001Okay. Good evening everyone. I would like to bring this meeting meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Thank you. Good evening everyone. Fire exits are located at the sides of the room in the front and back. In event of a fire, you will hear a fire alarm at that time. At that time, please move in a common orderly fashion to the nearest exit. I will now make a motion to open the floor for public speaking. Do I have a second? Second by Mr. Gruber. All those in favor say I. Anyone oppose? Obstain. Motion carries. Speaker number one. As far back as I can remember, I've stood up for the Pledge of Allegiance. Why? Because a teacher told me to.
002But now that I'm educated, I don't want to stand for it anymore. Not when there's no justice for all, no justice for women, no justice for LGBTQ plus, no justice for people of color, and no justice means no peace. Growing up in Rockland County, I learned about the rich history of our community. Did you know that Havro was the first official town in Rockland or that Ruby Bridges is civil rights con is still alive today? These are the stories that inspired me to think of beyond a bubble. invite local indigenous community to why are we inviting amazing leader to speak to us people who can inspire us who can teach us about the power of standing up for what's right teach us about the power of activism and for speaking up I stand before US
003today as a person of color as someone who tired of being told to be quiet I'm not just saying no to pledge allegiance I'm saying yes to justice yes to equality and yes to world that is fair for all and tomorrow's demonstration in the high school. You're creating a world where every kid can stand up for what's right without fear of being silenced. I'm jealous I can't be there. And in Bad Bunny's world on the biggest stage said, "There's only the only thing stronger than hate is love." Seimosi, we're still here. Thank you. Speaker number two. Good evening. So, tomorrow, right? Wow. I'm so proud of the students who are getting ready tonight thinking about tomorrow's demonstration. You're standing up for what's right, and that's something to be proud of. You're not just fighting for
004your own rights. You're fighting for the rights for everyone who has been marginalized. Everyone who has been silenced. You're fighting for the world where everyone can be treated with dignity and respect. I know it's not always easy to speak up, especially when it feels like the whole world is against you. But I want you to know that you're not alone. There are people who care about you, who believe in you, and who are rooting you for you. So tomorrow, when you're out there marching and speaking truth to power, remember that you're not just representing yourself. You're representing a movement. You're representing hope. You're representing courage and representing change. And that's what we need in this district. Be loud, be proud, and be strong. You're making a difference. I couldn't be more proud of you and
005hopefully I'm able to see it from far away. I know that the district sent out a notice that people from the outside, meaning no stu besides students and staff are not allowed, but I had a question. our parents are allowed on property of the school as the reason being that they have a student there and for their safety to make sure that they're safe because I have a lot of parents that have expressed that they will not be sending certain kids to school because they are afraid as you know around the world there's many violence going on and has been directed also to our youth and they don't want them to be unsafe. safe. I know you guys expressed that as long as they are on school grounds, they will be safe. Even though they
006wanted to even walk towards the the district at one point, they shared online. And I know it's not as safe as they don't have any permits or were able to pay for um for a permit to have cops to make sure they were safe through along their site that they wanted to walk. But I hope also that the board is also taking time to be present. That is a way to show that you're together. We're one community. We're not saying that we're against any other community. We are fighting essentially also I am for fighting for justice. It's like my daughter said right now there's not justice for all and not justice in this district either. Unfortunately, for multiple years, we've had other demonstrations about 11 or 12 years old when activities were taken away. And
007thankfully, back then when Miss Jean Fields was principal, she even encouraged them to raise their voice even more. Thank you very much. Good evening. >> Thank you. Speaker number three. Hi, my name is Madison and I'm here to talk about my school's lunch. Today's lunch was nasty. The sweet potatoes was not cooked right. I love sweet potatoes and I know how they're cooked. Please fix the food as soon as possible. It's not fair that I've been thinking about this for three years now. The first time I was in kindergarten, now I'm in third grade. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Madison. Speaker number four. Yeah. Yeah, forto. I got monitores. Let's spend Thank you. Speaker number five. Yeah. district. Okay. Puntoche. foreign. Man, Valentia, We also do. Okay. Gracias. Gracias. Okay, that concludes public
008speaking. Um, we'll now turn it over to Superintendent Belusco. We're going to take away the superintendent's report. Mr. >> Thank you. Good evening. Uh just a quick comment on the um comments that were made about the um the student uh presentation for tomorrow. I understand uh basically what I want you to know is that um as a district we we are trying to uh protect the students. We we cannot um ask them not to do it and we cannot politically ask them to do it. But what we're trying to do is is protect them. So that's why we are asking them to please if they want to um walk out to please stay on our uh property as opposed to going to Route 59 or going out, you know, uh in other parts of the
009neighborhood where it may not be safe for them. And we've also partnered with our police uh to help ensure that we have folks on our campus um so that we could ensure the safety of our kids to the best of our ability. So we are compassionate, we are sympathetic, but we we just have to take a particular stand on it. I just want you to hear that. Um and so uh superintendent's report today, I would like to start off with our transportation updates. want you to know that we've been working very hard with our consultant and with our transportation uh department and uh we are making progress uh particularly in working with the non-public uh folks. Many of the schools have agreed to provide us with affidavit rather than uh having the district collect individual
010um applications for each student. As many of you know, that would require us to collect and process 35,000 uh applications for non-public students. So, moving towards this affidavit system is really very efficient for us and hopefully will result in um much better and more efficient um um services to the non-public. So, we're happy about that. We're continuing to work with our consultants and we expect to see other changes as as um the winter progresses. >> Yes. question. Um, have we uh put in place some type of process to and put these information into the system where we're not waiting last minute um to put the information in to where uh students and parents are not receiving transportation the start of the school year. >> Yeah, we've been working with um Tyler Technology with Almond Consulting.
011Um our folks have been trained. They're in the process of being retrained. Uh collecting the data will be completely different. Uh much more um uh efficient. We've been working we've looking at this soup to nuts. So we should be in much better shape in September. Thank you. Uh and so we do have a new um method of we will be using a new method to communicate with parents. We're going to be moving from Remind to something called parent square. and I'm gonna hand it over to Assistant Superintendent Bob and Gandhi. >> Thank you. Good evening board and the community members. So, just a quick u [clears throat] important update about our district's um move from Remind app um to Parents Square. So parents care has acquired Remind um beginning of last year and app will
012no longer be um supported and available after June 30th this year and because of this move uh we are transitioning to parent square as our uh official communication platform. So parent square will be used to used for district and school uh based messages, alerts, forums, important updates. Um and our timeline uh listed here is very clear. um from February through March we're focusing on just system configuration data verification um just awareness uh and a preparation for um the implementation and from April through June we'll provide training uh family support and a gradual roll out to help everyone get um comfortable with the new platform so for between May and June um both platforms will run so it's a sidebyside uh implementation so and [clears throat] July 1st parent squirrel will be the official uh primary
013communication tool school and remind app will no longer be u available for use and we'll provide step-by-step guidance um and support throughout schools through through uh through our schools PTAs [clears throat] school events and family and university to make this um transition as uh smooth as possible and for more information and uh activation uh in instructions will be uh shared in the upcoming months uh we'll also share that at the board meeting and families can also scan the QR code um to begin learning about parent square now and our goal is to keep um communication clear um simple and uh just reliable for everyone. So we'll continue to share the information as we move forward with this uh implementation and transition. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Gandhi. >> Just um what's the difference between
014parent square and remind? I'm not too familiar with parent square. So uh parent square does everything that remind us plus it has more features like uh attendance calls and uh uh parentage [clears throat] conferencing uh tool and everything is built into it. So it's the same kind of uh messaging tool two-way communication. Um again everything that rem has already built into parent square. So >> Okay. And also does uh um we're also going to be using parent square eventually for robocalls as well. So it'll be one platform for everything. Thank you. Thank you. So on January 31st, Ramapo High School hosted under the leadership of our athletic director, Ray Papalardi, uh the East Ramapo Community Day. It was a great day on Saturday. They played basketball all day long. I was there. was joined by
015um trustee uh Pierre Charles Pierre I do it all the time and trusty McGill as well. Great day. I learned a lot about basketball. Uh and uh we had our cheerleaders there. We had Bravapo High School play against um Spring Valley High School and we also played against uh other teams as well. So it was a great day. It was a great community day. the bleachers were full and uh was it was exciting and a little chilly I have to say. Yes. >> Yes. Yes. Um ju just just to add to that if I may. Um I showed up at 9:00 which was the first game and I was actually surprised to see how um packed the gym was. Uh we've been doing this for the past I want to say three four years now.
016And um I'm just happy to see how much it has grown over the years, how much the students enjoy it. Um even though Spring Valley took over that day and won almost every game um you know all the students at our student athletes from both sides Rampo and Spring Valley Pomona and Chestnut boys and girls um had a great time. Um I know you know the concession stands they sold out pretty much the entire day. Um so you know I hope this is something that we can continue. Um, I did make a recommendation that maybe moving forward we can probably present medals or something to the winning teams just, you know, to give them something to look forward to. Um, but I'm glad that you were able to come and see for yourself and um,
017yeah, >> it was a great day. >> Great day. Yes. >> Um, and also we have to say the East Ramapo marching band was there. That's right. Yes. They did a great job. Uh, kept us entertained. >> 160 students showed up. >> Yeah. Really was it was a great day. Um, and uh, so that was great. Yep. And we would also like to recognize our um Ramipo High School folks. So at Ramipo High School, we have science Olympiad Olympiad team and they represented our district at the regional level uh STEM competitions like science olympiad promote teamwork, critical thinking and real world problem solving. We do have a little video of um the two students um who participated and it's like can you just watch for a minute please structure the velocity and the time >>
018I'm going to try it again. Hi, my name is Davis and we go to Ram High School in ERCS. the structure, the velocity and the time it will take to get tension. And [music] such a great opportunity for our students to participate and to compete. I also want to uh recognize the staff advisors uh Miss Setche and Mr. Poacheo whose dedication makes opportunities like this possible for all of our students. So, thank you to them and congratulations to our students. And so this is our performing arts update. So, we want to just let you know that we've got a number of plays coming up and musicals as well. There's the schedule. And what is new and exciting is that there'll be no charge for parents and families or for community members. So, we want to
019encourage uh family members to come see your children, see your brothers and sisters or your neighbors. Um they work really hard to prepare for these uh wonderful um plays and musicals and they're really very good. So I I hope that the community will come and support our students. >> Uh one thing I want to add is that I have made the recommendations the past few years um if we can send out a K through 12 um robocall or invite to the other students especially K through 8. Um I think it's a great way for them to see what they can look forward to once they get into the middle school and high school. So if that's something that would could be done that would be awesome especially Thank you. >> Sure. >> Okay. Kindergarten registration.
020So, um please make sure if you have a kindergartener person who will be 5 years old on or before December 1st, 2026. Please make sure that they register for kindergarten, they can do so online. They can also stop by our central registration office uh right here in this building. So, uh, please make sure that you, your family, neighbors, if you know, um, do come in and register so that that child can be fully prepared for kindergarten in September. And now I'm going to pass the baton over to, uh, Eric Stark, who's going to provide us with budget updates. >> Thank you so much. So, this evening we're just going to have, uh, a short conversation regarding one side of the budget. So, as you know, we have um, two budgets that we create. Um the
021expenditure budget uh all of our spending is what will eventually be approved at the end of the process by the board of education to be put forth to the voters. Um tonight we're going to discuss the revenue budgeters um and um the um the revenue side will basically determine what we are able to spend. So, since the tax cap was put in place um a little over 10 years ago, um the revenue budget is set first because the uh on the budget vote day, uh the budget is also um or I'm sorry, excuse me, the tax levy is also being approved by the voters. So, um the uh since since the the tax cap legislation was put in place, um the district has the one of the first steps that the district has to uh
022do and um they have to submit a maximum allowable tax levy calculation to the controllers's office. That calculation has to be submitted on March 1st. Um I have a draft of that here. There's there's one piece that's uh missing. You'll see about twothirds of the way down this page. Um you have to reduce it by the pilots that are we're still still on the last one the the the pilots which are payments in lie of taxes. Uh we don't have the final calculations on those. We're expecting those from the town any day. When we get those that we will finalize this calculation. So um you basically are starting with last year's tax levy making the these modifications that are here. I'm not going to go through it step by step. Um, and then you um
023multiply it by the uh inflation rate which is capped at 2%. You take out exclusions from the previous year, you put them back in. Um, and being that the district did not increase the levy last year, there's something called carryover. So that is also included in this calculation. When we complete the calculation, except again the pilots um for the coming year have to be finalized. So this will change uh slightly. We're coming out with a maximum. Uh well, this is just the this is the the the cap at which you can set the tax levy and how much you can increase it. The cap in this particular situation with our um with our use of the formula comes out to a maximum increase of 5.05%. Or excuse me, 8,219,000. That is not to say that
024that is what we are proposing to you. This is just the calculation that we have to uh provide to the state. Okay. Now we can move on to >> Is this on Bordox? >> I'm sorry. >> Was this posted on Bordox? >> It is now. >> No, it's not. This is it's still a draft. We'll have when um I it must be submitted by March 1st. You will see the the the final draft or the the final submission that goes to the controllers's office um at our next meeting. Hopefully, we'll have all that pilot information. This is just this is just the maximum >> the maximum that that the district would be allowed to do for for a budget vote. We're not doing that. Okay. So, moving on. >> Just out of curiosity, what was
025the max tax cap last year? 4.38. What was last year? >> What was last year? Do you remember the tax cap? >> The the maximum that we had last year it was um >> it was No, it was in it was it was somewhere in around two and a half. No, because the year before there was no carryover because of the increase the year before. So there was no carryover last year. So it was uh in the mid twos. >> Okay. So um the next step in looking at the revenue budget for the year moving forward is uh the New York state um state aid that we receive. Um a few weeks ago the executive branch or the governor's office released its aid runs and um we have uh a summary of the aid runs
026here. Um you have three columns here. A look at the audited actual revenues from the 2425 year. We have a projection for the year end this year of uh 20 2526. Um so you can see that we're projecting that this year the aid at the end of the year will be approximately 175 million 322 versus the actual of 151986 287. If you recall during the budget process last year we showed you and explained that the district had received a large increase in foundation aid. Um so you see that increase there. In terms of the executive proposal, you'll you'll notice that um we we are looking at um a little bit of an increase uh to foundation aid. The foundation aid that we have here of 114 million is probably a little bit high because it's
027based upon our beds day enrollment. And foundation aid is a um an an aid that is based upon a formula. and the formula used our uh our student population on beds day in October. Our population has gone down which means that there will likely be a decrease in the amount that we actually receive. So we have um adjusted the foundation aid in the in the executive proposal down by 2 million. Um we go through all the other categories. Another uh area that you uh need to be aware of is that our transportation aid is listed at 47 million but our expenditures will be higher this year as than expected. So we will it's that is an expense driven aid. So we will receive more trans transportation aid uh both in the current year and in
028the projection for next year. Those calculations are not in there. So, we have uh worked with our uh state aid consultant to get a an estimate as to what our transportation aid will be. Put them all together, we're looking at uh an aid, a total aid package of approximately just under 186 million and uh that's an increase of overall of about 10 million little $10.5 million. Okay, moving on to uh we then take that number. If you see the 1859 936 and we're going to see that in the revenue budget that we have put before you, if you look in the 2627 column, you'll see that the New York State aid number that we're projecting there is the same as what was on the the bottom of the page prior, uh million 936. Um, in
029terms of property tax, you will notice that we did not look to increase the tax levy by the 5.06%. Um, in this first draft that we're uh providing you, we're looking at uh a number under 2%. We've used uh again, this is a draft. It is not a proposal right now. This is just a draft. We're looking at 1.9% increase, which would amount to a three uh million dollar increase in the tax levy, bringing it from 1627 to approximately 1659. we uh look at all the other areas and uh bring all of those totals down to the bottom. Uh and we're looking at an overall uh budget of 370,788 769. So that would be the baseline for our beginning conversations about an expenditure budget and we will be uh bringing that forth um to you
030at the next meeting. >> Even even with losing that many students the budget has gone up with u $25 million. So the well when we when we get into the expenditure side you'll we'll see and we'll be also be talking about um some other items that are on tonight's agenda. We have a very large increase in the current year um uh in transportation expenses which came about because of uh bids that we had uh we talked about this at the end of the school year last year. we knew that we would be over and we're going to be looking at a transfer to increase this year's budget because that increase was so large. So, >> when when we when we get everything together, you'll see the comparisons. Um and but yes, overall we are looking
031>> are we not going to get reimbur reimbured more because of our transportation because I believe that 75% of transportation is reimbured by the state. I understand it won't happen this year. They are back two years, but that shouldn't raise the budget that much, >> right? Well, and I mentioned that when I had the aid when I had the aid run up, we there is a there is a there is an increase in the transportation aid that will be coming along with with with some of those increases. So, when we have the whole picture, you you we'll we'll be able to to point all of those things out. Um so, again, uh moving on to the next one. Uh just want to um that we have a graphical representation of the uh full value tax
032rate of all of the school districts in Rockland County. Um we know that there is uh that that there is concern about um the taxes and taxes going up. Uh but we wanted to be able to show you the the full value tax rate in all of the different school districts in um Rockland County. So this this is a graph that shows 25 years worth of that data. Uh what you'll see that the the the line for East Ramapo you see in the legend is the red line and you can see that in the year 2000 the full value tax rate in the East Ramapo Central School District was right in the middle. um in the center of all of the amounts uh of the school districts within the county, you see that it was
033right around um 20 um and then over the years um the full value tax rate uh in the East Ramo Central School District has continued to go down um and now it is uh below that of the other school districts. So I have a chart on the next slide that shows the actual full value tax rates of every school district in Rockland County over the 25-y year period. So if you look at the co the column for East Ramapo, you'll see that um in the year 2000, the full value tax rate, which is per thousand of assessed value, was $209. um in the year 2025 um that has gone down to $945. In that same time um you'll see that the u the full value tax rate in other districts has um not uh decreased
034at the same rate. So So it's a combination of the assessments going up and the amount of taxes that are being collected. It's a combination of those two factors. Yes. Okay. And so that that's really uh just a a quick conversation about the revenue side. When we get to our next meeting, we will start talking about how that revenue uh is there to uh provide for the expenditures and we will be going through the expenditure side of the budget at our next meeting. Again, just a reminder in terms of the budget vote, that day this year is on uh May 19th. We will have an official hearing of our adopted budget um on May 6th for anybody that is interested in um putting in a petition uh to be a candidate um for wards 3,
035five, and eight. Those are due to the district clerk. correct by Monday, April 20th at 5:00 pm. So, um these are all the key dates here. Um they are available on our website as well. Um and that concludes the budget update for this evening. >> Thank you, Eric. >> Very well. >> Thank you, Mr. Stark. Now, >> now I'd like to pass it along to our student board member, Anderson Alakone. Good evening. My name is Anderson Alcon and I'm a senior at Rampo High School. Our school library is supposed to be a comfortable place for students and teachers to learn, but its current condition makes that difficult. The chairs are extremely outdated and worn down, creating a safety risk. And the tables have been repaired multiple times yet continue to fall apart. And the floors
036are severely damaged as well, which is dangerous for anyone using the library. The tiles are coming off the floor which have to be covered in in order to avoid any injuries. On top of that, the temperature is never comfortable making it hard to focus or spend long periods of time studying. It is it is always either too cold or too hot. These issues need to be addressed to promote a healthy and safe learning environment. The library also lacks working equipment and enough technology. The printer does not work, preventing students and teachers from printing important materials and fully using library resources. There are also not enough computers which limits students abilities to complete assignments and conduct research. Because of these issues, our library is no longer able to meet the needs of the school community. Increased
037funding is necessary to repair to repair the building, replace broken furniture, and provide updated technology so the library can once again be as useful can be useful and safe. It is important to that our librarian, Miss Hernandez, gets the support that she deserves. I would also like to recognize our school adviser, Miss Babunt, who first brought these concerns to my attention because of how deeply she cares about students safety and learning. Her commitment to advocating for students is the reason issues like this are being addressed, and it shows how dedicated she is to making Rampo a better environment for everybody. While issues within our school deserve attention, there are also larger concerns beyond our library that affect the safety of and well-being of our community. As some of you may have heard, both Rampo High
038School and Spring Valley High School are organizing peaceful assemblies to speak against ICE tomorrow during school. Organizing something like this can definitely be scary to think about. But as a representative of the students, it is important that I listen to the students and show them that they deserve to spread their message and the voices that that were given to them. This assembly is going to take place during school during school hours tomorrow afternoon. After meeting with admin, they were able to discuss with us some of the safer alternatives to make our voices heard. To that end, we are thankful to Miss Cooper, Mr. Carton, and Mr. Foreman, and the other members of the admin team, as well as our class adviserss. We encourage students to participate by creating posters and bringing their flags in order
039to make the their voices heard. Not only can we speak on the issue, but we can also have fun while doing so. The district has already assured us that the police department and staff members will be to maintain the safety of our students at all times. Regardless of the amount of support that we receive tomorrow, I am proud of the students who are using their voice for good. Thank you to all the members here who support our choice and and who support our choices and wish us the best of luck tomorrow. >> Thank you. And I do want to just say thank you to Tom Carton uh for his help, his leadership in making sure that we're communicating with the police and with the uh leadership in the buildings to help keep students safe. Thank
040you for all that you do, Tom. And and now we uh we would like to move towards our student outcome section. We have three presenters tonight. Uh they are leaders in our district. We have executive director Paul Leoan, executive director Ellen Andreello, and director of mathematics Kelly Gillan. Welcome and thank you for presenting. >> Um good evening. My name is Kelly Gillan and I'm the secondary director of mathematics. Um, tonight I'm going to share with you some of our I Ready data. Before I do that, I just want to go over our I Ready program. Our I Ready program has two components. There is a diagnostic assessment which is a benchmark test that student takes three times a year. They take that in September, January, and in June. The second component of this program is
041a personalized instruction pathway that is created for every student based on their diagnostic score. This program provides actionable data that informs instruction decisions that are being made for teachers and leaders. And this program also supports our ongoing progress monitoring for our teachers, administrators, students, and families. The first data set that we're going to dive into is our reading data. Um, up on the screen, you will see our reading data um across the whole district. Students in grades six, seven, and eight take this diagnostic. And this is how they fell in the fall versus the winter. So, the beginning year diagnostic versus the middle of the year. As you can see, I I want to highlight um on for each data set, I'm going to highlight a few um important growth measures. So, our students went
042from being 8% on grade level to 10% on grade level. That was a 2% increase in reading. The next slide we're going to stay with our reading data, but this is disagregated by grade level. So you'll see data for sixth grade, seventh grade, and eighth grade. Some of the data highlights here when you're looking at sixth grade, our sixth grade students went from 6% on grade level to 10% on grade level. And our eighth grade students went from being 8% on grade level in reading to 12%. And that is a 4% increase for those grades. Now I'm going to shift to the math diagnostic placement data. Um again this data is for the district data that's grades six, seven and eight included in this data set. And I would like to highlight that in the
043beginning of the year 6% of our students grades six, seven, and eight were on grade level. And in the middle of the year from September to January was 13%. So that's more than double the amount of students on grade level. But what I really want to highlight is the students the subgroup that is dark red that represents students who are three or more grade levels below and that actually went down 8%. So that is really great growth effort um when we're looking at our growth measure for first to second diagnostic. This next data set is still math data but by grade level. So you can look between sixth, seventh and eighth grade. And some of the highlights here, grade six went from being um 5% on grade level to 13% on grade level. And grade
044seven went from 6% to 10%. Grade eight went from 4% to 12%. That is an 8% increase. But what I really would like to highlight is in grade six, our students that were three or more grade levels below went from 58% to 42, which is a 16% um decrease, which is huge. >> I'm sorry, not not to cut you off. Um the numbers that you are sharing with us, I don't see it on um our screen. Was it cut off or >> um >> it's >> Oh, so Oh, so when you're adding them up, so see how the little green dark green it's so little that they can't put like a 1% in the data capture. So the little So for sixth grade, like sixth grade, 5% that little portion was three was two. So
045two plus the 11 made the 13%. >> Is that like that little portion on top of the 11? Is that What? You're >> So the dark green on the top is 2%. >> Yeah, but it because it's so little and they can't um when we pulled the data from the platform, it doesn't actually put the little two in there. >> So I'm sorry, the dark green for fall is what >> for the sixth grade was 2% plus the 11 made on grade level 13%. >> What's the dark green for winter? >> No, I'm sorry. For sixth grade, there was no dark green for fall. It's just for winter. That little dark green section. >> Why is seventh grade so flat? >> No. No. >> Six and eight had increased and seven is >> flat on
046both math and reading. >> Yeah, absolutely. So, there's a number of variables why that data could present that way. Um it might be that there were some students in the fall data capture that maybe were absent during the winter data capture. um we're going to dive deeper during PLC's and with our department meetings to look at what actually is happening as we look at different subgroups um in grade seven. But absolutely so the second component of I Ready that I would like to speak about is the personalized instruction. Um and this component of I Ready um the platform the program creates a personalized instruction pathway for every single student individualized to where that student places. Um and this data the data you see on the screen here is how long students are spending on average
047per week for math and reading on their individ program. So this is um time on task when students are working on closing those gaps and skills. The numbers on top of the blue bars are the minutes and then on the bottom you'll see average% of lessons passed. Um and for for all grades that's the good evening board members, community, executive cabinet. My name is Ellen Andreello, executive director for elementary schools. We're going to go over some Renaissance Star assessments. Uh you're about to see the winter outcomes. We have three cycles during the year. We have fall, winter, and spring. K12, it their assessments. They're computer adaptive and they track student growth over time across the K through 12 uh grade levels. They measure standards aligned and it's predictive. STAR provides actionable data to inform classroom
048instruction. So this helps the teachers move in the direction they need to for the students. For Star, you'll see Star Early Literacy, which measures foundational skills for beginning readers, FMIC awareness, phonics, print concepts, and early comprehension. They're learning to read on those primary levels. STAR reading assessment. They assess students ability to understand text, infer meaning, and apply literacy skills. So reading to learn star math measures mathematical reasoning, computation and problem solving skills. And one thing I just want to remember uh to point out before we go into the data, it's important to remember uh for this is the first year for our implementation of our core reading program which is American Reading Company [snorts] and this is for GA grades K through five for monolingual and special ed. And also this is the second year
049for our bilingual students. And as with any largecale curriculum roll out, we are simultaneously strengthening instructional routines, fidelity, and data to instruction practices across classrooms. So as you could see on the screen here, this is our early literacy. This is kindergarten only. When they come in, they take the star early literacy. they're learning to read. So, we present the fall. The percentage is students that are testing at or above their grade level. You'll see fall and winter. And we also have we also have um K there's students that take it in English and also Spanish. For our bilingual classes, we have a high population of our multilingual learners. So you'll see these scores for English and Spanish which shows the strengths and skills in both home language and as the students are learning English. And
050it it's also very important to note that our early literacy tests in for kindergarten, the goal is to transition a kindergarten student by the end of their school year into star reading, which is where they'll be when they get get into first grade. And when they take star reading, it's a different it's a different test. So, it's testing more of their comprehension as they move forward. Down at the bottom are some expend expected benchmarks per cycle for the English and the Spanish for the fall, winter, and spring. And as you could see, we have some uh additional work to do. But with our additions of many of these new core curriculums and interventions, this will help us to accelerate the growth for the students. Okay. Now you'll see the star reading. These are scores for
051grades one through eight. These are students that score at their their grade level and above. These are all of our primary buildings, our intermediate, which is three through six, and our secondary buildings. And as you could see, you'll see the fall 2025 ben uh benchmark assessment and the winter and the percent change performance from one cycle to another. What do you attribute these big swings as some of them increased by 20% and then some of them decrease by 20%. >> Right? There's a varying performance uh that you'll see on the screen there's some downward and uh for some of the primary buildings I will point out sometimes when the first graders come in they're still gaining that learning to read and they're still positioning themselves taking the star early literacy to fill in those gaps
052that still exist before they transfer over into the reading. And you'll see by the amount of students that test in the fall, the score uh the number right below the percentage is the amount of students we test. So it did go up. If you look at Fleetwood for for instance or if you look at Hemstead, the numbers do go up from 197 to 220. They happen to have a really positive growth of 19.7. So more students were taking the star reading in the the second uh cycle which is the winter. Another thing to note here is Spring Valley. They tested the same am about the same amount of students from one cycle to another and they had a pretty big jump which was 22 points for the students that did take the test that scored
053in the levels of three and four which is at and above grade level reading. Now my colleague will talk about star math. >> Uh good evening honorable uh board members, executive cabinet, uh state monitors and community. Uh unlike the the reading, the math shows consistent positive growth across nearly all of our schools, indicating uh stronger instructional momentum and more uniform implementation of math supports uh across the district. Uh as you'll see, um Ramo High School, Spring Valley, Kiat, Pomona, and Limekill all had, uh double-digit increases from fall to winter. and uh Pomona. I' also I'd like to uh special note about Margette, Summit Park, um Elmwood, Fleetwood, Grand View, Hemstead, and Elorado also show steady gains indicating improvement across foundational math skills. So, uh unlike the reading which was a a little different, the math
054across all of our schools uh showed significant improvement. uh the alignment of curriculum pacing inter and and inter interventions appears to be having a measure me measurable impact. Uh schools with the largest gains provide models for sustaining and accelerating progress and the focus now shifts to maintaining growth and supporting consistency as we move toward the spring assessments. So overall uh math represents a bright spot this winter. Our next step is to stabilize these gains and push more students into levels three and four by year's end. Okay. So, where are we now and where are we going? As you can see, there's a number of bullets of efforts and um things that we put in place this year. Uh adding building level instructional coordinators in MLE and literacy and in math, which was really helpful. boots
055on the ground. Uh content directors for our secondary 7 through 12. There's one for ELA, one for math, one for social studies, one for science, professional development, huge investments in that. And coaching for ARC, which is our new core reading program and Wilson Foundations, which will help to, you know, close the gaps for those early uh students that are learning to read, and Carnegie learning. This year we're going through a math audit and we'll find out more information about some additional pathways we can take with curriculum for math. And as always at the end of every year, we're always eval evaluating the programs that we currently have in place. Is it working? If it's not, where do we go need to go and fix it? And you know the most important thing is um we're
056definitely at the implementation stage which is establishing consistency and rebuilding foundational systems and we are seeing some upward movement. The expectation moving forward is acceleration. That means increasing the rate of growth, ensuring stronger tier one instruction in every classroom and holding ourselves accountable at building level with building level leadership to have an impact on student outcomes. Again, I just want to say implementation builds the foundation and acceleration drives the results. And the next slide is um this is a slide that we shared back in November when we we uh presented the ARC and the Wilson data and it's how families can help at home. There's some bullets on here that um that the community and everybody can take a look at. It's just getting involved with your student asking questions. what's their power reading goal
057and for math doing some everyday math problems pointing out numbers for them but just also to celebrate the progress for their students when they when their children come home ask them many many questions they'll be they'll be able to talk to it so thank you very much for your time >> thank you good job >> I'm sorry I just if um questions um going back to I think the slide before this Um I have noticed the past few board meetings that we are still adding point 2s um at both I believe at both high schools. How effective is this really when we still lack teachers in the classrooms? >> Take it. So, uh, the point 2's the point 2 assignments that we're adding on board meetings. >> Correct. >> Okay. So, those are >> that's
058that's because there's vacancies. Correct. >> So, I'm sorry. So, what are we doing about the vacancies that we have? >> Um, to be honest, in all of our buildings um because like I said, >> adding this is great, the different positions that we have. Um but if we don't have teachers in the classroom to actually teach, if there's no consistency with teachers, um how is it that our students are really learning um what they need to learn to be successful with these exams assessments? >> Sure. >> So the point 2s are at the secondary level. Um those would be for grades 7 through 12 and those uh programs are departmentalized. So um the teachers contract and this is typical for teacher uh contracts in the region allows a teacher to teach five classes even though
059they may have eight periods in a day say. So a point two is when we um we we make every effort to say let's say we have a math vacancy that would be five classes uh we would take five different math teachers and give them an additional assignment. So instead of teaching five classes they each teach six. So for the most part the the point twos are filled with people who are certified in that area. >> So let me let me ask the question a little different. >> Okay. >> I know what the point 2 means. >> What are we doing to make to what are we doing to fill the vacancies so we not are not relying on points? >> Sure. So to fill a vacancy we've been every vacancy we have we post
060constantly for but it is very difficult to get highly qualified folks normally at this time of year. Normally the uh vacancies are filled with a September start date. A lot of people are hesitant to leave their current positions. They usually are comfortable leaving at the end of a school year. So our um postings um Mr. Kravitz we are constantly posting for our vacancies. and constantly reviewing. >> Correct. In addition, we are just about getting into our hiring season. Um, now that the budget will soon be complete, our job fairs start. I think our first job fair is March 5th. So, we now start the the whole job fair cycle and that that's coming up. So, which we're excited to be, you know, >> but we also have been losing a lot of teachers throughout the
061year, too. I mean, every every uh board meeting there's either a resignation or a retirement. And >> I think it's also has to do with the environment of what's going on in our district. Um to be honest, so like I said, if the if if there's not a positive environment in the district, first of all, we can expect to find teachers who are qualified, and we can't also expect to keep teachers who are qualified to stay here. So that's why I'm asking what is it that we're doing when it comes to filling these vacancies to make sure that okay we have all these um instruction in instructional coordinators and directors in place so that they can actually we can actually close that gap for it to be effective. Um the next my my next thing
062um which is the next slide which has to do with how can families help at home. I know I had brought up at um one of our board meetings. What are we doing as a district to provide afterchool programs for our students K through six um to help? I know we've had pro different programs in the past. Um I haven't heard any update. I know the MLK center had received a grant and um as of today they still haven't started yet. What is do we have an update on that? Will there be any afterchool programs for K through six? I mean, it's February. School will be over in a few months. Um, how are we helping as a district besides what we're asking the families to do at home? >> Sure. So, we will have
063an update for you for the next board meeting on our after school programs. >> Thank you folks. >> So, currently there's no >> Can I ask a question? Can I ask a few questions? >> Sure. So, um, the slide about early literacy, I just want to talk about the urgency for a minute because I didn't hear it in the presentation. There's a serious urgency. You have about 80% of your students in this district, not one year behind, but three years behind. And that's serious. That's an urgency that needs I think needs to be made public. I know you may not have all the solutions, but even your youngest students in the district are nowhere near the benchmark. It's the middle of the year and they haven't even met the benchmark for the beginning of the
064year, >> right? So acceleration needs to be >> emphasized however way you want to define it. But to have 80% of your children two and three years behind, no point two, no after school is going to solve a problem that big. Something else is fundamentally needs to be examined when you have that many kids. The other thing that I wanted to say is that >> have you guys seen what's different between the schools that you identified that are doing better than average versus the schools that are doing below the average? What's different about those schools? Have you been able to tell that yet? And if so, I think that would be interesting to understand how despite all the odds, they're still able to rise above the district average, although the district average is pretty low.
065And then finally, the recommendations are fine, but the recommendations quite honestly are for the little kids, >> right? Asking them what they read today, yeah, >> is not going to help somebody pass these tests, especially at sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, >> and as they go further, >> great. Right. So if maybe we could modify those recommendations to address what families or the community could do >> for the older kids, right? But I if I say nothing else, the urgency here is real. 80% of your children are multiple years behind. And and if it's sad to say, it's bad to say, but that's realistic. So as monitor getting ready to receive your budget, I hope that somewhere in the budget it reflects how you're going to address that. >> Absolutely. >> Right. And >> thank you
066Dr. Jala for the Go ahead. >> Thank you Dr. Jala for the questions. >> We will what we're doing as a team is looking at this data and working with the building principles and we will have a better answer a more deeper answer about this information particularly as it impacts um our other subgroups. We do see the urgency in addressing this need and we're reflect we're going to be very conscious about reflecting that um in our budget. >> Thank you Dr. Jalo and thank you team and as second as Dr. Jala said like we're we're doing minor minor increases but we're still far from where where we need to be. So thank you for bringing up the urgency Dr. Jala and thank you for your help and advice uh throughout the year. Um, thank you
067all. That concludes the superintendent's report. We will now move on to consent and agenda items. Before we move on to consent and agenda items, are there any items that any board members would like to have removed so we can move to action items? Hearing none, I will now make a motion for items 1 through 7. Do I have a second? >> Second by Mr. Cth. All those in favor say I. Any. And on oppose abstain. Motion carries. Moving on to action items 1 through 15. Do I have a motion for action items 1 through 15? Moved by Mr. Federer. Do I have a second? Second by Mr. Moses Cth. We'll open it up for discussion. >> Item number eight. >> Reject the children nutrition consulting services. Anybody want to chime in on that? What made
068this company think that they are a child nutrition company? It looks like more as a staffing company. >> That's correct. We we we are rejecting the RFP and reissuing it. So, there was only one response. Um that response came from a a consulting firm that did not specialize, [clears throat] excuse me, in child nutrition consulting services. So, we are rejecting the RFP or we're asking the board to reject the RFP so that we can reissue it um in the hopes of getting a better response. >> Item number nine, why was this company chosen when they weren't the cheapest >> I'm sorry. >> Item number nine, the pest pest control company. >> The pest control, >> correct? They were not the cheapest. Why would they chosen rather than be? >> So the the recommendation was made
069um the there there are there are several different um pieces within the bid. Um and although um they I'm not uh there was there was one uh other um a bid I believe that was lower than the than the the one that uh was being recommended to you. Um that was a company that has worked for the district before. The references on the other company that that came back that had a lower amount for the uh the monthly service but also had higher numbers for some of the other services. Um the recommendation I'm sorry the references uh did not come back good. >> Uh question number 12. I think if I heard correctly um it was stated that we overbudgeted for transportation >> under under >> under. >> Oh under. >> Okay. So is that
070why we're doing the transfer for the unassigned to the general? >> That's correct. >> For the increased transportation cost. Um, number 13, I noticed that uh this grant agreement was received by the district or awarded to the district on December 10th. Um, we are now in February. It's actually February 10th, two month uh two months ago. Um, there's a deadline here that stated that this agreement must be reviewed and signed by an authorized officer of the grantee and returned to the food bank by Wednesday, December 17th. Is there a reason why this is just now being presented to the board for approval? >> I don't have spec I don't have the specific information um for that question, but um and unfortunately um Dr. Um Shanahan >> Shanahan is not here this evening, but we could
071ask that question. And um >> so do we do we even know if this is still available to us? >> I believe that it is. But Mr. Stark, could you could you u weigh in on this one? This is the donation to us. The question is >> seems like the agreement must be reviewed. Uh it was supposed to be reviewed and returned by December 17, 2025. [music] We are now in February. So my question is why is this now being uh presented to the board to be approved? And also do we still is this still available to us um as a district. So it >> I mean >> Lieutenant Rusco asked if if I I don't >> Do you do Yeah, because only because it's a contract and it has that deadline and it's a
072donation. Do you if just weigh in if you had an opinion, but if not, we would have to look into it and I would um need to speak with Douglas, our attorney, to see if there is a problem. >> So should we I I think we can vote to accept it and if we have any issues, we can >> we won't get it. Exactly. [snorts] >> So the the RFP for child nutrition consultant was uh put out to get help in terms of a couple of things. Number uh we've had questions about looking at um the food that is actually served. conversations to help us with the contractor that we have in terms of menu items, um meal composition, so on and so forth. Um, in addition to that, the RFP is asking for a
073company that will help us to look at um, possibly changing the way that our contract reads and uh, doing a new bid uh, for the potential of uh, rebidding the food service contracts out with different um, criteria >> that could potentially help us to um, have improvements in the Isn't Isn't Isn't the food uh something that there's a menu required? I understand. >> Isn't it dictated by the state? I think >> but the nutrition is is required by the federal government, isn't it? >> So that there are certain aspects that if you are a part of the federal program, which we are, where you get the reimbursement of the federal meal program and the state meal program that you have to follow certain guidelines. Yes. So those guidelines must be followed. But um there are
074definitely um some companies out there. There was actually a company that was in the news um a couple of weeks ago that had some districts in various different parts of the country um that were still following um the federal guidelines and um changing things around in such a way that the students um I saw I saw happened to see this on on the news one night where the children were just glowing about um the food that was being served even within the the the limitations of what? >> So maybe he should come here. Maybe he can come here to our district. >> We're we're looking to see if there is a way that we can um stay within those guidelines, which we have to do because we're part of the reimbursement program, but um do
075a better job for our students. >> By the way, did we change the milk to regular milk? >> Would you know that? >> Not I'm not aware of that. I can find out. >> The federal government did change the policy about >> the low fat. >> They they went away from the nonfat to 50%. >> We'll follow the federal regulations. >> Did we change it? >> I don't know. >> I I have to double check on that. Get back to you. >> Okay. >> I have uh one last question for the last item about the nursing services. Um if I understand it correctly, it's saying that um the association agrees to permit the board and the district to contract out for nursing services. Uh back in September, the board did approve Pearl Pearl Care Nursing
076Services um to do exactly that. So what exactly is the purpose of this uh MOA? So the purpose of this MOA is to basically when we utilize agencies or outside services um instead of um particular positions within bargaining units, the bargaining unit gives permission for us to do that and on a one-year basis or this year basis. So this what this is saying is that the nurses bargaining unit recognizes that we can't fill all of our nursing positions, particularly with some of our non-public um nurses that that we need. And so as a result that we use agency nurses and this is them saying yes, we are in agreement to utilize um to utilize the agency nurses as well. That's what that is. >> So are we still um are we still doing services with
077Pearl Care? Because I know the the agreement was from July 1st, 2025 to June 30th, 2026. Isn't that the reason why we agreed approved this agreement their agreement? September 29th, 2025, we approve Pearl Care Search Group, which is a school nursing service. The agreement is from July 1st, 2025 to 2026. Isn't Wasn't the purpose of this agreement to fulfill what you just said with the MOA that we're approving? It it was so >> and I guess second question is are we still is Pearl Care still providing services to the district? >> Yes. >> So is that is the MOA I'm just trying to figure out the purpose of the MOA for tonight if we already have a search group doing the work. >> Correct. The MOA is is the bargaining unit saying yes we agree
078to you doing the work. Typically these are done you know every every year on a yearly basis with with units and it could have happened before it should have happened should happen every year that we use >> so this should have happened before we even approved the proare is that what you're saying or >> before we used it >> right >> so have we used it yet >> it didn't it it's not a violation in terms of um you the board. We had an RFP. The board uh awarded them the RFP and the board um approved the contract. So, we could pay them and we could use it. It's just whether or not the union would um would object. So, um should this have been uh you know um approved in advance so that the
079union says yes, you know, we've agreed to it all along, all year, it should have been, but it wasn't. But they're not objecting. They could have objected, but they didn't object. And now we're just put that in writing with a memorandum of understanding >> and that should be done every year prior to >> yeah it should be anytime that we want to we should be going to the unions and saying we would like to have this memorandum of understanding for the entire year that if we cannot hire a nurse or we have it for speech for example we often get them for OTPT that we could um um you know hire agencies to um consultants to provide the work. Do we know how many vacancies we have as of >> I don't know how many
080nurses >> right right now I spoke to Miss Tatab this morning she has three current vacancies she's interviewing three people this week so she's helpful that all three land and if not then we'll utilize the the agency nurses for those. >> Thank you. >> Okay we have a motion and a second for items 1 through 15. All those in favor say I. I oppose abstain. Motion carries. Information reports to the board. Serena, would you like to report anything? Uh, okay. Future meeting dates, uh, special meeting and budget workshop is scheduled for February 24th, 2026. The special meeting is scheduled for February 26, 2026. And the regular meeting is scheduled for March 10, 2026. The February 24th and 2020 2026 and March 10, 2026 meetings begin at 7:30 p.m. The February 26, 2026 meeting begins at
0817 p.m. All meetings are in the PLC room in the administration building 105 South Madison Navi Spring Valley, New York. Written communications the last board meeting. The board received a letter from Pekto on behalf of OPE empowered parent organization regarding the superintendent search. We do not have executive session tonight. I'll now make a motion to adjourn the session. I have a second. Second by by Sabrina Charles Pier. All those in favor say I. Anyone want to pause? Motion carries. Thank you all. Have a good night. >> Thank you. Good night. What time is it? 51 minutes late.