001Good evening. Welcome to the April 22nd, 2026 regular session of the Board of Education. This is Joseph president of the Board of Education speaking. Thank you for attending in person or through Zoom. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Do you notice that the meeting has been provided to the public and each member of the Board of Education is required by law? I'm going to take attendance. Joseph president present. Kristen Pappas vice president. Liz Gaffney trustee. Aaron D. Bridge trustee. Present. >> Deborah Coppola trustee. Present. Dr. Kusum Sinha superintendent of schools. Dana Decapua assistant superintendent for business and finance and district clerk. Present. Janine McLaughlin assistant superintendent
002for human resources and leadership development. Present. Dr. Alice Bowman assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. Present. Kyla Kyla Tierney ex officio student member of the Board of Education. Present. Christie Jacobson district council Garcia and Garcia. Present. Great. Thank you. May I have a motion to accept the agenda for April 22nd, 2026 regular session as presented? Second. All in favor? Aye. Dr. Sinha and winter come come in. Yes. At this meeting uh we'll be recognizing our uh actually we're very proud to recognize our outstanding student athletes from winter from our winter season. Uh their dedication, teamwork, and perseverance were on full display both on and off the field balancing demands of athletics and academics. It's no small task and these students have done it. Commitment and hard work. We would like to congratulate our students for
003a fantastic season and I would like to invite Mr. uh Ramirez, our athletic director, um so he can introduce our teams and our coaches. Hello everyone. Good evening. Uh once again, it's my honor to be here tonight to recognize uh our outstanding senior, excuse me, our student athletes for the winter season. Uh before I get into them, I just want to thank the Board of Education, Dr. Sinha, our high school, and district administration. Without their support, I don't know if our student athletes get to reach the peak that they do. It takes a a group of base of support to get to that level. So, thank you for all your support. Um we have some outstanding uh athletes and accomplishments here. Uh this is my fourth year and every year uh I feel like I'm
004up here saying that something was done that was never done before, uh which amazes me because I feel like when I look at records, there's not much that hasn't been done by Garden City. Uh but this year we have a couple new ones, so I'm I'm proud to uh present that. We're going to start with our girls indoor track. Uh unfortunately, not unfortunately, but they are traveling to the Penn Relays this weekend, so they're not here. Uh but I do want to acknowledge them. Uh we had two members of the indoor girls track team that went on to states. Uh Kira Lakinadis and Taylor McGuire. Kira was the 600 m county champ and was the uh all-state uh finisher. She finished fifth at the state championships in a minute 33.65. That's three times around the
005track in under a minute and a half, which is insane. Uh Taylor McGuire ran on the intersection relay team finishing in sixth place earning all-state honors as well. Um both of them will be competing next week at the New Balance Nationals. Uh I believe it's in Boston, so congratulations to both those athletes. Our next athlete I'd like to call him up here is Anthony Pica. Come on down, Anthony. So, our coach uh could not be here tonight. He just had a uh believe uh baby girl uh this week. Uh so, he's doing daddy duties, but he did call me and wanted to make sure I uh gave some great info. I could read about him, but I can do it off the top of my head. I'm going to start with uh Anthony this year
006had an outstanding year. Uh he had 100 wins career wins. He was a second place finisher at the Nassau County Championships, went on to states. Um What most impressed me about Anthony, Anthony is a five-year varsity starter, but he battled the injury bug for most of his high school career. And uh a lot of times that's that can discourage you. Uh Anthony came in this year with the mental toughness that he was going to forget what happened in the past, uh focus on staying strong through the season and had an outstanding uh year. Uh he will be continuing his college career at Franklin and Marshall. Uh we look forward to watching him compete there. Outstanding year. Congratulations, Anthony. And you probably can't tell right now, but Anthony competed at 100 and 50 lb. All right.
007Our next group of athletes is our boys indoor track team uh here with coach Dreyer, who I'd like to come ask to come up along with Damian Chang, Brendan Wild, Chris Byrne, and Charles Luan. Please come up. So, we have uh four young men up here that were part of the 4 by 400 relay uh and won the Nassau County Championships and advanced to the states as state qualifiers. That in itself is a tremendous accomplishment. Let's give it up for them. Um so, I'm going to just so when I call your name, just take a step forward so people know who's who. So, Brendan. We got Damian. Chris. And Charles. Uh Pretty much dominated throughout the uh indoor track season and the best part of it is I believe three out of the four are
008underclassmen and will be returning if I'm not mistaken. So, the expectations are there. Charles also was the 600 m champion and finished fifth at the state championships with a time of 1:22.19. Uh we're looking forward to the spring season and what they can do. Outstanding performance by all and I want to just give a little uh shout-out here to coach Dreyer. Uh not a man of many words, uh but a man of many hours. He puts in a lot of time uh with these young men uh both in the winter and the uh spring. Um a lot of work goes into getting them to peak performances week in and week out at each invitational um and that doesn't happen without his work. So, thank you, coach. Congratulations to all four of you. There. Do you
009guys want to go on? No pressure. All right. Our next uh team and individuals are from the varsity boys swimming and dive teams. So, if I could have them and coach Sullivan up here. So, Yes. Oh, it's wired. Oh, but I did. >> [laughter] >> I don't know why you're on. That's the suggestion. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. Always open to uh how to improve, so I appreciate that. There we go. Uh so, we have here members of our 200 freestyle relay uh and some indivi- And we're missing one, but I'm going to call everybody out. You can take a step forward so we know who everyone here is. Liam Hardy. Jack Ahearn. Ethan Lee. Kevin McMaster. And our diving extraordinaire, Julian Cram. So, a lot of accomplishments here. So, I I did take notes. It's
010hard to remember everything. Uh so, we have the 200 freestyle relay team here who qualified for the state championships, competed up in I think it was Webster. Ithaca. Ithaca. Um had an outstanding performance um dominated during the season here on the island. Uh that team is Jack, Ethan, Kevin, and Liam. Okay? Um all-state qualifiers. Liam also was a state qualifier in the 500 freestyle and the 200 free. Okay. Um, we have Kevin. Take a step forward, Kevin, here. Uh, Kevin was also a state qualifier and placed uh as all state, 15th place at the New York State Championships in the 50 freestyle. Congratulations. And we have Julian. Julian? Julian was an all county and all state diver last year. Uh, returned again this year, was a all county and all state finisher. He finished third
011this year at the state championships with a combined score of 511. Congratulations. What I always uh amazes me about the uh swimming team for the boys and girls, um, they practice at 6:00 a.m. Uh, they get up every morning, take, you know, get themselves to the pool. Um, practice for an hour before, pretty much before anyone's up and thinking about their work day. Um, that amazes me. It's uh the little things that go on behind the scenes. We always see the the accomplishments and the great things, but there's a lot that goes into it. Uh, the level of commitment and dedication for our swimmers and divers is uh amazing. So, congratulations on your accomplishments. Coach Solomon, another successful year. Our next group is a uh rather large group, so I'm going to have them come
012up and then I'll start talking as soon as they get up here, and that's our County Championship girls basketball team. So, as they come up, um, the girls basketball team captured a Nassau County Class Double-A Championship with a with an impressive 63-45 victory over an undefeated MacArthur High School. Uh, this was the program's first county championship since 2013. Uh, yes. Big round of applause. They finished the season 19 and 5. All right. Um, went on to the Long Island Championships and put out an outstanding performance against a very good Westhampton Beach team. Um, what I'll say about the program on a whole, not just this team, uh in the four years that I've been here, another example of persevering, facing adversity. The journey has not always been easy for the program and coach. Uh, they've
013stumbled in some areas, gotten better in other areas, but eventually got where they wanted to go. Uh, won a county championship. It's a very young team. We look forward to the coming years building on that. Um, I'm confident in that. No pressure. I'm confident in that. I'm going to introduce the members of the team before I speak about the coaches. Uh, Okay. Call your name, step forward. Grace Brantuk, Maddie Baroya, Leah Costa, Audrey Donahue, Lily Gaffney, Charlotte Kenny, uh Juju Classic, Captain Kennedy Palma, Caitlin Parker, Captain Marissa Patrici, Abigail Perisa, Captain Caitlin Santo Pietro, Hannah Steer, Stella Trohouse, and Angela Vourkas. Um, So, I want to commend uh Coach Balilo aside from the work that he puts in, uh his um forward thinking in developing a schedule this year that was incredibly difficult. So, when
014you see us a record of 19 and 5, uh against some uh teams that go 18 and 0 going into the championship, the difference was Coach Balilo put a schedule where we were playing teams from Syracuse, we were playing some of the top private schools, we were playing some of the triple-A schools that were in uh previous champions. Uh, and he did that with a goal in mind to put them through the fire before they got to the playoffs, so that when they got there, they faced the best that, you know, they were going to face. Um, so again, uh Coach Balilo, thank you for that. Um, I also want to give a lot of credit to our staff that works with Coach Balilo, Jayda Ponte, who joined us about two years ago, has been
015a big uh addition to the program, and Mr. Chaputian, who is the JV coach, but spends a lot of time with the varsity team during the playoff. Uh, a lot of individual accolades. I won't go into that. We had uh about five or six of our student athletes earned um all county uh and different awards. Congratulations to all of them. Tonight we're going to focus on it as a team. Your 2026 Nassau County champion varsity girls basketball. Congratulations. Oh, yeah, go down there. Coach Balilo, next year we work on that. Oh, one of the place. All right. So, our last student athlete, um and I saved her for last on purpose, Charlotte Sebrack. Charlotte here? With Coach Soper. And I'm not sure, I don't think Coach Wilkinson uh Wilkinson could make it. She uh also
016had a baby, so congratulations to her. So, the reason I saved Charlotte for last, Charlotte's very modest, so I don't know if she's going to like me talking about her this much, but I am. Um, Charlotte did two things that were never done here in Garden City. She won state championship in two different events in gymnastics. Yes, big round of applause. And before I even get reading into the specifics, uh she also was Nassau County's gymnast of the year on Newsday, which was another first. She delivered a historic performance capturing two New York State Championships individual titles, placing fourth all around at the New York State Championships as a junior. Fourth all around. She became the first Garden City gymnast to win state championships in the sport. She earned state honors placing seventh on the
017floor exercise. She earned all state honors placing eighth on the balance beam. She won a New York State Championship on the vault with a score of 9.750 and was a state champion on the bars with a nearly perfect score of 9.775. So, all state in four different events. One thing you'll know about Charlotte if you go to watch her, very humble, very modest, uh doesn't really You would never know that she's a level what level level 10. A level 10 gymnast, which is the highest level you can reach uh at this age group. Uh, phenomenal uh performance this year, phenomenal young lady. Uh, more importantly, the way she carries herself and represents Garden City. Uh, you know, you see her with her teammates, uh zero ego, uh zero um flaunting her abilities or brag- bragging
018about them. Uh, it's it's great to see uh in an era when you turn on ESPN and all you do is see celebrations. Um, she doesn't do that. She just goes about her business and wins championships. So, congratulations to Charlotte. And I want to acknowledge uh Coach Soper. Uh, we stepped up this year and helped Charlotte at the state championships, traveled with her and coached her uh up at the state championships. So, thank you, coach Solper. Phenomenal year. And she's a junior, so she'll be back. And before I hand the mic over, I did want to thank one other person who's not here, but I definitely want to mention him, and that's Mr. Navarro, our athletic trainer, who works so closely with all these individuals and teams um getting them through the season. A lot
019of times you you know you deal with injuries, adversities physically. He not only attends to them to get them better, he's involved with communicating with parents to give them direction, uh the rehab, proactive training. He's just phenomenal, and a lot of times he's the reason that these athletes get back on the floor, on the court, on the mat safely and ready to go. So, just wanted to acknowledge him and thank him. And thank you again to everyone for your support. And thank you to our athletes. Have a great night. Thank you again to our students. What a great winter season you all had, and we're so very very proud of you. I'm sure you want to get home. And you can. Mr. Ramirez, do you want to talk about our other about the podcast we
020did with our student athletes? Right. So, earlier this month we had the opportunity, thanks to Dr. Sinha and her relationship uh through our superintendent's board, we were able to sit with Mr. Robert Vecchio for his podcast spotlight on Long Island schools. We invited four students that played multiple sports to come and sit and talk through the interview with Mr. Vecchio. We had Avery Smith who plays field hockey and lacrosse. We had Kim Culuchi who plays tennis and lacrosse. Joe Carey, basketball and baseball. And we had Matt Yahoda who was on the basketball team. They all had individual stories to tell and experiences, and we focused on really what they've gained from participating in Garden City athletics. And they talked about the influence of great coaches, growing up in Garden City, learning to manage their time
021between academics and athletics, holding themselves to high expectations on the field, but also academically. And they talked about how well-balanced that is here at Garden City. And more importantly, how Garden City has prepared them for college and life moving forward. They talked about the characteristics of respect, perseverance, work ethic. All these things that we you know want them to pick up through our athletic program. Dr. Sinha spoke about our philosophy of athletics being an extension of the classroom, and what it produces when the programs are run right and when kids take advantage of the opportunities. I do want to focus on one young man who was on here cuz his story was a little unique, and I just want to say I did ask permission from his parents to share his story because I just
022think it's it's an exceptional one to tell. So, Matt Yahoda is a senior who is a member of our JV basketball team in ninth and 10th grade. He focused He talked a lot about this during the podcast. Junior year he came in thinking he you know he was it was a given he was going to make the team. He got cut. And he said he was beside himself. It was the worst moment of his high school career. He was destroyed. He went home. His first instinct, obviously like any teenager, is everything else, not not looking at himself. His brother who went through the program here, pulled him aside and said that's enough. This is what you're going to do. You're going to get yourself together. You're going to figure out what you can do to
023better yourself. You're going to look inward. This And his words were this is going to define you. This moment's going to define you. How you handle it, what you do from here on. And the best part about it is the family bought in. They didn't call. They didn't blame. They told Matt it was his opportunity to see what he was about and persevere through this. Matt talked about playing more basketball than he ever did. By not making the team, he signed up for three outside leagues. He said, "Ironically, I played more basketball than I did my whole life." Fast forward a year. He puts 12 months of work in. Matt comes out to tryouts. He said he had matured as a person. He had matured on his outlook as as athletics and and what the
024purpose of athletics is. He had no intentions to play in back in college, but he wanted to make the team and you know what he had put in for 12 months. He makes the team. He was very proud of proud of himself. Not only did he make the team, he went on to be a starter. He went on to be all-county, lead the team in scoring, and was selected to the Nassau County senior all-star game. The reason I like to share that story is because as I tell our kids and I tell our parents this is it. It's great when things are going well, you're a starter, you know it's easy. It's hard when things don't go well, but the real opportunity and growth and the line that Matt used was growth comes from um
025struggle. Thank you. He said growth real growth comes from struggle. This is a high school young man using this line. And he's absolutely right. The opportunity to find out about yourself, to grow, to figure out how you are in terms of character, perseverance, all those things that we want. This is the time. If you're going to fail, it's in high school when you have relatives and family behind you to support you and guide you through. And that was the biggest opportunity that he talked about when they gave him the mic is the impact of getting cut and how that served as them to make him better. And I love that story. I'll share it until I retire. Because it's something that needs to be heard. I'm glad that he's proud about it. It speaks a
026lot about his ability to just communicate that and not be embarrassed that he was cut. He saw it as a highlight of his career and a highlight of his life at this point. So, this episode is airing on May 23rd at 10:30 a.m. It's spotlight on Long Island schools. These young men and women again represent us. The way they speak about their experiences, the way they communicate um their plans moving forward, colleges, and things they plan on doing, and how this experience here at Garden City impacted them is something to be proud of. So, I am extremely proud of them, and I look forward to hearing them on the radio. Thank you for the opportunity, Dr. Sinha. One more item about athletics is we recently have you know our fields are in use. So, we
027had our ribbon cutting ceremonies. We had three three of those for baseball, softball, and our multi-purpose field. And they were they were actually really nice events because the kids were they cut the ribbon, the teams, and it was it was pretty special. And they're full use, and the kids are very very happy to have the new fields. And moving on to the treasurer's report. Thank you. This treasurer's report for February 2026. We had a cash balance at the beginning of the month 67 million 480,191. During February we had receipts of 776,527. We had disbursements in February of 7,642,006, leaving us with a closing balance of 60,614,272. Thank you, Mrs. DeCaprio. Now I'm going to hand it over to the student member of the board for her report. Yeah, we had a really exciting month. So,
028I'll start off with Certamen. Certamen is something that the high school does where there is a group of students who take Latin or don't take Latin Latin, but have a interest in it, and then they go compete at Ivy League schools. So, they just recently did a competition at UPenn, and they there's a lot of there's a whole different grade levels, and they participated. They also went to Yale and went to Princeton. So, those are really great. I also participated that, and we had a really fun time there. Dr. Akhil Amar also visited the high school. He runs a government podcast where he talks about government from 1960s to present day. He wrote a book that all the AP Gov students read sections of, and we were able to ask him questions, and you can
029listen to his podcast where we are featured, and he's also talking about all the things that we discussed with him. Also, there was an art show last night. They had the most amount of attendees ever from what I was told. This is from the AP art portfolio, so these girls are working girls and boys are working on their art all year, and then they presented at the art show, and that went amazing. But also I need to say the wood stick is May 2nd, and we're very excited about that. May 1st is a big day for everybody. May 1st is college decision day, so the seniors will be wearing the shirts of what colleges they're going to. And then at the middle school, the eighth graders also went to Adventureland on May 1st, which is
030my favorite part of middle school from what I remember. There was also multiple awards. There was an Italian poetry contest where they scored first, second, third, and singing awards. And then there is state testing beginning next week. And then at Stratford and Stewart, there was the Flestival, which is the Spanish program, and fourth and fifth grade students and their families had and fun and engaging night, and they enjoyed crafts, plus team Kahoot and bingo, and puppet shows, and virtual read-alouds. And they were also able to display their projects they had been working on in class all year. And then, the fifth grade orchestra students visited the high school and got to experience what orchestra will look like in a high school environment. And the Stony Brook University STEM Club is coming to visit Stratford third
031grade to talk about the projects. That is also happening on May 1st. And then, also Kusun Xu um her artwork was selected as one of the 87 pieces nationwide to be exhibited at the National Art Educators Association 2026 National Art Honor Society juried exhibition. There were 2,000 pieces submitted, and Kusun's artwork was selected. So, congratulations to her. All right. I'm just going to hand it to you for the superintendent's report. Thank you, Mr. Cilio. Thank you, Kayla. You always give such a great report. We only have a couple more meetings with you left before you leave us for college. Um I just have a couple of things that I wanted to report on. Uh I also want to congratulate our uh students at Locust for again um they'll be competing in First in Math. And
032I have to I think this is our third year, I believe. Third year, and every year um Locust always um participates. So, which is wonderful. Mason Flynn, Riley Urquhart, and William Gold Boulder. And um at the um the competition will be in June. So, it's always there. It's it's live streamed, so we can watch that. Um and Ms. Bota has been busy practicing with them. Down to the wire. Another thing I wanted to mention. This was just I was at Hemlock um was at Hemlock was it now I'm thinking um on Tuesday. And Ms. Marr, Erin Marr, stopped to share something with me. And it was a parent uh uh it was a parent of our Hemlock student. Her name is Kayla, whose father participated in the Boston Marathon. And I mention this is because
033this is how uh Ms. Marr um tracked They had this way of tracking him where he how he was 26.2 miles. She made it educational and fun and brought in the community. I mean, this little girl, when I saw her, she was beaming. She was beaming. And we have some pictures up there that you could see uh of you know, how the class participated. Um but they but they learned learned um about math, about geography, and lots of other fun things. So, really want to thank Ms. Marr for making this experience so wonderful for our students. I also wanted to mention this was a very, very special evening. Um um and it's on the agenda for we have uh several tenure candidates. Three administrators and seven teachers. And uh I know um Ms. Pappas, you
034were there, Ms. DeFridge. That was a wonderful event, really honoring our our um staff, our teachers, and administrators. So, they're on the agenda. We also have I think Kelly, you mentioned the state assessment started ELA this week. And that's going to continue. We also have uh on the agenda our budget adoption. And um can we put that up, Tina? It's just a quick a couple of slides on the uh budget adoption. All right. And you have seen all of this before. This is just a very small recap of our proposed budget for our 2026-2027. We're going over this because it's as an agenda item for adoption today. There's uh again, mission and vision. We always start with that. Our budget reflects that. And these numbers have not changed. This is our proposed budget is $142,385,117.
035And it is budget-to-budget increase is 3.36%, and it's within the uh maximum allowable tax levy of 2.98%. And this you've seen before, too. We presented the budget to you in this three-part with capital uh administration program. These are the numbers behind those percentages. These are the uh the various codes, and Mr. Cappiello has reviewed this with uh uh throughout the each one of the presentations. I'm not going to go over that, but those numbers are the same. They have not changed. And again, our main purpose with our you know, budget is to really maintain a balance between our fiscal constraints and quality educational offerings. We believe that this budget um prioritizes resources for really everything that can touch our students. And again, for uh operational efficiencies as well. I'm not going to go over this
036uh in its entirety, but you can see our uh we we developed the budget with these priorities in mind. You have that also. And then, on the ballot, this is probably the most important thing. Um May 19th is our budget vote. You have the uh the school district budget. You have the use of capital reserve. Includes reallocation of unused capital funds. We want to establish a new capital reserve, and there'll be uh election of one Board of Education trustee. And our budget hearing is on May 12th. And followed by the budget vote on May I have a couple of Um >> [laughter] >> So exciting. No, budget is over. >> Well, uh I had received uh several communication around Homestead class size. So, I just wanted to I know this was reviewed by Ms. McLaughlin
037at our last uh budget workshop, but right now, our first grade class, we're at uh class size at 19.2. So, that is um you know, we're very comfortable with that. Um but we had received some communication, so I wanted to make sure our community um they were aware of that. You also have our kindergarten screening. That began on Monday and will continue through May 1st. Uh students who are attending the Homestead UPK will be screened there. And uh the outside UPKs with the Harvard Child Care um our Precious Angels in Mineola, they'll be screened at their current UPK program. And all other students will be screened in their home schools. And then, some of the agenda items that we have, um you know, we're really pleased this evening uh on the agenda, we have uh
038appointments of three administrators on the agenda. And I'd like to introduce them. I know they're here tonight. Um we have Ms. Jacqueline Rehak. Um she will uh she's on the agenda recommending her for our Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance. I don't know if you could stand up, uh Jack. And just um you know, she brings deep expertise in school finance and operations, along with valuable experience in capital planning and and project oversight. So, we're looking forward to working with you, Jacqueline. Um and we also have Ms. Lauren Casada. Could you stand up, Lauren Casada? And uh she's returning to Garden City um to be our principal at Homestead School. And she also brings um you know, a wonderful experience um building leadership and structural systems and fostering positive school culture. So, we're glad you're
039back with us, Lauren. And then, we also have uh uh Um we also have Ms. Lindsey Ward. And uh Um and she um she'll be our new Hemlock principal. And she's also a very known entity here in Garden City. Um she is a teacher at Stratford, and she also brings uh instructional expertise, professional development, and uh real commitment to Garden City. So, we're looking forward to having you in this new role, Lindsey. And we also have several appointments for um next year. But I also want to introduce uh Kimberly Miller, who's here. She'll be our high school English teacher. She's also on We also have the BOCES budget and and election members. BOCES board, that's on the agenda, which you'll be um reviewing shortly. I also wanted to bring to everyone's attention, there's several board
040policies on the agenda. And uh Ms. McLaughlin has been working closely with Ms. Jacobson in reviewing policies before we bring them to you. Um and they're uh they're really most of them are around language, updating language, and reviewing them. But there has been no significant changes to those policies, just update on language. There is uh this month, we do have a new policy on automated external defibrillators, AEDs. AEDs, so you'll see this policy is in relation to Natasha's Law. And it requires school districts to establish a policy on location, training, and use of defibrillators in the district. So, a second read of this particular policy will be at uh this meeting. On the agenda, you also have the adoption of the property tax report card. Um there's several change orders, and uh we also have
041donations on the agenda. We're accepting donation from the Alzheimer's Association of America. They'll be donating books to our primary schools to help explain Alzheimer's to young students who may be experiencing this, um, you know, at home within their families. We're also accepting donation of a euphonium and marching baritone from the GC Marching Band Parents Association in Garden City Friends of Music and Arts. Again, these instruments are uh, being donated in the name of Bobby Menges. All aware of student who was part of our marching band and we lost, several years ago. And then the last item I have, uh, that I wanted to just mention, I'd like to we have our, um, CSEA officers here. So, I'd like you to stand when I mention your name. Anna Marissia, she's our president. And we have Jenny
042Leake, she's our vice president. Joanne Eckert, our treasurer. And I don't know if Camilla is here, Camilla Fabian who's our, uh, secretary. Thank you for being here. And that is it. I'll hand it to the members of the board for their reports. Um, I just wanted to make a a quick statement about, um, the budget. Um, first I just wanted to start by thanking Dr. Sinha and the entire administrative team for their thoughtful work, um, that went into developing this year's budget. The level of detail in the presentations has been extremely helpful, not just for the board, but for the community as well, because it clearly shows how the resources are being allocated and how those decisions directly impact our students. Overall, um, this is a budget that I'm proud to support. It reflects a
043careful balance between fiscal responsibility and making some meaningful investments that will continue to move our district forward. Um, some highlights for me, um, at the school level, the addition of staff positions help us to prepare for the larger eighth grade class that will be entering ninth grade next year. At the same time, the budget prioritizes maintaining smaller class sizes at the elementary and primary level, including some contingency contingency positions if additional sections are needed. Um, this is especially important for our youngest learners who benefit greatly from more individualized attention as they build those foundational skills. The budget also addresses some necessary facility improvements such as roof replacements. While these may not be glamorous upgrades, I think they're critical to maintaining a safe, uh, learning environment. On the instructional side, I'm excited to see the rollout
044of a new K through 2 literacy resource grounded in the science of reading, along with, um, expanded curriculum opportunities at both the middle and high school levels. These include initiatives like writing across the curriculum, financial literacy, studio art, and coursework that supports our new, um, Bloomberg Business Center. And thank you to the support of our community through last year's bond, there are some exciting new spaces that will expand opportunities for our children. There's also a thoughtful approach to instructional technology, particularly the shift toward shared devices at the primary level, re- which reflects a, um, more balanced approach to screen time in our classrooms. And finally, um, this budget continues to strengthen our continuum of special education services. It is supports programs across all our buildings, from resource room to an integrated co-teaching classrooms to more
045intensive programs and an expanded life skills program. This helps to ensure that we're meeting the diverse needs of our students. I appreciate the focus on supporting teachers in areas like music for students with more intensive needs. I think this budget reflects our shared commitment to our students, staff, and the community, and I believe that it positions the district well for the year ahead. So, I just want to thank you. Thank you. Um, I'll just echo that and say, Mrs. Capello, thank you. I know this is, I think it's our fourth year together, but I know it's your last budget, so appreciate all the hard work. I know you bear a lot of the the effort that goes behind the presentations. Thank you. Uh, at this time, are there any uh, citizens' questions or comments? Good
046evening, everyone. I'm Joy Gen Cunis. I'm the vice president of legislation for the Garden City PTA and I'll be making a statement tonight on behalf of the executive committee of the Garden City PTA. The executive committee of the Garden City PTA would like to thank the administration for their hard work in preparing the 2026-2027 school budget and the Board of Education for their careful review of the budget. We appreciate the engaging and thoughtful presentations explaining this year's budget with consideration paid to the concerns of our community. Thank you to the members of our community who attended these budget presentations, asked questions of the administration and the board, and showed an active interest in the future of our schools. As parents, our role as public education advocates cannot be overstated. And we must remain engaged in
047the school budget process by speaking on behalf of our students here and with our elected representatives. We understand that there are many challenges in preparing a school budget and submitting it for inspection and approval via a public vote. The school's budget must uphold our community's high expectations for quality public education while maintaining the board's commitment to not exceed the allowable tax levy of 2.98%. This year's proposed budget achieves these goals, which is commendable at a time when other districts are seeking to pierce their tax levy caps. Once again, we are pleased to note that over 75% of this year's proposed budget is devoted to program expenses. As parents, we appreciate seeing the fruits of previous years' capital expenditures, including but not limited to the high school athletic addition and new turf fields, and air conditioning
048installation at the primary, elementary, and middle schools. We look forward to the completion of the proposed air conditioning project at the high school and roof replacements with three remaining district buildings. We commend the district on its proposal to establish a new $11 million capital reserve fund as security to finance future building renovations and infrastructure needs without the need to reduce programming for our students. We are encouraged by the district's commitment to implement a new literacy program for grades K-5 next year as a culmination of the community's request to prioritize literacy. We also applaud the district's addition and expansion of the personal finance curriculum for the high school and middle school to prepare our older learners for the future as well as the updated high school classrooms for business, art, and physics. We are pleased to
049see the thoughtful consideration of parent concerns regarding class size with the planned addition of teaching personnel at the high school to accommodate the rising demographic bubble. As we encounter and incorporate AI into our daily lives, we appreciate the district's ongoing efforts at all levels to teach students how to leverage AI tools while encouraging independent thinking. Likewise, we support the district's thoughtful review regarding the use of technology and devices for our youngest learners. The proposed budget continues the Garden City School District's commitment to inspire and challenge students to accomplish their personal best while also maintaining the board's commitment to fiscal responsibility. The executive committee of the Garden City PTA strongly supports the 2026-2027 school budget. We urge all community members to vote yes for the budget, use of existing capital reserve, and establishment of a new
050capital reserve on May 19th in support of our children, public education, and community. We appreciate all of the Board of Education's current and continuing efforts to meet the challenges ahead, and we encourage you to continue to work collaboratively with parents through the PTA and SEPTA to tackle future challenges to our budget together. Thank you on behalf of the executive committee of the Garden City PTA. Thank Thank you. At this time, there's no other questions or comments. May have a motion that the Board of Education adopts the proposed budget in the amount of $142,385,117 for the fiscal year 2026-2027 and adopts the property tax report card. Second. All in favor? Aye. We have several member We have several nominees, um, that were submitted to the board for Nassau BOCES 2025-2026 and uh, the board, uh, will
051be casting votes for the following members for May have a motion that the Board of Education approves the following resolution. Be it resolved, the Board of Education cast its votes for Larry Preinstein and Jeanine De Spirito. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Thank you. Another resolution. Be it resolved, the Board of Education hereby authorizes attorneys Garcia and Garcia LLP to pursue an appeal on behalf from a decision of the US District Court, Eastern District of New York under case number 2:24-CV-8328 in the United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, including filing of any necessary papers and documents in furtherance of Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. To make use of to make efficient use of time here, the board is authorized use of the consent agenda. Um at this time, may I have a motion
052to approve the consent agenda, which includes business of the board's items K1 through K10, personnel matters items L1 through L8, business matters items M1 through M19, and special education matter N1. Second. All in favor? Aye. Is the Yeah, thank you. Yeah. Can I get the motion? Yeah. Can you hear me read out the $142 amount? I got $117. I got $117. And I remembered it. Um So, no new business from the administration? From the board? No. Future Board of Education meetings uh May 12th, 2026, Tuesday, 8:15 at the Garden City High School. That's a work session. And the following week, May 19th, uh regular session here at 8:15 at the Garden City High School. So, uh if there's no further business before the board, the the meeting may be adjourned. Second. All in favor? Aye.