001Well, you never made me a cake. I know. You never literally Denise. I tell Denise all the time, you never welcome me in the neighborhood. Yes. Everybody here? Okay. Good evening all. Welcome to the Wednesday, April 23rd, 2025 business meeting of the board of education. We are need a motion for the call of order. Please. Motion. I need a second. Second. All in favor? I motion passes. We will start with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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 those of you who are not familiar, we have the emergency exits behind you and then we have them out to here over to this side. Um, I need
002a motion for the approval of order of agenda, please. Motion. I need a second. Second. All in favor? I. Okay, we will go to the clerk's report. Be it resolved, the board of education accepts the minutes of the business meeting held March 12th, 2025. I need a motion, please. Motion. I need a second. Second. All in favor? I. Motion passes. Public comment. speakers will be recognized who wish to address the board on agenda items only. I think we're okay. So, we're going to start with our students of the month. Uh, who would like to go first? Mr. T on down. Good evening, everybody. Good evening. At this time, can I please have Where are you? The one and only Mrs. Deve and Mr. Heater. Please come on down. And it is our pleasure to bring
003up Kira Odire [Applause] for great job, sweetie. Okay, here's what the teachers have to say about her. Kira is smart, responsible, and respectful girl. She consistently tries her best without reminders. Kira is a great team player and is always willing to help her classmates whenever they need. Kira is always showing kindness in our classroom and is a great role model and friend to all her classmates. Kira's peers look to her for leadership, especially during learning opportunities. We had a brief discussion and she was talking about all the sports that she plays and then she brought up karate. I was like, "Oo, karate." And she's like, "Yeah, Mr. T, karate." And I said, "Tell me about karate." And one of the things that I think you see in this writeup is what she learns in karate
004is leadership, is honesty. And the number one thing that she taught is always do your best. And I think those traits have really shown in the classroom. What she loves to do is math. She loves multiplication and measuring. Her favorite special, go figure PE. She loves playing capture the football and does the obstacle courses outside. She also loves to draw detailed pictures to enhance her writing. As soon as Kiara KR, I'm sorry, finishes classwork. She's eager to get a book to read. Her favorite genre of book is historical biographies, especially about famous women. And I'm thinking there's a good chance down the road someone's going to be reading about you. when she grows up, she wants to be an astronaut. She says, "Elon Musk." And she dressed the best. Move on over. And she is
005dressed. And I think if we turn lights out, it glows, but I'm not sure about that. Um, we have no doubt that she will achieve that dream one day and make us all proud. We are so proud of you and we hope you reach all your dreams. Congratulations, [Music] [Applause] really proud of you. Congratulations. Congratulations. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. [Music] Mr. Richard, you'd like to go next, sir? I'm going to skip the line. I see. Skip the line. Uh, good evening everyone. Uh, it is my honor and privilege to introduce the high school student of the month for March, senior Clara Tenna Quizy. Clara, why don't you come on [Applause] down? Congratulations. So, uh, Clara came to Hampton East three years ago as a transfer student from East Hampton, and she has been nothing short
006of a gift for for us here in Hampton Bay. Um, she was unanimously selected by the ENL department, uh, who is represented by Mr. Perez and Miss Gonzalez this evening and, um, they have just literally been raving about this young woman um, and things she's doing here in Hampton Bay. Um, in a moment I'm going to invite her guidance counselor, Miss Curios, to come up to private translation uh uh for this talk. Um, and uh I just want to say that I'm I'm extraordinarily impressed about this young woman and what she's accomplished in the short time that she's been here. Um, Miss Clear uh Miss Quo wrote a couple of of uh of words for us and uh I normally, you know, speak my own, but I'm going to um speak from three teachers perspectives
007for just a moment. Uh Clara stands out among her peers as thoughtful, empathetic. Um her quiet wisdom and authenticity are the greatest markers of her maturity and intelligence. She's shown a willingness to share her experiences, create a space for growth and self-reflection that is often difficult for many students to access. This courage to be open and honest has allowed her to build a strong sense of self-awareness which has translated into meaningful personal and academic progress. With these traits, I have no doubt she will find joy and fulfillment no matter what path she follows. Miss Toys took uh took this to a letter that she wanted uh Claraara to hear and wrote, Claraara, you are such an intelligent young woman with such a bright future ahead. We chose you for student of the month because you
008are truly a model student for your classmates. It has been such an honor to watch your confidence and English skills grow throughout your time in high school. And Mrs. Brandau um indicated that when she had clarin class two years ago, she was so shy and timid. Um but she could see her potential and she was very sweet and hardworking, but it was obvious that she was really nervous to come out of her shell. This year I spent time with her again when she volunteered to teach me Spanish in Alexa Toyz's Spanish class for employees. Okay. I couldn't believe how much growth she has displayed. I was so happy to see how far she had come. She has literally gone from student to teacher and uh an incredible young woman who we are very proud of
009every day. Uh we have a passion for culinary. I know she works at Rama now and she spends a lot of time with chef in the culinary program and we're looking forward to a college career at Suffach Community College. Uh congratulations Clara. And I'd like to invite Miss to provide a translation for that. Okay. Valencia. Brando. Oh,ch. Suffet Community [Applause] College. Congratulations. [Applause] Good evening everybody. Come on up here. Please allow me to introduce Hampton Bay Middle School student of the month for March, seventh grader Gabriella Bedoya Blandon. [Applause] [Music] I'll use a time pedal uh an application that allows me to speak in English and Gabriella's family uh will be able to hear my words in Spanish. Welcome to Gabriella's family as well. Here's what Gabriella's team of teachers in seventh and eighth grade
010team determination had to say when recommending Gabriella for this honor. Gabriella is an outstanding student who consistently demonstrates hard work, kindness, and determination. Her ability to craft well ststructured and thoughtful paragraphs is beyond her grade level and she consistently helps elevate class discussions with her insights. Gabriella's two favorite subjects this year are English with Miss Praau and social studies with Mr. Singh. She describes her experience in Miss Praau's class as peaceful and calm. She describes Mr. sings social studies class as interesting and fun. Each of these classes inspires Gabriella to continue to push herself to learn. Her favorite genre to read this year has been cozy mysteries about solving cold cases. The best part of her being able to read these books in both English and Spanish, which which she does to build her dual
011langu language skills with Miss Prao. Outside of the classroom, Gabriella is a member of our HBMS girls lacrosse team. She says being a member of this team teaches her to be a positive teammate, to always push her to do better every time her team plays together. When not at school, Gabriella enjoys time with her family, but especially time with her little sister, who is 5 years old and has a great role model, her big sister, Gabriella aspires to someday work as a lawyer or doctor. Each of these professions align with what her Navian report tells us about Gabriella's strengths and interests. Finally, when we discussed advice she'd offer a younger or new middle school student, Gabriella explained, "It's important not to let others influence your choices or your actions. Think for yourself." She says, "Study,
012focus on what you learn, and always show respect for your family, friends, and classmates at school." Congratulations, Gabriella. We are all so proud of who you are becoming at [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] HBMS. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. [Music] That's it. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Okay, congratulations again to the three of you. That's all awesome. We're going to take a quick 5m minute break if you want to take some pictures and stuff and then we will be back for the business portion. Welcome back. Yeah, got a couple of stragglers here. The moment everyone's been waiting for. Everybody's been waiting for Mr. Clemenson. So, without further ado, here you go. Happy spring. Pretty thick tonight. Spring. Only 33 slides to go through. So settle in. No, I'm kidding. Um, April's enrollment uh is we've been pretty static uh for
0132025 calendar year so far. Just up seven students distributed across uh K through 12. Wrapping up um we've wrapped up the bulk of kindergarten registration for the incoming kindergarten classes numbers look uh comparative to what they did at this point last year. So you can see uh we're at about we've been between about 105 to 110 kindergarteners. So if that unless there is a um an influx of new uh registrants over the summer, there are but but the bulk if the bulk are done, I would imagine that the incoming kindergarten class is going to continue to look around around this size. Um the next few slides you've seen before in terms of of enrollment projections and um I just want to point out again um that these are not adjusted enrollment projections. So this is
014simply me carrying through every kindergartenner um through the years as though no other student entered the district and no student in that cohort left the district. Uh so that's sort of a baseline for where to start. But as I mentioned also last uh month over the course of the last school year July 1st to June 30th of 2324 we had about 225 new enroles and about 174 withdrawals. So there's still that eb and flow in transients that's taking place. There's a net gain still, but the net gain, so 225 minus 174, whatever that net gain is 51 kids, is um still less than the difference between outgoing senior class and the incoming kindergarten class. So what what I once called the blue diamond ski slope is probably now I've used this one before too, like
015a helium balloon coming down. So, um, big projections about lpping off program and closing classrooms and things like that probably premature at this point until we we see what happens at the federal level in terms of immigration and um also what we see at the local level in terms of the local economy and housing costs and availability. So, um I won't spend too much time uh on the the projections um and jump right into the report. But I want to talk about um an interest a great new program um that is uh starting up this coming um June. It's called the Sunni it's called the Stony Brook University Future Scholars Program. Uh earlier this year I was appointed to a committee uh to revitalize the Sun Sunni Stony Brook Southampton campus. Uh it was one
016of outgoing Assembly Mfield's um key goals to get that campus uh started up again. Uh there were plans before COVID to do so. Then there was a leadership change and uh the world started to change. So Sunni Stony Brook Southampton has uh while there is daily programming and some some courses there um it is largely a dormant campus. There are only portions of it that are working. the the physical structure is deteriorating in parts and so the interim President Richard McCormack um and the new president who's coming in Dr. Goldsmith Andrea Goldsmith um are committed to really revitalizing the Southampton campus which is exciting for us and it's it's I'm grateful that Hampton Bay Schools has a seat at this table because we have the opportunity to help hopefully influence that. So what programs we
017might need on the east end uh partner partnerships with Sunni SuffK to where a student could uh very realistically start at SuffK campus in Riverhead and everything that they do there carries right to the Southampton campus. So um obviously that's is these are long-term plans but what is immediate is a program that interim president McCormack brought called the future scholars program. This he began when he was president of Ruckers University in New Jersey. And that take rising eighth graders, so current seventh graders right now who are economically disadvantaged, the first generation college students who would be first generation college students in their family and creates a cohort. And every summer for a week, the cohort gets together on the college campus. And then throughout the year, there's mentor and cohort activities, team building, age appropriate
018ones. So team building, career development, self-awareness, um academic support, mentoring support, and this cohort continues through and five years five years later when they get to be their when they get to their 12th grade year, if they apply to so ah if they apply to Stonybrook and are accepted on their merits, they will have a tuitionfree experience there. fees, room and board not included. So that still is a gap for a family that has economic disadvantage, but there are other but it it does take a big piece of it off in terms of tuition. So um the university is looking to launch a cohort of 100 students between Bridgeampton, Southampton, Hampton Bays, Tuho, and Riverhead. And we've been allotted 20 slots. And so, uh, we're beginning that work over the next week, uh, to identify
019students who would qualify both as economically disadvantaged and, um, and, um, first generation college students. And then we'll begin, uh, that process, uh, to, uh, initiate orient them into the program. And then hopefully off they go. And the new president, Dr. Goldsmith has made the commitment that even though it was started by her predecessor, she wants to keep that going too. So, we're super grateful for the partnership and uh that re that resource for our kids. Adult education uh continues. If you look on the adult ed program, this is a photo program. There are recreation great recreational experiences uh language learning experiences um throughout the year. And we just wrapped up our fourth uh hospitality academy. uh roughly 2530 students um in the hospitality academy 28 28 students um and we continue a great partnership
020with uh Suffach uh with Suffach County Department of Labor. Um then we had a job fair uh that Mr. Far put together on Saturday, April 5th uh that was attended not just by the participants in the fair uh but also community members is open to everybody. We had nine or 10 businesses including our core partner canoe place and in cottages. As we get into budget season uh we'll be hitting the road show uh to communicate uh the the budget information to our community. We do that here through the uh board meetings. We'll be visiting with the PTAs and and the faculties in the buildings as well as a number of community organizations. And I thought it would be helpful to sort of tie a put a run a thread through the prek through 12 program
021so that it to to show that it is multi-dimensional um and really checks boxes on a lot of different fronts when you consider what Hampton Bays with the board of education with the community has really committed themselves to uh and you look at career career ready programming in the district. We have early childhood education, culinary arts, and and you see time and time again our culinary arts kids really shining um in that work. That room, that light doesn't go off until it's one of the last lights in the building to go off, not because there's anything formal going on, because chef's in there and kids are in there, too. And so chef's outside at the concession stand right now um uh making some burgers. Uh these are career ready programs. Uh Mr. Carlson is working
022with Miss Meyer um in the early childhood education program so that when a student graduates they will have the everything except high school diploma until they graduate to take the teacher assistant certification. Uh so go through a TA certification academy and that will be career credential where where a student can begin working in a summer school in a school district immediately. uh because they'll they'll have their certification culinary arts. Kids walk away with uh earning the Suffach uh the the uh Suffach County Food Handler Certificate and also their uh first two serve safe um certifications, nutrition uh safety and sanitation. Um when you're when we look at um collegebound um courses, we have 14 courses that offer dual enrollment through Sunni SUFFK, Stonybrook, University of Albany, St. Joseph's University. Next year we'll add Farmingdale in
023there as well. And these are courses where for a discounted rate um students can walk away with a transcript to any of those classes uh to any of those schools. 18 courses um in our advanced placement program. That's a 200% increase since 2006. I say all of this because this budget uh that we're proposing this year, which is modest increase of 2.2% 2% um a modest tax levy increase that is underneath the tax cap of about 3.3%. I say that because um the question sometimes ask okay so what is what's going to be in this budget what what's new and exciting and this is really an era for us in Hampton Bay to um cement the roots that are growing in these projects uh whether it's the financial literacy work AP computer science principles the
024robotics program early childhood and the work that's being done there and um science research the symposium being tomorrow night um this is an opportunity to just make sure those investments continue to give us a return for all of our students. And so um I wanted to just mention that that from the time a student comes here to the big kids school when they're four, you know, they they now have a developmental space to play in outside. They don't want to go to the little kids school. They like being in the big kids school. Uh but then they get to the elementary school where they continue to be uh presented with opportunities and that continues to grow. Um, and that's really going to be the theme of this year's budget. Um, that we're we're we're committing
025we're leaning into the investments that we've made in our facilities, in maintaining our our maintenance program, in making sure that these are healthy and safe places for kids and and staff, and that we have programming for every type of student. Um, and and as you heard Mr. Shukay in his student of the month presentation he mentions um the Naviance report each each month uh which I just think is fantastic because um these tracks I don't tracks is the wrong word but these veins that run through the hallways in in the schools when you do the Navvian type work it's not adults deciding you're career kid you're a college kid you could be a college and a career kid you could when adults make the decision decisions. They may not be the the exact right ones.
026You know, family, school, and the student make them collectively, but the student has a strong voice in that because they're developing that self-awareness um through Navvian and through co-curriculars and internships and getting on college campuses and job shadowing, things like that. Um in the in the elementary school, Mr. Um Carlson is just completing uh the first annual um science of reading audit. Um we talked about that with our curriculum subcommittee um in the last month. Um as New York State is um committed to the science of reading principles and the science of learning. Uh this audit makes sure that school districts uh go through the exercise. No one's coming in to check, but that we go through the exercise with fidelity and and we really have to identify that we are [Music] um that all
027the different programs that we use and the approaches that we use to instruction are hitting the fat big ideas for the science of reading. It's not just Coke off the shelf, Pepsi off the shelf. each of them do a different specific component of brainbased research on how kids learn to read and and and then read to learn. So K to3 you're learning to read and then as you get older that that solid foundation uh becomes you reading to learn as you get deeper into the content areas. Um Mr. Ferraro uh just met with uh just communicated with Chief Kieran last week on handle with care. So the execution is continuing um with success um and uh police officers responding officers to um incidents at home where there are children present. Uh they're taking that responsibility
028seriously. It's a very again simple you saw it you saw the video uh for for an officer to just give us the heads up uh that someone might need their arm that someone might need arms around them a little bit more tomorrow. Um, we've put in a proposal to present at the New York State School Board's convention in New York City in October because it is an innovative program and we want to share that learning. Um, we'll hopefully find out in in June that we were accepted. Um, Mrs. Fox is is down the down the hallway tonight um running our bilingual parent partnership nights um which become um pretty well attended and um with uh support staff offering translation child care sort of using the food the model that we've um built with the hospitality
029academy to give parents um support um in all the things parents face right so um that that's taking place in the in the library right now. And the first in math competition, don't want to spoil anyse prizes, but it was on social media today um that we had a team of three um students taught by Miss Lou at the middle school. Uh the first in math competition. Mike, can I ask you to just frame out how cool the award is that these kids are headed to compete in Albany? So, if you remember a couple years ago, we had a a fourth grade team that went up. Um this year we have a seventh grade team um that will be among uh a select group of students that go up to Albany with Mrs. Lou uh
030compete as finalists uh in the competition. Um what they had done is they had logged on and done something you know on their computers uh placed you know obviously very high uh among uh the rest of the state. So, and it's fully funded uh the state all expenses paid for the students to go and one of their parents to uh spend the time up there with them. Uh so they they take care of the travel expenses um and I believe the hotel as well. So, it's a great recognition. Uh we're really excited. We're really excited for uh Mrs. Lou as well who's a new teacher. Um and uh as we said when the fourth graders made it, you know, once we get one team, uh it's going to continue to happen uh because people uh
031understand not only the system but get really excited about, you know, you work hard, you know, you get rewarded. So uh it's a great uh great avenue uh for us to be, you know, heading down. Thank you. Based on the smile on Mike's face, you can tell what he taught when he was in a classroom, right? Um, okay. And, uh, one thing that is is not on here, but I do just want to make mention of, um, if it's a Saturday and you're driving around town, you might see Mr. Morgan at Hampton Nursery or, um, in his own garden, uh, getting to work, uh, beautifying his land. Uh, but one of the things that he will be doing with the Hampton Bay Rotary Club, um, is, uh, sprucing up the senior garden. So, the the
032Rotary Club uh built that senior garden, and Mr. Morgan and I were uh doing a building walk this today, per picture perfect spring day, and there was a class out there doing their AP review for AP Euro, um which was very cool to see being used. And the seniors go out there, they have a free period. Um but it's aging, so the some of the stone is cracking. It needs to be updated. Uh so with fresh planting and um uh some stone work, uh the Rotary is applying for a national grant for $5,000 and uh plan to do uh the Rotary has to do sweat equity also, so they got to get their hands in the ground and do some of that work, but sprucing that up. Uh hopefully that'll happen this summer. And Larry
033likes when there's building projects that someone else pays for it, too. All right. So, the budget season um we've not much has changed and not much has changed in Albany either as we still don't have a final budget. However, the statutory requirement uh requires us to approve a budget by this Friday. So, that's today. Um and um the the governor's final budget may come in or the the state's final budget um because governor presents hers, the Senate presents theirs, the assembly presents theirs, and then they have to get in a room and make it one and that becomes the New York State enacted [Music] budget. It will not give us less in state aid than we were told in January, but hopefully it brings us more. However, we have to make the decision today on
034what this final spending number is. And as Larry navigates us through the budget process each year, uh we've been well served by having a conservative approach to that. So, this budget is a tax cap budget. It maintains our capital infrastructure. Um big deferred maintenance is not happening. Uh which is what we had to address in 2012. Things really needed to be fixed and replaced, but the the maintenance cycle has been healthy. Um, if you can believe it, in the next 3 years, we're going to be replacing the turf already. Um, which cheaper than the first time because all the infrastructure is there, but time marches on. Um, this is, uh, preserves our reserves and maintains successful successful programming. So, New York State budget does increase um, state aid for um, for schools in New York
035State by 1.7 almost $1.7 billion. Um however in Hampton Bay we would see a decrease in state aid uh largely um from our we are now what's called a hold harmless school district which means our foundation aid is all caught up. So we we are in the basic minimum increase otherwise the foundation formula would generate less for us um than it did the previous year because of changing demographics. Since the 70s, New York State has said whole harmless districts won't receive less this year than they did last year for that. Expense-based aids are different. We get uh transportation, special education, high cost, um building aid, uh where based on what we spend in a given year, we get a percentage of that back the following year. This year, expense-based aids decreased. Do you want to
036talk about that for a moment, please? So what happened with our expense based aids is uh the assessed value of Hampton base has gone up considerably. I think we all kind of see that in just the sale prices of houses in the community over the last uh period since co uh a house that was half a million dollars uh before CO started or right as co started is now selling for a million million one sometimes the state sees that too they're not blind to it and they have uh equalized the assessed value of our our district. And while the town says we're at roughly uh 3.8 or 3.9 billion assessed value, the state says no, you're really at about 5.2 billion at assessed value total. So they plug in their new number, 5.2 two billion.
037They divide that by the number of of students attending uh schools here and they then look at that as a ratio to say, well, how wealthy is this community? And we look a lot more wealthy as a 5.2 billion assessed value community than we did as a 3.8. And that happened, that new calculation happened this year. and the ratio depressed all of our um uh expense-based aids. So, our transportation aid, our building aid, we we we look rich. I'm sorry to say it that way, but that's how it is. Um and so it brought all those ratios down. Where we used to get 20 or 30% uh on building aid, we're now back to getting 10% on building aid. Um it and it's it's a shame because you know in things that we would like
038to be able to use like prek aid, you know, the state offers us only $500,000 in prek aid, but we only have the space to use about $98,000 of that. So when you look at a number in the paper, you say, "Oh, but they have all this money." But what we can use of what's there actually has gone down from last year. and what what can we do, right? So that that's that's you know what's the action there. So navigating a very tight budget this year was was one of those um things really meant we we talked about this last time bringing we brought in a company that audits state aid to squeeze every penny that you can in the formulas it's very complicated and then advocacy matters so your work in New York State
039schoolboards association what the council of superintendents are doing what sies and nice are doing is important because um advocacy around changing the foundation aid formula to be really responsive to what school districts need is important when you look at a district profile like Hampton Bay 5.8 5.2 2 billion dollar on the beautiful Atlantic Ocean. You know, some of the home median home values are, you know, increasing um yet 65% economically disadvantaged. And so the costs associated with kids who present with higher needs, the programs that those kids benefit from cost more. There's a cost associated with that. And so, um, when elected officials are making decisions about how to change foundation aid formula, those are stories they need to to hear. So, it's not a fool's errand to be in Albany having these conversations and
040developing relationships with both sides of the aisle in a bipartisan way that New York's politics when it comes to school aid are less red and blue and they're more geopolitical. Because if you talk to somebody in the northern tier or the southern tier, in the north country or the southern tier, they're going to say Long Island doesn't need anything, right? There's a Hampton in your name. You certainly don't need anything. When the reality and the story is is very different. And so, um, that's why, um, those that's why I do believe that those things matter. When you look at um the breakdown of where we are in terms of what the budget will look like, this is a 2.16% budgetto budget increase from a $66 million budget to a 66 67.5 million budget. Um it's
041a 3.3% uh property tax or pilot payment. So we tell the the town we need x number of dollars. we need 51,373,215 in local money. And they say, okay, X number of that is going to come from property taxes. Y number of that is going to come from the pilot. And that will total $51.3 million. that prek aid that um that Larry mentioned. You'll see last year we were we were provided the ability to have $418,000 as well. It only shows up as $97,200, but that's all we were able to spend. There's very strict complicated rules on how to use prek dollars. And so we're using the half-day prek dollars. The whole day prek dollars would provide for whole day programming which would be very desirable to families, right? We haven't had a full lottery
042in a couple years because half day has been challen is challenging for families. 2 and 1/2 hours is is quick, right? And but if I suspect that if we had full day slots, the lottery would be that this would be quite long and then we'd be drawing the bingo cards again. The conundrum has been do you provide more seats with less time 54 seats 54 half-day seats or do you provide less seats for full day 36. So we could provide 36 seats in two classrooms for all day prek servicing or in our two classrooms 54 half-day slots. As enrollment goes down, it's important I think for the board of education to keep this in the back of your mind. If we continue to see class sizes of 107, does that give us the opportunity to
043reclaim some space? use the $97,000 of half day money for families that are only looking for half day and then open up some full day. So, I'm chomping at the bit to use that money for prek. It can only be used for prek. It can't be used to build prek even where you save it for a few years. It has to be used to implement the program right now. I want to spend that money now, but we're almost there. We're almost there. Um our budget to budget increase when you look across the last uh 15 years or so um averages at 2.9. So our budget our budget spending just under 3% increases a year. Uh largely that big spike was because we had so much foundation aid catchup money that we were able to spend
044and we and you made wise decisions in spending that in one-time expenses so that we could absorb it when we're in a time like this. The tax levy increase is less than 2% a year. uh which is uh I believe a responsible approach to the community that has highest property tax rate in districts that are fully encompassed in Southampton town. So I exclude Riverhead and Eastport Manor because they live in two different townships. Um we had two years of the of the of the tax levy freeze there. So um we're coming in at 3.3 this year, but that is a tax cap compliant budget. And you can see just the distribution the the the local share of dollars. Um the advocacy has worked in um 2010 88% of the budget um was provided by local
045property taxes. Um and in 2025 that's 76% of the budget. So um it is a smaller proportion. And it's a bigger number because the budget has increased over time, but it is a smaller proportion in how we're where the sources of revenue are coming from. The vote is going to take place on Tuesday, May 20th, less than a month from now, and absentee ballots are available on the website or by stopping into Marian. Um, and the vote will take place from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the middle school gym. Two propositions on the ballot. one to authorize the budget for 2526 and the second proposition is to authorize the use of up to $300,000 of any unspent money this year if there is we don't know that until October we anticipate there will that
046there will be um and then uh voters will have the opportunity to cast two votes for open board expiring board of education seats from Mr. Joslyn and Mr. Springer and we have two candidates for those seats Mr. Joslyn and Mr. Springer. So, thank you for uh your commitment to continuing to serve the board. Um we all look good in that yearbook picture that's been there for a while. So, uh none of you have aged. None of us have aged. Uh I'll take any questions or comments uh from my report tonight. Thank you. Um just a quick question about the company we hired to help that outside company to help with the budget. How did that work? How how'd that work out? still working on it, but uh he he's found quite a few things. Um
047looking in the neighborhood of $200,000. Was it worth it? Oh, definitely worth it. Yeah. And what what I love about his approach um he's in a sense he puts himself out of business because not only does he find it but he shows us well next year when you apply you you include this and over here you know you only included these services for this child but you can also include these services too. So we're learning from him how to do what he's doing so we can continue to do it going forward. So, it's a it's a really good relationship. Um, definitely worth it and and helpful as we go forward. Great. I have a question about it's a future question for the full day prek. Would we housing it in the high school or bring
048it to the elementary school? So, those are qu those are comprehensive conversations that need to happen. So if we where we would potentially see more classroom space available in the elementary if there was one less section how do we get to that? We have to have a conversation about class size and where we want to see class size go and what the board is comfortable with in seeing where class size goes. Class size has decreased because we've been able to maintain the number of sections. In 2011 12 we were the highest in Southampton town in terms of our average class size 25 26 27 where others were considerably lower. We're now down in the 18 1920 range. Um and there's a sweet spot there right you you know being in the classroom. Um, so none
049of these conversations can happen in isolation because collapsing a class at the elementary school has an impact on class size. Taking a classroom uh claiming a classroom here that's no longer used could potentially mean construction costs because you got to put another bathroom with a little potty in it, right? Or a program that the high school might be interested in not being able to use that space. So every you everything in a budget fights against one another, right? Because you're in a room that's trapped. That's that's has a a finite ceiling. Um so all conversations to have and as a board you should be thinking about that. Um and the leadership team will be doing the same so that we can make smart decisions there. And I'd also like to make it accessible still for
050the high school students getting their teacher searched or TA served. Having the availability here is great, but we also have the vehicle maybe bringing them up to the elementary school. Yeah. Yeah. That's all in from from the crisis of no space came the opportunity to open here and then came the early childhood program, right? So, we wouldn't want to lose that. Yeah, it's a great investment. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Larry. Yes, sir. Anything you'd like to add? Just two quick things, Mrs. Springer. Um, first, uh, I believe good news. Uh, the windows for the elementary school that that project to replace those, uh, south, uh, I'm sorry, west facing windows, uh, those windows will be delivered Friday. Installation will start on Monday. That's good. So, we will start to see some new windows
051in there. get rid of those ones there. So, uh, uh, yeah, like faded out or or or smoked out that you can can't really see out of them. So, that'll be nice. Um, and then the second thing was, uh, I was approached by someone, a company that that wanted to put in electric vehicle charters, not for buses, for cars. At first, I was like, I'm not interested. What do we need this for? And I spoke to Mr. Clemenson. and he said, "Well, you know, maybe we should we should see what they have to say." So, um, I have not sat down with them again, but I will invite them in and have a conversation. The the the thought of their project is that they provide all the uh construction costs and so on to put
052vehicle chargers in. it's about to our campus and um then we can through rebates and so on they pay for everything then we can actually charge if someone wants to charge their vehicle at it. So, if you want to, you're here for the day, you want to plug your vehicle in and charge it up, fine. You can put in a credit card, you can pay for your vehicle to be charged. It's getting gas, but getting it here. Um, I don't know what would happen with that like after hours shut down. You can you can shut it down. You could leave it on. It depends on on where it is and and what limitations you want put on it, right? Um, you can make it that you know at whatever time the end of the day
053whether it's 2:15 here or or 3:00 over the elementary school. That's it. Cuts off. It's done. Or you could leave it on and until 10:00 at night. Leave it on till 10:00 at night. It's up to you. So cool. I'm going to learn about it. Um, it at first I was like that's not us. And then I said well why isn't it us? Let me at least find out some more. I'll I'll in the next future board meetings I'll bring you some more information. If it's free. Yeah. If it's really free. Is anything free? Not really. Okay. Thank you, gentlemen. Uh, with that being said, we're going to do a consent agenda from 4 A to 4E. Unless there's any questions. That's all on the contract we've discussed. I think we're pretty good, right? Yeah.
054I'll just mention um five every five years. And so right now 5 years from the beginning of CO um the contract number seven Suffach County Health Services that's a pod agreement they call that we did we started that not every district has one but we started that um in 2020 because we were a testing site and then we became a vaccine site. If there's ever some emergency again um that we would we could potentially play that role of support in the community. is just renewing it for another 5year period, right? And it doesn't need doesn't even cost us anything. Doesn't cost us anything. It doesn't obligate us to anything either. Just if it if needed, then it's good. All right. So then I will need a motion for 4 A to 4E. Motion. We'll need
055a second. Second. All in favor? Motion passes. Uh student services, we will need a motion. Motion. I need a second. Second. All in favor? I. Motion passes. Personnel will do consent from 6A to 6H. Unless there's any questions, we will need a motion. Motion. We need a second. Second. All in favor? I I motion passes. Um 7 A to 7F. Oh, let me just look at this real quick. That's Oh, that's vote. He's okay. Yeah. All right. Um we need a motion for 7A or 7F. Motion. Need a second? Second. All in favor? I. Motion passes. Uh public comment. Persons may address the board of education on any matters of interest or concern. Concern. The board president will recognize all speakers. Time limits may be imposed based upon agenda needs. I think we're okay. Right.
056Nobody online. No. Nothing. All right. With that, I need a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting. I need a second. Second. And in all in favor I I motion passes. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you all again as usual. Get home safely. Thank you.