. The intercom system is also extremely poor. Announcements are hard to understand and even are are hard to hear and even harder to understand, and the audio quality has gotten worse over time. Personally, I have not clearly understood an announcement

114that's been made in months. This creates confusion during the school day and prevents important information from being communicated communicated efficiently. Another concern is the availability of halal food in the cafeteria. Even though halal meals >> that again? The Another concern is the availability of halal food in the cafeteria. Even though halal meals are listed as an option on the menu, students have noticed that when they actually go to get the lunch, those options are not physically available. Also, please keep in mind that the only option that they do really offer is pizza. Not everyone likes pizza. Mhm. This leaves with This leaves students who rely on those meals without an enjoyable and proper option. Also, this there is a concern about the verification whether or not if it actually is halal food. While the food

115may be labeled as halal, students have not been provided with clear proof, such as sourcing information or certification details to provide to confirm that the food actually meets halal standards. This lack of transparency makes it difficult for students to fully trust the food. Thank you. Hi. Um okay, so I have two things that I heard at school, and then there's some things that I have that you guys talked about that I kind of want to give my input on. Um one of them being at school, they rely a lot on Delta Math, and I'm sure that the district relies on Delta Math a lot. And according to a lot of students, it's just not doing it. Delta Math is like you teach yourself basically, but there's a teacher in the class, and you're not really

116learning much. You look at the examples, and you're supposed to kind of emulate that and copy it, but it just leaves you more confused, I think. Even the videos that they have teaching you, they you're still confused. It's like teaching yourself when you're in a classroom and the teacher's supposed to be the one like teaching you. Um and then also >> I'm sorry, just to clarify, so are you saying with the Delta Math there's no Is there a teacher in the classroom also? Yeah, but at least in the classes I've been in where they use Delta Math, you just walk in, the assignment's there, and you're supposed to teach yourself. Like you answer the questions immediately. There isn't really a lesson before that. Um I don't know if that's just the classes I've taken that

117have done that, but yeah. Um and then there's also the Seal of Biliteracy. I don't know how different it's been from other years, but I know last year they presented much later, and they started the project much earlier. But this year, and it's just this district because other districts I've talked to kids outside of East Ramapo, and they've started their project long before January, and then I don't think we started it until like February-ish, and the project is due It was due last week and this week. And it's just not enough time to get it done, but I don't know if that's necessarily the district's fault or if it's just the seal that's not really um planning with us on time or in the right way. And then um I know we touched on the

118honors classes here, Mhm. how we don't really have honors classes anymore. And you said that we don't You guys are unsure if um Spring Valley has the same issue, but being from Spring Valley, we've had this issue since I think two three years ago because freshman year I didn't take any APs cuz I didn't want to. I didn't think I could. So I only took honors classes. But then sophomore year, I was forced to take an AP cuz they started taking out honors classes. And I had took one AP then, junior year I was forced to take four, and then this year I'm taking six cuz there's no honors class in between. So it's either go back to Regents or take the harder class. So I think for me, I don't really have a problem

119with it because I know I can handle the load like the coursework, but not everyone can, so I think it would be beneficial to have the honors classes, but I know you talked about how we don't really have staff to teach those classes either, so um I understand that. >> [snorts] >> And then also, there are some positives to bring up. Like we have two students at my school they got into really prestigious schools. We got um Pablo, he got into UPenn. And then Catherine, she got into NYU. So we do have positives >> [applause] >> to look at. Um but yeah, thank you. Yeah, good job. I'm sorry. Can anyone explain that Delta Math? I'm not too familiar with it and how that process works. Yeah, I'll tell you Delta Math. Delta Delta Math

120is is a program where like for example, let's say I was teaching a certain lesson, and then what I if I use Delta Math, after teaching the lesson, it's like a to me like an online worksheet to reinforce what was presented that day within that lesson. But you teach the lesson. Yeah, I teach the lesson and then I do the >> understanding, is it being is not being taught? But hold on. I don't know. I can't say that for sure cuz I'm not in the classroom, but I will say this. I do know that there's some educators you may have maybe the next day where they're working on Delta Math, and it could be review questions that have already been presented. So I mean, I don't know what's happening exactly, but I can tell you

121my I know the Delta Math because I'm a math teacher. So it is Delta Math is um more like a instead of you know how I would give a worksheet, instead of a worksheet, I'm going to give examples using Delta Math. So from what you explained, is it the same or is it being done the same? Is it being taught and then you guys are going Um well, at least in the class in the classes I took, it was not taught. It was only No, it really wasn't taught. Like I would walk in, and it would be like, "Okay, you have to >> do the Delta worksheet for the entire class. >> yourself basically. >> different from which is a problem. >> when they teach the lesson first, of course it works out cuz it's

122like a worksheet you're practicing, but we didn't have that. >> So is is there a different model that we're using where there's a reason why teachers are not teaching lessons? >> have to look into Delta Math. We'll come back. Um come back next time. Thank you both. Um okay, let's continue with the superintendent's report. Thank you. >> Just a question on one Just a question on one of the items. Uh we have asked multiple times throughout the year if there is a class that does not have a teacher in front of them, and we were assured that we use secondary teachers. We give an extra period for the teacher. Yeah. It seems that we do have classes that don't have teachers in front of them. I don't I I uh my expectation would be that

123we would provide a point two if we didn't have a you know, regular if we didn't have enough uh teachers to teach math with just the five sessions that they're required to teach, that we would provide them with the opportunity to teach a sixth class, a math certified teacher. Why someone is using um a Delta Math and over-relying on Delta Math in that way, I don't know. I need to speak to the uh director of math and find out. I'm not Why would a teacher not teach in front of the class? Why would it be Zoom from Florida? Why would it be? Zoom from Florida. >> Oh, sure. So those are our virtual teachers. We have I think have four uh virtual teachers that are um certified in New York State, and they're we're using

124them for world languages. So we couldn't find world languages teachers, so they're teaching Spanish, but I'll ask um um Ms. Rincon Thomas if you want to give us a little update on that. Yes, that's correct. So we were unable to hire world language teachers, so with the permission from the um state education department and the office of bilingual education, we were granted uh the opportunity to use um virtual teachers, but in the classroom the students are not only with the teacher, there's another adult in the classroom supporting the student and the management of that class. And they are working with our office of bilingual education um department staff to support the attempt professional development. They report out on the report cards. They are working really well with our students and our teachers. And those teachers

125have been contracted with through Rockland BOCES. >> Correct. We could we could survey the students because this is a new initiative that we're just doing this year because we couldn't hire world languages teachers. We do have permission to use it this year. We don't necessarily have permission to use it next year, but it would be I would be curious to see what all of the students thought. You know, so make sure we're hearing the full student voice. Let's try. Uh before we move on so I don't forget President Rose, um maybe if we could look into maybe um moving student voice to after public speaking. That way they're not waiting here late. Yeah, I think that's a great idea. I think that it's buried here at the end of the superintendent report makes no sense.

126Um especially when there's school days and they have to be at school. So, yeah. But at the next board meeting we should move it up. The other end you want them to to participate to see how meetings work. It's a two-fold thing. You want to [clears throat] listen to them, but we also want them to see how the board works and if they'll walk out like some of the public speakers just after finishing their speech they walk out, we don't get the students won't get the feedback as what the board does. I'm not sure if this when the state mandated us to have students here, I believe it was in both ways. Look, I I I believe any student that that puts himself herself or his self up for candidacy as a school board member

127has a dedication and would love to stay here for as long as possible. Just there comes a point where they need to go to you know, they have it's a school day tomorrow. So, I think we can rely that our students will be here for as much as possible until the you know, and we should give them the opportunity to to get their voice heard right in the beginning. So, I I think I think Sabrina, I agree with you and I think we should implement that change. I hear what you're saying, Mr. Gruber, but I do think that we should uh just that. Okay. Um moving on, Mr. Gandhi will present information on the technology and information management team. So, here [clears throat] are a few of the budget highlights from the technology and information

128management department for the 2026-2027 school year. So, our proposed budget for technology department reflects strategic investment in reliable operations, equitable access to technology, compliance requirements, and infrastructure maintenance to support teaching and learning across the district. So, the first major area of investment is contractual services. That's totaling up to approximately $5.6 million. It supports critical services including software subscriptions, BOCES service, phone services, support systems, compliance requirement that keep our district operations running effectively. And the second highlight is the equipment cost. That's approximately $1.1 million. Um Um these funds support the purchase purchase of devices, interactive boards, and other hardware as well as the maintenance of the technology infrastructure to make sure our students and staff have reliable access when it comes to supporting our teaching learning daily operations. And I missed the middle one. That's the

129material and supplies totaling approximately 204,000 to support our operational needs and ensure that technology department and district mailroom function efficiently. So, these are some of the budget highlights in the technology and information department for next year. Thank you. Okay, moving on. I'd like to invite Mr. Pappalardi to inform us about the physical ed, health, and athletics. Uh thank you for the opportunity to speak about my departments tonight. Uh we've broken down some of the things I explained last week last week, but we put some dollars to the these categories of contractual materials and equipment. Our contractual items are all our subscriptions, services, software for phys ed, health, and athletics and things that are um paid through BOCES, our officials for games, any fees we have for administrative section one, and addition to the software we

130use for video review and fitness tracking. On that amounts to about $379,000 and 90 379,097. Um our materials, which are our supplies, uniforms, um for all elementary PE, anything that's consumable, elementary PE, high school PE, athletics programs, health education. Um that that amount is about $176,000 $176,000. Um and then our equipment, which are larger items that are cost more than $5,000 per item. Uh things like goals, benches, and bleachers. That total is about $117,000. Are these amounts are requested in the increase for the proposed budget or this is the Correct. This is part of the increase. The only thing you don't see here are salaries related to uh coaching salaries. Thank you. I know the benches the bleachers at the high schools are new. When you mentioned benches benches and bleachers, is that more so

131the middle school? Cuz I know we had issue not issues, but there's been complaints that when parents go to the middle school sports games at whether it's Pomona either Pomona or Chestnut, there's no benches for parents to sit. So, are we looking into that to maybe put benches outside or bleachers outside? Correct, but you won't see it at all campuses next year. We're trying to phase that in. Most of this is replacement of goals that are at at at our schools. Um Um and then smaller benches and that's that one or two sets of bleachers. I have to double check which schools that those are in. Um but it's we won't see it at all schools, but it is we're starting >> Specific specific to the middle schools, Chestnut and and Pomona. Correct. Thank you.

132You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. And now we will invite Mr. Smith. Good evening, all. How are you? Thank you for allowing me to speak. Our budget highlights for for the fine arts are contractual. $227,000 covers all arts district subscriptions, music and art show rights, marching band, theater, choir, NYSSMA. This year we had 900 students participating in NYSSMA, US bands and conference participation. Materials, $111,000 covers arts, music, visual arts supplies for each school and instructional materials for all elementary, middle, and high schools. Our supplies include general music, electronic music supplies, and sheet music for our schools. Equipment, $249,550 covers arts equipment, equipment repairs for elementary, middle, and high schools, instruments, risers, sound systems, lighting, and uniforms. And of course professional development for music and art, enhancing instructional quality, updating curriculum with best practices, and forcing

133collaboration. And the total $603,000 603,550. And it's it's lower than last year. And that's good. Can I say one thing? Jazz night jazz night next week. You know, we have it's a culminating activity of jazzing up the books and yes, there's a professional band here, but we have all the real stars that night are the marching band, the show choir, the the chorus, different groups from around the whole school district are participating with professional musicians. So, if you get a chance, come down and everybody's invited. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? I apologize. No. Thank you. Thank you. Uh we wanted to provide an overview on our academic programs and I'm going to ask Ms. Marconi and Ms. Fronk and Ms. Azawa to provide us with a summary. I have to do the clicker. I

134have to click and talk at the same time. Sorry. So, our highlights in our budget especially for secondary for high school experience focus on curriculum materials and professional development. Our goal is to continue our rigorous alignment to our curriculum to standards aligned to the next generation social studies and science standards as well as math and ELA and ELA. Um and ensuring that we support the inquiry analysis and problem solving for college and career readiness for all of our students. So, this is the work that continues into next year. Materials, we are um in our budget include high quality instructional resources. We are improving the experience for learning for our students with manipulatives, new updated lab kits, as well as digital tools for all subjects to ensure that our students have equitable experiences within the learning

135across all content areas and really engage in hands-on learning opportunities. Um professional development is year-long coaching, lab classrooms, and structured professional develop professional sorry, professional learning communities to shift pedagogy and really ensure fidelity of implementation not just in the use of the materials, but also in our curriculum and our assessments and to ensure that our students again are having enriching opportunities across both you know, all schools at the secondary level. Our professional development also focuses on specialized training, ensuring the science of reading is considered when we plan and provide professional development and that they are addressing the diverse linguistic needs and learning needs of our students. All of this is done through you know, data-driven instructional supports through the MTSS cycles and student work analysis. This is work that will happen again throughout the year

136including in our professional learning communities. So, in our budget the highlights really here in this slide you see the price tag for curriculum and materials and professional development for each of the content areas. And I know Miss Marconi will talk a little bit more about the mathematics component which is tied to the results of the currently ongoing math audit. But as you can see these are intentionally with our content directors and our bless you and our departments we really looked at curriculum materials and professional development in the development of this budget. Okay, good evening. So, our focus areas for our K-6 curriculum materials and professional development include research-based reading curriculum with structured literacy resources. We have dedicated ourselves to providing professional development and coaching sessions for teachers to strengthen literacy strategies. The highlights of our

137budgeted expenses for K-6 literacy initiatives including professional development total over 1.9 million dollars. And as Julissa shared, you know, just the highlights of our budgeted expenses for grades K through 12 mathematics. This is we are waiting for the results of our mathematics audit and we have set aside $364,000 for curriculum materials and professional development. Okay, thank you. Back to Mr. Stark. So, so those were the the breakdowns of some of the things that we have highlighted within the budget. As we have the budget adoption on the agenda later, we'll just run through the the overall budget again. So, the first piece is the state aid. Again, we are could somebody Oh, you gave it to me. How about that? How about I do it myself? Um So, the the state aid this is the same

138run that we have seen all along. We are still eagerly awaiting the legislature to finalize the budget which was due on April 1st. They've been extending the state budget to keep them in session hopefully We're hoping to hear something soon. I don't know if the monitors have any additional information on that, but we should have the legislative school aid runs shortly. Again, we've reviewed this several times. We've taken that run, made two adjustments, one downward in terms of the foundation aid. We've reduced that by 2 million based upon our declining enrollment. And then we have made a positive increase in terms of the transportation aid based on the change in our non-allowable pupil decimal which will allow us to get back an increased amount of aid in addition to the fact that we will be

139next year having higher cost than what we're budgeted for this year. So, we have a total projection of 185 million 936,000 and change. You'll see that on the next slide when we go to the full revenue budget you'll see that number on the third line for state aid in the 26-27 column. You will also note that the property tax levy is the same as it was in the 25-26 revenue budget. So, there is no change, 0% increase in the tax levy. The other areas have some minor changes in them giving us an overall increase in the revenue budget of 19 million 360,000 and change or an overall increase in the revenue budget which will also be when we get to the expenditure budget a similar increase of 19 million and 5. 56 overall change in

140the revenue. The last revenue slide. Okay, this is this is our graphic representation. Just to give a breakdown of the the major pieces of the budget. As I have pointed out on many occasions, most school budgets there are two main pieces to the revenue budget. That's property tax and New York state aid. That is again the case here. We've also pointed out that New York state has done a great job in terms of increasing the aid to the school district over the past several years and you see that the state aid portion of the budget was 45.4% in 23-24 and that is now over 50% for the first time in I don't know if it's ever happened in the district before where the state aid was more than 50% of that revenue budget and property

141tax has moved in the other direction from 52.3% to 44.9. That leads us to the expenditure budget. And we have also seen these few slides a few times. The primary areas where we're showing increases in the budget are in the teaching and learning area of 1.9 million. And as we all know we were under budgeted in the current year for transportation. So, we have increased that line by 18. I'm sorry, 11.8 million. And then debt service we also went up 1 million and we explained in in the past that that is due to the additional debt service for the energy performance contract and that financing you approved a meeting or two ago. So, again you see the same increase to the budget of 19 .3 million dollars or 5.56%. Again, just the visual representation of

142the breakout of our budget. As is the case in most districts, the teaching and benefit lines make up the majority of the budget and that is the case here as well. We do have a very large portion of our budget in transportation as we transport the the large non-public transportation the non-public student population. So, that makes it a disproportionate because we don't have the teaching and benefits lines for those students because they go to the non-public schools. And that um is just a quick review of the overall expenditure and revenue budgets. We also have a few presentations coming up for the community. And those are the first one is tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. We then have another one Monday, April 27th. And Monday, May 4th. Those are the first one tomorrow is in this room.

143We have one the Monday, April 27th is at Yeshiva Spring Valley Girls. And then Chestnut Ridge Middle School Auditorium on May 4th. Um I would actually like to quickly turn it over to Mr. Gandhi to explain that we've made a few changes in terms of the technology if you can't attend these meetings in person. So, um >> [clears throat] >> this year we added So, we already sent the notification to the families about submitting their questions. So, if you click on that big QR code it will bring you to the page where have you have all the budget information on the website which has link for YouTube live as well as we added the Zoom link this year. So, community can definitely join Um, via Zoom Zoom link. They they can type in their questions.

144There will be a live chat. Uh, and the and some of the questions will be answered, um, on Zoom. Um, so again, um, the main QR code right on the top will bring you to the page where you have all the YouTube live links, uh, as well as a Zoom link and a survey that where you can submit your questions prior to the meeting. And Zoom link, um, if you want to get to the Zoom link even from this slide, the right-hand corner, um, that QR code will bring you right to the Zoom. So, that's the link you'll be clicking to get on Zoom tomorrow. And you'll be part of the meeting. I'll just point to it right here, so. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um, Miss uh, Miss Kivi, do you want to present

145the information on the budget vote? Okay. So, just, uh, for the community, the last day to ask for an early vote ballot or an absentee ballot that you want us to mail back to you is Tuesday, May 12th. After that, you can request to pick them up yourself in person. Or if your request form designates someone to be your agent, that agent can pick it up for you. And the last day to request pick up ballots is Monday, May 18th. In both cases, early votes and absentee ballots must be received back in the clerk's office by 5:00 p.m. on the budget vote date, May 19th, in order to be counted. It is different than the state votes where they allow, I believe it is 7 days after the voting day, they will still count ballots

146received under education law. We can only count those received by 5:00 p.m. on the budget vote date So, it's important for the community to understand that. And the, uh, to be registered, you must be registered at least 14 days before the vote. At every meeting all of this year on the table we have handout uh, voter registration forms. There's also a link on this slide and a link on the budget vote pages where you can go to uh, Rockland Board of Elections and register with them. Thank you. Uh, before we move on to the the, um, student performance outcome section, uh, I would like to invite Mr. Farr to, um, make a few comments. At his request, he he asked for a little bit of time. Thank you, uh, Interim Superintendent Rulusco. Uh, monitors would

147like the board and public to know that in accordance with the state monitor law, after the presentation of the proposed budget for 2026-2027 that occurred on April 14th, the monitors on April 15th submitted a report with analysis of the budget to the Commissioner of Education, with a copy to the board, with findings and three recommendations for the Board of Education. A request has been made for the report to be placed on the district's website. The monitors were involved as the proposed budget for the 2026-2027 school year was being developed. They find the proposed budget to be academically and fiscally sound based upon the information that has been provided by the district. Further details are needed to clearly define the expected outcomes from budget expenditures, particularly those tied to educational programming and student achievement. The monitors

148will coordinate with the district administration to define expected outcomes in advance of the start of the 2026-2027 school year. Accordingly, the budget in its current form is supported by the monitors. On April 21st, today, the Commissioner of Education sent a letter to the Board of Education concurring with the monitors' recommendations to the board. It's important to note that neither the Commissioner nor the monitors approved the district's budget. Approval and adoption of the budget is the responsibility of the board. Thank you. I would like to make a comment, to the cover sheet that was sent to the, um, Commissioner. Oversight must be grounded in facts, not assumptions. Characterizing elected members as acting out of interest without evidence is inappropriate and undermines the integrity of this board. Our actions are driven by obligation ensuring that every child

149in this district receives the the services they are entitled to regardless of whether they attend public or non-public school. When the largest and most complex portion of the system requires attention, addressing it it it is not preference, it is responsibility. Thank you, Mr. Farr. Thank you, Mr. Feder, for your comment. Okay, now we're going to move on to the student outcome section of our presentation and I'm going to invite Ms. Marconi, uh, to provide us with a presentation on our multi-tiered system of supports. Okay, sorry about that. Thank you. Um, good evening. So, as Interim Rulusco shared, we're going to talk a little bit tonight about our multi-tiered system of support framework. And so, the multi-tiered system of support framework is a framework that gives schools a common language, clear guidance, and structured ways to

150meet, track student progress, and identify who needs support, and use data to provide the right level of help for every student. So, these are the ways that the MTSS framework supports at the district level, at the building level, and at the classroom level. So, at the district level, we establish consistency, we define screening tools, and instructional expectations. So, every school is working from the same system. We also monitor district-wide trends to ensure we are identifying patterns early and responding strategically. At the building level, MTSS teams will take that system and apply it. They'll analyze grade level data, identify students needing support, and plan targeted tier two interventions. They'll also establish structured progress monitoring to track student response to instruction. At the classroom level, this will directly impact students. Teachers will deliver differentiated tier one instruction

151and provide targeted small group support when needed. They'll continuously monitor progress and adjust instruction based on student data. And this structure ensures alignment from the district to the classroom, so supports are not isolated, but part of one coordinated system to focus on student success. So, the district established a district-wide leadership team that was comprised of central office team members, building level administrators from each of the 14 schools, teachers from all grade levels, including English as new language teachers, special education teachers, general education teachers, reading teachers, social workers, and psychologists. As part of our MTSS journey, in January 2025 is when we formed the district leadership team. We reviewed district-wide data with regard to ELA. We also reviewed the literacy audit findings that were conducted. We conducted an initiative inventory of different programs and assessments that

152were used for reading. We developed smart goals for the team and reviewed the New York State Education Department MTSS model framework along with other New York State district frameworks. Over the summer, in July 2025, a team came together and drafted the MTSS framework. Again, this framework provides the schools with a common language, clear guidance, and structured ways to strengthen tier one core instruction and supports as needed. Through December through currently to April, we have presented this framework to principals, assistant principals, content directors, and instructional coordinators. We have reviewed and refined the framework based on that feedback, and we have developed professional development for building level staff. As we close out the end of the school year, we will present the framework to all of the East Ramapo faculty, and we will share the framework with

153them. We will refine it based on any feedback from the staff. We will also plan summer work, and then we will plan for the launch in September for the district-wide launch of the framework in all of the buildings. So, why MTSS? MTSS is about ensuring that every student has success and access to the support that they need to be successful. It reflects our commitment to act early before challenges become failures and to build a district-wide system grounded in proactive, data-informed decision-making that meets students where they are and moves them forward. So, what is MTSS? It is a three-tiered system that supports students academically and socially-emotionally. All students receive differentiated, proactive, tier one instruction. Students needing additional support receive targeted, small group, or individualized interventions at tier two. And students requiring more intensive support receive tier

154three interventions beyond tier one and tier two supports. So, for example, um using a kindergarten as an example. All students who receive the same 120 minutes of literacy instruction during tier one core instruction supports. If a student is not meeting those benchmarks, they would receive targeted support for phonics instruction. That could be by an AIS provider that they would get either push-in or pull-out services for. And if a student continues to not meet benchmarks, they would receive intensive support in phonics instruction by that specialist or provider. MTSS is a problem-solving cycle. This cycle is continuous process where we identify the need, we analyze the cause, we plan targeted supports, we implement the plan, and we evaluate the outcomes to ensure effectiveness. This can be done at the district level, at the building level, and the

155classroom level. So, to stay with that example, if a grade-level team is identified that many students are struggling with phonics, the team would analyze patterns in that reading data, plan small group phonics support, implement targeted instruction, and then review progress monitoring to determine if any adjustments are needed. And lastly, to close out, MTSS requires a critical mindset shift. MTSS ensures that all students, including English language learners and students with disabilities, receive strong tier one core instruction with additional tier two and tier three supports provided as needed. It does not replace required services, but it works alongside them to strengthen access, equity, and student-centered learning. Any questions? >> We have We have been using this system already this year, yes? I'm sorry? We have been using this system already on the 25, 26 year, yes? We're

156going to start using it at the beginning of next September. Because there were numbers from 25, so we didn't use it. What were the numbers of 25? Um you mean on the timeline? >> Yes. So, I'm just going to bring it back there. So, we really established a team last um January. And that team worked to look at the data, identify our needs around literacy, and then we created a framework over the summer. And so, what we have done this year is share out that framework to get feedback from the administration, make revisions or refine it based on feedback, and then we're going to be sharing it with the faculty as we close out the year for the staff to be able to provide us feedback, make any revisions needed, and then we're going to

157roll it out to the entire district in September. So, we don't know yet if it's going to work. We just have a system that we're trying to implement. Well, we haven't implemented it yet. We have not implemented yet. >> No. Okay, thank you very much. So, this concludes the um superintendent's report. Thank you very much, Mr. Lusquino and your staff for presenting and putting it together. Thank you for your hard work. Um Okay, moving on to consent and agenda items. Um do I have a motion for items one through nine? Move. Move by Vice President Miguel. I'll second the motion of the oh uh You know what? Actually, let's do this the right way. Do we have any items on this agenda that we'd like to move to action items? Not really necessarily move. I

158just want to make sure we have the times correct. Sh- um Sorry, which item? Which one? I noticed that for the K through 8 after-school program for Chestnut, um there's an addendum, and then there's the actual recommendation where the time is um 2:40 to 5:40, and I believe in the addendum it's um 2:40 to 5:10. And then for Chestnut, it says 3:40 to 6:40. And I think it's a difference on the other one. Um what's the actual time? Cuz I know for middle school, too, the last bus is at 6:00. So, how are we coming up with these times? Mr. Travis? So, for the You're talking about the addendum, correct? Um so, the addendum for I guess Almond Market's, it says 2:40 to 5:10. Um but here it says 2:40 to 5:40 K K through

1596 buildings. So, the the end time is different. Um the question for Chestnut is the last late bus is 6:00. Um so, why is it 6:40? Are we providing transportation late, or I just want to understand the the timing. So, for the administrators, the the 6:40 is for the admin team. So, we expect them to be responsible. We want the students to obviously get on the buses between 6:00 and 6:10, but if anything were to happen, we want those administrators to still be responsible for that time period. And then for example, for the other one where it's the civil service, that's the clerical day ended 6:10 or 5:10, depending on the Okay, so that's separate from the actual time the program is being run. >> Right, the program is 2:40 to 5:00, and then 3:40

160to to 6:00. >> Okay, thank you. I have a question on the certificated personnel agenda. There's a teacher she that's that's retiring October 30th. That's a month into the school. What What benefit do we have from that teacher for that month? Just because she has to fill her years, or what? So, yes. So, typically, when a a teacher hits a particular milestone, usually when they they retire mid-year, they are either hitting their They're either hitting their their age milestone of 55 or older, or their years milestone of 30 years. So, in New York State, you get your full retirement benefit at 55 and 30. So, I don't know this partic- I don't know her birthday or uh or >> understand this part, but it just makes no sense to start a school year with the

161teacher that's going to leave after a month. It makes it It It does make it challenging for another hiring, but we can't prevent them from retiring, you know, mid-year. I would love to, but that's not something we can do. Okay, we have a motion and a second for items one through nine. All those in favor say I. Anyone opposed? The same motion carries. Moving on to item >> I'm sorry, before you continue, we do have Mr. Popolarity here with us. I just want to say congratulations on being our director of physical education, health, and athletics. Yes. And you're doing a fine job. Keep it up. Okay, moving on to item G, adopt the 2026-27 budget and property tax card. This will be a roll call vote led by Kathy. I will now make a motion

162to adopt the 2026-27 budget and property tax card. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Vice President Miguel. Kathy, go ahead. Ms. Charles-Pierre? Aye. Mr. Feder? Aye. Mr. Gruber? Aye. Uh Mr. M. Katz is absent. Mr. S. Katz? Yes. Mrs. Miguel? Yes. Mr. Rivera is absent. Mr. Weismandel? Yes. And Mr. Rose? Aye. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Motion carries. Moving on to action items one through 12. Do I have a motion for action items one through 12? Move by Mr. Gruber. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Mr. S. Katz. We'll open up for discussion. Oh, yes. Uh number 10. What's the purpose of the child nutrition consulting services? Yes. Is there a question? What's the purpose? Is it of having the uh child nutrition consulting services? >> purpose. I'm sorry. So, yeah,

163um we actually have had uh many conversations. We've had a lot of um comments from our students regarding uh the quality and size of meals and so on and so forth. So, we did an RFP to bring on a consultant that will help us both short-term and long-term to at first look at what we can do under our current contract for the 20 7 I'm sorry, 26 27 school year to improve the food quality, to improve the way that we are getting the food to our children. As you know, we have some issues in our high schools with the with the short lunch period. So, to improve a number of areas before looking to revamp the entire contract. And then in the long-term, we will look to work with them to create a new bid

164in order to go out and look at improving the the entire program and having a new bid that changes more than we could do when we simply are rolling the contract over at this point in in the school year because of the way that the state has the time line set up. It would not be practical for us to um start right now to create a bid and go out for a new bid for next year, but that will be the long-term part of the plan in working with them to do that for the 27 28 school year. Why do we need a consultant to do that? The past few years we've been asking to put out a bid to see if we can get other vendors to service our district. So, why haven't we

165looked into that prior to us looking into a consultant? So, actually what happened is that this was the third we've actually had you have rejected this bid twice because of a poor response and we actually were looking for more vendors to reply to that. So, you this is the third time that it's been put out. Had we gotten had this vendor replied to the first RFP, we probably would have had it in time to look at the at the contract for the for the current year, but um there there weren't responses the first two times we put it out. And when you say they weren't responsive, you mean the consultant service or This was the third time that we did this RFP this year. For consultant services? >> For consultant services, correct. >> What I'm

166saying is that why haven't we put out a bid for a new vendor? That's what we've been asking for, a food vendor. >> Right. So, um what this consultant will do um will they have the expertise to write the bid in such a way that will allow us to get if not it could actually wind up being the same vendor, but it will the bid will be structured in a way as to make the program much better for our students. Um without the the without the consultant doing that um using the current bid that we have and I I can tell you that I'm not an expert in in writing food service bids. We we probably would have just wound up back in the same situation. So, we're we we're very happy that this that

167this company did respond this time because they have a very good reputation. I think if you look at what we what we put in with there, they they have done this work in South Orange Town in in Rockland County and in several districts in Westchester County and the references that that I spoke with in terms of this group were absolutely stellar. So, I um it's it's going to take time. The reason that we didn't put it out is that we probably would have just wound up in the same place. So, we're going to we're going to use this group to try and make our bid document much stronger in terms of what we will receive from And how much are are they costing us? Say that again. What's the cost for the service? Um >>

168I don't see it here. It's Usually Usually the amount is presented to us as well. Was it not in the memo? I'm sorry. Um I believe that for the current for the for the initial work it's approximately $44,000. I'm sorry. Approximately $44,000. For the year? Yes. They'll take the menu that the state approves and try to figure out how to do the menus, that's what they're going to do? So, it'll be a combination of working with menus, it'll be a combination of working with vendors and ingredients. So, you can you can actually improve the food that's going to the students with menus that are the same, but by using better better product. Um and we'll also look to potentially make short-term modifications to the current contract that will allow us to put some of the

169um fund balance that has been generated by the food service program back into the food that we're actually purchasing so that the food quality is better. It's it's quality or when the state says that you have to give a protein, a starch, and so on, a vegetable. >> of that has to be followed. >> going So, they're going to say what now the vendor does disqualifies as a starch, disqualifies a protein, disqualifies a vegetable. This is the milk and this is what they give. This company would tell them, I understand that it's disqualified, but this doesn't qualify for the kids, the kids don't like it. Is that what they do? They do a combination of both nutritional, taste, value, quality that they they're going to look at the entire system. They're going to spend the

170first couple of months visiting all of our schools and looking at the menus, looking at the food, watching watching the service and then making recommendations for us to make improvements immediately and then using all of that to um to form a better bid document for going out for the 27 28 school year. >> I mean, look look, I mean, one of the major complaints we keep on hearing from the students is about the food. So, I do think it's good we're doing you know, we're we're doing an action that we need to I think it's important that this consultants talk to the students, go to the schools as you said they're going to, but I think it's important to reiterate that and you know, see what we can do. And I think we should bring

171up the the the the ideas that one of the concerns that was brought up tonight regarding the halal and kosher food availability for the students as well. So, I would hope that will be included in this. >> I'll also mention that we have a tentative meeting set up with the superintendent and myself and their represent representatives for Thursday in the event that you pass the resolution. Got it. We'll begin work right away. Item number eight. The RFP was rejected. It was opened back in January on January 30th with three three months later. Why did we why are we decided deciding tonight to do to approve this rejection? What happened the past three months? Yeah. We we similarly only had one response for the bid. That one response was back in January. So, what happened now?

172We we again similarly only had one response. It happened twice. Yeah. It happened again. Yeah. Okay, we have a motion and a second for items one through 12. All those in favor say I. And all those opposed abstain, motion carries. Um information provided to the board, this was the attendance, we've covered that before. And we're now move on to information reports from the board. I'll give it over to our vice president as president McGill. Thank you, President Rose. I just wanted to say that I had left the meeting at RCC on Thursday to attend the Spring Valley High School Honor Society induction ceremony. Representing the president and the board, I commended our students for their hard work, determination, resilience, dedication, and commitment. Explaining this achievement reflects not only their academic success, but also their leadership

173character and service to others. So, again, congratulations to our awesome students. Keep striving, keep leading, and keep making a difference. Thank you. Okay, thank you, board members. >> [clears throat] >> Moving on to advanced planning, future meeting dates are regularly scheduled for two for Wednesday. Please note that I will change the date. Remind me again why we're It's a holiday, so we the meeting was moved to Wednesday on the calendar. >> Oh, Cinco de Mayo. Nice. Beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the PLCC room in the administration building, 105 South Madison Avenue, Spring Valley, New York 10977. Written communications. Since the last board meeting, the board received a letter from the commission from Commissioner Rosa regarding the superintendent search and a letter from Commissioner Rosa regarding her response to the monitor's submitted findings and recommendations for

174the proposed 2720 26 Sorry, 2026-2027 budget. I will now make a motion to enter executive session. Kathy, discussing Discuss the possible employment or termination of particular persons. We do not expect action following. Do I have a second? I'll second. All those in favor say I. And all those opposed abstain. Motion carried. Thank you all. Have a good night. >> Mhm. >> Okay, good evening everyone. I would like to bring this meeting back to order. I would like to make a motion to adjourn this meeting. Seconded by Mr. Cough. All those in favor say I. And on the That was Cough? That was Cough.