ERCSD - Regular Board Meeting 10-21-2025 @ SVHS

001Hey, good evening everyone. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge of pledge of allegiance. [Music] Please remain standing as the superintendent will do present. Join me as I read a resolution for Richard Coats who was a security officer here in our district beloved by many resolution and then present it to the family who's here. After that I'd like you to join me in a moment of silence for him. resolution of respect for Mr. Richards. The board of education and superintendent of the East Ramo Central School District submits this resolution of respect. Be it known to all, the East Ramo Central School District recognizes Spring Valley res. He served with professionalism, integrity, and compassion. He fulfilled his duties with a calm presence and unwavering commitment. maintaining a safe and welcoming

002environment for students, staff, and visitors alike. Mr. Oats exemplified the very best qualities of a security professional and a trusted member of the school community. And whereas Mr. Oats was a dedicated and integral member of the East Ramo Central School District security team for 26 years at Ramo High School. And whereas Mr. Oats performed his duties as the security guard with diligence and often serving as the first friendly face to greet students each morning as they enter the building. Affectionately known by staff and students as the gentle giant, he was a steadfast presence at school events and a beloved figure at high school football games. Remembered fondly by three generations of the Ram High School family and as whereas beyond this service to the district, Mr. lived his life with warmth, joy, and enthusiasm. He

003was a true foodie, a delightful companion, and an avid traveler, especially to Jamaica, a place that held a special place in his heart. A devoted New York sports fan, he cheered for Giants and proudly wore his signature Yankees cap. Whether sharing a meal, a laugh, or a game with friends and family, he cherished every moment spent with those he loved. And whereas Mr. Richard Oats was an extraordinary son, brother, cousin, and uncle. And now, therefore, the board of education resolves as follows. We declare our deepest sympathies to your family. We pray that power and strength will reside with your family and that love will continue to warm your hearts as you mourn the loss. And a moment of silence shall be observed during the public board meeting on October 21st, 2025 in recognition of Mr.

004Oat's remarkable service and positive impact on the East Ramapo school community. And a copy of this resolution shall be presented to the family of Mr. oats from the East Ramapo Central School District with an additional copy preserved in the district's official archives. I ask you to join me in a moment of silence. And now I know that his sister Sandra Oats, an employee in our district, as well as his parents are here. So, it's my honor to present this resolution to you. [Applause] Okay. Thank you and good evening everyone. Fire exits are located in the sides of the room in the front and back. In the event of a fire, you will hear a fire alarm at that time. Please move in a calm and orderly fashion to the nearest exit. We will now move

005on to public speaking. I have a motion to open the floor for public speaking. >> Move by Vice President McIll. Second, Mr. Rivera. All in favor say I. And on oppose of stay. Motion carries. Speaker number one. Hi, my name is Hazel Garcia Mendes and I am in fifth grade. I go to Lancome Intermediate School and I'm here to talk about the morning announcements. One day I was in class when my one of my my students said to me, I wish that they would call three or two students every every week from each class so they could go do the morning announcements or the pledge of allegiance. That's when I froze and I started to think, what if I finally went to the principal's office and I asked her if she could do that? I

006was too nervous to go, but then I realized that I wanted to be with my like my sister Maria, principal of Rambo High School. Then I finally came here and wanted to speak to you guys without being nervous. I I hope that you guys think about it and go to every intermediate or elementary school and pick each class every week and let three students go up to the speaker in the office and let them do the pledge of allegiance or the morning announcements. I did that in all of all of my other uh schools and I had so much fun. I always wanted to do that in this school but I was too nervous to speak to my principal, Miss Dobson. Thank you for your time. [Applause] >> Thank you. That was great. You had

007nothing to be nervous about. It's fantastic. Speaker number two. Can you guys maybe test it before we start? Translate us, please. Need to speak up a bit, sir. We hear you, but it's very quiet. But if you can move up, I think the status will stop. Okay. [Music] Gambia. Soch. Puntoche. Foref Um, [Applause] Thank you. Speaker number three. Buenosa High School. [Music] High School. control. High School. Thank you. Speaker number four. Amanda Gonzalez. particip. Gracias. Jennifer, [Music] particip Marching Thank you. Speaker number five, >> Spanish. responds. for [Music] represent. Thank you. Speaker number six. Hello everyone. I want to share my experience from this weekend's marching band competition at Metife Stadium. It was unforgettable experience over a hund of us and we're grateful to our supporting parents and directors and Miss Sabrina. We love you

008and especially my mom who has been dedicating to our band family for four years. She's always have been there for us and we're lucky to have her from acting like Santa Claus by buying things for other kids. Thank you, mom, for being an amazing supporter and role model. We appreciate all the parents who volunteer and make a difference in our lives to the point where in the marching band calls my mom an auntie or the best. These are the experience that will treasure forever and I hope no one attacks what we love. Music is life. Thank you Mr. Smith. Go clarinets, Chase, Dina, Haley, Ky, and Emanuel. I'm sort of proud to be your section leader and I'm so proud of your dedication. Thank you. >> Thank you. Speaker number seven. Fore Seech. [Music] OP.

009blah blah blah blah blah. Gracias. Thank you. Speaker number eight. Hello everyone. Um, so I want to start off saying something. So I'm an alumni and personally I had Mr. Rich as my security guard. He was not just a security guard. He was a guardian and he always pecked on me because I was so little and he was so tall. But he always made sure that every kid went to their classroom and they were safe. And if he saw someone sad, he made a joke. He made a joke. He moved you around. You want me to tickle you? And obviously he didn't. But it was funny. Everyone just went to class and in a safe manner. So thank you so much for raising an amazing man and guardian for us. Now um as my fellow

010parents and daughters spoke about the marching band, they had an great experience. um one of a kind. So many of these kids having gone to the Met Life to perform and only 60 bands were able to make it in. So that makes like if you think about it, 60 bands were incredible and we were able to see a college band which was amazing and we have some marching band kids here and thank you Alex for being the most amazing drum major ever. So, thank you so much and thank you to the rest of the students here, new and been here for a while. But also like this said, we do so many things for the kids as parents. We come from a lowinccome community and we go beyond. We put out our pockets and all

011for the hope that our kids have the best time. And it shows for a home competition. The kids were so happy because not only Sabrina, Miss Mcigill, and Mr. And that is where they're taking videos like if they were also a parent. Proud parents. I love that. I saw you guys like recording like this. It was so cool. Um and the kids see it. And that's what it is. Community. And like other parents said, yes, we we come up and we say all the negative things that we want and hope to be addressed because once this district was the best district and people fought to have a property in our district in order for their kids to be ra raised here. And I was part of the the generation that moved here for that purpose.

012And it's not fair to our kids that they have to push every day to be the best to come out of East Rampo and become even more than the best. So I hope that this district brings more colleges not selective kids for this specific thing is to make them more alert that there's a lot of colleges like the college from Westchester that is for music and the they have one of the biggest bands 343 or 42 members that are there to learn about music that will eventually become music teachers for our kids. teachers take a lot of time and effort and I hope this district really also supports our teachers because they need a lot of help. They need to learn so many things and I think sometimes as parents we don't realize it but

013they have to take a lot of lessons to make sure that their kids are being taken care of. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> That concludes public speaking. We will now >> I'm sorry. Can I just say something while the marching band parents and some of the students are here um instead of waiting till the end. So sure. >> I had an opportunity to join our marching band students and parents on Saturday at Metife. Um that's actually the first time in 20 years uh since we've last been at Metife. and to be able to be on that field and for them to see it say Jets, you know, that was an experience of its own. Um, but I want to say that our students did an amazing job, first of all. Second, they

014came in seventh place, which I think it's it's great, which they needed, you know, a round of applause for. And as someone who attends a lot of the events that the marching band does, I just want to give a special shout out to the parents for the hard work they put in um each and every day to make sure that you know the students are fed to make sure that they have the support that they need um on and off the field especially with the equipments making sure they get on the field. Um, so kudos to you guys as well because I see it for myself the work you guys are putting in and I just want to make sure that you are also recognized because without you our students would be without and I

015think that seeing what I saw on Saturday I think we had the biggest parent presence there. So thank you to you all. >> Wow. Thank you, Sabrina. And congrats again to the marching bands. That's amazing. Seventh out of 60, you said. >> Seven out of 60. Seventh place out of 60 bands across the country. >> Sh. Wow. >> We're in category five. Um, and let me not forget too congratulations and kudos to Mike Smith, Brian Frammheim, and the whole staff for the work they also put in. um because I know it takes a lot and it's not just 30 students, it's 100 plus and it keeps growing. So yes, congratulations to all. You know I Yes. Okay. I was going to wait to do my report at the end but you know since you are

016here um I just want to say the following. I might not have been at the Met Stadium, but I was we were at the uh competition and what a competition it was. And I would like to tell our East Ramo marching band students, even for those who are listening, for those who are here, you guys are phenomenal. Give let's let's give a round of applause for them. [Applause] our East Ramapo band parents. The way you were hustling, getting all the equipment out there ready for the kids. You were at the concession stand selling foods. I mean, you did a a phenomenal job as well, and we thank you for that. And you know, Mr. Michael Smith, we can't leave him out. Um, his staff, we're very proud of all of you. And Miss Anna, thank

017you so much for your dedication as well, putting this all together. I don't want to leave you out. Um, and I do want to say this, our band is the best. Everywhere they go, they show up and show out. On Saturday, October, uh, what was that? The 7th. I don't have my glasses on. They put together an incredible competition amongst East Ram. It was East Ramo alumni, North Rockland, Ocean uh side, Lynenhurst, Portchester, and us, East Ramo marching band. It was a great competition put on by all schools. The support display was incredible. The stands were packed. So something like, and I wanted to talk about this, I'm going to bring it back up. We have to start praising our students for their achievements, right? for their successes. And you know what, East Rample marching

018band, congratulations and a job job. Well, well, well done. And we're so very proud of you. Thank you. >> Just want to say well I passed by Saturday afternoon khaki field and I heard the music band. It was beautiful over there and very proud of that. Thank you. I I think it it goes without saying that without the parents support it it wouldn't be where we are. Mr. Smith is phenomenal. As a Mr. Franheim, as a former marching band parent for about four or five years, my daughter was in marching band. I understand completely and parents, you deserve a round of applause as well. So to the parents, thank you. I know it's not just one person. It's it's a community of parents. So thank you. We I appreciate you. We appreciate you. >> Oh,

019thank you. Thank you, fellow board members, and thank you parents and obviously amazing students. Um, okay. Um, on that note, we will now give it over to our interim superintendent, Miss Fusco, who's to commence the superintendent report. >> Thank you. And I congratulations and thank you all for being such a bright shining star for our district. Um, yes, congratulations. Thank you. There there are a few comments I would like to make based on the comments that the parents and community members made here today. I just wanted some brief announcements. Uh the first is I want you to be aware that the district will be participating in uh safety training. Uh all of our schools will be participating uh teachers and administrators to make sure that uh we all have best practices in our district. So

020that will be happening throughout the course of this year. The other uh thing I want to make sure you know, I know that Eric Stark had informed you of this in the past, but I just want to just remind you we are in the middle of a security audit. We have consultants that are working with the district. They're visiting every single building and they're looking for the security issues that some of you folks mentioned, the doors, making sure there the locks are there. Um making sure that we have our best practices in the buildings. Um who who can come in, who cannot come in, what are the best proc processes and procedures. So we're in the middle of all of that. So we want you to know we think that's very important to all of

021us and we're on it. Okay. Um, I also wanted to let you know that uh I'm going to talk about this in a minute. We have uh worked really hard to try to build our PTAs this year and um we are doing a really great job. So uh one of the things that you will hear from us PTA leaders uh we we will be reaching out to you so that you can meet with me so that I can hear the concerns and the voices of the parents. So, this is a great opportunity for parents to um make sure that you're in in in contact with the PTA leaders in your buildings so that they understand the concerns that you have because your voice is very important to us. And the last thing I want to

022say before I go here into my formal presentation is that I want you to know that we had a presentation by Brito Fararo who came in last week and spoke to all of our principles and to our central office administrators regarding what what practices we we should do um should somebody you know come into our buildings wanting to meet with any of our kids and how we can protect them and how we must respond to them. So, I want you to know that uh they did participate in that presentation and that we are aware of of the rules and regulations and we're doing everything we can and always will to protect our kids. So, just wanted you to to be aware of that. Um and now I want to uh give you a little bit

023of a transportation update. Um we have struggled as I've mentioned to you before with transportation. And everybody knows that uh we are working with consultants that have come in. Uh these these folks are very uh skilled and experienced and they're working with our transportation team to um improve our services uh for all public and non-public students as well as to take a look at how we can uh improve our our services for the future. So I want to thank you all for your patience. I know it's it was a tough beginning of a year. I know we're in better place than we were before, but we're still have some bumps in the road. Uh, in addition to that, there is um there's an update that we do provide um on the website where you can

024see transportation updates that'll be available every two weeks or so. We'll be putting an update up there. And there is a hotline that you can access if you need if you need to communicate with the transportation department. Um, last time we spoke, maybe the time before, we let you know that we uh started a challenge. It's called the state connected challenge. And what we were wanting to do was um make a a strong effort to ensure that we have updated parental contact information. This is really important because we want to improve our ability to communicate with the parents. uh we got some feedback from some of our high school students and from some of our parents that communication is sometimes a challenge. So we started a competition in our schools um to see who which

025school could um have the highest number of parents percentage-wise um provide parent contact information. And the winner is uh ECC, our early childhood center um where 79 46% of the parents responded. So, congratulations to them for that huge effort. Uh, but we do have two two close runnerups and that's Fleetwood and Margettes at 73.24 and 72.58. Now, um, what we we've done is we've actually had a small collection. Some of the, um, central office staff has donated some money and we will be um, donating that to our ECC PTA. Uh if if some parents are listening and you have not provided updated parental contact information to your schools, we ask you to please do so. That helps to ensure safety and helps to ensure that we um can communicate with you and and supports parent

026district communication. This um October is principal appreciation month and we have 14 wonderful principles who work really hard as you all know. So we want to just say thank you to them for everything that they do. Um and one of the ways that we're expressing our appreciation is uh we are having a um a series where we highlight one principal a day. So, it's a day in the life of a principal and uh there's a little video for each one of them that will be posted and are being posted on our website. So, please look at the website for that. Um, but we do want to thank all of our principles for their leadership, for their resilience, for their commitment to our students and to our families. Thank you. As many of you know, oops,

027let's see. As many of you know, we have um something that we hope will be a new tradition and um I want to uh thank our uh administrative team here because they they initiated this. It's called curric um I did ask Dr. Gonzalez if he would share a few words on this. I know he may not have a microphone. Uh it is October 30th, 2025. You're all invited to come. And Dr. Gonzalez, >> good evening. Good evening. Thank you, Superintendent Rusco. So, we are very excited about curriculum expo night. Um it is an opportunity for all of our students and families to engage with all of our vendors and our partners as well as our instructional coordinators and our content directors. So as of now we have more than 15 uh partners that are coming

028out. There will be um giveaways. There will be materials for our students and families and parents to engage with so that u really our goal is to make sure that our parents understand exactly what's being provided to their children during the school day. Um so we hope that you come out. Uh we also have uh uh child care if needed. Um there will be some giveaways. There will be some engaging presentations and workshops. Um, so it'll be at Kakiat Steam Academy from 6:00 to 7:30. Um, we look forward to hosting you all. As our superintendent mentioned, the goal is to make this an annual event and so this is our first ever uh annual district curriculum expo. So, look forward to seeing everyone there. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Gonzalez. In addition, some of

029you may know that um Hispanic Heritage Month uh ended I think it was October 15th. I've asked our assistant superintendent for multilingual education, Miss Julisa Renon Tomizawa, to give us an update and a recap on our celebrations for the month. >> Thank you very much. Good evening. Buenos. Um so in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month um a me spana uh East Rambo school district and all of its schools hosted several events throughout the district that honored um Hispanic Heritage Month in different ways and many of our schools hosted families either for events or celebrated in different ways. I had the pleasure of going to Summit Park Elementary School along with some of our team and uh played Loeria where our students learned about the history of the game of Loia and they created their own

030game of Loia while they enjoyed a very culturally rich meal with uh provided by many of our families and our local businesses. Um and of course um many of our our families were there to take part in this meal with their students. So thank you everybody for celebrating with our students and for contributing to the celebration. Thank you. I wanted to uh take a moment to respond. Um I I I know that some of you know I meet with the uh high school students. It's really one of my favorite things to do. I go to Ramapo High School and to Spring Valley High School and uh I I get to speak to um their leadership team and they have expressed their their thoughts and their concerns about technology and um uh we really took them

031very seriously. We um we have an assistant superintendent for technology, Mr. um Bobin Gandhi. Uh and I invited him to come and meet with some of our students and uh Mr. Gandhi's been working really hard to address some of the concerns that you've mentioned and I'm going to invite him to provide us with a brief um summary. >> Thank you, Superintendent Valusco. So, I want to first thank um the student board members for voicing their uh concerns during uh last uh board meeting. So, this past month, I had the opportunity to join uh Super Lusco to uh Rampo High School uh student circle meeting. So there we were able to listen to uh students and get more information about their concerns. Um so tonight I would like to uh provide the board and the community

032three updates about the work that we've been doing in technology department um in the last few months that address some of the students concerns. So first one is um high school Chromebook replacement. Um so this fall student at Spring Valley High School and Rahu High School with Chromebook that are two and a half years or older have only 4 gig of RAM will be uh they'll receive new devices. Um the goal is to ensure every student has a reliable and up-to-date Chromebooks by the third week of November this year and um the building administrators were early informed about with the with the steps that they have to take in the building and they already have the plan that we created for them. So distribution team and uh at the building level um and uh the

033building building admins will be notifying the students um first uh end of the month or by uh November first week. Uh second step is the district-wide wireless upgrade. Um the district is replacing all wireless access points and adding uh few new ones, few access points into spaces where we need more access points across all schools to improve Wi-Fi coverage, speed and reliability just to ensure we have stronger connectivity to support digital learning in every classroom and also uh to support um the New York State CBT computer based testing. Um and uh the third one is digital display expansion. Um I know Rampo High School had um the TVs in the hallways for information um and events. So Spring Valley we just um we just got done. Uh so Spring Valley has received tube digital screens

034throughout the building similar to those at Vapo High School to share announcements upcoming events important information with students and staff in real time. This TV has been they've been installed throughout the schools and um building administrator is working on the content which will be live by end of uh the month. So that's the update. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Gandhi. >> Um I just have a question uh while Mr. Gandhi is up. Um I know it was mentioned tonight about um the fact that we go we do remote learning. I think um I think we may be the only school that still do remote learning. Um I could be wrong, but I think uh for the most part we are the only ones who still do remote learning. And based on the question that

035was asked by the parent earlier, um what are we doing to make sure that if we do go remote that students have um what they need to help support them, whether it's a a Chromebook that works or even hotspot. Um I know that when COVID first hit, we were we had partnered with T-Mobile um and we were giving out hotspots. I don't know if that's still a thing. Um if not, can it be something that we look at if they are still providing that service or can we look into something else? >> So we still have hotspots. We purchase about 2100 hotspots every year and we've been giving out um and schools uh usually notify us of the hotspots they need and we deliver them uh within 48 hours. >> So we do have hotspots

036in stock. Um so even families please uh let let your teachers know, let your building administrators know and they know the process of receiving those hotspots. So I think there was a number that was mentioned of families that um probably did not that may have had issues. So maybe if we can look into that >> definitely and just just in two weeks last two weeks we delivered about 250 hotspots to schools just for the remote just to prepare for the remote learning that was on October 16th. >> Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. And now we u move on to the um part of our meeting that honors students and gives them an opportunity to have a student voice. I invite each of them to come. Please reintroduce yourselves if you don't mind.

037>> Good evening. My name is Stephanie. I'm the Spring Valley senior class vice president. And to start off, we would want to start off with some positives. Um, we're glad our superintendent is working with us and we hope it continues while she comes in to talk to our superintendent circle and she listens to our concerns and needs. We would also like to thank you guys for the TVs in the hallways which has helped us feel informed with announcements, sports meetings and it's just there and it's bright. It's not a piece of paper that students walk by. And we would also like to highlight our fall fest which has helped well the senior class is hosting it with help of other clubs which is just to get clubs more involved, help them raise money um or

038helping them um get more students involved and it's just to help everyone feel included. And for some concerns, we still have no SAT dates. We usually have one in October or November for all high school students, whether it's a PSAT or SAT. And I don't want to say it's too late, but it's getting too late for students that were planning on doing early decision or early action. And we would also want some regions prep, especially um with the fact that there's not many students passing them. And we would want them to start whether it's in the summer as soon as the school year starts with our January regions. And as right after that, we would also want more prep for our June regions. And we would also want some SAT prep. Um, for our seniors,

039like I said, it might be getting a little late, but we would still want it for any juniors, sophomores, anyone that's planning on taking an SAT. So, yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, good evening. My name is Maria. I'm the senior class president for Albo High School. Um, after sharing our concerns about the new uh personal electronic device policy, I just want to take a moment to thank the district board for truly listening to us. Having the chance to speak and be heard means a lot to the students of Rampo High School. It shows that our voices matter and the district values open communication with its students. We are truly grateful to the district board and our admission for listening to our concerns and taking the time to consider the issue raised regarding

040the new personal electronic device policy. The fact that solutions were presented to address the challenges students face such as improving communication, upgrading Chromebooks, and expanding access to educational resources, it shows a genuine commitment to creating a better learning environment for everyone. It means a lot that our voices were heard in that um efforts are being made to find a fair balance between maintaining focus in class and ensuring students have the tools they need to succeed. We understand that every policy comes with challenges, but by working together, we can make these challenges more effective and supportive for all students. We hope the district continues to follow through with the proposed improvements and keep communication open with the student body. On behalf of Rample High School students, thank you for listening, for valuing our input, and for

041showing that collaboration between students and admissions can lead to meaningful progress. And one other thing is that today I was in a volleyball game at Rample High School and I saw no security guard in the school. There was no security guard. Students, parents were coming in and out of the school without anyone noticing. So I would just like to make sure that their safety policies put into Rambo High School because no everyone was coming in. No one knew who they were and no one saw anything. And I would also like to mention my adviser who has helped me throughout this journey, Miss Bhan. So, thank you for thank you to her for making me not making me but making me know that I can make my voice heard and by doing Allah for the senior

042class at Rample High School. So, thank you to her. That's it. Thank Thank you. I I am just going to go off course for one quick minute. I'm gonna ask Dr. Gonzalez. Dr. Dr. Gonzalez, I know you were out for a moment, but there was a question about the PSATs, and I know that I had previously discussed this with you. Could you just update folks on that? >> I forgot one thing. Uh, Rambo High School invites the commitment board to the students at home meeting on November 18. I think it's well, November 19th. Sorry. We invite you. It's an open invite for the committee board. Hopefully, you can make it. Thank you. >> Uh like 11:30 >> a.m. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Dr. Gonzalez, would you would you just give a brief update

043on the PSAT's SATs? >> Yes. So, good evening once again. So, um, the district is taking a new approach with PSAT, SAT, and we've been directly in touch with college board who manages the PSAT and the SAT. Uh, typically around the month of October, there is an opportunity for students to take the PSAT in school. uh we were not able to meet the requirements to adequately provide our students the the best opportunity to sit for that exam including um a lot of the accommodations that some of our students are entitled to. So working with college board we are setting a an additional date um yet to be determined but it'll be in December. The district will cover the cost the same way we would have covered the cost during the October um assessment. Uh there

044was a question around so when when the students take the PSAT during the month of October, those are the scores that are used to qualify for merit scholarships. We do have uh information directly from College Board that indicates when we provide the assessment in December, if a student scores high enough to uh to qualify for a merit scholarship, we would still be able to get them in to qualify for the merit scholarship. So, our students will not be losing out in terms of merit scholarship. In addition to that, prior to the assessment, we're also working with College Board to provide online instruction with a live tutor for our students to be able to log in two ways, either um with a live tutor or asynchronously with um videos that they could that students would be

045able to do at their own pace. So, we are providing two types of support to students uh prior to the December assessment. >> Thank you, Dr. Gonzalez. and we will work with the with the high school principles to make sure this information is disseminated to all um to all students and their families. Thank you. >> So just quick question based on the information I just heard. So it sounds like we missed the deadline for our students to be able to take the SAT PSAT. >> No. No. So, we were in conversation with College Board and in order for our students to be able to receive all of the accommodations that they would be entitled to, College Board would have needed that information more than a year ago. So, it takes seven months to fully update

046and we have a number of students and we want to make sure that they receive the accommodations they're entitled to. >> I mean, I'm sorry, not to cut you off. This is something I think we provide to our students every year. So, I'm just trying to figure out what's different this year that to the point where we weren't able to make sure that was in place for them to be able to take the test in October. >> Yeah. So, I'm not certain what was done in years past, but I know that when we received the accommodations list and tried to upload them to College Board, we ran up against issues that were um too much for us to be able to get past for the October administration. That's when we called College Board to ask

047them what the process was. They then told us that the process generally takes a long time. Um we actually we had to get the superintendent involved in giving access to people. Um they are very very meticulous now. College Board um you know we're in a time that they are um colleges are using the assessment all over again. So there was a little bit of a window um during COVID and just after COVID where many colleges and universities were going test optional. They're now going back to required testing. So because that requirement is now in place, college board has put some roadblocks in place to, you know, sort of make sure that the students are um are who they are and that they're receiving the accommodations. >> So do we have a plan in place moving

048forward to make sure that we meet these requirements and make to make sure that our students are able to take it when they're supposed to take it? >> Yes. And that's what we're putting in place now for the December administration. >> Thank you, Dr. Gonzalez. I know that they also mentioned about the regent review. I know that it will take place. I've seen I believe that um we've kind of hired some individuals for review because I know that we do have the regions I'm sorry in January >> that's coming up. Um, >> I don't I don't believe that there have been any names put forward for regions review, but that's we're working on that plan now so that we can roll that out for um late fall, early winter for the January administration and then

049a second uh afterchool wraparound program for the spring for the June assessment. >> All right. So once that does take place, now that we have the the TV the screens, right? Correct ladies? I think that we just need to make sure that we have that information about when the regions reviews will take place. what classroom so on and so forth. >> Absolutely. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh and now we will uh hear a presentation from our MLE uh leadership um Miss Princon Tomizawa. And I believe she will be joined with um Mr. Austin. Thank you. Well, good evening everyone. We are going to do this presentation in English and do our best to answer any questions you might have at the end. So again, my name is Julisa Mizawa. I am

050the assistant superintendent for multilingual education and this is Mr. Austin Noame who's the executive director. Thank you to the board for letting us have this moment to share with you some information about our multilingual education program and all the wonderful students we serve here in the district. In addition, all the work that we are doing um here in the district to support our students and the investment we are making to ensure that our programs are not only supported but sustainable. Um so we'll start off. Yes. So this is our exe our team here at um the office of bilingual of multilingual education. Um we are a team of 11 um with a lot of support across the district K12. Um, and this team works in tandem, not in isolation, but we work in tandem with

051the office of um, curriculum and instruction as well as the office of special education to ensure that we are not only meeting the needs of students who are requiring the service of multilingual education, but also our students who are dually identified and receiving services in special education, but also to make sure that our students and our programs are both aligned to the general ed instruction and to the services that they're required. um all the way from registration to graduation. >> So I'm just going to speak briefly about the different programs that we are currently offering here at Easter. Our first one is our English as a new language program. This serves all students of all different linguistic backgrounds. This is taught by a certified TESL teacher and the ultimate goal of an ENL program is

052the full immersion into a monolingual general education classes. Students at different proficiency levels will receive different amount of supports meaning time um from a certified Tissole teacher. This looks like integrated ENL with a co-taught ELA or content area as well as a Tissole teacher and then also some students will receive standalone services which is exclusively with a Tissole teacher for those at the lower English proficiency level. The second program that we offer here is the transitional bilingual education program. Just like in the title, this program is to transition our students who are speakers of other languages than English, in this case, Spanish, into a monolingual English classroom. They will start off when they are lower proficiency in English with a high amount of supports in Spanish. This looks like your standalone ENO classes, but also

053your bilingual sections of core content areas, be it math, science, or social studies. As their English progresses and increases, the supports in Spanish will decrease. However, this program model will always include home language arts or Spanish language arts. Again, similarly to English as a new language, the ultimate goal is a movement into a monolingual English classroom. That is like in the title transitional bilingual education. And also just as a quick snapshot, just as of yesterday, October 20th, thank you Bobin. This is the total numbers of students in both of these programs. You'll see in green English as a new language 3,600 which makes sense because this program serves all students of all linguistic backgrounds not only Spanish but if they are Haitian creole French erdu and so on those that are in our transitional bilingual

054educ education program are 2 and so what does this mean? So any student who is identified as an English language learner they're identified initially at registration. So when a student transitions or enters a school district or any school district in New York State, when a parent registers that student, they complete a home language questionnaire. Once that home language questionnaire is completed and a parent identifies that there's another language other than English spoken in the home that lets the registration office and the school district know that we need to figure out whether or not that student needs English as a new language services or supports. The student is then given an interview and then they take an assessment called the niceel. And so when they take that assessment, they tell us what level of proficiency that

055student has in English. And they're given a proficiency level starting at entering, which is the lowest level of English proficiency, all the way to commanding, which is the highest level of of English proficiency. So when I came to the United States, my English level of proficiency was at entering because I did not speak English. Now I am at the commanding level. So as you progress through school, your English level increases and of course your home language level remains the same if you continue to speak the language. So in essence, our students move through those levels of language proficiency as they receive services in the school year. So learning in English is not like learning how to ride a bike. It doesn't happen quickly and it doesn't happen overnight. So there are two languages, two two

056ways, right, that students acquire language. There's your BIX, your basic interpersonal communication skills. So things like learning how to go, you know, ask for the bathroom, how to get directions. That's your basic communication skills. Good morning, how are you? And then there's the academic piece, right? How to talk like a scientist, how to talk like a mathematician, how to explain your thinking. That's your academic language. And they're developing at the same time, but at different rates. So it takes three uh two to three years to learn and acquire and master your bicks, but it takes up to seven years to acquire your your calp or your academic language. So in school, the two programs we offer really allow students to develop both of those um language um stages of language at the same time. So,

057one of our goals here in the district as part of the long long-term strategic academic and fiscal plan is to ensure that the programs we offer and the general education curriculum that our students receive allows them to acquire English both their academic and their social language, their basics and their cal in a manner that allows them to increase their performance in the NISA lot which is the assessment that they take every year in the spring. Our goal is that our students by the end of June of by June of 2026 is that they meet the benchmark by increasing the percent 10 percentage points of our overall percentage point of the students that perform. Let me try that in English one more time is our goal is to make sure that our students perform 10 percentage

058points higher than they did in 2324 on the nicest lab. So at least not just but at least. And we are we are a work in progress but our students are doing really well and they are definitely rising to the occasion. >> All right. So our students English language proficiency levels districtwide. So this is K12 as a whole. So as I mentioned before, right, there are five levels of language proficiency. Entering, emerging, transitioning, expanding, and commanding. We eventually want all of our students to get to the commanding level, but it takes five to seven years, right? So, we have students at the entering level. We definitely have a lot of students at the emerging level, transitioning, definitely the expanding level. We have 23% of our students there, and we have 25% at the emerging level.

059We want our students to be able to move through those levels with support, but also we want them to be able to move through those levels with ease. How do we do that? What does that look like across all of our programs? Ready? All right. This is a different view of that same picture from kindergarten all the way to 12th grade. So the hot pink, the the pink at the top is the commanding level. And you can see when the kids enter in kindergarten, their commanding level of English, it's still at the entering level. This is their first experience in school, right? So, they're learning English for the first time or acquiring English for the first time as they move through the grades. They're acquiring English at a faster rate. And of course, by the

060time they get to high school, we have more kids at the commanding level than we did when they were in kindergarten. So, these slides, you'll see in the presentation, you have one per school. We're not going to go through all of them because they're here for reference for you, but you'll see as you go through the slides that there's a pattern. We have students that perform through um in in the nicest lat um you'll see a pattern that we have a lot of students at the um expanding and at the transitioning level and this is for us where the heart of the work is just going to continue so you have access to these each of the school districts has their own profile so there'll be 14 and I'm going to move us so not

061to take any time away but or give it to any individ individual. But we're going to move on then to the overall student movement on this English language proficiency exam. All right. So this is where the this is where the work is. So from 2324, right? So I'm going to explain to you what the the um the b yes the bottom uh numbers mean. So from 2324 the movables is what we call the numbers. So in 2324 we had 232 students at the when they took the nicest slat that slipped back a level in the nicest slot. Meaning that instead of moving up a level let's say from transitioning to expanding they moved down a level. We had 1,967 students or 61 students who remained at the same level that they started with when they

062took the exam. We had, let me try that. Thank you. 1,815 students who moved up one level, meaning they went from transitioning to expanding and 272 who moved up two levels and 30 students who moved up three levels, meaning they went from entering all the way to transitioning. That's great moves. That means that they were learning their BIS and their cal very quickly. However, our work is really going to happen right at that number of 1961. Right? That's the work. What does that work look like for us this year? Right? So, our goal isn't to just move up 10 percentage points. Our goal is really to move all those students more than one level and how do we do that? Where is your investment going? And I think that was a really great question from

063one of the parents earlier today is where are we putting our money? Right? Where's our human capital? Where is our financial capital being spent? Even though our students moved, right? 49% of our students who moved up a level. We still have work to do. Um, this year the district has invested in instructional coordinators who are supporting our teachers in K1, I mean, sorry, in K6, making sure that we are supporting our teachers in the roll out of our new reading curriculum with the ARC. Making sure that all of our teachers know how to roll out that curriculum, have support in being able to use that data to drive that instruction. So, ensuring that our transitional bilingual program um allocations remain aligned to the New York State regulations. Uh we're collaborating with our building administrators to

064really strengthen an understanding of what our programs look like, both our bilingual and our ENL programs, and what the requirements are to make sure that our students understand that being an English language learner isn't a deficit, but rather a plus. And we need to use that to leverage it. We know that students who more than one language do better academically. So how do we use that so that they are you know graduating and being able to speak two languages masterfully. Um so being able to use that information and collaborating with our teachers and our school counselors and really partnering to make sure that they understand how to use that data to help our students make the right course selection is really important. So other actions that we are doing is Julisa mentioned we are continually

065working with our instructional coordinators and both our content directors and really building awareness with our educators and our administrators through the work of the professional learning communities up here. It's PLC's and this takes place across all schools and this is time that is directed um strictly with educators classroom educators. We're also really utilizing and leveraging this niceslat data. All of those graphs that you just saw, all those 14 slides, this is coming from this um platform elevation where we are able to in real time and we I mean everyone in the district pull this data specifically down even to the minor detail of a student where what did they score on the speaking modality, writing, reading and so on. We are also updating and working very collaborative collaboratively, excuse me, with um curriculum and instruction

066on the course catalog. What does this mean for a transitional bilingual program? What does this mean for an ENL program? And how are we getting students with those necessary credits to reach graduation with also meeting the needs of these different types of programs? And also, we just want to reiterate here number seven that this is a shared and collaborative lift. We are not just doing this in a silo. We're not doing it alone. We have partners both in special education, curriculum, and instruction that are really helping us making sure that decisions are made not just through one lens, but really incorporating all of these different lenses. And so with that, I think we're going to have an opportunity to talk about some additional use our platform here to talk about some additional opportunities for students

067in the in the district. >> So another um another aspect of of our office is really encouraging our students to take part in the seal of lit what does this mean? So, uh we have the the pleasure of having such a diverse um student population and an opportunity presents itself where um East Rampa Central School District participates in the seal of biiteracy and one of our goals is to increase the number of students who earn the seal of biiteracy. This means is that our students are able to leverage their knowledge cultural and linguistically to earn this seal indicating that they have not only mastered the language but understand its cultural relevance and can participate and and share in the richness of that language. So our goal this year is to increase the number of students

068who um achieve the seal of literacy by 15%age points over uh 23 24 totals which considering the size of our district considering the number of students who speak a second language not just Spanish but considering the number of students that speak a second language we should be able to meet that goal. And so I encourage all of our parents who are watching, especially your students who are sitting here in the audience, who are in high school uh and who speak a second language um to really pursue and talk to your school counselors about what the seal of literacy is. Um our principles are aware of it. We have a campaign to to roll this out. um our our director of secondary um education for Emily is u meeting with our principles to to talk about

069this and really share it and and really rally up our students to take part in this program because it really does celebrate both linguistic and cultural um you know opportunities for our students. So this is in 2324 we had uh 22 students uh achieve the seal of literacy and 24-25 we had 24 and I think we could do much better than this. So this is a a challenge for all of us >> and just some of the initiatives that we are taking in order to achieve the seal of literacy. First and foremost is we work very closely with the NICE representative in order to asssure alignment with all of the necessary items that go along with the seal of biiteracy. This is a multi-step process and it does happen throughout the year. It's not just

070a one moment in time. In order to do that, this involves the regular meetings, check-ins. Um we are also building the awareness again with our building leadership both our principles and assistant principles through regular meetings with our director of secondary education uh who will be promoting this. We are also working very closely with our data team. Thank you. As well as elevation in order to ensure that we can identify the students who are on track for receiving the seal of bi literacy. We find them early and then we are able to keep them on track to receiving it. Um we are also in order to for a student to receive the seal of bio literacy they have to achieve um proficiency in a in English and also another language. The way that this is actually

071monitored though is through a checkpoint exam. So, we are allocating appropriate funding in order for those checkpoint C exams um to to be implemented here. We are also passing out information. So, now that I know that there's TVs at the high schools, I know what's going to go on that next is the seal of bio literacy including theseformational brochures um and also working with our educators in the classroom to really help supporting our students moving forward. So our next steps as a department and as a as a district is strategically coordinating ongoing professional development for our staff. We know that you know teaching a student to learn a second language while also teaching them content is not an easy fit. But if you have a chance to read um you know any of the information

072about um you know the principles for for L success the first principle is that we are all teachers of L's. You don't need to have a special badge to teach English language learners how to learn English. That is something that we all do and we know how to do. It's just a matter of knowing who our partners are in this work. And so we do this work together. So the district has invested uh this year in professional development for our staff. And that's a collective effort between the CNI office and special education to ensure that we are providing those opportunities for our staff. Building the capacity of our existing existing leadership. We have invested a lot of time in teaching our in working with our administrators and teaching them the software that gives them information

073about our L's not just our our state assessment data but also you know in terms of our ELA and our math and our regions exams but also my slot data because a student isn't solely identified by just their proficiency level right our students have to learn to read write and show proficiency in English as well as in Spanish and we have seen in our star data which you'll you'll get more information about maybe our board meeting that we have many students who are very proficient in their native language who are scoring higher in Spanish reading than they are in English. And so that's a lift for us, right? That tells us that our students can do a lot in native language. It's how do we help them leverage that to also learn how to master

074reading in English. So we're working very closely with our administrators and our teachers so that they can learn how to and and work with that data and and you know do that lift in the classroom. continuously reviewing and using um student academic performance data again to make instructional decisions, establish and monitor um a supportive coaching cycle with our instructional coordinators and our content directors. We had a full day of professional development today that really focused on how do we leverage those partnerships. Um we had everything from uh Carnegie and our curriculum resources making sure that we are delivering those um you know through that MLE lens as well and allocating financial resources strategically to support our multilingual education programs um both from our general fund as well as title one, title two, title three, our

075title three immigrant or title four. I mean working very closely to make sure that all of those resources that channel to general ed are really also through the lens of MLB. Thank you very much for your time and we have any questions. Thank >> Thank you very much to um Miss Renon Tomizawa and Mr. Nojain for your leadership and for a very informative presentation. And now I pass it back to President Rose. >> Thank you very much. And I'll now turn it over to our dear district clerk Kathy who will give us an update on the superintendent search. >> Yes. So the um uh Southwest Boseies is uh handling that search for us. They have created a stakeholder survey. It will be uploaded on our website tomorrow and they ask the community uh to all

076respond to that survey. what you are looking for in the next superintendent and to do that by October 31st SCM date. They also will uh be holding two open stakeholder meetings on October 28th and 29th. They'll be from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. on each day and the locations will be on our website and Boseis will do some social media for us also on that. Uh Dr. Mr. Kohl's and his team plan to attend our next meeting on Monday, November 3rd, and they will provide uh to the board uh input on what the community uh provided on what they wanted the superintendent, next superintendent to look like. Um they will also do some meetings with uh students at both high schools that will be arranged and they will uh meet with the presidents of all of

077the school unions. So we're uh still keeping to the timeline that they presented at the previous meeting. >> Just a quick question. um how are they I don't know if you don't know know the answer to it but how are they communicating with the stakeholders uh for this survey link it it's on our website so it'll be uploaded both tells me it'll be uploaded sometime tomorrow and they will do some social media and of course announcing it tonight so and then the uh same thing for the stakeholder meetings inerson meetings so people are the community is welcome to do an online survey and also attend a meeting where they can speak in person and there will be translators at the community meetings. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Superintendent. We will now assistant superintendent. Thank

078you for the presentation. Um we will now move on to consent and agenda items. I will now make a motion consent agenda items 1 through 10. Do I have a second? Second by Mr. Vice Mandal open up for discussion. Item three, certificate. >> Certificate personal recommendations. If you go into it, you see that there's special ed is losing multiple employees and some are being moved around within the district. One is I could see where she's going. The others I don't see. I can only see to accept another position into this. I would like to understand if we have a understaffed uh um department why we are taking out additional employees from there and moving them around. >> Is that um item four? >> Uh it's item >> item three. >> Oh, I see. So, uh,

079item three, >> we have two retirements in special edem >> effective at the end of 26. >> Okay. >> And then we have one special ed teacher that is leaving November 8th. Doesn't see doesn't say a reason why. Then we have an other special ed teacher to accept another position in the district >> and another special ed teacher to accept another position in the district. And then we have a special a coordinator also to accept another position in the district. Her position I see where she's going. The other two I don't even see where they are going. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Gail I could see >> you could see Gail Kger. >> Yes, Gail is going to directed people personnel about the other teachers. I don't see where they're going. I'm just wondering why

080we're taking out from an under staff department additional workers. >> Sure. >> So, I I kind of had the same questions, but just to add to that, um I know two there's an elementary teacher and a bilingual elementary teacher. Um, they're being uh they're accepting another position, but I noticed the position they're accepting is permanent sub, which I'm pretty sure is way less than what they're getting paid now. So, if you can just give an explanation on that as well and what's happening with the replacement with their class. >> Sure. Thank you, Mr. >> Grabbit. Thank you very much. Yes, we do have a number of people who are moving in from their certificated positions to permanent sub positions. Uh right now we are continuing to look at certification and making sure that everything is

081is aligned with that. Um so that's why they're moving into those those temporarily. >> They are for right now. Yes. Hold on. >> What's the reason? You could explain. >> I'm sorry. >> What's the reason? >> So, the reason is uh certification. So, we want to make sure that um all certification is maintained. If it's not, we could move them into those those permanent buildings substitute. >> So, do we have do we currently have um people covering their classes? Like how is that being arranged? >> Yes, those positions will be covered. We are uh we are currently interviewing for those positions and we are looking to to fill those on a permanent basis. >> So those students are currently left without a teacher for now or >> no no they're currently they would have a

082substitute for right now. That's >> correct. So they're currently left without an actual teacher. >> That's that's correct because we need to look for certified teachers for for those positions. >> So were they not certified until now? Seems they weren't certified until now and they just reloaded. That's what or expired. >> Yeah. No, they they were certified teachers that lost certification for a number of different reasons. And so now they need to be they they meet the criteria to be appointed as building um substitutes and the law allows them to um act as substitutes. Um we're hoping that they will become reertified shortly. >> So they're going to be substitutes in their in special ed or bilingual or whatever. going to be substant >> instead of a permanent teacher. >> That's right. They have to

083be because they lost the certification for one reason or another. >> So if we're interviewing for those position, what happens once they are reertified? >> Well, I think we need I'm sorry. >> Well, well, the um our obligation is to continue to try to hire certified teachers. So, we will continue to do that. we will post and we will make every effort to hire. Um if they become reertified, they're not entitled to go back to the position. So if we haven't found anyone and um and they and we we uh believe that we want to rehire them in that position, then we can they'll be eligible to be rehired, but they're not um entitled to it. >> And all of this has been explained to them. >> Yes. um >> there you know there is

084a shortage and I just want to say this and I know someone personally that um even from the district they're an alumni have their certification and was not even given the opportunity. So we have to look into things like that since we're short teachers. So, it's a it's a major concern for me, especially if they have their certification, they have all the requirements and they're alumni from the district um that they're not even being considered. So, just something just to bring to your attention. >> Okay. >> Perhaps after the meeting, we should give all the information we have. >> Um I have two or three more. Um, appointment for DM administrator. Uh, can you give a little bit more information on how many days or hours this person will be putting in, who they report

085to, um, and maybe a little bit of what they will be doing. >> Sure. So the the recommendation is to hire a perdeium um administrator in the HR office to help with the the general day-to-day functioning of the office um at a high level. We are looking to have somebody come in at no more than than 40 hours, but as we uh get started and settled and we begin working on our necessary projects and the necessary day-to-day activities, then we are looking to have that person here every day. Um, and with an end date of June 30th. >> When you say 40 hours, 40 hours a week or a month. >> It's not 40 hours, it's a perdem. So, >> but he said 40 hours, >> right? But a daily rate is basically you get

086paid for eight hours a day. So, that's why I said that. >> So, that's a fulltime. It's not a perm. 40 hours a week is not perm. >> If if we if we have that person here for that entire week, that doesn't mean that he would be here every day during the week. If he's not here, he would not get paid. understood. You said you need additional help in the administrative office 40 hours a week. >> Did I maybe I understood wrong? >> I'm saying that we could utilize them up to 40 hours a week. I didn't say that there will definitely be 40 hours a week because we need to once that person comes in and we assess continue to assess the need of the of the office, we would be able to make

087that determination. Is there any language that is I don't know if there's a contract or not that will say that they shouldn't exceed x amount of hours or days because I know it's from October 22nd 2025 to June of 2026 and it's $1,000 per day. >> I'm going to I'm just going to jump in. So um the the issue is that uh we have a number of vacancies right now at the director level. So, we have a vacancy in the transportation department. We have a vacancy in the facilities department, and we've got some folks out on leave. So, um in order to facil in order to assist, um central office executive level functioning, um we have um uh we want to hire a retired assistant superintendent of human resources to come in and rather than

088get a salary, doesn't need that because he's retired. uh will pay him at a perdeium basis which many people do we've done before and we've got some folks that we've hired now and we do that for uh that person will take over uh many of the functions of the HR office. Matt will also participate in overseeing the HR office, but he will now be freed up to assist with the transportation consultants that we have working there and with the um facilities department as well as assisting with HR. So, um we don't know how long we will need this person, but we assume that we may need them through uh June uh up to June 30th. That's what we're asking you to approve. By the way, he happens to be in the in the office in

089the in the audience. Uh his name is Mr. um Michael >> Dr. Dr. >> Dr. Michael Mur. Thank you. Yes, for being here today. A retired, experienced assistant superintendent of human resources. Um and uh so we were lucky to to be able to try to secure his services while we go through this transition and hire new directors. Do we know whom we have now in HR that could fulfill transportation and facilities? >> Matt Kravitz. So Matt Kravitz is our Yeah. >> Okay. >> So he's going to help out in transportation. And who's going to help out in facilities? >> He is. He's helping me uh with transportation with facilities as well as HR. >> But did I just get a consultant? is >> Carl is but we're trying to hire a director. So Carl is

090a consultant. He's here for a few days a week, >> sometimes two, sometimes three. So we really need to get some >> We're trying to hire a permanent replacement for Matt Tindle who left in in August. That's the goal. >> Okay. >> Correct. >> We have a coordinator who we're looking to appoint this evening, Ma Franco, who's on the HR agenda. And in addition to that, working with the ammon consulting group who will be reporting I believe to the board of ed not tonight but in an upcoming session about their recommendations for transportation in general. They'll be >> we're restructuring the transportation department. We're hiring a coordinator and we >> Why are we doing it before we getting recommendations? If we hire the company to recommend what needs to be done, why are we >>

091sureing? So the coordinator has um expertise in routing. >> We we lost one router. We lost one router. Carla um has resigned. >> Um this Carla was an assistant coordinator. >> So what we know that we need to for hire, but we as as I understood the transportation office needs a major overhaul. >> It seems like it failed miserably the last year. So um why are we trying We need different approaches than we did. I know we missing a route there, but maybe we have to traverse if the traverse is going to work fully functionally. We probably don't need that many routers because it should do some stuff automatic. And also, I'm not sure what recommendations that company that we hired will give us. >> Well, what we know is that we're underst staff right

092now, >> but we don't know where we are on the staff because we don't have an understanding of what's going on in the department. We hired an outside consultant to come back to us and explain us what we need in the department. >> We still need people in the office. >> We don't know what >> we need to know who who needs to do what. >> But the day-to-day operations still need to continue until we come up with a plan on how we're going to move forward and how >> full So we're going to hire full-time employees. Maybe we won't even need them. >> We're going to change. >> I think that we were promised that uh we'll be consulted before the other company. >> So >> I think that Mr. Guru and myself were

093told that >> we we the the coordinator helps with the routing and we still have even if we work with this consultant which we are and really a large focus of the consultant will likely be to help us uh come up with a different solution for our ability to support the non-publix because there's so many. We still need for the 10,000 public school kids, a coordinator and an assistant coordinator is absolutely a requirement. So, right now we have one assistant coordinator that routes and a coordinator that we're trying to hire that also can route. >> How many people work in that department? >> I don't know right now. Maybe I I can't remember if it's eight or I have to count. >> Do we know what the positions are for those people that work there?

094>> I can get that information for you off the top of my head. No, but I can tell you we have um uh MNA who is qualified to be a um a coordinator and we have one assistant coordinator and they >> let's put titles let's put titles aside. Let's just see what their jobs are and what their responsibilities are. >> I'm happy to bring you a report of all of the people that work there and what their functions are, what their roles are and what their functions are. I'm happy to do that. Just to clarify what he's asking. Basically, we are not in the department and we don't know what a coordinator is and what a router is and what these things. If you could explain to us somehow need to be now who gets

095some explanation as who enters data, who who enters school, all these things so we would understand what we are hiring. >> Yes. The coordinator oversees the routing. So the routing is making sure that kids are on the right bus, responding to concerns, working directly with um the vendors and the vendors of the different bus companies. >> Is routing a daily task or routing is a task of the beginning of the year and once it's in the system, we don't need it. >> Sure. No. No. You need it all year long for changes. You need it all year long. >> How many routers would we need? >> How many hours? How many RAS would we need to maintain? I understand to put up the system you need more, but to maintain for the year for changes

096and uh new kids or stuff like that. >> Certainly. So, um in the past we've had two, but we've that's always been too little, but we do want to restructure. You're right about that. We want to restructure. So, we've got this consultant company that's coming in and our plan is to present some degree of restructuring by January. That's what we're hoping for. Um, but we will most likely >> this January for next year, for this year, >> this January that's what we're hoping for. >> It it right what we want to present a change this January so that Right. But it will sure but it will impact how we possibly collect the um the applications and how we route in in the in the spring. So we're going to be presenting you with a model.

097That's what we hope to do uh in January. Uh having said that, we expect that the model will likely include our routing of our public school kids, which if it does, which I'm sure it will, um will definitely require a coordinator and an assistant coordinator. We're not going to be overstaffed for the public school side. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Do we currently have a safety officer? >> I'm sorry. >> Do we currently have a safety officer? We have um I don't know if it's called the safety officer, >> our coordinator of safety and security. >> The one who No, no, no. You mean that one that goes around and looks at the buses and >> we have one and we have an assistant director that is in it talking to >> he does some

098of it. He goes out and he does some of it and he oversees the work of the and we've been trying to hire but it's a civil service position and we haven't been able to find anybody to hire others that are all saying we need you know directors so on and so forth >> they they have they have been however is they're civil service titles. So, we have to go by a civil service list. >> So, what happens when there's an opening, we canvas people. So, people who are on the list, they get a letter in the mail that says, "Hey, are you interested in this position?" And those people can then decide if they're a interested, b not interested, c I've moved and I'm doing something else. So, that's how we typically canvas for

099our civil service positions. It's a little bit different than it's hard because OLAS is hits a lot of people and I think I understand what you're saying. I think I understand where you're where you're coming from, right? You want people out there to notice, but if they're not on the list and they're not qualified to be on the list, we we can't recommend them because then civil service will just say, "Whoa, whoa, no, no, that person's not qualified. They're not on our list. You can't you can't hire them." So, >> just hold on one second. Just like uh like I know we're in need like for teachers, you know what I'm saying? Special ed teachers, that can be indicated on that's all on. Okay. >> Thank you. on our website. >> There's nothing on the

100list for this for people that applied for this position. So, we spoke in the past that uh maybe we should talk to civil services that we can go out of the county and find people from Westchester or Orange County or surrounding areas. We can't. >> No, we can for civil service. They've changed the rules that we have. >> So, >> New York, New Jersey. Yeah. Maybe even Connecticut. I don't remember. But, uh, so they have relaxed the rules. Civil service has, but we we can't seem to find them. But we we're happy to continue. >> I think that until now we didn't have people that were civil service certified. They were just pending civil service. >> Well, no, they they are approved by >> working here for a couple of years. >> They're approved by

101the civil service to work provisionally. Nobody who was in the civil service position is in the position without authorization by the civil service. There's different statuses for employment. So there if they haven't passed a test, it's called provisional, which means they meet the qualifications except for the test. So and it's it's allowable. >> I know the county as a fact the county does hire people if they don't qualify for civil service if they hire them as independent contractors. I I'm not sure what the county does, but uh we are required to hire people who are certificated, hire people to do the civil service or hire people as consultants, and we do all of that. >> So, as consultants, you can hire those people as independent. No, it's not. It's more complicated than that, but >>

102we can talk about it. >> So, just just I know I've asked I've asked this question before and I've made the statement before, but um it we've been creating a lot of new positions and I understand we're restructuring a lot of different departments, but my question will always remain the same. Will we be able to sustain all these position moving forward? um knowing our budget situation yeartoear and not expecting an answer if we don't know but let's also keep that in mind that um you know we if we're making changes we don't want it to be temporary we expect it to be somewhat permanent if especially if it does work um so I just want to make sure that we're not you know selling this dream that you know come work at East Rample for

103certain you know for these positions and then they find out later on that we can't um support them financially as it has been done in the past. So I just want to make sure we keep that in mind. Um and my last question will be um for the cheerleading coach who um is on the agenda. So just to be fair, I know that if a cheerleading coach is doing both fall and winter, the salary is what's stated on the agenda. But I know that this individual hasn't started yet. So, shouldn't there be an adjustment to the amount they're receiving? >> Um, >> a prrated amount. >> I'm sorry. >> You mean for a prrated amount? >> Correct. >> Yeah, I I I believe so. And >> because it doesn't say it here, so I just

104want to make sure that um if that's what we're doing that >> it's typically prrated by the start date. >> Okay. So, that would be adjusted. >> Thank you. >> Okay. We have a motion and a second items 1 through 10. All those in favor say I. >> I. Anyone oppos say? Motion carries. Moving on to action items 1 through 11. Do I have a motion for action items 1 through 11? Motion moved by Mr. Gruber. Any second on >> second by Mr. Weissman. Any discussion on the matters? Action item number seven, transportation contracts. Uh, in reviewing them, maybe I need clarity on this, but and attachment number seven, right at the very top, it seems like all the other items had a breakdown on the cost, how much costion contract, but there is no

105breakown unit. I was looking at all the other units. >> Why is it missing the unit cost? >> Thank you for that. Um there is no cost why is there when I see all the other the other attachments they all have a unit cost and this one for 3.78 million is not >> I um if you're not able approving this one. I would say hold until November 3rd. Eric was expected to be here today, was unfortunately unable to come. So, he would be able to answer that specific question. Um, >> we need to make a motion to That's Yeah, >> I think because they're not paying it per unit and it's going on. >> It does say fleet. There is a difference between >> Yeah, because either seven >> some of them they play per

106student and some of they pay per packages. Mr. Gart, would you have any insight on that by any chance? No. No. Okay. Just a question on the budget transfer. Um I notice we're transferring about 45,000 from instructional salaries to graduation expenses. Can can someone please explain um what graduation expenses is? Uh budget transfer >> instructional salaries to graduation expenses. >> Action item number three. >> Okay, hold on. Item number three, >> um door access project. No, no, no. It says graduation expenses. >> Instructional salaries to graduation expenses. >> Moved. >> Eric. Eric sent this to me to try to explain. Um, he was expected to be here and so then he sent this to me. But tell me which one is it? This one up here. Budget transfer report. Okay. Let me click on it.

107Which one? Okay. Instructional salaries for graduation expenses. >> I just want to know what graduation expenses. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Um the graduation expenses were to pay for um he did explain it to me. Um it could be the stadium and it could be some of it translation services too. I think that he informed me that some of the items for graduation were not service at graduation translation. It's for translation services. Okay. At graduation ceremonies. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. Thank you. Okay. We have a motion and a second items 1 through 11. All those in favor say I. I. And on oppose of stayain. Motion carries. Uh information. >> Just on what we just approved. I just want to say congratulations to Rudy Adom on his tenure um as teaching assistant at Kiad.

108Um, we're holding items. I mean, the transportation contracts >> for the one transportation contract. >> Didn't amend the motion on it. >> We do have another meeting coming up on the hold that retroactive approve it. If you want to, that's that's up to you. I mean >> I don't have I don't have clarity on it. >> Have we been um have they been providing services? >> Yeah, that's the question. >> They they may have. I I don't have that information. >> Correct. So would it would it stop them from continuing to providing services? >> Yeah. And we renew it every year. But my my question is since we're just now approving this or it's just now being presented to us, if we were to remove it, um >> would it stop them from providing services?

109>> We for those we approved bids. Do you remember we approved the bids and then um after the bids were approved then we entered into contracts with them. Um that issue came up the last time. >> I know I noticed that the contract says that the services begin on 92. Correct? Yeah. September in August. So they're probably already providing services saying they need which is why I'm asking us not approving it tonight. Would it stop them from providing services? >> No. >> Well, they be providing services without pay. >> So they haven't yet. >> You don't want to chime in? not be prohibited from providing services. We would owe them, >> right? >> You know, because they provided a service. I'm sure they wouldn't be happy about not having a >> right. But if I

110mean, we could request that they provide services. I suppose they could say, "Well, we don't have an assigned contract, so we're not going to." But I I don't think that that's likely to happen. You have a meeting in two weeks. You can approve it then. >> But what's the reason? I'm saying based on what? Why? Why we not why we not approving this contract? >> I don't know. Because I think there were questions. >> Okay. So, let's get the information. >> I'm just asking for the information as to >> Can we get the information, please? >> Is it is it is it because it's a flee that we just say, okay, there's x amount of buses on the streets and this is what we're paying for. That may be it. or just saying >> that's

111that is like that is likely it but I really didn't delve into this contract so I can't give you a certainty on that >> right >> because we have to go back two years >> Douglas if you look at this one Number seven, the one that in question. >> Yeah, >> it says at closer to the bottom it says unit cost. >> Does that solve the issue? >> Where? >> Right here. See the other ones say something different. >> Yeah, I saw that. But >> he's saying he's saying this up here. >> The other because this is the this is we pay for a package. >> We don't pay per pupil. The other ones we pay per pupil. >> But our question is how much do we pay per bus? How many buses does he

112have? This is information that we don't have on the contract. There's probably an addendum to the contract or a appendix to it. >> Well, it's in the bit probably, >> but we didn't bid this because this is a renew. >> This one says renew. This is an original contract of 516 of 23. We probably have to go back to 23 to find out what we bid. >> Yeah. >> Well, it would be a twoe delay in pay. It's an old contract per >> there probably should be an addendum to it as what it entails. >> This is That's the thing. Douglas, what what's the procedure? >> We approved the bid in the past. That's what I'm saying. >> No, I was saying in the past we approved the bid, not now. >> Yeah. I mean,

113this this is definitely from two years ago. Can I may I just say one other thing is that this is IMS >> and IMS has several other contracts here. >> So it it won't be the it won't be the full amount that will still be paid something. >> Yeah. What >> Yeah. My guess is that you probably have all the data. If I look at the other IMS contract where it speaks to a unit cost of 1241 for per child >> 356 students by 180 which is a price per pupil per day for uh $795,000. The one that we're looking at does not have >> it doesn't have a unit cost because the fleet my guess is that it's based on the original bid document and that's why it's that's why it's listed as a

114unit cost of 3,77895. And to answer the question of what's that unit my my suspicion is it's in the bid document which is not attached to this but this is a contract that's a renewal from a original one from 2023. So >> look, I mean, we approved the bid, >> right? >> It's a renewal of a contract, right? >> We've delayed paying contractors already a few weeks. I don't see the need for right now for us to pull something when this is an approved bid already. We paid >> I I think you're right. And I think what >> if we need information, we can get the information >> can be provided to the board. >> I don't think we need to. >> I think it might be a fleet thing, too, because I'm looking at

115all the fleets uh bus companies that we approved in 2425. And that unit cost is not it's not listed yet. Correct. So I'm looking at yeshiva services bus. >> I think I think it's a valid question Mr. Vera has. Let's try to get the information to him. >> Let's get Mr. Stock to send him the information please. >> But I think it would I don't see >> fine at the next meeting. I mean we approved it already. I don't see the need to unless there's a procedure to remove the vote and do a vote. I It was already >> holding back the provided services holding back from I don't see I mean >> procedurally there was a motion there was a second it was approved I think at this point the prudent course of action

116would be to get a full report on this so the board has some comfort level as to what it just approved I'm not sure you want to retract the vote and then revote I'm not sure that there's >> can we just move in that direction then if that's if that's legally permissible to do what you just said Douglas which is we make sure that we're getting information the information >> for the next meeting >> and then we can >> No, I think Anna is making a note right now that to provide this to the board, you know, to to have the the detail of what this >> what that little blank spot is. >> Can we get can So, can we put that in to request that information? >> Yes. No, absolutely. >> Absolutely. All

117right. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Um information reports of the board. We did that earlier already. So, we're going to move out the future meeting dates. That's fine. >> Um there we go. >> Um just really quick um on um October 14th, I do want to mention the fact that we had the athletic wellness and Medicaid committee u meeting via Zoom. And um I just wanted to mention the fact that um of course they asked if we had anything to say. And I do want us to which I shared with them to continue praising our students for their achievements and successes. We need to praise them more by acknowledging their greatness. And then on October 16th, thank you to the board. I did attend the NISPA New York State School Board Association annual business

118meeting. And during this meeting, I wanted to share that um I have to move this that nearly there were 350 delegates and considered all 37 proposals that were submitted. 23 of those proposals were recommended by the resolutions committee and 14 not recommended. Um there were pres uh delegates also elected officers for the 2026 calendar year. Positions were adopted during the business meeting um will and they will remain in effect for five years. And I thought it was imperative that I share too that I wanted to mention a few of the resolutions that were passed that evening that kind of like stood out. And one thing that I know a lot of our um parents, some of our students complain about is the like the air conditioning in the in the buildings. And one of the

119um resolutions that was adopted um in light of the recent extreme heat condition days unfunded mandate that the New York State School Boards Association supports the state providing school districts and Boseies with necessary funding to allow for air conditioning and appropriate electrical needs in all public school buildings. So that was one of the resolutions that passed. Um there was another resolution that passed that had to do with um advocating for an overhaul of the current and adequate testing system to more adequately measure achievement in skills, knowledge and abilities. Um and it went on and on but just to mention a few and there was much more um that was presented that evening and I'm quite sure that Miss uh our district clerk Miss Kibby can or myself can provide the you know the the outcome

120of the NISMBA meeting um which was it took place it was very long but it was worth the while. So, I just wanted to share a couple and especially that air conditioning, but because that seems to be um one of the things that our parents complain complain about. So, thank you for um allowing me to be the representative and again, Miss Kibby can share the results with you as well. Thank you. >> Thank you, Vice President McIll, and thank you again for being our representative and for giving us such a nice report. >> One sec. Um, >> I would like to know when we can have the next transportation committee meeting. I see that I'm not being answered on emails. >> We can schedule we'll schedule a transportation committee meeting. >> Um, so I I

121just want to share that um I had an opportunity to attend Pomona's Hispanic Heritage Month. Um I know we shared earlier the different schools uh that you know celebrated uh Hispanic Heritage Month. Um they did a great presentation as always. Um they had uh uh different local businesses and families also bring food. So um you know information history information was shared and then we all um also had a chance to eat together, break bread which was nice. Um, second, I want to say congratulations to our round pool boys JV soccer team. Uh, tonight they played Clarkstown South. They won four to zero um in the sectionals and they will be going for the championship tomorrow against Clarkstown North at Ramapo High School. So, um, let's give them a round of applause for that. [Applause] And

122lastly, uh, our VO varsity boys soccer team will be playing their first round of section one sectionals on Saturday in Arlington at 11:00 a.m. And I wish them the best of luck. That's all. >> Thank you. Future meeting dates, a regular meeting is scheduled for Monday. Monday? >> Yes. Monday, November 3rd. >> Oh, okay. November 3rd, 2025, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the PLCC room administration, building 105 South Madison Avenue, Spring Valley, New York, 1 977. Written communications. The last voting board has not received written communications. I will now make a motion to enter executive session. Kathy, what are we discussing? >> Discuss the uh possible employment of particular persons and also discipline of particular persons. We do not expect action following. >> Thank you. Do I have a second on the motion? >> Second

123by Mr. Weissman. All in favor say I. And on oppos. Thank you. Have a good night everyone. >> Uh I am not sure. All right. Is there a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> Are we live? >> Motion made by Rivera, second by a >> grouper. All in favor? Have a good night, everyone.