00124th 2026 regular session of the board of education. This is Joe Silio, president of the board of education speaking. Thank you for attending in person or through Zoom. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Due notice of the meeting has been served to each member of the board of education pursuant to the requirements of law. Tina, will you please take attendance? Present. >> Present. Present. >> Present. At this time, I'd like to ask for a moment of silence for Rey Kavorus. Ry was a valued member of our PPS staff who passed away last week. Any of our community members who spoke with Rey know how wonderful she was at her job and how much she it meant to her to help the hundreds of Garden City students and families she interacted with over her 21
002years she spent in PPS. Her loss has been felt keenly throughout our staff and our community. Our hearts are with our family, friends, and colleagues as they deal with her loss. Thank you. I want to hand the mic over to Dr. Sin for a second who wants to say a few words. >> Thank you, Mr. Silio. And you really captured uh Ray's spirit. Um she was at the district office again for uh a little over 21 years, believe it or not. And um in um she worked predominantly with our preschool our our committee on uh preschool special education. And um she worked closely with Dr. R. Stark and of course with uh Miss Favona and Miss Alonzo and um she really connected very much so with our families. So her loss is deeply felt in
003our district. Thank you. At this time, may I have a motion that the board of education accepts the agenda for March 24th, 2026 as presented? All in favor? I. At this time, I'm going to hand the mic back over to Dr. Sa. We'll go through student achievement. >> Thank you so much. So, this evening, um, we have a few presentations. One is we want to start off by recognizing our validictorian and our saludiatoran. And of every year it's an honor to really recognize our both of our u validictorian saludiatoran. We're very very proud of them for the class of 2026. Our validictorian is Sarah Finny. There is she and our saludiatoran is Olivia Alsber. Come on up. And I wanted to just start off by sharing a little bit about Sarah. Her GPA is 103.4.
004She has taken 12 AP courses and 14 AP exams, including one self-studied and one double exam. And Sarah has earned uh the National German scholarship for a summer study abroad trip to Germany. She has also been recognized by the national council of teachers of English and the first class distinction in writing and named a n national merits uh finalist and she has also achieved all state honors for obo and was part of the all girls vex robotics team that won at the state level and she's also involved in varsity bad mitten and works as a lifeguard during the summer and she serves as the president of the German club and German honor society editor for the World Language Magazine and president of the Science Olympiad Math Team and Chemistry Club and she plans to pursue
005studies in biochemistry and engineering. So, we're really proud of you. Um, very very much so, Sarah. And Olivia, she also has uh significant accomplishments. her weighted GPA is 102.31 and her she's completed uh again a rigorous academic program including 15 AP courses with two self-study courses a national merits finalist and she's contributed to the nonprofit Jewish free loan Chicago supporting grant work that successfully increased funding to benefit undeser underdeserved communities and she's also involved with fencing She was a two-year captain um of that of fencing as well as the economics club, the great the gay straight alliance, UNICEF club and the math team. She also received the American Legion award for community service as well as excellence in chemistry and excellence in uh English awards and she also plans to pursue double major in economics
006and inter international relations. So we're extremely proud of both of you. Okay, congratulations. We also want to congratulate congratulate your families. Such an accomplishment. Um, and again, I guess I'll be calling both of you back up again for the National Merit Scholarship finalists. Sarah and Olivia are both uh in that category along with we also we also have um Sophie Lipins. Come on up. And this is another uh prestigious national scholarship program that recogni that recognizes high performance on the PSA PSAT and the NMSQT and finalists are chosen based on academic records, extracurricular activities and again the SAT and the ACT scores. And again congratulations to our finals finalists. We are extremely proud of all three of you. Okay. Um, so I also wanted to mention for this evening, um, you March is National Disabilities
007Awareness Month and we do it's again a really important opportunity for our school community to really reaffirm our commitment to inclusion, understanding, and respect for all individuals. And we celebrate the strengths and talents and contributions of students and staff um who work with students with disabilities while also recognizing our shared responsibility to remove barriers and ensure equitable access to learning and opportunity. And um you know this month there has been um activities of learning throughout all of our buildings. And we have two students today who are going to share their talents with you. And um we have Connor Fitzgerald and we have Brendan Ryan along with their teacher Miss Bridget Manin. And if you they're going to share with you all the work that they have done um to uh they were working with our
008students at Hemlock uh primary schools and had the opportunity to go there last week to see it was so so wonderful that I said you must come to share this with the board board of education. So, we're going to share a short video with you and then they're going to come up and say a few words. So, Miss Pepalardo will share the video. Right. >> Yeah. and but there is something special about me. I have you ever heard of before? Let me tell you what they mean. is made of something called chromosomes. Most people have 46 chromosomes but I have one extra extra chromosomes is what gives me I like to think of it as my extra list. Sometimes I need extra time to learn things, but with practice I can do anything. I also
009might speak a little differently or a date or time to finish my sentence. But that doesn't stop me from being a great friend and the things I love just like you. Many people with system work with specialist who help them in different areas. Many people with symptoms often with heart problems. When I was only 6 months old, my parents took me to a special doctor named Dr. Ra who works on heart. He performed a visionary on my heart to help me to stay healthy. Me and my family are so lucky to know Dr. Amazing doctors like I'm in today. If you know me, you would know I'm very popular. People love me. I do not hold me back from anything. I'm to be a good employee. My dream is become a teacher. So I can
010help other people. Some people might think that's because I have done I'm very different from them but I'm just like you are some you can other people being use focus on things I can do having is just one part of who I It doesn't not define me. I love music playing outside and spending time with my friends and family. Thanks for listening to me and Hi, my name is Connor Fitzgerald. I am a student at Dart City High School. I am also an artist, a musician, and a person living with a disability. I have loved to watch movies and listen to movies. I have even become a musician myself. I play the piano and I am really good at art and music helped many people express themselves, deal with emotions and can even help people
011tell stories. of disability can sometimes make things harder for someone but not be possible. Some people have disabilities that might how they can use their bodies. Other disabilities can make things like understanding directions, finishing work, or figuring out what to do next a little harder. People with disabilities can have friends created and try new things just like everyone else. In December, our school celebrated disability awareness month. We learn about artists and musicians with disability. People with disabilities can be artists, musicians, or anything else they want to be. Having a disability does not mean you can't do something when some things might be harder. Never let anyone or anything stop you from making your dreams come true. I'm happy. There's something. If you guys Everyone is unique in their own way and that's making the world
012so special. Next time you meet someone with disability, remember to treat them with kindness, respect, and friendship. Thanks for watching. Miss Manin, are you uh you want to come up with our students? Connor is going to play the piano for us and and Brendan's going to show us some of his talents with with karate. Taekwondo. Okay. Taekwondo. U hold on one minute. Let's see what Miss Maning Okay. Florida. >> Wow. Brenda, that was so amazing. Thank you for sharing with us. Your talent was very nice. Uhhuh. That's right. Yeah. And Brendan is graduating this year, right Brendan? Okay. Yay! That was wonderful, Connor. You did a great great job. I also want to take a minute as we get uh get them back up for a picture. just really want to thank uh Miss Maning
013for all her work that she does with our um program here at the high school and all of our other staff members working in special education and uh all of our psychologists and um staff. They really do we do a wonderful job of ensuring that our students are fully included. Y >> that really warmed your heart, didn't it? Like that that is just excellent work that's happening and our students are just phenomenal. So, thank you again. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yes. >> Let's do it that way. I also wanted to acknowledge yesterday um we had our scope awards dinner and we had several of our staff members that were recognized. Linda Green, our transportation supervisor, who retired earlier this year, along with Robin Hullman, who is uh one of our PAR professionals at Stratford.
014and you see her at probably most of our games also. And of course uh Mr. Capua, she was also honored along with Jim Carter um our um science teacher here right at the high school. We thank them all for their commitment and the work and the contributions they've made to this district. It was a wonderful event. Kristen also, Miss Papis also joined us for that dinner. It was wonderful last night. It was a a long night, but it was good. So congratulations to all of you. Uh we also had uh last night the PTA reflection ceremony and really want to thank our our um PTA for really organizing and putting this together. We always have many students that who uh participate at each of our levels and and last night's event was a huge success
015and again thank you to the PTA for organizing and the committee that organizes this event. It's actually when you look at the process of when we get to that of the awards assembly, it is there's a lot of work that goes on and uh it's nice to see so many of our students participate. So, congratulations to all of our winners. We also had um our second hackathon. I don't know if the board remembers last year at the middle school, our students did so well. Well, they did it again. So yesterday was our um hackathon and our team at the middle school they finished second place uh in the Long Island uh competition and this was again only their second year participating in this event and um you know every year like we we were surprised
016and again this year they they um I think everybody was surprised because our hackathon team is so new and they do so well. So congratulations to our I think we had eight students who participated eight students and um really want to congratulate them and um their teachers Miss Wangner and Mr. Davola who really work very closely and Miss Shabelli as well um working very closely with uh with this group. Um and then just some hiring updates. Um one is that we are for the assistant superintendent for business and finance. We are we're doing the second round of interviews uh for the our hope is for um April that we will have a recommendation for for the board. Um also want to share that Mr. Escobar will be staying with us at the middle school for
017next year. So he's uh we're very pleased with uh with him agreeing to stay with us. So thank you Mr. Escobar. and um for our principal uh two principal position at Hemllock and at Homestead uh we're again we did the initial interview we're still in the process and our hope is to have recommendations for you in April. Um and then Miss McLaclin would you give us an update on just the hiring because we've had we've been busy with hiring. on our last meeting tonight. We have already so you know we're really doing a great job in terms of being on schedule ahead of schedule. We've got wonderful hands um but ways to go but we are we are we are cruising. So thanks everyone for their hard work. >> Thank you Miss McLaclin. We also
018have uh we had the literacy committee u meeting today and we're you know again as part of the pilot and um we're we're actually piloting the second resource. So I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Bowman and uh Miss Kaufman to give an update on our our pilot process. Clicker please. Good evening everyone. I'm so happy to be here this evening to share with you an update on our literacy review. I have prov provided the board with folders of the student artifacts that were shared at today's meeting for the resource benchmark advance. You will see um in that folder K K1 and 2 artifacts as well as some feedback forms and the agenda from today. Okay, so since I last provided the board of education with an update, we successfully completed our first pilot
019cycle with benchmark advance for grades K to2. This initial cycle was thoughtfully structured to ensure that teachers felt supported from the very beginning. We began with the resource launch on February 2nd, followed by an additional virtual professional learning session on February 11th to deepen understanding and provide space for questions as implementation began. Throughout this cycle, we prioritized consistent and responsive support. Our literacy coaches and I had weekly check-ins with consultants, creating ongoing opportunities for reflection, problem solving, problem finding, and shared learning. In addition, we maintained open lines of communication with teachers both synchronously and asynchronously, allowing us to respond in real time while honoring the teacher schedules. To further support classroom implementation, we conducted two on-site visits where the consultants modeled lessons co-planned with teachers and addressed questions directly within the context of instruction. These
020moments were especially valuable in bridging professional learning with day-to-day classroom practice. This first cycle concluded on March 13th, making an important milestone in our pilot process. It provided us with meaningful demonstrated by our teachers. They approached this work with openness, curiosity and a strong commitment to students which has been critical to the success of the initial phase. So the upcoming slides just show all of us in action. This slide shows our pilot launch. Teachers are exploring the resource, collaborating, and beginning to connect it to their own classrooms. This time together helped build a shared understanding from the very start. Here you see our cons consultant visits in action. This is where we moved into the classroom through modeling, real time support and collaborative reflection with teachers. And here are our students at work. This is
021the best slide of the night. One of the best slides. Students are actively engaged in reading, writing, listening, speaking, and thinking. These moments help us understands how the resource translates into the student experience. To deepen our understanding of the pilot, when the literacy review team met today, we convened our three focus groups. Each group reviewed student artifacts through a different lens. curriculum, MTSS and assessments, and professional learning and communication. We use guiding questions to bring more focus to the work, and this allowed us to look at the same work from multiple perspectives and gather more comprehensive insights into both the resource and student learning. Over the next few slides, you will see a progression of writing from grades K to two, which is only one component of the artifacts we explored. The artifacts we reviewed
022during the pilot and today focused only on several a focus on several aspects of the resource including reading and writing experiences as well as assessments and hometoschool communications. Here you'll see kindergarten writing. You can see from very early on the writing development alongside drawing. Students are using foundations paper to continue practicing their encoding skills and letter formation and use details that are grounded in theformational topic plants and animal needs. In grade 1, you begin to see more structure in both writing and content knowledge. Students are combining illustrations with written ideas to show understanding. The topic spirals across the grades and goes from plants and animal needs to plants and animals grow. Students are building knowledge about this topic across grade levels. And in grade two, you see increased independence and expanded writing. Students are organizing
023ideas, incorporating details in academic vocabulary, and applying what they have learned in the content in a unit titled plants and animal habitats. Again, these examples represent just one part of a much larger set of artifacts and show how students are applying knowledge building and understanding of the topic in writing. We're also gathering feedback from teachers, administrators, families through very structured forms. This allows us to understand not only how the resource supported instruction, but also how it was experienced across classrooms and at home. And in addition, most importantly, we're collecting feedback from students. Our literacy coaches are gathering these these uh this type of feedback through interviews to capture their experience directly. So we are now in phase two of of our pilot launch. We've launched our second pilot cycle with Amplify CKLA in grades K
024through two. And this launch took place on March 9th, followed by additional professional learning to support teachers as they began implementation. Similar to our first cycle, we have built ongoing support through literacy coach check-ins and scheduled consultant visits. This cycle is currently in progress and we are continuing to gather insights as teaching and learning unfold in real time. And as we move forward, this timeline continues to provide a clear view of our pilot process K to5. Again, we've completed our first cycle with benchmark advance in K2 and we are currently in our second cycle with amplify CKLA. Our third cycle will include K to5 implementation. We're adding my view to K to2 and we're expanding the pilots across grades three to five with benchmark advance and amplify CKLA. Throughout each cycle, we are mi maintaining
025consistent structures, launch, implementation and feedback to ensure we are gathering meaningful data and insights. This process is allowing us to be thoughtful and intentional as we evaluate each resource and determine what will best support teaching and learning across our district. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Kaufman. Um, I just wanted to mention the the entire U pilot process and I want to take a minute to thank Miss Kaufman and our two literacy coaches and Dr. Bowman for really spearheading this work with our teachers and our administrators. It has been seamless and uh what's been wonderful is to to listen to the feedback from our teachers. They have been extremely extremely thoughtful in in um being actually um very objective with their with their feedback and what would be you know the best suitable for us.
026We still have ways to go but I think the conversations I wish you could all hear those conversation I missed today's the beginning of it and both Dr. Bowman and Miss Kaufman were sharing that we wish we could have just captured that somehow because it was such uh a rich discussion around something that is so so important for for our district. So I wanted to just thank you for for the good work there and I'm sure you have questions. Do you have any questions here? Thank you very much for all of this work. I know this is not an easy feat um organizing this and I do really appreciate the artifacts because it helps kind of bring the work alive for us to see what kind of assignments they've been given and the work that
027they're doing. Um, I just had a quick question for you. Like, what are you noticing are some of the big differences in the program and the materials that it provides from what we've already had inside of our CL. What was really interesting about this particular resource and what I appreciate about this resource is that each grade level is engaged in the same topic K to2 and the way that this resource is structured K to 5 is that continues to happen. So if you're in unit one, which is anformational unit on plants and animals and habitat, you can really see how that topic spirals across the grade level. So it will be the same essential question, but of course it becomes more complex across grades. So what really is standing out to me are the horizontal
028within grade level and vertical conversations that's across grade level that are taking place with our educators now with our students. Similarly, I'm able to listen to that content and academic vocabulary that they're bringing into their dialogue and discourse. the background knowledge building has been extremely um elevated I would say and they are using these very complex vocabulary words multi-elabic words in kindergarten in their dialogue and discussion over the course of the day. So it's not just happening in literacy but it's happening in other spaces in the minutes throughout the day and the conversations are continuing at home. We have received some unsolicited feedback from families and I've spoken to families on the phone um about this experience and a few of them have said how excited that their their children are to to come home
029and share the learning. So that's very very meaningful to us to get that unsolicited feedback and from our students to for them to be that excited when I'm walking into classrooms. Uh there's always excitement. I you know I just want to put that out there is that learning is always exciting here in Garden City. From the moment I came here um I noticed that immediately. Uh but to see that development from grades K to two is quite quite remarkable and I can only imagine the types of conversations we're going to have with teachers and students about this if we decide to go with a resource like this. Uh what type of experiences that could bring for the student experience and the teacher experience and the administrators. You know, I know this is just a pilot,
030but you see that differentiation >> a thousand%. What has been truly magical is to see how each pilot teacher has used their unique magic and talents to they know their students the best. Right? You when you give a teacher manual to a teacher. It's not a one it can't be a one-sizefits-all although it appears to be that way because there is a blueprint and there is a script. but to see how they have really taken the resource and adapted um some learning experiences for their students where they're all reaching the same goal at the end, but the path looks a little bit different in each classroom because the students are different. So, absolutely. And I I'm proud that these three resources we're exploring allow for that flexibility. Um, I want to say thank you as
031well. This has been a a good solid update. I love I love the student artifacts. Thank you so much for those. Um, I was wondering about two things. Uh, one was uh how the teachers if you can share some of the um some of their feedback or or what you discussed today. I just I'm very curious what the teachers think, especially in light of the literacy review and where we heard from the teachers um and just what their thoughts are on going through this process and specifically with Benchmark. And then my other question was just in terms of um the writing component and what that looks like in a program like Benchmark. >> Okay, so to answer your first question, the teachers Oh my gosh, that discussion today, I wish we could have filmed it.
032uh because I don't know that I can do it justice but I will try my best. Um so some of the things that they were saying today is that the building of the background knowledge component because there are so many different avenues to reach the goal and so much different content that they're layering into the learning. um that that has really elevated and strengthened the kids ability to to transact with the text and to make meaning from the text. Um they talked about the vocabulary. They talked about kids being able to annotate so seamlessly. They talked about our ENL population and and um our students with disabilities, how they were accessing the content in such a more um meaningful and authentic way. They were using that language in conversation. Um not just during that time
033like I mentioned before, but across the day. The other things they were saying is that everything just felt very connected. There were a lot of options within the resource and that's not just with the curriculum and the content and the text but also with assessment. They talked a lot about how there was a lot of choice and there were almost like too many things in this resource to choose from which can become overwhelming and very cumbersome and that will be our job over the summer to really um because no resource is perfect. Whatever resource we end up with, we really have to understand the needs of our students, select the components of this resource that will be most valuable in our first year and streamline that process. Uh some of the things I'm going to
034I'm going to talk about uh writing right now because that's something that came up today as being something that our teachers are not used to. They're used to a little bit more choice and flexibility and volume with writing when it comes to the actual genre piece. And when I say genre, meaning when you write a narrative or anformational or an argumentative or opinion piece, they're used to their kids producing multiple pieces of that. That's the way it's currently structured now, which is a wonderful thing because kids are getting a lot of practice and they have a lot of um choice in in what they're writing. So this provides a little more structure. Um the expectations are pretty challenging. So working through some of that um you know will need some support only because when you're
035starting a program in the middle of the year it you it builds, right? So um that's something they talked about. However, although the writing is more structured with this, there are so many textbased opportunities re um writing about reading throughout and everything spirals back with this particular resource. So, if the kids don't master something, whether it be reading or writing in that particular lesson, they know they're coming back to it again and again and again. And that's really intentional. So any resource that we adopt, I will say this, you know, the conversation today wasn't like all with rosecolored glasses, right? We we talked about some of the pitfalls, you know, potentially. Um I will say that any resource we go with will need some strengthening to meet the needs of our students because there is
036no resource that's perfect. Hi, Lauren. Um, I really like the Google form questions. Will we have the opportunity to see the responses or is that something within the committee? I'm definitely open to it. We haven't we haven't we haven't even gotten there. We're just they're rolling in all the responses right now. Of course, you know, you know, there they'll be available, you know, and I'm enjoying as they're coming in. I you know, I'd love to share some of the responses. What's very interesting are um where we have a lot of parent responses. I I should add actually that the parent form we had a virtual literacy committee update meeting with the literacy committee from the last few years and Miss Papus I believe uh you had joined and one of the parents had suggested that
037we create that parent feedback piece and so that was such a great recommendation and we implemented that. So, the day that all of the work went home with with the kids, an update for the families went home with that form. Um, but yes, we would love we would love for you to stay. Okay. You know, one uh major component that I missed is our student report. Miss Kayla Churnney is here and usually she's sitting there. So, I see her and I didn't So, you have your report to still give >> here. You want to pass this along? >> I think I think she got one. Is it working? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um All right. So, I will start with the high school. Um so, we had right before February break, we had Battle of
038the Classes, which is basically every single grade gets to do a bake sale during the days of the week and then we also do uh competitions at on the Friday before break. I'm very happy to say that the senior class won. This is our second year in a row, so I was very happy with that. Um Foot Loose, this was our musical this year. I went and saw it. It was very, very good. I'm also a big Foot Loose fan, so I was very happy about that. Um, we also had the Triumph Honor Society and World Lang. We also saw a lot of We also had a lot of high school volunteers at that. So, I really like how they come. I remember going to that as a kid and that was always one of
039my favorite events. Uh, moving on to the middle school, they had the GC careson, which I also did when I was in middle school. There's basically a bunch of like trifolds and little like booths that you can look at and just see all different fundraisers and suffer service and really bringing attention to a lot of different causes. Their musical was Newsies Jr. which I'm a big Broadway fan so I'm also a very big Newsies fan. Um and I did also see that and it was very good. A we talked about this before as well. They are now doing outdoor home base. So every other day, uh, the middle schoolers will get to go outside with weather permitting. Um, so I think that's a really good program. Um, Steuart school is focusing on their steps to
040success, which has been an ongoing program throughout the year and they were focusing on citizenship this month. Um, another really cool thing that happened is the fifth graders are taking part in Project Shield with Officer Steve, which we all know and love, Officer Steve. Um, and so that is very cool. We have at Straford Frozen Jr. was the show by the fifth graders. Um I love Frozen. So, you know, I'm very happy about that. Um and yes, >> maybe one time. Um the fifth grade chorus will also be singing a performance of the Islander game at UBS on March 28th, PTA. So, I encourage everybody if you want to go to the Islander game. Um I love the Islanders, so you know, I would We watch that on TV. Um, and they also celebrated random
041acts of kindness week. So, they were working on goals with that. And then at Homestead, they had primary literacy and math family fun night, which is a very important event. They also had the kindergarten field trip to the Long Island Children's Museum. So, they got to experience that. And then, as I said before, so many kids went to the Harlem Wizards game, and they really loved that. So, >> thank you so much, Kayla. That was a great report. Do you want me to continue or No, I will. So, I'll finish up my report. >> Sure. I um there's some agenda items before we go to the budget presentation. That's our um highlight for this evening. Um you know, there are there's a policy on it's the first reading of the inventory capitalization u policy and
042that came from uh recommendations from our auditors. It's updating some of the language. So, that's on the agenda. We have several uh uh retirements on the agenda as well from the transportation departments and uh including um Susan Schweitzer who is currently in our PPS department. She's been with Garden City for believe it or not 31 years. So she'll be retiring. Also uh Mr. Stein Group nurse assistant, Mrs. Tierney um at the high school. She's been here with us for 17 years and we're looking forward to honoring all of our retirees um later in June. Um there are also recommendations on the agenda for acceptance of several several bids for summer projects and uh let's see. Oh, and we also have um you know with our fields that we had um that we just have we
043purchased new bleachers. So our old bleachers were giving it to the village. So you see that on the on the agenda as well. Um and that's pretty much it. and I'll go over the important dates uh you know after the after the presentation for the budget. >> Thank you. Maybe we can hand it to Mr. Cavia. You want to do the treasurer's report? >> Uh certainly. This is the treasurer's report for January 2026. We had a cash balance at the beginning of the month of 75,42,945. During January, we had receipts of 3,638,541. We had dispersements of 11,561,295 leaving us with a closing balance of 67,480,191. Thank you. >> Thank you. I guess it's time to move on to our budget presentation. So, uh, Dr. S, I'll hand it to you to go through the instructor
044instructional components, please. >> Yes. Thank you. And uh you know I'll start off the presentation but I do want to thank um you know all of our colleagues who are here this evening our principles and Dr. Bowman for working very diligently on the instruction part one of our budget. So I'll start us off and then I'll hand it over to them. So again, we always start with our mission and vision and just know that any every decision we make, it really uh this our mission and vision grounds our decision- making um with our budget process. So tonight um again, we'll go over the uh overview briefly, but the focus will be on our priorities. We'll give you an update on what we said last year, what we presented to you, and then speak of what
045we're going to be doing for next year. Um, and then we'll go over the instructional codes and what's on the ballot and address any questions or concerns you may have. This you've seen before, no change to this. Our proposed budget is for 142,385,000 and $117, which is a budget-to-budget increase of 3.36% and we're we're within the uh maximum allowable levy, which is 2.98. Last time when we met we went over the capital and the uh the administration tonight and the next presentation will be on the program which you can see makes up the uh you know 70 over a little over 75% of our budget and this is the part that really touches our children and um this is the same uh you know it's the but it's the budget in the three-part format. I
046don't know why that picture is showing at the bottom. Is that Is that what it is? Okay, it's our last slide. Yeah. Oh, you know what the cursor is on it. There we go. All right. Because I just wanted to make sure that um folks at home could see this as well. This is a three-part budget in the with the um totals percentage and the amount. These are the codes that uh Mr. Capua had um gone over at the last meeting. These are the major budget codes um for the program components of the budget. These are priorities from last school year. And what I'll do now is I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Bowman and our principles to go through the priorities, give you an update, and talk about for next school year.
047>> Thank you, Dr. Sinha. Uh just as a review, we will be talking about what our priorities were on last year's budget presentation and where we are with them. So those will be the first slide that you see from each of the people who are pre presenting after me. Um and what you'll also see is that there are through lines K12 with many of these items that I'm about to introduce from last year. Uh, one of the major components of our of our presentation from last year and one of our most important district priorities has already been discussed a bit tonight and that is our literacy review recommendation. Um, and as a reminder, there were five different components that were really made up the literacy review. uh one was to have a unified and cohesive
048K12 literacy framework which you see coming to fruition through the pilots which Miss Calfman just talked a bit about. Um what's important to know is that the way that we are conducting the pilots is very much modeled after the implementation of illustrative math. um which I think speaks to some of the success as well as the intentional planning and I think very detail oriented planning that Mrs. Calfman and our coaches have done in making sure that all of the resources are available to teachers that the professional development is available. Um and that brings me to the second recommendation which was refining instructional practices in time. What you'll see is that we have conducted a review of the scope and sequence of some of our coursework and literacy. So for example with foundations we've implemented um
049instruction around vowel teams. We've increased the number of units in level three foundations that the teachers will be able to get through with our students. Um, we have also engaged and you'll see again there are some through lines with different items up here for increased instructional time in ELA in sixth grade for next year. Uh, we will be introducing a new course for our sixth graders called writing across the curriculum. Um, and we have also been asked to strengthen systemwide supports and resources which has prompted us to review our MTSS process in great detail. Um we've made sure that we have aligned documents uh for the referral process in our elementary and middle school grades but we've also really started um implementing intervention manager which is the MTSS platform portion of linkit which is our
050data management system. Um, the next recommendation was to enhance parent communication and engagement. And as Miss Calfman had already said, one of the things that we've been doing is making sure to gather the feedback of families and students. So, we are also having our kiddos tell us what they think about each of the different resources that we've been piloting. Um, and in fact, I have to report that we do need uh some tadpoles because some of the children have become obsessed with tadpoles turning into frogs. And um, that's an important thing for them as a result of the pilot that we've had with Benchmark. Just putting it out there if anybody has tadpoles. Um, regarding Portrait of a Graduate, that work continues. We are in the midst of a K12 review of our curriculum um
051instruction and assessment so that we can determine where each of the attributes currently live and to plan for our next steps which will be discussed when I get to our next slide. Um our business center the Bloomberg center is really being um very much prepared for. I met at the high school this morning with Mr. Cohen and Mr. Stein Grubner. Um the curriculum is in the midst of being developed. We have one terminal right here in the library back in this room back here. Um, and the reason that we have that is so that we can have our teachers become very much comfortable with both the platform and also the terminal itself because it is higher level uh finance that's happening. We've coordinated with the deli. So that course will be an so the course
052associated with the Bloomberg terminals will be uh a dual enrollment course next year. Um and it has helped us to strengthen in preparation for the upcoming personal finance financial financial education requirement from New York State. Um, continuing down, let me see. So, what we've also been doing is working on how we can leverage our AI tools to make sure that we are um increasing the efficiency of workflows for our administrators and teachers. Um, but also really instructionally making sure that our students know not only how to use AI appropriately and how to avoid using AI inappropriately, but also how to have AI be something that could be a thought partner and being critical consumers of the content that's available through AI. Um, I skipped elementary report cards, but I want to report on that is
053that last year we did a lot of work to make sure that they were aligned with the standards for New York State and to increase the amount of feedback and thereby increase our communication with families. um so that when a family gets a report card for their K5 student, they're able to really get a clear idea of where the child is in the learning targets that they're striving for at the end of each course. Um and so lastly, we've we planned to support our new leadership and I'd like to say that we did a good job and we continue to do a good job making sure that our new leaders are fully supported. So we had a number of people who just joined us. We had um our world language and social studies coordinator Victoria
054Bone Payne, Akira Rean who is our math and uh math music and per fine arts coordinator. Um we have Miss Hower at the high school as the new assistant principal. Jamie Alonzo is the assistant director of PPS. Mr. Escobar, who we all found out tonight will be returning next year. Um and of course Miss Rob who is our new assistant principal at Stratford. So, we have done a a a a very robust job of trying to make all of these folks feel welcome and supported and um we continue to do so because it takes more than half a school year to be acclimated to a new position. Okay, this way I learned last time. So moving forward to next year, what you will see is that um again we will be we will begin implementing
055whatever resource we choose to go with next year for our K2 grades. Um we will also likely have some early adopters in grades three through five. And so this budget supports the materials curriculum like curriculum writing and ongoing professional development for that to be successful. Um, we will continue our work with portrait of a graduate and create progressions. And what we mean by that is, um, what is the portrait of a first grader, what is the portrait of a fifth grader, what is the portrait of an eighth grader, and what are the competencies and skills that those students should have as they travel through our K12 system. Um, we will be in addition developing rubrics so that we as a as a system can also evaluate where we are and where our students are. When
056I talk about the curriculum spotlight, I mentioned earlier that there are some course changes at the middle school. Um, New York State is implementing a personal finance and financial education requirement, K12, over the next few years in bands of grades. For the 26 27 school year, there is a requirement for our high school students to all have a experience with personal finance and financial literacy. and we're going to be using our 12th grade social studies courses uh because there is an economics portion of that course which very much lends itself to being um in compliance with that recommendation. But in anticipation of that requirement moving into the middle school the following year and also in recognition of the importance of the skills that need to be learned to manage one's personal finances effectively. We have
057uh planned to introduce into our seventh grade course catalog a personal finance class for all of our seventh graders. Um at the high school we have a few new courses in the business department. We have a career exploration course and of course the Bloomberg um fundamentals class which I spoke about earlier and I suspect Mr. Stein Group will mention when it's his turn. Uh we al also will be implementing a new college calculus course. um and focusing throughout all of our coursework K12 in every discipline increasing the amount of authentic assessment that we have so that students assessment is less just evaluating learning or assessment of learning but learning through assessment as well. Um, so implementing the dial digital scoring, our kindergarten screening is called the dial screening. And up until this year, what's happened
058is it's all on paper and it's very labor intensive. And with that becomes it becomes very easy for there to be mistakes with the data, but also it makes it cumbersome for us to be able to utilize that data to intervene and provide supports in a very timely fashion for our youngest learners. We will be moving to digital scoring for the dial which will allow us to have the students um scores and their performance digitized brought into a CSV and then brought into link it so that it can be utilized uh more formally in interventions for our kindergarten students. So we're looking forward to that. Um and again intervention manager we are going to be implementing the second portion of that. So when you uh look at MTSS, there are two ways that a student
059might end up finding um themselves available for support. One is through our screeners, which we will be implementing next year. This year, we're really looking at when a teacher or a staff member notices that a student is struggling or a parent notices that a student is struggling, it may not show up on a screener or it may come up later for, you know, after the screener has been a few weeks or months old. Um, but link it and intervention manager has an opportunity for us to really be able to have those tiers given to us automatically based on the screeners. So, we're setting that up. We will be doing professional development in the fall so that as soon as the fall screeners are um administered, we can utilize that platform to help identify learners. And
060finally, we plan to support our new leadership once again. This time with our assistant superintendent for business and finance as well as our new principles at the primary level. Mrs. Voda is going to be um >> last woman standing, >> as she says, the last woman standing at the primary level. And so we're all very excited for her new crew to show um to show us that they're there to complement the team. And so I turn the microphone over to the last woman standing, I believe. Just kidding. To Mrs. Hand start. >> I'll turn it over to Eileen in a minute. Um but first we're going to talk about the K5 priorities that we had for this school year. So, first up, we had our data priority. Linkit data has been consistently and intentionally reviewed
061to inform and strengthen instructional decision-making across all grade levels while also enhancing our MTSS process by helping to identify student needs early and provide targeted and effective support in kindergarten and first grade. This data is used to guide smallroup instruction time, allowing for intentional grouping and differentiated intervention based on student needs. Across all grade levels, teachers use the data to identify strengths and areas for growth. For example, through this analysis work, a need was identified to revisit instruction on vowel teams in grades four and five, leading to the development of a targeted unit with pre and post assessments to measure effectiveness. Additionally, this work provided an opportunity to refine the foundation scope and sequence to further strengthen alignment and ensure that all essential skills and topics are thoughtfully addressed. Next up, we have foundational skills.
062When or what I need time is implemented once per week for 40 minutes in all kindergarten classes and once every other week in first grade. During this time, students are grouped intentionally based on data, allowing for targeted tiered support across all classes. This year, the focus has been on strengthening structured student talk, including a consistent opportunity to share at the end of each session. Efforts have also been made to enhance wind time through more multiensory learning experiences. Wind time is a collaborative effort partnering classroom teachers with both a speech teacher and a math teacher to support student learning. Moving on to report cards. Several shifts were made to improve clarity, alignment, and consistency across report cards. Performance levels were reorganized and definitions were revised to align with all grades K through five. In English language
063arts, language was updated to reflect current standards and the science of reading. While in mathematics, performance levels are now clustered by standard with each descriptor individually assessed. Science and social studies were updated so that each standard standard specific descriptor is assessed rather than a single overall indicator. Social emotional reporting language was revised to align with the current current SEAL framework while art, library, general music and physical education remain unchanged. CAD work. This year we continued our curriculum articulation design work focusing on refining units to intentionally integrate content areas with literacy. This included the continued use of social studies and science text sets to build students background knowledge. Students also engaged in interdisciplinary learning experiences such as a project integrating art and math in which they design a zoo blueprint applying concepts of area measurement and
064design while incorporating creativity through color labels and layout. These projects included clear requirements, constraints, and checklists to support progress and accountability. Additionally, performance-based assessments were explored, particularly in fifth grade, where students demonstrated their understanding through hands-on science experiences. For example, in the chemical magic unit, students completed a culminating assessment that required them to both design their own experiment and propo per perform a prepared investigation. Literacy enhancements. This year, there was a strong focus on the K2 pilot of our new primary literacy resources supported by ongoing professional development and embedded coaching. Alongside this work, teachers continued to engage in professional learning around evidence-based literacy practices through multiple pathways. These included formal professional development sessions, grade level and faculty meetings, district-wide learning opportunities, and classroom intervisitations. This approach allowed our teachers to share their ideas, reflect on
065their practice, and implement high impact instructional strategies. Enrichment for all. the the opportunity was expanded to include enrichment for all to our second graders this year with classes attending twice per week in a twice per 3-w weekek cycle. This work extends the second grade communities unit in social studies as students engage in solving real world problems through designing, building, and testing creative solutions. Throughout the process, students are introduced to new tools, scientific thinking, and potential career connections. For example, in recent cycles, students participated in an exploratorium of science tools such as microscopes, pipets, magnets, and electrical circuits. Through this experience, students build resilience by working productively through challenges while strengthening their collaboration and communication skills. All right, I'm going to pass it over to Eileen for this next year's priority. We only have a few
066priorities. One of them being our heavy lift of our literacy adoption program. So, just as um Mrs. Kaufman had said, under her leadership, we have our pilot programs that are well underway, structured with both strategic and supportive for all our teachers. Throughout the process, the pilot teachers worked closely with both literacy coaches on implementation, including direct engagement with the vendors professional development teams, as well as coaches meeting weekly with the vendor representatives to address any questions and refine their approach. Implementation will begin in grades two, grades K through two, as you heard, similar to our illustrative math roll out. We know that that was a successful uh roll out under the leadership of Christina Cardella. And so we've we've we've modeled the literacy roll out in the same fashion. Obviously, there may be some early
067adopters in grades three through five as well. The pilot teachers u will be helping us do that heavy lift in addition to the coaches and hopefully professional development by the vendor uh to help us implement the program next year. And as as you know, we have two superintendent conference days and I'm sure that one of them will be dedicated to our our program in August for our teachers to begin the launch. In talking about linkit, I just want to add on to what um Miss Han had said. The primaries have had a successful win program at targeted intervention that brings together the speech pathologist, math coach, and the classroom teacher to support student growth. I just want to bring um a reminder that we did share that with the board ear um this year to
068just kind of highlight what we do in in that program with our kiddos. The fruits of this work is very evident though. I know at that time I had shared with you uh the numbers had had gone down and actually I was touching base with the coach regarding all three primary schools. the number of students requiring math intervention has gone significantly and that's notably due to the tier math support um that the teacher that the teacher and the class and the coach are able to provide but also due to the strengthening our tier one intervention program inter instructional program that's made this all possible. Most significantly, I just want to add that the referrals to special education has also declined in our K5 schools, underscoring the power of proactive, well-coordinated interventions in catching students early
069and supporting their long-term growth. So, our next steps in link is obviously to implement the full um intervention manager as part of our data suite. This platform will strengthen our communication among teachers by providing a comprehensive view of each students intervention history while also enabling a smoother articulation across the primaries, elementary, and middle school levels for students in tiers 2 and three. It will also allow us to identify and analyze trends within our tiered support populations over time. Additionally, as you heard, uh we will be adding dial 4 data into that which is part of our universal prek students data into link as well. The UPK programs have already demonstrated significant impact on our kindergarten readiness and incorporating this data will allow us to better track and support students from the earliest entry point into
070the district. Our next our next priority will be about portrait of a graduate as you heard of Dr. Bowman talking about developing progressions. Um we have already begun laying down the groundwork for this important initiative this year. Teachers engage in professional development in addition to um woven in our in our work in in classroom walkthroughs and observations has been portrait of a graduate. Building on this foundation next year will deepening the work by developing these grade level learning progressions to articulate knowledge skills disposition students should demonstrate at each stage of their academic journey. These progressions will ensure our instructional practices are not only standards aligned but orientated towards developing the whole child, fostering the critical thinking, collaboration, and civic readiness that will define them as prepared graduates. Ultimately, this framework will serve as a shared
071language for teachers, coaches, and administrators, creating a cohesive continuity amongst preK to graduation. And lastly, we will be reccalibrating our SEAL program to meet the needs of our everchanging students. Next school year, we'll undertake a thoughtful recoloration of our social emotional learning to ensure it's genuinely responsive to the needs of our students. This process will begin by identifying high needs topics and grade level priorities using the data to develop a structured plan that will include push-in lessons and meaningful follow-up activities. There will be a summer curriculum writing for the K5 social workers as part of this work which will be conducted will which will conduct a thorough review of our current resources including second step to assess the alignment with students needs and explore supplemental programs or materials to support our students. A key focus
072will be deepening the connection between instruction and the values defined by our school communities. will develop lessons that explicitly link competencies to the pillars at Straford and and the steps to success at Stuart. Both are grounded in share values of respect, responsibility, citizenship, perseverance, and if you've ever heard Mr. Hardigan talk, he talks about integrity holds it all together. Additionally, our primary schools will intentionally align their language and expectations more closely with those of the elementary schools, which will ensure a transition where kids are are familiar with the language and the common expectations at both schools. Um, this will allow students to have a consistent set of expectations, values, and social emotion emotional skills with them as they progress through the district. So, we're hoping from the ground up we'll begin to have strong, competent
073students that move on. So, I'll turn it over to the middle school. Okay. Thank you very much. And these were the goals as a synopsis of the go the goals for the middle school last year. The middle school continues to refine its instructional priorities to align with updated standards and evolving student needs. In science, we implemented the new earth and space science standards which emphasize inquiry based learning, real world applications, and a deeper understanding of systems such as climate, astronomy, and geologic processes. So in June of 2026, we have 250 eighth graders will be taking the Earth and Space Science Regents, which is approximately 65% of the ETH grade. In world language, we are aligning our curriculum with updated standards that prioritize communication skills, cultural competency, and targeted language use. This includes increased opportunities for
074students to engage in meaningful conversation, interpret text, and develop global awareness through world language instruction. In addition, we conducted a comprehensive evaluation of our elective offerings to ensure that they reflect student interest, support diverse pathways, and promote college and career readiness. As part of this work, we also revised the project lead the way curriculum to strengthen its alignment with current STEM standards and practices. These revisions enhance problembased learning experiences, integrated emerging technologies like the laser printer in our maker space so that students build skills progressively and meaningfully through their middle school experience. And now for our 2026 2027 priorities. As we continue to strengthen our school community, we are excited to welcome eight new teachers. We recognize the contributions of three retirees and introduce two new positions while filling three additional roles to support our
075growing needs. Alongside these staffing updates, we are implementing thoughtful scheduling enhancements, including an alternating 60-minute block for mathematics and ELA in the sixth grade designed to steep deepen student engagement and provide greater opportunities for differentiated instruction. In alignment with district priorities, we are also expanding the use of performance-based assessments, empowering students to demonstrate their learning through meaningful application, critical thinking, and realworld problem solving. Some new courses, personal finance, this course will be in in uh for the seventh grade. In alignment with the state education department's emphasis on financial literacy as a component of college and career readiness, this course introduces will introduce students to essential life skills such as budgeting, saving, goal setting, and responsible decision-making. Instruction is designed to build early awareness of financial responsibility and will prepare students for future financial decisions. Another
076course, writing across the curriculum. This is for sixth grade. This initiative embeds reading, writing, speaking, and listening across all content areas. Students are expect will be expected to engage in evidence-based writing and critical thinking. This course will strengthen comprehension and ensure that literacy is a shared responsibility across all disciplines. And another course, this is for eighth grade studio and art. This is a fullear course. This course will provide students with opportunities to take a fullear art course exploring different media while developing creativity and critical thinking. If someone does take that course in 8th grade, that is it will be a full credit on their high school transcript. Now, we're just going to go back to the um to the alternating as we said earlier with the alternating 60-minute math and ELA block to strengthen core
077instruction. All sixth grade students will participate in the alternating 60-minute block for math and ELA ELA every other day. This structure allows extended instructional time, deeper engagement with content, and increased opportunities for differentiated instruction, small group work, and targeted support. The alternating schedule promotes balanced skill development while maintaining flexibility to respond to all student needs. Some other initiatives as we mentioned earlier, Kayla mentioned earlier, outdoor home base. Outdoor homebase provides structured opportunities for students to engage in outdoor experiences that promote social emotional development, collaboration, overall well-being, and a little fresh air. Portrait of a graduate. another uh state education department initiative. We we're looking to develop well-rounded graduates who are prepared for college and careers. It defines and reinforces key competencies such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and responsible citizenship. These skills are embedded across
078the curriculum and reinforced through all instruction and assessment. And then we have our performance-based assessments. So work in progress. Performance-based assessments provide students with opportunities to demonstrate understanding through application and problem solving rather than traditional testing alone. These assessments emphasize real world connections, higher order thinking skills, and the ability to synthesize and apply knowledge. And finally, student support and data systems. We're developing well continuing to develop our MTSS which is multi-tered system of supports. This framework provides a structured tiered approach to supporting students academic and behaviorally through regular progress monitoring and data an data analysis. Instruction and interventions are adj adjusted to meet individual student needs. And finally, our link program. This tool enables all of us to collect, analyze, and respond to student performance data in real time. It supports inform decision-making, targeted interventions,
079and ongoing monitoring of student achievement. Thank you. And now on to the high school. >> Okay, we'll start with the high school priorities for this year. uh what's going on currently based on last year's uh budget priorities. Uh so to start we'll talk a little bit about leveraging uh AI programs and not only used by staff but also by students. We speak to our students. We have our student advisory groups that meet with Dr. Singha, Laura Maguire and technology and myself and we get their feedback what their feelings are on AI, what they should be doing, what they shouldn't be doing, what they want to be doing. uh what we hear from the students is that they don't want uh AI to replace their learning. They want to learn how to use it appropriately and
080that's what our teachers are doing with them um in every lesson. Um Google Suite which we use Google Classroom all of the the different Google products have Gemini and AI built into it. Uh so we have to learn or the students have to learn how to use that appropriately. uh teachers and the district have access to magic school and there's magic student as well. And there's a a whole plethora of tools that are AI that students are learning how to use. Um there's a controlled atmosphere when students are giving assignments in the proper use of uh of AI. So it's not just a free-for-all where students can uh use AI or just ask chat GPT to do their homework. uh it's more controlled in that sense and our teachers and students are learning as we're
081going. We continue to um offer training to our teachers and that trickles down to our students as well. Uh for our bond projects, we can see there's a couple uh photographs here. These are pretty current of what we're seeing outside. Um outside we have new fields that are completed and in use. We have a multi- uh sport turf field which includes uh football, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey that's been used. Uh we have infields for softball and baseball that are turf and those are being used. Uh we have a brand new structure that's going up. The steel frame is there. If you're around the back of the high school next to the track, you've seen it. Um I think it's going to be glass walls coming up soon, but the framing is there. Uh that'll be
082for the uh new fitness center, bathrooms, offices, um storage areas, uh snack shack for us for for outdoor usage. So what that does is open up space inside the building where we're going to see new areas of uh use for art rooms. We're going to see new business classrooms and we're doing new physics classrooms as well. So, there's a domino effect that this work outside has inside the building. Uh we're looking forward to that for September start, but what we're doing this year is preparing for that. Um and that is, you know, earlier Dr. Bowman spoke about the Bloomberg uh terminals uh that are coming and the preparation that's been ongoing for that. Um you know art is preparing for their new space which will be an increase in storage areas and u just larger
083space in general brand new classroom for them and business is getting another classroom as well. So this year is a lot of preparation so that once everything is ready to go hopefully in September that's the the timeline right now that we've been on track so far uh that will be uh there won't be any delay in in learning and and teaching that goes on there in curriculum this year uh there's been an ongoing transition for world language and the science standards. So that's also um a yearslong process that happens. So starting in in level two with world language and then three four working their ways up uh they're transferring to uh the different standards. Uh and then in science first it was earth science and biology and we're moving towards chemistry and then physics as
084well. Um you know that changes the the regions exams that we see for all of us that have lived in New York our entire lives. This is an ongoing trend with the regions, right? Every couple of years there's a change, right? It goes back to the 80s and the 90s and the 2000s. They change, right? And so we're in the midst of one of those changes again. So there's brand new regent exams. Uh which means we're constantly updating our curriculum and teachers are constantly doing training and changing the way that the classroom looks. Uh and and a big part of that, especially in science, is the use of more authentic assessments. I know that the pictures are hard to see from afar, but uh there's some photos of science labs in there. The new science
085labs are more hands-on. There's a lot more manipulatives really. There's a lot more resources that that students are using hands-on. They're not just talking about or reading about or or looking at something, but they're actually doing a lot of the science. Uh so they're, you know, they're practicing uh what a scientist would be doing in a lab. uh updating the classroom environments we continue to do uh and that is an update of furniture. We're just moving, you know, into this century more and more. We do that a little bit each year. Uh we're updating one of the last existing computer labs that we have for the computer science classroom. Just changing some of that furniture similar to the type of furniture we have in here that's more flexible. Um students like it. It creates a
086comfortable atmosphere, but it doesn't uh create an informal atmosphere where they're not learning. Uh we're also changing more to those uh diamond shaped desks which give flexibility to teachers. Uh the chairs are separate from the desk so they're not the you know the old style where you're stuck in there and tripping over things. Um and they allow more um group work and flexibility for teachers to go back to individual rows. uh for testing assessments traditionally which we still have to do uh and then they can group them together in u you know like a circular shape uh for more modern type of uh classroom environment that we need and then this year like mentioned earlier we have our new assistant principal and Amanda Hower uh who's not new to the the school or the district
087but she's new in her role uh she's doing a great job and also social studies and war language coordinator and Victoria Bane uh who's very busy with with the hiring process that we're doing. We did some more interviews today. Um, so that role, right, it's it's the role that the two people had in the past. So, uh, she's working very hard to to make that transition this year and and she's part of the team. So, we're supporting her with that. Okay. So, we'll move on to our priorities for next school year. We have 13 new teachers that we expect to see uh, next year. Eight of those will be replacing retiring retiring teachers and then the other five are addressing enrollment increase. So that bubble that that's coming up from 8th grade uh is increasing
088class sizes but we're ahead of it and we're increasing our staffing so that class sizes would not increase. Um and so we should be fine with that. We know our enrollment is going to increase over the next several years. Um so the uh the staffing should be in place for years to come. Uh even you know we're going to see more retirements in the next several years and then we'll we'll keep replacing them. Uh bond projects uh what we'll see next year again hopefully the work will be done and there's a picture there of a group of our students that visited the Hofra Bloomberg uh lab. Uh they have the ticker tape. We expect to see that. Um, you know, we're excited about the new facilities and like Dr. Bowman mentioned today we're we were
089um looking at the Bloomberg terminal that we have in place. Um, Mr. Con, our assistant principal, has taken the lead in the training with that and working with our business teachers to have them prepared. Uh, we have over 200 students signed up for the Bloomberg course next year. That's just one new course uh that we're offering. We're also offering a brand new career exploration course. We've listened to students, we've listened to parents, we've listened to the board. Uh this is something that will give a lot of different exposure to what's next even beyond uh secondary and collegiate level. Um could be everything from uh researching different type of careers to the skills that it takes to build a resume to research jobs. uh the interview process. Um and then even we expect to have some
090kind of internships as part of this program as well uh with local jobs similar to the way we used to have uh shadow days where students will go out into the community. Uh we're going to build that into this specific course. And then another new course we're offering is the college calculus course. This does this is in addition to our AP uh calculus BC and our pre-calculus course. This is in place of a college H an honors course that we had uh but this one is tied in with Adelfi University so they can uh receive college credit for that. Bloomberg course is also a college level course in coordination with Adelfi University. Uh we plan to continue our ongoing training and leveraging AI programs uh again for staff and students. Keeping up is the challenge
091for all of us, right? In all of our jobs and that's what we're doing for our students as well and our teachers as well to keep up as much as we can. We have monthly um informal PD sessions uh tech bites that is run by Mike Davilla from the district and Marggo KMO our uh librarian here at the high school. Uh they also run uh PD programs at night that they call pajama PDs and they have one coming up uh on Thursday again on AI and these are you know monthly trainings that we have so that we can stay ahead of AI and we continue to embrace it uh so that our students are comfortable with it uh regardless of of what changes are coming. A lot of it is about the skills to adapt
092with the new technology. uh we're aligning across all areas for portrait of a graduate implementation, right? We've heard that throughout the night. This is a multi-year pro process from the state. It's not that they're saying, you know, this year it's portrait of a graduate. Uh it's a couple of years of exploratory, which is where we are now. then there's going to be a couple of years of transitioning and then finally there will be probably not until 2029 2030 that the changeover will actually happen. So we're not seeing that change where the graduate is different uh from what it is now but we're going to see it over the next several years. So right now what we're seeing in our classrooms and what our teachers are doing is that we are meeting the needs in preparation
093for that. So the right the circle that we see in the top right there's six points of it. Those are the six skills of the new portrait of a graduate and they they build on those skills throughout K through 12. And what we are exploring this year is that our existing lessons that our teachers are doing now include those six skills. So there's not going to be a heavy lift when the transition happens to the the new portrait requirements because we're working on those now. Um, one of the changes in technology where we started this year and we're going to continue next year is replacing the Chromebooks with iPads. Um, there's a mix on um what's the best usage for students, right? The Chromebooks, you have the regular keypad on it, and the iPads have
094the um the add-on uh keypad. That's really the biggest difference that they're not too happy about. But it's uh it's better technology. It's um better quality um than the Chromebooks. And um you know, some people just have preferences between, you know, using Apple or using Windows. Um, but the majority of students and the majority of staff that are using uh the new iPads are are very positive about it. Uh, they're able to annotate because they can write on the screens, they can write on the text and uh it's very hands-on for math, it's very hands-on for science. Uh, so skill skills-wise it it's been very good. So, we're going to continue that transition to the iPads. And then finally, again, we continue the update of classroom environments. It's a multi-year uh process. We're not changing
095all of our furniture at once. That would be a little prohibitive budget-wise, but we're doing one or two classrooms a year, and then we're updating um you know, different podiums and things like that as as we need to. Thank you. So the um you know the proposed budget for ne for next school year this is something that Mr. Capio had gone over at the last meeting with the different codes. It's again no information has changed here. It's exactly the same as you saw at the last board meeting. >> Uh do you want to go over? >> Yes. Sure. So um yes so the um so this is the full budget uh the total for next year that we are um coming out with is 142 million 385,117. Um this is the budget broken down into
096its uh components um that we went over last time. So um yeah, so we've been going through that a little by little and this is our instruction one. So starting what Dr. SHA had gone over earlier was a slide with all of the program slides on all of the program budget codes, but what we had talked about in the first time is that um you'll see at the top that this says administration. So the principal's budgets which are 2010 and um I'm sorry 2010 is uh the curriculum. So it's Dr. Bowman's codes and 2020 are part of the administrative budget when they fall and they get divided up into the three parts. But we talk about it now because it really touches much more instruction than anything else. So the 2010 codes as I said
097is the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. So that's Dr. Bowman's codes. uh this area. It covers um salary for her and her clerical staff, uh curriculum development, staff development and training, all of the supplies that are needed for that office. The increase here, we do have an increase in curriculum writing for next year and that and some salary increases are really what's driving that increase there. 2020 is the principal's office code. So those are what it costs to run the main office. This is the administration of each school. This is the combination of all the principal salaries, the assistant principal salaries, all of the clerical staff that work in those buildings. Uh 2020 covers just the running of it. You have copier, supplies, materials for the main offices, all seven buildings. And really the
098uh difference there is mostly due to some contractual changes and increases in salary. The 2040 codes is related to uh expenses for the curriculum coordinators. Uh this is their salaries, materials, supplies, conferences. We have uh 0.5 of a clerical to support them. Um supervision of the K12 supervisory uh subject areas is what is there. Um the increase or the decrease there is really due to salaries and uh there was some changes on contractual but it's basically pretty much where it was. uh the 299 codes. So that is something that we have to show in the administrative side of the budget. It's actually the salaries for special education, technology and athletic, the supervisors. The expenses for the clerical staff, supplies, materials, everything to run that program is actually reported in the uh uh in the instructional
099side of the budget. But for the three-part, we're mandated to take those out. So we do show it there as part of the administration. 2110 is our regular school instruction codes. This is the largest component of all of the budget codes of the program codes. So um this is our regular school day. It is direct instruction for pupils, the teaching learning environment. It's a salary for all teachers, the substitute teachers, the teacher aids, the monitors, our textbooks, supplies. We have 170 something codes in this area. Uh because we do break it down to the teacher to the subject level and the school level. So that way we can monitor. And it was really great to see the principles uh present on this because it's one basic code but each of these people we work for
100months really putting together what our priorities are what our instructional goals are and how we're going to get there. So breaking it down into how much we have, what's put aside for salaries, what's put aside for professional development, for instruction, for new textbooks, um for the curriculum, you know, the literacy um program that we're going to be all that, right? All of that implementation that all comes part of this. And it's such a nice I've never worked in a district that was able to really have the time and talk about instruction and the just the impact of that on the budget. So I think this is always a very worthwhile night for us and um this is really where it was. So 2110 is here. Uh we do have some increases in um in contractual
101services, but as uh people have alluded to, we have quite a bit of a retirement snip for next year. And so we really look at this and our codes are relatively flat over last year over the current school budget because we do have changes um as we hire new teachers. We do see a decrease in salaries and that's really what's driving that uh these codes to stay flat for next year. So, it's keeping uh Nan quite busy and all of our principles planning on this for next year. I'll hand this back over to Dr. SHA. >> Thank you, Mr. Capua. We always um share with you uh districts that we compare with u and our per pupil allocation. And as you can see, we're always I think last year we were uh we were I
102think second to the bottom and this year we are like if you look at our per pupil a little over $23,000 per student. It's relatively very low. And what I wanted to point out was that we do so much with our um you know how we spend uh the the money in this district. And um as Mr. Capio just said there is such a strong focus on you know what we bring to the district that touches children right with our programming and and there is and creative thinking that takes place with our within our buildings our administrators on how do we do that and I think we do quite a bit with the monies that we do spend considering this year with the uh with the presentation that we shared with you on how we
103take care of our buildings also and our students. And um that's not easy. And I think we we um we spend the monies in this district very very wisely. So I wanted to point that out to you. And again, we'll have four propositions on the ballot uh on May 19th, the school district budget, the use of the capital reserve, including the that which includes the reallocation of the unused capital funds. We're establishing a new would like to establish a new capital reserve and then election of one board of education trustee. So our next presentation instructional uh component part two will be on April 14th where we'll have Miss Austin uh present on special education, Mr. Ramirez on athletics and Miss Maguire on technology. And that'll um that'll be our second uh part two. So we
104hope uh uh everybody's here to listen to to their presentations and I do want to take a minute to just thank everybody here again all my colleagues here tremendous job on the on uh looking at our priorities and really staying focused on the you know what we say to to our community and our board of education uh what our focus will be. We stay true to that and then develop priorities for the next school year. So thank you. Yeah, I'd like to second that. Thank you to all all of you to have come here and walk us through that. I know there's a lot of preparation that goes into trying to condense it into a short, although not that short presentation. So, I appre appreciate that on a Tuesday night. I know Kristen, I see
105you taking notes, so I'm going to I'm going to hand it to you to ask some questions. >> Actually, I don't I don't have any questions. I just wanted to make a few comments. Um, like uh Joe was mentioning, I do really appreciate all the details that are provided regarding our progress in meeting this year's priorities and then what priorities we've set going into next year because I think all that gives us a better idea of how the budget is directly supporting our students. So that's really important. Um just some of the things that I was also noticing it's promising that um to hear that some of the differentiated work that's happening in our primary schools um at that early age is helping to like decrease the number of students that net that net ne
106that then need a higher level of support. So, that's really wonderful to hear. And, um, I'm also hopeful that our new literacy curriculum will help naturally create some of that interdisciplinary work um, which I know is like a focus at the elementary school. Maybe the fact that the content area is just naturally woven into that literacy work will help do some of that work for you. So, fingers crossed for that. Um and then I also wanted to share a um book that I recently read called um the digital delusion. If you haven't heard of it, it's written by um Dr. Jared uh Kuni Horvath and um just with the talk of the use of technology and AI um it's a book that really looks at how um cognitive science and how children actually learn is
107um counterintuitive to some of our educational tools and um how important it is that we build our children's critical thinking skills before we give them some of the access to some of those technologies that do the work for them. So, as an educator, I just finished reading that book and it gives like some really um valuable suggestions for us in the work that we do with children and I think it would be a really great um resource to read because it may help um as you're working with your teachers and being thoughtful about how and when they use technology. So, highly suggest thank you everyone. I would second that last part. If you read read a lot about what's going on in AI, there's a there's a lot of emerging studies that I find fascinating
108personally that, you know, some of it should be helpful, but it's also could be cognitively impairing to kids as they learn and even adults as they're trying to learn and think through problems. So, I leave it to you, either the professionals to think through it, but there's a lot of interesting things out there. So, appreciate the work on that. I guess if there's no other questions or comments, if anybody has any questions or comments, please see you state your name, address, please state all of your questions at once and please address the materials that were presented tonight. Thank you. >> Oh, yeah. You can hold it if you want to, if it's easier. Yeah, >> might not fit. >> Good evening. My name is Thomas Balo and I'm a sixth grader at the Garden City
109Middle School. I'm here because I want to ask the board to keep team support for the new sixth graders next year and to help improve bathroom cleansliness in our school. Team support really helped me when I started middle school. It made me feel welcome, safe, and I had teachers I could go to if I wanted if I needed help. A lot of my classmates felt the same way. If team support is removed, I think it will be harder for incoming sixth graders to adjust, especially kids who get nervous or needed extra help getting used to the middle school. I hope you will keep team support so the next group of sixth graders can feel supported the way we did. I also have a petition signed by 80 students who wanted team support to stay. We
110all feel it makes a big difference and we want the incoming sixth graders to experience the same support we did. I also want to mention the bathrooms. Clean bathrooms matter to all of us when they're not taken care of. It affects our day and makes school less comfortable. Thank you for listening and for supporting students like me. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> You did a great job. >> My turn. >> Okay. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My son already. I'm sorry. My son has already presented before me along with the petition signed by 80 80 current middle students who object to eliminate team support period for incoming sixth graders. I want to begin by acknowledging their voices. Sorry. Their message is clear. They value the current structure and believe it helps them
111succeed without overwhelming their focus in school. their perspective deserves to be part of this conversation. We are speaking not only for ourselves but for the incoming sixth graders and their families who may not yet realize the essential essential this support has been to the current students. I appreciate the clarifications that the intention is to restructure not eliminate team support. However, I have significant concerns about the developmental impact of shifting from a 40inut separate support class to a 60-minute block embedded within math or ELA. The current model provides targeted interventions without adding to the cognitive load of an already demanding core classes. Extending those core classes to 60 minutes increase sustained mental demands in subjects that require high levels of focus, stamina, and working memory. We know that both research and classroom experience that middle school
112students have limited cognitive endurance. Once fatigue sets in, engagement drops, structural effectiveness declines. Longer blocks do not automatically improve achievements. And for many students, they may actually reduce it. Before this change is finalized, I believe the community needs clarity on several key points. What evidence show that 60-minute core classes improve outcome of sixth graders and any middle students, any middle school students? How embedding support within a long academic block better protects students wellness than the current 40 minutes separate support structure. What data indicates that the existing model is ineffective or require replacement and how engagement retention and performance will measure to determine whether this new structure is successful. Please note we all share the same goal. strengthening academic support while protecting students mental stamina sorry and overall well-being. I urge the district, sorry, I urge
113the district to reconsider the block strength and ensure that any 60-minute model includes clear structure that prevents cognitive overload. The students are advocating for each other. I hope we honor that by making decisions that truly supports them. Thank you for your time and commitment for protecting the Garden City students. >> Thank you. Angela 117 Kingsbury. I've stood at this mic many times and criticized. Tonight I am here to say master class in professional development. You have achieved what I have been looking for for a gazillion years. I am so so I I couldn't even stay in my seat. I don't know how I stayed there cuz I wanted to cheer. I wanted to jump up and down and make a total fool of myself and I can do it still. But everyone wants to go
114home. And we can go home now because you have put systems in place that can never be taken away from this staff, that can never be taken away from this district. Because once someone knows something and knows how to analyze curriculum and knows how to implement, change, differentiate, and do all of these things, I know that the successes are going to be there. I can go to Florida and forget about all of this. Unbelievable. I'm >> going to take you up on that. >> No problem. No problem. I love that video. >> I just want to say thank you mult language you can say it in. I am very very grateful. The money, the hours, the time, the the staff that it takes to put this together is tremendous. I know that because I've lived
115it and you have lived it and everyone will reap the benefits. And yes, there are always room. There's always room for improvement, but you have achieved something that no one can ever take away. So kudos. I'm doing a cheer. I'll go home and dance so nobody has to see it. But fabulous, fabulous, fabulous work. And it's all come together. So thank you. >> Hi Son Chapman, 70. Um, first of all, um, love to see the literacy aspect. That was great. Love to see the three programs being piloted. So much information and feedback from the teachers. I think that's going to be wonderful. Um, do we know when we're going to be able to hear a little bit more about the feedback? I don't know if you said it. >> Feedback and prepare. >> Yeah. >>
116Do you see you guys maybe because I know we've done this with other programs when we used to engage in wine and so on when you pilot three programs just maybe kind of taking a little bit of each and creating something on your own. Just >> that would be that would be a cha that would be a challenge that that that would be a challenge. I think that we put so much attention and work and and thought and detail into this from going from 12 programs that we were considering to five now to three put us in a really sweet spot. I couldn't be more confident >> and happy >> the trick >> that where we are right now. >> Okay. Well, again, it's amazing to see three programs being piloted and so many teachers
117getting a say in it. Um, like Angela said, I want to say no, can't go back. So, it's great to see that rather than just one program. So, thank you because we have had that in the past. So, it's great. Um, just to what happened in the beginning when Bridget did show our wonderful kids, Connor and Brandon, I happen to have the pleasure of teaching them a lot of um, challenger sports and I'm also the septa director for the high school. The high school does a phenomenal job. Um they are constantly looking for ways to engage the children. They have I think last Friday I think you were there Dr. My daughter told me they came to their biology class. They worked on something together. They're best buddies. They're going, you know, on so many
118field trips. I just see them constantly busy. Everything from the classroom being fantastic to everything they do. Um hopefully, you know, we can continue to do that work in the other um buildings as well. The amount of engagement that the teacher and the staff and the students have because it's not easy once you go up in age to continue to engage students of GenEd who are busy as it is for their own friends to take them out. You know, it's not like they can go out to recess or do those things or electives. So, really finding ways to do it is incredible. Um, again, you know, I this all the time, but watching those kids, seeing Connor play piano, anything we can do, I mean, just listening in his own words from him how important
119it is. You have to see how important it is from a very early age for children with needs to have these outlets when it's not academic when it's not just doing again a little bit of sports or some electives or whatever it is but seeing so much more of the creativity that we can give them. So please I know we're going to come to budget special education so hopefully we'll see more of that presented. Thank you. >> Thank you. At this time, we're going to move to a consent agenda that allows for one motion to approve multiple items on the agenda. I'll ask for a motion to approve each item. Um, and if anybody wants wishes to vote on an item separately or have it pulled out, they can do so. At this time, may
120I have a motion to approve the consent agenda, which includes business of the board, items I1 through I2, personnel matters J1 through J4, business office matters items K1 through K23, and special education matters item L1. All in favor? I. At this time, we'll make at future announcements. Any future board of education meetings will be Tuesday, April 14th, 2026 at 7:30 here at the high school. And then the following week, Wednesday, April 22nd, here at 7:30 at the Garden City High School. If there's no further business, may have a motion that the board be adjourned. >> Oh, sorry. >> Oh, sure. >> It's okay. >> I just wanted No, that's okay. I just wanted to mention the PTA annual dinner, the fundraiser is on March 31st, which is next week and the theme is I belong
121just as I am. So that's always a wonderful uh event for our entire community. Stuart and Stratford, they're having their festival tomorrow evening, which is a wonderful program. We started a couple of years ago with our really our ENL program. So we're looking forward to that. Spring recess begins April 2nd. um and students and staff, they return on April 13th. And I also want to uh remind everyone May 22nd schools are open because we used one of our snow days. So, uh May 22nd is a school day. >> We should post that again and again and again because people will forget. >> Um at this time, I have a motion that there be no further business to come before the board, the meeting be adjourned. All in favor? I