001Uh, please stand for the pledge. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty andice for all. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Uh good evening. I will be running the meeting till the board elects a new president. Um and we're going to go ahead and read the uh fire safety. Fire exits are located at the sides of the room in the front and the back. In the event of a fire, you will hear a fire alarm. At that time, please move in a calm and orderly fashion to the nearest exit. I will be going um moving on to uh oaths. Um I will report that Mr. Hera took his oath with the acting district clerk on May 21st, 2025 on the first day of his term to complete the term of uh Mr. Eric Young Mercer.
002uh the acting district clerk administer the oath of office to Yeitza B uh sorry Goober on Tuesday July 1, 2025. Uh now if Miss uh Charles Pierre could come up to do her oath um and then Mr. the wine bundle after you got to repeat it. You could just read it yourself. What? Yeah. Yeah. I, Sabrina Charles Fair, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of trustee of the East Rample Central School District Board of Education according to the best of my ability. and I'll put I'll put in your name after. Yep. Good. Thank you. [Applause] I, Frian Weissman, do affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and
003Constitution of the State of New York and I will faithfully discharge the duties of the trustee of the East Rampo Central School District Board of Education. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wando. Um I will also report that the NY public um Emily Neri administer the oath to interim superintendent of schools Anna Valusco on July 1, 2025. So, um I will be doing an all call nomination. Um first up for the uh president of the board of education. Um any nominations? I'll move a motion to nominate Mr. Shimro as the president for the board. Okay. A second should be a second. I'm going to do a second call of nominations. I'll second. I think Shimmer code second. Simon. Simon code second already. Corre correct. Yes. Yes. Yes. And then a third call. I'll
004do third. A third call. Roll call. No. No. No. No. So So this is I call it three times, but we're all staying on Mr. Sherman Monrose. So now I'm going to So now I'm going to call on everyone a roll call to make sure that we're on the same page. Okay. Um Mrs. Charles Pierre, uh do you um your vote? Yep. Mr. Feder? Yes. Mr. Gruber? Yes. Mr. Moses Cawth? Yes. Mr. Simon Cawth? Yes. Mrs. McIll? Yes. Mr. Rose. Oh, sorry. My my my excuse. Um, Mr. Rivera. Yes. And Mr. Wiseman. Yes. Okay. I still want to hear the vote. Uh, so if Mr. um Mr. Rose could come and sign the oath. Yes. I, Shimon Z. Rose, do solemnly affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and Constitution of
005the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of President of the Board of Education of the East Ramo Central School District according to the best of my ability. Thank you, Mr. Did you sign for me here? Are you going to do ice? Yeah. I needed July 1. [Applause] Thank you all and thank you for all my colleagues for supporting me uh in this role. Um, I will now we will now move on to the vice president of the board of education. I would like to nominate Sher McIll as vice president. Do I have a second? Second by Mr. Weissandle. Not a second. Second. Everybody's second. Second call for any nominations. Third call for any nominations. Hearing none. We have a motion and a second. Uh Karina, can we do a
006roll call, please? Yes. Mrs. Charles Pierre. Mrs. Mr. Feder. Yes. Mr. Gruber. Yes. Mr. Moses Cth. Yes. Mr. Simon Cth. Yes. Mr. Mr. Rose. Yes. Mr. Rivera. Yes. Uh Mr. Wiseman. Yes. Okay. Mrs. Char. M. Mrs. Miguel, if you could come and sign your oath. Congratulations. I Mrs. Miguel do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of vice president of the board of education of the East Rambo Central School District. [Applause] Okay. Thank you. Congratulations, Vice President McIll. Thank you. Um, okay. We will now move on to so how we're going to work is first we're going to get through the organizational meeting. We're going to close the organizational meeting. Then we're going
007to move on to a regular meeting which at that point we will open up the floor for public speaking um and the regular order of business. Um, for now we're moving on to item D, appointment of officers to the uh, appointment of officers to the board. Item D, do I have a motion for items one through four? So move move by Vice President McIll. I'll second the motion. Any discussion on the mo? Uh, yes, Mr. Rose. Um, uh, the, uh, appointed, uh, district treasurer and deputy treasurer will be assigning oath within 30 days. I'm sorry. You said they're going to be signing. They will be signing their oath within 30 days. Okay. Thank you. Okay. That's for number three and four. Okay. Um Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor
008say I. I. Anyone oppose? Same. Motion carries. Okay. Moving on to item E. We're going to talk about appointment of board committees. I'm going to turn it over to Karina now who is going to help us out on the committees needed and who is currently I believe all board members have a chart in front of them. So, let's all reference that. Okay. So, I shared with everyone uh who was in the committee last year. If I shared with everyone who was in the committee last year, um so if you want to remain the same, please let me know. Um to serve the audit committee, I'll stay on. Yep. Mr. Goober, I'll stay the same. Okay. I'll stay on as well. I'll stay on. Okay. Yeah. Which one? Okay. Thank you. Perfect. And then for the
009curriculum and instruction committee, I will stay on. Miguel. Okay. Okay. I'll stay on as well. All righty. And who would like to take uh Mr. Young Mercer's place? You got this, please. Uh curriculum and instruction committee. So, I'd like to make sure we include a new board member that we didn't have last year. So if he has any preferences which any committees that he'd like to join you Mr. Wiseman though okay I can join that committee Mr. River would like to be on the who else Mr. River would like to be on the administration all righty max is four um for athletic wellness and u medicaid committee yeah Okay, I'll stay I will I will stay on. I'd like to be added to it, please. Mr. Charge B. Okay. Was this ready for? So someone
010would have to So yeah, someone would have to step down. Mr. Feder, would you like to yield your seat for Sabrina? Okay. Or Mr. C. Yes. Okay. Thank you. All righty. Uh for the diversity, equity, and inclusion committee. I'll stay on. I'll stay on as well. I will too. Unless anybody else wants to join. How many How many committee members? Oh, there allowed to be four. Four. Okay. We'll stay with the three. Okay. All right. And for the uh facilities and transportation committee, I'll stay on. I'll stay. I'll stay as well. You can add add me to it, please. Okay. Transportation. How many? Four. Four. Four. And then for the policy committee took Oh, she took it. Okay. And would anyone take um Mr. Young Mercer's spot? Which committee we for policy? Yeah. Okay. Thank
011you. Still add one more to the policy. One or two more. Rivera. Okay. And for the teacher center, um, we need, uh, a representative. You, it was Miss Moscow before. Tough. If there's anyone else that wants to fulfill that position. If not, I will stay. You stay. Okay. Is there anyone? The teacher center. What's the role? What's the Can can I just for my clarity, what is the purpose of that committee? Um, so I I believe it's for the teachers. Um, a committee for the teachers and it's uh from what I'm understanding also it's Mondays. The meeting is always Mondays at 4:15 p.m. When we say it's for the teachers, that means we the committee would be meeting with the teachers. What to hear? It's like you talk about professional development things like that. You
012run it? I am. How often is it? It's every Monday. It's not every Monday. It's on Mondays. That's the problem that I have. I I'll stay. Yeah, it's right here. This is old. Yeah. Karina, I'll stay. You'll stay. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Because it doesn't um I did see that we do also have to serve special education committee. So this is uh the opportunity if you guys would want to form the Yep. Mr. Feder, if we could make the committee, I'll be on. If we make the committee, I'll go on. You can add me too. Mr. uh Gruber, you said you'll go on. Yes. As well. Okay. Thank you. And then we also have um to serve the technology and information management committee. I'll stay on. Okay. I can stay there as well. Okay. And
013then uh the representative for the Rockland County School Board Association. I'll stay on. I'll stay on it. Okay. All right. Thank you, Miss Diaz. The special education, how many people do we have? We have four. Okay. So, you have your four. Um, regarding the um, I'm sorry, regarding the policy committee, when is that? Approximately what time? So, I will have to uh, find that out and I will forward you. If it's much before the meeting, like more than a half an hour before the meeting, I won't won't be able to attend. I'm sorry for that. Okay. So, if it's if it's before 7 7 o'clock, then I can if it's after 7 o'clock, then I could be if it's anything before 7, I won't be able to be. I'm sorry. Okay. So, I could get
014the information, but if we need to amend, we could amend in the future. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you. That concludes um committees. So, do we need are we voting on this? No. No. Nothing on this now. Okay. Moving on to other appointments. I will make the motion for items one through nine. Do I have a second? Second by Mr. Weissman. Any discussion hearing? No further discussion for items 1 through nine. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. Anyone oppose obstain. Motion carries. Moving on to designations. Do I have a motion for items one through four? So move. Moved by Vice President McIll. Do I have a second? Second by Mr. Gruber. Any discussion? I have a discussion on eight. Sorry. Item G. What is this committee composed
015of? Who is who joins the committee? One second. Which item are you talking about, Sam? The special education, the CSE um committee, the designation. Oh, well that was a previous right. Okay, we can discuss it, I guess. Go ahead, Sam. I think we're talking about F. We just voted on it. One second. It's um um F F item eight. F8. F8. Committees on special education. Correct. How does that how does that composed? Who joins that committee? Who's uh who's part of it? Is it only school um people that work in the public school system and they do the um IEPs for non-public school children? What exactly are those people? Mr. Feder, can you please repeat that? Some people had trouble hearing you. Speak into the mic, please. The committee on pre on the special education,
016the cse committee subcommittees. What is this comp who who who is it composed of? What are those people's titles? So I I can answer that. I mean, committees on special education are composed of required members depending on the student and their services, but these are people that can sit on the committees throughout the school year. Okay. So, those people make decisions on kids from the only the public school system, the non-public school system. It's for all of our CSC's non-public and public and and that is standard in every district. So is that include all school psychologists and they can all be on the committee all school all special education teachers these are all just all the eligible committee members depending availability. Yes. Yes. Yep. Don't require board approval though. Parents yes must be part of
017the CSC meeting for sure. So I believe on each special ed meeting with each child, the parent is by the meeting naturally. Yeah, they're part of it. Yeah. Explainer, but we'll we'll we'll get to public speaking soon. Let Mr. Feder, is your question answered? Satisfactory? We'll talk about it later. Sorry. It's okay. Okay. Moving on to G designations. We have a motion and a second. Do we have any discussion on items one through four? Hearing no further discussions, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. Anyone oppose obstain? Motion carries. Moving on to authorizations. Do we have a motion for items 1 through nine for H? Motion. I'm sorry. It was moved by Mr. K, second by the Wise Mandle, I guess. Yes. for items 1 through nine. Any discussion
018hearing? No further discussion. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. Anyone in oppos? Motion carries. Moving on to insurance coverage. Item I. I will make the motion for item I number one. Do I have a second? Second by Mr. Gruber. Any discussion on this item? Hearing no further discussion. All those in favor say I. Anyone in oppos? Motion carries. Moving on to J. Other items. I have a motion for items 1 through eight. Items 1 through eight. A motion. Do I have it? So move. Move. Vice President McIll. I'll second the motion. Any discussion on the matter? Uh yes. Um for items number two and three. Um so I I know we haven't had a policy meeting in a few months. Um and we're being presented six policies.
019Um I think let me see. One, two, three. Six. Is two and three the same? It looks like they are two and three. Is item number two and three the same on the agenda? Yeah. Yes, they are. All members have been provided with these. Yeah. It's the same. Okay. So, you you see so you usually we have a first reading and a second reading. Um this is a policy. First of all, the attachment wasn't attached to the agenda and um I think if there's no urgency to vote on it tonight, we should probably wait so we know what changes were made. Um, so we can then put a first and a second reading. And if a cop a copy of that policy can be given to us. Yes. No. Maybe. So definitely. Okay. Yep. I
020think we should um So, are we removing this or Sorry, you could if you're done. We're done with uh we could go you could adjourn to now the regular meeting. No, no, we're asking about two and three. First of all, two and three is the same item. Second, um, as I just stated, we should pull this item so that the board can review these policies to know what has changed. Um, and then we should follow the process where we do a first and a second reading um, or wave the second reading at the next board meeting. Okay. So, I'll pull um item two. I have a question and three with these policies. Um, it's a motion to readt all existing policies, code of conduct, and code of ethics in effect during the previous year until
021the same. So, has any changes been made to this, Miss Diaz? I believe not. Everything is the same. Mhm. Well, that's what I would want to would want to see. I mean, want to clarify. It's it's all the same. So, we could pull and get more clarification on that, please. Thank you. Yes. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I don't I don't hear any opposition to pulling it. So, you know, as long as it doesn't affect We don't want it to affect any kind of uh operations or anything in the district. So, if the district says if the superintendent says we're good to pull it and it's not going to affect anything agenda, I think that we are fine to pull it. I just want to ask Douglas who was here. Douglas, my understanding is that um these
022policies are already in place. So reauthorizing it at this point is not a requirement for it to continue. Would you agree? I'm sorry. Those are the three policy. The audio is a little bit choppy. Is that the three policies that were on the reorg meeting? Yes. Yeah, I think those are in place. Those are in place. So it's okay to pull. Okay. So we'll Who made the motion and the second will amend the motion? I was the second. You made the motion. What are you saying? Can you check? Um, Miss Miguel made the motion and you second. Okay. You want to I'll take my I'll resend my motion. Okay. Do you want to make another motion? An amended motion minus two and three maybe. Okay. So, I make a motion that we do items one
023through one. Yeah. We accept Jay. Other items one, four, five, six, seven, and eight. I'll second. Okay. Any further discussion on these matters? Okay. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. And on oppose the stay. Motion carries. Okay. We will now make a motion to adjourn the organizational meeting. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Just just one correction um that I just noticed for item number eight for Jay. Um it says motion to approve for 2425 school year. I think that should say 2526 school year if we can just make that correction for the minutes. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. I will now make a motion to adjourn this meeting. Uh do I have a second? Second. Second by Vice President Miguel. All those in favor say I.
024I. Anyone oppose the same? Motion carries. Okay. We will now call to order the regular scheduled meeting. Just bear with me one second until I get the speaking chart. Um, I will now make a motion to open the floor. Thank you, Karina. Open the floor for public speaking. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Vice President McIll. All in favor say I. Anyone opposes obstain? Motion carries. Speaker number one. And he's doing public speaking. You hear me? Yes. Uh my name is Mark Pessen. I am a was a parent of a student at East Ramapo and also I taught in East Rampo. I was also a teacher for 51 years. So I have some standing here I hope and I wanted to talk to you about a matter uh that I'm concerned about. uh
025I feel very uh strongly about parent participation in their own students lives. I believe in community control that is that people should who have children in the schools should have a say over what happens. Uh I am very disturbed about an incident that occurred and I'm hoping that we can remedy this with a a sense of justice. First of all, I'm also a member of the Rockland Coalition to End the New Jim Crow, which is an organization that many of you do know about or have attended the meetings of that is concerned about social justice and doing things the right way. Uh we are also very involved with trying to improve the school uh the East Rampo Central School District. We've met with Dr. Ellis, we've met with Mr. D. Carlo and uh we intend
026to continue trying to make East Rampo a terrific place. My concern is that parents, especially activists, be heard. I am concerned about what happened to Terry Rodriguez because she is a person who in my opinion has fought to make things better in East Ramapo. She uh dealt with the issue of the asbestos and lead in the schools. She dealt with the issue of the lead in the water. Uh many improvements were made because Terry Rodriguez stood up and spoke on behalf of the parents who I've spoke to and they all support her. We need her here, not somewhere else. And I would like you to consider the possibility of not banning her for six months, but giving her a warning about whatever it is that she may have made a mistake. We all make mistakes,
027but her participation here in terms of bringing up issues of importance is more important than the mistake that she might have made and could possibly correct. So, I would like to you to consider the possibility of withdrawing the six-month ban. I think it was a six-month ban, and letting her come back and continue to fight for East Ramapo. Even if she says things that we'd always you may not like to hear, her heart is in the right place. And I thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker number two. It has nothing to do with it. Wait a second. Yeah. Rodriguez. forot. Mr. Spring Valley High School. Sorry. establish. Fore! Foreign! Foreign! district. [Applause] [Music] Thank you. Speaker number three. Good evening. I want to speak on the process for the selection of superintendent
028and I want it to be that we don't get into the same position that we were in this year. We need to start the process to find the new superintendent now, not later. Now, so that we can get the best candidates available for this position. It's a very important position. Therefore, we cannot waste time. We need to start now. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker number four. Yeah. Okay. Carlo Magnific. Spring Valley High School. Yeah. High school. Fore! Foreign! Foreign! There's no personal note, Mr. Rose. [Applause] Thank you. Speaker number five. Hello everyone. I want to congratulate to the staff that worked for the graduation. Um there were no hiccups whatsoever. Security was topnotch. Everyone was respectful and was able to get everyone out of the parking lot safely and that includes me and the bus
029for the marching band which was awesome. Um, also with the help of the local police, which is amazing, too. The kids had fun and I'm so happy to see so many graduate and I hope that this following year more kids are able to sit down and make it to graduation. And I want the board to stay on top of that because it's not fair for one child to fall through the cracks and they shouldn't at all actually. Um, also I would like to mention for the summer camps, you know, the heat in the summer, correct? We need more fans in those schools if we're not going to do anything about the ACs. Chzen Ridge has a system. It doesn't work. Why? No one says anything. So, please look into that. Um, also I want to
030mention when we get to next year, transportation is going to be an issue again because we don't have a director. Um, as a parent, I would like to know who it will be if someone got appointed. Um, because I'm worried now. So, for my kids is for the kids of the district. Everyone deserves to, all the kids deserve to go to school in a bus, especially with AC and heat when it's supposed to be. It's unfair for kids to get off of buses sweating, red, and hyperventilating. Crying because it's too hot. And we keep saying this every year, every year. And I will continue saying it every year until you actually address it. Because if not, then I feel like you should bring a bus over and you guys can sit in there and tell
031me how it feels for 30 minutes to drive around with no AC and no air. That's very unfair. That's neglectful. And if something happens to one of our student, their lies is on you. And someone that gives a contract to a company, you have to make sure that they're properly and safe, not just son because they're someone else's child. take it as it's your child and pay attention. When a parent speaks and tells you that they don't want their child to be harmed and it's ongoing too that the board typically just looks down, doesn't take notes, no one emails anyone, no one calls anyone about their concerns. I know right now there's not a dialogue, but it would be nice for a board member to actually email a parent about their concerns and how they
032will help to address it. And it has to change this year. because if we don't see changes now, y'all shouldn't be there anyways. Okay, that concludes public speaking. I'm sorry. Um before you move on, I I just want to address something. Um especially since a few of our uh parents speakers uh mentioned it. Um we've always had a process in place when certain things are being um done in this district and seeing that letter that was sent to Miss Rodriguez. Um I noticed that it said on the bottom it was not signed. It also said on behalf of the board and I just want to make it clear that as a board member if this was a conversation that was had with the entire board I was not included in it. And if the board
033had was not included in this conversation, then we shouldn't have been it should have never been acknowledged as us on behalf of the board. From my understanding, the monitors had a play in it and what was done and I think people needs to be start we need to start holding people accountable. It's not fair. I think that if we as a board was preview to this, we could have had a conversation about it and it could have went a different way. Um, you know, we we we can't be moving backwards with the things that we do. Um, like the speaker said, you know, there's a there's been processes and if we're going to do something, let's do it right. And not only that, too, there's no legal bearing to that letter. So the fact that
034we've created this scenario of having, you know, people banned from from meetings with no probable cause and no court order, you know, I don't think it was right. So moving forward, please, if if we're going to do some send out a letter on behalf of the board, please let the board know what's going on. I would ask questions, but I know my questions will not be answered, so I'm just going to leave it at that. Thank you. Well, don't let just just for you know, I'm going to add to that. Um, you know, I too um was not aware of this letter. So, yes. So, I want to make for the record I wasn't as well. Um, and I think that we as a board can sit down and discuss it with our interimm superintendent
035in terms of, you know, what can we do first? Like what would be the first step? Um in terms of if a situation like that arises maybe perhaps you know we can have steps in place when it comes to you know people maybe you know a incident may happen where we can come together and discuss it and talk about it. So I just want to make that clear. Thank you. I want to add to that as well. I was I was not aware of this either and I I am in agreement. I don't agree with it and I'm I listen to what you're saying. I am in agreement with you that she should be here. Well, remember this. Remember this. We are a a we have to follow rules. We have to follow policies, right?
036But we're making ourselves clear. For those of us who have made ourselves clear, I was not aware of this. I found out after the fact. I do have I am making my notes on bringing this up later on so we can discuss it. Okay. Thank you for your comments. Um we will now move on to our superintendent report. Superintendent L Glusco, go ahead. Take it away. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. Uh before I continue, I would uh like you or I'd like to invite you to join me in a moment of silence. We um we did lose a student tragically last week from Spring Valley High School who was scheduled to graduate uh last week. His name is uh Eric Chilan Hidalgo. And if you please just join me in a moment of silence
037to honor his the memory of his life. Thank you. Good evening, members of the board of education, East Ramapo community administrative team. It is my pleasure to be here this evening and it is my pleasure to serve in the capacity of the interim superintendent while we conduct a search to find a superintendent that'll be a more permanent um replacement for this position for Anthony D. Carlo who we all remember very fondly. Um, I uh would like to extend my congratulations to uh President Rose, and to Vice President McIll, to Trustee Rivera, Trustee Charles Pierre, Trustee Gruber, and Trustee Wise Mandel on your appointments this evening. So, congratulations to all of you. Um, Anthony Carlo. Um I I do want to take a few minutes just to comment on some of the um uh public comments.
038Um and I I hear you. I hear you know the concerns that you have. I want you to know that um my focus will be absolutely student centered throughout the time that I serve in this position. So uh I am interested in working with the community. I am interested in putting students first. I'm interested in continuing the good work that Anthony D Carlo started. So please be aware. I know that you started with the parent teacher organizations in the schools. I intend to continue to meet with you on a regular basis. I will be meeting and inviting community members to come and join with me so I can hear and understand your voice and concerns. I also know that he uh started to meet with students at the high schools. Uh and I did meet
039with some of them already. It was a pleasure, wonderful meeting with them. Uh I believe he met once a month at Spring Valley High School and once a month at Ramipo. I intend to continue that practice as well. And my view is that we will work with the board of education, the community, and with this administrative team to continue the work that we started. And I do want you to know, I know how much you appreciated uh Anthony, and so did we. But I also want you to know that this team, all all of us worked very hard with him, and we know the work that he that we started under his leadership, and we will continue that work. I'm going to talk a little bit about that this evening. Um, but I I want
040to reassure you of that. Let's see. Oh, well, I want to also update you a little bit on our summer learning programs. As you recall, last year we were unable to offer our programs, but this year we have quite a few programs. We've been working very hard to ensure that a maximum number of students are enrolled in all of them. We have programs in uh Summit Park, kindergarten uh for incoming first and through sixth graders, Fleetwood, Kaciat. We have a program for first through 12th graders. We also have a freshman academy, Pomona Middle School, and a STEM enrichment program also at Pomona Middle School. at um the Spring Valley High School, we're offering credit recovery for um all of our high school students that need to uh take uh regent exams and or retake some
041of the courses that they need for graduation. Uh we have 739 students who indicated that they were interested in attending. They have not all registered, but we are working on um encouraging them to come in to complete the registration process. That's a very large number. I uh checked the last time that we ran this summer school, our numbers hovered around 350. So, if these folks come in and they've registered, we will really it's it's really quite an improvement to what we've done in the past. So, I'm really excited about that. We also have a new program this year called the Jumpstart program. It's for our incoming kindergarteners and um that initiative was overseen by Karen Maronei. We're excited about that program and and we're hoping that it'll give our students an opportunity to get a
042good start on their educational career. Just a just a quick question. Um I noticed it says that there's space available for uh freshman academy STEM enrichment program and the high school program which you just mentioned. Um what are we doing to promote and to get the word out there that we are still looking to enroll. Um I know as a parent I have um remind and I don't think I've seen any messages go out. Uh we also have our social media platform uh the robocall and our website. So, what steps are we taking knowing that July 7th is right around the corner? Good question. Um, I I have not overseen all of that. So, I can't answer it. Um, you know, other than to say that obviously we've we've shared information with parents, we've informed
043parents. Um, but I can look into it, make sure that it is um on the website and that we maximize our efforts to communicate with parents so that we can fill these seats. Okay. And I don't know if you know the answer to this question, but um you mentioned that we have 739 for the high school program, but not all have registered. Correct. Would that be the same for the other programs we have or are those um numbers of students that have registered for those programs? Thank you. My understanding based on information I've gathered in and speaking with our team Oh, um Dr. Gonzalez would like to answer. Yeah, good evening. So, um, in terms of the secondary programs, there is space because those counselors are still registering students. Um, as we sat here this
044evening, I saw a flurry of emails that we may have had some difficulty with eSchool today. So, there may have been a feature that blocked additional registrations. Counselors have been made aware. Uh, Miss uh, Mr. Gandhi's team has been made aware. So, at 8:30 tomorrow morning, we'll be looking to troubleshoot that. All of our elementary programs were filled early and those programs move up into the middle school, middle level years. Um and so because the registration is very different for those programs, we were able to do those much much sooner and have filled all of those seats. So there are no additional seats available for um those programs. In terms of the secondary programs, they are based on student need. Um so we do have a report that we've prepared and shared um just today
045with um interim superintendent RLCO and and the team that shows uh the number of courses that we will be implementing for the four core areas English, math, science, and social studies because the focus for the secondary summer program is to help students meet the needs to graduate um high school either this August if possible or get them back on track for um their cohort status moving forward. So, um, all of the secondary students that have not yet registered will also be receiving, um, personal phone calls from school counselors who are working to schedule those students into those sections. Okay. Thank you. So, there is outreach being done. All right. Thank you. Yeah. And I'd like to also just um, uh, recognize uh, Beverly Jones, Dr. Dr. Beverly Jones, who's been um spearheading the uh credit
046recovery uh in terms of working with the guidance counselors to try to reach out to parents and to students and to encourage them to uh register um because that has been an issue in the past. So, we're making improvements. And does that include night school for the high school program or is it just we're not doing a night school at this time? No question. We have explored um through actually through Rockland Boseies. we had explored um neither we nor they and this is going back to September of the current of the school year we just closed out. Neither we nor they were prepared. Um my understanding based on additional conversations with Rockland Boseies is that we may not be able to uh partner with them in in looking to do a night school program. So
047that is something that we would need to take on as a district which is a big lift. So we would work to see if it's something that we might be able to do for the 2526 school year. Okay. Because I I know we did take over um the night plan uh two two about two years ago I I believe so maybe we can look into what um was put in place and how we can right bring it back I'd like to um also uh just bring our attention to the uh summer just a quick question just wondering Mr. school. Hi. So, I see that there's quite a few schools listed here. Yes. Are all the schools having programs cuz I feel like I'm there are schools that are not listed that I thought they were
048having some summer school program. No, these are the schools that are having our programs. Um, this is where our programs are located. Only these schools? Yes. Is there a particular school that you had in mind? Uh, Hemstead. Well, with the ESY program would be at Hemstead. So, that is our um specialed ed summer school program, which is a little bit different than than these summer learning programs. Karen Maronei, did you have something to share with that? I mean, we're we're holding our extended school year program at the Hemstead school location. I don't know if you're asking it. All the schools are invited to all the programs. They're just not being housed there. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And so, um, I would like to move on to our summer renovation updates. We are doing
049some work in some of the schools, uh, this summer, uh, in the Ramipo High School auditorium. We are renovating it. Uh, construction began June 25th and, um, we are currently in the asbestos abatement phase. Uh, in addition, we are um updating the graphics in several of our cafeterias at the middle schools and at the high schools. Um so that that should give it a facelift that we think would add um a good ambiance to those settings. In addition, we are paving finally thankfully um some of our or all of our buildings really where uh we have a schedule that we've posted here and uh Matt, you want to say a quick word on the uh paving? It'll be quick. Okay. We do have a schedule that's posted up here. We think that that will help
050quite a bit. So I know where there's been a lot of concerns about potholes and this is really a project that's um long outdated. Now it Yes. Um just a suggestion um I know at graduation on Friday it was mentioned that Rampo students have to wait to pick up their um diplomas. Yes. A recommendation is there any possible way for them to either go to kaciat and pick it up or come here and pick it up? That way they're not waiting. I know a lot of students um tend to start schooling earlier than you know the usual which is usually I think August, September. Um I know there are some that are leaving this month. Um is that something that we can try to do? Sure. You know what? We can look into it. At
051this point, it's possible that we've communicated it out to all of them and then recommunicating it might cause a um confusion, but we could certainly consider that for next year if you feel that, you know, we Well, it wouldn't be an issue next year. It's only because the renovation is because the renovation because of that. Oh, let me let me take a look and see if the re if we think that the renovations will interfere. Yeah, cuz not only that too, just in case, for whatever reason, um I know they gave a date of July 14th, but if for whatever reason they have to uh continue on for what, you know, at least they're not waiting till after July 14th to receive it. Yeah, thank you for that. Thank you for noticing that. I I
052will certainly look until we get back to you. Thank you, Mr. Lusco. Um even though there's renovation being done in the auditorium, are other parts of the building available? My understanding is that the other parts of the building are available. But Matt, so if you remember last year when we did summer school, um, our architects, our construction managers, even even though you can use technically you can be in a certain footage distance as a labor practice, it's never a good idea to mix asbestous abatement in any and occupy any part of the building. It's just it it's not that everyone's, you know, it's it's it's that day. It just the optics of it, the potential of it, it's just it's never good. So, uh when we're doing the asbestous statement phase here, we're talking uh
053a roughly a 9-day process. Um and that's on the longer end. Um we imagine it's going to go it uh probably a few days faster and to get the air samples back in time. Um so it we'll probably be able to have people back in the building once those air samples are received. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um we do have some preliminary information uh regarding regions graduation uh data and um I'm going to ask Dr. Gonzalez to uh summarize that for us. Yes. So actually I'm very excited to share this data with you. While it is preliminary, it is taken directly from the New York State Education Department data warehouse, which is a warehousing warehousing system that it's used um to not only pull information in with uh respect to regions results, but also
054is what the state utilizes in uh announcing report card status. So what you see here is a significant improvement in terms of uh student achievement across the board. So the first column is algebra in the yellow is the 2024 performance and in the orange is the 2025 performance. So on average across the district we increased by 8 percentage points in algebra 1. Uh English language arts we saw a significant increase of 25.6 percentage points. Uh living environment uh we we saw only a an increase of 1.7 percentage points. uh we do need to and there's there are a number of things that we need to keep in mind when looking at this data. Uh but specific to living environment, this is the first year that the state launched a new examination for high school. Typically
055living environment is taken either in 8th or 9th grade. Uh the state is moving over towards um human biology which is a different assessment. Um and so some of our students did take the biology assessment in lie of living environment. So that's why this data might be a little skewed in terms of the the performance. Um global history we saw an increase of 7.4 percentage points and US history an increase of 4.1 percentage points. Again just on a yeartoyear basis from 2024 to 2025. Um right now this is um while it's preliminary, it is um very very good news to report to the district that in terms of the systems and structures that have been laid out for our um teachers to have access to curriculum to time on task with students in front of
056them, uh we're considering everything and we'll do a much deeper dive and and prepare this information to the board um during the July 29th board meeting. But you can see that um it is it is certainly worth celebrating the the achievement of our students during the the June administration of of the regions exams. Before you go to the next slide, I just want to mention um and I know I've had this conversation about algebra 1 regions which is a course that I teach. I think it's imperative that we take a look and I'm going to say it again. Take a look at um our students being able to use what they call Desmos. Decimals now is a pro uh a calculator that is studentfriendly that does a lot for our students. Um and I want
057us as a district to look into that. Um even give the teachers maybe professional development on the use of Desimos because I am I am I I I think Desimos will help us a great deal when it comes to our students um being successful. Our rate will be higher than that. Trust me. So, I I know that I mentioned it to you before, but I really want us to consider using the Desmos for our students for the um algebra one instead of a graphing calculator. So, we did have that discussion. I met with Bobin as well as uh Sonia, our director of instructional technology um specifically regarding Desmos. And just just so that um everyone knows and including the community who's who's not just in front of us but also listening online th this preliminary
058data is absent us doing a deep dive on the instructional practices. Right? This is just on its surface how the students performed. Certainly once we do a deeper dive we'll start looking at specific instructional strategies. We're going to look at the number of students enrolled in our afterchool programs to see if the students that were actually enrolled in that program benefited from that program. and and that's uh uh uh you know that can be something attributed towards um towards these increases. So there are a number of things that we still need to do um in terms of a deep dive, but we've had the conversation about decimals specifically and bringing them in for a demonstration. Thank you. And I I just want to ask um what are we doing to make sure that we bring
059in resources to help in the other subjects? Um you know I I do notice that there was a big jump in ELA. Um, US history and global history seems to be a little bit up seems to be up there. Um, but what other resources are we bringing in and how are we making sure that, you know, our students are meeting the expectations of our district um being over the 50 percentile. I'm I'm going to I think I would like to address some of that in our next slide. um uh as an introduction. I think we'll speak a little bit more as the summer continues and and as we approach the new year. Uh first Anna, so thank you. Um first of all, I just wanted to commend Dr. Gonzalez for these score improvements um over
060last year. It's great to see these improvements and these numbers, but I I do want to reiterate there are some areas where we're still lower than average, way below lower than average. And I really hope that you know for the next year to continue seeing these numbers increase and keep on doing the great work that you're doing. Um but like I'm sure you know this, you don't need me to tell you this, but I'm just reiterating that the job's not done. You know, we want to keep on going up and up and up and continue. That's it. Um yeah, thank you. Yep. Um and just so just to directly answer your question, um Trusty Charles Pierre, the five regions exams that we shared are typically the five that are mandated for graduation. So you need
061English, math, typically the math is algebra. Um you need two social studies, the US history and the global. And you need one science because living environment is offered um typically in either eth or nth grade year. That's the the data that we find to be most helpful. Um you can certainly students that graduate with advanced regions diplomas have to take additional regions exams, but those are the five that we selected because they are the the typical um regent exams that students need to graduate. No, no. The question was what resources are we bringing in to help bring Yeah, I'm I'm going to address it. I think a deeper dive we'll talk a little bit more as we continue in the year. Um so I want to bring your attention if I may to the next
062slide which is a human resources update slide. And firstly I would like to welcome Matthew um Kvatz. He is our new executive director of human resources and he's sitting in the seat I used to sit in or uh and so I want to welcome him. he's going to be helping to oversee the HR department. So, welcome. Yep. Um and uh in addition, I wanted to just inform the community that we did have a celebration of our uh retirees. We honored 35 retirees this year um at Ramapo High School last week. Uh Anthony D. Carlo was uh hosting it and uh we had quite a few retirees and their families join us. It was a lovely celebration and it's a tradition that we hope to to deepen and continue as we as we move forward. In
063addition, I wanted to share with you uh a little bit of information about how we are strengthening our own team. It's an important discussion that it's possible the community is not fully aware of the extent to which that we are trying to strengthen our academic team. um which ultimately of course will result in improved um programming for our students and um and better uh student achievement. I want you to know that in our current budget we budgeted for directors of ELA, math, science, social studies, additional executive director positions, especially uh one in MLE, multilingual education department. And we've hired a number of these folks. In addition, we have budgeted for and are in the process of hiring um coordinators for culture and climate at these secondary levels. and they're going to be helping the administrative
064teams in those buildings deal with issues such as improved student attendance, um scheduling issues, disciplinary issues, just another adult and administrator who was present to assist in running the schools. Uh at the uh K through six level, we have budgeted for 24 coordinators. These are 12 month administrative positions. Um our plan is to hire eight uh for multilingual education, eight for literacy, and eight for STEM. This is an incredible number of administrators to uh bring on board and to incorporate into our planning and um into the services that we can offer students. We expect that this is going to make a considerable difference in um the the services that we can offer students and the programming that we can offer them. Uh in addition, we do have some coordinators that we're bringing on board for
065the special education department so that we could strengthen the practices there both in and out of uh you know both the um public and the non-public um students so we could serve them as best as we can. Um so that's really important. We are going to be working very hard this summer on quite a number of things. One of them is to bring these folks on board and to incorporate them into our administrative team and into our district. Um, and I wanted to just make sure that the parent and the community are aware of that because that's one of the most important things we'll be focusing on this year. Uh, in addition, um, as you know, we're working closely with our monitors um to, um, uh, work on a long-term plan. We have current learn
066long long-term plan that we've been working with all year long and we have a new one that we're in the process of developing and we will be developing this as a team. The purpose of that plan is to make sure that all of our our resources that are our focus is on improving student achievement. And what I want to say is that I know that Anthony said to have um Okay. They're talented, hardworking folks and the people that we're bringing in are also quite impressive. So, East Ramapo, I do believe that we're going to see a difference and I hope that you join us in our excitement about that and I want you to know that as the community members and as parents, we care about you. We want to partner with you. We cannot
067do this without you. So, please believe that we will make efforts to meet with you. I promise you that. I just have um one comment. Um first of all I want to say um you know change is always great of course and you know congratulations to and welcome to um all the new staff but one thing I do want to mention is that from what I've heard um you know I'm about transparency and communication. Uh it it it sounds like there's a lot of changes being done in the buildings when it comes to APS and principles. Um, and I would hate to see that we're making these changes knowing that there's no vacancy. Um, and not really knowing the reason because we as a board was not privy to it. Uh, there was no conversation
068with the board about it. Uh, so, you know, some of us were kind of, well, let me speak for myself was blindsided by, you know, certain decisions that were made or that will be made. And I think that um as as a district, we need to protect those who have been serving our district for years um in capacity of principal or AP. Uh as as we know, we are going to conduct a search to have a a permanent superintendent. And I would hate that when that happens, you know, sometimes when they come in, they like to make their own changes. Um, and I think security of a position is very important and that we need to think of that when we're making these these decisions and maybe even thinking about waiting until the superintendent comes
069when it comes to um changing positions that are not vacant. So, it's one thing when you hire, you know, you're you're looking to hire and you're bringing someone in as opposed to we already have people in place and now we're starting to change them in different buildings and um you know, not knowing what that might bring later on because of the fact that there's no consistency in in in terms of leadership. Thank you. If that makes sense. Sure. Sure it does. And I'll just say, of course, I appreciate your comments and your thoughtfulness. Um, I want to let the community know, I know that there have been concerns about some of the changes that we've made. I want you to know, at least be aware that we did this as a team. We were very
070thoughtful. We thought about it over and over again. And I can I understand what you're saying. You'd like more transparency. We could work on that for sure. But we tried very hard to balance all of our teams. So, to the best of our ability, and no, it is not perfect. We try to have bilingual administrators in all the buildings. We try to balance it by gender if we can. We try to balance it by expertise, the people's backgrounds. Some of them have math backgrounds, English, science, or elementary backgrounds. So, we we did a lot of things like that. Is it perfect? No. Um, it never will be, but we are doing our best as an administrative team. But yes, we will be uh we can certainly be more transparent. And yes, we know that change
071is difficult for a lot of folks and uncomfortable, but we'll move forward as best as we can. We also try to balance the um the teams that we have with the current new hires to again try to ensure that there is a as strong a team as we can um as we as we believe we can do with the staff that we have and the the folks bringing in. But thank you for for those thoughts. So when you say team, I just just for clar clarification purposes, um who who's a part of the team? Sure. Our administrative team right here, um Anthony D. Carlo was part of that. Um our entire executive team was part of that. Um and so we had several meetings when we were discussing making changes in placement, which uh all
072districts do, you know, district leadership. Part of it is that sometimes we do transfer people. Okay. And I once again for transparency purposes um we we are a district that has issues um bringing people in and I would hate to lose people um no matter what position they're in um because of not because mainly because of the decision but maybe because of the way they're being treated or being spoken to. Um because I I I to my understanding as well some people were told to either take the position or to go somewhere else. So, I just want to make sure that whatever we're doing, we're not hurting our district more to to be in a position where we have more vacancies. Sure. Sure. So, I just um I'm not sure who you're referring to, but
073I'm happy to talk to you privately about that. I do want you to know that anybody that um that I've spoken to or HR have spoken to. We we do not speak to folks in that way. We we honor their service. Um and so if that is happening, I would like to know about it, but I'm happy to speak about it privately. And just to be clear, too, it's not just these positions. I'm this is just a general statement. Okay. So on a positive note if I may um I just want to mention as an educator I am grateful to see that we have a director of each and every common core subject. And the reason why I'm going to say this, you know, when you go to other high schools, for example, you might
074not be, they might not be called a director, but for example, you may have a math department chair or a science department chair. So, which in this case, I know having these directors now, we're going to see both our high schools being on the same page. So if one student leaves from one high school to the other, right, they'll still be on the same page in uh according to what is being taught, what is being instructed, the curriculum. So I'm I'm happy to see that there is directors of there's a director of science, ELA, social studies, and I know before math because that's going to make a world of difference so that the high schools now because we're one district will be on the same page. So I I I wanted to say that to
075you. um um in regards to that. Um and so I'd like to move forward to our last slide and this is really an announcement and um an invitation. Uh we are hiring um okay school diploma I'm saying that we are in need of about 40 or more teaching assistance. It does require a high school diploma or GED um and a few other steps that need to be taken. Not so difficult, but we can help. So we could um make sure that um if we have a cadre of people who are interested in working in this in September, it offers benefits, a reasonably uh competitive um salary for teaching assistance. It's the teachers uh calendar, so it's 184 days a year. They end, you know, relatively early, so they can do things at night, study at
076night, etc. So, if you uh have even new um some strong high school students that recently graduated and are not necessarily going to school full-time or they're going to school part-time, we would be interested. Uh anyone bilingual for sure. Um and folks that you know in your community, so please spread the word. We're very interested. In addition, we are also hiring a number of monitors. Monitors work um four to six hours a day in our schools. Um and um you know we need quite a few of them as well also need a high school diploma or a GED. Um and what they do is they help um in the cafeteria they help um you know um with student safety issues out with the busing and bringing the students in and just an extra pair of
077hands to have. So please be aware that you could uh go on Olas and also there's the um little scan box that you could take a picture of. Okay, superintendent Rusco that concludes us for tonight. Yes. Can I actually go back? We skipped the slide for graduation rate and I actually don't want to just glaze over that, I think. Okay, sure. So, and um I apologize, but I did want to resurface this because it's really important for the community to understand and for the board to know that our graduation rate for the first time, a cursory look on the state website shows that for the first time in close to 20 years, both of our schools have a graduation rate over 80%. 80% 80% is the state threshold. Um really really commend both of our
078high schools. um they they've seen increases Ramipo from 85.7% to 89.7%. So they are approaching that 90% threshold and Spring Valley saw an increase of 62.5% graduation rate which the last time I presented graduation rate data had a different sort of outlook. Um we're now at 85.3. So it is it is commendable and I didn't want the the evening to go by without um bringing this back. Overall the district is at 85.3 and also recognition to the CNI entire team uh because a lot of folks helped. Um Paul Leoan helped a lot. Um we have a number of folks that are are helping. So again, it's a team effort and so congratulations to the whole team. Uh ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your attention this evening. And I I I just want
079to uh say just echo what you just said and and thank you uh Dr. Gonzalez and your team and everyone else, especially our teachers um and and principles. A lot of times we say, you know, we we're afraid of change, but at the same time too, like I said, change is also good. Um, and I know there's been a lot of changes in the buildings. Um, so, you know, I I hope to continue to see um increases and and to get good news um from when we do get these datas. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Gonzalez. Thank you, Mr. Lusco. Thank you for bringing this up. Thank you for bringing it back to our forefront. These are things that we need to celebrate and these are very positive especially when you see such
080a massive jump from 6250 to 85.3%. A lot of people should be congratulated for that. So thank you Dr. Gonzalez. Great job. Thank you Mr. Pusco and your team. Um okay we will now move on to consent and agenda items. Um, consent and agenda items 1 through 8. Do I have a motion for items 1 through 8? Consent and agenda. Moved by Mr. Gruber. Do I have a second? Second by Mr. Weissman. We'll open it up for discussion. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. Anyone opposes or abstain? Motion carries. Moving on to action items. Do I have a motion for action items 1 through 12? I'll make the motion. Do I have a second? Second by Mr. Feder. We'll open it up for discussion. I have
081a question about the HR services. I know we just got a new executive director. Welcome. Um why are we What's this uh HR services item 10? Yes. So um a couple of months ago we um asked you to approve uh assistance from two um folks who have HR experience to assist us in hiring. As remember, we're trying to hire so many people and as a matter of fact, these uh two folks would be ones that are uh helping with the teaching assistants, the monitors, the aids, um the substitutes. So, they come in about twice a a week, two days a week. Um uh and then we wanted to continue that service especially as we have a new head of HR right now and um and I'm moving on to a different role. So, we we
082felt we needed uh additional support. Is this within our budget? Yes, it's it's budgeted for Were they su successful in getting us hirees? I'm sorry. Were they successful in getting us hieries? They've been very successful into some uh uh degree. Um not not um to their fault. There there are some issues that we're working with them um to improve. uh and this for example um explaining to the community about the teaching assistant vacancies is one of them. So we have to get the word out to the community because that's really where our teaching assistants are going to come from. They've been successful and helping us hire aids. We have quite a few folks that are coming on board and um improving our um permanent building subs, but then we had a number of them that
083resigned. So again, they're working on it, but these are things that we just don't have time for. So, um, you know, Mr. Kvatz, he's going to be very focused on other issues and, uh, we we just need that kind of of support at this moment. Um, for number five, the agreement for the Northern Regional, is that should that be a motion to um should that service be from July 1st, 2024 to 2025 or should that read 2025 to 2026? The dates are incorrect or is it retroactiveness? I don't know. Is this a new Is this a new service, Bron? Is this is this um was this your addition on the addendum? Are we looking at item three? Item five, Northern Regional Educational Service Commission. It says motion that upon the recommendation of the interim superintendent
084to approve and authorize the board of the board president ordinance his absence the vice president and the interimm superintendent of schools to sign the service agreement between district and northern regional educational services commission for special education services for July 1st 2024 to June 30 of 2025. So should that be 2025 to 2026 or is this for Karen? Yes, it's a student that was on um home and hospital instruction. So that agency provided the home instruction services. So we have to pay them for the services for this school year. Okay. So I just want to make sure we're we have it correct in the um on the agenda. Mr. Go ahead. I got a question 12. Go ahead. the water for RFP where we you know one of the parents actually spoke about these buses being
085very warm very hot and during the summer months or during the warmer months. What are the assurances that are we getting that those buses are providing either some type of something to make sure that the students are comfortable while sitting in a bus anywhere from a few minutes to upwards of 45 to an 45 minutes to an hour. Do we get any kind of assurances on that from these bus companies since we're going to be awarding this RFP to those companies? So, excuse me. There there's not um any requirement for air conditioning. Um but we did receive complaints um during some of the hotter periods this spring that there were uh bus drivers that were not permitting students to open windows. Um we have had meetings with any of the contractors that were involved in
086complaints like that. Um it is not acceptable. We have um we've when necessary and asked uh been been made aware of issues with parents, we do ask for video footage from the buses because we do have uh video cameras and so on and so forth. So, it is something that um uh is is on our radar um and we will work um with the contractors to make sure that uh the drivers that are driving our buses are acting appropriately. Thank you. So, going down the line, this is a yearly this is a a RFP that goes out yearly. So, um the uh bus contracts as as as well as many other contracts that the district um puts out are for one year. And the reason that but but it's it's a little more complicated than
087that. Sure. So, the reason that you don't enter into multi-year contracts um with um school districts is because you don't want the to put a board of education in a situation where a prior board of ed has approved the contract for that year. So, we are approving a contract for the current school year. It is uh in the bid language renewable for up to four additional years. I see. So we can have those conversations as we move toward next year. Um if we are satisfied with um the contracts that we approve this year and we're satisfied with the work that they've done during the year, we can offer them such renewal as per the contract. If we are not, we have the right to go out to bid uh and and rebid for any any
088service that we wish. Is there language in the RFP since it can be renewed from year to year upwards of four years? and correct me if I'm wrong on that, that we can add contingencies for an item such as that where if the buses are too hot during those warmer months that they at least at a minimum provide fans or something of that nature within the bus to at least move air. If that was not if we didn't have something specific like that in the current bid, then no, we would not. But we we would be able to reissue and that's something the committee could explore at least look at. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say I. I. Anyone opposes abstain? Motion carries. Uh
089Douglas, you wanted to chime in about something before we move on to information reports from the board. Douglas, check your mute. Can we unmute him? Is he on mute? Uh, yes. Um, I'm just looking back at a couple of the policies that were previously on the reorg meeting that were initially laid aside. The board needs to adopt those this evening. That's the school district officer and employee code of ethics, board member ethics, board member attendance, and um those are on J2 and three, which I think were initially laid aside. Those need to be voted on tonight. The board has those or should have those right in front of them. And following the meeting, you'll be asked to sign off that those have all been received by you. So, we can't we can't delay those. So
090when that first was asked earlier, I uh I said I could I I just want to correct that. So the board that does need to be brought back and that's from the reorganizational meeting. So those are J2 and three from the reorganizational meeting. So before we adjourn, if we could bring those back that would be uh helpful. So that that was my question when I asked I asked uh first um was this something that we've had already and if so were there any changes that were made that we need to be aware of and second there are no changes to my knowledge those are policies that the board is required annually to approve so I apologize for um the so the short answer to question Sabrina was yes these are policies that you've approved annually
091in the past I believe they are in front of you um as far as I know there have been not been changes to them since last year. So, uh, yes. So, I just want to make it clear that was that was the question earlier and had it been answered earlier, we could have voted on it earlier um because I wasn't sure if there were any changes on there and I think there was other question was uh two and three the same or what's the difference? If I may, I actually have some clarification on that. So uh uh number two is that we are readopting the policies that are already no change to them. They're existing and number three is that you are receiving them this evening in the folder that you have in front of
092you. Okay. So that was the question earlier clarification. I wanted clarification on you'll you'll please forgive me. The the audio from some of the board members is very choppy. I I perhaps missed some of what you had said. So I apologize if that was the case. So we are voting that we received it. Is that what you're saying? The the policy is in front of you in your folder. I know, but we are voting that we are receiving it. That we received it. Yes. Correct. Number three is that you have received it and number two is that we're readopting it. Okay. So, that being said, I would like to make a motion for those two items, two and three from the organizational meeting, J2 and J3. Do I have a second on the motion? Second.
093Second by Vice President McIll. Um, any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Anyone oppose abstain? Motions carry. Moving on to the information reports for the board. I believe we have an update from our state monitors about the long-term strategic academic and financial improvement plan for 25 and 26. Dr. Jello. Yes. Good evening. Actually, what's in the agenda is just an acknowledgment that we are working with administration to update the plan for academics and for finance and that I believe there's a um a public meeting on the 29th um and then followed by the actual completion of the plan for presentation to you for vote. Thank you very Will will will that update tell us where we are as when it comes to the 2020 24 2025 strategic planning that was given to
094us last year or is this a brand new for this year because we haven't been given any it's both and um actually we should look at the plan for this year um you can look and see all the quarterly reports that have been done by administration as to how far they have been uh successful in completing the recommendations in the plan they are presently ly working on an annual report. We're working on it together that outlines every recommendation and how successful they were in completing those recommendations. A smart strategy would be to look at the plan from this year to see um what you want to keep or what you want to change or what needs to be eliminated for next year and while incorporating new things for next year. So, in order for us
095to do that, can you provide us with what's been completed with that plan? I know it was a 16page um strategic planning so that we know what we're looking at. I think administration can give you the three reports they did this year that outline that outlines everything. Yes, it does. Um Matt, is everybody finished? Go ahead. Okay, thank you. Is it possible for us to get some report some report on the buildings where we are up to what we accomplished the last 3 years with the ARPA funds and what we still are outstanding and how many of our buildings are in compliance and what's not. Yes, we we just presented at the facilities and transportation committee. Um so we wanted to go to the committee first and then bring it to the board and try
096to get used to that kind of that that flow. Um, so we figured the July 1 reorg meeting would kind of be tough to do that uh as well. So we look to get it on the second meeting uh the second meeting in July. Yeah. And also if you could give a report someone brought up that the AC in the building in Chestnut doesn't work. Sorry. Sorry. What was that? One of the community brought up that the AC in Chestnut doesn't work. Yes. So, uh, as part of the capital funds, uh, the capital repair funds that were approved transferred, the chestnut chiller repair was part of that. Um, we found kind of a bigger issue when we started looking into it. Um, there was some some of the pipes, uh, were actually rotting out, but
097they're actually not like I could just replace the pipe. The unit itself has to be replaced because the pipes are located in the unit. Um, so luckily as part of the ARPA overall construction because as you remember originally the overall construction that they plan to submit was roughly around 120 million I think 128 million somewhere in that ballpark. The state had to tamper down our expectations and what we could accomplish in three years uh based on lead times. So they you know we worked with uh NICD and the uh facilities team there to see those projects. So luckily that was on the radar to be done during ARPA originally. Um but it was a project that had to be taken off because of the lead times of equipment um when we went to go submit
098and when we started to look at vendors. Uh so the project itself and the redesign of that unit was already designed. So we already have the design, the letter of intent and all those things to move forward. I understand we have the design. Do we have the money to to repair it? That's what we're looking at right now, what the current uh estimated value is. Um, as soon as I know what we budgeted for, we did budget a significant amount for that chiller repair. Uh, there's a historical factor uh with the community with that chiller um that we also have to take into account. Um, and so the architects were trying to fix that issue as well. Uh, part of that is a noise complaint that had been going on. Douglas can tell you how
099long that noise complaint at Chestnut Ridge had gone on for. So, but it was a significant amount of time. So, we're trying to remedy both at the same time. We just got to see one uh what that if we're still able to stay in our dollar value range to do that. Thank you. I have a question for transportation. April 1st, um 45,000 applications were given and how many applications were processed already? Uh my apologies. I do not have that information with me and Relle is not with us tonight, but I will um get that from her and uh forward that information to the board. Thank you. Yeah, I'd like to go back to that when you what I can tell you um and I apologize. What I can add though is that in conversations that
100we have been having with um all the schools, they are very uh they they've been very happy with the process that was put in place, which was different than in prior years um and actually um made comments uh to us that they were very pleased with uh the way that that um everything had rolled out. So uh I believe that we are in uh far better shape than we were in the past. That's in the submitting part, not in the processing. They're happy with the submitts, but not with the processing. Yes. But I'll get you that information. Vice President McIll. Yeah. Just um to our students, parents, families, administrators, and staff, I just want to say as the school year has come to a close, we celebrate all that you've accomplished and the dedication you've
101shown. May your summer be filled with rest, joy, and time well spent with family and friends. Thank you for being part of a vi of our vibrant community. Enjoy a safe and refreshing break. Thank you. Thank you, Vice President Miguel. Mr. Rivera, I believe you had something. Yes. I I actually wanted to go back to Matt's what you were saying about earlier about Chestnut Ridge. You mentioned $128 million. Is that were is that funds that were coming out of thus the current the budget or was this funds that were coming from New York State? Like where's that money coming from or you said that was kind of put on hold also? So I I guess I want to figure out where's that money coming from? That was the federal ARPA funds. ARPA. So when we
102did our original submissions, there was a lot of back and forth. Uh there's a you know few of the people here could talk about how the federal uh changes go in the budget. you submit an FS10 to amend your budgets that go through the state then go through the federal government. So we went through a lot of iterations of that. Um if you look online during our capital improvement projects you can see what was first presented and then what we got things had to be taken off as we went things were amended. So, um, that's, yeah, I think overall the original construction what they thought they thought big and then they had to kind of tamp down expectations on what we could complete and we still went over and tamping down those expectations of the
103original timeline. I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Okay, moving on to advanced planning future meeting dates. There will be a public hearing of the long-term plan to be held in July 29th, 2025, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the PLCC room in the administration building, 105 South Madison Avenue, Spring Valley, New York 10977. It is anticipated that a special meeting will immediately follow the public hearing. A regular meeting is scheduled for August 19th, 2025, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the PLC room in the administration building at 105 South Madison Avenue, Spring Valley, New York. I will now I'm sorry written communication. Since the last board meeting, the board received a letter from Commissioner Rosa regarding the superintendent search and a letter with the final decision on opposing additional taxes. We will now make a motion
104to I will now make a motion to enter executive session. Karina, what are we discussing? A particular person's employment and advice from councel. Do I have a second? Second. Second by vice president Miguel. All those in favor say I. and opposes abstain. Motion carries. Thank you all and have a good night. One, two, three, four, five. Okay. Like to bring this meeting back to order. I'd like to make a motion to adjourn this meeting. Do I have a second by Mr. Rivera? There you go. All those in favor say I. And on the state motion carry. Thank you all. Have a good night. Sorry guys for taking so long. I apologize. Have a good night, guys. Do you the best in?