001e e e will I'll thank you e e e I I we have all right good evening all welcome to the March 12th 2025 business meeting of the Board of Education uh we'll start this meeting with a motion for the call or order please motion I need a second second all in favor I I motion passes we will have the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the repu for which it stands one nation indivisible andice for okay anybody who's not aware of the emergency exits they're all to the rear of you and then both off to the sides of the stage here um we will need a motion for the approval of order of agenda please motion I need a second second all in favor
002I motion passes we'll move on to the clerk's report May be resolved that the Board of Education accepts the minutes of the business meeting held February 11 2025 uh I need a motion please motion I need a second second all in favor I I motion passes public comment speakers will be recognized who wish to address the board on agenda items only I think we're good for now all right so we're going to start we have a lot of presentations and reports tonight so we're going to head it off immediately and who we going to start with fire PR fire up okaycome everybody finally finally is that October okay so the Hampton Base fire department is unwavering in its dedication not only to extinguish fires but Al but to also preventing them within our community this
003year's National Fire Prevention Week centered around the theme smoke alarms make them work I want to the generosity the generous support of the Hampton based fire department the students from kindergarten through grade six were educated on preventing Burns and fires in their homes and practicing in a c in a participating in a creative poster contest meanwhile students in grades seventh and eth showcas their writing skills in an essay contest held in their in their English language art class for each grade level three outstanding winners were chosen along with award certificates medallions and trophies each winner will be presented with a $30 gift certificate to the Hampton Bay booster club but before I announce the winners we extend our heartfelt gratitude to the following individuals for their significant contribution and unwavering dedication we have firefighter Sheamus
004McArdle firefighter Joe Hernandez fir fire Mario Lopez Lieutenant Mike elenu enu lieen Richard joing Captain John and chief Rick nider your efforts have made homes and businesses in our community safer and this past weekend events are testimony to your hard work thank you for protecting our community and keeping us safe so congratulations to the winners and participate particip and insight play a vital role in promoting fire safety awareness within our community let's continue to work together to ensure our homes neighborhoods remain safe from these fire hazards so without further delay with the following students ple please come forward to receive Awards Mrs gariti will be announcing the winners from grades 5 through 8 and I will be announcing the winners from kindergarten through 4th grade after you receive your award if you would please shake
005the hands of the board members and then stand over there by that beautiful piano that is covered for a group photo okay so the ESS contest winners for 8ighth grade third place Sophia [Applause] Clinton they're coming to go that way so Shake there second place place winner James [Applause] Helen first place winner Lillian ha yain okay this see me after for the right name seventh grade sa contest winners third place Michaela valala Ramirez [Applause] thank you second place winner mave [Applause] Kelly first place winner Aubrey shr sixth grade poster contest winners third place Katherine bonil [Applause] Morales second place winner Olivia [Applause] poon first place winner Joanna [Applause] Gonzalez hey Joanna Joanna congratulations fifth grade poster contest winners Camila Pacho [Applause] wasima congratulations second place winner Lena poigon [Applause] and first place winner Nikki [Applause]
006Zang okay now I'm going to read for kindergarten through fourth grade okay fourth grade third place winner Marie Angel Roman second place winner Lulu [Applause] liin Lulu's not here first place winner Selena platen doesn't have the right on okay we're g over here Sela congratulations third grade third place winner Tatiana Dominguez [Applause] congratulations second place winner Bruno [Applause] saladan congratulations first place winner for third grade Carlos Mahia now on to second grade third place winner Anthony Prada come on come on down Anthony go over here go over here congratulations and we're going to shake their hands and go over there okay Anthony second place winner Sophia Rivera come on over here [Music] congratulations and first place winner Jim gisy for first grade third place winner Santiago Quintana he's not here second place winner Adrien Pula
007first place winner Isa Blacky congratulations Isa going over here this way congratulations now on to kindergarten third place winner sopia [Applause] Campbell she's all sparkly hi Sophia come on over here Sophia second place winner Daisy ficino [Applause] hi Daisy and first place winner for kindergarten Helen Perez beautiful EXC congratulations to all the winners we're going to take a quick photo with the fire department right over there yes they I that smile [Applause] thank you to our teachers for running this program with the fire department for so many years you're a pro up here at Miss McDow and M gagleard welcome to the party before the fire department leaves Chief can and your team I want to not only say thank you for the work that you do every year with fire prevention but you had
008the opportunity and you met the challenge this weekend to join with 90 other departments around New York around Long Island to put out the wildfires in West Hampton this was national news and for those of a certain age will remember how dangerous and scary the wildfires were in 1995 a group of superintendents had a meeting on uh Monday a normally scheduled meeting and the superintendent of bosies reminded our group that just a few hundred yards from the fire line was a school and had it been a school day the situation for those at West Hampton Beach Learning Center could have been quite different the Hampton Bay Fire Department has been busy every day you hear that fire whistle go and you know there are parents there are teachers there are friends there are alumni who
009are going toward the danger as we go away from the danger it's a small token of our appreciation to be able to say thank you for that and thank you for your partnership and in school land you know we think of things in terms of our programs and so as a small token we'd like to award the entire fire department of Varsity letter when you're a varsity player you have to have courage you have to have grit you have to train you have to be ready to compete you have to be ready to achieve a goal and most importantly to work as a team to keep your team at safe and successful and so we know you're headed to a meeting tonight and we wanted the opportunity to award this to you because there's really
010nothing more Hampton Bays than the Hampton Bay's volunteer fire department ladies and gentlemen help me thank the fire department please [Music] okay we will now move move on to the students of the month uh who's going to start Mr Meyer come on down thank you Mr Springer so much good news to share tonight I just don't want to do it alone so I'd like to ask any members of the elementary school team who are here tonight please come on down not all of [Music] once all right I'd like to invite up our December student of the month Mia Gonzalez Mia come on [Applause] down Mia is a sweet and responsible and respectful young lady Mia shown her positive attitude enthusiasm and her kindness every day so far in first grade we can always count on
011Mia to participate no matter what the activity is and she is always ready to learn M Mia is also extremely helpful she's always willing to help her classmates regardless of the tasks Mia is always spreading her kindness in and out of the classroom and is consistently a role model for her class Mia's favorite subject in school is reading because she likes all of the new books she gets to read Mia's favorite specialist physical education because she loves running inside of the gym Mia's favorite memory so far this year is learning new numbers and words every day we see Mia are working so hard using new strategies to help her decode words and solve addition and subtraction problems outside of school Mia loves to play with her baby sister and her older brother she also loves
012to play with her two cats during the summertime Mia loves to go to the beach with her family and swim in the ocean she loves big waves who doesn't when we ask Mia what she wants to be when she grows up she stated she wants to be a teacher just like Mrs shik Mia said she likes being in school and thinks being a teacher would be a lot of fun we believe M as hard work ethic patience teamwork organization and love for learning will make her a wonderful teacher one day we're proud to have nominated Mia for December student in a month there's no one who deserves it more congratulations Mia all right moving along our January student of the month leaf karette leaf come on down congratulations Leaf creative creative kind smart and respectful
013are just some of the words to describe Leaf he's an enthusiastic learner who loves to share his knowledge with the class he is so eager to share that at times we have to tell him to put his hands down just so students get a chance Le Leaf's work ethic is amazing both in school and at home he's the first one to send in his homework every week and is diligent in completing all tasks at school we can always count on Leaf to be an active participant participant no matter what the activity even if it's doing a silly movement uh creating positive peer relationships is an important part of kindergarten and leaf has mastered this he's considerate friend who is constantly showing kindness and empathy toward his classmates empathy towards his classmates Leaf's favorite activity is
014technology he loves getting the chance to play different games both in school and at home Leaf's a natural learner when it comes to math he enjoys being challenged and gets excited when we give him a task that's only meant for him Leaf loves animals his favorite school memories is When Love On A Leash comes to visit our class so he can get a chance to hang out with his pet doggy Friends mine too he enjoyed his family's Adventures to the aquarium and museums to visit the Sharks and see dinosaur bones when we ask Leaf about his future he says I want to be a scientist and study outer space his inquisitive mind and sense of adventure make him a wonderful addition to our school and a positive role model for peers and teachers we're lucky
015to have him as part of our Hampton Bay family and happy to present him with student at a moth for January way to go Le all right our February student in the month Sarah halado Sarah come on down Sarah halato has been chosen a student of the month she has consistently demonstrated strong leadership qualities in the classroom often stepping up to guide her peers with respect and responsibility her hardworking nature and willingness to help others makes her a valuable team player and a positive role model for her classmates she demonstrates exceptional organizational skills which greatly contribute to her success in school as a good citizen and friend she consistently shows kindness and respect towards her peers her participation in all academic subjects reflects her strong work work ethic and eagerness to learn she has demonstrated
016a remarkable love of learning which is evident in her enthusiasm for classroom activities and discussions Sarah's thoughtful and caring nature Tau her peers make her a role model for all in the school she's observant and respectful of others showcasing her compassion and responsibility which positively influences her classmates we are delighted to have nominated Sarah for February student in a month you deserve it congratulations all right we're just going to go shake hands good job nice job buddy great job nice job Miss nice to see you thanks for all you do guys thank you Mr Meyer we will move on to the middle school with Mr Shug who's very quick good evening no either please welcome Hampton Bay Middle School's student of the month for December 7th grader Li Liam [Applause] [Music] Gomez we was nominated
017by our special area teams special areas team team Synergy when I asked Liam's nominating team to share what it is that makes Liam student of the month here is what they had to say Liam Gomes Gomez is a wonderful addition to the hbms school Community although we know he excels in his academic classes as a team we feel he really shines in a special area classes he finds his own way to participate in ways that he is comfortable which also highlights his unique skills he has created his own games for his viette classes to participate in taught lessons about the library to his peers writes his own songs while overcoming stage fright ukulele he explores how things work in technology while also questioning everything in intelligent and thoughtful ways Liam is also actively involved in
018many extracurricular groups taking full advantage of all that hbms has to offer you might see him with the camera around his neck taking pictures for student council carrying a snake around during science club moving moving sets in stage crew setting up for concert performances with trim podcasting for Al club and programming robots and Robotics club team Synergy feels immensely lucky to have a student like Liam Gomez Liam at first when we talked resisted to tell me his favorite subject in school at first because he said he doesn't like to pick favorites it depends on what he's in the mood to learn about at any given day after giving it some thought though he shared that he enjoys reading this has enjoyed reading the circuit in M Barons and Mr worms seventh grade English class worth
019noting when we met he arrived with a stack of his own books he was currently reading outside the classroom a voracious reader Liam has an insatiable curiosity for learning he thrives when presented with opportunities to dive into challenging learning experiences I can't wait to see him and his fellow hbms drama cast and crew members in this weekend's Frozen Junior performances Willam also shared that he loves to volunteer and make friends through his class and Club involvement at home when he is not reading one of his favorite books for what he describes as comic relief Liam enjoys downtime with spiky or Spike his miniature schneer he also has earned his green belt in Taekwondo which he enjoys since it teaches him about leadership Liam is an old soul wise Beyond his 12 years and prefers to
020live in the present moment moment he told me this but when I asked him to dream with me a bit about what he's going to be doing in 10 years he quickly responded he'd like to be a veterinarian training animals or working in a zoo and when I asked him what he'd offer his brother who will be an hbms fifth grader with us next year he said this quote act responsibly focus on what you have to do and don't get distracted unless it's a matter of importance end quote Liam congratulations on being named student of the month we're proud of you who you're becoming and we look forward to following your success throughout your time at hbms congratulations [Applause] conrat okay uh for student of the month for January from the Middle School is Alexander
021Sakira [Applause] congratulations Alexander is a proud sixth grader at Hampton Bay's middle school and he has truly made his mark on our school Community from his love of reading to to his passion for the Arts and Music Alex exemplifies what it means to be a well-rounded student let's start with one of Alex's greatest Passions English he absolutely loves reading and using his imagination to explore different worlds through books some of his favorite series include dog man and Diary of a Wimpy Kid sto these stories Inspire his creativity and love for storytelling beyond the classroom Alex is deeply involved in our school Community he is an active member of the newspaper and media Club Art Club Builder club and chess and games Club whether he is crafting an article creating digital art or playing a strategic
022chess match Alex brings enthusiasm and dedication to everything he does music is another important part of Alex's life he enjoys playing stringed instruments and is particularly fond of his ukulele class with Mrs merer at home he's experimenting with the cimba and his guitar and he is eager he is eager to continue learning and growing as a musician transitioning to middle school can be a challenge but Alex has tackled that challenge with a positive mindset he admits that getting used to lockers and the new environment was tricky at first but his his advice to Future middle schoolers is simple yet reassuring you shouldn't worry too much it's not as difficult as you might think and the teachers are there to help when asked about his favorite teacher so far Alex had a quick answer Mr debrowski
023looking forward to the future Alex is is excited to dive deeper into subjects like algebra and geometry in high school he dreams of pursuing College studies in Psychology or possibly law though he is still exploring his options his motivation is clear he wants to work hard and follow his passions to make his family proud one of Alex's greatest artistic passions is digital art he currently enjoys composing images using procreate on his tablet focusing on shading and animation in fact he is eagerly looking forward to to an animation class that he will be taking this spring what truly sets Alex apart is his kindness his teachers describe him as a role model who constantly demonstrates a positive attitude and willingness to help others he is always ready to lend hand to his classmates and teachers alike
024participation in class discussions and go above and beyond in all that he does Alex we are so proud of you your dedication creativity and kindness make Hampton Bay Middle School a better place congratulations [Applause] and last but certainly not least from Hampton Bay Middle School I'd like to introd introduce a rising star at hbms fifth grader February's hbms student of the month Delaney Bader Delaney who was a member of our team inspiration was truly an inspiration to talk to following her nomination this is what her teachers had to say about Delaney Delany is the kind of student that every teacher admires and every classmate respects she consistently earns top grades demonstrating not only her intelligence but also a strong work ethic and a dedication to her studies Beyond her academics she is known for her
025kindness and positive attitude always going out of her way to treat others with respect whether working on a group project or helping a friend Delaney always leads by example she carries herself with confidence and maturity showing responsibility Beyond her years with such a strong Foundation of character and ambition there is no doubt that she has a bright future ahead her drive and determination will surely take her far and is easy to see for everyone who has the pleasure to know know her that she is on the path to achieve great success in whatever path she chooses with her intelligence kindness and determination she is bound to make a lasting impact on the world around her very nice Delany shared what she most enjoys about Hampton Bay's Middle School her time in Miss fop's PE class
026as well as her science and social stes classes with Mrs Schmidt and Mrs zahi ask her about the cloud and the bottle experiment or the Mayans Aztecs and inas and watch her eyes light up with excitement beyond the regular school day Delaney is an active member of of our hbms drama club earning a role in The Ensemble as one of the town's people we can see her in The Ensemble singing and dancing at this weekend's Frozen Jr production Delany is also a scholar athlete participating in cheer competitions since first grade she explained to me that she specializes in Bas stunting which is the all-important teammate respons for supporting a fellow cheerleader bravely balancing his or her feet on delany's sturdy calm hands Delany looks forward to playing for our school basketball team and volleyball teams
027in the future and during her downtime Delany likes to curl up with a good book graphic novels are her favorite her advice to any new middle school students is simply this pay attention good advice and as such an active learner right now Delaney dreams of becoming a hair stylist and makeup artist we are so happy to have Delaney with us at hbms and cannot wait to see all of the great things she will accomplish during her time in middle school and Beyond congratulations Delaney and keep up the great work thank you it is my pleasure to introduce the December student of the month for Hampton Bay High School job [Applause] Alaris job was was nominated for many reasons and when I reflect on job as a student the word dynamic immediately came to mind job
028moved to Hampton Bays from Saudi Arabia in his junior year before living in Saudi Arabia from fourth grade to 10th grade job lived in the Philippines job speaks Filipino English Arabic and is currently enrolled in Spanish courses at Hampton base did I get all the languages okay starting in a new school he had to adjust to different cultures a new language and he had to adjust to many different things which he found challenging but all of his teachers would agree that job has been doing tremendous work job's transcript includes Advanced coursework like college government and economics and AP language you may remember job from our November Board of Education meeting when he was inducted into the National Honors Society job is also an active member in fbaa and Key Club and outside of school job
029spends a lot of his free time dedicated towards running his blog structured Solutions which provides people with troubleshooting solutions for computer and Technology issues we actually spoke about how he's considering turning this blog into a social media site on Instagram and Tik Tock Joe plans on majoring in management information systems and has been accepted to Temple Sunni Albany and pace and currently waiting to hear from Bentley and Villanova which we were talking about could happen any day now he is currently undecided and considering his offers and he would like to pursue a career in it management for our younger students he had these words of advice opportunities just don't happen you create them by taking the first step don't wait for the perfect moment to start working toward your goals just begin stay consistent and
030Trust the process I immediately went to the gym after that job would like to thank his family teachers and mentors guidance counselors social workers including Miss SEL and miss saala and his friends and his classmates once again our student of the month for December job Alaris okay we're skipping to the month of February and you'll see why in a second I also have the distinct pleasure of honoring an exceptional student who embodies academic Excellence leadership and genuine passion for learning it's my absolute pleasure to introduce the February student of the month for an Bas High School Alex Bermudez Alex's academic Journey here at Hampton base has been nothing short of extraordinary he has consistently challenged himself with the most rigorous cours work our school has to offer he has tackled a truly impressive array of
031advanced placement courses including AP Calculus AB and BC AP Chemistry AP research AP Literature AP language he challenged the micro and macroeconomics through an independent study and received AP course credit through that AP biology AP World History APUSH College Government College economics and AP Spanish in total he will amass a staggering potential 39 college credits give or take but who's counting when you've achieved that many credits Alex's achievements extend far beyond the classroom he is a true leader within our community and has recently served as lead attorney for the the mack trial team in robotics he's been our lead electrical technician he's a dedicated member of student government and is the current president of the fpla Alex is a key member of this year's Virtual Enterprise team and we are incredibly proud to announce that
032he will be representing Hampton Bay in the national finals this April at the Jacob Javit Center in Manhattan looking ahead Alex plans to major in electrical engineering and it's no surprise that he's been accepted to some amazing universities he is considering offers from Virginia Tech University of Miami Georgia Tech CU Boulder Stonybrook he recently returned from a college trip to Georgia Tech which he described as super cool and a place that offers a really great balance between City and Campus Life while he's leaning towards Georgia Tech he's still carefully considering his options and we know he'll make an excellent choice wherever he goes Alex would like to express his heartfelt gratitude towards his parents teachers and coaches who have supported him throughout his high school career specifically Ally mentioning Mr Verdone Mr Beretta Mrs defus
033and Mrs Barrett as well as Dr donat who's been a great teacher and a Coach Alex you will definitely be missed next year and we wish you the best in your future endeavors congratulations to Alex Bermudez our February student of the month okay all right we're going to move on to the science National Honor Society with Mr Rashard Miss Vini what's hi I'm sorry I didn't know I was going to have to quite speak yet spee I did not prepare a speech no um so I'm here uh to present James morules with his science National Honors exed he's also part of our science research program he's working on if I could get it right he's working on using machine language learning to figure out malware and on our computers which would be great he earned
034this onor by not only being a great overall student but really excelling in The Sciences scoring 85 or better on all of his science research uh science courses and he does so much hard work with science research so it is our pleasure to finally give this to you congratulations okay uh thank you Miss facini and congratulations to James and all of our award winners this evening um at this time I would like to present uh three students that participated in the voice of democracy essay writing competition which is sponsored by uh the VFW specifically Commander Hughes through post 5350 this is a essay writing competition that's offered annually um throughout the country and we've had a very strong response from students in Hampton Bay over the years the topic of this year's essay was is
035America today our forefather's vision and I had three students that wrote very strong and very compelling essays uh that were given consideration by the VFW and all three of them are Regional winners and I would like to recognize them at this time well Olivia Allen Parker Molina and Iman khed please come on down Parker congratulations thank you sir okay and congratulations guys please off the [Applause] and just to Echo uh Mr Richard's comments uh we really are thrilled every year to uh start the school year off with uh the Patriot pen uh for our uh Partners in the uh VFW 5350 they always put together a wonderful essay topic for us this year's topic is my voice in America's democracy um and we encourage all students grades five through eight to participate um it's the
036contest is solely reserved for students in grade 6 to8 but we never really believe we believe it's never really too early to get them started on this process of thinking about this and planning toward this we've also uh seen quite a few uh winners in our time so at this time I'd like to uh congratulate the following students and welcome them up here uh Madison sabios okay uh Denise GUI sorry Denise Denise G let's go there Denise G sorry Denise Denise kiji I knew she would help me uh Mariana Mons [Applause] and last but certainly not least a two-time winner Lily Schult congratulations second of the Board of Education thank you very much [Applause] uh each and every March I have the distinct honor and privilege of presenting the salutatorian and valorian of the Hampton
037base High School class of well this year will be 2025 to the Board of Education um and uh this year I got something unique uh I have two very brilliant uh students two brilliant young men who both share the first name of Christopher and um that's a first for me I've never had my valorian salutatorian share a first name um but they do share some pretty impressive resumés uh and I would like to talk about that I'd like to begin by talking about our salutatorian Christopher Clinton Christopher why don't you come on [Applause] down so uh Chris has earned the honor salutatorian through taking a very competitive course of study that resulted in a weighted average of 10.65 uh he's done that through 10 advanced placement courses he will earn a Capstone diploma at the
038end of the year having completed the sequence of AP seminar and AP research he is an AP scholar with distinction he is in every Honor Society we offer National Honor Society National Science Honor Society um and triam he is the president of the band he's the president of our interact club and the co- Club the co-president of Key Club uh last year in our first very successful year of Virtual Enterprise he was our chief marketing officer that took us right into New York City uh for the final competitions uh he really has an incredible resume um Varsity tennis and track over his years in high school his list of service Endeavors is impressively long it's a big chunk of Chris's resume um he is an ocean lifeguard at the of Southampton I feel safer standing
039here already um we are looking at a major in biology heading down down that pathway towards a career in medicine and we've got a bunch of acceptances thus far University of Georgia University of Tennessee and the University of Florida uh Chris really likes warm weather and is looking to go south um but he will um some schools up north are competing for his attention including uh Sunni Bingington Stony Brook and the University of Miami and we're waiting on a few others uh Chris we are so incredibly proud of your accomplishments and um very very proud to have you as our salutatorian [Applause] congratulations at this time I would like to invite Christopher R the viatorian of the class of 2025 up to the podium now some of you may recognize uh Chris as he is
040uh a very important member of the cast of the baman theater production of Legally Blonde did a fantastic job uh this past weekend actually a good number of the casts are out here right now um really one of the um one of the best Productions um that I recall in in in recent history but um Chris is a very talented young man in a lot of ways and not just up on stage uh he earned the honor of Auditorium by achieving a weighted average of 10.87 across nine advanced placement courses when he graduates he will he will graduate with the advanced regions diploma with honors and the New York state seal of biliteracy uh again a member of the National Honor Society National Science Honor Society and triam he is a 4-year member of our
041research in science program um and has done some really really incredible work there um he's a member of Key Club interact he is um part of the leadership team for our high school band four years of track and field uh and again highly involved in the bamon theater program over the years uh his intended major is Computer Engineering and thus far uh we have a number of schools competing for Chris's uh enrollment including Sunni Bingington Albany and Courtland we are with W to hear for some pretty big ones coming up in the very near future uh I know that Harvard and MIT are headlining that list and they would all be exceptionally lucky to have him uh one more thing Chris before you you you leave here uh the High School faculty was pretty uh
042well in agreement that you are not allowed to leave until you get a student of the month plaque so uh here you are your January uh 2025 student of the month uh so uh enjoy that medal and the plaque both honors well earned okay want take a break yep all right we're going to take a quick break so if you anybody wants to take some pictures and whatnot and if you would like to come back and hang around for the good stuff by all means but uh snap away what's that e e e this point we still a little bit more than a month to go um in budget prep but you can see that the last time we did had these slides this was a big agenda tonight because we had no student presentations
043in January or February so the last time we had this slide we were at 2,000 going into the winter break we're at 2002 right now so um we're we're holding steady um normally we would see a bump a big bump at the end of January beginning of February that we didn't see uh here at this point um the next few slides are projections of enrollment and these are unadjusted these are not adjusted and what I why that's important is because the non-adjusted enrollment presumes that every kindergartener who starts in their kindergarten year in Hampton Bays remains until 12th grade and that no one else comes in I just carried the numbers forward there are demographers that can figure out Trends and is it an up variable or a down variable but for our most immediate
044purposes we're going to look not adjusted um enrollment before I do that I just want to share what adjusted enrollment would look like and that is last year's number so last year um you have heard me for the last few years say that our enrollment is going down kindergarten has 107 students and 12th grade has 187 students so we're going to see a leveling off of enrollment if it's unadjusted we're exiting big classes little classes are coming in and but last year we had 220 or so new enrollments through throughout the year that's not counting the incoming kindergarten class they counted and then 220 more kids showed up but 174 or so left at some point during the year it wasn't necessarily 174 of those 220 but 220 up 174 down there's still a net
045ad so it just closes the Gap so if that net ad is 74 and 20 that's 46 that's still less than the difference between the outgoing 12th grade and the incoming kindergarten so the the adjusted enrollment is sort of that unknown variable out there Federal enforcement of immigration policy in the last 2 months has been a variable that we are starting to see impact we've seen we've had some withdrawals uh of students and families to their home countries um and if there are other actions that are taken in coming months that could change that number further uh but we do these projections so that we can have at least a three to fiveyear Runway where we have a relative sense of what's happening and what we need to be um what we need to be
046ready for so you can see that you know we're at 2,000 students today unadjusted by 2029 203 30 we'd be a district that's about 1,700 students we saw that in like 2006 2007 when we had two buildings and we had 800 kids in each building 850 kids in each building what that does at the elementary school we have a decline but then we start to see it increase a little bit and that's really only because I carried an estimated number of 125 kindergarteners we're not having that right now but I just plugged in 125 to say all right let's just see if there's an uptick if Co had an impact on birth rates we'll start to see it level off in the mid 500 range at the middle school we're sort of steady right now
047but then we're going to see that decline as 146 kid classes are leaving and 120 kid classes are coming into the fifth grade at the high school we're starting to see that slope but the adjusted enrollment in the high school really is one of the higher ones in the district and that's because we have older students also older immigrant students coming in and they're at the high school level okay so uh they may be unaccompanied they may not be unaccompanied uh so we'll see this adjusted number could have a leveling out I still think the net is going to be a decrease not as sharp a decrease as some of our neighboring districts are experiencing so as we head into the budget season for 25 26 like we are we are deep into the budget
048season at this point I think that heading was on my January slide uh but we didn't have the the public session U the the four goals that you've set as a board of education remain to preserve reserves don't go shopping with your savings account maintain successful programs in the required staff so it doesn't mean just keep everything it means keep the things that are viable and that are that kids are uh taking advantage of live within the tax cap we have never pierced the tax cap and the data shows that districts that attempt to pierce the tax cap are more often then not not successful and then maintain facilities in capital infrastructure if you ask 10 people how to spend the money you're going to get 10 different ways to spend the money and what
049we experienced in previous generations was that the upkeep of facilities was a place that sometimes had deferred expenses as opposed to having a regular maintain maintaining of the facilities since the 2012 Bond I think you have put your priorities in the right place and been able to do a little bit of everything including expanding our faculty providing uh for increased programming and caring for facilities that look really good and are in really good shape even the doors the budget season calendar um began with the enrollment review that I shared with you um and then Department breakdown by goal so we think big picture we think people big picture we're a human business we don't create a product uh we create humans so there's Big Ticket items items in the budget their people uh then we
050get down to how many pencils and textbooks and soccer balls we're going to buy um the governor's budget was delivered on January 21st she proposed a almost nearly 5% increase in um public school funding uh 1.4 uh billion of that excuse the M 1.46 billion of that was for foundation AIDS so a 6% increase in Foundation age and remember last year the hold harmless districts those are districts that receive more money than the foundation formula would traditionally generate um that was that's about half the districts in New York state um they were they were proposed to be cut through advocacy became a flat number and then this year the those districts on safe harmless or hold harmless they're interchangeable um have a basic minimum increase of 2% this is Hampton Bay's first year ever that
051we've been on Save harmless as a school district so we had those big years of state aid catchup and smartly so the Board of Education made investments in one-time expenses because we knew that once the big jumps in Foundation Aid were done that we'd get into this basic minimum increase Lane and that's what we have right now so you have Foundation Aid which is cash it's just cash that the foundation Aid formula generates for you and it's for gener General operating expenses we saw a basic 2% increase are 253,000 in our expense and categorical AIDS that's osei Services things you buy that you get money back on the following year we saw a decrease of $109,000 or 5% decrease we saw a building Aid decrease of $350,000 55% decrease and a total of all of
052our Aid has decreased by 207 000 or 1.4% we have not Larry and I have not entered a budget season to present to the Board of Education where we've started in the red in state aid do you want to say a few words on that Larry sure just to to um add to what LS was saying about the the expense driven AIDS the valuation of our properties went up significantly back in in uh 2023 2024 we went from about 3.8 billion as a school district total uh you know uh Community to over 5 billion and the way the state figures out all these Aid numbers is it's all uh ratios and and formulas and their formulas are driven off things like well how valuable is your District compared to the number of students you have
053so on paper we look rich a lot of valuation in our homes not a ton of kids kids but not a ton of kids break it down divide one by the other and wow it's it's a lot of money per kid reality is we also have about 60% free and reduced lunch if if you if you looked at it that way so paper is one thing and that's what they're driving the formulas off of reality is something very different um and unfortunately this is again the first time Lars and I have ever started with getting less Aid than we we did the year before so currently the town of Southampton has a percentage valuation system we used to be full assessment so when you got your tax bill and and the tax bill said your
054house was worth 500,000 it was taxed at 500,000 it's worth that they've moved to something Less in the last few years to during covid to keep as the market was taking off to prevent really choking homeowners and taxpayers so they went to I think it's 7067 or 79 or it's a fraction so your bill might say your home is worth 600,000 but if you go to get comps for example for a mortgage uh refi it'll show that your house is valued or you could sell it for nine or a million so it does not work that logic does not work in Albany think about Albany being a Las Vegas casino the house never loses at the end of the day right so they get our our valuation information and they say huh wait they're only
055valuing it at 70 something perc they put an equalization Factor on the back to bring it back up and then that determines our ratios so that way Hampton Bays in the formula can be compared with Binghamton and Rochester and Southwestern and the Sou tier that way it's an Apples to Apples comparison otherwise a town would say we value at 5% we're way poorer than you think and there's no fooling the house The House Always Wins so when you bake all of this into the cake the allowable tax levy limit the tax cap for us in Hampton Bay is 3.2% raising taxes 3.2% with our state aid as it sits right now now the budget is not finalized in Albany that number could change um a 3% uh increase on the tax levy will allow us
056to spend 2.1% more very tight budget very tight budget this year there's key drivers to this budget that get plugged in before we can even talk about how many soccer balls and pencils to buy one of those is transportation so special transportation in particular uh kids who need specialized equipment to get to a program or to or from our building uh that's a 5% increase 8% increase in special education that's not U unique to Hampton Bays that is a postco phenomenon Nationwide I'm sure you're seeing it as well that uh particularly little ones coming into kindergarten are presenting with higher needs and sometimes that requires placements outside of the district as well educational technology also has a big jump percentage wise um some of that is to do with the regular maintenance some of our
057earliest um generation co uh Chromebooks we it's like starting your old car in the morning is it going to work today you know like there's a there's we have to do a replacement of that first phase of Chromebooks desktop computers and educational technology programs that teachers have come to be very successful with and use very masterfully in the classroom were paid for largely originally by our covid grant and the covid grant ended and so Mike uh and his team have been doing a great job going through user reports really looking at each program to make sure that there's high usability that there's not redundancy I bu Coke we all when it can do the same thing right um so it's been a very carefully structured budget planning process but those are the drivers right now
058we finalized Department budgets Staffing budgets we looked at program versus enrollment um we do have Financial uh savings from some staff and faculty retirement some of those were going to approve tonight um which um individuals who have given tremendous service and very skilled service to the district for many many years uh will retire so will be sad to lose their value in the district um but when you talk about it in terms of budget uh as we look to either replace those positions or temporarily or permanently remove them through attrition we haven't laid anybody off we've we've realized savings and salary differential even a senior teacher compared to a a rookie teacher is going to have a considerable positive impact on the budget okay so we're those came in in the last two days and
059so we're baking those into the cake now um and uh really it's a m it's a tight maintenance budget so getting good at the things we do um building the sustainability through our educational technology programs our volleyball program has been very successful we just finished up our Middle School volleyball boys volleyball girls has been successful for a long time uh boys had a a fun positive first year and so the JV program will become a varsity program next year and we'll maintain our middle school program um when you look at how all of this breaks down it's a 3.3% in increase in our tax revenue other local Revenue this is estimated just south of a million dollars and then our state aid is at 1.2% decrease again a tight budget at 2.1% um 1.3 million
060when you bake in contractual obligations uh facilities costs special education costs um all of that gets eaten up uh very Qui very quickly um pre kindergarten continues to be an advocacy point across New York State this number is a little misleading because in 2425 the state aid run says we received $97,000 we spent $997,000 we really were eligible for $418,000 for full day pre kindergarten the conundrum has been space right now and finding community- based partners that can live with the $5,400 per student rate our local providers that their per pupil rate is higher than that so um you it can't be a scholarship upk dollars you can't give a parent $5,400 or $5,700 and say that'll cover half of it you cover the rest it has to be Universal free prek so our conundrum
061has been with our great programs here in the high school do we do more kids for less time or do we do less time for more kids we're working with the state for advocacy see to have some more flexibility with those numbers so that that plus declining enrollment might open up some classroom space to expand and have a mixture some parents might only need or want half a day others might need and want the full day so it continues to be on the dashboard but no major changes to pre kindergarten for next year when you look I'll I'll go through these next slides quickly and then take any questions but when you look at our budget to budget increases going back to 2010 we're at an average of 2.89% so responsible spending under 3% increases
062on average each year this year it'll be 2.1 when you look at how taxes have increased over that same period of time an average of 2.2 and that's again remember because we had big increases in state aid dollars and we had made the commitment as a board of education look at those two Canyon years there we made a a commit that if we were able to retain staff compensate staff retain program improve outcomes that also a priority would be that every dollar that comes from state aid is not necessarily one that has to come from the property taxpayer okay so our average tax levy increase has been 2.21 this year it'll be 3.2 this year when you look at the share of resources uh that the share of revenues that are coming in it is
063largely local share because remember as Larry said in the eyes of the formula we're on the beautiful Atlantic Ocean waterfront property very high value land student need Community need creates a need for more expensive programming for kids who might need additional resources the state share has increased it ticked down a little this year and federal funding remains relatively flat at this point Federal funding is a wild card at this time this year's funding allocations are set um but if you look at we're at about between 1 and 2% of available funding that Federal funding is in addition to what our budget is so when you look at $67 million it's 67 million plus another $900,000 in federal dollars that's not part of the general operating fund a couple of other uh items to mention on
064our report tonight um you heard Mr Morgan talk about Virtual Enterprise when he says the javet center it's in our backyard but it is the national competition and about 10 schools uh made it to the national competition for Virtual Enterprise so these are it's an entrepreneurial Club where kids create a business it's remarkable uh we will be moving to uh full computer-based testing for math Ela uh science uh in grades 4 through eight and then next year or we'll be making that transition to include grade three as well uh over the next few months um we will talk about the addition of a student representative to the Board of Education this was a law pass by governor hok and uh the legisl signed by governor hok passed by the legislature at the end of last
065season uh to have a student representative I'll make a presentation on that in April uh there are a couple of mechanisms on how to uh figure out who that student's going to be whether it's selection or interview or it's somebody who serves in a leadership in of the student body or student counsil uh there are ways and there are pros and cons to thinking about both that that member is non-voting they are not entitled to come to Executive session but this model has existed in a number of school districts um and the student might give a report on and talk to the student councils in each building and get a report and add much more richness than I can add um in hearing from the student perspective grade 11 uh leaves today Mr Morgan's probably
066still asleep uh what time are they leaving tomorrow 6 o00 6:00 okay so uh they'll they'll meet with our Congressman um we've been talking our congressman's intern is from East quog and so they'll hook up with him tomorrow when they get to to the capital Handle With Care is in its um it's about a month old now it's been operationalized we've had two handle with cares um both appropriate and um we've trained with faculty and Eric finished training all of the uh police department the police force um and it worked as it should you know uh it's and uh we had a meeting with um uh other districts in the west that want to Pilot it with different law enforcement agencies so hopefully this is something that will continue to grow I mentioned our retirements
067will celebrate these fantastic faculty uh members um and we expect some staff members as well um in June this weekend we had the opportunity I mentioned it when we had the fire department here um to reflect on some elements of school safety so the fire if that was a school day life would look very different at West Hampton Beach Learning Center which was right there uh 300 students many of them with Mobility impairments bringing buses that take an hour sometimes to stage in an emergency getting them into a fire would have been impossible and so it it caused our teams to really reflect on what we need to do in situations in our building identifying our Mobility impaired students to make sure that the stair chairs are where they need to be and that and
068that there's staff to assist there and we don't leave anything to the you know in chaos and an emergency physiologically you need to go to your muscle memory because you can't process as fast um the bomb scare in Westampton Beach Middle School and High School interestingly we learned uh as we're talking about the governor's cell phone ban that storage of a device in school may impact in an emergency may have an impact in an emergency situation they're in the Yonder pouches if I don't think that's the way we'll go but uh or they're in the locker or they're in the backpack throughout the entire day but then there's an evacuation and the backpack remains in the building and I want to see where Ryland is and his back and it's still showing in the building
069and I'm a terrified parent of what's going on thinking we haven't evacuated yet when he's already safely at the offsite evacuation place so all of that has given our team a lot to think about and reflect on the school safety plan as a confidential document um but those are the things we need to think about and then finally we were thinking about okay if Westampton is evacuating all of their students Linda at montalk bus had a stage all the all the Stu buses to evacuate in our safety plan one of our evacuation sites if we had to move everybody off site is pwag Beach the idea being that you could close the bridge and then calmly and orderly and safely execute your reunification plan reunifying kids with parents otherwise it could be chaos I'm grabbing
070my kid but we could physically close the bridge the only time time matters is evacuating from an emergency once you're safe and stable and Stage you could take your time to do it the right way to keep everybody safe and close out the emergency well the bridge is only 5 tons right now buses weigh much more than 5 tons so in talking with Linda we've identified a number of other sites we don't publish that we don't say that in public because again in emergency situations we need confidential documents to make decisions and that but it wouldn't be putting a bus over pwalk bridge that might create a different emergency right so so uh Chief Kieran and Chief nider and and the others the the ambulance are just great Partners to work with we're also working
071with Chief Kieran on uh budget requests at the state and federal level to increase funding for school resource officers uh that would benefit us all legislative priorities in Albany I was in Albany last week and had the opportunity to meet with the state budget director um the president of nysit the teach the State teachers union um and as well as the the chairs of the Senate and assembly education committee and the and the speaker of the house nisus organize a number of those budget and legislative conversations zero emission buses school Staffing challenges Universal pre- like I mentioned civil service reform school safety which is funding and Staffing if we want retired law enforcement in our schools then the earning cap for retired law enforcement can't be $35,000 which is what it is legislatively right now
072it's not worth it for them um understandably um after working in their career Career and Technical education numbers are through the roof Statewide kids are opting to to participate in those CTE programs if they change a couple of the state aid formulas and we would get more Aid back for sending more kids to Career and Technical education it hasn't been changed since the '90s so um and then Universal School meals does not apply to us at this time but um there is a um a push to finish up those that didn't get Universal School meals Larry and Deb Johnson's work have made us a community eligibility school so regardless of income everybody can participate in the breakfast lunch and after school snack program as well and we've seen participation rise there's concern at the federal
073level that some of those dollars could be at risk uh between the Department of Education the Department of Agriculture culture who who work together on the school meals program uh that remains to be seen what happens uh it hate for us to backslide and not be able to offer that uh opportunity to everybody and the distraction free schools initiative is Governor hok's um initiative to create cell phone free um environments for um or distraction free any smartphones internet enabled devices um it's problematic in some ways we talk about local control um I don't think there's a district in New York state that doesn't have a policy and a practice on this um in the high school our policy and practice has been not during instructional times um the most Su kid teachers either have charging
074bricks that uh they let the kids get a free Char kids are always looking for their free charge right um or the the shoe pouches or the calculator pouches or you know as the kids get older they're more mature just keep it in your pocket keep it in your bag I don't want to see it uh doesn't mean we don't have challenges with it the governor's um proposal right now is Bell to Bell which she defines as the first Bell of first period and the last bell of ninth period And so implementation of that disciplining in terms of a violation of the code of conduct what does that look like having parent and student Buy in to do that well that could be a challenge as well um some parents insist I want my phone
075and there's a wildfire that just broke out there was a bomb threat and while we say call the main office look for the official means of communication we know that as a parent you feel differently in an emergency and we understand that um so remains to be seen where that shakes out with the legislature how they amend that in the final process but we will have to have a policy in place right now we have practice in place in the Middle School not out at all during in the high school um non instructional time so you will see kids using it in study hall they'll check their phone in passing period and in lunch they're still talking in lunch you know that not that not every kid is lost in the device I'd love to
076see more talking and more but it's been a survivable situation for us I think in the High School uh would you agree Helen yeah okay it we don't see the battles we used to have like put it away give here you give me your phone and and I don't think adults want to be in the position of taking $400 $800 devices either if we're now right so and finally I might argue schools have a responsibility to teach responsible use of these tools right that if we just ban it and it becomes taboo as opposed to to creating the self-regulation and how to not cyber bully and how to be a good cyber citizen we're going to be dealing with the effects of it because it's just going to happen after school now you have to
077learn to be a good cyber citizen we're seeing adults not be being good cyber citizens right now um sounds like a dorky word but um you know what I mean there you go what is this what is the civil service reform civil service reform for example um we have a job that's posted office assistant for example main office secretary uh we have to go to the list right the Civil Service list there could be 500 people on that list we have to physically print paper and mail a letter to a certain amount of people Marian's snarling because she this was a big part of her career um mail out a 100 letters so the time the resources the postage to get that done then mail them out and say Hampton Bay has an office assistant
078job and this is the price and this is the starting date and then would you like an interview and then we wait to see 7 days how many people say they want an interview and then Marian has to interview them electronic canvasing would be a lot easier right sounds like so that's one the second Civil Service operates by something called the rule of three the top three scores you have to choose from who are interested in the job regardless of with very few exception regardless of how they interview how it goes so you can get 100 a 95 a 90 an 85 and so on you have two 100s a 95 and an 85 who all say they want the job if the two 100s and the 95 say I'll take it you got to
079pick from one of them you can skip two of them but you got to pick from one of them the 85 might have just had a terrible day not be a great test taker but have interviewed really well it's a Community member they understand the school they understand they could jump right in tomorrow if it was the rule of five for example that gives a little bit more flexibility if it was the top three scores because you might for example have one 100 50 95s that say yes and 290s you're never going to get to those 290s but if it was the top three scores then maybe you could and then finally if you get no um the the superintendent council's final PL plank on this platform is if you get no candidates for the
080job you send it out to 100 people they said you get no responses then you have to go out and then it's fair game it's a wild west go find someone Annie would you like to be the main office secretary you're going to come in you're going to be probationary but you're going to have to take the test the next time it's offered and you better score in a reachable way you better not get that 90 or 85 and I can't get you that test could be 8 9 10 months down the road you've taken the job we've trained you we've spent money to train you you are remarkable at your job no no one doubted that and and as a supervisor who is paid and managed by the expected by the board of education
081to be evaluating you I say this is perfect this works perfectly the advocacy ask is if a probationary person is in a if a person's in a probationary seat for six or nine months they get the job when the test comes out that we don't have to do the test process that's I don't want to keep somebody who's subpar so it's it's not in my interest to say I it's not in my interest it's not in my interest to not keep to keep somebody who's not good but I've spent time money resources and this person's acclimated and to the people who don't understand the Civil Service uh World outside of it the Beloved Mrs coane who works in the main office just got fired and then that creates a political problem in the district too
082right no she didn't get fired she just bubbled two answers wrong on the Scantron you know like it's such an old system that um it to be updated and even the state understands that as well any other questions how's the playground by all accounts I I was I was out at outside the elementary school today for first grade lunch and almost got mowed over on the way to the playground so all high marks been thinking about them in this weather super happy yeah great thank you thank you thank you thank you L thanks Mr Springer just two two things I'm going to point out um first of all we we've always been doing well to to get the most state aid we can um but there are so many formulas so many variables and they
083change them every year just to keep us on our toes we've we've reached out to an expert and we've got some help that comes in uh actually today uh yesterday was the first day he came to the district he works on a percentage basis 15% % of what he recovers from us goes to him but uh 15 15 15 yes not not 50 goodbye um but but just the first half hour talking with him he's like oh do you have a student like this and they describe that oh yeah we have a student like that oh well do you know you can also put him in for this and this and this and I'm like really he's like yeah I'm like that's not double counting you go nope we can do that so right away
084he picked up probably $50,000 that we didn't know we could get that we can get so I'm I'm really excited about that I think that's going to help us out out a lot and then uh secondly one of the things in the agenda was sort of a last minute thing the uh uh dryw out right in front of the auditorium here please be careful and step around it don't step on it because it has some problems and we need to fix it quickly so I'm asking for an emergency resolu solution to just move ahead pass the bidding rules and get it fixed before a car or a person disappears in it okay it it's it I I think the heaven thaw of the winter uh damaged it and now it's it's it's bad you know
085the grade is is starting to slide into it and I'm afraid that you know a heavy vehicle or something goes over it it could could collapse and we don't want to have that happen okay thank you thanks if you want you can the entire oh we can 4 a to seven yeah there's the entire reason all right um if there are no questions we're going to do a consent agenda from 4 a to K unless somebody has a question so yeah that's a lot but let me know if you have any questions if not we need a motion this is stuff that we've gone over so I don't mtion nothing new all right in favor I I okay board of education is nothing public comment persons May address the board of education on any matters
086of Interest or concern board president will recognize all speakers time limits may be imposed based upon agenda needs okay with that then I need a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting motion I need a second second second all in favor I motion passes meeting is adjourned thank you all for a very yes thank you nice very nice though very [Music] nice e e