001I'm just looking for. So we were Yeah. It's good. We have Robert. Yes. education. This is president of the board of education speaking. Thank you for attending Zoom or in person. Please rise for the pledge of [Music] allegiance of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for the world. Of today's meeting provided to the department each member of the board of education is required by our land to the state of attendance. President Dr. Superintendent present for business and finance present. Amy Mclin superintendent for human resources and leadership development present. Dr. Alice Bowman assistant superintendent for curio. [Music] Jacobson district council Garcio Gersio present. John Sheen, Mr. Pfield to accept the agenda for April 23rd, 2025 regular session as presented. So,
002all in favor? I um we're going to go to commendations. So, we'll hand the mic over to Dr. Sigma. All right. Thank you, Mr. Silio. And, uh we have uh many of our students to uh recognize this evening. Um, first we'll start off with our National Merit Scholarship finalists. So, when I call your name up, come on up. So, we're we are very proud to recognize uh nine students who were named National Merit Scholarship finalists and this is an extraordinary academic achievement. These students represent the top scholars in the nation and their hard work and commitment to excellence are really truly admirable. We celebrate not only their accomplishments but their dedication and discipline it took to get get here. So congratulations to all of our students. So I'm going to call you up. So come
003on up. Come on up. Okay, I'm wire Simone Astatro Daniel Shy Amy Jin Yang and Alicia Zang. Congratulations again. Well, we also want to thank your families, teachers, and mentors for helping you achieve this distinction. Thank you again. All right. Uh we have our athletic teams, our winter athletes, student athletes to recognize this evening. So, we're very proud to recognize the stu these outstanding student athletes from the winter season. Again, their dedication, teamwork, and perseverance were on full display both on and off the field. Balancing the demands of athletics and academics is no small task. And these students have done it with commitment and hard work. So, congratulations to all of our fantastic uh to this fantastic season. And I would like to invite Mr. Ramirez to come up and uh you know talk about
004each one of the teams and introduce our students and coaches. just one of those here at Garden City, it gets caught between that successful fall and that spring. Sometimes it gets overshadowed. This winter these these group of students really stood out uh not only on high school levels but on the state level. The students that are being recognized today all qualified for state championships. Losing my fizz boys. All right, here we go. So, we're going to start with uh boys varsity swimming and dive. And I'd also like to uh bring up coach Ann Sullivan with these two uh gentlemen. Liam Hardy who qualified for the state championships and G. So Liam qualified in the 500 meter freestyle finishing as one of top Nassro County swimmers in that event. He competed at the state championships. Junior
005uh was a diver. He finished second in Nassau County and third place in the New York state championship. Both are juniors and returning. very demanding sport. Practices are early in the morning, very competitive uh atmosphere. So, congratulations to them and to coach for getting to the state championship here. Our next athlete is Gabe Con, varsity wrestling. He is here with coach Brad Heepworth. If coach Hepworth would come up. So he we had a little gap uh of about five or six years without an allount wrestler and Gabe broke that streak for us this year. Glad to say uh he was not only all county, he was third place in the Nassau Championships at 145 lbs. Competed at the state championships, had a great tournament. We look for bigger things next year. He also just uh
006placed six at a Northeast National Tournament down in Jersey and he'll be representing uh Garden City at the Nassau versus SuffK uh championship uh excuse me All-Star meet this weekend. Uh Gabe had an outstanding year and we look forward to a bigger year next year. Congratulations Gabe and coach. This next group of athletes is our boys indoor track and field. We have five athletes. I'd like to bring up Coach Dre and Coach Lucas up first as well. Uh the first athlete and then I'll I'll call the other four is DJ Mcdana. DJ, come up. If you follow the Instagram uh GC Trojan Nation, you know that DJ breaks a record every other week. Uh he qualified for the state championships in two events. Uh one he earned all state honor in both. First the 600
007meter which is three laps. Uh he ran that in record-breaking uh time and he was also part of the 4x400 relay team that went upstate. And those gentlemen can come up here now. They were also all state. Chris Burn, Charles Mend, Luke Weber, and Kylo Robert. And together they not only placed at the states, they broke the school record running a 3minut 21.59 time, which is the fastest for a 4x400 here at Garden City. And DJ's record for the 600 is a minute 30.34. That's three times in a minute 30, which is mindboggling. Congratulations. So, this last group is our girls indoor track and field with coach Scravanic and Coach Johnson. If everyone could come up. Too many to name, but I'll go over some highlights of the season. So, I happened to have the
008honor to watch them compete at the county championship. And when I got there, I spoke to coach Kani. Coach, how are we going to do? We're good. We're good. I don't know if we can win it, but we're good. Uh, all of a sudden, I get a text. Hey, we won. So, uh, it kind of stumbled into a county championships. They had a tremendous performance. 11 allcount athletes. Uh, the team doesn't qualify for the states, but the individuals do. Um, I think coach, I'm going to put you on the spot. 11 all county. How many champions do you remember? Three. Three Nashville County champions from Garden City. So, that was a phenomenal performance that night and a relay. So, a little more than three. We also had Kira. Kira, take a step up. Kira had
009a phenomenal season uh as an individual won the 600 meter event and earned a spot at the New York State Championship. She was also part of the four uh relay team. Unfortunately for Cara, she fell ill the week of the state championships. The good news is she's a junior, so we expect her to get up there next year or this spring. Uh performance as a team. It was a pleasure to watch them uh how they cheer each other on, how they help each other. um to win a Nassau County championship in any sport is very hard. Track is a different level at times. So, congratulations to you. No pressure for the underassman. Two in a row would be great next year. So, let's do that. Coaches, thank you. Congratulations. Great job. And then while you
010take this picture, I just want to thank all the coaches because the amount of time that they put in uh to help these students peak and to get to the state championships is unbelievable. They spend a lot of nights, weekends, not only preparing uh but planning at home. So on behalf of everyone, thank you for your time and thank you for the sacrifice you make with your own families to be here. Thank you. And then I have two individuals that could not make it tonight, but I do want to acknowledge them. The first one is coach Steve Fenel. Uh Mr. Fenel was uh recognized on a national level. He was the 2024 high school bros award recipient. He flew out to Little Rock, Arkansas. That's where it was given out. He was one of a
011few national uh coaches at the high school level who received the award as top assistant high school coach on a national level. Um he is the first Garden City, he is the first Long Island, he is the first New York high school coach to receive that. Coach Fenel and Coach Fel while I'm on it having an outstanding uh lacrosse season right now. ranked number one in New York State, has one loss to a top team from Maryland. Our next coach who could not be here is uh coach Eder. He was recognized at the New York State Football Coaches Association conference in Syracuse as the head coach of the year for the class A division. Uh he becomes, I believe, the first coach from Garden City to receive that award and one of a handful of
012coaches uh from Long Island to have ever received that award. He is also having an outstanding year with lacrosse currently ranked number one in the state. Uh only losses coming in overtime to nally ranked Darien who's number two and a season opener to number 13 Baitport. Both coaches uh nationally recognized. I wanted to make sure I gave them their their flowers and their just do. So congratulations to B. And before I hand the mic over, we just want to say we're incredibly fortunate to have all these coaches uh who do more than just teach the game. They build character, inspire growth, lead with heart. Their impact lasts beyond the final whistle. Thank you to the coaches. Thank you, Mr. Ramirez. And thank you to all of our coaches, of course, our student athletes. Uh you
013had a wonderful season. Thank you. This is the cap. Would you like to give the treasures report? Certainly. Thank you. Uh this is the treasures report for February 2025. We had a cash balance of the beginning of the month of 65,10,720. Do this a little closer. Uh we had receipts during February of 1,295,887. We had dispersements in February of 10,11,642 leaving us with a closing balance of 56,294,966. Thank you. Dr. S, would you like to give the superintendent report now? Sure. Um, you know, on the agenda there are Well, before I begin, I just wanted to mention that um we had a tenure reception. Um, could you have the tenure candidates on the agenda this evening and there are 28 um individuals up for tenure um this year. It was probably the largest that we've
014had. It was a wonderful uh reception and just real proud of uh the folks that are on that list. So with that uh on the agenda um you'll see that there are several policies there policies there's um uh one policy that is there for the first read which is the which is the um the fairness in school sponsored activities and this this policy states the district's desire to foster a fair and inclusive environment that is also transparent regarding all school sponsored activities. this policy as well as the other policies under consideration will be on the district website to get you know public comments which we've done. We do that every time there's a policy up for reading. Um there are second readings for the following policies which is the exeicio student member of the board
015of education. Again this is a new policy. We discussed it at the last board meeting. The sexual harassment grievance under title 9. um the responsible use policy, the independent uh educational evaluation policies, those were updated and really to be more current with the with the um language within those policies. Um so that's up for second reading. And then the extreme heat conditions and the artificial intelligence, those two policies, that's also there for the second reading, but these are again new policies. So it'll be back up again. will do three readings on these policies and um you know they'll be up on our website. Um and uh you know we had mentioned to the board we're going through all of our policies and um um you know um Miss Jacobson is will be reviewing that with
016uh with us and going through the series of each one of them to update these policies. So and we're actually looking forward to having a student on on the on the day here with us in starting in July. All right, some other updates. We're proud that our uh middle school is once again has been named Gold Star, no place uh no place for hate school. And this really recognition really reflects the school's ongoing commitment to fostering a culture of kindness, inclusion, and respect. So really a congratulations to our student, staff, and leadership for creating a place where every voice is valued and heard um in in in our schools. We also have kindergarten screenings that started this week and it uh it started on Monday and will continue through May 9th. And students who are
017attending the Homestead UPK and the Harbor Child Care um they will be screened at their locations and everyone else they'll go to their home school um to be registered. And just two other updates that I wanted to uh would like Miss McLaclin to give an update on the hiring Sure. Thank you, Dr. SHA. So, it's hiring season and we are very busy. Uh we have currently underway, well underway, a search for our new coordinator of social studies and world language. We hope to have a uh an appointment for the May board meeting. Um coordinator for music and art, that's also underway. Middle school principal is also underway. Hoping for a May appointment, might have to be a June appointment. We're trying very hard to make it May and we have several teaching positions both gened,
018special ed, high school, middle school. Um we are um so all of the administrators are very much uh involved in the hiring and we're busy and we're confident that we're going to bring um wonderful candidates to Garden City. You know, thinking about the folks that we hired three and four years ago that we honored tonight, um they're a great group. We'll keep that bar set very high. So, thank you. Thanks, Miss Mclofflin. And then, uh, Dr. Bowman, could you give an update on the um the literacy review and the up uh the upcoming UPK review? Sure. Absolutely. Uh, we have sent out surveys to our students in grades three through nine. Um, in our 7 through nine survey, we had 522 respondents. Um, from our students in grades three through six, we had 1,100 responses.
019Um, from our parents, we had 241 responses. And I think it's important to share that that link is still live. So, if you uh review your parents squares as parents, you can go back and um if you haven't, please consider um submitting a response to that survey. and we had 102 of our K26 teachers who teach in literacy respond to the surveys to the to that survey. Um we have finished or the literacy consultants I say we because I or I plan I scheduled them so sorry. Uh the focus groups have con been completed. We had three different focus groups focused on teachers uh reading group K through2 and 3 through six teachers. um our administrators, coordinators, principles and central office staff. We had a focus group for parents. Our literacy committee was invited to
020participate and we had a focus group for the board of education. Still left. Uh we also had interviews with the superintendent and also our director of literacy. Those were one-on-one. Um, upcoming after our New York State assessments on May 14th and 15th, we will be having site visits where CAS will be coming to the three primaries and two elementary schools um over the course of those two days to be able to see instruction in action. Um, tomorrow we will be visited by New York State Education Department uh to con to conduct our quality assurance protocol review for the UPK program that we have. Um over the last few months we've collected much evidence to um provide to the state to determine the level of compliance that we have and I am proud to say that
021we have been approved for everything that we've sent forward. Um one of the things that we are hoping for is some feedback from the state on how we can always continually grow and learn. Um and especially considering the amount of growth that we expect next year from our UPK program. Thank you Dr. Bowman. Some other items on the agenda is our proposed budget which is there on the agenda for adoption. So I want to briefly you've seen this before on our our budget but um just to give you again a brief uh overview of what we have shared the last um the last several board meetings. Um so again when we talk about our budget we think about our mission and vision at all times. Um this number has not changed which is our proposed
022budget for next school year is at 137,760,845 budget-to budget increase of 2.82% and the um the tax levy the maximum allowable tax levy at at 2.42%. And we shared the budget in these three um in the three part with capital, administration and program. Here are the numbers in those three parts. Again, you've seen all of this [Music] before and these are the major categories of the proposed budget that uh Mr. Capia has reviewed, I think, at each one of the sessions. And just in terms of you know the what we started the budget process with was giving you really talking about how do we continue to ensure that this budget has um the highquality education that our schools are you know supportive that we have resources to ensure that um you know our students are
023thriving and that we're fiscally responsible and we want to maintain that balance between fiscal constraint raints and you know the offerings the educational offerings that we have along with looking at our efficiencies within uh within our district. These are the priorities that we had gone over. I won't read each one of them but again this will be on our website. There's nothing new on these um slides. So on the ballot uh again the vote is May 20th and you have the school district budget and the election of two board of education trustees. So tonight on the agenda is the adoption of the budget and uh and then the budget hearing will be on May 13th followed by the budget vote and election on May 20th. Okay. And again all of this we have a uh
024on our website a section on the budget. All of these all of the information we have presented um you know to you is is on the website the slides and of of course the audio recording as well. And just some other items on the budget. Um, you know, again, I talked about earlier the we have the tenure candidates and I really want to um stress that Miss McGlaclin said, you know, we really work hard at hiring, you know, good educators in our district and, you know, we're honored to recognize really their contributions and and their continued impact that'll be here for as long as they're here. And then um talked about the budget. The scope summer program is also on the agenda. Mr. side um who is one of our teachers, our fifth grade teachers.
025He does really does an excellent job running the program and the offerings are I think we have now we have uh AM PM sessions and we've really expanded that summer program. Um there are several bid awards on the agenda. Um and again related to the hik the high school expansion the you know the bond that we had appro that was approved last year. So all of that work those bids are on the agenda. We also have and again this will be a discussion for the board members is the Bosey's budget and election of uh members to the Boseis board um that we'll be discussing in a little bit that's it. Thank you boards or questions from the board. I just had a quick question for um Dr. for Bowman and you may not have this
026information right this moment but um you had mentioned in response to um the surveys that were sent out that there were 102 K through six teachers that had um completed the survey. I was just wondering like what percentage is that of all of our K through six staff that would have received that survey? If it's not 100% it's like 97%. Yeah, they were very very responsive. Okay, wonderful. And then um and were those that was anonymous did were did they Yes. And then um the 241 responses from the parent community. Do we have a percentage of how many responses that is to the the parents that would have received that survey? So I would say that might be difficult metric to come up with. We have 4,000 students which there's multiples but no idea how
027many the average number of K like so I can't I can't really say it's not as high as we would like which is why I'm saying if any families are listening and have access to the um link which is posted and also in the parents gr we're happy to get your feedback. Well, thank you. And then I just wanted to share that um this was my first opportunity being able to um attend the tenure reception and it was a really wonderful celebration of um the achievements and the impact that our staff, our teachers, administrators have had um on children in our school district and um with their colleagues. So, um, it was a really wonderful celebration. I just have maybe two quick questions on the construction project. When do we, just for everybody's edification, it's
028been a while. When do we think we're going to break ground uh on the new construction alter? Also, when do you think we'll be able to start working on the facilities, i.e. the sports fields as part of that process? So tonight we are awarding the site contractor who will be working on the fields. Uh it's expected that all of that work will be done this summer um and into the uh the fall season. So we would be displaced and help me with this over the summer and into the fall and then uh soon after that like October, November, it would be finished. Correct. Yeah. Is that going to be staged? I know cuz you said disruption or how do they because I know all the fields are being turfed park. Well, that's part of that
029work is some of the stuff that Mr. Ramirez has been working on. So, we will have access to the turf field, but it will be a bit of a, you know, walk around. So, um yeah, what he has done, Mr. Ramirez is he's made a plan for where those practices and games will take place because of the disruption to the field and he's assigned them to every school and has been very communicative about that. So working with transportation, working with the teams, working with the coaches, the schools and all of that. But there will be this summer will be a lot on the fields. Plus, they'll um we we haven't awarded to the general contractor yet, but if all that goes as expected, we would be starting to break ground just on the on the
030uh the site construction for where that's going to go. But that project, as we know, will go over two years. Thank you. Any other Dr. Bman? It it just seems like a low amount of parents response compared to the number of children that you you know the kids are all excited to do the surveys. Anybody think outside the box? Maybe do some kind of little take-home assignment for the kids to go home and push their parents to jump on this link and do the survey. Everybody, you know, we say it all the time, we don't get the feedback sometimes. Um if my kids were here, they'd push for extra credit because they're all about extra credit assignments, but something very easy, something very, you know, not burdensome. might want to push, but it seems like
031a lot more children will do it and mom and dad are not. Yeah. Well, you know what? I'm just thinking off the cuff here, that's not a bad idea, but what I can do is maybe put the uh link as a QR code, send it out so that maybe people go home in backpacks. Yeah. But I want to think that through. We could do that. That was just off the cuff. But yes, something could be done. Yeah. I just want to echo that point. Uh Dr. Bowman, Trusty Odani, who was copying off to me as usual. Um, yeah, if we could do like possibly an email blast or robo dial or something along those lines. Good point. Yeah, we sent it out right before the break the link, but we can I like your idea,
032Mr. O'Donn about sending it. Seems like the kids are very responsive as you Yeah, we had,00 of them. Uh, sorry. 1,600 response. Yeah. Other questions? It's time for citizens and question comments. And if you have any questions, there's some microphones up here. You can feel free to come up and ask a question. You want just step up and hold the front if it's easier. Good evening. Robert Hur is 111 Cherry Valley Avenue. Um, now I've discussed this topic before, so it's probably not going to be a surprise. Um, as I mentioned at this year's first budget meeting, for the first time in the district's financial report, in the management discussion and analysis section in the highlights part, which is on page four, the school district disclosed the OPED liability of $148 million. And I looked
033back and in the prior five reports, this item was not mentioned. And I'm curious, you know, that it was not mentioned because even in one of those years, it was $24 million higher than it was last year. So, it isn't as if the amount is at a new height. I would like to know what factors led the board of education to include this item in the financial highlights section in the latest annual report while it was not mentioned in prior reports. In addition, what actions are is the board taking to contain this significant liability as it amounted to 15 times the level of bonded debt including the um the perform the energy performance contract. Now, I know most people have trouble understanding large numbers like this, but to dimensionalize it, there are about 7,000 households
034in Garden City. So, this liability amounts to $35,000 per household. Uh, to bring it down to a more granular level. And, um, when I first asked this, I asked this question at or brought this issue up at the first budget meeting this year and um, President Silio was not um, present at that meeting. Um, so I'm curious about that. The next um issue that I wanted to point out which I know this similar topic was discussed at the village in terms of their issue um in this matter but it has not to my knowledge been discussed at any of the school meetings. So recently the school district's financial results have been exhibiting a deteriorating trend as expenditures exceeded revenues by $1.6 6 million in fiscal 2024 versus surpluses in each of the prior five years
035which average nearly $4 million per year. Moreover, deficits of about 5 million are projected for both this fiscal year and the new fiscal year as the board of education is using appropriations of reserves and part of the fund balance to balance both revenues and expenditures in its budget. Consequently, the board of education will need to do a better job of controlling future expenditures or it will need to pierce the 2% budget cap at some point in the future. Efficiency initiatives need to gain traction as mandatory pension contributions will rise significantly over the next few years as as they have been unusually low as they have been at unusually low levels due to the very high returns in the equity market. I'd like to point out that over the last 15 years, the S&P 500 index
036of equities in the US has had the best 15-year performance in the history of the index. And the index was created in the mid 1950s. I think it was either 1956 or 1958. So these unprecedented returns are unlikely to continue and that will place enormous upward pressure on the required pension contributions for the school district which are projected to amount to 6% of revenue in the new fiscal year and it would not surprise me if they exceed 10% in the next couple years. So uh that issue needs to be given um some thought. Um and then advances in technology um especially artificial intelligence should provide abundant cost reduction opportunities for the board of education to streamline admin administrative functions. For example, artificial intelligence has been shown to reduce by 40% the time financial professionals spend
037compiling data. Moreover, outsourcing opportunities must also be pursued for non-academic functions as third-party providers can provide services at lower cost than the dis district district's employees. Since third-party employees do not receive gold-plated benefits like defined benefit pensions, which by the way only 15% of employees in the private sector receive, whereas 85% of employees in the public sector receive those benefits. And that comparison is even more stark for health care benefits in retirement, which the district's employees receive. So, I just wanted to highlight those things for the board to consider in terms of how they're running the the school district's operations. Thank you, Mrs. Gap. Maybe you want to just give a comment or two on the pension comments. Sure. Um as far as uh including it in the uh financial highlights, we do take the
038recommendations of the auditors and and have added that we evaluate and we record the um the OPED liability and have for many many years. So that is in the financials. Um moving it to the highlight section is uh just you know just to round out the financial report as it is. Um, as far as the OPED benefits, those are over the life of the um of of the liability. It does include current employees and retirees over their lifetime. We fund our uh health insurance on a cash basis. That is the full cost that we have had to add into the financials. Um, at one point they were doing it over a um, you know, Gazsby um, had us um, integrating it over a little bit over the year and then at one point they just
039had everyone bring it into the financials as those pronouncements changed. So we do fund it on a cash basis. We are fully funded in that sense. The liability as it sits for all employees and retirees over the lifetime is something that we do record. It brings us from the um modified acrruel to the full acral basis which we're required to present both in our financials and therefore compliant with those uh announcements. Thank you. Hi Dora Dela camera once sunset lane. I have a couple of questions. So the first question is I was wondering if you have allocated any part of the budget towards the mandate the back to basics literacy mandate for prek to third grade that's coming into effect September 1st 2025 that requires systematic sequential cumulative instruction for English for ELA reading and
040writing. Um um so we you know the uh what you're referring to Dr. Delicra we have been we have been doing a lot of professional development on that. We started that last year as soon as that came out and of course that's part of our our uh process for budgeting. We're waiting for our review to get completed to see if there's additional but we have funds funds needed. You have funds set aside for that just in case. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I just wasn't clear on the budget. My next question is I saw on the agenda that you're disposing of 180 desks from the high school. Is that correct? And what's going to replace those desks? Um they've already been replaced. What we do is um items that are no longer being used, we will get
041permission to sell. So, we put that on a um on a governmentwide uh auction and we do sell them that way. So, those desks have they haven't been in use of many years. They're older. So, what's there now? Do we have new desks or is it just something else? I mean, it depends on which location. In some locations, we have Well, there's been couches in rooms, too. So, I'm kind of finding out that I didn't think it was that funny. Um, sorry. I I Yeah, I mean we do have Well, you do have couches and and rooms, too. I mean, there's flexible furniture classrooms. It would depend on the classroom and the needs of that instructional space, but we would have both. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Good evening. Joy Jenkunis, 185 Weatherall Road, speaking
042tonight on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Garden City PTA. The Executive Committee of the Garden City PTA thanks the administration for your time, care, and tireless effort in preparing the budget for the 2025 2026 school year. We also thank the board of education for your diligence in reviewing the budget. We appreciate the engaging and thoughtful presentations explaining this year's budget and the presentations provided to address the concerns of our community. Thank you to the members of our community who attended these budget presentations, ask questions of the administration and the board and showed an active interest in the future of our schools. As parents, our role in public education ad as public education advocates cannot be overstated and we must remain engaged in the school budget process by speaking on behalf of our students
043here in Garden City and with our elected representatives in Albany. We understand that there are many challenges in preparing a school budget and submitting it for inspection and approval via a public vote. The school's budget must uphold our community's high expectations for quality public education while maintaining the board's commitment to not exceed the allowable tax levy of 2.42%. This year, the budget achieves those goals. It is once fiscally conservative and academically ambitious, guided by the district mission statement with a focus on students at its core. As parents, we are excited for the capital projects already in progress and proposed for the upcoming fiscal year, including the athletic addition and the new turf fields at the high school. Planned boiler work at the high school and middle school and the installation of air conditioning in the
044large gathering spaces in all our schools will help get all buildings modernized to deal with temperature issues more effectively. We also commend the district for planned modernization of our technology as well, including cyber security protection, advisory groups to address emerging AI issues, and a thoughtful balance between limiting and incorporating student devices in the learning environment. We appreciate that over 75% of this budget and most of our past budgets is dedicated to student programs and promises exciting instructional additions and enhancements for all students in grades K through 12. We look forward to receiving the literacy review recommendations in the coming months and commend the administration for including literacy enhancement as a K through5 priority for the 2025 2026 school year. We're pleased to see thoughtful consideration of parent concerns regarding class size at the middle school
045with the planned addition of teaching personnel at the middle school and a change to the long-standing master schedule process to permit greater flexibility. We also appreciate the attention given to the diverse learners in our community with the planned increase in ICT classes at the kindergarten and high school levels, the hiring of two in-house occupational therapists to provide support to our students, and the continued provision of mental health services to our students and families. This budget continues the Garden City School District's commitment to inspire and challenge students to accomplish their personal best while also maintaining the board's commitment to fiscal responsibility. The executive committee of the Garden City PTA strongly supports the 2025 2026 school budget. We urge all community members to vote yes for the budget on May 20th in support of our children, public
046education, and community. We appreciate all of the board of education's current and continuing efforts to meet the challenges ahead and we encourage you to continue to work collaboratively through with parents through PTA and SEPTA to tackle future challenges to our budget together. Thank you on behalf of the executive committee of the Garden City PTA. Thank you. Hey, thank you for your time. My name is Melissa Dubois and I'm the global education advisor at CIE. We award over $7 million in scholarships, both academic merit and financial need for students to go abroad during the summer for three or four-week programs. I was wondering if I could schedule a call with one of you to discuss how we could support your students as they could get four college credits or up to 50 hours of community service
047and the global seal of biiteracy. I work with schools all over Long Island, especially some neighboring ones and you know I'm an alumni of CIE so I know how beneficial these programs can be for students futures. Sure. you uh you know uh if you contact Miss Papalardo, she'll give you the information. Great. I have my card in a folder. I was wondering if Sure. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Hi, Deborah Dangler, 142 Kilder Road. I had spoken um to the board back in December about the English curriculum and the changes that were made because a lot of parents are asking um because I have older kids. So I have a kid in grad school, college, high school and I have a sixth grader and the curriculum that my sixth graders have
048been receiving is not the same English curriculum that my older children received. It's very drastic. It's very different and parents don't understand the difference. like if you say balanced literacy, you say explicit instruction, they're a little confused. So when I described the ELA curriculum um in December, I described the ELA curriculum from 2015 and that was when Garden City was ranked number one in Assau County for English on the ELA state exam. I meant for sixth grade. We used to give um presentations to the community and it used to be broken down with rankings comparing us to other districts by grade. Then it would compare us um even around the country like there was some presentations where you could see how we compared to other countries. So I wanted to update um the board because
049in 1987 the sixth graders moved from Straford and Steuart school. They moved over to the present day middle school. It used to be called the junior high. And one of the promises that was made to the community was the literacy block would stay in in place. That's the two periods of English. So from 1987 to 2021, sixth graders had two periods of English. So the present 10th graders right now had two periods of English and then that ended. It was removed and it was replaced with a class called exploratory. And this class keeps changing every year. And this year, the way the class runs is you do one week English, one week math, one week social studies, um one week science. There's no grades in the class. There's no assignments. There's no grades. Um the
050kids figured that out pretty quick within probably the first month of school. So, we replaced a core class, a second period of English with exploratory, which I'm hoping we can change and go back to the double period for the sixth graders because when I look at the reading scores, it's essential. I mean, these kids need the reading, the writing, they need the two periods of English to learn all the vocabulary, the grammar, everything. Um, so what I wanted to do was I last time when I was here in December, I compared the first quarter between three of my kids and the last child to show you the difference in the assessments because there's three ways we assess kids. We have the state, we have the NWA, and then we have quarter grades. But what's what's
051deceptive is there's not as many assessments being given to the kids now as compared to back then. So, the class of 2021, which was when we were number one in ELA, they had in the second quarter, they had a spelling and vocabulary test for chapter 4, a spelling and vocabulary test for chapter 5, a spelling and vocabulary test for chapter 6, a spelling and vocabulary test for chapter 7. They read the book Where the Red Fern Grows. They had a test on it. They read the book The Lightning Thief. They had a test on chapters 1 through 7. They had a verb test. They had a preposition quiz. They had an ELA midterm. My child didn't have an ELA midterm this year. He had midterms in his other classes. They did a book report. They
052did a compare contrast essay. That was 90% of their grade. The other 10% was homework. It's not even listed. It was never listed. Like they had homework almost every night. It was checked. And then they would get one grade for homework. Now compare that to my sixth grader today. second quarter English. He had an intro to non-fiction test, a grammar test on the sentence, and he wrote a clear paragraph on theme, and that was it. He had three assessments. 70% of his grade was assessments, and then 30% of his grade was homework/classwork. So you see the drastic difference in the assessments between the class of 2021 and the class of 2031. Um so then I looked at and I foiled the NWA scores for the present sixth graders. U Mr. Capio provided it um to
053me. So when they entered Stratford school in second grade, the sixth graders had um for the fall 20 on the NWA 89%. So they were home from school in first grade shut down from COVID. They returned and the GC mean for the class was 89%. Then in the winter it went to 82%. In the spring of 21 it dropped to 78%. They returned in third grade. In the fall it was 79%. And then in the spring it was 70%. Fourth grade they returned. In the fall it was 68%. In the winter it was 67%. In the spring it was 62%. In fifth grade the fall it was 65%. In the winter it was 64%. In the spring it was 62%. So we went from an 89% in second grade down to a 62%. And this
054is the mean for the entire grade. So, it's not just one child. This is a whole grade. Their reading scores are going down. And what's impacting it is the curriculum. That's a curriculum issue when you have all these kids now struggling. In sixth grade, they took the NWA in the fall. But the problem with the data is they took the test a month later. So, you can't compare what they did in the fall of 23 with the fall of 24 because they had an extra couple weeks of instruction. but their GC mean was 72%. So it went up, but it's hard to to judge it. Now, the class did not take the winter NWA, but there's a spring NWA. And what I was hoping is if they could take the spring NWA at the same
055time as they took it in fifth grade, so we can compare that data to see how much they improved. Um, so that was my question about the NWA data because there's no set date on the calendar as to when they're taking the exam. I had asked at a previous meeting. I don't know if it was decided. So specifically around the timeline um NWA has windows during which they allow for certain administrations. So the administration of the NWA NWA and the fall administration, there's a window between the beginning and the end. So in order for you to administer the fall, you would have to do it within that window. their um their data cycle suggests that if you do that you have valid and reliable data for that window. So that month in there according to
056NWA doesn't have a um statistically relevant impact for the comparison. Um, the other thing I wanted to ask is I I know that you have the GC mean, but the national mean is also available as well. And if I looked correctly, um, the GC mean is consistently above the national mean by about the same margin. Um, so there is there's and I just say that because there's some complexity around looking at that. I understand, but we're a top performing district and I want us to return to being a top performing district and we had that with an 89% mean. I don't see that with the 62% and I don't even see that with a 72%. To me, that's not good enough. It's a reading score. These kids can read if taught with the correct curriculum.
057And they've shown that with an 89% returning to school from co there's no reason why there should be this consistent decline in their reading scores. Which brings me to my next point. Um, in comparing the two curriculums, I spoke to you about the readaloud. Um, that's something new. So, my older three kids, they read the books out loud when they were in sixth grade in the middle school. They all had copies of books. They took turns reading out loud and they discussed the books. They had to answer questions on the books. They had to look up vocabulary words. They had tests on the books. So now the sixth graders do something called a readaloud. And from September to March, they did a readaloud of the book Unplugged. Now they're doing a readaloud of the book
058A Long Walk to Water. And my son's not a fan of the read aloud. Um, I don't really understand how it's helping him for the Stadia AA exam because he's not reading the book and none of the kids in the class were reading the book. The teacher's reading the book. So then I looked at the comprehensive approach to literacy. It used to be online, but it was removed, but I had I had saved it. Um, and it talks about the readaloud, but what it talks about for the readaloud is first it says it's for K through five. And then it says a readaloud to support emerging literacy. Says it's always a picture book. This isn't a picture book. This is a chapter book. There's no pictures in it. So, I I didn't know if there
059was some confusion as to why sixth graders are doing this readaloud because when I read this, it's not appropriate to sixth graders unless it's changed and it's been updated because I didn't see this online anymore. Miss Dangler, maybe if you could be two page booklet. Yeah, it's I have it up right now. Okay. Do you see what I'm talking about? It says for K through five. And then I saw it's always a picture book. I'm just trying to understand why my sixth grader has to listen to the teacher read the book out loud instead of the kids reading the book. Yeah. I mean maybe I could suggest maybe two things. Maybe I mean you can speak to the teacher and maybe that would help resolve the question because we're I don't think anybody here is
060that knowledgeable about what goes on in every individual class. But also maybe for me and others if you could send some of these questions that are very detailed and very specific. you've done a lot of research. If you could share that with us in advance because it's really hard to follow I know it's well researched but I just you know the details and some of the background it's hard for us to re kind of research and respond I think effectively real time. So if you have detailed questions obviously sent to Mrs. Bowman and she can inform the board and we can have maybe a better conversation about some of these questions. All three clusters are doing all the same stuff. So it's not an individual teacher question. It's a curriculum question like all three clusters
061that means every single kid in sixth grade is doing the same thing in English. So me asking for instance um in the fall the kids were given a list of book clubs to choose from and I looked at the list and I looked at the lexal numbers and they were all below grade level. They were below sixth grade what the state considers the correct band for sixth through 8th grade for the state exam. And one of them stood out. It was Escape from Mr. Lemon Sell's library because my kids read that as summer reading in third grade at Stratford. And this was now on a sixth grade list. And when I asked if my son could read a different book, I was told he wasn't allowed. He had to do a book from this specific
062list. So that was the one book he read was Masterminds, which was below grade level. But now the kids haven't read a book since then. They've been doing this readaloud. So, I'm trying to understand why this is continuing because I know they don't have the books and the teachers reading it aloud. Um, which brings me to the budget and textbooks because I had asked previously if the kids could get vocabulary books and I was wondering if it was part of the budget if vocabulary books were going to be purchased this year for grades four through eight. They used to have the Sadler book and that was removed. So I was wondering if it could be purchased. And when I looked at the budget and I had asked that the last time I had brought up
063that only $8,339 was spent on textbooks at the middle school in 2324 even though more money was budgeted. So I assume there's some extra money for the middle school to purchase books. And the approved budget for this year was 29,199. I didn't know if all that money was spent on books. And next year you propose $29,885 for um books for the middle school in comparison to the high school which is 64,864. So that was my question. I did I did ask about the vocabulary books. That's why I'm following up to see if it's part of the budget. And when I looked at other districts, you can go online and you can see their budgets. And some districts actually list all the books that are going to be purchased so parents don't have to ask. I
064I think this that question has been answered about the vocabulary books. um and purchasing them. And I I believe that we it had been answered a couple weeks ago that they were using more contextual vocabulary with the lists from the works that they have been reading. So I believe that that had already been answered. Well, when my son's teacher I did ask how vocabulary is being taught this year, she told me it was an organic process, which I was a little confused about, but he explained it. So, she'll stop and say a word and maybe write it on the board, but the kids don't write the the word down. The kids don't get tested on the word. So, how do you know the children are actually learning the vocabulary words? So, I can actually speak
065to this. I'm I'm a big proponent of reading and writing as everyone has heard many times. Um, so my son actually does get a list of vocabulary words from the books that he's reading. He's in eighth grade. Yeah, my son gets one in 10th grade, but my sixth grader doesn't. Well, I I believe the high school is different, but we're talking about the middle school and moving away from the vocabulary books into contextual and and they I mean at least and I think to Joe's point, each teacher may be different, but I know my eighth grader gets a list of vocabulary words in writing in on a piece of paper that he does get tested on. And so maybe if like very specific for your son's sixth grader, I don't know, maybe you should ask
066the teacher or ask you know Miss Dr. Bowman about very specifically that class because I know it is happening in other classes. I think that's great your son gets that in eighth grade, but I haven't heard any sixth graders get that. Well, I think again and if you're if you're reading below grade level books, how does that help you with the vocabulary if you have to have grade level? I think Mrs. Dangler um I you know just going back to some emails and it looks like Mr. Samuelson has addressed your concerns. Um you know that was way back in February. Um I know he doesn't believe in the vocabulary books that's why I'm asking. So I think um and what you know what Miss Scgaffne is saying that is how we we want the kids
067to use the vocabulary words that they see in the books that they're reading and they are being taught and I think you know he addresses that in this uh you know in the email to you as well. Um and then like I said if you have very specific questions then maybe it's a good idea for Dr. Bowman for you and Mr. Samuelson and to and Miss Kaufman to sit with Miss Dangler. Absolutely. And and I would include the teachers in that too. All right. And then and address every single one of those questions and as to to the why. Absolutely. That's how I would do that. Okay. I just think reading comprehension is so important and vocabulary is so important to understand the passages, which is why I think it would be great to have
068in addition to those lists with the vocab words from the books, a vocab book with actual, you know, with more vocabulary words because that's what the kids used to have when we were doing well. Thank you. I just wanted to follow up really quick and just say I had the same experience in sixth grade. seventh grade and eighth grade with both my kids at the middle school where there we're not getting access to grade level vocabulary where the readalouds were below grade level readalouds. My son is in seventh grade now and they actually read aloud a picture book without words that was part of the read aloud. No words in the book just looking at pictures and then another book they read was a second grade book and that was a readaloud. So, I'm not
069really sure how that would rise to the level of meeting the New York State standards, which require grade level comprehension skills, inferencing skills, and vocabulary. And it's, you know, we're missing that. If we're picking books that are below grade level, how are we meeting those standards? And how are we developing vocabulary that's appropriate in grade level? I think, um, again, to go back to the question about specificity, it's important to also not decontextualize those situations, right? I don't know the context through which those read alouds occurred. I don't know the I don't know the points the teaching points of the lesson. But I I think we can all agree that um vocabulary is best taught in context. Right. Explicit direct instruction of vocabulary will support comprehension growth if it's done. You're using great stuff but
070you're not well right. I think and again I think it's important to have a follow-up conversation but leveled how. Right. because the book Night for example by Elie Weisel is on a very low Lexile. However, I wouldn't necessarily think it would be an appropriate text to give to a very young student and there, you know, so so I think why don't um if if if it's okay with you, I think to have these very specific conversations will set up an opportunity for you and I to have that. Yeah, that would be great. I'm just concerned about vocabulary is cumulative. It's not something you can cram for. The kids are going to have to take SATs at some point and they're going to be missing a lot of words that they normally that would be SAT
071words that you would normally not use in your common everyday language or your written work, but they're words that you really should know even though you may not use them all the time and you may not even be exposed to them in books. So, I think we're really setting our students up for a less robust education and rigorous education if we're removing a vocabulary book that included words and explicit instruction and like for instance a Sadler book. I bought it myself because I knew Matthew wasn't getting it and I knew that he would benefit from support. So, I work with him with that at home. I don't expect the school to do everything. I do a lot myself with him just to build build up um his ELA skills. And it it really is a
072great resource and it is explicit. It's structured. It includes passages. It has antonyms, synonyms, using the words and sentences, fillins, and it's just a good addition to use to help, you know, supplement what they're doing in the class because you're not going to hit all those words, you know, especially since our kids had them beforehand and they did well on the SATs and we do have a very high top for performing high school. But you get there by building that foundation. And if we're missing that foundational component, then what's going to happen when they get to high school? they're going to be at more of a disadvantage. Um, I I also want to address this because my son and all three of mine went through the middle school. My son was in seventh grade last
073year and it's eighth grade and I think I also had the vocabulary book. We quizzed them and I know all about that and I do think it was great. But I also say it's not exactly fair to say that they're not doing vocabulary and they're not doing grade level vocabulary because I again I am on my kids reading and they were most recently doing a vocabulary list that came from um the ro for Shakespeare and so again I I would say that's even they were reading something that was harder right that's very but I I applaud the teachers for doing that and I think the vocabulary was very challenging, right? And that's appropriate and that that say that that was my experience in seventh grade as well with the books that they were reading. However,
074I understand that it's all different and that's why I think very very class specific concerns have always been addressed when I've gone to teachers, right? And so I think it's just not fair to say we're not teaching No. And I understand that gone. We're not teaching vocabulary that's appropriate. I understand what you're saying and I I totally get that. I know there's def definitely different teaching styles and different things that are going to be um highlighted depending on which teacher you have and I get that and that's normal. But the one thing that we had was consistency with that vocabulary book because in a sense it provided a blanket like everybody's going to get access to these words no matter what teacher you have and you had that scope and sequence so you knew at
075least they were getting that cuz what if one teacher spends more time on one book or they pick a different book? I mean it's hit or miss and it would be nice to have I'm not you know I don't disagree and we can debate is it better just to have a standardized everything. I think it's both. I I think it's both. I think you need both like what we had before because they it worked well. It seemed to work well from our data from the high school. If I can just say one thing and we are getting the review done that may be a recommendation that comes from there. Well let's you know we're we're hoping to get that before the end of the school year. So is that review going to be made public?
076Are you going to publish that? Yeah, we've said that at the board meetings that that will be, you know, reviewed publicly and of course we'll have that on the website. We've done that with studies. Who's providing the professional development for the last couple years in science and reading like we've had who's been the provider for that? We've had internal people that have gone to the training and they have brought it back and trained. Which training? They've had several trainings through Boseies. they they've had it the regional trainings there's been uh state trainings um so we've had a significant amount of training I think uh Miss McLaclin with the PD we've had how many teachers we have a lot of teachers even who finished the micro credentiing with the science of reading but we've had yeah
077I could get that that's great thank you Dr. S, could we could we just get a quick followup to us at some point this week? You know, it it would concern me if the sixth graders are reading a book even out loud at a second or third grade level. Could we just check on that? And I I don't understand why, but could we either put it to breast or figure out why we're doing it? I know we had looked I know Dr. Bowman had uh spoken to and I think she mentioned it earlier is that it's the context of what is being taught and what is the teaching point of the of the lesson and um I don't think it's something new that's this year from speaking to uh Dr. Bman when you spoke with
078the with the team that this is not something new that has start that uh is being done this year. No. Good evening everybody. It's Rich Komi Blo. Um, on the second read of the IE policy, I just had a few questions. Um, number one, in the independent educational evaluation policy, we are stipulating that uh, well, let me back up a second. I was I was searching on the policies. I couldn't necessarily find a specific policy related to um, internal evaluation procedures. Do I have that wrong, Dr. Cena? I don't know if you know off the top of your head, but in other words, you don't the internal. This is just for external. If if a parent is requesting an uh independent educational evaluation that's not in district, that's out of district. No. Sure. But my
079question is, do we have a similar policy addressing how we approach um whether it's initial eligibility testing or re-evaluation testing for students um ourselves internally? Do we have a pol I couldn't find one similar to the IE policy? No, we follow what the the state education department outlines for us in terms of the evaluation process, the cse, the um you know, we meet with the parents, but there's no internal We have a process and procedures, but there's no internal policy related to that. You have a process and procedures, but no internal policy. Okay. Um could you just un unwrap that for a little bit? So So you're saying um we have we just have informal policies. Is that in terms of how we go about fielding um in initial eligibility or or reevaluation testing of
080students who may have special needs for instance. So if I could I don't mean to interrupt. Sure. Uh uh Miss Jacobson district council um I just want to clarify your question. I think your question is a bit unclear. Can you restate it? Sure. Yeah. So, in other words, um on the agenda, we have a second reading of the IE uh policy. And my initial question is, do we have a similar policy with regard to how we handle internal testing, not independent testing of a similar nature, but how we test. When you say we, you mean the district. So, how a What I would recommend is so um and I know you probably know this very well and anybody in the community knows this very well. School district policies are all either posted um and any
081updates there too are part of the the reading process pursuant to the district's policy on policy. So any policy spec, you know, capital P would be listed on the district's website. If there is another policy that you are interested in, I would be happy to help you know find that for you. Yeah. I I didn't want to assume because I I didn't it wasn't obvious to me I didn't find anything but I didn't want to assume so I wanted to just ask the question and see if you know maybe I missed it. U maybe I word searched it incorrectly or something. Um but it sounds like we have processes but not necessarily a formal policy. Is that fair? I don't I don't quite know the answer to to your question. I think your question is
082a bit unclear to mine to my knowledge. But what I can do is I can provide you uh with all of the formal policies with all the board of education policies that relate to evaluations. I can provide that for you which would be subject to uh disclosure pursuant to any you know freedom of information law requests anyway. But as a courtesy I can provide all of those policies. That's fine. Yeah. I I I did search for all evaluation related policies and nothing came up gerine to what I'm saying. In other words, parent comes to you and says, "Hey, I think there may be a problem. I I think I'm concerned about this. You know, I want my student tested." Um, the district then goes and performs an evaluation, right? Um, is is there a policy
083for that? Right. Process number of different types of evaluations. You could be talking about a special education evaluation. You could be talking about a math evaluation. I'm talking about special education because again the question is in the context of the IE, right? which is right but so in the context of a special education evaluation there are the district does have policies pursuant to the idea individuals disabilities education act and those are all posted and publicly available so those are the policies that we have um to the extent that there would be a discussion that could implicate a particular child that's not something that we can discuss here no yeah I'm not talking about uh specific children I'm just saying generally um and I could follow up with you after this because it it's not um
084it Sounds like there may be a policy somewhere. It's just not obvious that it's a broad policy alongside like the IE policy for instance. I I couldn't find anything. So that was that. But I could follow up I guess with you or whoever. I would be happy to help provide any other you know clarifications or disclosures of any you know public document that we would uh be able to provide to you. Thank you. Yeah. Because the IE policy itself um I do have some concerns about it. you know, the the definition of one evaluation, what does that mean? Um, I think the district takes a pretty interesting position on that. Um, so I don't know if there's an answer to that. I don't know that that's a clear question. Uh there are a myriad of
085definitions of the word evaluation, but to the extent that you're talking at a spec about a specific type of evaluation under the special education realm, that's something that we can talk about outside of a board of education policy. To answer your uh you know global question, there is no policy that talks about um any other type of evaluation other than the types other than the specific evaluations that are already within school district policies. But if there are other documents not schoolboard policies, um I would I would be glad to help find any such document that you are requesting. Well, no, just just to clarify that the question is is is sort of straightforward. The the policy uh for independent educational evaluations, right? So, we're talking about um the district has tested my student um maybe
086they did a psychoeducational assessment. I disagree with what they found. So, I go to the district and I say I'd like an independent uh assessment. Um and there this is the policy that we are talking about right now that's on the board agenda tonight. Um in that policy it clearly states that you a parent under those circumstances is entitled to one evaluation. My question to you is very simple and direct. How do you define one evaluation? So you know again I would refer straight to the the statute and and the state regulation that would that would define um all right so we're directing parents to look at the statute and the regulations. Um and to me that's inadequate. um it's just not a clear answer and I think it's an ambiguity. Um and and I
087think the one of the overarching concerns here is that you know these things cost money. Nobody wants to spend a ton of money. Period. Full stop. Um probably the best policy would be to evaluate and uncover um problem areas before a parent gets to the point where they're saying, you know what, whatever whatever you did, district um I disagree with it. So now I want to go and get all these evaluations done. Um probably the best scenario is to avoid getting there in the first place, right? Um not always possible. So, and that's why I sort of started with what are we doing internally um to sort of head that off if possible. I think that's ideal. Um if I if I'm understanding you correctly, are you suggesting and offering a potential uh amendment to
088the proposed policy? That's certainly something that we can listen to. Um well, not necessarily not not in not in terms of what we're just discussing. Um, I think there's a few issues here. Yeah. I I think, you know, we we want to be clear as a district as to how we go about um detecting and assessing areas of need. It's it's a clear obligation that we have. It's an affirmative obligation that we have. And I think if we're doing it right, um, we are avoiding more expensive problems down the line. And I think now my concern is we're doing it the opposite way. and you know apparent and it's it's not to impugn anybody doing the assessments. You know, there were always externalities and uh pressures everyone's operating under. Um but right now it's sort
089of the opposite. You know, a parent comes along and says, "I'm just not happy with what I'm seeing here. It doesn't seem to capture what's going on with my kid. So, I want the independent." And then there's issues that go along with that, right? Um so to me that you know the better course of action would be let's really tighten up our processes internally to head that off and not have it be an issue to the greatest extent possible. Um and I think you do that with clear policy with clear direction. Um it's a big part of it. The the the second part I'll I'll try to be quick because I know everybody you know we've been here a while but um I thank you for your public comment on that on the first part.
090blood spam. No, and and I'm happy to follow up with you um because I again I don't want to take too much time, but uh it's on the agenda. So, the other part of this is there is a policy that I've come to learn about where parents are diverted to an internal um team meeting to discuss the IE request. And I think it's problematic for for numerous reasons. Again, I'm happy to talk with you offline, but I think for um just the public's understanding, you know, if if you're saying to a parent, look, we're going to gather as a team and talk about your independent evaluation requests, um I just think we're, you know, we're we're playing with fire there. Um, and I I want to see us avoid problems and get the child what
091he or she needs as soon as possible without the delay, without any nonsense. Um, I don't see that listed as part of this IE policy. And that's troublesome to me. Um, I'm not comfortable saying more at this point, but um I I think that's a problem um that I would like to follow up with you on uh if if that's okay. Thank you. In another interest forum. All right. I don't know if you have any questions for me, but um I appreciate the comments. All right. Thank you. Well taken. $16,845 for the fiscal year 2025 2026 adopts the property tax report card. So move second. All fail. [Music] There was I think a few nominees for the Boseies or trustees. The board has discussions and seen materials. There was a there was a a teams
092meeting. Um was it from Monday where they did some interviews with the candidates for for um people who were able to join that and listen um the candidates and nominees. There's Robert. I'm saying that right? I don't think I am. Michael Doug, Jay Pascarella. Um, those are those are the the four nominees. And there was one other um Jamie. Sorry, there's another gentleman. Michael Jamie. Thank Thank you, Mr. Hadanu. Um so uh we'll move on shortly on our our three uh candidates. Does anybody have any questions or wish to discuss any of the candidates? Okay. At this time motion that the board of education approves the following resolution being resolved that the board of education the G union free school district approves the board of cooperation education services of Nassau County Boseis administration operations budget
093for the 2025 2026 school year in the amount of $34,696,215. [Music] So move second um At this time, the board of education approves the following resolution being resolved that the board of education cast its votes for [Music] agenda items identified in the agenda. If anyone wishes to have the agenda item pulled out, please uh speak now. Um then we can vote on that item separately. If there are no requests to pull out any items, may have a motion approve the consent agenda which includes business in the board items K1 through K7 through all seven, business office matters items M1 through M19 and special education matters N1 through [Music] N2 business have any new business educational 2013 13th, 2025 work session 8:15 here at the Garden City High School and the following meeting will be the
094following work Wednesday May 20th radio session 8:15 at the Garden City High School. At this time motion further business to come before the board. The meeting is adjourned. All in favor? Bye.