Highland CSD Board of Education Meeting 5-20-2025

001Good evening everyone. Uh we'll open the meeting up. Please rise for the pledge. Pledge 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, we'll open our meeting up to public comment. Um, as usual, our front end public comment is for agenda items only. So, if you have any questions regarding the agenda, please uh stand up, state your name, and shout out your question. Okay, we'll close public comment and we'll move to our special presentations. This evening we have uh first off the leaders of the pack. I'll ask elementary school to Good evening everyone. We'd like to call up Anthony Vita our our main leader of the pack. [Applause] Anthony is in first grade and his

002classroom teacher, Mrs. Penino, is here today. She says, "Anthony has a heart of both. He is thoughtful with his words and how he treats his classmates and teachers. He cares about others and is a very good listener. Anthony takes great pride in his work, gets started right away, and works the whole time. He loves sharing his math thinking. Anthony has a wonderful sense of humor and makes us laugh and appreciates joys, jokes, and silly things. If you want to know about scientific facts, ask ask Anthony. He might be partial to ants, but he knows many, many facts about animals and other science topics. I am so proud of Anthony. He demonstrates leadership skills daily. He is an absolute joy to teach and has a very bright future in Highland. Mr. Dr. Helmer, your PE teacher,

003says, "Anthony does an excellent job in physical education on a daily basis. He is a great teammate and is willing to help his peers in new games and activities. He displays a positive attitude and is very respectful." Mrs. McAffrey, your music teacher, says, "Anthony is an enthusiastic participant in music and is a great singer. [Applause] All right, a couple more here. Nice job. A real big deal. going to go in for his graduation collage. Right. [Applause] Our middle school. High school. Sure. Sure. It's fine. Sorry. That's a great change up. So, our May leader of the pack is somebody that everybody knows here, I think, and it is our Kairoer. She has no idea. [Applause] Surprise. Uh so Miss Meyer, your English teacher said, "Kai is extraordinary in so many ways. She is brilliant, mature,

004and thoughtful and demonstrates genuine curiosity and initiative both in class and in her extracurricular activities. It is a rare to have a student who is so intrinsically invested in their education. I know that Kai will bring light and passion to all that she does." Mr. Welch, her French teacher. I've had the pleasure of teaching Kai for three years, coaching her this year, and working with her in extracurricular activities as well. Kai has shined in every setting. Academically, she writes eloquently, elevates the level of the classroom discussion through her insights and approaches through her learning, curiosity, and interest. As an athlete, Kai is dedicated, always pushing herself to improve. She also supports and advocates for her peers, whether it's in GSA or as a board of ed representative. She recently facilitated a successful professional development for

005the high school staff. A testament to her maturity, thoughtfulness, and commitment to the school district. Although I will miss her next year, I am excited to see what she achieves. I know she will be successful in whatever endeavor she puts her mind to in the future. She is a light and will change the world. Miss Sailor uh Kai Roer is a standout among her peers. She's thoughtful, reflective, respective, and hardworking. It's a really killer combination. She is brilliant, but more than that, her curiosity will serve her well. I have had the absolute privilege to teach Kai in two classes and seen her interact with other members of the faculty. I have no concerns about her leading a workshop for teachers, which ended up being a memorable and engaging experience for all in attendance. Kai is

006wonderful and very deserving leader of the pack. Mr. Early, your track coach. Kai is one of the most dedicated and hardworking athletes I have had the privilege of coaching. She always gives her all and does it with a smile on her face. I could not think of someone more deserving of this honor. Congrats, Kai. [Music] All right. there. Okay. One more. Hold on. Can I sneak in? Yeah. No sneaking allowed. I got a long break. Yeah, thank you. [Applause] So, um, our leader is not here yet, but we're hoping that she's on her way. Um, we we can hold off. Is that okay? Just in case she doesn't come. Um her name is Rosemary Pekchock. Um I hope she comes because she is I don't know I don't want to say the most deserving student

007we've ever given it to but when we told her um that she been selected the the reaction that we got was definitely the most impactful I've ever had in my career. So we really hope that she can attend. Um she's certainly deserving and um we can't say enough good things about her. So hope she hopefully she comes to get her recommend. We'll give her all if she doesn't maybe at the end of the night when we do public comments we talk about Shankers is on deck and yeah. Okay. On behalf of the entire board of education, we congratulate all our leaders of the pack for job well done. Um we're moving on. So those that were here for the leaders of the pack, if you would like want to leave, you're more than welcome to.

008You want to stay for our meeting to do that. smart. Okay. Our next presentation is for the Ster County School Board Bus Driver School bus driver of the year, Kathy. Good evening everybody and welcome. It's my pleasure to introduce Mary Duca. Mary Duka, come on up. [Applause] Mary Duka has received the prestigious award of school bus driver of the year for Olster County for 2025 and we're very proud of her. The Olter County Traffic Association presented I'll hold some for you with these awards. And to recognize Mary, we have Mrs. Russo here and Mr. Knight, would you like to come up and tell us about [Applause] Thank you for having us. The school bus of the award is a meaningful is meaningful because it recognizes individuals working every day and going over and above to

009protect our children and our residents on the roads. That's why it's important that we recognize Olster County School Bus driver of the year and award winner Mary Duka. Uh an honory benefiting her remarkable contributions of almost 40 years of service with more than 28 of those years for the Highland Central School District. Mary's unblenmished safety record and unwavering reliability reflect her extraordinary dedication to her students. From navigating countless school countless driving conditions to accompanying one group of students from elementary school all the way to their high school graduation, Mary's commitment has been nothing short of inspiring. Beyond her impeccable attendance and punctuality, Mary has always shown exceptional leadership mentoring fellow drivers and attendance uh promoting driver promoting safety with 19A testing and even participating in the bus rodeos and training exercises. Mary's kindness extends to

010her students who who she cheers on at events like the Special Olympics, bringing joy to their lives by decorating her bus with their names in their school colors. Her passion for fostering a positive atmosphere has laughed a lasting impact on her students, families, and the entire community. Thank you, Mary, for your professionalism, generosity, and steadfast dedication. Highland Cent Central School Justice was truly fortunate to have you in its ranks. Congratulations on this well-deserved [Applause] recognition on behalf of the Highland Transportation School District and all of our team that's here to support Mary. Thank you very much. We're very proud of Mary. [Applause] I am [Laughter] retiring this way. They didn't accept a retirement. Thank you. Okay. So, tonight we have Dr. Shanker from Olster Boseies with us uh to give us an update and a

011presentation on the Eye Park facility. And I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Shanker. Thank you so much for being here. And I know we brought some students and uh yeah, it's all yours. Um good evening everybody. Nice to see you. Uh first and foremost, thank you uh to everybody in the Highland board for uh your support and partnership. Uh that's what it is about. Um and certainly Mr. Barnett, Mr. Zimmer, Dr. Boyd uh who uh show up uh monthly and and more often to partner with uh not just Boseies but the seven other districts. Um and I can tell you in this role that uh our county is unique. Uh we come together as colleagues uh think not just about the district that we reside in but about all students in Olter County.

012Uh and that isn't the case around the state. Um and and to that end, just to really publicly thank uh Superintendent Frier uh who has been a tremendous colleague of mine as I've stepped into this role uh always willing to take a phone call to talk through things. Um that's that's really what it's about. Um on behalf of really what it's about, which is uh some of some of our shared students. And so I thought before I uh gave an update that I'd just allow them a couple of minutes to share who they are uh what programs they're in at Boseis and why Boseies is working for them. So I think we have an order right you're going first. Great. How's it going everyone? My name is Luchiano Tasker. I'm a former Highland student here

013and BKC student as well and I'm a junior. I do HVAC, heated and ventilation air cooling. And the reason why I chose HVAC was sophomore year I didn't know what I wanted to do in high school. I thought high school was just normal. We all went through it. But um then Boseies was the alternative that I heard of. I was like, what's Boseis? So when I got explained to it by Miss Cany, my uh guidance counselor, I saw all the options, saw HVAC was there, and I was like, you know what? I'm going to give it a shot. go on this little field trip, drive over there, see if HVAC or welding works for me. And when I did, I really took a high interest into it. I was like, "This seems really good. Not

014only do I take a bus ride 30 minutes out of my day to go there and learn some actual real life stuff and uh yeah, sorry. Um, but the reason why Boseies is really helping me is because not only is it allowing me to socialize with other school districts such as Round Out and all of them, but also it allows me to connect to other jobs and such that hopefully I'll be able to work for soon like uh capstone for example. Um, and I I really like Boseies honestly. You know, it feels like school but just a real life workforce. And uh yeah, I really I'm really grateful that I do Boseies. You know, most schools I mean, most like states don't have stuff like what New York has. Hopefully I said good enough there.

015[Applause] Everyone, my name is Steven that some of you may know me. I had a interesting elementary school life. Um, both helped me partly become who I want to be and partly get out of the school that I was in. You guys know I was I mean I know do you know where I was helped me get out of there and I remember hearing about busies when I was getting better mentally and I was like okay it's closer to home and I'm not on a bus for three and a half hours a day and CEK is helping because my goal in life is to put together psychology ology and music production so that people that are like me that can use music as a coping mechanism or as a way to get their negative energy

016or just energy in general out can do that. Whether it's guitar, bass, drums, flute, trombone, violin, every I'll have everything in the book at some point, but the goal is to help people that are like me. [Applause] I'm Cameron. Of course, I'm still a student of Highland, but I go to Hudson Valley Pathway Academy, the program college high school. Um, so a little bit about why like Boseis and this program is important to me is because when I was in middle school, I wasn't like I was definitely not an A student like many absences um failing grades. I was ineligible to go to my middle school graduation. I had to take summer school that year to pass. Um and I went to Miss Near actually and the only reason I ever knew about Hudson Valley

017Pathways Academy is because she brought it up in one of our talks and it's a beautiful place definitely. um like to make a kid that's sinking fly and like do hands-on work like I do robotics now. I do so many things that um I have so many opportunities that I wouldn't have reached out for in my middle school years that I do now in my high school years and definitely a big important part of that is Miss Near and like I feel like I'm I'm proud and happy that I'm there, right? But I'm also disappointed that this school, Hudson Valley Pathways Academy, doesn't get that much like endorsement in Highland because I know there's definitely a lot of kids in Highland that are like me that definitely didn't feel like they belonged in Highland Middle

018School. So like when I was told about it just by going to Miss Near and having like directly figure it out, I feel like it should be like more open. I feel like we should be able to like hear about it more. Definitely. And that's like a big part about why I'm here. I hope that like this talk what I'm saying like gets to like what we're doing um how Hudson Valley Pathway Academy and Fer Extension Olter Boseies gets more rep in Highland. So that's what that's basically all I got. Thank you. Doesn't sound like it would be too difficult to possibly arrange for him to come in and speak to that program at some point. Go ahead. I think that's that's fantastic. They're all children of our community. So, thank you for sharing them

019with us and uh some of them are are very busy and uh participating lots of evening um activities and presentations. So, we didn't know who who was going to be able to fit us into their schedule, but we're glad that that these three got to represent. Um I also want to introduce uh assistant superintendent for administration Amanda Stokes who's here um representing um so I'll give you um um so this is a highle overview of how highland participates with olsterosis. Uh if you look down the left column in blue um the those are those are services that we offer. Uh and the ones that are filled in uh filledin white dots uh those are the services that Highland is uh has has currently or is currently participating in. Um and uh Superintendent Fer has has

020copies of this um and we can certainly make more available. Uh but you can see that um the the amount that was spent with Olterose is just about three and a half um million million dollars in services. Again, each year uh the district um we meet with the district, we talk about uh what services were used last year, maybe what new services we have. Highland decides how they want to participate and signs up for those services. Uh and then that moves into kind of final services request. Those are formalized and um and and then we we provide shared services. So on that, Highland received uh just over $1 and a half million dollars back in state aid. Uh and so that's a whole other presentation on what is Bosey's aid, but essentially um the state

021incentivizes districts to share and participate in services and they do that through the form of Bosey's aid. And so our average aid ratio in this county is about 60 60% uh that that our our districts get back. And again, not all components of of the um tuition or the services are aidable. Um good news uh coming down the pike is that the the the amount of of aid allowable for salaries for Bosey's employees has increased after many many years. So that just uh just happened in in this this latest um this latest budget. That's that's a huge shift. Uh that means that we can provide more aid back on the cost or money spent with Boseies as it relates to salaries. So that's good news. Um I park uh so uh I've shared these updates

022with the superintendent, business officials, and I'm here this evening to share with you. Um we have uh a slight uh revision in um in in the lease in terms of the location of the program on the I park campus. Um there was a the kind of the previous presentation which showed the school kind of in uh in a in a U-shape. The back building uh is going to take much longer to renovate. Um and so we and this this this change happened several months ago. Um, it's actually working to our benefit. Uh, we were able to capture about 15,000 more square feet at no additional cost, taking over the complete top of the building. And it centers our school rather than a U with a long corridor. Um, all kind of to a centralized main

023two floor complex with proximity to Olster uh the Olter County Economic Workforce Development. Uh, it also I should have brought this up. Um so this is the just kind of drawings of bottom floor uh and top floor. If you look down here at the bottom, those of you familiar with this is the the clock tower, the main entrance here. Uh and so our school will uh take over this whole side of the building with uh Olter County here. Uh shared uh entry but uh separate entries with separate security for both Olter County and for us. Um and then we move into again our initial uh plan was just about to here. We now have this entire space at no additional cost which is awesome. So it really was an enhancement to security um just in

024terms of not having that long corridor. Um this is just another way to look at the layout. Um blue uh being Olster Boseies uh Archtop Fiber which is the fiber optic company that's on site. their warehouses here and offices here and then uh Olter County Economic Development there. Uh but it also enhanced our bus pickup. Initially when we had the back building uh we were going to be entering through here. Uh so we would have had parking staff and student parking with a bus loop running through the parking. There are districts that have that. It's not ideal, but but now because of this new center, we have a full uh dedicated bus loop drop off. So, we have buses that will come up. Again, we bus from many districts. So, um getting them in in

025the front for drop off again just from security, safety, layout, way better design with all of our parking here. And we still have full use of the full courtyard. So, that's exciting. Um I was just up there um on Friday. These are renderings. Initially we had some renderings that were theoretical. These are actual renderings based on uh the actual drawings. Um so they are um I'll be up there tomorrow. Uh but they were they were painting all of the interiors. Uh they were installing all of the overhead uh doors and they were uh they're beginning to do all of the HVAC. Bathrooms are tiled, toilets are in. Uh it's it's moving along and we are on target for September uh opening. Um let me see if there is the timeline here again started planning in

02623. Uh we are uh we are um in in this phase here with uh a slated opening in 25. As you all know or some of you may know but as I shared last time I was here this project dovetales in with our current capital project. So, we're moving on to Newalts and then we'll be up at the Port Euan Center, our current career and tech center to do all of the non-glamorous stuff, HVAC, addressable fire systems. Again, that was already voted and passed that capital project by the eight component districts. Um, and then we'll be looking for our middle school, high school expansion, uh, in Port Euan to incre increase special education program. We know that's another area in this county, in this state, in this country that is growing exponentially. Um, and and

027you know, many of you know, you know, not just a couple of years ago, we opened Anna Divine. Uh, that's uh that's a a lease from Kingston School District. That program is full. Uh, we opened Mount Marian. Uh, that program is near full. Uh currently there are about 85 elementary students on waiting list today for programming. Uh and so this continues to be a complex problem that again our uh our our assistant superintendent, our PPS directors uh are thinking about kind of collectively what does this mean for Olter County? And so we're really working on a three, five, sevenyear plan to make sure that we have programming to be able to keep our students in Olter County. Um because currently again and this is not Olter County uniquely uh but we're sending students to Orange

028Olter to Duchess and even further some students that we can't provide programming for specialized programming as far as Catskill Albany Long Island etc. Uh we want to do the best we can to keep those students uh in house. So um that is that that's the I park updates. Um I did um ask Joel if if he wanted me to share just uh a couple of the other kind of big things that are happening. Uh so I'll run through that and then I'll take any questions and I can certainly come back to that. Uh New York Inspires is uh the changes that are upon us through the New York State Education Department as it relates to what does it mean to be a graduate here in New York. Uh we're currently in the planning phase and

029in September we begin phase one. Each of the phases are uh are approximately two years. Uh and and they've done a really nice job uh not kind of thrusting these changes upon us immediately, but by saying at the end of these phases, we hope this to be true and some of these things will happen. There are four transformations that are uh that are critical in the shifts that we're going to see here in New York State. One is the adoption of a portrait of a grad. uh that is this uh these are these are draft uh this is a draft form the board of regents did adopt the portrait of a grad however they're going to be releasing this summer an updated version uh with definitions uh it will be a requirement that all New

030York State graduates are working towards upskilling in these particular areas and these are the transversal skills that we know that all students whether they're going straight into the workforce they're going into the military they're going to two-year college four-year college, whatever next is, we know that these skills aren't going away. These are the ones that will that will stand the test of time. Um, learning uh a a specific technology on a 3D printer that might change in the next two or three years, but these are the characteristics of the humans that can be coachable and trainable and adaptable to kind of this changing landscape. Uh, really exciting work. Redefining credits and learning experiences. currently 22 credits and five regions exams is kind of what shapes a graduate exit profile here in New York. That's going

031to be shifting how they students get credits. Uh what they can use to show uh proficiency or demonstrate their their their ability to show excellence in a particular area that aperture is going to open up. There's conversations around what about a student who spends uh throughout their high school career working to become an Eagle Scout or opens their own business. Should we look at those experiences and opportunities and take them into consideration as we think about them showcasing who they are against standards and proficiencies and and and the answer is yes. What it looks like and and how it looks uh that isn't decided yet. uh regent exams will be decoupled from graduation measures. That means it will not be required for students to pass regent exams in order to become a graduate. Doesn't mean

032that regent exams or doesn't mean that they're going to go away. Regent exams will become one way that a student could show proficiency because some students thrive in that type of environment. But we know that not all students taking tests showcase their abilities. And so we want to open that up and say how else can we do that? Lastly, moving to one high school diploma, raising the bar for everybody and making sure that we have the stepping stones to ensure every student can get to that bar. Um the really wonderful thing is there's a lot of flexibility in that and as I kind of shared again I'll share this or you have this slide deck you can take I'm not going to go through all the nuances of the of the timeline. Um but but

033there's flexibility in what does this look like in Olter County and what does this look like and what does this mean for Highland. And so over the next year, again, as I as I shared in in the beginning, the way that our county is coming together um is is unique. Uh this these conversations aren't happening this same way in New York, and it didn't happen this way always in Olter County. We have a group of superintendent who are committed to sharing and collaborating, thinking about what what what this means. And so we'll be engaging with uh team district teams um superintendent, assistant superintendent, PPS directors, deputy superintendents. Again, titling kind of changes as we go throughout the county to talk about what does this look like for Olter County? What does this mean? And then

034for Highland to be able to really design what does this mean for Highland? What are the things that we already do that are amazing that we want to pull forward? What are some of the things that haven't served us well maybe we want to let go? And what are we missing? and what do we want to design new so that we ensure we're we're we're meeting uh and creating pathways for all students. It's really really exciting work. Um as I always explain anytime I have a chance uh whether forced or people come to hear me um I don't believe in in this in this county in this state that we have a teacher or staff problem. Um, we have wonderful educators and I'm inclusive of TAs and social workers and leaders just in that in

035that in that bucket. We have a container issue. The container in which we ask them to do their job is outdated and tied to a model that may not serve us well in our current environment. And there's certainly things that we need to think and consider changing. Um, and so that's really really exciting work. I'm super excited to partner with Highland's team on that. And that's inclusive of uh all voice um how you know we will ensure that over the next year we're capturing teacher voice that board voice certainly student voice community voice my hope is that we co-author a vision in Olster County that everybody can see uh themselves part of as we think about what does it mean to be a graduate in New York but specifically here in Olter County and for

036you all in Highland and really lastly to that end the this this previous initiative that we're still working through was around this word that you kind of heard being thrown around uh regionalization. Uh the word got a lot of attention. Uh it got a lot of bad media. Um it is what we already do. Uh we have continued to come together in Olster County to think about how do we do more? How do we do better for all students? So for us it was an easy conversation. There were districts and areas that were arguing about the word and who was going to come and our eight districts inclusive of their full teams came together and said, "Hey, what are you doing over here? How how can we leverage that? Where are there opportunities to share

037on behalf of students on on behalf of economic efficiency that we can do better?" And so there were three meetings. Uh two of them happened already. We've got one coming up. We'll put together a final report. But what has emerged through those conversations are a couple things. Um, we need to think about programming both for regular ed and special ed for students who tend to have their the way that they express themselves is often through aggressive means. Um, those are those are those are difficult programs to build. Uh, and we could use some work kind of collectively thinking about how are we serving those students. Uh we began to also talk about sharing of expertise in times of economic difficulty often professional development. We're looking to see who's doing that over there and we have

038to buy it. We have so much expertise in this county. How can we work together to leverage expertise whether it's teacher leader so on and so forth internally some alignment of calendars for more shared superintendent conference days to get specific groups of specialized teachers together. you may only have one or two people in uh in a fizzed department in an elementary school. It's kind of lonely uh when you come together, but we've got two here, we've got two here, we've got two here. Let's get those folks together. So, really exciting conversations around that. And then thinking about some of the things that the these three students talked about, which is how do we think about um career and technical education experiences, not necessarily CTC at Boseies, but how do we think about that inside of

039our own district for younger students knowing that um that's that's that's an important development skill progression tied to these universal skills. Um again, um this is I talked through this without moving through it. my apologies. Uh we we will we will come together in June kind of codify our regionalization plan which just basically states uh we are going to continue having these conversations and looking at looking at viability uh for actualizing some of this shared work to increase the net of support and programming for not only Highland students but all students in Olter County. So um it's been uh a busy year. Uh it will be a busy next year. I'll continue to work uh with your team and and Superintendent Frier uh to keep updates. Again, happy to always come back if there's other

040programs you're interested in. Um thank you so much for everything you do uh for our shared students and for Olster County. Appreciate it. [Applause] Few questions, Dr. Shanker. Uh first I want to I want to commend the three students here for looking for other alternatives to broaden your educational experience. Job well done. Uh I want to commend the the young man in the center there because my background is in construction. We do uh public commercial construction, school districts, fire districts, libraries, townships, you name it. uh what I've seen in the past probably 15 to 20 years and I think I've mentioned that to our entire board we are lacking the trades uh and it's very noticeable in in our business we you know we hire young apprentice they come through we're union so we have

041come through the carpenters apprentichip program the labor's apprenticeship program the HVAC program the plumbing program but they don't have some of the early background that they need. So I would commend Olster Boseies and all Boseies in New York State to expand the trades. Years back we were we were pushing for college and career ready. Well, I think that has failed the trades because not all students are college ready and we pushed a little bit to be college ready. and we left behind all students. Some of those that should have been able to move forward in their career fell behind. So is Olter County Boseies now with your new CTE building program at I park 87. Are you looking to expand in that direction too for trades so they can get that background needed to go

042out in the work? It's a very lucrative business. The money's there, the benefits are there, but you got to have the knowledge. Yeah. So, and you have to have that experience. Yeah. So, the answer is absolutely. Um, you know, and and also looking to think about um kind of the the shift out of an an old traditional model of career and technical education to uh and and this isn't uh educators sitting in a room saying we've got an idea. Uh this is really about conversations with the folks like yourself who are going to be hiring students. What do you what do you need to see when one of these students walks in to interview uh with your company? Those are the skills we need to backmap. Um we can figure out how to do the

043school stuff with that. Um, and so thinking about not necessarily just siloed career and technical areas, right now 26 different areas, but thinking about the building arts and what are the foundational skills, whether you're going to specialize in HVAC or go into electric or plumbing, there's that universal skill set outside of just the human skills that you need uh to have a good employee, self-directed, leadership, and all of those type of things. So, so the answer is yes on that expansion. Um, interestingly enough, right, we know that we have declining enrollment, not only here in Olter County, but in the state and in most areas in the country. Career and technical education uh is the opposite. We have an exponential increase uh in enrollment in career and technical education. Uh and part of that is

044um the redefining of what success might be where there was that one linear pathway which was academic uh that um you know and and many of us probably have stories. I mean I I went to a local school and I was told by a guidance counselor and I always love hands-on I I went on to study woodworking. Uh but that career in tech wasn't for me because I got good grades. I was an academic student. So shifting that narrative is really important. We have a tremendous amount of students in our current enrollment who go to career and technical education and go onto a four four-year college. We have a significant amount of students that go into two-year schools or or certification programs andor directly into work experiences. We want to have as many options as

045p as possible. So, I think like many of you, we can find that spark and then just allow them to move forward. And that spark is alive here in Highland. Um but you but you have uh extended programs like through olsterosis that we can again broaden those opportunities for students to to have that Mike Row was just uh in DC and there was a discussion about education and one of the things they talked about um was we've done a the last 20 years we did a disservice. We we we we really said hey uh children you're really going to need a four-year degree. you absolutely need it. And it's kind of connected to the debt bubble of student loans. Like we created that and what we find now is that's not true. And there's I

046forgot the number. I was like 300,000 blue collar jobs that pay a living wage that pay excellent money and they don't have the hands to fill them. And part of that discussion was we reframed the schools basically and pulled the trades out under this guise of everybody's going to need a four-year degree. What I hope to see and maybe down the road there's grants. Maybe there's a conversation, hey Boseies, what's the two most popular that people attend and you start seeing those get migrated back to the schools allowing Boseies to get in to the next jobs of the future. the AI and some of the real heavy stuff that we know is, you know, the 3D printing and milling is just unbelievable. So, um, there's there's a some conversation around what Al's been saying, by

047the way, for as long as I've known. You led into my next question, Mike, is that from what I hear, and it's it's just the nature of the beast, that some students want to go to that career and tech position that you have up in Boseis, but they don't want to leave their home campus. They don't want to leave their peers. They're on a bus for an hour, let's say. I I I always use Marbor as an example. Well, they're going to go probably on a bus an hour and a half. That's three hours taken away from a 7-hour day. They don't spend much time at their home campus, let alone going to that career tech campus. I I always thought that both should have tried to bring that back into like Mike said to

048even satellite program where maybe new maybe Marorrow maybe Highland can offer three different trades or whatever. We're always trying to recapture lost time bring it back to their home districts. That's that's the thing that that really, you know, it it it's somewhat disturbing for me because there's so many kids out there that don't have a direction to go in and like Mike said, you know, it was 20 years ago was college and career ready, but that's failed us, I think, to some point. Uh, we got to try to capture that back again. As Mike said, we hate lost time, but the testimonials today speak to there's value in the program 100%. I mean, you know, it it gives great opportunities. We'd love to have some of those here. And there, you know, there might be

049a construction 101 or something we could talk about that prepares those or at least highlights some of the programs that connects them with those professions a little more than you come in when you're in like 8th or 9th grade, you know, just we're always willing to have those conversations. Um, we are always willing to talk about sitebased Boseies programs. Uh, that is a thing. um they have there are areas where it has been successful and areas where it hasn't been successful. I do think the flexibility and the changing graduation measures are going to be really the the the opening to talking about where does it make sense. It might not make sense to just say like let's just go here and open a full construction academy. However, let's look at some coursework that we can

050now give credit because we got flexibility to begin to build those into scope and sequences. let's open up uh mechanisms for internships for all students. And that's something we're talking about is how do we how do we how do we how does Boseis uh really uh coordinate so that any student in Olter County that needs an internship can have access to that. We know that the business community can't navigate eight districts, eight building principles with their guidance counselors. So like let's make it single point entry and efficient. So there's I think there's some places to step into those conversations and then look at what's next. Getting back to I park 87 the anticipated you know opening in September. Uh I I think your footprint is 15 to 20,000 square feet total total okay I'm off

051a few just a couple. How how are you filling that currently or what's the plan for the next five years to fill a 120,000 square foot facility where I mean you're going to that's probably the that's probably combining five school districts component school districts total square footage. How are you looking to to expand and fill those those areas? So we're we're busting at the seams currently. you know, I mean, our our our current facility was really designed for a maximum of 900 students, 450 in the AM and 450 in the PM. Uh, we're currently north of 1,200 students and next year's seat requests are over 1,400. Um, so we're filling it. Um and and designing kind of the the design behind it. Uh is to move past kind of like fixed classrooms and create the

052flexibility so that if we need to be moving as we see program development eb and flow uh and as technology emerges and changes uh we we want to be able to adapt to those those uh those conditions. Um so uh we'll be we'll be uh we have room for the program growth uh and the proximity of programs next to each other. So currently manufacturing's over here uh and HVAC is over here. Welding's over here. We want welding to be also close to auto. We need it close to uh we need it close to HVAC right so that we can teach those baseline skills that we see across. We can't do that now. So really more open flexible labs that we can use around relevant projects to teach the technologies and proximity and then we've got

053space uh we'll have some space to grow in I mean I think when we initially did the kind of calculations um you know this is a site that we probably I said 1,800 and the career and tech principles are like you're crazy you don't have to work here but that's kind of the capacity that we could we could we could grow we could grow into but but it's it's It's again, you know, we've seen that exponential shift and and increase in enrollment. So, um, right now, uh, we have our Phoenix Academy, which is also located there. We've got swing spaces for dual enrollment programs. So, Hudson Valley Pathways Academy and our new visions. One of the things we're talking about, and you talked about sitebased here in Highland, is also thinking about what do these

054classrooms look like in the community. So, a new vision's pre-law class. Well, should have that in Kingston at the courthouse sitebased immersed in that environment. Our new visions health uh that that should be located in a hospital, right? So those are kind of as we look at growth and shift and change also looking at sitebased and that's not uh an olsterose model. There are new visions programming and sitebased tech programs that are that that coexist within the field that that that particular area is tied to. But you you do have from what I heard earlier you have right now currently two besides News and Port Yu you have two satellite locations Anna Divine and another location correctly. So our special ed programming and our therapeutic programming are in Port Euan currently in the twotory building

055uh Anna Divine um in the Kingston district and then Mount Marian um and again we have significant waiting list. Uh we also know that there's the potential for some other schools to to come online and we would take a look at that uh as as needs grow. But when the renovation happens in Port Euan, that will become a middle high school campus. And we'll be looking at not in the same way that we have at Career and Tech. uh but keeping some of the infrastructure of the labs moving to kind of a four uh career development zones so so that our students uh with with IEPs are getting these skill mapping and skill progression to either continue through that and exit into the same opportunities or upskill and have an opportunity to come over to

056the tech center at Park. We want to make sure all of our students again are are are are being prepared for whatever's next. I don't have anything to add other than what my colleagues I want to echo, but I really want to make a point to commend the three young adults that came and spoke for their poise, for their passion, and for being articulate. So, a lot of those presentation and soft skills, if you will, were very evident. I just wanted to make sure you three left knowing that I was very impressed. So, [Applause] and if you have your certificate. I my air conditioner is not working at home, so I have to call somebody every single year. So, it's a good it's a good uh it's a good avenue to go down. He said

057only to former students. Thank you so so much for giving us a couple a couple minutes of your time and opportunity to share and um thanks again for all your support. Appreciate it. I have this slide deck. So, I'll include it in my update on Friday. So, that that one sheet was really hard to see, but I'll make sure that you have a copy of that. Awesome. Thank you. Have a good Thank you. Have a great evening everybody. Real quick before we go on to our consent items, I just I didn't have the opportunity to uh thank Mary Duca for all her years here in the Highland Central School District bringing our students home into school in a safe and compassionate way. We appreciate the time and hopefully you have a great retirement and a

058large wall to put all those plaques or drywall. Thank you, Mayor. [Applause] They didn't get to that part yet, but I think he's letting you know that they're going to accept it. Oh, it's on here. It is on there. Okay. Uh consent items. Um as usual, we're going consent EA1 to D5. Um, if you want to pull something out, you need clarification or questions, we can do that. Otherwise, I'll entertain a motion to move it forward. Is there a D5? Was there a I think there was one thing pulled off. So, I don't know. That's right. D4. Thank you. So, we're D4 change orders, right? Four I motion for the consent agenda. Second. Motion by Mike, second by Heather. Any questions? Clarification. Okay, we'll move u motion by Mike, second by Heather. All those in

059favor I opposed. So carries. Okay, Mary. They just accepted it. Congratulations. You definitely deserve it. [Applause] I'd also like to just point out that Carol Missouri is on there for 32 years of service as a teaching assistant. She's not with us this evening. And Cheryl Richtor, 37 years at the elementary school. So, congratulations. We'll invite we'll invite all of the retirees to the next board meeting where we'll recognize all of the retirees and the tenure candidates. Okay. Working on the instruction principles monthly report. Start with the high school. to change your fault. Get you on change it up. I heard uh good evening everybody. Just one addition to my board report. On Friday, May 16th and Saturday, May 17th, Highland High School band and choir students performed a total of 46 solo solos at the

060annual NISMA festival at Mount Academy. Out of the 46 solos, 24 of them uh were level six uh all state edition auditions, which is the highest level of difficulty. So that is a great achievement and it's something that the band and choir look forward to and prepare for all year long. So they did very well with that. So I'm happy to add that uh for an addition. And then are there any questions from the high school board report? Thank you. Thank you. I mean, am I next or is I'm in the middle. You're always in the middle. Four children my whole life. Whatever. Um so um the only addition I have to my board report is we uh we began our star testing this week. So over the next few weeks, we're going to be

061doing our star testing, which we do every year. We do three times a year. Um and early returns are looking good. Um, you know, we always look for data uh in what we're doing and we're we saw some positive results. We started looking. We still have some testing to do, but it's a good sign for us, right? It's something that we're working on always. So, we're happy. Um, so that's my only update. Does anybody have any questions? Only question I have completely unrelated and maybe high school too, just um it's been a bit since we've instituted the policy with cell phones. Just curious how it's going. I think it's for us. I can't speak for Brandon. Um, but I think it's going well. I mean, we've had we've had violations, right, which we've dealt with

062according to the procedures that we sent out in the beginning of it. But I think for the most part, the feedback from the parents, the kids, the teachers has been positive. I mean, for us, it was a it wasn't a huge move. Um, the biggest shift was removing them from our pockets and putting them in our bags, which, you know, there was a little bit of a flushing out period, but the kids have, for the most part, done really well. We we certainly had students get caught with them and stuff like that, but it's been fine. Right. M you have anyone to add to that? No, I think it's been really well and and we I have not had a parent, I don't think you have either, who when we've called to let them know,

063hey, they're on level one, level two, whatever, has complained. In fact, most of them to their credit have been, okay, well that that phone's going to stay with me for a week. Okay, it's you're good. You know, so it's been great. The feedback's been really good. I would say for the high school overall, uh, it's been, uh, it's been great. Um, you know, been a challenge, I would say, for our upper classmen as we knew that that would probably be expected. Um, but to concur what Andy had said, you know, communication with the parents, they've been nothing but supportive. Um, and I know Miss Mullen, you know, deals more with some of those conversations with their parents and they're like, I'll keep it home. You don't have to worry about it. You know, I'll, you

064know, I'll keep it home. Um but we've had to collect some phones and and have it turned in and that really hasn't been an issue. Um I think you know the other challenge is kind of just that constant reminder coming back from you know long weekends or the breaks um just to get back in the routine. But overall um I think we're we're happy that it went through especially with you know the talk of what's to come from the state uh down for the fall. So it you know it's like a testing the waters uh type of scenario for us. So pretty. So going into the new year definitely uh we'll have to make sure to keep that top of mind like you said just coming back from a break is an adjustment, right? So

065to know that that'll again be an adjustment. It's funny before our meeting tonight uh we had added to our summer to-do list just you know really taking a look at what that guidance may look like and just making sure that we're looking at it uh community, student, staff so that everybody can be consistent and be on the same page with what we're going to roll out. Great. Good. Thank you. Thank you. So, just to to tag on to that, um we will be getting guidance from legal counsel as well that our policy may not be strict enough. Um so, once we get that, we're going to have our legal counsel look at our policy to make suggestions on what we need to do to be in compliance with the state. So, there may be a

066whole new roll out uh that comes, but that would happen uh with the summer months and going into September. Yeah. And I think that's, you know, I know we've had we have many many discussions here, but I think that was part of our last discussion, right? Is that state could come down with something, but at least we're starting somewhere. So it's not you're going from zero to 100 with, you know, no room for adjustment. So I think that's great. Appreciate it. How do you know to go? It's your go. collaboration. All right, you're up. Um, the only thing that I uh and it's more of just high highlighting is the Highland community and our students at our building. Um, and the amount of money that we raised for the kids heart challenge. Um, we challenged

067Marbor this year. They were silly enough to come at us and think that they were going to actually win. Um, so Jenna thought that she was bringing her aame and when she called me when the the the numbers were in, she was like, "What did you do?" And I was like, "Well," I was like, "We didn't do is, you know, I don't know. We did all right." And um, we we're well over 10 grand that we raised. Um, and when I told her that number, I for some reason the reception went and really got cut. Really? Yeah. Mine got Yeah. Something. Um, I don't know. Maybe one of the assistant superintendents called or something like that. And uh but anyways uh and Barbara uh you know is at a measly 2700. So we uh so

068I'macking Yeah. So I think Jenna's going to have to wear like a a Highland Husky shirt all day. I think that's one of the things that I'm requiring. So I'm going to go buy a nice dinner or something. Right. Um, so you know they're gonna they're going to come out well in full force next year. Yeah, I know this is this is this is not the end of it. Um, so we uh we registered more kids and um and then the Finn's challenge we did more. So like it was this is their first year doing it. It was awesome. I'm so glad that they uh joined this. Um and I think soies and a few other districts are going to join jump on board with this little challenge. So um but anyways I just wanted

069to highlight Highland. So awesome job to our students in our community. So question our monthly director report. We have our directors here this evening. So if you have any questions for them uh please let them know just for uh you know facilities buildings look really good. I know it's been a challenge to stay on top of this grass, but you know, the the public starts coming on to our campuses and uh you know, things have looked really good and excited with some of the developments going on out uh in back of our high school and hopefully the weather stays with us. Mr. Miller, could you just give the board a quick update of where we are with the uh track coding and how if we are on target? Are we on time target? Yeah, we

070got we'll be done a couple years. Yeah, awful chilly out tonight. Um, they come they come in with a plan that the date to start. That was fine. They they did that. Uh, they planned for 18 days for installation. Um, we are currently losing about two days a week. Um, which doesn't really it's kind of built in. They know that. Um, so as far as it is now, that the first thing they did when they came in was make sure that everything was level. And now all the rubber base is down. And today they put down all the tack coat which glues the red rubber to the track. Um and depending on what the weather does tomorrow. Um that'll see how far that goes. That may cool up until Saturday. Um they probably want to

071work on Memorial Day, but the boss probably doesn't want them too. Um I'm not the boss. I saw you looking at the boss. I'm laughing in general because I know what that means. No, the foreman the foreman was freezing out there this morning. Well, from so he was not too happy with the fact that it's very cold out. They're moving along. Uh some of the other work that we did uh has uh come to fruition for cleaning it up and making it more accessible out there. Uh correcting some of the issues we have encountered. Uh plus as I had in uh my report uh a lot of preliminary work has been some has been done some a lot has been planned for the summer to try to make sure that that uh goes smoothly because

072the summer is extremely short and it's going to be a challenge to get everything done that we need to do. Um we've set some hard deadlines for things like the availability of the high school gym for sports without being interfered with with construction. Um, so it's moving along. I think before we leave that section, I just wanted to say thank you to Frank Alonso. Did a great job uh, you know, uh, coaching and his team. And it's not easy to run a program and have to fill into some of these positions. So, great job on athletics, Frank. You're welcome, Frank. It's all about the cut. It's all about the grass cut. All right. Thank you. Thanks. I just want to recognize um technology. I know obviously computer-based testing is a big thing, right? And I

073know for a long time we talked about it. We were not dreading it but fearful of what it could mean, right? And certainly we have really heard nothing about it. And that's due to the teamwork that you guys have have put in. So thank you. I know with with John I know we you probably threw something on your plate with the concession stand. Has that is that going well or it's uh Yes, when we opened it. It wasn't ton of action out there, but we didn't get our health department. So, Cory should be coming this week, next week, and then we can do hot food starting next year. Yeah, I'm sure. You know, we have to just feel it along a little bit. It's in its infancy stage right now and till we get it

074the outfitted. I don't believe all right now it's flat because we're in LA, right? Um maybe Frank, maybe you want to give uh the board uh just an update spring sports. I know a lot of the spring teams are doing well. So, our two lacrosse teams both are going to be qualified for sectionals. We're gonna be hosting, but we're not hosting on site. Uh the boys tentatively, their playoff game will be played at Marorrow and the girls game will be played at Mount St. Mary's. That'll be next week. Um baseball and softball be both be hosting a game either Tuesday or Wednesday next week in the first round of sections. Track has her chales um up at Round Out on Thursday, rain or shine. I know it's supposed to rain a lot, but they're they're

075going to be out there either way. Uh, our golf route wrapped up today. Uh, flag five football wrapped up last week. Um, and so far, you know, we had a pretty good spring and, um, you know, competing and, uh, hopefully we can win some championships, you know, between lacrosse, baseball, and softball. Good luck in the postseason. Any other questions? Anybody else? Okay, Kai, you're up. Okay. Uh, first of all, forgive my voice. This week, allergy season a little bit froggy, but um at the elementary school, the Highland Rotary Club was very excited to host essay contest winners at From the Groundup restaurant on May 14th. Uh the first, second, and third place winners were Olivia Kavasos, James Stewart, and EMTT Veter who read their essays aloud. All other students who submitted their essays received a

076certificate of participation in school, and all the students did a great job exercising their creative muscles and practicing their writing skills for this competition. Um the Highland Music Boosters are a local nonprofit that volunteers and raises money for music events and programs in Highland. They selected eight grant awardes for the 2024 2025 school year. And the recipients from the elementary school were Liam Adam who plays alto saxophone and Jack Simmons who plays trumpet. The grants the grant awards recital was at Springfest on May 17th. And congratulations to those two students for their dedication to their craft. At the middle school, Mr. Reaver's biology class has been dissecting fetal pigs as part of their taxonomy and classification unit. Um, while some students are very squeamish, most have been enjoying the experience of learning anatomy firsthand. Uh,

077and this week the students will be given the opportunity to ride bikes over the Hudson River during gym class. Uh, coaches Early and Bowman organized this trip, and there are a lot of parent and teacher volunteers helping to run to make it run smoothly. The trip is optional, but a lot of students are excited to be outside in the great weather. Right now, it's not raining yet. Uh, it takes one class period to ride about six miles and the trip helps students get active while enjoying the beautiful scenery that Highland has to offer. With the end of the year approaching quickly, there are lots of deadlines for the middle schoolers. Some of the these deadlines include the Sunni Olter President's Challenge Scholarship for eighth graders and the National Junior Honor Society applications for seventh graders.

078All the students are looking forward to the opportunity to further their academic careers via entry into these wellresected programs. At the high school, we hosted a college and career fair on April 29th. Mrs. Lobback, Santangelo, and Mullen worked with Wville High School with the high school staff to ensure the most the the greatest amount of representatives would be able to attend the event. So, they came here first and then went to Walco. Um, the fair was targeted towards 10th and 11th graders, and about 60 reps from colleges, trade schools, and military showed up and educate students on their options after college. The junior and senior prom was at the Chateau in Kingston on May 2nd. The theme was masquerade ball. Students and guests alike enjoyed a night of great music, awesome decorations, a photo booth,

079and amazing food and drinks. I had like 20 shirts and a diet coke to cancel it out. Um faculty and staff attended a professional development day on May 9th. Breakfast and lunch were provided for teachers as they spent the day participating in different workshops. I was given the opportunity to run one of these workshops and I think it went really well. Uh Opitz and Mullen helped me when I to to plan it and uh I think it was really good for staff and students. Um on May 14th the art department planned a field trip to Woods Woodstock School of Art. Current art students, art club members, and National Art Honor Society members were invited to take part in two different workshops. One was printmaking and one was abstract art. Um they were able to carve

080and use their own prints and they demonstrated a lot of creativity with multimedia paintings afterwards. Um the trip was organized by Mr. Castanos and teachers Mrs. Pollock at the high school, Babau at the elementary school, and Osborne at the middle school collaborated to mentor the trip. Um and the last taste of success was today. students had pizza while Joe Kuga from Integrity Mechanical came to talk about his career in commercial and residential HVAC and plumbing. Um he's a Highland community member and he has kids in the district and he also town. So we thank him for donating his time to the students and educating them. That's all. Any questions? Thank you. Okay, Mr. Zimmer. Good evening. Hello. I have two items to share with you. Uh the direct committee wrapped up its final meeting of

081the school year on Tuesday, May 13th. At this meeting, members got to hear about some incredible studentled citizenship in action capstone projects, all created with an equity lens in mind. The group also took a deep dive into disagregated academic and disciplinary data from the 2023 24 school year. Also at the meeting, Harriet Meyer shared that after four years in the role, she will be stepping down as our direct committee liaison. On behalf of the district, we are so grateful for her leadership and commitment, and the district will be looking to fill this important role with another staff member soon. So, thank you to Harriet Meyer for all the time she put in over the past four years for this important committee. Next, uh Oh, yes. Thank you. Uh we, as you probably already know, it

082was reported at the last meeting, though I was not here to report on it. Um but Dr. Boyd did mention it. We did hold a UPK lottery on Tuesday, May 6th, with 64 applicants competing for 48 available seats. While not all families received their first choice preschool placement, every child selected through the random lottery process has been offered a seat. We initially had 16 students on the waiting list, but that number has since decreased to 10. Uh, at this point, all 48 seats have been filled. Registration packets have been sent to all applicants and completed packets must be submitted to our district registar, Julie Miller, by May 30th. I do anticipate very often between now and the beginning and the middle of the summer some some people move or they make some other decisions and

083take their children out and put them in in other programs. So I do anticipate although there are 10 people on the waiting list we probably September will move through at least a few of them be able to offer them some seats and that's all I have for you this evening. Any questions? Thank you Bill. Thank you, Dr. Boyd. Good evening, everyone. Um, so intertwined with all of our um end ofear activities and events, we are still planning for next year, right? So, um, I've been meeting with our building administration, uh, looking specifically at our special ed programs um, and our numbers and looking at placement of programs and teachers. So, we'll continue to fine-tune that over the next few weeks so we have a set solid plan. Um, a big part of that, um, is

084also our incoming kindergarten students. Um, so we've been going out and visiting and observing some of those students in their preschools, uh, throughout the area. Some of them being our UPK site, some of them being other specialized programs uh, in Pikipsy and other places throughout the county. Um, with that, we did have a very successful kindergarten screening day on May 9th. Um, we did incorporate a new part of a um, signing for the students. So, if you guys haven't seen it, I encourage you to look at the pictures on the Facebook page. Uh, it came out uh very nice. Um, so a big thank you to our elementary staff uh and Julie Miller, our district registar, for all the coordination and making that day uh run so smoothly um for not only our staff, but

085for incoming students and their families uh to give them a great first experience uh stepping foot in that school. So, um I would say there was a lot of smiles coming out that day uh from from our our incoming students and the parents. So, uh a big thank you to everyone for making that go off without any hitches. Uh typically at this point in the year, we usually get our um 611 and 619 uh special education grant allocations. We do expect them. They always come usually about the end of May. We are still anticipating that. Um you know, there's always a lot of talk about some of the changes to federal funding. We have heard nothing that that is going to change for this year. So, uh we are still anticipating that uh for the

086end of May and we'll write those grants in uh June for a uh beginning of July uh submission. Uh lastly, we had our by-anual Medicaid meeting um last week with our billing team. Uh we don't have an update on numbers. They had a glitch in the Medicaid system where it delayed billing for a few months. Uh so they're still getting caught up. So, uh, we're waiting on getting a more accurate, uh, number on how we did with, uh, some of our billing for Medicaid, um, this year. That's it. Questions for Dr. Boy? Thank you. Okay. Uh, so I know I mentioned it at the last uh, meeting. Um, but, uh, if you have an opportunity, please, uh, get down to the Highland Library and take a look at the artwork. It's a district-wide art showcase

087that uh is running in the library through May 29th. Um our support services team has been meeting to go over the the change orders that you some of which you approved this evening. We have a few more that are in the works. Uh we are trying to get another support services meeting scheduled hopefully for this week to go over some things if not uh sometime next week so that we can get the bulk of things done for that first board meeting in June so that we move into the summer with everything uh uh behind us. We've already talked about the track coding so I won't reiterate that. Uh just a reminder to everyone and this is the last reminder you're going to get. Uh the snow day return is this Friday uh May 23rd and

088next Tuesday, May 27th. So uh thank Oler Boseies for the work that they've done. Our liaison there for public relations, she did a nice uh uh um slide for Facebook so it's very visual so folks don't uh forget. But I also did send a letter out to everyone. And then just uh just before uh la just the be the end of last week we had our annual educational foundation uh gala at uh Indian ridge. It was very well tended attended. Uh lot of uh really uh big smiles. The honores were extremely excited to be uh recognized for the work that they've done on behalf of of kids and and the community and just their successes. And uh as of this evening, I learned that we uh raised about $10,300 as uh profit from that uh

089dinner. So, some of that money will be going to uh to help fund uh some of the uh equipment that's needed to run the concession stand. So, uh just a thanks to the ED Foundation. That is a a year-long process and then you take a big deep breath and then you meet the next week to start planning for next year. So, it's almost like the Macy's Day parade, like literally that is constantly in the works getting that dinner up and running. So, thank you to the Ed Foundation for all the work. Uh, today is budget day. Uh, so our board trustee vote and board budget vote is happening today. There's still uh an hour and 40 minutes. Yes. So, if you have not had an opportunity to vote, I please encourage you. I know folks

090might be listening. Still have an hour and 40 minutes. So, please make it to the high school uh band room to uh get your vote in and vote for your board trustees. And that's all that I have for right now. Any questions for the superintendent? Okay. Before we move on to the board of education, Andy, you're ready? No. Okay. So, she couldn't make it tonight. I was able to get a hold of um our recipient. Um she couldn't make it. Something happened last minute. Uh but I'm going to try to get her here for June. Would you like to hear um the presentation now or put it off? Thank you. We don't have leader of the pack in June because that's our big We should recognize it now and then maybe the PR can get

091down to the building and get a picture of the student. Maybe you can get save her her slide or her. We'll get a picture right there. Get a picture. Yeah. So that we can get that. This is our second one in a row. Um so Rosemary PCO was our leader of the month. Um and as Andy said before, um probably one of the most um heartwarming and wholesome experience that I had when I got to share this with her. Um, so I'm really excited to share what her teachers had to say. Um, Mrs. Dacy, who is Rosemary's um, ENL teacher from when she first arrived, says, "I vividly remember Rosemary when she first joined Highland as a second grader in Mrs. Pavvesy's class. From the very start, her vibrant personality shown through, perfectly matched by

092the bright, hot, pink, sparkly bows and colorful outfits she loved to wear. Over the years, her cheerful spirit has remained unwavering, and I've watched her English skills blossom in remarkable ways. Rosemary's always been a kind, helpful, and genuinely honest student. She's not afraid to speak her mind and share her thoughts. Her progress in English has been truly inspiring, and I believe that next year she'll no longer need support in English. I am incredibly proud of her dedication, resilience, and a determination to succeed. She has shown kindness and a willingness to help others, especially those facing language barriers. Without a doubt, Rosemary is the perfect candidate for this role. Congratulations, Rosemary. Mrs. Dacy is bursting bursting with pride and excitement for all you've accomplished and for what's to come. Keep shining. You deserve it. Miss Bernett,

093um her science teacher this year said, "Rose a star student. She never quits and she always has a smile on her face. I've seen her stick up for the little guy when she has no need, but it was the right thing to do. She helps out her classmates, friends or not, and consistently strives to participate in class. She's a shining example of what the leader of the pack looks like. Mr. Banks, her tech teacher, says Rosemary is an excellent student in tech. She always works hard and even takes time to help the other students around her. It's not just about grades. She brings a positive attitude to class and a smile. It's been a pleasure having Rosemary in tech class this year. Mrs. Ley um her EL ELA teacher says Rosemary is devoted a devoted

094student who takes care to consistently show a positive attitude toward her learning. Her strong work ethic makes her an ideal role model among her peers. Rosemary has shown tremendous academic and social growth over the course of her years at HMS, and I'm positive she'll continue to thrive in high school and beyond. Mrs. Jansen um her math teacher who was actually here earlier to support her um said that Rosemary is dedicated and hardworking student who consistently goes above and beyond to support her peers. Whether it's offering to help with school work or lending a kind word to someone having a tough day, Rosemary leads with compassion and integrity. She's not only a strong student academically, but also positive role mother role model for others. Her willingness to stand up for those in need and her natural

095ability to lead by example makes her a perfect choice for leader of the pack. Mr. Breny, who also came this evening, um her social studies teacher says, "The kindest, sweetest, most caring, and most generous student that we have in 8th grade. Her smile brightens up every day, everybody's day that she comes in contact with. She's one of the most deserving students to win this award ever. And my own um addition to this is that Rosemary is always willing to help others even when she doesn't have any personal gains for it. Um in addition to all the other strengths that her teachers um have highlighted, she's been a bridge of unending support and kindness for other students who struggled to communicate in English. Um whether they're her friends or not, Rosemary ensures that their needs are

096met and their voices are heard. We're so proud of her and grateful to have her here. So congratulations to Rosemary. [Applause] We'll make sure she gets this and we'll do something here. We'll do something at the school first. Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Board of Education new business reorganizational meeting. Oh wow. be resolved the board of education upon a recommendation of the superintendent determines the reorganizational meeting for the 20 2526 school year to be held on. We're going to have that discussion which will be held in boardroom E32 at the high school. Have a motion please. Motion by Janine, second by Jen. Discussion. Uh we in the past we've done July 1 early in the morning on the back. It's on the schedule. The other time says TV TVD, you know, 4 4:30 I

097was going to throw out there probably out in the morning. Oh, have a good meeting. I think last year we did seven. Yeah, July 1, 7 a.m. Yeah. Everybody all right with that? Yeah, I'm all right now. We'll see. July. That's fine. 7 a.m. Whatever Whatever the group needs by July 1. Yeah. 7 a.m. to 7:30. 7 a.m. 7 a.m. So those of us who have to report to work at 8:30 can hopefully report to work at 8:30 on time. Okay, we have a motion by Janine, second by Jen for our reorganizational meeting to be held on July 1st at 7 a.m. All those in favor? Opposed? Okay. Why are these listed as like resolutions and we're just not like adopting a calendar? Okay, it will be on the reorg. Um, but this way it

098needs to be approved sooner than later to have it the information as well. Okay. So, it'll be approved this evening. Well, it goes well and then it'll be back on the way off just as a a note of fact. Okay. Second resolution uh be resolved. The board of education upon the recommendation of superintendent approves the following board of education meetings for the 2025 2026 school year. The following meetings are held on Tuesdays in the high school boardroom E32 unless otherwise stated. Um and those are our dates. Normally during the summer months, July, August, our 5:30 starts July 22nd, as you can see, is a tenative date. Um, and then we go back to 6:00 p.m. And just note that one of the dates is a Monday because the next day is Veterans Day. Got Can

099I have a motion, please? Motion by Mike, second by Tom. All those in favor? I I opposed. So carry the new do business. Yeah. So I do have a new business item. I ended up um uh with Dave Plch, our town supervisor, and it appears um there's some challenges for the Independence Day celebration. And what I am proposing to the school board is that we partner, we co-sponsor the Independence Day celebration with the town. Um, so I think last year they paid some fees because they are using the town, excuse me, the school property and of course on on our facilities use there is some cost there that one might incur for such a large group. Um but as uh Dave explained the cost to me the cost incurred by the town for the school's

100requirement is a very large you know it's just a large cost. Um so on this agenda you see there's other intermunicipal agreements. They're with schools but intermunicipal agreements are intermunicipal agreements. I'd like to co-host the Independence Day celebration. Proposing that to the board. It's not that's Mike the board. Um and then some of those costs might be alleviated or what I'm proposing is any costs we're co-hosting. So any requirements of the school that drives cost up the school be responsible for. That's what I'm proposing. So I just wanted to know if there was any discussion or interest in that. Um yeah, just for clarification, I know when outside communities such as the town, which is an entity of of of the town of Lloyd, do we have to secure a permit from state education for

101use of facilities for this type of of an event? Yes. For for a July 4th celebration. So when we when we submit the document, we need to submit all of the insurance documents. Uh fire has to sign off on it. Um there were other entities too, Pete. not remembering the others, but there's a there's a series of folks that need to sign off on event an an event like this because of the use of fireworks on the site and that has to be approved by state education department. So that was one of the things that caused some delay in getting things done last year. And the insurance requirement was the piece that was this sort of the stickler to um getting they they came through last year. The fireworks company had to provide a certain

102amount. there was another amount that needed to be provided by the town and the town did incur a large fee last year for that fireworks uh display to go off. So, I want to bring up the whole insurance thing again because this Independence Day celebration isn't new. Last year wasn't the first year. They've done it on that town co- joint middle school area for for a very long time. So again, I'm going to bring up the question is what has changed with the insurance coverage that is making it difficult for our community members to be able to use our school facilities question. Do we need research on that? I you're you're absolutely right. It's it's not you know last year wasn't the first year. It's been going on for a good number of years. And

103I mean just to piggyback some of that conversation, I often ask myself, we have graduation ceremonies and we have various vendors that come in. We rent chairs. We rent uh one year we had a a a drone going flying overhead of spectators. Are we requiring the same insurance for those vendors as we're doing for every other organization that wants to utilize our facilities? I mean, you you can't just earmark certain organizations because over the course of a school year, there's many organizations that come through the school to provide a service uh equipment or whatever it may be. I mean, I just want to be clear that if we're asking certain groups for that in insurance requirement, are we asking every one of our vendors? I know when when um cheerleading was up here, there was

104a question about the photographer or the DJ, the DJ, it's the same DJ that was using other required insurance for that DJ. But to me, that DJ is the same as that vendor that's flying that drone around graduation to take pictures or the photographers that are standing in front of the podium snapping a picture of every one of our graduates. They're a vendor. Do they have that insurance? So, I think that's the question to this board. Do you want to direct our school district to secure those requirements from every single one of our vendors or suppliers that service the school district or are we going to pick and choose? Oh wow. Look, I don't know what the thresholds are across but there's requirements fireworks one is definitely a a larger piece. No, no, no, no.

105That And Janine also said, "Look, I'm concerned about other community groups. The school and the town are municipalities. That's why the Independence Day celebration is something a little different. Other groups we could discuss, but right now the town is at a nexus. Correct me if I'm wrong, Miss Rizzo. I see you back there. The town is at a nexus. Do they move forward with this plan or not?" And I would like to say yes. If anything, what I'm looking for is does the board conceptually agree that we want to partner with our town for the purposes of having the celebration as it has been in the past. That's what's in front of you. That's why I jump in for a moment. Nothing has changed from last year in terms of fireworks. Before I got here

106speaking with Lindsay, we had the same issue. The insurance requirements have stayed the same. is still the same $10 million. That has not changed at all. Now, there's two things going on. I just want to be respectful to Janine and her question. There's a whole another aspect in regards to having smaller community events coming in and respecting them and making sure we have those communities coming in. But the fireworks specifically is the requirements for that have been set before. Yes, we need NYSED. They have a guideline. They have a requirement of $5 million. Sure. Our insurance company Nicer is asking for 10. They asked for it last year and they asked for it previously. That has not changed. The issue is the town of Lloyd and the fireworks company together they felt they had enough

107insurance to cover what Nicer said, right? Nicer is saying no, individually you're supposed to have that the $10 million coverage, right? The proposal I'm hearing is Highland will now go into some type of municipal agreement where we would kind of pick up that extra cost. the difference because of that insurance value has a value to it. We would now be absorbing that and paying that out. Is that something the board wants to do is the question. Now, once again, there's a whole another discussion that has to be talked about in terms of our insurance requirements for the community events, making sure they're appropriate, and we can get into that, but let's if we deal with the Highland issue of this municipal agreement, we're taking on an additional cost. And that cost, I want to make

108sure if the board's accepting that cost and the community is accepting that cost, we'll move forward. But that is the issue at hand. How do you want to proceed with accepting that type of municipal agreement? Mike Papius approves the district to pick up the cost. That's a board member. When we move that, we'll put to a quick resolution. No problem. I'm just saying you know where I stand very clearly. one question because my conversation that I had with the supervisor was and maybe Tiffany you can chime in if you know um town I believe has 10 million the vendor that's doing the celebration on July 4th has 5 million so they're looking at as a total of 15 million what I'm hearing the aggregate what I'm hearing from Desmond is that uh nicer wants 10

10910 10 or nicer wants both entities the fireworks uh company and the town of Lloyd to have their individual 10 and 10 they're not combining them together insurance solve the problem because they want that vendor to have the 10 well I think the way it do we need another 10 million for ourselves the board can approve payment or reimbursement of such costs to the town I think the way that it was solved last year was that the town purchased the additional 5,000 for the fireworks company. So the town had 10, the fireworks company had five and the town purchased another five. So that the fireworks company had a total of 10 is they swallowed that because it was the 11th hour. They didn't want to cancel the event. That's my understanding. And well, I'm going

110to chime in on the 11th hour because that makes it look like the district did something. This was worked on all year long and we got no response from the town for many, many months. Mr. Miller worked tirelessly to try to get the town to come to the table to iron all of this out. And it wasn't until about this time last year, and the only reason we were able to even get the person on the phone at the state was because we were dealing with a fire from the middle school. So, please don't there's no there's no suggestions here. I just want to make that two municipalities that are going to work beautifully together. That's what I see. I still don't understand this isn't this hasn't just been a two-year event. This event has

111gone on for a long time. I'm sorry I keep looking but this event has gone on for a long time. So at what point in time I understand the insurance didn't change. So, at what point in time did the interpretation of what the insurance change or was there a directive to interpret the because this has been going on for a long time. I've been talking about fireworks since I got here. But fire I I understand fireworks. I understand that that the Hold on. Just to answer to hopefully answer your question in in our business, we work with a lot of school districts. Nicer has changed their requirements drastically over the last two years. I deal with it all the time at work. It's one thing. So prior to that, Janine, prior to that, it could

112have been a $5 million world umbrella. That's fine. But I have asked this question before, not related to the fireworks. Yes. There's a whole other discussion we need to have. But I have asked that question before and I was that was never clear. So if it is now clear that with regards to fireworks nicer has made a tougher expectation with regards to coverage you have to have then I accept that because okay the past two years there's been a difference in that but prior to that there was not and if that was because nicer had different expectation at that period of time versus now then fine I accept that but that wasn't given to me before I believe nicer for a while has required this and I believe former people who were doing this were

113not listening to the full enforcement enforcement that Nicer was asking for. So, we got lucky that that happened, I guess. Uh, but you know, if you're directing me to not do what nice are saying, then we'll go down that road. I'm not saying that. All I'm saying, and this is what the the discussion has been in the past with other community members, with our our parents and our volunteers who have done these types of events, not just fireworks, but other things where if this has always been the way and and we haven't, then that's what we need to explain to the public that they understand that it's not Highland changing it, that it is this has always been the process before, but there's been exceptions made with other people in charge administration that has now

114changed. I don't know that for sure. So, I can't say that. But I'm just saying that I know that when we call nicer and they tell us this is what we are required, we're following through with what they're telling us that we need. But the public wants to know what changed from the process last year was state ed got involved and state ed required a application be filed to have fireworks on school property. So that is the big change. I I understand the fireworks that triggered something. Okay. And you can we're dealing with the fireworks situation right now. And what Nicerer is requiring for insurance, but the new piece that came into it was state ed with the application has to be filed, which includes all the insurance, all the information from everybody including the

115guidance, light, the fuse to everything, the town of Lloyd building permit or fireworks permit that they have. All that stuff had to be submitted to the state. That never happened before last year. That's all I need to know is that there has been a change with regards to fireworks. Okay. So, I know personally that I only really got involved in it last year because we were losing our business official. We were getting a new one. So, it came over to my office. And so, then that's when I was on the phone with state ed. They told me exactly what I needed. I was on the phone with Joyce from Nicer who told me exactly what we needed. I spoke to the town supervisor, told him exactly what we needed. And then we got Nicer and

116Nimmer, which is their insurance company. We had them talk to each other so that everybody was speaking the same language. And that's when the town decided they were going to buy the additional insurance for the fireworks company so that they met what the criteria was. Do we and can we um run that money, whatever the additional money is, say $5,000 will pull a number out. Can we do that? That's a decision of the board of education. I'm just Are we prepared to do it? Leave it at that. Are you prepared to do it, Tom? I would do it. Are you prepared to do it? I would suggest we split it. If it's a if it's a joint event, if that's how we're going to phrase it, I would suggest we split it. What happens next

117year is your expectation of Pandora's box. Well, that's what I'm Look, you don't just craft an intermunic intermunicipal agreement. It's going to go to legal. Steuart Waxman will hash out all of these things, but like any intermunicipal agreement like the ones on the agenda tonight, they're going to be hashed out in agreement. They're going to they're pointed. They do what they do and we move forward. Okay. Are we set a precedent for other events to go through that same process and more of a financial liability? Maybe district. Maybe. I, you know, I don't have a crystal ball, but I'm willing to start with the Independence Day celebration. I'm not in favor of supporting the entire financial burden of it. Even if it's the district that generates the cost, it's not the district that does, it's

118our insurance requirements that require it for us to be covered by the word for me says it's our cost to me. Let's We have a June 3rd, June 2nd. We do. It's a But just knowing how long it took me to to get that last year, I it's I can start working on if that's what the the goal of the board is to get an intermissible agreement. Super the wish of the board tonight and then everything will follow. I've not had that conversation with legal counsel yet. I don't know that they're going to recommend that we have a an agreement when fireworks are involved. It's the fireworks site is the hard part of this and I understand to have a light the town would like to partner and co-host an Independence Day celebration and then

119let's see what they ask next. I mean, it's a it's Well, I do think we need to say that there are fireworks involved because if there's a liability and something happens after what we just went through, I fear that Nicer is going to come back and either raise our rates or worse, could they drop us? And we've done an investigation of uh the other one was Udica National and that is not a posit. They're not in favor of taking us on. Just what's we need a little bit more conversation from the rest of the board if we're going to move. Is there any resolution forward? Is there any other alternatives other than because I agree with Heather that it does open us up to are we going to fit fit the bill for you know

120everything else. Well, if you recall uh that document that came with our u turf field use, it listed what the uh obligations of certain vendors were and the amount fireworks, I'm going to use that word firework fell at 10 million. Most of it was 5 million or less. So, I don't think we're going to run into that that situation. Maybe none that often, but anytime now an organization has to incur additional fees in order to hold up, that's what I and I don't want to be favoring you over you and have to make a choice that you now can't have your event. I mean, that's what we're going to get into. It's a slippery slope. Just there's only one municipality that we partner with. There's the town of Lloyd. I mean, by splitting it, we're

121offering to both take part in it. I would obviously want Legal's opinion first. Um, they already pay a lot of fees towards the celebration. Just saying, but I hear you. What you're saying is is is is a good statement. I mean, yes. Does it open up Pandora's box? Jen said, "Do we what happens to the other organizations? What happens to the youth football that comes in saying, "Well, you shared the cost or you paid the full shot. What are you doing for us?" Yeah, the cost will be a lot less, but I think because of the the level of the requirement, that 10 million threshold, that's not required from those other youth programs. So what I said a while ago is I like to bring those organizations in all of them in or or have

122a sit down with them with a committee to see what the additional cost would be for those organizations. I don't think they fit into this category. I know what you're saying, but I don't think they fit truly into this category. the fireworks in my mind and I ran and I ran a little league program for 40some years and the way I looked at it if that additional cost was I'm just going to throw a number out there $500 and you had 500 participants children participate it wouldn't affect that parent for a dollar more to cover the cost of that insurance requirement but if it's 10 million it's a whole different story but I want to know what that our requirement for those youth programs might be 3 million and they only have two. What is

123the cost for that additional million dollar? Is it $500 and we can say I think you can absorb that or do we say the school district will absorb that $500? That's the conversation. And I think this is separate this intermunicipal agreement because a threshold of 10 million is a lot greater than what the youth organizations are required per that sliding scale breakdown. I that's I understand what you're saying. I I guess from the perspective of I know you know I was talking with our business official about the little league. They paid a significant amount for the amount of money that they make, right, just this year to use the gym for five times maybe because they do winter training there. I mean, so yes, I agree. Maybe the dollar threshold if you're comparing the dollar

124for the little league to the dollar for the for the fireworks is a lot more. Town has a lot more money than the little league does, too. So, if you look at percentage-wise, it's still a lot for them. It's a lot to raise for all of our players who are playing who some families who are barely able to to pay that. I just trying to understand and that's why I would be willing to split but I think just us splitting the whole thing before we move this resolution. I don't want to be shot down for a reason of not having open conversation what's everybody else's feeling. I have the same feelings about, you know, how do we show preference to one and the municipality, the Independence Day celebration is not the only event the town

125puts on. Springfest, Halloween, and Hamlet. like we can like are we going to start creating I don't want to discredit and not have those but you know we we we go down this pathway for this event and then we start inching our way into other events and I want to be fair and equitable to all uses of that area without setting us up for you know fiscal irresponsibility over celebrations that way. We have we have student events that have had to be cancelled and we don't do them anymore. Like the student uh the senior cruise where the person who provided that boat or whatever was asked to again pay a lot more higher premium insurance policy and that just went away. I mean, we could be asked to maybe make that same gesture towards a

126group like that for the seniors to have that last, you know, and that was a that was a standard for years we had. Yeah. This is it's the same thing. It's the same thing we're already doing here. How do we pick and choose? And that's just one that's just one thing. I'm sure there's other things that the students no longer have available um because of those reasons. Prior prior to CO all this stuff just happened and nobody thought about it. Once CO came and just disrupted the schedule and things went away for a while, everybody thought it was just going to come back to normal. It hasn't. In so many ways, things aren't normal. Where do we go? making choice. I take it one step at a time personally, Tom. Um I'm sure the district

127could find the money. Correct. Right. Maybe somewhere. And what happens if we come off a year where we have a budget, we had situation like we had, you know, the if conversations never end. The question is where do you lie? Is that something you'd like to pursue and have a joint celebration or No, that's what's in front of us today. Legal will flesh out all the other concerns. No doubt about it. I understand the frustration, the concerns with everyone. Uh, but it is a it is a celebration that probably could not occur anywhere anywhere else within the community unless I most of the time school facilities have the largest footprint of of of land to hold those type of celebrations. Um, yeah. and and I don't know I know the St. Augustine Bazaar has fireworks

128on the rail trail. I don't know if they're still doing it. I don't know what that requirement is. So, you know, we got to deal with what we're being asked. That's I'm just throwing that out there, but that's another situation. I mean, they're, you know, different. I don't know where that landed last year, but I know that I got called because they weren't able to do it where they normally do it and they wanted to shoot them over our school and when I gave them the the dollar amount that the town was was getting, they I don't know if they had them last year. I'm just I don't I don't know that was something that Carol called me on because they couldn't put them over top of the houses and the schools or not the

129school and the houses on that street uh near the rail trail. but they had done it for years. So, we want to bring a resolution to to the floor and have a vote or do you want to change the resolution if you feel that that's going to secure enough support to move it forward? What was the original is an intermunicipal agreement drafted by our legal in cooperation with the town to provide the uh facility for the July 4th celebration and then does it address the cost? Well, in there the cost to be borne by the school district. We don't know what that cost is right now. I mean, we know it was around six grand last year. I believe in six grand last year. Yeah. And so, we don't know what it is. You're probably

130assuming it's going to be about six grand again. We can bring a resolution out. If we could split the cost, [Music] I would feel better if we could split the cost as well, but I also don't want this to be an event that gets cancelled because it is an event that is very important to the community. We have a resol resolution presented by Mike. We need a second to that to bring it to a vote. We do have resolution to uh have our legal draft a intermunicipal agreement with the town of Lloyd in cooperation with their legal. Uh we have resolution or motion made by Mike and second by Tom. Any other discussion? Will this go through the details of the cost and will it be a one-time thing or are we going to be

131held to this year after year and are we going to open up the the box for every time there's an event happening there and they don't have enough money? Do you want to craft that to just you'll use it the year of 2025 for now and then? Yeah, that's fine. I mean, I'm hoping it sets up a template for future years. So, this just goes away. This year only, I'll work within the comfort level of there's something that stipulates that it's this year only and there's zero. It'll read just like the other intermunicipal agreements. Lisa, the resolution will read uh intermunicipal agreement crafted by our attorney in cooperation with the town of Lloyd at the legal uh for the Independence Day celebration. Correct. Is there a clause that funding towards our cost of the priority

132premium will be borne by the school district? Yeah, I don't want to see this funding be allocated for this and then students lose out because we didn't have funding for things like Tom mentioned the cruise or whatever it may be. You know, that's I figure that's just a story. I'll find the 6K in the budget for you. I think we have the same situation uh with coach buses. I think that that that is an issue also securing coach buses for events or some like the Boston trip I don't think is being held anymore because the absorbbitant cost of of coach busing it's just outrageous because they're trying they're meeting those requirements. So are our because of the insurance requirements yes some of our our our student functions do suffer absolutely and we have no control

133over that. Okay. So, we have a resolution presented by Mike, seconded by Tom. Anybody need any further discussion? All those in favor? I I opposed. I'm an I move forward. Lisa, what was the vote? I didn't hear 42. Thank you. And that's no from Heather Welch and Okay. Thank you. Okay. Old business. Mike, we have discussion on insurance. Insurance. Insurance. Old business. I have another item, gang. Um so everybody's well aware and uh this might be appropriate if you know there's public comment but if it belongs in this realm maybe public joins the discussion right so um we talked about it at the last uh meeting but this pet crematorium proposal uh next to the elementary school is problematic uh after last um and and not because the science right that just the two don't

134fit. Hope and happiness on one side, death and despair on the other, just don't fit. I kind of spoke to that and then I put those to words and shared them with the board uh after the last meeting. So, um my understanding is now that's in the planning board, the planning board for Thursday the 22nd. I mean, the board's going to have some discussion tonight, but uh I unfortunately am at another board meeting. Um but I think there's going to be board members there to represent uh the interest of the district. And then if you're there, I'll ask that he read the letter that I crafted, which is just kind of that narrative. But I hope you know, and this is not, you know, when we talking about the this is not adversarial. This is

135municipal constituencies working things out. Um anyway, I I will at this point we're real close to a public comment. Anybody in the audience would like to comment on the if you're here for that topic, write the state your name and premiator. Should I stand up or can I say you can stand for your most comfortable? Yeah, whatever. Just need your name, please. With this. Uh my name is Lacy Mafay. I'm a parent of three children in the district. Um I live very close to the hamlet on Tilson Avenue right by Dave Clapjack. He's my neighbor. Um and you as well actually. We were also neighbors. Rich and rich. Rich. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He bought my mom's house. So anyway, he's my next door neighbor. Um well, so I was really pleased that you wrote

136that letter. I saw a um you know a preview of it um from uh Kathy who's also on the comprehensive planning board implementation committee so that I'm also a member of that committee. Um I have a lot of there's a lot of things wrong with the idea of putting it so close to the school but I just wanted to let you know that I finished all of my research today. Um and there are 24 operating crematoriums in the state of New York that are registered with the DEC. So you can look that up. You can look at their addresses. I have gone through all of them and the closest any single one of them is to a school is 2,70 ft. And that's there's only three that are underneath under 4,000 ft close to a

137school. the rest are much much farther, miles and miles or they are in or if they're not the ones those three that are kind of closer are just because they happen to be in um industrial zones that abut another area that's residential or whatever, but it's still quite quite far. Um you know, I've read through the planning board minutes. I've been very concerned about this. Um I've done a lot of research. I'm happy to share any research I have. um actually flyers if you want to come, you know, I'll give them to you afterwards and you can look at the website because we have all of our citations. We have all of our data. Um we're not coming at this being like, "Oh, just cream." Like, this is legitimately concerning. Children have very sensitive lungs.

138They breathe more deeply and they breathe more breaths per minute than adults. And there is no safe level of emissions according to the WHO, the EPA, um the American Academy of Pediatrics. These these are all of the experts on children and health and children are a vulnerable population and I think we as a community all of us have we owe that to them because the children aren't able to come and say you know I'm concerned about this. You know my daughter did a little like I don't know I think she got 52 signatures from her classmates to oppose the crematorium. Um but you know they they aren't able to advocate for them for for themselves and you know we're here both as parents and as just members of the public um that are concerned for

139everyone's well-being. Um there's a lot of like zoning issues with it as well where it it really doesn't fit and it shouldn't be put there. And I I believe just an error has been made. Um and I'm hoping it will be corrected in the appeals. Um, it's going to be going to appeal June 12th um at 7 PM. Uh, it's a hearing for um the zoning board of No, no, they moved it to a public hearing, I think, um, to just have more public discussion on it, but the public hasn't really been I only found out about it because someone made an appeal, a member of the public, you know, parents found out about this at a board of education meeting and there's a requirement of the town that they were supposed to give after

140five days. I believe if it goes to a public hearing, the joining home uh land owners will be notified, but I don't know if it's gone to a public hearing yet. So, it was in in March. It was at public hearings and they have they so the adjoining land owners would be notified. They weren't though. So, you we did foil requests to find out. So, we're going to want No, not not to argue about it. But just just so everybody's clear, the board of education really has we can just voice our concern as the board of education, but we're not going to be involved in any decision making. Of course not. Regarding that as planning board and or zoning board when it gets to that point and I don't know if it'll it'll it'll follow

141its way up to the town board at some point in time. Probably not. But uh we could just go there and and have the same concern as a parent or or a neighbor. Yeah, that's really all I'm asking. And I think um like as the community that we all have an opportunity to stand up for the children right now. And the only reason it didn't just pass and go straight into site plan approval was because 12 parents showed up at the meeting and brought up all of these things that they even admitted that they hadn't even thought of in the planning for it. And right and so I'm not you know they're keeping things collegial. However, at the end when it's all said and done, we are going to have to review process and why

142we were last to know and not first to know. That irritates me. It should irritate the entire board. Um, you know, the other thing is what we want our community to look like. When you make these changes, you can't roll them back. So, we know that when families are looking for a community to move to, affordability. And what comes number two? Schools. Or sometimes it's schools and affordability, but they're right up there. And I want our community. It is such an every one of our schools is so attractive. And unfortunately, the environment of the school is everything in and around the school. Sorry. And you know, but that's the reality. And I don't want that affected. It's got a lot of appeal. We want it to appeal to families of the future. I mean, there's

143a lot of different shoots you could go off of this. But I'm hoping that we, you know, the first thing is to come to a consensus for us because we're a governing body. But the other thing is to mobilize the community. I think there should be a thousand people there Thursday night. That's the goal. That's the goal. So, if you're watching and you're listening, word of mouth, post it. We need a thousand of our residents, which is really a small, not a very big percentage by the way, a thousand people there to just voice our opinion. I'd appreciate that. Okay. Any other board members available Thursday evening? I'll be present. I think I think I can. We'll handle it. All right. while we have public comment open. Anybody else for public comment? Virginia. Okay, I'll

144close public comment. And under miscellaneous, Alter County School Board Association, uh, distinguished friend of education award nominations are due by June 30th. Just wanted to throw that out there. So any member has any uh nominations we can share it and we'll make a decision and we'll go from there can share them directly with me. Yeah, we're not doing it out but this was that was like directly. Okay. Um anything else for the good and welfare of the district? Still got another 40 minutes. You have to vote. Okay. We're going to go into executive session for um 919 contract uh negotiations continue and we will not come out to public session again. I will give you time to vote. Motion second. All in favor I move. Thank you everyone. Good night, princess. I'm going to head

145down the mall today, but