001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Cathy, are we ready? Okay. Good evening, everyone. I would like to call this meeting to order. April 14th regular meeting of the Board of Education. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> [music] [music] >> Please remain standing in term Superintendent Rulusco. >> Please join us in a moment of silence as we remember Mary Cosa, a retired East Ramapo teacher who recently passed away. She worked for 33 years serving our district as an elementary teacher. Thank you. You may be seated. Public safety announcement, fire exits are located at the sides of the room, in the front and back. In
002the 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. At this time, we do not have uh anyone participating in public speaking. Um we are now at the um part of the agenda where we are going to receive information and reports from the superintendent. >> Uh Vice President Miss Mrs. McGill, um if I may just say something before we start off with the superintendent's report. >> Sure. >> Uh before we begin, um I would like to address an email sent by the interim superintendent in which she wrote to formally document and reiterate concerns regarding a pattern of interactions occurring during during public meetings primarily involving myself, Chelsea Charles-Pierre, and the resulting impact on her professional reputation and ability to
003effectively carry out her responsibilities. And I just want to make it clear that as a duly elected member of the Board of Education, it is my responsibility to ask questions, seek clarity, and ensure accountability in a public forum. That role is not optional, nor should it be characterized as inappropriate when carried out in the course of my duties. Equally important, the governance structure of this district is well established. The superintendent serves at the direction of the board, not the other way around. Any implication to the contrary is inappropriate, concerning, and does not reflect a collaborative or professional approach to addressing differences. I also take serious issue with being singled out in a communication addressed broadly to the board, legal counsel, and the monitors. This approach is neither constructive nor professional, and it creates an unnecessary
004and inappropriate dynamic. Concerns regarding board interactions should be addressed through established governance processes, not through correspondence that isolates an individual trustee or attempts to shape a narrative outside of proper channels. To be direct, I will not tolerate communications that I perceive as disrespectful, misleading, intimidating, or intended to undermine my role. Attempts to pressure or influence board conduct in this manner are inappropriate and will not be effective. I remain fully committed to conducting myself professionally and to fulfilling my responsibilities with integrity. I expect the same standard in return. Respectfully, thank you. >> Thank you. Um so, moving forward, we have um our transportation updates. Just want to remind everyone that transportation updates are always available on our website for you. Um this uh particular transportation update highlights our affidavit system, which um is a new system
005we've put in place to collect information from our non-public schools. So, we're um encouraging all of our non-public folks to use that if they haven't already. Um moving forward, um we continue to post information regarding kindergarten registration. Um as you know, kindergarten is open for any child in East Ramapo who has uh will be 5 years or older uh will be 5 years old on or before November 1st, 2026. And there are many ways that you can register. You can visit us and our website is um uh listed here for your um for for your use. You can also stop by our office right here um 105 South Madison Avenue um to our central registration office. In addition, if you have any questions, you can always email us as well. Um just continuing to inform
006folks about Parent Square, a new way that we will be communicating with parents. And I'm going to pass the baton over to Mr. Gandhi. >> Thank you. So, as uh in terms of what I mentioned, we previously shared this information. Parents Square will be our district's primary communication platform for school and district um updates effective July 1st of this year. So, account activation will begin on April 16. So, within the next 2 days, families will start receiving an invitation to join Parents Square at the email address on file we have for their child's school. And parents can also just log in directly into Parents Square using their email and phone number associated with the school. So, even if they didn't receive an invitation, somehow it stuck in a spam folder, effective April 16, you can
007just use your email that's associated with the school district or your phone number to log into Parents Square. And we encourage all the families to download the free Parents Square app for the best experience. By and we can you can install the app by scanning the QR code. And it's also accessible through web browser on any computer for those without smartphones. And if you any of your contact information is to be updated, please reach out to directly through your child's school so they can update your phone number and email address so we can we have the updated information. And we also have a Parents Square page on our website which you can visit if you need more information. Thank you. >> Thank you. On our next slide, we wanted to just recognize the efforts of
008our counseling team. We have a number of school counselors as we know elementary, middle, and high school. And most recently, they hosted a college and career fair. We had 67 representatives from colleges, universities, and the military at both high schools. Really successful day. I spoke to a number of the students. They really appreciated it. They participated meaningfully and you know, learned a lot. So, I hope that this is a tradition we can continue. In addition, our next slide uh continues uh just the appreciation for our school counselors. We um are going to be scheduling our first-ever K through 12 district-wide career day and fair for students. Um it is they're scheduled to be uh held during the months of May and early June at each school, and this will provide students with um exposure to
009a variety of careers, professionals, and post-secondary pathways. Uh in addition, there will be uh two trips to the historically black colleges, um two campus tours for our uh 10th and 12th graders uh that will occur in April and May, and uh so we wanted to just highlight these as these some of these are new initiatives for our district, but we really wanted to just um say thank you to our school counselors. I know that they're working really hard right now, especially uh scheduling all of our kids for next year and um hosting these new initiatives. We wanted to give you a little bit of an update about our summer school programs, um and this is an introduction during our next um Board of Ed meeting next week. We'll provide more details, but we are planning
010a summer school programs um for the high school students. We're focusing on our seniors this year. Uh the dates of the programs will be July 8th through August 17th. Uh the programs will run Monday through Thursday, um and they will be held at Rockland BOCES. Um we will also be offering programs for our kindergartens through grade 8, um and um most of those programs will run July 6th through August 13th. Uh they'll focus on sports, uh STEM, fine and performing arts as they did last year. In addition, we uh hope to run the kindergarten jumpstart program as well. Question? >> Uh yes, um for the credit recovery, you said uh students will be it will be offered at Rockland BOCES. Are we providing transportation? >> Yes. >> So, they would be So, how does that
011work? Picked up from home to BOCES or from their school to BOCES? >> Uh we Well, we were talking about that today um and last last time that we did this, we used our activity buses. Um but and we think we still need to use activity buses because BOCES offers three different options every day and some students will only participate in one option, two, or three. Therefore, in the past, what we've did is we've done like looping with our transportation, meaning that we had buses that would um they were like activity buses rather than picking students up at their homes as we do now. Uh there would be activity buses that pick up students in their neighborhoods and uh drop them off for the first class and then another bus that picks kids up after
012class one if they don't need to stay for the whole day and drops uh other students off for class two. So, there's three offerings a day and a student may participate in one, two, or three based on his or her needs. So, uh we'll be offering That's our plan right now. We're refining it. Offering transportation three times um uh um to We're calling it like a loop system. >> Okay. Uh two other questions. >> Sure. >> What's the reason why we're not using either Ramapo or Spring Valley? And second, um when will we share this information with our students or identify students who may need um I guess the credit recovery Regents exam part as for seniors? And when will And when will um information goes out go out to the parents for K through
013eight? >> Okay. So, we are um focusing We'll be focusing on those very specific plans this week and hope to have that prepared for our next meeting in a week where we will have a schedule for uh and a plan for communicating. Uh so, we discussed it at length today. We're almost there. We're just not 100% there with our schedule for communication. We will be communicating in multiple ways. We will be using uh this forum, Family University, Remind, uh robo calls, um the website. We're going to hope to work with the PTA as well um because we really want to make sure that we're doing a great job communicating with parents and with students. Um and um >> And will we still have have the um summer program for the August graduation? Is that part
014of their credit recovery or >> The credit recovery would be um Will we be planning an August graduation? Is that the question? >> So, we have an August graduation every year we where we have students um complete their credits usually at Spring Valley High School. >> Sure. >> Is that no longer being done at Spring >> No, we didn't discuss that, but we certainly will. And uh that's been a tradition here every year where we will honor that tradition. For sure. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Willis Scott, did you say in terms of the um summer programs >> Mhm. >> the sports, STEM, fine and performing arts, I guess we're working on the place, right? >> Yes. Mhm. >> All right, so we'll get an update. >> Yes, you're going to get an
015update next week where we we are ironing out those details. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Shortly. And so, uh we want to give you some information about our job fairs and I'm going to pass the baton to uh um Mr. Kravitz. >> Thank you very much. We held our uh first in-district job fair uh of the year this past Saturday. We had over 75 candidates come through the door and were seated and interviewed with a number of our our team. Our next one is tomorrow. It will be held in in this building in the Family Welcome Center area. So, um you just have to come on in um or pre-register. We've sent that information out and then on May 7th, we have an during the day and also an evening opportunity for people to come
016in. Again, we encourage people to pre-register, but if they're just show up, we also are very welcoming of that. So, thank you to everybody who who came and thank you for everyone who's spreading the word about our job fairs. >> We wanted to remind everyone that we have a couple of performances coming up. One will be um at Chestnut Ridge Middle School, uh Disney's High School Musical. It's um playing on Friday, uh May 15th, Saturday, May 16th, 7:00 at night. Uh in addition, at Pomona Middle School, uh they will be performing The Little Mermaid. Uh and that's scheduled to uh be performed on May 7th and Friday, May 8th, also at 7:00 p.m. and a reminder that this is free admission for the family, so we hope that you come, support our students, and enjoy
017an evening out. In addition, I just wanted to remind everyone that we have continue to have our Family University um available to you. April 15th is our next one. The guests will be Rockland Community College and Finkelstein Library. You're always welcome to join. >> Um I'll just share this I know I share this um what when we first presented the musicals, if we can please share it K through 12, um send out a remind, invite um the other students to you know, take part, especially now that it's free, and also encourage um people that, you know, they don't only have to come one night, they can come Friday, Saturday, and Thursday, Friday. >> True. >> Yes, thank you. I have asked Mr. Gandhi to be in charge of this, so he has it on his
018schedule to make sure that we are providing the community with reminders that um these performances are are free and that we're encouraging them to come. We now move towards our budget updates, and I will pass it over to Mr. Stark. >> Thank you so much. So, um first of all, um for all of the board members, you do have in front of you uh paper copies of the both the detailed revenue and uh detailed expenditure budgets. Um they have been updated since our last meeting with some changes that I will discuss um a little bit later in the presentation. Um not very many, just a few. Um we'll get to that uh in just a few moments, but those are for you to review. They're also these documents also exist within BoardDocs um in the
019system, and I believe we also emailed them directly to uh each of the board members. So, there are a variety of ways that you can look at this electronically, and and you have the paper copy at your disposal. Um in terms of anything that happens to be in there that any of you have questions about at any point in time, I encourage you to reach out to me, and I would be happy to have uh any type of conversation that you need in order to clarify anything that you may need clarified. Um that being said, the first part of our presentation this evening is um some departmental updates as to uh the uh pieces within the budget uh for the different areas. So, I'd like to call up uh first Mr. Michael Smith, our director
020of the fine and performing arts, to present his department. Thank you, Mr. Smith. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening. >> Okay. So, the fine and the fine and performing arts budget supports student-centered programs that promote creativity through hands-on learning in music, theater, media, and visual arts aligned to the next generation standards. Music provides students access to comprehensive music program including band, orchestra, jazz band, chorus, and marching band, and of course general music. Also supports the purchase, repair, and maintenance of instruments, uniforms, and ensure equitable equitable participation. Visual arts provides all students access to comprehensive visual arts program including drawing, painting, sculpture, and digital media. Supports the purchase and replenishment of art materials, tools, and equipment to ensure equitable participation. Theater provides all students access to comprehensive theater program including acting, stagecraft, and technical production. Supports
021the purchase of costumes, scripts, set materials, lighting, and sound equipment for school productions. I'll go to the next one. There we go. Um The investment for music ensures all students have access to high-quality music programs. Marching band being one of them, show choir. Builds strong performing groups that promote discipline, teamwork, and school pride. Supports a growing program with increased student participation opportunities. A good example is the marching band. We went up from 110 students to over 230 students per per rehearsal, 200 students participating which they need more uniforms, new busing, and so forth. Um that's one example of a lot of our groups. How funds are used? Supports band, orchestra, choir, and other music programs and ensembles. Provides instruments, uniforms, and materials for student success. Expands performances, events, and community engagement opportunities. Visual arts, the
022investment ensures all students have access to high-quality visual arts programs. Builds creativity, critical thinking, and artistic skills, and showcases student work and supports growth and achievement. How funds are used? Supports a range of art courses and creative programs, provides students supplies and tools for hands-on learning, and expands student exhibitions and community showcases. Theater. The investment ensures all students have access to high-quality theater programs. Right now, we currently have musicals and drama in all five of our schools, secondary schools. Ensures those students have access to high-quality theater programs, builds confidence and communication skills through performance, encourages creativity, collaboration, and student voice. How funds are used? Supports acting, stage production, and theater programs, provides costumes, sets, and materials for performances, and expands student productions and community performances. And that's the robust program of the East Ramapo School
023District. >> Yeah. Thank you. All right, turn this on. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Next, for physical education, health, and athletics, I'd like to introduce our director of athletics, Mr. Ray Pappalardi. >> Thank you to everyone for this opportunity to present what our programs do. I'm going to talk a little bit about what they provide, and thank you to the administration for all your support. Helping us to enhance our programs while being physically responsible. Physical education, health, and athletics department budget maintains normal levels of supplies and establishes foundations for cyclical purchases. It's designed to maintain or enhance our students' experiences from this year. In physical education, next year's budget will improve the tracking of health-related fitness for students aged 8 through 17 and activity levels for all students. It also will provide us with
024the ability to analyze health-related fitness levels and physical activity data alongside indicators of academic performance. In health education, it'll help us will the use of instructional resources related to wellness and healthy lifestyle choices. And in athletics, it will improve the overall access and use of video feedback and analysis for sports at the high school and middle school levels. Again, in physical education, this will ensure that we have a consistent and aligned K through 12 program through curriculum review and development across fitness, competitive sports, and dance as our broad curricular areas. And it will expand student opportunities through high school electives now next year for the first time in several years and allow us a diverse program offerings. In health education, again, it will provide the resources we need for curriculum review and revision to help
025strengthen our programs and help us align our programs grade 7 through 12 with K to 12 alignment to follow in 2027-28. In athletics, it will continue our seasonal offerings in the fall, cheerleading, football, soccer, girls tennis. In winter, basketball, cheerleading, track and field, and wrestling. In spring, baseball, golf, softball, boys tennis, track and field, along with unified bowling and unified basketball. It will also will allow us to expand the program responsibly through the use of student interest meetings to gauge student interest and allow our programs to meet their needs. >> Here we go. Thank you. Could I just ask maybe for the benefit of some people in the audience and and in on the board of days here, could you just give a quick um update as to what unified bowling and unified basketball are
026because I think that that's a very unique and new program that we're beginning that we should highlight because of how different it it is. >> Great. So last year was the first year we started our unified basketball program. This year we expanded that in unified bowling. Unified sports serve our students with special needs who otherwise are excluded from interscholastic athletic competition or opportunities that happen after school. So for this year we had over 25 students who participated regularly in bowling which was expanded from last year. Last year we had basketball. Um It partners we partner students who are typical with students with special needs so they can be successful in a competitive environment. It really creates community not not only within our own school district but across other school districts in Rockland County. If you
027have the opportunity to watch one of these competitions it's pretty amazing to see how the kids interact with each other with students from other school districts and the way they interact with adults. You know, trusted adults from other districts as well. There's really a strong sense of community especially in the final event. We have a culminating event in each sport where kids are celebrated for their achievements and their participation. >> Thank you very much. We appreciate that. >> I want to add something to with the unified basketball. We also have our students helping the this the students with special needs you know along the way in the games. It's so great to see how they're collaborating with individuals with special needs and treating them and showing them and sharing the skills that they have. So
028it's great to see. It really is. >> Yeah. It really it really is a big part of bringing bringing the entire community together. I agree. >> Thank you very much Ray. Appreciate it. Now moving on to technology and information management. I will turn it over to our assistant superintendent for technology and information management, Mr. Bobby Gandhi. >> Thank you, Mr. Stark. Good evening, board and the community. So, I'm going to just quickly walk you through the how we approach the work of the technology and information management department and how we support both teaching and learning as well as our district's overall operations. >> [clears throat] >> So, we organize our work into three main areas, instructional innovation, data services, and network and infrastructure services. So, all three services work together to create conditions for consistent,
029effective learning across the district. So, starting with the first one, instructional innovation, the most visible part in schools, this work is really about equity and access and it's about making sure every student is connected and has access to the tools they need for learning, whether that's in a classroom or during remote learning. This includes devices such as Chromebooks, interactive boards, digital platforms. The primary the the priority is to make sure that instruction can continue with as little disruption as possible. We also support teachers so they can use these tools effectively, whether for blended learning, computer-based assessment, or adapting instructions when learning environments change. So, end of the day, this ensures that all students, regardless of situation, can stay engaged and continue learning. With data services, this is about helping our student schools make better and
030more informed decisions. We work so that teachers and leaders have access to clear, timely information about student progress while also maintaining strong data privacy and compliance practices. This supports both accountability and continuous improvement across the district. And the third bucket, it's a network and infrastructure services. This is the part you may not always us but it's critical. Our role is to make sure our back-end systems are robust, our devices work reliably, the internet is stable, and all IT systems are secured, so that instruction and operations are not interrupted. So, overall, this slide represents the system where instruction, data, and infrastructures are all aligned to support consistent, uninterrupted learning for all students, staff, and business operations. Okay, slide two. So, building on that, what we are investing in, and how how are the how are these
031funds being used? So, starting with the instructional innovation, these investments continue to focus on equity and access, making sure all students have the tools and connectivity needed to fully participate in learning. So, this funding supports one-to-one student devices and classroom technology, instructional software and digital platforms, and professional learning for all staff. So, this ensures that instructions can continue smoothly whether in person or remote, and that all students are prepared prepared for computer-based assessment and digital learning beyond high school. For data services, we want to continue to strengthen our how we use our data across the district to support students. So, we're continuing to invest in data systems and dashboards, tools that provide visibility into students' progress, and also training, so staff can use data effectively while maintaining privacy compliance. So, this allows us to be
032more proactive and responsive in supporting student needs and guiding district planning. And finally, network and infrastructure. This is again about reliability and security, so funds are used for network and device maintenance, ensuring system uptime, and minimizing any disruptions, cybersecurity initiatives, data protection, backups, email security, and our technical support services. So, this is what uh every everything running consistently and protects um our systems and information. So overall this budget is about ensuring that our technology systems are equitable, reliable, secure, and truly supportive of instruction. So each of these areas interconnected and supporting not only day-to-day operations, but also our long-term goals around student achievement, accountability, and preparing students for college, career, and digital future. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. And in terms of transportation, I will be uh providing the update there. Um before
033I get to the slides, um I think it's important to note that um the East Ramapo Central School District transports uh approximately 45,000 students to and from school every day, both uh public and non-public. And that is the second largest school system in the state next to New York City. So um I think it's it's very important for people to understand uh what a what a huge undertaking that is. Um so in terms of uh the budget, uh there were three uh areas of uh focus that were included uh on top of of course getting 45,000 uh students routed uh and to school and and home every day. Uh those uh include student safety, uh which is obviously uh making sure that we have the proper staff, uh qualified um safety inspectors, um focusing on
034operational procedures, um and student supervision, uh as well as the safety of vehicles, and the oversight uh uh and save uh excuse me, the oversight of drivers and uh safety training. Of course, those are not our employees, but contractors that contract with the district. Um routing efficiency is obviously very important as um doing that in a in a district that is as large as ours is as well as with many of the traffic issues, having efficient routes helps to get children children to school on time and also attempts to keep the routes as short as possible which in a district as I mentioned of this size and with some of the traffic issues we have can be difficult. Um, and then of course something that we certainly have strived to get better at is communication.
035Uh, to make sure that we are communicating every step of the process to all of our community including the registration for the non-public students which is required by April 1st of every year to getting everybody their bus passes before the beginning of school and letting parents know all of the different aspects of how they're going to get those bus passes, where their children are going to be picking up the bus and so on. There's so much to communicate and we've had our challenges with that in the past and we certainly have a big focus on making that better as we approach the start of the 26-27 school year. Um, so in terms of what we have there, we we do have an additional safety inspector that is working for the district right now working on
036inspecting the routes, monitoring on time performance, incidents and complaints. Um we are strengthening oversight to ensure that contractors meet New York State safety standards and support student safety with bus monitors and aids when required. And in many cases in terms of some of our special our students with special needs there are requirements for those aids on the buses. In terms of routing efficiencies, maintaining partnerships with transportation providers, we also have a professional development contract with our main provider, Transversa and Tyler Technologies to ensure that our routers doing the the the routes that the district routes are as efficient as possible. And um we are adjusting routes and adding buses to support growing participation in activities and increasing non-public school enrollments. And in many cases, there will be situations where buses are simply not getting to
037school on time. And in some cases, when that is the case, we have to add additional buses because of the the size of the district and the and the traffic that we have. So, we did have in many cases during this current school year added routes in the middle of the year to alleviate some of the issues. Communication, we are implementing the Transversa routing software with the GPS tracking. And then we have the My Ride K12 app, which is a tool that can be used by parents to help improve both transparency and communication and allow parents to have more information about the pickup times and and arrival times for their children. Um we're providing staff training to ensure that the support is in place and respond to parent and contractor needs. So, that is our
038transportation update and we have um Did I go the wrong way? I did. Uh finally, I have our interim director of facilities and grounds, Mr. Carl Thurnau, to present buildings and grounds. >> Thank you. Uh so for the proposed budget, we would concentrate on three areas. HVAC improvement, health and safety of course is standard, and then preventive maintenance. So for HVAC, um the district has a significant number of aged ventilation systems. We wish to improve a significant number of those along with uh some air conditioning work to help us be in compliance with the recently enacted state laws regarding high temperature in schools. Uh health and safety, we have a significant amount of deteriorated sidewalks, curbs, uh things that have settled, tripping hazards, and so forth. So on the on the site work side, that
039would be sidewalks, curb areas. We've done a significant amount on the parking lots already. Uh in addition to that, we have a significant number of deteriorated exterior doors. That's a problem both from safety and security perspective as well as energy efficiency, uh keeping pests, bugs out, mice and things of that nature as well. And then preventive maintenance is critically important. There are numerous studies over the years that show a dollar invested in preventive maintenance will prevent the expenditure of $3 in capital expenditure because things don't deteriorate as quickly as they otherwise would. So moving to the next slide. Um so for HVAC, if we upgrade our install our ventilation and we add air conditioning, um that will not only help us meet the state requirements, but I think we all have experience in in comfortable
040buildings, uh it's easier to concentrate, it's easier to pay attention and absorb the material that's being being being offered. So we have several opportunities to do that. The board recently approved an energy performance contract and um um due to the fact that it has not yet been implemented in combination with the recent uh state law regarding high temperatures in schools, we have an opportunity to add uh air conditioning coils to those significant numbers of unit ventilators that are scheduled to be replaced under the unit uh under the energy performance contract. Uh that's an opportunity that we should not miss and that will help uh significantly uh with the quality of the uh classroom experience as well as energy uh and comply with that new state law. Regarding health and safety, um obviously um those are
041simple trip and fall potentials that we can avoid, uh locking doors and the ability to lock those doors um protects both the occupants from outside intrusion and um you know, ill will as well as uh that that energy uh reduction that we previously talked about for the energy performance contract. And uh the uh the uh preventive maintenance again is is uh the ability to properly manage our facilities, protect the taxpayers' investment. The more we're able to train our staff and use our existing uh work order systems, make sure things get caught early and fixed as quickly as possible is going to do the best uh possible job to protect the investment that we've already made and preserve those capital dollars going forward. Uh in addition to that, I'm aware that the board did make a
042request for more detailed information on how the ARPA funds were spent. I apologize that's not ready yet, however, we are actively working on it uh and that will be provided shortly. >> The units that we changed uh with the ARPA funds, the heating units, were they heating and AC or only heating? >> Originally, they were scheduled to just be heating. >> I'm not talking the ones that we are going to do. We did a whole bunch of units, I believe, with ARPA funds. They were only having fresh air and heat, or they had AC units as well? >> The The units that we did do some units under ARPA, and those are only ventilation and heating. Um the opportunity now is with a significant number of new unit ventilators that are scheduled to be installed
043under the energy performance contract. We're going to try and take advantage of the opportunity to install if we can't do the air conditioning now, we want to at least install the equipment with the unit ventilators to allow that to happen in the future at a a significant saving. >> a heat coil, even though we do not have compressors yet, so we still have a heat coil. >> Correct. >> Right. >> A AC coil. >> An AC coil, correct. >> Are we looking into go with reverse compressors that do both, or these units do not work that way? >> I don't think we've gotten that far into it yet. >> Because if you go with the reverse compressor, it's the same. You don't need a You don't need a heating. It's the same coil that does
044both. >> Correct. >> Um I have a question. First of all, I would like to thank all of our presenters who presented um in the respective departments. Um my question is, I know this is supposed to be based on the 2026-2027 budget. Um how much money is being allocated uh to the work that is being mentioned in each department? And what schools uh exactly will be seeing changes? For example, um it says repair sidewalks and curbs to improve safety and replace exterior doors exterior doors to enhance security and efficiency. What schools will see this work? Um how much money is being allocated towards this? And also, I think you just mentioned that you're not sure if we'll be able to do the upgrade ventilation and add air conditioning next year. So, what exactly can you
045can be shared in detailed in detailed when it comes to each department um having to do with the budget? What is being you know how much money's being allocated like I mentioned and what is be either being added or removed or what exactly is being shared to the board and to the public for us to share back with the voters? >> Uh excuse [clears throat] me. Regarding >> not just a question just for you uh beside yeah. >> I can I can start. Um regarding the facility side of it, um I'm generally speaking district-wide there are not every school needs 100% new sidewalks for example, but across the district there are numerous locations where sidewalks are broken and cracked and settled creating tripping hazards and things of that nature. Um I am not able to
046come up with significant ones right now, but I have toured the district and I in my you know in my research we have numerous places around the district. Doors for example, exterior doors in particular, we just replaced the entire front entrance at uh Chestnut Ridge and Pomona for example has uh a series of very very deteriorated exterior doors. So, there's another example. So, in the transfer to capital budget we're proposing uh five and change 5.25 >> 5.25 million is >> 5.25 and we have broken that down to include uh air conditioning. If we're not able to do the air conditioning in conjunction with the energy performance contract, then we want to be able to still meet the law, so we have potential to install window units. We prefer not to, they're very in energy inefficient
047and they create maintenance problems down the road. Um regarding the air conditioning and the energy performance contract, it gets pretty uh involved pretty quickly. In other words, energy performance contracts by law are required to save energy. Adding air conditioning does not save energy. It adds energy load to the existing uh district uh energy uh outline. And so, because we have an energy performance contract approved, we now wish to add equipment that is going to increase our energy, we have to uh first of all, the addition of air conditioning is another capital project that we have to review and get approval with the state. But beyond that, we are simply trying to use the energy performance contract as our opportunity to add the air conditioning to it. We still want to do the energy performance contract
048and uh since that's already approved, we don't want to stand in the way of that, but we want to add equipment to that, and we would track that equipment and the cost for that additional equipment completely separate from the energy performance contract, so that would continue to pay for itself, which is required under the law. Energy savings pay for the energy performance contract. So, we're in conversation, initial in conversation with the with the state education department about the ability to run a parallel project to add the air conditioning equipment to it. We don't have all those answers yet. Uh and of course, we would still require uh the the funding from the current year budget if the budget is approved with that transfer to capital, so that we can use some of that 5.25 to
049go towards the air conditioning. So, there's a lot of iron still uh in the fire. Uh we don't have all those answers yet, but that's in general what we're planning on. >> So, so my concern is that um we as a board, we have to approve this budget by I believe next week. Um there's still a a of unanswered questions, and as someone who has served on this board for 11 years, um when a capital project is being presented to us, whether it's through ARPA funds, a bond that we passed back in 2016-2017, or through the budget itself, we have always been provided with a outline, a detailed outline, stating what exactly is being done. For example, if it's a repair sidewalks, it's being done at these specific schools. This is how much it's going
050to cost for it to be budgeted. So, I don't know if there's other slides to come where that will be presented. Um as, you know, I'm seeing this report for the first time, but I just want to know, I guess, what exactly are we presenting to the voters? What exactly are you sharing with us that we can present to them um in terms of the work that will be done in the 2026-2027 budget. >> Um the best way for me to answer that question is that um unfortunately, the energy for the air conditioning, for example, the energy performance contract was was uh literally approved very, very recently. And uh I am trying to take action that would allow the district to avoid substantial future cost by attempting to include air conditioning now in that new
051equipment that's not yet installed, it's not ordered. If we order it as just a heating unit, and then, suppose next year, the year after, three three years away, whatever, we now have the ability to install air conditioning, those units are not capable of accepting it, and we would be ripping out all that brand new work that's 3 years old. So, I'm trying to see if we can take the opportunity now to add the cooling equipment in the units that are going to be purchased and installed under the energy performance contract, so that we don't waste those funds and have to rip it out in the future if we were able to do air conditioning. Even if we can't install the air conditioning now, if the equipment is capable of accepting it in the future, then
052we've gone a long way towards protecting the investment that we're making today. So, based on the timing, I understand your concern in the vote next week, but based on the timing and the situation, those answers are simply not possible in the time available. >> So, is there any possible way to get a breakdown of what the allocation for each project will be for the 2026 2027 before Tuesday? >> Yes, we can do that. >> So, basically what Trustee Charles Spears is saying, um is it a detailed report? >> Understood. >> Thank you. And like I said, it's not just with your department, I would just like to see with every department, um what is being allocated for which, you know, whatever project or investment is being done, if there could be a detailed report on
053and the allocation of money for that. >> Okay, so, um in terms of all of the other departments and all of basically the entire budget, um you do have in front of you a document that lists every single budget code in the budget. It is It is a It The expenditure budget is a 153-page document. Um we have um provided it to you um a couple couple now. Um we did give it to you in advance of this meeting last week. >> me make this clear. This was sent to us, I believe, Saturday. I personally was on a school board conference this past weekend. I came back last night. To send to send a 153-page document on a Saturday, especially knowing that majority of our board have Sabbath. I mean, this should have been sent
054weeks ago. >> Well, it was it was the the the previous version of this was was given to you at the previous board meeting. It was on board docs prior to that meeting. It was also emailed also emailed to the board members. >> And with that was a request that for anybody that had any questions or wish to go over it to to please let us know. Haven't had any questions to be perfectly honest. >> when you send something on a weekend, we've always asked and received information prior to the this administration before Friday. To send something like this on a Saturday, knowing that there's a possibility majority will not be able to see it probably till Sunday evening or Monday morning, is not fair to the rest of us. >> Okay. And again, I'm
055trying to I'm not trying to get into an argument. I'm I'm trying to say that there were some small modifications to the document from the previous board meeting and this was provided to everybody. It has been on board docs for however many weeks that was. I think it's 3 weeks. And during that time also have not received any any feedback or questions. And I'm always open to any of that. I I'm not really sure if if there is a need for the board to have a work session before next Tuesday. That would be something that would be, you know, up to the board. I am at your disposal for anything having to do with the budget. So, um >> I mean >> I I personally don't feel that it's fair that you're saying that it
056just came on Saturday. That's that's not 100% true. >> Well, that's when the email came in. I mean, I'm not saying that you probably or it probably wasn't uploaded, but it's one thing to be uploaded, but if it's not community being communicated with the board that, you know, just an FYI, here's a few documents that's been uploaded to BoardDocs or an email that was sent, then we will not know that it's there. >> Um I understand that we had it before and this is the latest update. Is there somewhere a possibility to have at least the changes like this we don't need to read 150 pages again to see where the differences are. >> Yes, absolutely. I can provide that to you probably tomorrow. >> And if it's possible a a short >> to go
057over some of that in the presentation. >> If I just may uh add the um original budget that you presented a few weeks ago that was on BoardDocs, there were a few small changes that were made. Um and those changes were made at the end of last week, you're right. And there was communicated via an email that I think on Friday I sent it to you. Yeah. Yeah. Letting you know that we were able to make some very small changes resulting in a reduction in the um in the tax levy. And that we would explain it further. Um and so what we did ask Eric to do was to make sure that he provided you with an updated um budget that just included those three changes that I mentioned in my email. Um so this
058budget is almost identical to the budget that you received three weeks ago or so and that have been on BoardDocs for 3 weeks. So, but yes, there were some changes and yes, it is late. I understand. >> So, I'm sorry it's not really about the changes of the or the updates like I said, it's the time of when things are being communicated to the board. Sending it on a Friday evening, Saturday evening, all weekend where updates are being emailed is not enough time for us as a board to go through each document that is being shared plus the agenda that is sent to us late Friday evening is all I'm saying. Thank you. >> Could we could we Why don't we just talk about some of those changes? >> Could I also just note that
059we we do not have the budget on the agenda for adoption tonight. We we would be completely unfair to have as you're saying make changes and then come to you today and say would you please adopt this budget. We do have another meeting next week for that. So, there is some time. This conversation is is productive so that we can provide you with the things that you need. So, and and we will do we will do all of that. Okay. I as I go through this I'll be discussing a bit of bit of those changes. So, um moving forward just again I have mentioned every time that I have done a budget presentation a few different things that I like to repeat. Number one a school district in New York state probably in every state
060basically has two budgets. We have a revenue budget and we have an expenditure budget. So, much like every family does, we have money that comes in, that's our revenue budget and we have money going out, that's our expenditure budget and our spending. So, at our home we have our income from work, and we pay our mortgage. Very similar. So, um we uh in in New York State um have a requirement that um our expenditure budget must equal our uh our excuse me, our revenue budget must equal our expenditure budget. So, they must balance. We are not a for-profit entity. We're a nonprofit entity. So, those two budgets have to balance. Then, in terms of our revenue budget, we have um several different categories, but two of them make up the lion's share of the budget.
061And those are state aid and the uh tax levy. So, uh this first slide is is showing us um the New York State Executive Branch's school aid run um and some modifications that we've made to it to adjust for um changes in both our student population. Um so, you can see that we have foundation aid that was projected by the state. We have decreased that by $2 million to adjust for a declining enrollment that we have in the public schools. Um and then the other adjustment that we have made uh which is down closer to the bottom, we show an increase um in additional transportation aid. I've explained in prior meetings that we uh are able to make an adjustment to something called the non-allowable pupil decimal every 3 years. Uh we worked uh diligently
062with our transportation um consultant um and our state aid consultant. The two of them worked together. Um and that number was improved was approved by the state um which uh significantly increased the um the aid that we receive on our transportation costs. So, um that new non-allowable pupil decimal was not in the computer run that was uh run by the executive branch. So, we have increased uh our projected aid for transportation aid by a little over 13 million dollars. So, uh when we add all of that up, we're projecting um a full uh amount of state aid uh of $185,936 and change, uh which is an increase of a little more than 10 and 1/2 million dollars for um for the year. Uh that moves us into the the next slide, uh which is our
063revenue budget. So, you can see uh there the number that I just mentioned to you, the 185 million is in the 26-27 um column for New York State Aid. Um one of the changes uh this is the In fact, there's only one change to the uh revenue budget, and that is in the area of uh the property tax levy. Uh in the prior version of this, we were showing a 1.28% increase to that property tax uh levy, um which was a little over 2 million dollars. We have uh removed that and uh therefore decreased the revenue budget um by that amount, um bringing the overall budget to 367,649 and $590. So, as I mentioned earlier, when we uh if we are reducing the revenue budget by 2 million dollars, then we also have to decrease
064our uh expenditure budget by 2 million dollars. So, that would naturally bring up a question of, well, what are we taking away? And what are we taking away from our students? And the answer to that is that we have worked um very carefully and um collaboratively with our uh funded programs department to take the that $2 million difference which is some salaries and some benefits and also some field trip money and we're putting those into some of the federal grants so that every dollar that we've taken out in order to achieve that reduction in the tax levy is still going 100% to the students in the district. So we are not cutting any programs, we're not cutting any individuals, we're not cutting any people. All of that is being maintained within the the grants in
065the funded programs. >> Is the Is the federal funds represented in our budget or not? >> No, the federal funds are are not accounted for in the general fund budget. They're not voted on by the public. That is They're accounted for separately but we worked with Dr. Shanahan to discuss all of the different items that we were looking at to make sure that number one that they were eligible for the grants and that there would be room. There has been a history of using something called carry forward. Did I say that right? Carry forward. Carry over. Carry over. Carry over, not carry forward. And we are going to shift to look to make sure that we are going to have very little carry over moving into the next budget cycle so that we can afford
066to have these items that we're shifting over within the 26-27 grants. >> And so what happens What happens after the 26-27 grant? Do we think we'll be able to continue to keep these positions and the trips moving forward? >> Yes. >> Through the federal grant? >> Yes, the plan is that we would be we would be maintaining these all these programs for the next few years. Through the grant. >> What's the amount in general what we get from federal funding for titles and these stuff? >> Um the total amount of the title funds I I believe it was somewhere in the >> 61 million I believe. >> 61 million in total. >> About, yep. >> About 61 million. And and that that is shared between the public and the nonpublic schools in the district. >>
067And does the district get anything for management? >> I'm sorry? >> Is the district reimbursed for managing it? >> No. No, that that that becomes a cost. Some of those costs some of the people that that work um for many of the programs that are that are funded portions of their salaries are within some of the grants and others are part of the general fund budget. So that there's a combination there. >> 25-26 year we are projecting to receive 90 million more than uh budgeted. >> In >> 25-26. >> Let me go back. >> What is the what's the difference between these two columns? $90 million difference. >> On on the projected revenue budget? >> Yeah. >> Yes, so that that has to do with as I mentioned that nonallowable pupil decimal. Um when that
068is approved by the state, it immediately goes into effect in terms of the aid that will be paid for this year. So our transportation expenses that were reported from the previous year make up our aid for this year. And that new uh pupil decimal which is basically the percentage of aid that you receive, we've gotten that increased and that applies directly to the aid that we will receive this year. Now we will not physically receive those dollars until a special payment is made in the fall, but it will be it will count as revenue toward this school year and will be you know listed in the financial statements at the end of the year as a receivable. Okay. So um >> Um just a second. I believe it if you understand well in the budget
069presented tonight, it's not only the 2 million that's missing the 2 million of the student enrollment decrease. It's also in the in the in the revenue budget proposed tonight, it's not only the 2 million that we're missing in the for the student decrease. The student enrollment decrease, it's also the tax revenue that was decreased from the original proposal. >> No, that the slide that you're referring to is is simply this that's all state aid. So what what we're >> I'm I'm talking about revenue budget. >> The revenue slide? >> Yes. >> And which which area? >> So so the the 185 I believe includes already the with with 2 million less, right? 185 185 936 >> This one? >> Yes. Okay, so this one includes the 2 million less than projected, right? Than we were
070previously presented. 185 185 185 936 891 >> No, that's the same. That that slide was identical at the at the last meeting. We have not changed the projection for state aid. >> but before you explained if we're if we're losing 2 million dollars, then that's being kind of um that that's being funded by >> this is this is a different 2 million dollars. So this this is this this slide simply represents state aid. It has nothing to do with the tax levy. So we we get a we get a an estimate from the state of New York that tells us what they have budgeted for our um foundation aid. The foundation aid is a formula-based aid that includes uh as a large part of the formula our student um student enrollment. Because our enrollment has
071decreased since BEDs day, which is a day uh picture in time from a date in October each year. And our uh enrollment has declined and we project it to decline a little bit more. Rather than use the state's number that they gave us, we have made an adjustment to that and it's an estimate of reducing that by $2 million so that we're not over budgeting the revenue there. So, we made that we made that adjustment um internally. Okay? So, when we get the the run from the legislature, it still will probably have a a larger number because they're still going to base it on that October BEDs day student enrollment number. We have made that adjustment. Similarly, um their transportation aid number did not take into account the um the new non-allowable pupil decimal and
072the aid that we expect to receive next year. So, we have made that adjustment as well. So, not only have we adjusted the state's estimate down by $2 million for the foundation aid, but we've also increased it upwards by the 13.25 million. Um so, if you the the executive proposal, if you add it up and and looked at what was on the the state website, you'd see a number that was closer to um you know, 175 million. There was there was in general, only a 1% increase from last year's aid overall to um most districts um state aid this year. But, we're showing adjustments in two different areas. One in the transportation aid and one in uh foundation aid. But all of this is identical to what was uh presented to you at our last
073meeting. The difference is on the next slide in that um uh the only the only line here that is different is the property tax line where we've removed that two million and change um to bring that down. So, let me >> 1.28 The 1.28 >> increase was equivalent to a little over two million dollars, right. So, um the next slide um again, we've shown this um last year some members of our community asked for graphical representations. So, we um added in some graphs. Um this primarily shows that um as I mentioned earlier, the two largest chunks of the revenue budget in uh almost every school district in the state of New York are your property tax and uh your state aid. Um you can see here that the last four years there's been a little
074bit of a uh well, there's been a a big increase in the in the aid that has been uh provided by the state of New York. So, that state aid has gone from 45% of the budget to 50% and property tax um uh was a larger percent of the budget before that increase uh in in in state aid, which was which is many millions of dollars. Um so, the property tax uh on a percentage basis is now uh 44.3% of the overall revenue budget. So, moving on to the expenditure budget, and I'll take a sip of water. Um the expenditure budget again, um there are uh this is this is the summary. Uh again, the the the detailed document you have in front of you. But in the summary um there There only three areas
075um, that, uh, would have um I'm sorry, there are only two two areas that have changes to them and that, um, those are in the area of teaching um, and in the areas of benefits. So, those are the two areas, um, that we, uh, made the reductions of the two million dollars and and change. I think it's two million 67,000, something in that neighborhood. And as I mentioned before um, all of those items are going to be covered in the 2026-2027 um, grants. So, um, some of the percentages change as a result of, uh, making those adjustments. Um, I would say that, um probably between 70 and 75% of that, uh, change was in the um, teaching line and the remainder of it was in the benefits area. Um, and, um, I can share with
076you, um which of the lines in in the larger document, uh, were affected. Um, so I can share that with you, um uh, if you want, I can go into it now, if not, I can I can um >> I think we should. That's >> Okay. >> being transparent. >> So It will take me a second to get there. But I will find it for you. Uh, it flips the other way. >> [snorts] >> So If you go to page 92. Give everybody a minute. It's also on electronically you can refer to it there. Everybody had a chance to get there? So you'll see the second the second line from the top 22513319 You'll see reduction to grants minus 33,500 and then you see right underneath that it says EMS that's that's a note from
077me that I made that change on April 11th 2026. So that's how you can go through any code in this document. You can see how any changes were made at any point in time or when the initial when the initial entries were made and the person who did that has their initials in there with the date that they made the changes. So you can see that on the next line down there's a similar reduction to the grants of 33,000 the one below that again um and that happens throughout on page 93 the first line 100,500 from that line. So there were a number of these these are this whole area of of the of the budget is dealing with some of the teaching assistants in the different buildings. So these are different the different codes
078are for different buildings within the district. So we're pulling from several different buildings and moving that into the grant. >> Reduction reduction to grants mean it was reduced from our budget and went to grants. >> Correct. So the reduction is in this budget in the in the A fund and we're moving it into the grants, okay? So, that that shows you that and that they're in a number of areas and >> It's not that the grants are getting reduced. It's reduced from this budget and it went over to the >> into the grants, correct. Does that make sense? >> Mhm. >> Okay. So, um I'll give you another area and send you to another page to show you another area where that was happening cuz it mainly was in two two different areas. And that
079would be I'm surprising myself in finding it. Um if you go to pages 121 and 122. So, on page 121 >> Mhm, I see it. >> uh toward the bottom, code 281015013. You'll see there also reduction to grants minus 80,803. Again, with my uh initials that I made the change on the 11th. And uh so, this part of the um budget the these codes are um guidance counselors. So, again, another area that we are able to uh fit into the uh pieces that qualify within the grants. Guidance is is one of those areas. Um we have reduced the budget on several of these lines for the different schools and um >> Seems it was values only once. >> No, it's done in a couple. So, um Um it's not in all of them, but it's
080in it's in uh 21 10 150 02. Um it is in 21 10 050 01. It is in uh 13. And the numbers the those that third group of numbers, the two-number code, uh are are are our location code. So, those are all uh for different buildings. Okay? Then, as I mentioned, the other uh changes uh having to do with the benefits. So, if you uh this will be all the way at the end. So. If we go to page 149, please. Uh the code at the bottom of the page. Uh it actually the the notes are on notes are actually on page 150, so. So, this is um the Teachers' Retirement System. And you'll see that there's a reduction of 120,000. >> 120,000. >> Uh and $7. Does everybody see that? The code 920
081860. Okay? The next code is Social Security. There is also um a reduction there that corresponds to the salaries that were removed. >> So, you'll see there a reduction to the grants of 96,177. And then finally >> Yeah, under 90 60 860 >> That was that was that was something that was adjusted to the budget as we were looking at staffing changes earlier on. So the ones that were done I'm I'm Oh yes, yeah. That's the one I was going to. That So the the last one is medical insurance. >> Yeah. >> And that is I'm sorry. You got it before me. So medical insurance is 90 60 800 60 7001. And there yes is the reduction of 213,000 and $23. So those are basically um between the different building codes where those reductions were
082made in the in the two areas above. All of those are consolidated in the 9,000 codes which are employee benefits and those are all of the changes that that were made to this large document between the last meeting and and this meeting. >> So the only thing I'll I'll point out I noticed that the pages you did mention just now um are all initialed by you and dated April 11th which was Saturday. >> Yes, it was. >> And you know, earlier you you mentioned that updates were made prior to that and shared with the board. So I think this shows right here that there's a possibility final changes was done on the 11th of April and sent to us also that evening. >> On on what? I didn't I didn't hear the last part. >>
083That it was uh probably finalized and changed on April 11th and also shared with the board on that Saturday, April 11th. >> That's correct. I I was I was making those changes. Uh I I made the changes on Saturday. That's correct. >> So, I I just have a a quick question and this might be a question um also for our monitors. Um I know that we had a budget calendar where on March 6th uh the Commissioner of Education um was supposed to approve the budget 40-day 45 days prior to the board adoption and also where uh the monitors were supposed to present their findings to the Board of Education and to the Commissioner no later than 45 days prior to the date scheduled for the school district's annual budget vote and that was supposed to
084be that was dated April 3rd, 2026. I haven't seen anything in writing, but have we submitted anything to the Commissioner and um to our monitors who's here, what are your thoughts on the budget knowing that it is now April 14th and we haven't heard any um you haven't presented any findings to us as of today? >> The um analysis that the monitors submit to the Commissioner and the board is predicated upon um a budget being completed. So, we haven't uh we haven't been able to finalize that because the budget here is is just being finalized. So, um based on this budget here, we'll be able to finalize our analysis and share it with the board, share it with the Commissioner. >> So, when will that be shared with the board and the commissioner for us
085to be able to approve it by Tuesday, the 21st? >> Well, >> I mean, it says prior. It says no later than 40 days prior to the >> Yeah. >> date. >> Yeah. Yeah. Well, we weren't able to do that because the district didn't have the budget completed, so. Um, we'll be finalizing that this week. Um, and sharing it with the the board and commissioner. >> And when will we receive a response before Tuesday? >> Response from >> the commissioner, from the monitors. >> Well, the commissioner >> Cuz it it says like I said, it says commissioner the commissioner has to approve the budget before the board adopts it. We're supposed to adopt it next week Tuesday. >> The commissioner doesn't approve the budget. What the commissioner does is approves the report. >> It says
086I'm sorry, not to cut you off. Commissioner of Education must approve the budget 45 days prior to the board adoption. I'm not making this up. This is something that the board had to approve. >> it. Can I speak? >> Go ahead. I'm listening. >> Okay. Yeah. So, the budget approving the budget is approving our report. We submit a report. She approves the report. Um, we we are making recommendations. Um, and part of our recommendations is do we approve the budget as presented or not? And so, that goes to the board, goes to the commissioner. Commissioner then, um, based on our approval can approve what we've submitted to her. >> So, just to make a correction because we do this every year, according to the outline, March 6th, 2026, Commissioner of Educate Let me take it
087back. March 1st, it's uh that we the district submits draft budget to the New York State Commissioner of Education. March 6th, Commissioner of Education must approve the budget 45 days prior to the board adoption. April 3rd, the monitors present their findings to the Board of Education and to the Commissioner no later than 45 days prior to the day scheduled for the school district's annual budget vote. The Commissioner approves prior to the monitors um presenting their findings to the Board of Education. >> Mhm. >> That's how it's always been. It's written here. The board We as a board had to approve this calendar. >> Okay. >> So, my question is where are we with that and >> I just told you where we're at. If you don't you don't want to accept what I just told
088you, that's fine. >> It's not that I don't want to accept what you're saying to me. My question is will we have a an approved budget by the Commissioner and the monitors prior to April 21st when we as a board needs to adopt this budget. That's my question. >> would be the expectation, yes. >> Okay, Ms. Starks. >> Okay, so just getting back to to >> One second. On the transportation line, I see what was budgeted last year and I see what's budgeted this year. I know that last year we went over budget. The 67 is the over budget or that's the original budget? >> No, that's the original budgeted amount. >> And what did we what did we end up paying in the end? >> Um we we anticipate um that was a part
089of the last presentation. I didn't include that tonight. Um we anticipate that the expenditure at year end will be somewhere between 7 and a half and eight million dollars above the 69 that was budgeted. So, it'll be somewhere in the neighborhood of 77 million dollars. >> So, we are only adding for this year 2 million. >> Um what's in there is uh is 2 and 1/2 million there. So, there are there are parts of of the transportation budget that aren't necessarily the contractual areas. Um and there are there are some changes in there as well in staffing. So, um but yes, >> It's also one of the items, but I'm not sure it's going to be discussed tonight about reorganizing the transportation office. It has nothing to do with the schedule of the with the
090Are we going to discuss the reorganization of the transportation committee tonight? Is it an exact session discussion or over here? >> Well, that uh that would be up to the board. You know, if you want to discuss the um uh the issue regarding transportation, um transforming the um department, the leadership in the department. Well, we have a number of positions that we have recommended, and we do need to know what the board um what the board's view are is on those positions. >> So, is it going to be done tonight? >> Trustee Gruber, yeah, in executive session. >> In executive session or over here? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Douglas. >> Okay, so um just final slide uh putting this again. Excuse me. >> Eric. >> Sure. >> If you're going to be discussing generally
091adding positions, but not people, that's not executive session. You can discuss that and should discuss it in public session. Only if you're discussing individual personnel would it be an executive session item. So, if there's an interest in discussing a restructuring of the transportation department, that would be done here. >> Mhm. >> I'm interested in discussing it. I think you know, >> Mhm. a >> of money on in there which mean if that transfer is that if that making those changes going to help to try to reduce cost in the long term, then we should be addressing this. >> Okay, so let let him finish the budget and then we'll discuss it. >> yeah, let him finish his presentation in terms of the budget. >> Okay, yeah, we're we're almost there. So, [snorts] uh again, uh
092I mentioned the the basically the two areas where we have the changes from the the previous presentation. Uh the the the next slide um again shows graphically our expenditure budget. Um again in most districts your teaching and benefits lines uh make up the lion's share of your budget. We are a little bit different in terms of uh having such a large transportation department in transporting uh 45,000 students that um our transportation uh makes up over 20% of of our budget. That's normally anywhere between 5 and 7 percent in a district that that doesn't have that situation, but again benefits and teaching are generally the the largest areas, pupil services, the the other things that we're doing. Um and then central services involves uh central administration, buildings and grounds, and so on and so forth. So,
093those are the main areas um in terms of giving you a visual. Um and that um concludes that. We did want to mention uh again in the next one that we uh once the next slide once the um budget is adopted, we do have um a a little bit of what we call a road show where we will be going to various places throughout the district to do um uh detailed uh presentations to the public uh also with question and answer sessions uh for for those who attend. Um I believe that we stream all all these uh live as well um and then also have them available um I think it was explained to me that it's on a East Ramapo YouTube channel. Does that sound familiar? People who >> So so people who watch
094it um I guess on YouTube won't be able to ask questions if they have questions. >> So correct. In order to ask questions at these sessions, you need to be there. It's not a two-way um feed. It's just a streaming video of it, but there's no there's no uh two-way interaction um at those. That's correct. >> You mean if if they're watching it on YouTube, they can't place something in the chat if they have a question? >> That's not something that that um we we haven't set up for. I don't if that's something that we can discuss, I don't know, but that has not been something We didn't do that last year. >> I've only done it one year, so >> Eric, um similar to the board meetings, uh there is no chat option for
095YouTube. I mean, uh even our board meetings, they're live on YouTube, but there is no you cannot really inter- interact. That's all. It's not interactive two ways. >> How do how do you then the voters raise questions or concerns if at these community meetings? They have to be in person? >> If if if they if they wish to ask questions at these meetings, they need to be in person. >> to be in person. Can that be stressed then to the community? I mean, when we're for example, I'm looking at, you know, what's here on the screen, and maybe it should say that. >> Yeah. We we can add add a note on that in terms >> That's the only way for someone to be able to raise a question to >> That's a good idea.
096>> Sure. Thank you. >> And let's remember too that um a lot of our parents may fear to come in person because of the whole ICE situation, so um I think somehow some way if we can find a way even if it's afterwards for them to ask questions, um that should be looked into. >> Or maybe even questions, if that's the case, even maybe questions um before the meeting even takes place. So, that once you have those questions, I don't know, maybe through a website where then when you get to those community meetings at the end of the presentation, you can bring up those questions that people have presented um via you know >> it's done in sometimes in forms or something. Let me talk with the team and and see if we can put
097something in place. >> Mhm. Okay. >> That concludes >> And and actually this is all based on the premise that this will be approved and come next week. >> Well, something's >> Something's got to be approved. >> But we're we're talking about monitor involvement. We're talking about Does it I think if I heard it correctly, it has to go before the commissioner, Dr. Rosa. >> I think what we were told was we we can expect that all of that will be taken care of and we will be asking you to adopt. >> I'm considering what we've experienced in the past with us voting as a I'm not I'm sorry, I have nothing but the utmost respect for you. I'm just I try I guess I want to throw out a word of caution, right? With
098having we as a board, we may you know, say we agree with this and then it ends up before others and others then >> I I I understand where you're coming from. I will I guess I will um quote the Philadelphia 76ers um management and say trust the process. >> Trust the process. >> That's always the hope. >> And and also there has been monitor oversight in the development of the budget. You know, they're they're fully involved in it. So. >> Okay. Mr. Starks, does that conclude your >> Yes. >> Thank you so much for the report. But we are going to go back um since Douglas, you did mention that we can talk about different positions um in public. So, we're going to go back to Interim Superintendent Rulusco to share those positions. >>
099Sure, thank you. Uh so, I I have um shared with the board a number of times in different ways and discussions and in emails I've sent to you um some of the positions that we wanted to add, make a couple of changes um because we felt that they were more efficient for in terms of uh administrative function. So, um and I did recently send uh you an updated email asking for uh clear um guidance from you regarding a a approval to open the position or make the the recommended change or not. And so, I'd like to start with the transportation department. Um the uh changes that we recommending is that we hire a director or supervisor for public and a different separate director or supervisor for non-public and uh an elimination of the assistant directorship
100position. Um and so, the rationale for that is um something that has been shared a few times with the uh facilities and transportation committee board committee in which our consultant, we've been working with a consultant as you know uh since about October and they're making very strong recommendations to make sure that you have different administrators overseeing the public transportation um um functions and the non-public. >> Uh sorry for sorry if I interrupt. I'm on the I'm on the transportation committee. Uh if I remember correct and my board my fellow board members probably will also remember it that way then when we approved the contract for that consultant it was specifically stated that we're only approving phase one. Which was to come back and report to us what they found was the problem. And then we
101will go to phase two. That phase one has never happened. They have never come to us to tell us what the problem was. Some of the problems were discussed in transportation. >> Yeah. >> And the recommendation was not the first time I heard it was the last time I at the last meeting to have the different direct there was a discussion of dividing it within but not to have different administrators for both. So that's something new. >> So I I sent to you you may have not >> I I know that you sent but there was no way to discuss it only on the email chain. You asked if you want to approve it or disapprove it. That was basically what you sent. >> Sure, sure. Well, I also summarized the different meetings that the
102transportation and facilities board committee had with our consultant. So the consultant >> only two there was only two meetings. One back in October and the second one in February. Okay. Supposedly supposedly we were supposed to have a monthly meeting >> Yeah. >> with weekly updates. This never happened. >> Well, we had one scheduled for December. >> happened. It did not happen. >> scheduled for December and I think it was cancelled because a board member couldn't come. So that is true. >> October also December December I think is a monthly meeting missing. >> Okay. Here is where we are now. >> to February >> Just one at a time. One at a time, please. Here's where we are now. Okay. We are now at the point where we need to make some decisions. And if you're
103not comfortable making them, we won't make them. But at this point in time, what we have in terms of transportation administration, we have a coordinator. We have a person who's functioning as an office manager. And then we have routers, and we have um um we have routers, and we have clerical support, and we have an assistant director. What we believe we need is clearly a director. >> Let's step back. >> Okay. >> What failed? We wanted to know what failed last year. If you remember, transportation failed. >> Surely. >> Horrible. >> Yep. >> So, what we hired the consultant company, that's what I understand, and I believe my other board members understand that we hired the consultant for them to tell us what failed. >> Yes. >> We don't know what failed. You're coming now
104with a recommendation what you believe needs to be done. Which part failed? If the part failed that we had we were lacking people to enter data, we don't need additional administrators. It was not that the the system has multiple parts to it. There's an administrator, there's people entering data, there's a routing. Last year, everything failed. The question is which part of the domino fell first, and then everything came crashing down on top. So, this is what we will wanted from the report from that consultant, which we never got. >> One of the So, I forwarded you some of the reports that he did submit. I believe a total of four. >> Those reports never came to us, so we >> if you don't mind, please. I just want to finish, and I'm happy to hear.
105But, in those reports, he highlights how the systems have failed. And so, and we have discussed it, but I'm happy to discuss them again. It was a systems failure on many parts. >> Okay, so let's discuss it and understand why the administrators are needed versus people that actually enter data. Last year, when we found ourselves in the beginning of the year, most of the data was not in the system. So, this is why we didn't have routing because the kids were not there. We didn't have bus pins because the kids were not there. We didn't have buses. This was all mostly a data entering issue. It was not that we lack administrators. And also, even with your new suggestion to divide public and non-public, the non-public consists of two kind of transportation. There's certain little
106packages and there's certain that have IEPs. >> Yes. >> So, if you divide the district, it's three kinds of it's three kinds of transportation we do. We do packages for public, packages for non-public, >> Yep. >> and then we do IEPs. So, by now dividing it the way you want to divide it means that there's going to be one administrator in charge for 9 and 1/2 thousand kids, about, which is the public school, and then another administrator, which is going to be a in on top of 35,000 kids. >> Let me there. >> So, why would we go >> the difference? Great question. >> go on such a route? >> Sure. Sure. >> And also, I I'm still not convinced that by adding administrators is going to help help the problem. The biggest problem was
107entering data. And this was the first issue when once the data was not there, so nothing was there past that. >> Sure. Let me just address a few things if I may, okay? So, let's just take a look at the public schools as well as the special ed students that are in non-publics. So, at this point the recommendation is that our office will continue to route our our public school kids, which is anywhere about 9,000 right now, and um the special ed students that are from the non-public. So, the director would would oversee the the routing of 10,000 kids. Um and address all of the concern >> When you say the non-public school special ed, is that the kids that go to the public school or that's special ed within the non-public school? >> The
108special So, I may need a little bit of help as to which uh I know that we route and want to continue to route special ed students from that are non-public. We do. Both the ones that go to BOCES, the ones that go to other schools that are identified via our our CSE process, and the programs that we recommend. Karen, do you want to jump in? >> Sure. So, we have about 800 non-public students who attend the private schools. Then we also have students that we transport that attend private schools for the purposes of special education that we transport beyond the 15 miles within the 50-mile boundaries as well. >> So, 800, 900 students all together. >> Yeah. >> From non-public. So, our the the in our office, we would be routing almost 10,000 kids.
109So, that's why we need a director because they will be the ones to problem-solve between Tyler Technology, between the routers themselves, between the clerical support, the principals that are having problems with transportation. So, that's why we believe we definitely need a director to handle the public and all the issues associated with that. >> So, is the director going to do all the stuff himself or he has people behind him? >> To do all what himself? >> Is he going to be the person that's going to be routing? Is he going to be the go-to one >> Overseeing. So, why why is that a full-time the 10,000 kids is a full-time job to oversee? >> Well, the here's what they're overseeing. So, they're overseeing all legal issues, they're overseeing any bidding associated with with the public
110schools. They're dealing with the principals and managing problems with principals, they're helping to manage problems with parents. They're overseeing the the route inspectors, making sure that they're doing their job, they're managing any personnel problems in the office, clerical support, um um any problems with routing. They're They are supervising staff, evaluating staff. It's a whole department. So, it needs a leader. Uh the problem is is and I think this has been the problem over the course of many years. We had one person trying to manage all of uh of the public school and all the non-public. And that's just impossible, which is why the services have not been able to be provided in the manner that they need to be provided. >> the way I understood it was not the problem of the director. Problem was
111that just there wasn't the people to enter it. And entering 40,000 kids in 1 month is almost impossible. >> That's part of the problem. >> That was the bigger part of the problem. It's not when you oversee somebody, you don't need if the guy does if the person that is doing the job is doing the job, overseeing doesn't take that much. >> Well well, we have departments and we have directors and executive directors that oversee departments. That's how school districts are um organized. So, I think that we need >> understand this the public school part. Now, >> Okay, the non-public. Sure. >> Now, if you could explain the non-public. >> Thank you. So, the non-public, we have as you know, 35,000 students that we have to help to facilitate in some way transportation of 35,000.
112So, we're going to go to the bidding process and we're going to go to a per pupil um system at this point in time. >> There's not There's not going to be any packagings for non-public school? >> A little if any. Um Eric? >> Thank you. There will be for um uh smaller schools of a certain size where uh per pupil just wouldn't wouldn't make sense. >> Sure. >> Uh because of the numbers uh just wouldn't be there to, to make the utility of that work. So, we're looking at something in the area of 100 students, which would be if you have full buses, two full buses, and we will continue to do the routing for all of those. >> Now, now why is VWO become now a per pupil? >> So, >> This Yaco
113will become a >> We're we are bidding out per pupil for all the others. So, we were we were >> All of these big schools are going to be per pupil now, no more packages? >> That's what we agreed to, yeah. We and we spoke with them and let them know that we were planning on doing that to ask them if that was going to be a problem, and they seemed all to be able to say that that's not a problem, that they could do it. >> Yeah, we had we had meetings with all of the different contractors that currently service the schools. They had some follow-up meetings about what would be required in order to do that, which included certain data sets that would be included with the bids, such as addresses and so
114on and so forth, so that they have the data at their disposal to to you know, properly give their bids. So, that was a process that took place over several weeks, and we've used that information in helping us to develop the bids. Just in terms of that, I wanted to mention there had been in some weekly reports some reports from me that the bids were going to be going out shortly before the break. We did make a decision that we were not going to put the bids out at that time because of the holidays. We didn't want to have bids going out with with Passover coming up, so those bids will be going out either the end of this week or the beginning of next week. >> But that's another thing is this last year
115and the years before, there are about 10,000 non-public students that we were routing. And so by doing a per pupil, we just think everything's going to be much more efficient. The other part that was very problematic is that some of the other companies were utilizing the information that we had in Traversa. So we spoke with them and said from now on please do not rely on our information in Traversa. You'll be responsible for your own routing software. And they said fine. >> What you're saying that is that per pupil or that what used to be the packages? >> Both. >> So it was both. So some of them were relying on our data, so >> Some per pupil were relying on >> Oh no, no, no, in terms of we had the conversation about >>
116about that. >> It won't be, but you're correct. The the >> The ones we routed. >> All routed on their own. >> So by moving to a system where all of them are now per pupil, and so now we need that a person that's going to be able to problem solve any be the point person. Of course Eric oversees that department, but a director to look at all the bids to Yeah. >> going back. When you're going to make now everybody per pupil, who's going The way it's now, the students that are being done per packages, if that bus doesn't arrive, they call the district. And the one that IPCs, they call their specific school. >> School? >> When when they have any issue with the bus, the IEP kids call their school, their parents
117call their school, and the the schools that have the packages call the district. So now who is going to whom are they going to call? Now, everybody is going to become for people. >> Who are they going to call? Because my belief is that YSV, Bais Yaakov, A Shara, these schools are not set up for transportation. The most of the IPCs, the way it is, it's probably 95% each specific school runs their own transportation. >> Got it. >> So, now if it's not going to be that specific school, it's going to be an outside contractor, who are they going to need to contact for anything? >> Well, that's part of what we're talking about, right? So, um we want to have one person who specializes in addressing the concerns in the non-publics, all of them.
118The bidding, the contracts, the problem-solving, um speaking to parents if there are difficulties. Um so, we believe that one person cannot do the public and the non-public. It's too much. And it'll be inefficient and it'll result in some of the problems we've already facing. >> So, maybe we need two for the non-public school. Because if you do 10,000 If you do for 10,000 one, you have 35,000 for the rest. How you going to divide that? >> difference. The big difference is that this director will be overseeing the routing of 10,000 kids, as well as working with, you know, the all of the principals in the district and the parents. >> That's 2 months a year. Two or three months a year. What's with the other 9 months? >> throughout the whole >> There are problems,
119yes, but there are problems don't don't need a specific person full-time job to do that. It's The problem transportation in general is the setup for it is only for 2-3 months. This was one of the discussions we had in the past that maybe entering data should not be in transportation. It should be some some other way. So, like this, the a lot of the a big chunk of the job should not be part of transportation, so they'll be able to route. And that And most of the routing is I understood when Tyler came to represent to us what they want to sell that the the machine the computer program does most of the routing. It does need some over seeing because they it's still a computer but most of it is not done with a
120person. >> Right right now we have an assistant director position that we want to eliminate and just have a director. We need a person with a little more skill little higher level and that's what our recommendation is. We believe that we have a big enough department that is complex enough that it requires a director level administrator for the public and we also believe that the >> going to be under him? >> Under that a coordinator a coordinator. We have a coordinator um >> What's the coordinator's uh job to do? >> Uh the coordinator sure sure. They um their primary they have um routing expertise. So the coordinator um is the route you know the person who will provide that level of expertise. So Mhm. >> To understand um again transportation as you said there's having
121the kids there's routing the kids there's sending out bids there is safety to check the number one to check everybody that bids if they if all their all the things that the district needs they have insurance certificates all these things. All the drivers But it's each contractor's responsibility to make sure that the drivers are 19A but we still I believe we still have to have the records of all of them. >> Mhm. >> And routing is was also part and then hiccups. >> Hand ask answering phones managing concerns New people coming in sure. To management >> How what responsibility do you give for each person and how many people do you think that office needs? >> Sure. So, um we we have right now a person that's functioning as an office manager. That person is
122um doing things like managing all the contracts, the paperwork, um you know, just you know, overseeing clerical. So, we have two types of employees. One is clerical support and the other are the routers. The routers are overseen by the coordinators and the clerical support are over is overseen by the office manager. And then the director that would oversee all of it and um deal with any sort of issues, legal issues, state issues, um managing uh conflicts with principals, managing difficult conflicts with parents. So, that's what a director does. >> how many people do we have now that as your way of of the structure of that office? You gave me a position of three people. What >> I think I have I'm not sure, but I think there's three routers in addition to the coordinator.
123And then I think that there might clerical, something like that. I could give you exact numbers. >> staff is going to be shared? >> I'm sorry. >> clerical staff will you have for non-public schools? You need for billing, you need there's much more s- areas in the non-public schools that you would need clerical work for. >> There are more There are, but the the way that the per pupil bidding works is that a lot of that work is done by the uh vendors. >> Correct, but let's go to the physical work in the office. Um you're requesting two directors, correct? Okay, so each director needs under them a staff of people to work for them in their departments. For the 10,000 kids in the public schools, although you have the routers and all those people,
124but there's other aspects in the non-public schools which does not reflect in the publics, which includes billing, reviewing rosters, and more. And especially if you are having packages and YPCs in the non-publics, which means your department is going to be five times the size should be five times the size of the public. >> So I did a little work on that and the >> We were not presented We were presented with a budget that we should approve something that is not even mapped out yet. >> This These These positions that we're going to talk about today are in the budget. Um >> Well, in the transportation, you requested two people. >> Yes. >> Okay, and according to our simple calculations, there's much more support staff than two people that You don't have enough We didn't
125find any directors till now and I doubt that we'll find from now on. >> No, we So >> And you know, we're relying on stuff that that's so premature and a budget has to be adopted by next week. We don't even know what this department's going to look like. >> Sure. I think we need to plan for success and I think we need to plan for the the expectation that if we believe that administration that that administrator is required to oversee the non-public functioning, then that we need to plan for that. Now, there are ways of getting folks that may not be >> We've been trying for so many years to get folks. We haven't gotten nobody with that every >> for We haven't posted for this and one of the things that we've been
126talking about is seeing if we could get consultants instead of an employee. You're right, we have struggled to get director transportation directors via an employee route. You're right about that. But so some of the things that we've talked about is number one, perhaps we have a consultant come in or number two, in terms of the director for for the public, maybe somebody with the business background and some experience that we can um, them learn because the areas of expertise the that are very specific are routing and we already have the routers and we already have a coordinator of routing. >> I have a question. Um, so your plan is to budget this in the 2026-2027 budget for next school year. How does this help us for September? Knowing that the process for transportation when it
127comes to receiving applications from the nonpublic and routing should have started already. >> Sure. >> Um, we're in April. Um, the budget doesn't, you know, the budget vote is not until May. Um, it, as mentioned, we've looked for directors of transportation and we have not been successful. So, does that mean we're going to not continue to do what we need to do to make sure that students, um, have what they need for September to start school when it comes to transportation or I'm I'm just trying to understand what's the urgency now knowing that we still have work to do when it comes to making sure that bussing is done, routing is done, um, the not the applications that were submitted from the nonpublic have to be entered, um, now so we can move forward with
128that. Uh, I just don't see the urgency of reconstructing or making changes to these administrative positions specifically to transportation since that's what we're talking about now. >> So, um, we are preparing for, um, September. So, we saw what happened last September and so right now we've made some changes already that should improve what happens in September. Um, and one of the biggest changes is that we've adopted the affidavit system. So, that's really been a huge help in terms of facilitating, um, the acquiring, uh, student specific data, student information data, right? So, instead of getting individual, um, applications, 35,000 of them, now we're able to get, um, applications in a group forms by principal. So, that has streamlined that process. So, we're trying to streamline old processes that we had in the past, improve training, make
129deepen the training, um, and so what's going to happen shortly is we're going to start routing. So, uh, last year we started routing in July. We really need to start routing probably in uh, early May. And so, that's about to happen. So, we have some people there, but there's may very well be bumps in the road. You do have a a department department's required directors. That's the normal way. Um, that's our recommendation. >> So, is that being against director? We've had director of transportation in the past. It was taken away by the administrator. We as a board didn't ask for it to be taken away. We've actually been asking to bring back the director of transportation. What I'm trying to say is that adding it to the 2026-2027 budget, we all know that budget doesn't
130kick in till July 1st. By August, students should be already receiving their bus passes, which means that majority of the work will be done or should be done prior to July. >> Okay. So, Eric, we do have money in the budget to hire before July 1st? >> I'm sorry. Repeat that question. >> We have money in the budget to hire before July 1st, the transportation directors? I think we've always had money in the budget for transportation director. >> But, if I could just also comment on some of the other things that were that were just brought up. Um, with the affidavit system, for example, um, we had schools with students totaling, uh, I believe the I'm working from memory, which is not great anymore. Um, approximately 28,000 of our non-public students are in schools that
131are now participating in the, um, affidavit program. What that means differently from last year is that, um, they collect the applications, they provide us with affidavits from the that the parents have signed that the school is submitting on their behalf. Along with that, we have worked with the consultant and with Tyler Technologies on a, uh, data format where we receive that information in a digital download, I believe in Excel. I'm not 100% sure, that doesn't really matter. Um, and, um, in the testing that we have done with the early ones that came in, those uploads have gone directly into the system. Um, they have worked perfect, well, let me not say perfectly. They have worked really, really well, close to perfectly. Um, and where we are today on April 14th is worlds ahead of where
132we were last year. Okay? Where we had, of those 28,000 students, 28,000 pieces of paper that had to be manually entered. That is That system has all changed to an electronic, uh, version where the spreadsheets are given to us and they download and in in, uh, with some of the largest schools that we tested, everything worked perfectly. So, um, I used that word again. Sorry. But, um, we are significantly, significantly ahead of where we were last year. Um, uh, the number of paper applications that we have to manually enter is been substantially reduced by um, over 2/3. Um, so we are way ahead in terms of routing. Um, last year was the first year with um, a new system. This is the second year. That doesn't mean that it's perfect. However, um, we have a
133consultant that is working with our staff. Our staff has changed. There are some um, in I I don't want to say anything bad about anybody, but they're uh, the the staff that we have now are new. We have been able to um, train them in the new software from scratch without um, thinking about what was done in the past, which sometimes is you know, we all know about change, right? Um, and on top of that, we have um, a uh, professional development contract with Tyler Technologies to provide us with that training. And the uh, additional training that we have is scheduled um, to be taking place now as we begin the routing of the new applications that we have coming in. So, um, whereas yes, um, I I've said this at a number of our
134meetings. Last year was a failure on our part. Um, and that department was underneath me, so that's me. That's on me. And I am determined to not let that happen again. And I am telling you that we are doing a much better job in terms of the registration of our non-public students. Um, that in and of itself will free others up in terms of doing the public routing when we have all of all of those numbers, which are coming in. Kindergarten registration will be happening. Um, and um, the opening of school next year will not look in any way, shape, or form like it did for the opening of the 25-26 school year. >> So, I I I just want to go back to Mr. Gruber's question. We appointed a a consultant for the Department
135of Transportation. When will that consultant attend a board meeting to present updates and findings to the board when it comes to the transportation department? >> Um, >> And same thing with the forensic audit. We have a >> that. So, that he they have been to the facilities and transportation committee meetings. If the board wishes that that for that to happen at a at a full board meeting, we can certainly make that happen. >> So, in the past >> to work on a schedule with him because, you know, they they have many clients, but we'll we'll get that to happen. >> So, so in the in the past we've we've had consultants and they have always provided an update to the entire board and the community at a board meeting. >> Okay. >> Um, once again,
136same thing with the forensic audit. I know that's something we're talking about right now, but now that since it's I'm thinking about it, we also haven't received an update about the forensic audit and what's going on with that. So, I think it would be um, in the best interests of our district if our community members and the board if we can have these individuals uh, present to the board and the community an update. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> I'll make that happen. >> Trustee Rivera. >> I I was going to say that, you know, I think this is what our colleague is asking for and this is at a minimum it should happen in committee. This is something that should have happened quite some time ago. So, I'm glad to hear that Mr. Stark,
137that it is developing and becoming a much better system using this affidavit system that you've mentioned earlier. Um, yeah. Uh, I just want to make sure that these needs are being addressed because at the end of the day, it's costing us money if we're not. And at the end of the day, we're beholding to the taxpayer to ensure that we are saving them money. >> And that includes everybody in this school district. >> That's right. >> Okay. All right. Um >> So, in terms of >> Let's Let's Let me Let me just Let me say this. Um I think that we have some questions. Uh Gruber brought up some Trustee Gruber, Trustee uh Sabrina Charles-Pierre, as well as um Trustee Rivera. Um I think it's imperative that we kind of answer their questions and get
138their questions heard. And I'm going With that being said, I think what we should do is continue because we have other positions that you wanted to address. And I think we could do that. So, let's go on to the next. >> We're not getting approval at this time for these two. >> I think we should we should hear all and then and then decide >> and then decide >> decide at the end. >> Okay. All right. So, the next one is funded program. So, um what we wanted to do was we wanted to um change the administrative structure in the funded programs. We wanted to eliminate the assistant superintendency position and um convert it into two executive directors. The reason we want to do that is because uh as we mentioned before, the um the
139title funds um you know, equal about $60 million, which requires somebody with a business degree to administer, to report to the state. There's tremendous state reporting here for the four title grants. And so, um and there have There's That's a big ask for someone to oversee that $60 million and all of the programs associated with it. So, what we believe is that we need somebody to oversee the funding aspects of it and somebody to oversee the program aspects of it. Um and understanding that the person who oversees the funding, the fiscal aspects, would also be able to pick up some responsibilities in the business office as well to to help the efficiencies of the is to have one executive director for funded that focuses on academic programs overseeing the quality of it, hiring folks, smooth
140operations, visiting the programs, monitoring them, and then one for fiscal responsible for all the budgetary concerns, filling out all of the reports that are needed for the state, and being able to respond to the state regarding them. That's the that's the rationale. >> What's the dollars and cents on on adding this Is it What does a superintendent get, assistant superintendent get, or what does an executive director get? >> The executive directors in this district are anywhere from 185 to about 205-ish. The the assistant superintendents will start at 200-ish to and then move up depending on their experience, their level of expertise, etc. So, it's not We're adding a whole new position. >> But do we need an executive director to do that or we could have people or we could have So, the position to
141be able to run this as an executive director position. >> To do the fiscal functioning, you needed an executive director because anybody that has the experience working with grant, which is somebody we hope to get, um and has a business degree, they're going to be able to they're going to be able to secure the ad income of 185. So, >> Uh could we ask from that to visit what additional grants we could get or that's a separate thing? We cannot put it on that person. >> Uh well, that person would be overseeing title grants, but we do have a grant writer, um and so we could um >> On payroll? >> a grant writer. >> We have a grant writer. Um and so uh that person can help oversee that person, too. That both of
142them can, because a grant writer, you know, is looking for specific programs, so that's an academic lens. The grant writer um has fiscal responsibilities, that's a fiscal lens. That's that's the rationale. >> Okay, the next one is an attendance monitor, um a director for attendance monitoring, and the title is director of attendance monitoring and title funded program uh monitoring. Now, what I want to say is that we already have in the grant budget this year two positions that are vacant for attendance monitoring. Now, this year we developed an attendance monitoring uh protocol. And um so we've got three central office administrators, they work together, they developed this wonderful protocol. They're going to every building, all 14 of them, and they're training teams in those buildings for attendance monitoring. So, um rather than have these two
143people try to help us manage student attendance district-wide, we created a much more efficient model. So, those two positions are not needed, but what is needed is a director to make sure that all attendance monitoring across the district is consistent, consistent practices, that they're reporting properly, that that person will report to the board, will report to central office. Um, and in addition to that, that person would also, because we think that that's not necessarily a full-time job, because we have all those 14 teams working, they will also help with a title funded program monitoring, because we've been weak with that. So, we need to strengthen our um, res- you know, we need to to be able to address that responsibility of really going into some of our programs and looking for, um, quality control. So,
144that person would do those, and I want to just reiterate, the money's already in the title funds. It was never these two positions were never filled. So, we're just converting the money's for those two positions to a director position. >> So, if you don't think the director is really a full-time position, why are we even looking into that? I know, um, I want to say under Dr. Giomartino, we had a attendance task force. Um, why can't we just repeat the same model that we've had in the past? Um, I believe it did work that one year. The only reason why it didn't continue is because, um, unfortunately, you know, we don't have consistency in leadership, uh, year to year. So, you know, leadership changes, things changes. Um, so, I I think that we might just
145want to focus on having a task force that's uh, focused on attendance. Um, and if you feel like we should have if if there's a need for a director of funding, that should be separate from attendance, as it is two separate things. >> Um, right. Well, well, um, I understand. Uh, let's just talk about the attendance monitoring. So, we've already started um, training folks and it's a it's a much more robust model than one that we've had in the past. For example, at the elementary level, we've grouped together the family resource coordinator, social worker, guidance counselor, building level administrator and you know, we're we're training them. So, there it's wonderful really. We're doing a Bobbins team is training them on how to access data. They're they're following specific protocols for gathering information, looking more deeply
146into why students are absent. They have a system in place. It's developing how to contact parents and how to address this. As you know, Bobbin Gandhi presented us with the a lot of information in December about excessive student absenteeism. It's a major problem here. So, we decided a very focused approach and every single building is required. But, then you need some central office oversight to make sure that everyone's doing the same thing, that there's consistency across the district because that was that will increase the likelihood that it's successful. So, that's an important piece. >> So, we clearly there was someone overseeing it then. I don't clear I don't have that information for me. I could find out who they were reporting to. But, as you mentioned to the absenteeism number that was absenteeism number that
147was mentioned. Um you know, we're still waiting for an update at of that to be presented to us as a board. As I just realized it was not shared in the student superintendent report for tonight. >> We thought we would do it monthly. Did you want it every every week, every two weeks? Do you want it I guess I want clarity from the board. How often do you want attendance updates? >> Well, it hasn't been presented at a board meeting. >> Um didn't you present attendance updates in December? >> December. December, we're in April. >> Yeah, but then you asked for it, so we we we gave it to you at the I emailed it to you guys in my weekly communication, and then last week you said you would prefer to have it in
148public, so I did just give it to you a week ago or 2 weeks ago. I'm happy to do it once a month. >> I made it clear at the last board meeting that I would like these information to be provided publicly since it was asked publicly. >> I understand. My question is not about that. My question is about schedule. How often do you want it? I'm happy to provide it as often as you like. >> It hasn't been done at all since the last time it was shared that we had 900 students absent. So, let's let's let's get an update at the next board meeting. >> You got it. Okay. So, >> I have a question. In your memo it says that the role would also support non-public schools. In what way? >> I
149said that the I'm sorry. >> That the the attendance monitor >> Right. >> will support the non-public schools. How >> Funded programs. Funded So, >> The role would also support quality control for non-public school programs. >> I'm sorry. >> In your memo, number three, attending monitoring >> Mhm. I don't have that memo in front of me, but just what what is it that you're seeing there? >> Well, the role would also support quality control for non-public school programs. >> Yes, quality control. So, >> Where in the attendance? >> No, no, no. >> Well, it's it's under it's under attendance monitoring. >> Yeah, so this person would work under the right now our our assistant superintendent for funded programs is helping to oversee the attendance monitoring initiative. So, this this position would be under that person.
150So, um so >> So, it's the same person. Number two and three were the same person. >> There's one position for attendance monitoring >> You're telling me now that it's going to be under funded programs. So, we're getting this the person for funded programs. And then we're going to get a person for attendance monitoring or we're not getting another person. We're using the same person. >> Sure. So, the um so, let's clarify, okay? So, currently we have an assistant superintendent who oversees funded programs and that person's job is to have has fiscal responsibilities as well as programmatic responsibilities. We're saying take that one position, divide it into two executive director positions. One executive director will oversee the fiscal responsibilities. One assistant one executive director will oversee the programmatic. Those are two positions in addition to
151that. In our current title budget, we have two positions that we had put in there to help monitor attendance district-wide, but we never filled them. I want to take those two positions and convert that into one director position that will have two functions. That director position will be to oversee the attendance monitoring district-wide helping each of the schools, 14 schools, with their attendance monitoring process. In addition, they will also help to monitor quality control in some of our funded programs non-public. >> So, wait. So, you said there were two positions that we never filled, correct? So, we really never even gave it a chance. So, we don't know if it would work or not if we never filled it. >> We felt that it was too weak based on our analysis of of um of
152the depths of the attendance problems, we felt that we needed a team in each building. And since we hired guidance counselors, and we we we investigated more deeply the role of the family resource coordinator. We wanted the family resource coordinator, the guidance counselor, the social worker, and a building level administrator to take on the responsibilities of attendance monitoring for their building. And so we we devised a whole plan for attendance monitoring, and some of our central office administrators, Tamara, who's and who is it? Tamara, Daniel, and Tara. So the head of guidance, the head of pupil personnel, and the head of funding. They took it upon themselves to create this model, and they took it upon themselves to train the teams in every single building. Now we need a central office person who is monitoring
153attendance. Those people will report to one person. So we have attendance monitoring centrally for the entire district, because it's a major problem. But we also realized that that person would have more capacity to do more. So we have another lack, and and that is in monitoring the quality of some of our programs in non-public. So that person, who would be overseen by a Daniel Shanahan, the head of funded programs, would be helping to oversee attendance monitoring, which is now partly overseen by him, and quality control for non-public programs. >> So as we're creating these new positions to pay whatever their salary is going to be, are we also making plans to increase the pay of the teams that are being trained right now to take on more responsibility? >> No, we believe that that's part
154of their of their job. So, we we you know, this is we believe that they can incorporate those responsibilities within their work day. >> And they're all I'm guessing aware of all of this and they're okay with it. >> Mhm. Okay, let's go to the next one. Okay, the next one is um an additional assistant principal at Cahuilla Cahuilla school. So, Cahuilla school right now has about a hundred 860 students and they are serving two sets of students elementary and middle school. Um our current projections indicate that that number will go up beyond 900. We're looking into that now. Um and so in our district model um an elementary school has one principal and one AP and a middle school has one principal and two APs. So, um she is one principal and two APs.
155So, we think that she's short. >> And not only that too, I think on the agenda for tonight um one of the APs is retiring. >> Yes. >> So, >> she needs a We believe that that department that that school wonderful principal needs some additional support just because of the number of kids and the fact that you know, half the program is elementary, half the program is middle school. So, we wanted it to have you know, a little bit more equity um you know, I'm going to leave that there for now. The other one is Hempstead. We believe we need an AP that is devoted just to special education. So, we have something very different and unique in Hempstead. We have about 120 students there that have moderate to severe disabilities. So, these kids need
156specialized instruction. They need specialized assistive technology. They need their staff needs to be specifically trained in in in ways that are different than than staff that are working with students that are more typically developing. For example, we need folks that are that are know how to toilet train kids. We need folks that know how to work with students with autism. We need uh people that know how to create appropriate learning environments in each of these classrooms. That requires very specific instructional strategies that are very different. And so, we need somebody who can just devote themselves to these 120 kids. It's a very large number of kids with disabilities of this level and degree. So, um um in other elementary schools, you have as I mentioned one principal one assistant principal and they're running the whole
157building. We need an assistant principal that's just going to focus on these 120 kids. That person would be a liaison to like Rockland BOCES that has specialized training. They would be able to come in and work with our staff with PD, work with our teachers, work with that assistant principal to develop real programs that really meet the specific and individualized needs of these kids. It's a very it's much more intense than students that have a learning disability per se. >> You know, as mentioned um night during our yesterday evening during the curriculum and instruction um committee meeting I I you know I heard what you were saying but I also have a concern that you know we do have that large population and I I think it's necessary in my opinion that you know there
158would be a need for more um special education teachers uh with that within that expertise. >> Mhm. >> Um that I feel like would help the situation. >> Absolutely. Every classroom is staffed with a special education teacher. Every classroom. So all the but they still need specialized training. >> training. >> Yes, because you could be um trained as a special education teacher. I was. But that doesn't mean that I have the specialized skill set needed for students with very specific needs. So um special special education teachers that gets you in the door. After that you need specialized training depending on the the the population you work with. >> And we also have a number of special needs students at Elmwood. >> We do have We do have them. >> What are the numbers there? >>
159I'm not sure off the top of my head. Um >> Are we directing special ed to Hempstead or is it average in every school? >> Sorry Trustee Kauth, say what what one more time? >> Are we directing special ed kids to Hempstead or is it averaged out to >> It's not only Hempstead. >> So at Elmwood we have about 40-ish students in our special classes there and to answer your question um Mr. Kauth, there's special ed programs at all of the different buildings but there's different programs. So Hempstead for example has our special classes for 812. Those are our students with communication, language, academic, and social needs. And then we have other special classes 1213, you know, 12 students, one teacher, three teaching assistants and staff and there's something in Elwood. Then we have 1212
160at um Grand View. So, we have different programs at different buildings. >> So, is what's needed really an AP at Hempstead or someone to um be able to oversee the special needs students in every I guess building that they're in. >> That's a good question. So, um well, in Hempstead, we have a heightened need because we have so many students um and in one specific area and and the degree of disability too. We just need more specialization there. But in in um what we're trying to do is we're we're trying to do things like this and hopefully we'll be able to get there. Um at the at the high school level for example, we have four um assistant principals. There should be one for This is just a model I'm thinking about out loud. It
161wasn't nothing's been approved, but the idea would be have one of them specialize in special ed, be the liaison between um you know, the building and the special ed department. That's a typical kind of model. We try to fill that now with some of the um administrators in the special ed department. Um but that would be the future that you're training at least one administrator in the building that has a higher level of a more specialized skill set in special ed. >> Who does it now in the high schools? I believe we did send some special ed to high school to the high school this year. >> We have special ed at the high school, right? >> this year some of the bi-way kids to high school. >> So, we have >> did they end
162up? Viola or Spring Valley? >> Spring Valley. >> Where are the Yeah, Spring Valley. >> Spring Valley high school. >> Is the bi-way? Yeah. >> And who who who oversees them now? >> So, in Spring Valley, there's an assistant principal who specifically works directly with our department to collaborate on that program. >> So is it so that individual is special specializes in special needs or or were they trained >> assistant principals at the high school and they sort of all have this area of expertise that they're assigned to. And so there's one assistant principal at Spring Valley who is assigned to special ed to work directly with our department. >> But we did hire this year a director that has specialized skill set working with this population. So she's been working with some of our
163programs getting from you know she has to be able to address all of it but she's addressing some of it. She's helping. Want to talk a little bit about it? >> I mean so she has really worked this year with the programs to identify specific equipment, furniture, or materials that they might need in the classroom to address whatever particular needs that might be whether it's communication, sensory, social emotional needs as well as identify training that would be beneficial for the staff in those programs. >> It's Do we have Do we have like a chairperson a special education chairperson? >> We have several. >> How many do we have? >> Um so for chairpersons that actually chair CSE meetings >> We have about eight of them but I think you're talking about like department chairs. >>
164even talking about just chairing the CSE meetings but also overseeing like the special education department and the various teachers. >> Yeah I mean so in our department we have special education coordinators. We currently have two. We have some vacancies still that we didn't fill. We have four assistant directors. Some of them are responsible for CSE, others are responsible for programmatic. We also have like interim superintendent Orlisco said the director of special education who's been helping to provide special assistance to our special class programs. Then we have our director of non-public special education as well as our two executive directors in our department. >> So I'm not sure what the responsibilities of the coordinators are, but why can't we use them in the various buildings to oversee the special education >> Bethpage and Stead? >> Well,
165Hempstead um would I mean I think if we have Yeah, if we have more than one, why can't we use them instead of hiring um a director or >> A an assistant >> Assistant principal, I'm sorry. Assistant principal. >> Sure. >> I mean these are people that already These are people that are already in place. It sounds like what we need to do is fill the vacancies and then just >> tremendous need in special ed. >> So our coordinators are mostly responsible for a chairing CSE meetings, processing initial referrals, reevaluations, or chairing program reviews. And a majority of their time is spent around the CSE process for managing again initial referrals, program reviews, annual reviews. You know, we have over 3,000 meetings to run for the entire year just for annual reviews. >> Yeah. Are
166Are you trying to hire some coordinator We have vacancies for coordinators? >> have vacancies for coordinators and I also just want to remind the board that we are doing a special education audit that is going to be evaluating all of our processes and procedures, staffing for our department and being making recommendations to the Board of Education for next steps moving forward. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Yes. >> Okay. Next one is the director of literacy. Director of literacy. So, um as you know, we have spent a lot of money and time this year on our literacy initiative. So, we've been training um our K through through eight um students, teachers, administrators on the um American Reading Company, which is ARC, uh um a literacy program, as well as Wilson program. And um we've
167spent a lot of money and time, and we're going to continue with it's in the budget for this year. This is a three-year initiative of deep training um and uh working with teachers, administrators across the district. Here's what's happening. Um in district this size, with its history, uh there's a tendency for a building to kind of create its own norms over time. So, um the teams in the elementary the elementary buildings right now, we have instructional coordinators for multilingual education, instructional coordinators for literacy, that work very closely together with with the teachers and with these um training company. We have vendors that are coming in to train our folks in the use of ARC, American Reading Company, and Wilson. So, now, what we want to make sure is that there is consistency across all of
168the elementary schools. We want to prevent elementary teams um from going off and doing very different things, because these programs are very scripted, they're very precise. But, if you start going to the different buildings, people get very creative, which is natural, and it's fine, but we want to make sure that we have a central office person who was overseeing and guiding and directing all of the literacy initiatives in in in the district. They'll be the ones that will be collecting data district-wide, comparing school to school, comparing teams to teams. You could compare at the teacher level, student level. They would be working hand in hand with Mr. Gandhi's team collecting data with um um with the MLA leadership to make sure that the MLE strategies are integrated into um this initiative in the way that
169it needs to be since 60% of our kids or 65% of our kids are L's. So, um we want we want to make sure we don't lose what we're investing in and that we strengthen it um and that we keep it going. We think it's critically important. So, we we are highly recommend- mending that. Uh as you know, if you're a CSI school, that means that our kids to some degree are are um they're performing 5% comparison to the state. The lowest 5%. We have to change that story. And so, um a director of literacy will help to provide focus, will help to make sure that all of the that all of the um uh buildings and the building teams are um consistent in their practice. We'll bring those folks together. We'll bring the instructional
170coordinators um together as a team and um be able to harness their specific expertise and begin to build them as a team working together to provide us with the best strategies district-wide. So, that's why we're recommending a director of literacy. Um just think it's important in this district, critically so. >> So, my question is um once they collect all that data, what will they do with it and how will that data be shared with the board as a whole? I know in the past we've done many different assessments. We've used Renaissance where we were um updated, I believe, monthly on where our students K through 8 were when it comes to ELA and math. I noticed that hasn't been done in a while besides whatever was presented to us the other day which had to
171do with the ELA scores and the math scores. But that was a statewide report. I want to know how will they use that information to share it with us so we can know if the needle is being moved at all. >> Sure, good question. I agree. We can create We can create a schedule. We can work together to create a schedule of how often we will be presenting information to you and letting you know what what we think that the information why we think that information is useful and how we'll use it to make instructional changes and recommendations to change it to ship. That You're right. Gathering information and Dr. Jalloh's probably smiling right now because she's always talking about gathering data, looking at that data, and having that data inform instruction and inform decisions.
172So, it's a great question. I agree 100%. But we need to put the right folks in place. We need to put the right supports in place and we need to put the right structures in place. And if we're just highly focused and we put our money, our professional development, our our focus all in the same place, I'm sure that we will make a difference. >> And does creating a new position called director of literacy, will that make that difference or change? I mean, when we did it once again, when we did it in in the past and when that information was presented to us, that came from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. >> I know. I know that there's been a lot that's happened in this district over years. I know that. And I
173know that it's probably hard to say trust us on some level. Um and but yet that is what we're asking you to do. Uh we are working very hard. Uh we we we really are working very closely with Dr. Jallow who is really an expert in in um curriculum and instruction. This team is working really hard. We we do this all the time. We talked about it. We look at data. We are looking at programs. We're talking to consultants. Uh we're looking at how our kids are doing. And I understand what you're saying and I respect what you're saying. Um but we do believe that we have a very focused program here and plan. I also think that if this plan does it has to Whatever plan you put in place here, you have to
174keep it. You you know, we put this money in. We put this training. Keep the same program. Keep the same training. Keep it for 5 years. See how it goes. It will move the uh performance needle. >> Okay. There's one other thing that I uh may or may not have mentioned, but I want to mention it. I mentioned it in the different um thing that I sent to you. And that is two senior security aids. And here's all I'll say about it. Um I work with Tom Carton all the time. And uh I never knew how important he was until I took this position. Tom Carton is at every emergency, every no matter where it happens. If it happens at one end of the of the town, he'll go to the other end to for
175the next one. And he's always constantly reporting back. Um I believe he needs help. Um and I think he needs two senior security aids. We already have security aides. He needs two senior ones that he can deploy and send them to different places. Tom starts at I don't know what time of the morning, 7:00 in the morning, and this guy will be emailing me at 11:00 at night and all weekend long. Um and so I have uh when I realized how much he was working, I said to him, "You need help. You can't do this." And there he is and he said uh yeah, I've been trying to do trying to get help for a couple years here. So I don't know how else to say this, but I I I'm a huge supporter at
176this point. So I'm going to leave it there. >> All right. Thank you so much um Mr. Lusco. Um and I know the board will have the opportunity to kind of like absorb all of this and take it in and and take a look at it. >> The only thing though is that it's being said that this is to be put in the budget for next year, which we have to approve Tuesday. >> Yep. It is in >> But it's already in the budget. >> here. >> It's in the budget. >> Which means we don't have to so what approval are you asking for? >> Right. So >> if it's already in the budget. >> Good question. The first thing I'm asking for is approval. Conceptually, do you do you agree that we need this?
177Will you >> But you already put it in. >> If you say We did. We had to. We put it in. If you say no, if you say no, I'm now going to pass the baton to Eric Stark. Eric, if they say no to all of these positions, what happens next in terms of readjusting this budget? What happens? >> I don't >> So so in in well, in terms of that that's not far off. So the the dollars are in the budget. So the the board um in terms of new positions that are in the budget would still be asked after a budget passed to approve the creation of positions. If the board and that that I'll give an example. I I believe that last year in the budget that was approved there was the
178position of the deputy superintendent, correct? And then when that came up the the board did not want to put that in place for this year. That is always going to be the board's prerogative. But the dollars for the positions are in the budget. >> It's still there. >> But they if they remain unspent they will roll into fund balance. >> Okay. And the only reason why I asked that too is because um I mean I guess let me speak for myself. But you mentioned something where you said that it's important that when we put things in place that we keep what we put in place. And um I personally believe that the district would benefit from maintaining stability and avoiding significant administrative changes until a permanent superintendent is put in place as we are looking
179for one to hopefully start by July 1st. Um when we look at what happened last year when we appointed Mr. DeCarlo as interim at the time there was an immediate need to fill cabinet level vacancies to ensure that you know the district could move effectively could function effectively. So I think if we're going to talk about making any changes creating any positions um we should probably like I said wait for us to appoint a permanent superintendent who will at the time be the one setting the district long-term of and direction of the district. That is my take on the administrative positions. Okay. Any other trustees? >> I would second that if there's an imminent emergency of something that we see that it goes totally wrong and we need to change positions. I would understand that
180we in term superintendent should do something like this but um doing major changes in a system that even the assistant the interim superintendent said that this if we add it it should be kept for 5 years. It's it's something that I believe that it's somebody that is going to come in and going to have their vision and their view of how to run things should be able to make those decisions. >> Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. Thank you again Miss Relusco. We're going to move on with the agenda. In terms of student voice tonight we will not be hearing from our student board members. So we're going to move right along and I'm going to ask is there a motion to approve consent and agenda items 1 through 9? I motion made by Wiseman
181dose second by second by trustee Gruber. All in favor? >> Can I can I just point out one thing that I noticed um for the after school programs that we have on the agenda, I noticed for Chestnut it says it says that I guess it's supposed to start between 2:10 and 5:10. Chestnut lets out at 3:40. So I think that time needs to be adjusted. >> So can we all right make the adjustments for us please? Okay. Let let finish. Oh, any oppositions or abstentions? Hearing none, motion carries. Let's continue. Is there a motion um to approve action items 1 through 13? Just say that louder. Who was that? Okay, motion made by uh Trustee Fedder, second by Trustee Mccough. All in favor? >> Discussion? >> I'll go first. Um number eight agreement addendum. Um
182if I remember correctly, that item was previously removed from the agenda by the monitors. Um what changed from the last meeting to this meeting with this that it was now put back on the agenda? >> Dr. Jallow, maybe you can Number eight, the Rosa Educational Consulting. >> After discussion, excuse me. Good evening. After discussion with um Ms. Marconi uh about what that plan entailed, um I agreed with um what they were trying to accomplish and was willing to put it back on. >> So nothing was changed, just an agreement. Oh, okay. >> And um the second thing is the instructional calendar. Does that have to be that's just a draft that's being approved tonight. It's not the final. Is that correct? >> It's um it's it's no longer a draft once it's approved by the
183board. >> Okay, so can this actually be um put on the next agenda next week only because this was the instructional calendar was added over the weekend, I think Saturday or Sunday. >> You want it? Sure. Put it up again next week? >> Please. >> Okay, we'll um we'll we will All right, can can do me a favor. Can um whoever made the the uh second take your second back and Trustee McCollum >> Excuse me, Mrs. McGill. >> Okay, go ahead. Kathy. >> And uh Mrs. Relusco, I could just make a comment on that instructional calendar that BOCES and the rest of the school districts are waiting on us to pass that instructional calendar. >> BOCES, we already approve our we already approved it. They said they started already. Most schools already approved the calendar.
184>> Right, and they they have emailed to me that they're still waiting for ours and anxious to get it. But we can we can pass the board could approve that calendar tonight. They can always come back at any time and make an adjustment to it and that has happened now and then in the past, not every year. But that option is always out there. That could be revisited and have a a small >> Sorry, I guess what I'm saying is that every other district already approved their instructional calendar and because this was just provided to us of two days two days ago, I would like to just compare it to the other calendars in the district to see make sure that >> if that's the case then procedurally, then there should be a motion to
185amend the action items to remove this. If that is approved, then you can remove it. We can't just remove it because one board member says to remove it. So, we need an a motion to con- to consider removal of 13 from the action items, a second, a vote on that, and only if that's passed should this be amended. >> Okay, so um is there let's do this right now then. Is there a motion on the floor to um amend 2026 to 2027 instructional calendar. >> To to remove >> To remove it. >> Remove that from the action item. >> Right. To remove it from the action items. >> I'll move it. >> All right. Moved by Trustee Charles Pierre. Is there a second? >> Amended. >> Uh moved uh second by Trustee M. Coffe. All
186in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed or abstentions? Hearing none, motion carries. Okay. Now, let's go back. I know there was a motion on the floor. >> One to 12. >> Well, now you've got a motion to uh approve the action items except 13. >> I think there was a second. >> I had a There was a The motion was um made by I believe Trustee >> and seconded by Mr. M. Coffe. So, the motion as amended would be to approve action items one to 12. >> Right. 13 was the last item under action items. >> Okay. All >> I I'm sorry. I have a question regarding um item number four. >> Number four? >> Right. >> Okay. >> I see there are multiple items that are repeated from 2004, I believe. Was any action
187done to correct those like missing documents from employees um files kind of? Was anything done to correct those um errors, so if you want to call it that way? >> Yes. >> The audit. >> The single audit. Okay. So, uh let me just uh touch on that. I think um uh I shared this with um the superintendent. The The reason that this is coming to you now is because this is the audit of the federal grants. The federal grants have um an annual um menu that is created by the federal government of what they want in the audit each year. Um that was not given to districts until November 25th, uh which is after the the audits normally do. Nor- This is normally an audit that you would receive with the um with the uh
188the regular audit. Um and I believe when uh Mr. Smith from EFPR presented to you, he mentioned that it wasn't a part of his presentation that uh that evening because these um guidelines had not been provided. So, we just received this. The the uh when there's a correction corrective action plan that is created along with a uh with an audit, it is a plan to get those things done. They have not been done yet. It's something that we will address um and we look to make sure that that um type of item is not repeated in the following year's budget. So, um we just got this. As we got it, we supplied it to the board for authorization uh to to be accepted. Um but that plan has been developed uh for us to work
189on um and implement, but has it been implemented to date? No, it has not cuz uh it's the plan has just uh been created. >> So, so um just question um knowing that the first part of it was presented to us by the auditors, is there reason why they weren't asked to present this part to the board? >> The This is This is like a regulatory audit that generally he doesn't really focus on in the presentation. The the the guidelines for that presentation are on the independent audit, which is the financial audit of the general fund. Um If if the board uh asked for a presentation of that, certainly uh we could we could ask him to come and do that. I I don't believe that um he has spent much time on that within
190his presentations in in prior years. >> Going back to my question, I'm sorry. So, the repeat find repeat finding from you're saying that that um wrong doing or wrong whatever they found wasn't in 2004, it's only it's only the the the the kind of action the kind of what they were looking for was in 2004? >> Can you Can you uh Can you clarify what you're saying? >> 13. Page 13, multiple repeat findings from 2004. Uh personnel file maintained by the district contained I'm sorry. Uh personnel files were missing cause personnel files were missing health insurance from two out of four requested individuals. And this is a repeat finding. This This is a repeat finding of item 200402 as reported for the year ended in June 30th, 2004 uh 2024. >> Yes, so sorry. Yes,
191so there there have been issues in terms of um personnel files. When when the audits are done, they do request uh to see certain items in personnel files and if those are are not there and and it comes up again, then um it would be a repeat finding. Um one of the things that >> in 2004 as well. >> Yes, and one of the things that has um >> 2024, I'm sorry. >> within the department is um better filing systems in terms of also uh moving, if I'm not mistaken from all paper files to electronic files and we hope that that is going to resolve um a number of things that that that have happened in terms of not only this audit we've had personnel um uh file issues on the on the main audit
192as well. >> So it's not only on that item there multiple repeat finding that I believe the district is saying the district is is taking actions on each individual items. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Okay, there's a a motion and second on the floor for action items 1 through 12. All in favor. Any opposition or abstentions? Hearing none, motion carries. Information and reports from the board. I just I'll say a few things. Um I would like to wish uh much success to all of our athletes participating in spring sports. And um something I wanted to share was great seeing some of our East Ramapo Central School students um participating in the Village of Spring Valley Easter Egg Hunt. And the especially the East Ramapo marching band. And I am so glad our East Ramapo
193Central School District students have the opportunity to attend Rockland BOCES. Some of our students at its uh annual meeting um were able to show off their culinary skills. And the last thing I'd like to mention is that I am looking forward to attending the Spring Valley High School Honor Society induction ceremony this Thursday, April 16th at 7:00 p.m. Thank you. >> Um I just want to share briefly that um I had the opportunity to attend the National School Board Association um conference over the weekend at uh in San Antonio, Texas. Um and I just wanted to share this one session that I went to only because of the fact that you know we had students at the last board meeting asking that we come up with a policy when it comes to ice. So some
194a few things the first session that I did attend had to do with immigration and something that they did share with us is that they have organized trainings passing out red cards. I don't know if that's something we have. I know at Rockland Community College we have those red cards posted in different areas of the different buildings at the college and I believe there's a lot of schools that are doing it and it's also something that could be placed at many different locations including shopping centers etc. Um what else they also talked about how they're organizing around safe zone resolutions. They're working with parent and community organizations to support student and families. They're partnering with local state local state and national immigration coalitions to advocate for immigration justice and they have done things like delivering
195food to families scared to leave home providing school safety patrols and family preparedness community meetings. So I think that it was very interesting that this was one of the first topics that I attended and um once I have the slides when we have our policy meeting I think that's not something we spoke about tonight but maybe at the next policy meeting we can look at the different policies or resolutions that other districts put in place when it comes to that topic. Thank you. >> Similar to what Trustee Charles is mentioning I actually received an email I forwarded it off to the entire board and to our superintendent, copying Kathy as well as Ms. Kivy and as well as the Mr. Gerhardt. Uh a an email came from a Mr. I have Can I mention his
196name? Does it matter if the NYCLU? Is it okay if I mention the name? Right. Uh Mr. Christian Singleton from NYCLU. Here is a youth organizer here from Spring Valley asking uh show cuz they had come and they had spoken at our last meeting, some of the students and they had all spoke in regards to you know, the concern about creating a policy to protect our students >> [clears throat] >> and then uh from ICE and oh, from Department of Homeland Security as well. And so, they [clears throat] asked that they would to meet with myself and and that's why I sent it out to all of you if anybody would like to be a part of that and we can respond uh collectively to them. They're asking to meet possibly sometime between the 20th
197and the 30th of April. So, I just wanted to bring that up. Uh secondly, I did want to thank uh yesterday's committee on uh Mr. Marcone, Mr. Muwaza. >> Curriculum instruction. >> thank you. I took some notes and I just want to say thank you for the I think there's a lot of a great promise coming out of that meeting and all those meetings that are occurring. I think there's going to be some opportunities that our students will be able to take advantage of as this develops and and I do look forward to seeing that unroll here in our school district opening up more opportunities for AP courses in addition to other uh course work, working with uh some colleges and here in New York State. And so, I I just wanted to thank you
198for the opportunity to be a part of that committee meeting yesterday. >> Thank you. >> Okay, uh future meeting dates. Our regular meeting is scheduled for April 21st, 2026 in the PLCC room in the administration building at 105 South Madison Avenue, Spring Valley, New York. In terms of written communications, since the last board meeting, the board has not received written communications. Um I would uh like to make a motion to enter executive session to discuss Ms. Kivi. >> To discuss matters regarding the possible employment or termination of particular persons and for an update on teacher contract negotiations. It is possible we might have action following. >> Okay, is there Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Uh second by Trustee Weisman. All right. >> I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Is there also a superintendent search
199update? I didn't hear that. >> Pardon me? Okay. All in favor? >> Aye. >> Any opposition or abstentions? Hearing none, motion carries. We're going to go into executive session. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> Mhm. >> Okay, I'd like to call this meeting back to order. Motion to adopt resolution whereas in accordance with the chapter 173 of the laws of 2021 state monitor legislation the East Ramapo Central School District Board of Education engaged a full and complete search for a new school superintendent. And whereas following such such search in which the state appointed monitors were directly involved at every stage the board unanimously selected a candidate and whereas the board by letter dated March 5th, 2026 advised the state monitors of its choice and requested the state monitors approve the candidate as its new superintendent of
200schools. And whereas by letter dated March 13th, 2026 the state monitors responded to the board, complimented their work selecting a superintendent, and disapproved such selection without providing any explanation of any kind. And whereas by letter dated March 31st, in accordance with the monitor legislation the Board of Education appealed the state monitors disapproval to the Commissioner of Education for multiple reasons. And whereas as of April 14th, 2026, the commissioner has not informed the board whether she was upholding the state monitor's disapproval. And whereas, the board complied fully with the law and its selection of a superintendent and the monitors and commissioner failed to adhere to the law by disapproving the board's unanimously selected candidate. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Board of Education authorizes commencing litigation including under NYS Civil Practice Law and Rules Article
20178 against the New York State Education Department, the Commissioner of Education, state-appointed monitors Dr. Shelley Jallo and Mr. Shawn Farr, and or any other entity responsible for the decision to disapprove the board's chosen candidate for Superintendent of Schools. Two, authorizes appointment of the law firm Bond, Schoeneck and King, PLLC consistent with the terms of the attached engagement agreement in conjunction with district council to represent the board and district in matters related to the superintendent selection process as set forth herein. And authorizes the board president to take all steps necessary to implement the provisions of this resolution including payment to Bond, Schoeneck and King, PLLC in accordance with the terms of the engagement agreement dated April 14th, 2026. >> Let me just clarify the resolution. We do not have a a written engagement letter with them
202just yet, but uh so the board will be approving them upon terms agreeable to the parties which will be consistent with the past terms that we've had. We've used this firm before with other litigations, so just so everyone's aware that you're approving appointing Bond and the engagement letter will be forthcoming and I'll ask them to just mirror what we had uh earlier this year. So, we just don't I just we didn't get that from them for for tonight. >> Okay. So, on that note, is there a motion? >> Motion I'll I'll do the motion. >> All right. So, motion made by Wisemandel. >> Second. >> Is there a second? >> Second by Trustee Rivera. All in favor? >> I. >> Uh any opposition, nays, abstentions? >> Yeah. >> Hearing none, motion carries. >> Yes. >>
203And at this time >> Wait, wait, wait, wait. The where are the monitors? They're not here. Okay. >> All right. And at this Cut it out. And at this time I would like to I'm going to make a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting, second by Trustee Gruber. All in favor? >> I. >> Any abstentions or oppositions? Okay. Hearing none, motion carried.