001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Good evening all. Welcome to the May 5th, 2026 business meeting of the Board of Education. I need a motion to call the meeting to order, please. >> Motion. >> I need a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> Motion passes. We'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, for anybody who's not familiar with the emergency exits, they're behind you and then we have two off the stage. I need approval a motion for the approval of order of agenda, please. >> Motion. >> I need a second. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> Aye. >> Madam
002would like to do the clerk's report. >> Sure. Be it resolved that the Board of Education accepts the minutes of the business meeting held April 21st, 2026. >> I need a motion. >> Motion. >> I need a second. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> Aye. >> Um public comment, speakers will you wrist will be recognized who wish to address the board on agenda items only. Okay. We're going to start with our presentations and reports. We will start with who wants to go first? Mr. Meyer. >> Mr. Meyer. Thank you, Mr. Spring. I'd like to ask one of my second grade teachers, Mrs. Zone, come on down and join me. Mrs. Zone and I am very proud to nominate our student of the month of April, Alyssa Isabella Marmosac. Alyssa, COME ON DOWN. ALYSSA ISABELLA
003IS A VERY SMART, DEPENDABLE, and respectful child that has truly earned the honor of student of the month. She has earned it through consistent effort and positive character. She is always prepared and eager to learn. She goes above and beyond to help classmates when they are struggling. She's a fantastic team player during all activities. Teachers appreciate the positive attitude, active listening, and willingness to follow directions without reminders. Whether working independently or in a group, she shows responsibility, kindness, and integrity in everything she does. Favorite subjects in school are physical education and reading. In phys ed, she enjoys active participation enthusiastically in games and demonstrating great teamwork and sportsmanship. She encourages her classmates and always gives her best effort, making her a positive role model during activities. She also has a strong love for reading books,
004often getting lost in stories that spark her imagination and curiosity. Whether she is learning a new skill in the gym or exploring new worlds through books, Alyssa shows dedication and joy in her learning. Outside of the classroom, she enjoys spending time doing the things she loves most. She has a creative interest for drawing, often expressing herself through colorful and imaginative artwork. At home, she loves playing with her brothers, sharing laughter, and making happy memories together. She also values time to rest and appreciate a good night's sleep to stay energized and ready for each day. One of her favorite ways to unwind is by watching movies with her family and eating popcorn. Only if it has butter for me. These activities reflect her warm personality and the balance she maintains between responsibility and enjoying life. One
005of the reasons she's such an amazing student of the month is her easy-going nature and happy disposition. She's a good friend to everyone and shows kindness at all times. When subject material is not as fun as others, she diligently works to the best of her ability, putting forth her best effort. She's a pleasure to have in second grade this year. We are truly honored and proud to have her as our student of the month. Thank you, Alyssa, and for being such a wonderful young lady. We cannot wait to see all of the great things you accomplish in the future, including coming back to Hampton Bays as a kindergarten teacher one day, which is her dream job. All right, CONGRATULATIONS. >> CONGRATULATIONS, ALICIA. >> Thank you for saying it. >> There we go. >> Congratulations, man.
006>> Great hire, yes. Congratulations. >> Thanks, Denise. >> Thank you, Mr. Meyer. Mr. Shull. >> Good evening. >> How are you? >> Good. How are you, Mr. Springer? >> Hello, everyone. Uh it's my pleasure tonight to have uh two student of the months uh we're going to recognize from Hampton Bays Middle School. Uh the first student of the month I'd like to uh welcome Ashley Duran Maldonado. I'D ALSO LIKE TO ASK UH MS. MILLS to join me. And Ashley. Oh, Ashley. Ashley was nominated by uh her teachers from Team Determination represented here tonight by Ms. Mills. Ashley's teachers describe her as a kind, sweet, and hard-working student. She enters the classroom each day ready to learn and sets the tone for her peers. She's a wonderful wonderful role model and always willing to help out
007her classmates. Her teachers also note she is an avid reader who's always looking to broaden her horizons with good books. Ashley shared that her favorite subject this year has been garden science with Mrs. Taylor. Ashley most enjoys it because she can be outdoors planting in the community garden. And then inside where the class makes a delicious guacamole. Ashley also loves what she's learned about playing volleyball in PE class this year and is considering taking her skills to the next level by trying out for the school team. Outside of the school day, Ashley enjoys watching Korean dramas and reading manga, which is a sort of blend of anime and graphic novels, very popular among our middle school students. When I asked her what she enjoys about this genre in particular, Ashley shared that she likes the
008anticipation of what she reads. I love that answer. In the future, Ashley aspires to be a teacher following in the footsteps of some of her favorite so far, Mrs. Mora, Mrs. Prado, Mrs. Mills, and Mrs. Heenan, who are also helpful to her as she becomes truly bilingual in both English and in Spanish. Her advice for new students is wise. Don't be afraid or too shy to ask for help. Talk to your teachers, pay attention, and build relationships. All great advice for any student in middle school, especially coming from a future teacher. Congratulations, Ashley, on this amazing accomplishment as student of the month. We're very proud of you at HBMS. >> Congratulations, Ashley. Good job. >> Okay, and now for the student of the month for April for Hampton Bays School, Emma Kersey. I'd also like
009to invite Mrs. Otadi to join us. And miss sixth grade social studies teacher. You're welcome. Okay, so Emma was nominated by her teachers from team ambition. And here is what Emma's sixth grade teacher team, led by Mrs. Otadi, had to say about her. Emma is a young lady who truly embodies the spirit of HBMS. Throughout the halls and in the classroom, she is known for always being kind and positive toward every peer she meets. As a sixth grader, she has set a high bar for academic excellence through her incredible work ethic and dedication to her studies. What truly sets her apart is her reliability. Whether it's in assisting a classmate with a difficult concept or stepping up to help her teachers with daily tasks, she's always the first to volunteer and with a smile. She
010is a student who can be counted on in any situation, making her an important part of our school community. Outside of the classroom, her commitment to excellence continues. She is a dedicated dancer who spends countless hours each week in the studio. Her discipline shows in her competitive performances, proving that the same hard work mindset she uses in school translates to everything she does. During our interview, Emma shared that her favorite subject is math because there is a clear and definite answer. She especially enjoys tackling the challenge of figuring out percents. Emma is a real joiner and is an early bird at that. She is an active member of HBMS's student council, where she is a part of leading and making decisions that benefit her classmates, including spirit days and new lunch ideas in the cafeteria,
011such as offering delicious smoothies for students to enjoy. When she's not rising early for student council meetings, she's doing it for Math Masters, which meets at 7:00 a.m. Picture this, Emma in a near full cafeteria of classmates coming to school 45 minutes early to compete in math contests and competitions. Outside of school, as the teachers mentioned, Emma is a dancer and has been for the last 9 years. She performs in ballet, tap, contemporary, hip-hop, modern, and her favorite, lyrical. During her downtime, do you have downtime? Doesn't sound like it. Emma likes to doodle, drawing flowers with a pen, especially hibiscus, which remind her of family trips she's taken to Aruba. Emma loves to study the ocean and aspires to be a marine biologist. She's especially curious about sea turtles and the adventures of sea turtles
012uh sea sea turtle releases, which she's seen. She wants to help sea life thrive and to lessen the pollution in the water affecting sea life. Emma, like so many of our students, got hooked on The Lightning Thief in sixth grade and is now working her way through the series. Her advice to other students, do your best, pay attention, listen, and seek out trusted adults to help you. We call those go-to people at HBMS. She also recommends all students join student council so their voices can be heard and they can have an impact on how to make HBMS an even better place to learn than it already is. Congratulations, Emma, on this amazing accomplishment as student of the month. We're so proud of you at HBMS. >> Congratulations, Emma. >> What is your goal in dance?
013>> Uh it's like a ballet and lyrical training program and it's like slow. >> Okay. >> Oh, okay. Congratulations. >> Yeah, I didn't know what it was. >> Good evening, Mr. Morgan. >> Good evening. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week and Happy Nurses Week. It is an absolute privilege to recognize sophomore Noah Rodriguez as our April Student of the Month. Noah, COME ON DOWN. NOAH WAS NOMINATED BY HIS HEALTH TEACHER, MR. DAVIDSON. When we talk about the student-athlete ideal, we are talking about Noah. He is performing consistently well across all of his classes, but it is his relentless drive to reach his full potential that truly sets him apart. What makes him stand out just isn't his transcript, but it's his character. In my conversation with Mr. Davidson, he said Noah is the student who goes out
014of his way to be polite and inclusive, ensuring that no one feels like an outsider in his class. He actively contributes to his classes and is always there to positively support his fellow classmates. But make no mistake, behind that kind, welcoming exterior is a competitor with an engine that simply does not quit. Noah is a linebacker on the football field. That is a no-excuses position. It's arguably one of the toughest roles on the gridiron. You have to have the physical heart of the defense and also diagnose complex plays in a split second while absorbing hits from players much larger than you. But if you want to see where Noah's true grit lives, look at the wrestling mat. Wrestling is often called the toughest sport in the world, and as a 132-pounder, Noah lives a life
015of discipline that few can match. Whether he is training during the off-season at Prime Wrestling Club in Holbrook or traveling across the state to compete in tournaments like the one he just wrestled in in Elmira, Noah is constantly testing his limits. Wrestling isn't just about physical strength, it's about the mental fortitude to keep pushing when your lungs are burning and the clock is ticking. Noah has his sights set on the highest levels, Division I wrestling at SUNY Binghamton. And while he is already making waves here, the most exciting part is that Noah is only a sophomore. Noah, you still have two full years left here at Hampton Bays. That is a lot of time to continue building your legacy in the classroom as you tackle French 4, AP Lit, and Physics next year. I'm particularly
016impressed by your decision to enroll in our newest course, AP Business with Personal Finance. For someone who aims to pursue business as a career, taking this initiative now shows a level of foresight and planning that will serve you well long after you leave these halls. It connects your hard work directly to your future professional goals. You still have plenty of time to lead our teams on the field or the mat and continue to make yourself better through increased leadership opportunities and also by representing the best of our community. We can't wait to see everything that you will achieve achieve over the next 2 years. Best of LUCK TO YOU. >> CAN I HAVE THE TRUST? THERE YOU GO. OKAY. >> BEFORE we get into the superintendent's report, good good evening first everybody. This is the
017debut of our three ex-officio student board trustees for the 25-26 school year and their report tonight to the board is going to be an update on some of the highlights that are happening and have happened across our three campuses. >> Hello everyone. The elementary school recently had their annually fun run, which is a health and fitness event run alongside Aces Day. Aces Day stands for All Children Exercise Simultaneously, which is a national initiative promoting fitness in schools. Our HB students ask friends and family to support their personal fundraising goals by providing monetary donations to help them reach certain prize tiers. The PTA Fun Run Committee also contacts local businesses for business sponsorships to help them provide greater funds for the student program, where our community always shows us great support. Program Programs that are supported
018by this event are field trips, literacy nights/steam nights, assemblies, yearbooks, end-of-year celebrations, Patriot's Day and Veteran's Day ceremonies, Harvest Day prints, Harvest Dance and Parade, Adopt-a-Family, Faculty Appreciation Breakfast and so much more. On the morning of the PTA on the morning of the event, the PTA hosts an energetic pep rally where the HB youth cheerleaders, along with many other guests including our very own HB mascot, as well as local college and private mascots who donate their time to help energize the students for the big day ahead. The day concludes with a run where the students and their teachers run a homemade track on the school field, cheered on by staff, family, and friends. It is a very fun event that the students look forward to all year, as well as proving crucial funds to allow
019the PTA to provide many events and services to the HBES. It was very successful this year as it raised $19,042. And over the past 4 years, the event raised $84,393. >> Uh good evening everybody. When I was first asked to give this presentation, I reached out to Mr. Shug about what events have currently gone out at the Hampton Bays Middle School. What I was uh surprised with was the amount of list of activities that Mr. Shug sent me. He sent me a list of over 20 activities, but I'd like to just quickly go over some of the uh top highlights that me and Mr. Shug spoke about. Um on March 20th and 29th, the Hampton Bays Middle School's uh theater Thespian Society gave the performance of Annie Jr., which was a success and the audience
020was amazed by. Then they also, the eighth grade class of Hampton Bays Middle School, went on their annual trip to Frost Valley. There, the eighth grade class had some bonding activities. They went zip lining, had archery competitions, team building exercises, and additionally played tetherball among many other activities. This was a weekend activity um for the eighth grade for team building and everything else. Additionally, this year marks the return of the DARE program at Hampton Bays Middle School after over 15 years of uh not being in place. DARE stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. The program is meant to help students, specifically middle school students, on their decision-making during the middle school and high school years. It's a The program is through collaboration with the Southampton Police Department. The students who have been in this program
021for several months at this point will have their graduation ceremony on May 21st for the success and education that they went through in the dare program. In addition to this, most recently the peer educators, which I myself myself are my part of, recently also visited the Hampton Bays Middle School to give a presentation and lectures about anti-bullying, anti-vape, and all the other anti-drug abuse uh things. This was done to help prepare them for the this experience at Hampton Bays High School in addition. There was also a book reading um called The Book Was Called Good Different. The book promoted identity and the importance of individuality. This book had a poetry competition done on it and and a workshop done with the author, Meg uh Quiatt, who uh went to the Hampton Bays Middle School. Additionally,
022there was an I Tri Triathlon for sixth-grade girls that's going to be happening over the summer. They will be participating in biking, swimming, and and racing competitions on Long Beach sometime in July. This program is meant to help promote uh girl sixth-grade girls in education, sports, and other activities get more involved. Thank you. >> Good evening, everyone. The high school recently celebrated the commitment day for seniors celebrating the last months of the high school and their upcoming graduation. Many of them are looking forward to the next step of their lives. I spoke with many of them, over 12, on where they were going to college and all of them are extremely excited where it's the military to college or wherever they may end they may end up being. They were all very happy and thank
023Hampton Base High School for their efforts on their and working on their future with nearly all of them being excited to tackle the next chapter. High School music competition recently happened again. This time instead of Disney it was in Boston and the students much rather enjoyed Boston opposed to Disney with even more students being able to attend nearly double as shown by the picture. And all of them were extremely grateful as they got to witness professional musicians play an orchestra and similar events like going to Six Flags and celebrating and shopping with their friends. >> Okay, we're going to take a quick 5-minute break and then we will be back with the business portion of the meeting. >> It's really good. >> It's nice to hear that. >> Call the meeting back to order. And
024we will start with the budget hearing. And do you want to speak first? >> And do you want to have Larry? >> Why don't we just open the hearing, take comments, and then if there are none, then we'll close the hearing. >> Okay. Um, do we have any questions on the budget? Anybody? Any of us? Yes, Bob Berger. >> I didn't forget you. >> Yes. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Um everybody around it's open now, so I'm going to ask you to stand, state your name. >> Come to the microphone. >> Yeah, but come up to the microphone. >> Good evening. >> Looking at the audience, I can see what's been going on. My name is Amy Paradise. Um I graduated from this school in 1975. I understand the school and the entire environment is very
025different from when I graduated. But when I look at my tax bill every year, I have to decide whether I get to stay here. Um 2/3 of and more than 2/3 of my tax budget is this school. And what it it just blew my mind to see a figure of $69 million for less than 2,000 students. And do you realize that the budget for this school is more than half the budget for all the other services that the town provides? So, the question is, how have we gotten here? I'm looking at this audience and thinking it's pretty obvious nobody bothers. Um I unfortunately couldn't be at the civic meeting. I had some feedback on information I was given there. I don't know how accurate it was, so I guess I won't go to that. I
026got online um from the National Center for Education Statistics. Now, this information would be 2 years old. Uh if you total it up, 85% of the budget is student staff support, administration, teaching, and so forth. 17% left for building and so forth. So, that part of your budget is very fixed. You can't ignore your buildings, neglect your buildings. They always need maintenance, stuff like that. The 83% of the budget obviously is impacted by the number of students you have. I got online for the State Department of Education. You've got numbers up there, aggregate. If you look at the numbers, the senior class from the 9th through 12th grade, you had 186 students plus or minus in each grade except for 10th grade, it popped up to 203, but the next year it went right down.
027In your middle school, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade, you've got approximately 146 students in each class. And every year after that, your student population has dropped by 8 to 10 students. This year, you're down to 70 students. If you double your student population by some magic, that's what you have to do to get to where you are now. So, this budget, you need to stop it. You've got to adjust for a totally different reality. And 83% of your budget needs to be looked at with that new reality. And I don't accept the fact that every year you go back and ask for more when your student population has been declining year after year after year. The other thing, and I'm not an educator, you can shoot me if you like. I know that in 2007,
028about there, the state mandated a reduction in class size. Classes are to be no more than 22 students. According to the information I have, your student teacher ratio is 1 to 10, which is less than what they mandate for special education. So, that is a lot of money. A lot. A lot of your money goes to pension and benefits. Um so, there's an area you need to be looking at. I have had experience in my life. So, when I went to school, a class was 30 to 35 students, one teacher, no aids. I went through portables, split sessions. We moved over here cuz they built the new school. I don't think anybody died. Um if you want a lifelong learner, I'm definitely one. So, but I also had two kids. I was in the state
029of Maryland. My older daughter went through was in public school. The classes were probably 30 kids. And I got to seventh grade with her and it was a disaster. I took her out for a year and put her in a private school. And my younger daughter, who's eight years younger, went to a private school, 15 kids in a class. I understand that smaller classes make a difference. But I'm thinking that one to 10 is pretty incredible and not necessary. Um I don't know what kind of teachers you've got these days, how they're trained. That may be something that the whole system needs to look at. What are we training our teachers to deal with? Um so, I just I think this budget I think you need to stop the train, cut it off, sit down,
030and go over every number you've got. I'm retired now. I don't have an increase in my budget every year of 3%. And there's a good portion of this township that is in the same situation. I'm not poverty-stricken, but I have a budget. And I the whole organization, the school system here, just blows my mind. I lived in Frederick County, Maryland for almost 40 years. My kids went to school there. They have 45 48,000 students in their school system. They have one superintendent who makes $292,000 a year. Um they have 7,000 teachers and they spend approximately $22,000 a year on their teachers. I don't think their outcomes are any better or worse than here. And before anybody says, "Oh, stand you know, living expenses." The living expenses there are quite comparable to what they are here.
031So, I'm not good enough. I tried to go through the budget item by item. It's it's broken down in such minute sections. I'd have to be an accountant to understand it all. And I don't know what all of your union rules are. >> Thank you. >> This needs work. This is not good news and it can't keep going on. Person- I think Southampton and Tuckahoe are combining. >> That's not true. >> Didn't they ask about it? >> They're they're going to study it over the next few years. It's failed twice. >> Yeah, I was going to say >> Uh there's there's a lot of and I don't know why the teachers aren't fighting for it. It's time for stuff like that to happen. I look Are there 10 school districts in the town of Southampton?
032And I don't think you've got 10,000 students. That's absurd. It's absurd. I some of them have Sagaponack and Wainscott, too, but top 10 on on your richest real estate in the country and they have 30 students cuz of course any kids that are living there aren't in public school very much. But that means they're not contributing anything to all of this. There's some big problems here and and I just I don't even know how to I I couldn't understand the performance statistics. It looked like math, you have a problem with English went down. I'm the pandemic I'm sure did all kinds of crazy stuff. But your pandemic kids your your seniors were the pandemic group in sixth grade. >> Some of the kids that are in middle school now would have been the younger ones
033and that was the worst time because like kindergarten through third third grade is critical for your reading stuff. So they I'm sure they had to do some adjustment there. >> But you got to look at this. I mean this is just this is absurd. $69 million for 1,800 students, $33,000. Why don't we all just ship them off to private school and we'll save all the expense of running the buildings. I mean cuz you could do that. It's crazy. >> That's all. >> Thank you. >> All right, um we will address that in a moment but we got to get a motion to close the budget hearing. >> Motion. >> I need a second. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> Aye. >> Okay, uh we'll move on to Mr. Clementson. >> Good evening. >> Thank
034you for your comments. Uh I'm going to I'll take a few of them. Um The headline is we agree that mitigating taxes and keeping costs um low is our driving factor as well. Uh we are in the midst of an enrollment decline. Um you're correct. It's not um a one-for-one. It is a We are seeing it decline like this across from senior year through kindergarten. Um and mitigating costs is critically important. Finding new revenue is critically important. Um earlier in the budget season, we had reported that there are three retirements um that we have this year that we will not be refilling. And that's the phase of life we're entering in in the school district at this point. So that uh as um our more senior faculty and staff retire, we are being met with
035a declining enrollment and the need to have less human resources. So you are correct there. Um interestingly, the drop, we are currently at 1,913 students today. Interestingly, a year ago, we were 100 more than 100 students above that. What we have seen this year, as I've reported in in previous um meetings, is two two factors that are impacting us. Number one, smaller class sizes being born, right? So kindergarten being a lot smaller than our graduating senior class. But number two, action at the federal level regarding immigration enforcement has put a damp an immediate dampening effect on our in and out during the school year. So during the '23-'24 school year, two school years ago, um we had 227 new enrollments during the school year. So that's not the incoming kindergarten class. It's any other kids
036throughout the year. And we had 174 leave. And so what we were experiencing during that phase between the seniors and the kindergarteners was that that difference was still when compared to the number of new entrants coming into the district and staying we were still at a net plateau or slight increase. So the decrease that we're seeing in enrollment is a new phenomenon for us. Uh the New York State commissioned a report on the foundation aid formula, which is the state's formula to fund schools. And they looked at every school district in New York State 10 years ago uh 14-15 and 2024-25. We were one of the only school districts on Long Island that had slightly more students in 2024-25 than we did in 2014-15. Or it was 13-14 23-24. I don't have it in front
037of me. Everywhere else was experiencing that decline and we're now at that uh in that experience. And so we can expect and as we've had this conversation as a board um over the last year, we can expect that we will continue to contract in size. That is still while we're mitigating rising costs everywhere that we can't control. Whether they're pension costs or benefit costs, utility costs, things that we're experiencing in our own lives as well. So we're mitigating against that and a decrease in um enrollment. One thing I'll note is that Hampton Bay is over the last 15 to 20 years as we grew in size we were increasing staff as a result of more kids coming in, more kids coming in. That was an immigration matter, and that was also a byproduct of a
038an economy that forced second home owners to start renting their second homes. And then we were having more enrollment. When the economy gets good, those go back to second vacation homes. When it is struggling, they become rental properties. And so we do see some transients inside and out of the school district. Um the point is competitively and comparatively in the region, we were not able to offer the same type of course offerings for our students that we were able to once we had some room to do that. We were having some basic education requirements. And so you'd look at Southampton and Westhampton and Easthampton, um respectable colleagues of ours, and their course schedules for what they were able to offer our student their students did not compare to ours. And in preparing kids to be
039competitive, it was a priority of that of that time to continue adding um enrichments, remediation, um elective type offerings for our kids. Um the class size ratio is an interesting one. Our average class size in the K-6 level is not 10, it's 17 to 19. And at the high school level, you might have a small class that is an elective or an AP class advanced placement class. But by and large, the average is probably 22 to 26. When they come up with that ratio to get to 10, they include everybody. The phys ed teacher, the music teacher, the guidance counselor, the social worker. Uh so, I wish they had a disclaimer on that because I my eyebrows would pop as well and say, "Wait, there's 10 kids in a class? That's is smaller than a
040special ed or a newcomer language class." Uh but they throw everyone in the pot there. So, not just the traditional class that we sat in as kids, right? So, again, Miss Paradise, the the headline is we agree cost mitigation is critical. In Hampton Bays, when you compare us to the other school districts on the South Fork, particularly in Southampton town, and I and this board this governance body is only res- only has the jurisdiction over our 16 square miles, two of those being in the ocean or the bays. In order to consolidate, in order to combine, you have to have everybody has to be in the sandbox to play together. And not everybody is in the sandbox to play together because of economics. Districts that are have a lot more taxable assessed value than ours,
041so our neighbors to the east and west of us, Dune Road, for example, all of those mansions on Dune Road, they bring in tremendous amounts of tax revenue and send zero students. The burden that we face in Hampton Bays, and I'm a resident as well, the burden that we face in Hampton Bays is that the tax burden is largely on 1/4 to 1/3 acre homes of homeowners like us, right? And so, the burden is heavier for us. And what that results in is a high tax rate, the highest in Southampton town, and a per pupil spending that at you're right, at simple division, $33,000 per student, is the lowest in Southampton town. And so, that that's the conundrum and reality that we've lived with forever, that we our tax rate is higher, per pupil spending
042is low. We will continue to go line by line and squeeze and pull, and we will see a contraction of um um, size uh as people retire um or go leave to go work somewhere else or move somewhere else and then maybe not fill that position. While still maintaining a competitive academic program that makes a realtor want to say to a new home buyer, "Come check out Hampton Bays." Um, you know, all of those things are factors. Um, I'll talk a little bit about the budget and then go into some other some some other components of the budget. We still have a New York State budget that is not complete. That was reported on yet yesterday or today in Newsday that we still don't have a state budget. We are conservatively estimating a 2% increase
043in our state aid. That is um, evidence of a formula at I mentioned the foundation aid formula earlier. That's evidence of a formula that doesn't seem to work for New York State anymore because nearly 2/3 of school districts across New York State are now on what's called save harmless getting the minimal amount of state aid increase. And what we advocate for is that every dollar that comes from Albany is one that we don't have to bear as a local property taxpayer. In 2010-11 roughly 11 cents on the dollar spent in the Hampton Bays School District was Albany state aid. Today that number is about 20%. So it's important to that we keep moving that number up and advocacy is a way to do that. The other the other um, analogy that that I like to
044liken to our property tax bill is that it is 2/3 if in my budget in my home it's more actually the schools portion of property taxes because our streams of revenue in a public school system are only two really. State aid and property taxes. Maybe if we owned property and we leased it to, you know, some schools that are have shuttered, they lease it and that's revenue. But by and large, it's two streams of income, property taxes and uh state aid. When you look at the other elements of the property tax bill, every single one of them can generate sources of revenue that we don't have access to. Beach permits, green garbage bags, building permits, things like that. Those are taxes in a way, right? But they're pay to play. If you don't go to
045the beach, you don't need a permit. In a public school, we can't do that, right? So, playing the tuba or playing lacrosse or taking the chemistry AP chemistry is open access to all provided the student meets the academic requirements. So, the biggest portion is is reason is going to be the property tax bill because we don't have a revenue generator outside of property taxes and state aid. Which is why we spend time in Albany and advocate with our elected officials to make sure that they know our story. We're Hamptons and so people draw conclusions about what that means, but in reality, we are a community that where uh 2/3 of our families would qualify as economically disadvantaged and again, we're quarter to a third acre properties um that are not the mansions on Dune Road
046that bring in that tremendous um that tremendous um tax revenue. So, infrastructure compared to Frederick County, Maryland and and and other places, New York State is is the way New York State is and we're playing by the rules that they um that they have set up. We have regularly opened our comments and our partnerships to other school districts to say, like Southampton and Tuckahoe, we have some empty seats. Can we can can we combine? And and and that's another stream of revenue for those districts. But when your tax rates are so different, a high tax rate in Hampton Bays and a low tax rate in Southampton, there's going to be a a quote-unquote winner and a loser where someone ends up paying more. That's what frankly um was the obstacle in Southampton and Tuckahoe in
047the previous two merger studies. Their tax rates were not that far apart, but one was higher than the other, and the district did that had the lower tax rate did not want to see their tax rate go up. So, it becomes very provincial. It becomes very community specific and and community oriented. There are districts in northern the northern part of the state that are so drastically going off a cliff in terms of enrollment where they are asking the state, "Please force a merger." Because if it's if it's going to take two communities to agree, we might not get there. But if the state comes in and passes legislation and says this is what's going to happen, then maybe that'll get the job done. New York State is what's called a home rule state, meaning to
048the best of their ability local control is where um the government wants the decisions to be made. We can have local control with in our four walls, but playing with another jurisdiction, you need two to tango essentially. So, um our goal um has been to when we look historically at the tax levy, um our average tax levy increase has been just shy of 2% um each year. In 20 21 and 20 22 school years, we received large infusions of state aid, and so we did take advantage. The Board of Education's commitment was that money came from Albany, keep the tax levy flat. Do not increase taxes in the Hampton for school taxes, excuse me. So, when you look back, you can see that the 5-year average still captures that those 2 years of zero. So,
049it pulled that 5-year average down to just a little more than 1%. Um but when you look across a 10-year time more than 10-year time period, it's just about 2%. Our spending increases have just been just about 3%. And as I mentioned, there will be there will be elements of budgeting this year as we're not replacing a number of positions and in future years where there are opportunities to mitigate some cost and hopefully some of the big cost drivers, special education, transportation, health care, uh pension systems, that those cost increases go down as well. Those are ones out at the gate that we don't control. We're told, "Here's the bill. This is the number." And then work everything else that you hope to accomplish in your school district around that. So, when you look at
050the breakdown of revenue, so we have the expense budget, which does total $69.5 million. The other budget that we manage is the revenue. How do we How do we get there? So, $52.5 million of that is the tax levy. That's either going to be the tax levy or the CPF pilot. So, uh Larry uh in his early days in the school in the school business office worked with um our my predecessor and then Supervisor Skippini and Supervisor Linda Cabot uh who followed to create the the Community Preservation Funds pilot. So, it acknowledges to a small degree, not to the degree it would be if they were mansions on Dune Road at Ponquogue Beach, but it does acknowledge to a small degree that we have some beautiful coastline both bayfront and oceanfront that is untouched. And
051in we get no tax revenue from it. So, instead of us getting more money, what the town of Southampton does is rebate and lower the tax levy as a modest tax relief. So, the $52 million $52 million tax levy might end up being $50 million and $2 million has been taken off because it comes from the flush CPF fund. Other local revenue about a million dollars, state aid is at $15.8 million. And pushing that number higher and higher is critical. The budget will be voted on by the by the voters on Tuesday, May 19th at the middle school gymnasium. There's parking in the back. Um there are absentee ballots that are available. You can see Marion who is our district clerk who who runs the elections if you're not going to be in town on
052the 19th or there's some circumstance that prevents you from coming to the polls. The absentee ballot submitting an absentee ballot and voting in that way has become a lot easier since COVID. Um the second proposition would be it's an unknown at this point, but after the audit is complete after the books close on June 30th, it would be to use up to $300,000 to do exactly what what you said Miss Paradise is maintain the facilities. When something breaks, we have a little a little money to address it without having to go to the taxpayer and say, "Can we have some more?" Um there's one candidate up for the board of election board of education and that's Mrs. Dot Capuano who is running for re-election this year. Um a couple of um a couple of elements
053that I also want to mention around the district. Our student trustees did a great job with some of the great things happening, but on May 29th, we have our military ceremony in partnership with Southampton and Westhampton. It'll be held at Westhampton Beach High School at 10:00 a.m. It is open to the public where we celebrate our students enlisting in the military. We call it the first to say thank you because they haven't even left yet. So, we say thank you for your service. We're expecting eight members of the senior class to be represented in the various branches of the military. We were recently recognized by the National Association of Music Merchants. That's known as NAMM as a best community for music and as as Cayden reported on, we competed in Boston. We did a college
054tour as well to the Berkeley College of Music and it shows. And so, thank you to Mr. Carlson for navigating that application with our with our music department. July June 4th, we will have Mrs. Fitopoulos who was here before is organizing our college returning college student alumni panel. So, we bumped into some alumni today. They're coming home. Their finals are over from college. They're coming back and so on the morning of Thursday June 4th, all of our seniors will be here for a panel hearing from our returning college students how their year was, what our seniors should be thinking about as they're approaching graduation. That ties into an event that will take place on June 16th. That's in partnership with the Hampton Bays Fire Department. It's the kickoff to commencement season. Commencement season is typically
055and statistically the most dangerous season for 18-year-olds. Drinking, drugs, driving, partying, celebrating, graduating high school, it's notoriously dangerous nationwide for students and so we take that opportunity to bring seniors here and the Hampton Bays Fire Department actually has a car that it was recovered from an accident on stage here. It is a very very serious presentation and the fire department takes our students through what the jaws of life would look like in a in a car accident. This year we're hoping to partnership partner also on that morning with hugs international to do a Narcan training. So Narcan training is for an opiate overdose and that can happen in a restaurant. It could happen at the beach. It could happen to a drug user or it could happen to somebody who misread their prescription label and
056took more by accident. And so it's an aerosol nasal spray. It is a very brief training. But training 180 kids on the way out the door and giving them that material as they go off to college or they're out in the community. Hopefully none of them would ever need to use it. But if they're ever in a situation where someone they're with needs it or someone they're not with just someone who's in the space they are that they would be able to do it and they'd be able to respond. So we're grateful for that partnership. The last thing I'll mention is pre-kindergarten. Tonight would have been our pre-K lottery and I think did we see one parent here for that? Yeah. So normally we would have our pre-K lottery. Hampton Bays since about 2008 has
057run on half-day pre-kindergarten program. Four of them. Two a.m. sessions and two p.m. sessions. One of the ways we accessed more money from Albany this year, $180,000 more, was to access state uh um universal pre-kindergarten money. It can only be used for that purpose. And so, what we will do this year for the first time in our pre-K history since 2008 is offer 27, we think 27, at least 18 possibly nine more in the next room, um full-day pre-kindergarten. And that would be taught by our, you know, our teachers um that uh again, we're taking advantage of lower class sizes to reduce sections, keep still keep class sizes at a respectable level, um but give our pre-kindergarten students and all of the research shows that um students who have three, they call it 3K and
0584K. We don't have 3-year-olds yet. Uh maybe New York State's moving in that direction, but 4-year-old pre-kindergarten in a 5 and 1/2 hour program, um the our kindergarten and our kindergarten readiness, I think it's going it's going to really show in the next couple of years. We have great half-day programming. We have some great full-day programming in the community as well. We're going to learn from those pre-Ks. We're going to meet with them because going from a 2 and 1/2 hour program to a 5 and 1/2 hour program is different when you're four, right? And so, there are elements uh that we'll continue to learn from. So, that means no board meeting lottery to pull and we're So, we've reopened the lottery registration because many families have opted to not participate in the lottery because
059we only had a half-day section and that was off the table for them. It was just not going to work in their in their family situation. Now that we have a a full day, we didn't want to pull a one-two, you know, pull a fast one and say, "Well, I would have put in, but I didn't know you had that." So, we reopened the registration window. That will take place through Monday, May 11th, and then or Wednesday, I'm sorry, Wednesday, May 13th, and then the following Wednesday, May 20th, we will do a live streamed lottery poll uh from district office. So, families won't need to be there. It will be live streamed so they can watch. Um and I we imagine that we will have more interest in a full-day program. We haven't met the
060need in the past several years for our half-day program. We had 54 seats that we could offer half-day, and for the last several years we were in the high 30s, low 40s. So, half-day was no longer meeting the need for what our community was saying they need for their 4-year-olds. Having 27 full-day seats paid for by New York State, we're going to have some people who are not who do not get chosen in the lottery. But, um this is a first step. If the state continues, Governor Hochul and the legislature's priority is to build out 4-year-old pre-K across New York State. If that continues to be the direction New York State moves, hopefully we can all open more seats for our students there. Members, any questions? Okay, thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Clemmons. Larry,
061would you like to add anything? >> Okay. I'll obtain a report. Yeah, I'm done. >> Okay, with that said, we are going to do a consent agenda from 4A to 7C unless there's any questions. I need a motion. >> Motion. >> I need a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> Motion passes. Okay, um Public comment, persons may address the Board of Education on matters of interest and concern in accordance with the applicable state and federal law and Board of Education policy 1230 governing the rules of public comment in board meetings. The Board President will recognize all speakers. Please identify yourself, your town, and the topic on which you will be speaking. Time limits may be imposed based upon the agenda needs. Okay, and we heard from Mr. Paradise. So, okay. With
062that, I need a motion to adjourn the meeting. >> Motion. >> I need a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> Meeting is adjourned. Have a good evening, everyone. Go home safely. >> Yes. Thank you.