001Okay. So, we are uh 7.01 return session. Um I'm going to make an announcement. There will be an amendment to the agenda which will be 20.16. All right. Just so everyone knows. So 20.16. So now we are going to go to we're going to read that now. Okay. So I'm going to read the resolution. Uh, be it resolved that the board of education of the Elmsford Union Preschool District hereby authorizes and approves the settlement agreement together with all terms therein pertaining to student number 00901 5112 which settlement agreement was executed by the parent of such student on July 5th, 2025. And be it further resolved that the superintendent of schools here authorized to empower to execute the settlement agreement pertaining to the student number 009015112 and the superintendent of schools is further authorized to take
002all action necessary to effectuate the terms of the settlement agreement. Now we go to we're going to do the appointment of office uh district clerk. I do this for you or you going to read it? Read it. I will read it. I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of New York, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of district clerk according to the best of my ability. Congratulations. Thank you so much. So, district treasurer um Miss Would you just like to read this or make it official? Sure. Okay. I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of New York, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of
003the office of District Treasurer according to the best of my ability. Congratulations. All right, other appointments which is going to be 9.01 801 or 802. I'm sorry. Do we have a motion to approve 801 through 802? So moved. Second. All in favor? I motion carries. Other appointments 9.01 through 9.13. I have a motion to approve. So move second. Second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Uh designations 10.01 through 10.05. Do I have a motion to approve? Move. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Authorizations. This is a question for the assistant finance. Uh superintendent superintendent finance. Uh we may want to look at if we don't already have it the ability for employees to do a direct deposit into a college uh 52.9 savings plan authorizations which is 11.01 1 8 11.17 to approve
004some favor. Motion carries. Okay, we're at other items which is 12.01 12.02 Do we have a motion to approve? Motion second. Second. All in favor? I post motion carries. Uh I'm just going to take a quick moment. Um cuz I took my head out of the sand and uh I want to welcome I don't know I'm sorry Angel um I didn't cease it at first. So welcome. All right. Um and then we're going to go to superintendent report which is 13.01. Thank you President Hec and congratulations to President He and Vice President Lazama. And I want to welcome trustee Rita Azer Lion who is here for the first time and our exeicio student member Adriel Kadalgo. Um welcome tonight. I also want to acknowledge our uh membership of our administrators who are here tonight and
005for them it's their first official night as well too. So uh I want to introduce Deb Earl. She is the principal of Dixon uh Primary School. If you could just stand so people can see you. Uh we also want to thank uh Miss Leah Zillik who is also here as the director, Miss Arissa Vargas, our assistant principal of Alex, Mr. Fes, our director of facilities, assistant superintendent of uh finance and operations, Mr. Todd Curry and Deputy Superintendent, Mr. Yeah. And I want to acknowledge Mayor Williams who's in the back there today. So, thank you for coming. Uh, just a few a few announcements and a word of thanks. We want to thank the board of education for hosting and considering the idea of a staff lunchon meeting at the end of this school year. Uh
006we especially thank President Hec for pri providing us with visionary leadership and words to recount the school year. It was a great turnout where everyone uh with just the exception of one board member could not make it but uh we thank the board of education for leading us and for providing their vision for the uh coming school year. We also celebrated many graduations and celebrations. Uh we thank Mayor Williams. So, Mayor Williams, I had you in my script and you didn't even I didn't even know you were going to be here, but I want to thank Mayor Williams who not only attended every graduation ceremony, but also presented our students with an award and he also um sends letters of appreciation and and acknowledgement to our students, and we thank him so much for that.
007We also thank the Ellford Police and Fire Department um prov providing safety and security and helping us with traffic control um as well as the Elmsford um EMS who's also supporting our community on these days for the graduation ceremonies. And we acknowledge uh and thank Dr. Papuano, Dr. Hamilton, Dr. Cruz, and our faculty and staff for leading these ceremonies. We started the new school year with an ed camp for teachers organized by deputy superintendent James Yap. And we thank him for coordinating workshops on the science of reading, technology, software, English language learners. And we also thank our curriculum teacher leaders and department chairs for leading curriculum writing revision and updates. Uh we had over 80 teachers participate in this event and we are so excited that we were able to suspend this time together so
008that we can start the school year running. Uh as you can see from the rooftops, the Grady and Dixon roofs are receiving much TLC and we anticipate that by the end of August we will have new roofing systems at our schools. We are also continuing all the repairs. If you recall, we had a repair reserve that we had uh also established and we have uh the support of the board and you will be noticing work being done throughout our district. You'll see that the stairs in front of our Alexander Hamilton High School have been receiving uh much love and tenderness for uh the many years that those stairs take all of our faculty, staff, and students. Um we also are working on our doors. So, the fitness stores um that are at the Alexander Hamilton
009High School side are also being worked on as well. We want to thank uh Mr. Curry and Mr. Freeze who are leading and supervising these projects. I don't think anyone really understands what it takes to get an entire school district cleaned. And we've got all of our cleaners, custodians, everything is out in the hallways because we do every single window, every single desk. I've actually seen our cleaners rub with soap and water, all of our desks, all of our chairs, all of our floors. And we want to thank um the cleaning and the custodial staff um and our entire maintenance crew that is working relentlessly and 24/7 to prepare us for the coming uh school year. Tonight, we have several things for the board to have as a first read. We have our district-wide safety
010plan and two policies for first read. The first policy for first read is the extreme heat condition policy pursuant to education law 409. This policy addresses the health and safety of students and employees on extreme heat days for actions that we are to take at 82 degrees and also in spaces when we hit 88 degrees. So those are two uh a polic that's a policy that we have tonight. And then we also have a next policy and this is also pursuant to education law 283 about students and personal devices. This policy prohibits the use of internet enabled devices during the school day in all classes, home room periods, lunch, recess, study halls and passing time and on school grounds. And this is also inclusive of any types of uh electronic watches or any devices under
011exception. There are exceptions to these rules that are I identified in the policy. Um students will have to silence and store their internet enabled devices into on-site storage areas which we have identified as student lockers and this has been the practice um in our district for many years. However, it will be one in which uh the district will be complying with the law in some different ways. Uh we are also implementing uh uh an understanding of this law where students cannot be suspended in any way but we will have provisions that are outlined in our student handbook about what happens when phones are used when they are not to be used during the school day. And finally, we have the district-wide safety plan for the board of education to comment and review. this evening. It's
012the state of New York enacted the safe schools against violence in education. So the safe act and pro safe is a comprehensive planning effort that addresses prevention, response and recovery with respect to a variety of emergencies in schools and districts are required to develop a district-wide safety plan designed to prevent and minifies the effects of serious incidents and emergencies and to facilitate coordination between the district and local and county resources. and the planet and policies are open for public comment and we invite public comment through uh our email address of dist web dist.org and that is my report for this evening. Thank you very much. Okay, so with that we're going to move to approval of the minutes which is 14.01 through 14.02. Um, do I have a motion to approve? Moved. Second. All in
013favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Now we're going to do the recognition of the audience. 20-minut session, 3 minutes per person. Um, and uh time is now uh 7 6:48. Um, so if anybody has anything they'd like to get up uh new business, old business, um, feel free. I just wanted to say I was part of the I was at the staff lunchon and it was phenomenal. So, thank you very much. And I am a vegetarian. So, there was, you know, veggie burgers and I appreciated that. So, thank you very much. Weren't they? They were delicious. Oh, I thought I was nut. That took some home. No, they were really delicious. So, I just wanted to say thank you very much. Well, I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Um, and I thought it
014went off very well. It was, everyone was talking about, everyone, there was a lot of food. Everyone took stuff home. So, thank you again. That was awesome. Thanks. Appreciate that. So, if there's nobody else who has any comments, we're going to move on to uh purchasing and finance, which is 16.01 through 16.03. Um, do I have a motion to approve? Just a comment on 16002 for the busing. So again, I don't have the exact uh 2526 budget number for our transportation costs, but assuming they're between 5 million and 7 million, the 3.4% increases between 170 and $240,000. That's just the increase. Just the increase. So again, just the increase, just the increase on the transportation cost is between 140 and 240 a year. It's ridiculous. It's getting a little out of hand. Well, with that
015comment, so everyone else who is in the audience here will know, we are going to be doing a transportation study this summer. Um, because our board has identified a few kind of expenditures that we're spending that's starting to get, you know, which we don't have control over. It's kind of a monopoly we're busting. So, you put an RFP out and you only get one company that's going to bid on it because the other one says, "No, no, I won't bid on that one if you don't bid on this one." kind of thing. and we wind up with just the same person bidding on it. And uh so um what we're doing is we're we're doing a study right now finding out how many students are using buses, how many are walking, how many are getting
016dropped off, what range are they coming in from, how many buses do we have. Um and the goal here is to get a better idea of exactly our student needs and to be a little more cost effective moving forward. Um, and we don't know where it's going to take us, but we have ideas and um, as we get the results, we'll kind of let everyone know what our thoughts are. Thanks for bringing that up. And it's something we can't control as a board, you know, um, until we do the study and decide that if there's other options. I mean, they're not supposed to collude, but yeah, it's one of those things where no one's ever going to admit to it. But, you know, best practice and you see what happens and how many people actually
017will come and bid. It's kind of ridiculous. And from what I understand, they're not even going to give us the same contract that they gave us now. So the next contract, which would be next year, it's going to it could be even worse. So I think it's the right time and we have the right board and the right administration to handle this. So hopefully everyone looks forward to our results and I am looking forward to it because I need a better handle on it and uh to understand exactly why we're spending this much money. Absolutely. And just just to give again a little a bit of context, if every one of our thousand students, let's say, needed a bus on $7 million a year, we could give someone $40 a day for the 180 days
018of school year to cover their transportation individually and individually. I mean, just when you when you boil it down to those numbers, it's it's crazy. A taxi ride anywhere in Elmster is not $20 each way. So, it just shows you it's something that may be a little bit uncomfortable to review because people are comfortable with the level of service, but when it when we talk about having to raise the bar for Elmsford, um it it's an area of resources that I think we're losing we're losing the value on and we need to we'd rather spend it on students. We'd rather spend it on teachers. We'd rather spend it on more resources for the classroom. And and if you look at the percentage to what we have as a total percentage of our budget, what we
01943 47 million $47 million. So you're talking at what it's exceeding 10% of our budget is just is just transportation alone. Just imagine if we can control that and we've got creative people here and we've got the right people that will think of ideas. So we're excited about it. It's not going to be easy and we've got it. It's already started and and we're working on it. So, just a little heads up. Thanks for bringing that up because I think it's something that needs to be it's going to be more talked about in the future. So, with that, do I have a motion to approve um 16.01 through 16.03 with regret? So, moved. I hear you. Second. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Superintendent's personal recommendations, which is instructional 17.01 through 17.04. Um
020motion to approve that. So move and a second. All in favor? I oppose. Motion will carry it. Uh second here. No, she say superintendent. That's what secretary correct. Uh superintendent's personal recommendations not instructional um which is 18.01. 01 to 18.04. Um the motion to approve. So move. Second. All in favor? I I opposed. Motion carries. Policy review. Um as superintendent has just said, this is our first read from 19.01 through 19.04. Um do I have a motion to approve? you want to wait. What's that? You don't want to have discussion? I don't I think this could be the first read. Um cuz I can open the floor if anyone has any comments about it. What do you think? I'd say let's do as a first read. Um, do we have anybody from the audience who
021has any comments regarding um, course reads on extreme heat, student electronic devices or anything like that? I have a question on the um, student personal electronic devices. Will the teachers and the staff be notified of you know this policy and any you know repercussions of you know if someone is caught with you know their phone a student is caught you know with their phones um during the day. Just to answer that there's going to be standard operating procedures and guidelines um which the staff will be trained. Okay. Okay. Um, first of all, you know, the administrators are all getting their hands around it to make sure what's effective and to make sure that, you know, it's as friendly of a transition as possible because everybody it's going to be it's going to be very strict
022because as we have past practice, we've said, you know, we don't want students using their phones and we've kind of tried to enforce that, but it's a little lax in here. You know, they're using it in the, you know, their break time or out in the field or whatever. Um we had student government uh two years ago come up and say hey could you just let junior seniors you know have that liberty as they get older and we kind of lacked it with that but we don't have a choice now it makes it it makes it the responsibility not really our board of education or our administration state says this is yeah I know I Nancy uh you know Kathy Hokll Governor Hokll signed it into Yeah. I know that which in some ways makes
023it easier for us but there has to be the the guidelines and I we're going to have training on it and make sure that you know we do it in an effective way but understand that it's going to affect people and there are exceptions to that which the teachers will know also. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. You got it. Okay. So perhaps we want to ask our student official what he thinks about any of these. Um, to be honest, I think the electronics like to not be in the classroom. I think it would be good. Um, I know that we do use it during our break, but also the thing is if you're going to take their phones because like people are going to be using it during their breaks. What's stopping them
024from using their computers to just watch? It's the same thing. even though it was blocked. Um there are like other from what from what the the guidelines are, it's almost all internet capable devices. Um and it's going to be difficult with the laptops obviously because you have your laptops. We're going to hope that people use their heads and students and kind of say, "Hey, look, I'm not going to abuse this." and you know um follow the guidelines that the state is making us do because there's going to be repercussions for us being meaning the school district if we don't follow protocol. So we're going to ask as a partnership with the students to kind of um work with us on this um and with your guidance and you know being student body president um hopefully
025you can get the message to them that this isn't a an Elmsford only thing. this is a a statewide mandate and and we understand it's going to affect their daily lives, but hopefully in a good way. You know, there's studies and every I mean, and you know, you use your phone, everyone uses their phone throughout the day that they're losing something in the translation when it comes to getting an education. When you leave here, we want you to be as prepared as you can be and we want all our students to. And the way to do that is to make them actually use other things than electronic devices to get answers, to get help and crutches with AI and everything. So, it's going to be ongoing and we'll probably ask you to help with the
026transition and and get the message out there. Um, and questions are welcome. You know, I'm sure students will come to our meetings and say, "Hey, why can't we do this? Why can't we do that?" And we'll work with them just like we did, you know, two years ago with Yuri and last year Matteo. it's, you know, now it's it's basically your football only. Okay. So, um and again, if you ever need to um talk to us, you you got access to us whenever you need to. Um you've got my email and uh you know, we'll we'll work with you. All right. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. You got it. You good? So, we're going to consider I don't have to read anything. This just considered the first read from what you did. If you want to
027adopt it, you can. Would you have to adopt? Yeah, you just Let's just do it as first read. Y adopt it. Yep. I would say you just have to do 1903. You just need to adopt 1901 and 02 by themselves, right? Uh you need to do 1903 and 1904 by themselves. Okay. So, we're going to do How about we do one by one? Okay, just keep it simple. Um, for 19.01 first read of policy 8113 extreme heat conditions. Do I have a motion to approve first read table? I don't do you actually approve for first read or table. So move second. Second. All f. All right. So 19.02 702 first read of policy 5695 students and personal electronic devices. Um do I have a motion to approve the first read? Move. Second. All in favor?
028I opposed. Motion carries. Uh 19.03 3 annual review of policy 1 1900 parents and family engagement 5300 code of conduct 6240 investments 6700 purchasing 6710 purchasing authority by annual review. Do I have a motion to approve? Second. All in favor? I uh motion to 1904. We adopt all the board policies. Uh a motion to approve. Table table. Okay, let's table that. I think it's a good idea. You've got it. Yes, it's a very good idea. Thank you for that. Okay. What's that? Do I have a motion to table 1904 move? Second. Second. All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. New business has 20.01 through 20.16. Now we added so 20.15 we can't vote on. We have to wait 30 days. So 21.15 is not an adoption. Don't. So, how about you do all all through? It's
029you don't it's not something that needs to be told. Okay. So, we're going to table uh 20.15 for right now. So, the the motion will be for 20 up from 20.01 to 20.14 and 20.16. Move as amended. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries and motion to table 20.15. So moved. Second. All in favor? Motion carries. Um motion to adjourn. So move. Second. All in favor? I close.