001[Music] I am the mother. Hello. Heat. Please [Music] Good evening everyone and welcome. Um, we're going to open the meeting so far. >> President Heck >> here, >> Vice President Lozama >> here. >> Trusty Azer Lion >> here. >> Trusty Dino >> here. >> Trusty Hec >> here. >> Superintendent Yang >> here. >> And District Clerk here. >> Okay, I'm going to ask everyone to stand and do the pledge of allegiance. [Music] United States of America. [Music] Okay, I'm going to hand it over to our superintendent. >> Good evening, Board of Education. Good evening, everyone. And good evening, students. We're going to transition to this side right after we announce what uh we're doing this evening. Th this week and next week, we will be celebrating a National New York School Board Association recognition. And
002tonight, we are so pleased to honor our board of education and recognize them for their dedication, their commitment, and their leadership to leading our school district um in governance and excellence. Tonight we are joined by our wonderful third and fourth grade singers from Grady Elementary School who is going to sing for us this evening under the direction of Mr. Chris Baku who we want to applaud greatly. We also want to applaud many of our teachers who are here tonight who are also here to support our students. So thank you very much and if the board of education can just move to this side so we can hear tonight's performance. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening everyone. It's wonderful to be with you all tonight. Uh these very talented musicians behind me have been preparing some music
003in September. Uh the first song we're going to be singing is in recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month. We'll be singing a song called the female and following that we'll sing a song uh in the French language that I think you may recognize. So, thank you all. Before we begin, I would like to also thank Miss Marentes who is a a seventh grade dual language teacher over at Gradia. She helped with the translation of our first song. So, I want to thank her for that. [Applause] Uhoh. Daddy. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] And there [Music] sleeping. for the night. Now it's time to sleep. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. I want [Applause] heat. [Music] Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? Brother John. Brother John. Morning bells are ringing. Morning bells are ringing. Ding ding dong. Ding ding dong.
004[Music] Where I I don't know. [Music] I am happy. [Music] Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? Brother John. Brother John. Belling ring. Ding ding dong. Ding ding dong. [Music] Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? [Music] Are you sleeping, brother? [Music] Where the [Music] sleeping brother? [Music] [Applause] I look like this myself. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Let's give Mr. Funky another round. You know, it's a school night and I want to make sure that as students go back into the classrooms that parents are able to pick up their students. Some of them probably still have a little bit of homework left to do. So, um, we'll have the students go in the back and then go to their classrooms and parents should, uh, feel comfortable to start picking up their children from there.
005Thank you so much. [Applause] Heat. Heat. Hey, before you leave, make sure you didn't leave a phone a Chromebook here. We got one to his left in his seat. So, just quickly take a look. Uh, looks like Harper. So, if you know that person, tell me we've got any problem up here. >> You go. >> How you doing? >> How are you? Okay. [Music] They are We're going to continue our board recognition program. If you look at your tables, there is so much that uh is in front of you. There is a beautiful bouquet that the art students made here from Hamilton. Um you also have displays that were created and you saw them in front of of you as well that are thanking you for your efforts. I think uh Miss Barbosa is here
006too. Um where her class actually made a schoolboard survival kit with lifesavers, Starbucks and bubblegum, Tootsie Rolls, and Snickers. And lifesavers are to remind you that you are one Starbucks, bursting with gratitude for all you do. Bubble gum sticking with us through thick and thin. Tootsie Rolls, a little sweetness to help you roll through and snickers to fuel you up. and conquer the day. So, please help yourselves to some of the candy that's there. Um, and there are some beautiful uh words that have been written by our students. I'm going to just read one quick thing that um I I felt uh they wanted to say. I want to say thank you, and this is from Jack in fifth grade. I want to say thank you for making our school a great place to learn
007and grow. One thing I love about our school is that you let us play tag at recess. I think your work is important because your work helps us learn more stuff like math and science. Something special I want to say to you is that we appreciate all the hard work you do for our students and all of our teachers. Thank you for everything you do to make our school a great place to learn and grow. So, I think that you will enjoy all of the different um uh books that were created as well as the cards. We thank all of our staff and teachers who also worked with our students uh to create these beautiful gifts for you. And with that, um, on behalf of the Westchester Putinham School Board Association, I will, uh, provide
008you with this month's, uh, recognitions from the Westchester Putnham School Boards Association. And it says um this is to recognize President David Heft whose support of public education, commitment to educational excellence and dedicated leadership has enhanced the quality of education for all the students in the district. So thank you President And we're going to go to the next item. We and I wish uh Miss Barbosa was here because a reason why we're being awarded with this recognition tonight is largely due to her leadership in um leading our the student government at Grady for initiative last year called the blessing bags. And I'm going to invite Sher Grady to um come and be able to share this award. and we received a culture of caring award from the NISPA association and we're going to have our
009come and present that. Good evening, Superintendent Young, President Heft, Vice President Ozama, board members, administration, staff, students, and parents. And there I have to say there's nothing better than starting a board meeting uh with student performance. They were just wonderful. So I am here in my role of area 10 director of the New York State School Boards Association, otherwise known as MISPA, and I represent Westchester, Putnham, and Laughlin counties. I'm the liazison between the school boards of those counties and mispa. And I've also started my 19th year on the White Plains school board and I'm on my seventh year uh on the Southern Westchester Bosey's board of education. Um, very briefly for those who may not be familiar with NISPA, NISPA is the New York State organization that provides leadership to our school boards through
010advocacy, information, and programs. NISPA established the culture of caring award to recognize and celebrate good deeds, acts of kindness, social emotional support, charity, self-directed initiatives, and leadership that positively impact districts and community culture. NISPA believes that Helmsford Union Pree School District's blessing bags initiative is worthy of such recognition. On behalf of NISPOS President Sandra Rufo and executive director Bob Schneider, we are excited to present a culture of caring award to the Elmsford Union Free School District for your blessing that initiative. We understand that members of the student leadership council at Alice E. Har Elementary School created this project to serve the community, making blessing bags to bring positive messages to individuals in need as well as toiletries, socks, water, and snacks. They also hosted fundraisers to support the effort. The certificate reads without this code
011of recognition is presented to Elmsburg Union Free School District for the care and thoughtfulness shown by your students by organizing and implementing the blessing bags initiative, bringing positive messages to individuals in need. Your contribution to a positive district of community culture is to be commended and celebrated and it's signed by Sandra Rupo, president of the New York State School Boards Association and Robert Schneider, the executive director. So, please join me on behalf of Nispa in applauding the student leadership council at Alice E. Grady Elementary School and all of you in the Elsford Union Preschool District who have contributed to and who have made this program possible. So, And I also want to congratulate the board for your service also and in supporting your students in this creative and impactful way. And thank you for being
012a member of [Music] Heat. Stand right here. Perfect. Thank you. I'm going to take a queue, so bear with me. Awesome. Thank you. All right. I'd like to thank Barbosa student government. Really proud and uh appreciate it. Recognition is all positive and it's nice to see that. Um we're going to go to player number five which is Angelo who's going to um have an update for us. Um well, first I would just like to personally thank you guys um on behalf of giving us your time and allowing us to have another great school year and that started following. So we planned for October 24th to be our week of spirit week incredible spirit week. So that week spirit week we start off Monday with um today is going to be meet day. So back in
013the 2010 uh you can come dressed as a me to come to school and then Tuesday we're going with teachers swap. So students will come over professional and teachers will dress up students usually dress. And then Wednesday we're going with 2000's day. So we're bringing it back again. And 2000 seems long for me, but maybe not for everyone else. Um and then we're going pajama day. Of course we only got pajama day. And then Friday, so we're going class. And then for the pep rally, we're going to start off with a busy relay race. So we get a bat, spin around 10 times relay. Each break is four people. And this time with our volunteer signups, we're going to change it up. Usually there's just a limited slot, but now we're making it an unlimited
014slot. So each event you sign up once, you sign up for as many events as you want. And if you are um signed up, the representatives of your grade will choose you from the crowd. So it's like more like a little surprise pack. Hey, you got picked. And then along with the Disney relay race, we're going to be doing musical chairs. And this time we're going to have a performance signed up and send all the teachers if they want to volunteer. And while playing the music, we're going to give the mic to a random teacher so they can sing it out. we did their amazing singing and then we're going to go with um a balloon race and we always ended up off with a great time award which seniors always win but not this
015year and then we just are planning for a date our secondary elections to get our representatives and yeah that would be it. >> Thank you very much. Sounds like a lot of fun. Um, I want to step back here for a second and u wanted to recognize you and thank you for all your hard work and you know receive this um recognition is thanks to all what you do. Um, okay. So, we're going to make uh an interruption on this. We're going to move presentation for our uh external volume um due to some time constraints with uh presenter. So, we're going to move from item number six. It's going to be held up for a second. We're going to do presentation number eight. Thank you. I appreciate that. Um, good evening everyone. My name is
016Brian Saw. I'm from the FBI group. We perform the audit of the financial statements for the district uh for the year end in June 30, 2025 as well as auditing uh the extra classroom activity funds and the federal awards uh was known as the single. Um, I did meet with the audi committee prior to this meeting at 6:00. We'll run in depth a bit more on the numbers that are involved in the financial audits, but they'll just summarize everything to very high levels. Um, so we are proposing to issue an unmodified opinion on that better. Good. Okay. Uh, we are proposing to issue an unmodified opinion on every one of those financial statements. And the unmodified opinion is a clean audit opinion. It's the highest rated opinion you can get as part of an audit.
017And effectively means that everything that is embodied in those financial statements is important to um industry standards as well as uh applicable laws and regulations. Um there were no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies, no instances of non-compliance that we came across as part of our auditing procedures um that were required to be reported as well. Uh management was an absolute pleasure to work with and everything that we requested was provided on a timely basis uh for completing our audit. In terms of the highle uh dollar items, um the general fund total revenue did increase about 1.3 million due to real property taxes, expenditures um and transfers out of the uh general fund increased about 7.2 million. A little over 4 million of that was strictly expenditure related for uh salary and related benefits and inflationary
018costs. and the general funds uh unassigned fund balance was about 1.9 million which is 4% of the 2025 2026 school year budget. Um total fund balance for the general fund approximated $45.7 million this year. So overall the district is in a very healthy position. That is all I have and upon uh recommendation of this board we are uh prepared to issue these in their final format in the next few days to file everything by the 10:15 deadline. So go ahead and final recommendation. Appreciate all your hard work. Thank you. Thanks. So I'd like to go to item number six, which is PTSA update. >> Do you have anybody who's representing tonight? Um, PTSA representatives couldn't make the meeting, so they sent me their update. Okay, Melanie sent me this update for the board. The current
019membership number is 109. Our minimum is 125. The state issued a gold is 79. We are asking everybody to see, please join us for PTSA if you have not already. The membership is $10. Dixon's picture day was today and was a success. All the children looked amazing and ready to have their picture taken. The Elmsford PTSA were participating in the out of the darkness walk sponsored by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention on Saturday, October 18th at 9 9:00 a.m. at the Harbor Island Park in Mamaran, New York. We have shared the link on social media and we will share the link with the board as well as the district. Please join us for the walk and please make a donation. Our walk team name is Elmsford PTSA Supports. Brady's picture day is October 29th.
020We will share that information with the district so it can be posted on the website. Trunk or treat is fast approaching. We are having a card decorating contest. The winner of the contest will receive a prize as well as bragging rights as they will have the opportunity to lead the Grady Dixon Halloween parade on Halloween. The flyers have been distributed. We are asking for board participation as well as everyone to decorate your trunks. We are accepting candy donations at both Grady and Dixon. Also, don't forget to visit Panera Bread in the Crossroads Shopping Center in Reaper on Friday, October 10th, between the hours of 4 and 8:00 p.m. They are hosting a fundraiser for us. When presented with the flyers, which I have on the table, if you want, we will receive 25% of the
021sales as long as the minimum of $150 is met. Help us surpass that minimum. That is all from the PTSA. Thank you. Um, with that, I'm going to hand this over to uh, superintendent and superintendent. >> I want to thank our staff again and our students for recognizing the board this evening. And again, Mr. Funky, thank you so much for uh, sharing the gifts and talents of our students. We want to acknowledge the board of education for the countless hours of dedication and commitment that you have placed in serving our school district. And we thank you so much. We want to uh just celebrate that we had a wonderful turnout for back to school night. Our faculty and staff delivered outstanding well-prepared presentations this week. Um not this week but a few weeks ago. Uh
022the rooms were very well decorated and staff provided professionalism in every way. We thank our parents for coming to our back to school night and for some parents they were multiple nights because uh each night was a different school. Uh we want to thank you so much to all our families who came to learn about our curriculum, to learn about our attendance and our title one policies. We thank you so much. Again, we commend our entire faculty and staff for going above and beyond. And we applaud our custodial and cleaning staff because they had to clean up not only uh for after back to school night, but they had to get the schools ready for the next day. So, we honor our custodian cleaning staff who also um lead back to school night if possible.
023So, we thank our entire district for that districtwide effort to serve our families. As you can see now, our roofs are almost at 90% if not a little bit more of completion. We expect that our roofs at Dixon and Grady will be completed by October 17th or possibly sooner. We think of the Milcom construction, but we also think of Jim Fes and Todd Curry who have been managing these projects from the district um lens. We also want to say that President kept the wait room doors finally completed. Uh if if you notice, this was a weight room door that was awarded through the DASI grant and it is a door that has been completely renovated as well as different areas of water uh piping and so forth in the flooring. So that that door work
024for our athletes. Our athletes were raving about it this week. So uh we want to thank President He for that vision. Uh, and we thank the dad grant. We still have the Dixon retaining wall at Border Avenue.