001Heat. It was Anywhere. All right. Good evening all. Welcome to the October 21st, 2025 business meeting of the board of education. We will 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. >> Yes. Yep. Okay. I believe we have a special guest to sing the national anthem. Um, Brendan, there he is. Oh, say can you see by the dawn early light so proudly we held at the twilight last gleaming who brought stripes and stars through the perilous fight or the we were so gallently rockets [Music] through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star spangled [Music] [Applause] for the land of the
002free and the home of the brave. [Applause] Thank you very much. That was excellent. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um just a quick note for our emergency exits are the two doors behind. Um I need a motion for the order of agenda, please. >> Motion. >> I need a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Motion passes. We will move on to the clerk's report. Uh, I need a motion, please. >> Motion. >> I need a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Motion passes. Public comments. Speakers were recognized who wish to address the board on agenda items only. I think we're okay there. So, we will start with our students of the month. Who we have first? Mr. Meyer. Come on down. very special student join [Music] [Applause] [Music] 2026. Kennedy [Applause] Kennedy.
003Kennedy's only hardworking, caring, friendly, and very bright. From the minute she step into the classroom this year on the very first day of school, our teachers recognized that Kennedy carried all the characteristics of a student who not only deserve but September student of the month. In the time that we got no attend so far, she has demonstrated qualities and great friend and a great help to others. She is always the first one to volunteer herself without hesitation. Kennedy is a beautiful artist and loves natural pictures to her writing pieces. Her favorite subject is Kennedy politely ask which makes everybody so proud of the great choices she continues to make. Her favorite special class is physical education. We can find her actively participating in many activities with her classmates. summer through running and all sports. Outside
004of school, you can find Kennedy enjoying her time riding horses or cheer practice perfect skills in both activities to be the best she can possibly be. Some other activities she enjoys is playing with her adorable dog. One of Ann's great talents is being a wonderful older sister for her younger brother. She also will be an amazing big sister to her soon to be baby brother and baby twin sisters. Kennedy loves living. Not only does her school spirit shine when she's cheering, but she loves all of her teachers past and present. One thing that many based community members share is their love of beach. Although unfortunately summer has ended and the cold season are upon us and we are always thinking about beach just like that. We are honored to have a wonderful we can't wait
005to watch her learn and continue to accomplish many great things in elementary school. Thank you for being such a wonderful young student. Your future is so bright. We're so proud of you. Congratulations. [Applause] Keep it up. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Mr. Carlson. >> You have the same [Music] on the uh the backup mic. [Applause] They haven't high school. [Applause] was nominated by the music department for his outstanding contributions and unwavering dedication. The music department nominating Brendan is no surprise. He is a definition of outgoing has dedicated himself completely to the performing arts. Just performed an amazing duet performance with Charlotte Summer at the Tri Cowboy. His resume here reads like a program. He's a key tener in our choir and chamber. He's represented our school at precedious out of school music
006and he's performed at music in the parks and and on top of his vocal talents he also plays piano and flute isn't just a school performer. He performs professionally at the Gateway Theater and has supported major productions of Frozen William and here's a fact you won't find on most high school resumes. Last winter he sang loud while figure skating character on student council as both freshman vice president and a junior junior class president's dream is noting He's doing the work. He's already auditioned for major shows and call back to the outsiders and back to the future. This hard work has already thrilled to share that he has already been accepted to his top choice. [Applause] He is also applying to other powerhouse programs like the University of Michigan Pace and every college plans to pursue
007a career in performing arts and eventually shares passion by teaching theater or voice. His advice and spirit personally captures his spirit. Don't let people tell you what you can do and what you cannot do. Finally, relax. sent sorry to extend his heartfelt thank you to his parents. Please join me in congratulating truly talented and deserving student. [Applause] Mr. Allow me to introduce Middle School student of the month for September 8th grader, Jacob. [Applause] Jacob is just meeting us after coming back from Pearson Middle School where a goalkeeper [Applause] tonight. Jacob was nominated for tonight's recognition by his team of teachers team resilience who had this to say about this nomination. Jacob is a student who is always trying to do his best in class. He is usually first to complete his work but he is
008also always willing to help others in class. He is very respectful student who always Jacob is known for a strong start as he challenges two courses biology and algebra. He's especially enjoying as he says it is difficult but up his current goals which include pursuing a career in the medical field as a doctor or nurse. He is especially intrigued by what he is learning about human respiration and body systems and how the classroom is a teacher for our school team. He is also eager to play basketball and track and field this year. He finds being in school sports challenging in terms of teaching him how to organize himself as a student who is committed to learning every day and succeeded in his eighth grade studies. Jacob was also inducted into the National Junior Honor Society
009last year as a seventh grader and is eager to return to be an active member of the student leader in his eighth grade. Beyond the school day, Jacob prioritizes studying home with an occasional dose of video games which is home. He is also an avid reader of the Alex Rider book series which he describes as a combination of action, adventure, and mystery genres. Jacob shared that the results of last year's nomine surveys indicated he would be a strong match for careers in either social work or detective work which is to consider how medicine has mentioned or serving as a police officer. Jacob shared that he has an interest in attending college at New York University after high school. Jacob's advice for new students is this. Pay attention to class. Focus on maturing. Stay on top
010of your assignments to school. Study ahead of time and get in sports because they help you keep you organized for time management. Congratulations, Jacob. We're proud of you. We look forward to a great year ahead of leadership. [Applause] We will move on to Good evening everybody. Before I uh report tonight to the board, um I have one final special presentation to make. Um this summer um in mid August we lost a great friend of antib. Um she was our scrabble coach of scrabble team which participates in the national scrabble uh association. Uh she was known as the chamber of commerce lady, the fishing tournament lady, the booster club raffle and booster uh event in the winter lady. she was Kathy was traveling and dedicated a tremendous amount of time for many many years uh for
011a quiet club but a stealthy club as you can see on the screen uh behind me. Um and so we were what a loss it was for us and our team uh when Kathy passed away after battle with cancer. Um but uh in true Kathy Bane spirit um she ensured that Scrabble club is going to live on and I'm pleased to be here tonight with Susan Roco and Henderson and members of the Scrabble team because they've got some great news to share with you. So, I'm going to invite you all um to the microphone uh to share with us uh some great news and your plan for uh to keep this travel club alive at the end of this. [Applause] Thank you. We are so excited that we are going to be able to keep
012this going and it is really to us to do. So, we really excited because one of the things we got to watch is really excited to say one of our students is number 10 in the nation. [Applause] surprise. But it's we've come such a long way um watching these kids grow up and um both and I have um five kids in total that have been cool program. So they'll be back in the middle school this year, we're happy to say. So if you know anybody and teachers, spread the word. We're going to keep it going and keep it growing and just do amazing things just like did [Applause] Anna is not someone you want to play words with friends. She'd be your friend, but not during the game. Congratulations, Anna. [Applause] All right. Congratulations again
013to all and we're going to take a quick minute break and we'll be back in We can set It's a little dangerous. Sorry, you're grabbing everything. Okay. Mr. Okay. Um, we are off and running into the school year. This has been the fastest October 21st. I think I can recall. Um, October enrollment is where things start to settle down a bit because um we sort out where kids have gone. They have activities and new entrance are settled as well. So all five students from last month currently stand K through 12,940 students. At next month's board meeting will approve the budget adopt the budget development calendar. If you can even imagine that um we'll close out on last year's and I just want to talk about that. Um just as soon as that happens we're turning
014the page to 20 26 27 already. Um this is an exciting um news. This is exciting news I want to share. Um and it's a partnership um that Mr. Far um is developing with the Southampton Police Department. another evolution of our partnership with Police Department. Um, and now the United States Secret Service and National Suffet School Boards Association on Tuesday, November 4th, which is election day and superintendent conference day, we will host a national threat assessment presentation. It's been about eight years, I think, since we've had um a threat assessment presentation by the Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center on Long Island. There's been one that's been held in NASA, there's one in there was one in Stony Brook a number of years ago. Um but the the sad truth is that uh over a
015generation of school violence and safety issues that have taken place in the United States, there is a body of research that exists about threat assessment about profiles of uh targets and profiles of um of islanders for lack of a better word. And these threat assessment presentations bring together law enforcement um mental health professionals and educational professionals and as well as security and school safety folks. So currently registration stands at um over 100 individuals. We will host them here in the auditorium on um on conference day. We'll have a number of our staff present u participating here. And this is really in line with uh Chief Kieran's leadership in Southampton town around behavioral threat assessment. Um we are uh supporting we've submitted letters of support for federal department of justice grants that the town is applying
016for um to enhance the school resources officer program to have enhanced safety and security in all of our schools. This is the next step for handle with care which has been running across the entire town of Southampton. We both piloted that last uh semester as um as well. So the partnership with the police continues to become more sophisticated um and u more multi-dimensional and so um board members you're welcome to attend this presentation as well if um if you want and have time that it's a 4hour presentation so it's substantive um so thank you Mr. Great. Uh, couple of other items um on uh my radar uh that I want to share tonight. I want to thank Mr. Foster for taking us through a really fun homecoming week. Um there were a number of cinder
017games last week as well. Um we've had a lot of pink. The volleyball team was have pink out uh last week as well. And it really culminated in a parade uh from the middle school to the um to here uh with a homecoming game with a win against the Port Royals game. Um the KP is on special. Um this week is CL Chowder on special the booster shack. uh the baby shop. Um so thank you. That was really exciting. We had the class of 1975, 1985, 1995 present with us over the course of the weekend. I gave a tour to the class of 1975 on on Sunday morning here. Um, and while a lot has changed in the building for them certainly, uh, we had we spent a couple hours here and it was a
018lot of fun to hear their stories about when a Volkswagen was put in the senior courtyard. Uh, that was their class they proudly proclaimed. Um, but students are talking about senior prank now. Um but really fun to hear the stories of being a pride then and um what what was then prideful is still prideful today. We spent a lot of time in the hallway between gymnasiums looking at the different uh team photos. You saw Dr. Mowitz field hockey uh been there um for one of those years somewhere in the past. Um so it was a very homecoming congratulations and thank you. November brings us to our veterans recognition. Uh high school and middle school are working with uh the BFW and the national essay contest. This Thursday, uh, veterans who are active in the BFW
019will be coming to our social studies classes here at the high school to talk to them about what their career service in the military has meant, uh, to try to put the finishing touch, a unique finishing touch on their essays because, uh, we are competitive, um, and included in this essay contest as well. Our veterans flag will recognize them back on Friday, November 7th. uh and the fourth grade class of 2034 will facilitate host that that ceremony the distraction free schools policy uh we had a board meeting right at the beginning of the year school year so didn't really have enough data to um report back but anecdotally speaking a month and a half into this we if you look in the scene in the lounge outside the auditorium there's a ping pong table and
020Jenga um there's a pipe ring there's some fierce There's the video being played during study hall and there's homework being done during study hall. That's how I get in and out of the building. So I can attest to that and um I think I can say with certain cell phone usage is down. We're not battling this with the phones. Um I'm not surprised we have great kids in this school district. Um but I think adults kids are just putting the device down. I find myself putting the device down. found myself subconsciously grabbing it and realizing that this is not um this is not just a put the phone down choice black or white choices are really retraining yourself and so our students have risen to to the occasion uh in getting that done is here
021uh we had some great draw um favorite of mine um college remember that Um we went to Sunni Albany uh on Corin and Bennington. We have 47 students with us on that trip. Official college tours on each place. We got to see our alumni thriving on those campuses. Um and that helps define um that helps define their um what the next year and a half's going to look like for them. So we communicate with parents about now that this has happened, this is what they're going to be focusing on the day after graduation through at the end of next year and what are conversation starters that can happen at the dinner table um provided that we have a distraction free kitchen table as well. What are the conversations that we can have around what happens
022after graduation? Something in the business alliance I want to um and they're a housing initiative local housing initiative. I want to thank um Cheryl Heber who has been our liaison there um number of years ago 2019 uh they had introduced the idea of giving a 2 $1,000 scholarship to the graduating senior who is attending a trade school. They're going to rotate it around the town Southampton high schools. They start with us and that year we didn't have any students going through the trade school. So I hate to let money go. So I pitched a new idea, re repackaged it and said, "Well, we have kids going into the trades in 11th grade in Bose at Boseies and Southern Business Alliance was really interested in in cultivating a pipeline for the building trades, carpentry, HBAC, electrical,
023uh, plumbing and, uh, welding. And so uh the average tool box since tool kit at most your grounding boots for the electrical program or tools for carpentry it's about $300. So since 2019 uh business great great organization this is great idea let's do this every year and we won't give it to all the kids in Southampton town. Um, so, uh, since 2019, they invested over $50,000 in our students with their tool kits going into the building trades for Champion, Southampton, West Hampton, Hampton, and S. So, we were able to do that. We gave out um 33 scholarships across um the schools this year in all of those programs. Um in December, Miss Fox is going to present to um the board on the future scholarship program at Stanford Southampton University which kicked off at the
024beginning of October Saturday, October 4th. Uh we have 20 students in the cohort 27th. There are 20 current eighth graders, first generation college students who um soon have been identified and soon South Hampton will work with them in a monthly workshop, a summer camp experience on their campus. Um and that is meant to cultivate first generation college acceptance uh and core college environment. If these students persist through to 12th grade as a future scholar student um and can achieve enroll achieve admission to Swook University on their own merits then they will receive free tuition using federal programs and so uh great program and thank you uh Mrs. for for shephering uh that through the early college high school uh Brook Southampton a lot of energy is really um being focused on the Southampton campus to
025re-energize uh that's good news right that's um and uh all sorts of different dynamic programming around career development traditional university programming the marine sciences future hospital um and affordable workforce housing there as well. But one of the exciting um programs in development right now is an early college high school model off of what SA Community College currently does at um their Eastern campus. Riverhead students have the opportunity midday to go to campus and take some college courses that wouldn't traditionally be offered in a high school. So it's not a competition. It's kids looking for something different like OC's. They go there for three or four periods and they take uh one or two classes a day and those would articulate to what a freshman transcript would look like. So this partnership is a three-way partnership
026between the high schools in on the east end. So they were Southampton University and Suffach Community College where they would be Suffet courses uh facilitated and taught on Southampton campus in the spring semester. The courses would cost $300 for a transcript, $100 a credit, a fraction of what students would attend. And so SuffK, the dean at SUFFK and the executive vice president at Stony Brook University Southampton and I are working with our counseling office, Mr. more identify types of students. Timeline didn't really work in totally in sync, but for next year it will because we can put these courses into our master process and if a student is interested in anything blocks out that period of time in the master schedule for them where something wouldn't conflict. We're sort of backing into it this year
027because we're just developing this now and of course this past summer schedule has been developed. So, we might get a couple uh but we're going to go and grab from here. Um that is we're going to get into November. It's going to be December and then surprise it's June. Uh we're into the year but we're already looking ahead to come. Any questions or comments? I'm happy to take >> I'm so glad that we are hosting the police here. That's fantastic. Thank you. Appreciate that. That's awesome. >> Okay, Mr. Loose. Thank you, Mr. Springer. Um, just a couple couple things tonight. Um, first, our independent audit for the 2425 school year uh is complete. The honor will be met earlier this evening. Uh the board's acceptance later on in the meeting. The audience deadline. Uh the
028audit is a clean audit. Three minor issues mentioned all be addressed in our collective action plan. Nothing very big to talk about. Nice nice. Um we're working on our EPC project. Uh that audit is is in process in progress. There have been a few meetings um with sharing the plans and some requests to those plans. Uh a large sticking issue is the cost to install the natural gas line from uh down the rest of our and then here on campus. One of the one of the things we've been hoping for, waiting for since uh 2013 when we put in the boilers to be able to bring natural gas to the run uh more efficiently, cleaner, and less cost. Uh the problem is bringing our gas on here is an extremely expensive cost. Um so we
029we're kind of working on what the tradeoffs are. We want that piece of the project we have to give up. So it's it's working out but we're getting there. The team is getting creative with the mix of things and we hope a nice package to the road next month. And then lastly, uh, our capital projects, the new skylight for the middle school to replace the one outside the cafeteria is ready, uh, to be delivered and we're looking to install that Thanksgiving break. um weather permitting of course installation of the brake loop was often a little small additional cost over time but when we looked at it we said okay the $4,000 it's going to cost for holiday is a lot better than having them working during the school day closing the hallway or if something
030goes wrong is open for a period of time that's okay let's just do it So that's being taken care of over spring break. Um and that will get done in the HBAC units for the high school. Uh the eight new classroom we're doing this year this year, they're here actually off the trail off the back of the new way. uh they intend to start work either sometime this week or early next week and they will be done in a couple of weeks and then as soon as they're done here at the high school they'll move everything up to the elementary school bit by bit we're getting air conditioning to all of the the district's buildings taking a little time but we questions. Okay. Uh we're moving to a consent agenda from 4 A to 7C
031unless there's any questions. I need a motion. Motion. I need a second. >> All in favor? >> I motion passes. Public comment. person may address the board of education on any matters of interest or concern recognize our speakers and times. Okay. So with that I need a motion to meeting second in favor. [Music] Thank you all for coming.