Huntington UFSD Board of Education Meeting 3/24/26

001Good evening all. Welcome to the board of education regular business meeting. Today is March 24th, 2026. Can I please have a motion to open the meeting? Teresa 1, John 2. All in favor? That's all four of us. Our other members will be joining us shortly. It is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the board of education enter into executive session to discuss specific legal, collective bargaining, personnel, and other matters in accordance with the open meetings law. Can I have a motion to enter into executive? Teresa one, John two. All in favor? Again, that's all four of us. We will return around 7:30. Thank you. Ready? Okay, we'll get started now. Welcome back. Can I please have a motion to exit the executive session and re-enter the public meeting? Teresa 1, Annie 2. All

002in favor? That is everyone. All right. Can we please all rise for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. In case of an emergency, please direct yourselves to the illuminated exit signs at the back and the sides here. This is a smoke-free building. Smoking or vaping is not permitted. We're going to move right into our approvals. the board of education meeting minutes of March 9th, 2026. Um, where is it? Is my recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the board of education approved minutes from the meeting of the Huntington Union Free School District Board of Education uh meeting dated March 9th, 2026. Can I have a motion,

003please? Tom one, Jenna Two. All in favor? That's everyone. We have uh two FYIs um budget transfers and claim audit reports. Any questions, comments? All right. And moving on to the federal single audit. This is a yearly audit. Um it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the board of education accept the 2024 2025 federal single audit report prepared by Colen and Denowski. Can I have a motion, please? Jenna one, Kelly 2. Um, I did have an opportunity to take a look at it. I'm sure we all did. Um, and I noticed that uh it specifically said Colandi has compiled an independent auditor's report on compliance for each major federal program. Uh, the report was on internal control over compliance and report and schedule of expenditures of federal awards required by the uniform

004guidance. and they specifically said, "In our opinion, Huntington Union Free School District complied in all material respects with types of compliance requirements referred to above that could have a direct and material effect on each of its major federal programs for the year ended June 30th, 2025." So, great work. Thank you. All in favor? That's everyone. And we move on to warrants. It is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools, the board of education accept the 2024 Whoops, I'm sorry, a little slow here. It is by recommendation by the superintendent of schools that the board of education approved the attached warrants which was certified for payments on March 11th, 2026. Can I have a motion, please? Teresa 1, Annie 2. All in favor? That's everyone. All right. Board communication. any board member. And actually, Kylie, you're

005here joining us as our replacement student uh board member. The mic is yours. Sorry. Um good evening board and community members. My name is Kylie Bart and I will be filling in for Emily today to discuss recent Huntington developments and events to look forward to in the upcoming month. This month has been marked with a tremendous focus on issuing hands-on learning experiences and community involvement. Um, as the fourth marking period approaches, students completed in-class quarterlys to test their progress over the course of the year. It is important that students are checking their portals regularly to ensure that they are keeping up with difficult course work and are not missing any material as we as we look onward to the end of the school year. Outside of testing, Huntington is focused on creating an environment that

006develops critical thinking skills as well as lecture style learning. I wanted to highlight a recent field trip that caught my attention as it involved an important aspect of learning that is not always replicable in a high school environment, real life application. This past Wednesday, 40 students from Mr. Paposadero's College Anatomy and Physiology class took a virtual field trip to the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry where they were able to experience a real surgical procedure. Students were engaged in an experience where they watched a live triple bypass surgery on a 79year-old female patient. Although certainly not for the faint of heart, students felt fully involved in the experience as they listened to the expertise of real life surgeons and began to understand the reasoning behind certain clinical decisions. This experience reinforced topics previously covered throughout

007the course and gave learners the opportunity to see themselves in the position of medical professionals. Um, along the same lines of community and student led participation, the Huntington Athletic Department has recently sent out a player experience survey that can be found on the website. This is a great chance to detail the aspects of the sports experience that may need improvement or harp on the essential nature of current implementations by the athletic department. Without feedback, it is difficult to make positive change. So, think about taking a look at that survey when you ever whenever you have a free moment. Now, for some exciting news. Huntington High School's mock trial team is advancing to the final four, which will take place tomorrow against Northport. We are so proud of their success this season and are wishing them

008the best of luck in continuing that streak. Uh now for a look into what's happening at the middle and elementary schools at Huntington at Finley. A multiple multicultural night is being hosted on March 30th at 6:30 p.m. Finley will be establishing its first event in recognition of the celebration of cultures and traditions that make Huntington such a wonderful place to learn and grow. At our Woodh Hall Intermediate School, a dual language multicultural celebration is also being hosted on March 26th. Dual language students will have the opportunity to present special performances and the evening will even feature a cultural fashion show where students will showcase traditional clothing that represents their heritage. Lastly, in the realm of elementary schools, Flower Hill recently hosted their readin event which was part of their roll out of PARP activities. The

009evening of reading included superhero themed stations, a craft activity, and a flashlight family reading time where everyone could relax and enjoy books together. Additionally, Southbound Primary hosted a bingo night this month where children and adults alike gathered for a night of prizes and quality time with peers. This is just an another example of the way Huntington continues to enrich the lives of students and families in and outside the classroom. We're looking forward to continue continuing these traditions at all levels of Huntington education for years to come. Also coming up this week is I'm King of the World, or for my less adept film watchers out there, Titanic the Musical is coming to the high school auditorium. The drama club has been putting in long hours of preparation for the big performance. The musical takes place

010Friday, March 27th at 7:00 p.m. and March 28th at 2 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $10, so be sure to show up and support all the talented performers. In the realm of service and giving back to our generous community, Huntington's Interact Club is partnering with Souls for Souls, an organization that has donated over 112 million pairs of shoes and pieces of clothing all over the world. In conjunction with Interact's motto, service above self, the high school's chapter has a goal of carrying out two service projects a year. One that aids the needs of our immediate community and one with a more international scope. Interact Club is an exceptional organization to get involved in if you have an interest in service and is a great stepping stone in preparing students to go out into the

011world with the voice of unity. Lastly, I want to remind all of our 10th grade students and parents about the upcoming PSAT 10. The high school will be administering the exam tomorrow, Wednesday, March 25th. The test begins promptly at 8, and students should come prepared with the schoolisssued device so that they can easily access the Blue Book app where the test will be safely stored. Students in grades 9, 11, and 12 will follow their regular class schedule as usual. Thank you so much for your time and make the most out of this week. >> Thank you, Kylie. I did have one recurring reminder. It's a reminder that we approved a change in the budget voting schedule. The budget vote and elections will be held on May 19th from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the

012high school. We are no longer going to be opening from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. as we did in previous years. Board members, >> I just want to thank you, Kylie. That was a wonderful presentation of uh what's going on all around our district. Um and the the Titanic, the musical, for the record, is not the Jack and Rose story. It's actually a very uh warm heart heartwarming story about what it was like to get a ticket onto the Titanic. Um it was basically like winning the lottery. So, we all know how it ends. But um I'm I'm really happy to see uh how the kids pull this off. Um, I just wanted to say that in my capacity as the uh Nassau SuffK school board's liaison for our board, I was able to attend

013a legislative breakfast uh last week um and it was very interesting. It was um held by the Long Island Association and it was a gathering of businesses and um interest groups such as Boseies and school districts and other advocacy groups talking really about what's happening in education nationally. So, it was really um interesting to hear they had um representatives um from both sides of the aisle. And what was fantastic in that room, my takeaway was that though um our politicians on Long Island might have differences of opinion in how to get there, everybody seems to want to get to the same place. So, it was really um a very collaborative um talk and um I I felt hopeful um that we're all sort of swimming in the right direction together. So, um just wanted to

014keep you updated. >> Anyone else? >> Beth, the mic's yours. >> All right. Uh I would like to start by mentioning that last night our cabinet and several board members had the pleasure of attending the scope awards where three of our own were honored. Tracy Rothell, Finley Middle School principal. Kelly Krosinski, High School Huntington High School English teacher, and Tom Desmond, Jack Abrams, head custodian. Uh, thank you for all you do for our student, staff, and families of Huntington. And congratulations on this special honor. It was great to celebrate with you last night. I also do want to just mention watching the mock trial team in action last week as they competed in the Elite 8 was truly phenomenal. Uh, they beat Comarmac with a score of 41 to 40. So, what a win to

015make it to the final four. We wish them the best of luck tomorrow uh against Northport at 3 p.m. In the area of athletics, uh spring sports are in full swing. We have a huge turnout in boys tennis with 28 players, flag football with 46 players, boys and girls track have 50 athletes. We really have just seen such a great turnout for spring sports this year. We're really happy to have so many kids that are interested in picking up a sport or also the other activities that we offer. Um, we also are looking into ways that we can expose Finley students to high school sports that don't have a middle school counterpart, such as fencing, uh, flag football, and bad mitten. So, more to come on that, but we're really trying to get that interest

016up at Finley, and Mr. Hoops is trying to think of creative ways to do that. Um, we have eight Blue Devil teams that have captured the New York State Scholar Athlete Award honors. To receive this recognition, the team's average GPA for 75% of the roster must be equal or greater than equal to or greater than 90. Huntington boys swimming and diving, girls basketball, girls fencing, and boys fencing, girls indoor track and field, boys indoor track and field, girls wrestling, and unified bowling teams have won state awards based on their grade point averages of the respective team members. So, congratulations to those teams. Additionally, any individual with a 90 or above GPA are considered scholar athletes. We had 101 NIPSA scholar athlete award recipients. That is phenomenal. Congratulations to all. On u in the area of

017fine and performing arts on March 11th, we had over 120 of our most talented middle school students perform as part of the Finley Honors Ensemble Concert. Congratulations to everyone on their fantastic performances. I do just want to put another plug in for the Titanic musical this Friday at 7. I know that Kylie already mentioned it. Um and 2:00 and 7:00 on Saturday. So, please get your chick your ticket. Um and I also want to mention that Rachel Huth won first place at the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair final as she claimed the student award for geocscience excellence presented by the Association for Women Geoscientists. She will now be attending nationals in Arizona. What an what an accomplishment. And yeah, that we can give her a nice round of applause. And hot off the press

018this afternoon, uh our Hofster, we we were notified that Natalie Patada uh is a winner of the first place in the senior individual website category for National History Day, and she will also be going to state. So, congratulations to Natalie. Let's give her a round of applause. and ninth grader Alina Prior won a prestigious award for best in local history. Uh so congratulations to Alina as well. And and lastly, I just want to mention tonight we will have our staffing and budget presentation. And I just wanted to mention that as we continue our budget development, we are navigating a combination of declining enrollment, evolving program adjustments, and a reduction in state aid of approximately $900,000. Due to rising property values, the state's formula reflects our community as having greater wealth, which has resulted in decreased

019funding despite our ongoing needs. At the same time, we are seeing fewer students in certain areas, particularly within our ENL programs, which are impacting our staffing requirements. As a result, the staffing plan that will be presented this evening includes thoughtful and necessary adjustments to align our resources with current enrollment and ensure that we continue to provide highquality programs for all students. So, I did just want to mention that uh we really are trying to work as diligently as possible to be creative within our budget uh while we see these changes that are taking place um many of which are out of our control. Um but we are able to preserve programs and all of the highquality instructional and extracurricular opportunities that we're providing for our students. So, we look forward to that presentation tonight. Thank

020you. >> Thank you, Beth. At this moment uh of our meeting, we open it up for public commentary. Public commentary is open to residents and employees of the Huntington District. Speakers are limited to three non-transferable minutes per person. There will be a maximum of 30 minutes total for all comments. We will open it up again for a second public commentary towards the end of this meeting. Priority will be given to comments related to today's regular business meetings titled items for discussion and action. Public commentary is a time dedicated to sharing your thoughts with the board and your input is valued. It is meant for expression rather than dialogue. So, please understand that the direct discussions with board members or administration will not be part of public commentary. When you approach the podium, please identify your

021affiliation to the district, whether you're a resident or an employee of the district. Use the form at the podium to sign in. Please refrain from naming any student or employee of the district. Public commentary is now open. And as I said, we'll have a second public commentary towards the end of the meeting. All right, we'll move on to items for discussion and action. So, at this time, I would like to introduce Finley Middle School principal, Miss Tracy Rothell, who will be doing a presentation on a course opportunity or course proposal at Finley Middle School. Good evening everyone. Um I have a time limit and I promise I will keep to it. Uh so we're really super excited uh at Finley. There's some changes going on in our computer science and technology classes. So what's happening

022is our technology 7 and our computer science class as the kids are getting through using Google Classroom and being um through co and being online. Those two classes are really the same. So what we're looking at this summer is to combine them into one class called computer science and technology 7. So we're using our coding, we're doing some with things with robotics and we're using our digital citizenship. So with that being said, we now have a hole in one of our curriculum or where we could put a course in. So we looked at it um overall trying to kind of bridge that gap between the intermediate schools into the high school. So we know in sixth grade there have been some amazing programs that have been brought in especially the lead learners who lead where

023all those sixth grade students participate in community town level studies. It's a great thing to go out in the community. Then they come to Finley and we have in seventh grade an enrichment program which is only really for about 25 kids. And then in 8th grade we have an enrichment program that's only for about 25 kids. So looking at that, we felt like there was something missing and we felt in seventh grade, why couldn't we continue that leaders uh learners who lead take that course, put it more in seventh grade, making it more community-based, which would then help us with our eighth grade program. So with that being said, we got together with some teachers, Mr. Levy, thank you for your help with that, and we came up with a new course called um Civic

024Quest. It would be a semesterl long alternating day course designed to build civic awareness, engagement, and responsibility among seventh grade students. So it would take the place of our computer science which runs like this. All students in seventh grade would have this opportunity. It wouldn't be an enrichment program. It would be a for all program. It would look like this. As I said, you have the semester long a day, Bday. We would look at issue based civic learning. we would build on civic knowledge and engagement skill and we really think it bridges that elementary intermediate civic learning into 8th grade and then from there to the high school. The course would have three units. Um it's as you can see our issue based instruction. We would do emphasis on civic skills and collaboration and inquiry.

025And the big one that we're really focusing on is that hands-on project-based learning experience. Right now, the teachers that are going to teach this course if it's approved are going to be working with um a consultant at this point working on that project-based learning. Really looking at it where the kids are taking control and looking at it more as a holistic rather than let's look at paper and pencil and work but go out in the community. We have our three units of study. Uh they had civic action and reform movements. They would then go into community issues and action planning and ending with deliberation, democratic decisionmaking. The actual goal is for many of these seventh grade students to want to be sitting next to one of you one day um as that uh representative in

026the student body. So that's something that we want to teach them also is the things that they can do and their community. They would have research, inquiry, collaboration and discussion would be based of the curriculum. Um, as you can see, deliberation and evidence-based reasoning. And there would be a civic participation and action planning. Much like the sixth graders, we are planning for them to go out into the community with this and do different type of activities based on if they're a fall semester or a spring semester. So what do we have with too with this is now instead of taking eighth graders in an enrichment program where it was more choice or some type of recommendation, this is really something where we can look at those kids after seventh grade, we kind of look at

027it like that studio and art idea where they're really performing, they're interested in it, they start and they want to continue in this so that we could put them in that eighth grade class that we have now that does work with our National History Day Capstone projects. And this would be a way to really make the path for those students to move into an eighth grade class rather than it being kind of choice or not as structured as we could make it now that we have a course that would lead into it. Types of implementation. So at this point the biggest thing we're going to ask is that there's some um curriculum writing of course that would be a whole class that we're looking to and then also changing that computer science and tech 7.

028And I think the biggest thing I wanted to point out is there is no additional staff needed for this class. We would be using our current You're welcome, Ruby. We'd be using our current um staff members that are in social studies. We'd be kind of tweaking the way things are and moving classes, but at this point we have the staff in the building that would be able to implement this with ease and they're excited to implement it if it's approved. And how was that? Less than five questions. And I do have some support with any answers. I have Mr. Levy here for support. Uh and Miss Wilshaw who is also a part of the interest in looking at the program and bringing it to us in seventh grade. >> I just had a quick question.

029So the eighth grade would still consist of an enrichment class. >> That is correct. It would be a selection of about 25 kids 25 to 50 depending if it's a day bday looking at the program and how many kids were interested. And then depending on that the roll out and how successful it is, do you could you foresee something like this continuing on into eighth grade? >> It could. Unfortunately, eighth grade is very packed. I've got my studio and art. I've got my earth science. You know, there's a lot of things, but it's not something that we couldn't look at. Um because I knew that science research, we've had a lot of discussion on that, too. Just trying to get those eighth graders so when they're moving into the high school, they're really prepared for

030those AP courses. >> Thank you. I just wanted to add that how much um how important I think this is when we're talking about social studies. People just often think of it as history and like it's some story that people wouldn't it be nice to know but here you really you know using history as data points and really using it as a way to be you know civic uh oriented and uh citizenship and you know being involved within the community which is really what social studies are about. And um I know that we use this here with the portrait of the graduate and the civics capstone and the national history day. I want to thank you know Mr. Levy and all the people in the humanities for working on this because it's this exact type

031of thing that makes Huntington a special place and I know we do more of this here uh than in other other districts. Not that it's not done in others, but we do it more and I just appreciate the effort. >> Thank you. I was just going to chime in and say uh I think this is a terrific idea and um civics education is actually something that when I was up in Albany last month, we were asking the legislators to invest in. So we're hoping that statewide uh civics education becomes uh more uh spread across the curriculum. I love that we're bringing it into uh the middle school here. Um, just to kind of piggyback off of what Tom just said, uh, when you think about civics education, it, you know, it's not history because history

032you think you're studying a subject. Now you are expanding to become, you know, citizen and engaged citizen and that's like off the paper, how can our students become part of what they're studying? And I think that's vitally important >> which is huge with project-based learning. So just looking at with kids, we've been looking at things that they're looking for and they're always like, I want to be excited. I want to do hands-on. I want things that make sense. So if you can work towards why we need to put a put a stop sign somewhere or why we need to have a light, they really see it that they can make a difference and a change. So we're hoping that this kind of sparks them in seventh grade. >> And what a year to do it

033when we're celebrating the 250th anniversary of our nation. >> You're welcome, Mr. Levy. >> Is that is that a prop? No, it was just to say that's why I picked it for this year. I waited until it was exactly this year. I I was waiting. All right. >> Um, with respect to uh what was just presented, when the students move to 8th grade, they'll have the opportunity in that enrichment class to not only do the National History Day program, but also acquire one point for the seal of civic readiness when they get to high school doing a middle school capstone project. So, that's really significant. um because you heard the presentation on that earlier I think on the seal. >> Yeah. >> So this is a great opportunity for that. >> Thank you very much

034Miss Rothell. Thank you Mr. Levy. Uh this is on the agenda for approval this evening uh in the curriculum instruction se section. And now I would like to introduce Miss Judy Moroff and she will be introducing her team uh this evening who have been doing tremendous work for the past I would say five years but really the past two years. Absolutely tremendous work to become apprentices in leading some of the best professional development that any district could offer. And we are fortunate to have it here in Huntington. I'll turn it over to you. Hi Can you hear me? Okay. And I'm here with Angela Burner, who has been my right hand throughout the process. This um process actually started in 2018 when I was begging uh Beth to please let me go to California to

035get training with Angela and our math coach, >> Monica Raz. Yes. And Jim would not allow it. But 2019, Beth went to back and uh really got us moving to go to California and to get trained. Since then, we that really catapulted all the work. We came back, we shared it um with the district, and you'll see I created a PowerPoint, but um Mr. Cusack had a great idea with um Notebook LM, and I took my PowerPoint and put it in there, and it created a fantastic video for everyone. So, So, how does the school district build a system to support its most diverse students that actually lasts? Today, we're going to look at the amazing multi-year journey of the Huntington Union Free School District. They partnered with an organization called QTEL, that stands for

036quality teaching for English learners to build expertise right there inhouse. It's a pretty incredible story. Let's jump right in. And it really all starts here with the students. At the end of the day, everything we're about to talk about comes back to these kids. Making sure every single one of them has what they need to absolutely soar. To get a sense of what we're talking about, let's start with a number. 830. That's how many multilingual learners are in the Huntington district. And you can imagine each one of those students needs thoughtful, tailored support to really succeed in school. And it gets even more complex. These students speak over 18 different languages. That is some serious linguistic diversity. Now, it's really important to know that the vast majority, we're talking like 98% are Spanish speakers. And

037that specific detail was a gamecher cuz it allowed Huntington to create a program that was super responsive to the needs of most of their students. Okay, so you see the picture, a big diverse student body. So, what do you do? Well, first you've got to figure out your philosophy, your guiding star. And that brings us to the why behind Huntington's whole journey. And there it is. This one sentence. This is the bedrock for everything else. Think about how powerful that is. It's saying that supporting these students isn't just the job of a few specialists. Nope. It's everyone's job. That is a complete and total mindset shift. And what's cool is this wasn't just some idea they came up with in a vacuum. It lined up perfectly with their bigger goals. It fit right in with

038their district mission for fair, highquality teaching. It was exactly what the New York State Education Department was recommending, and it helped build those critical thinking skills kids need for college and beyond. Just a perfect fit all around. So, having a great vision is one thing, but you've got to make it happen, right? So, let's get into the how. How did Huntington actually turn this big idea into a real plan of action? Well, it definitely wasn't an overnight thing. You can see from this timeline it was a slow deliberate build. They started just exploring the idea in 2019. Then they got the community involved. Then came virtual training. But the real game changer was that summer institute in 2022 that really kicked things into high gear and led to coaching and finally their most ambitious move

039launching the apprenticeship model in 2023. And this picture it just perfectly captures the energy of that 2022 institute. This was not your typical sit in a chair and listen to someone talk for six hours kind of training. No way. It was intense, hands-on, and all about working together. This is what really set a new standard for how their teachers would learn and grow. Okay, so this brings us to the secret sauce, the thing that makes Huntington's approach so special. Let's really dig into the what of their strategy, this QTEL apprenticeship model. So, here's the key difference. This is not a train the trainer model, you know, where one person goes to a workshop, then comes back and tries to teach everyone else. The problem is the message can get watered down. Instead, this apprenticeship is

040a long-term partnership. The goal is to build deep, real expertise right there with their own teachers. And it works in these four phases. It's so smart. First, you're just a learner participating like everyone else. Then, you move on to observing the experts in action and talking about what you saw. Then comes the big step. You start delivering the training yourself. But, and this is key, you have a coach right there with you as a safety net. And finally, you reach independence where you're the one leading the charge, ensuring this work continues for years. And listen to what one of the teachers said about that process. They called having a coach a gift because right when they felt unsure, right when they realized they didn't know something, their coach was there to help them through it.

041That right there is how you build real lasting confidence. Okay, so all this planning, all this investment, all this hard work, did it pay off? Let's get to the so what? What was the actual impact of all this on the ground in Huntington? Well, first and foremost, the impact on the teachers has been huge. They're reporting major professional growth, but more than that, they just feel more confident in the classroom. It's totally changed how they approach teaching their multilingual students. And check this out, it also had this amazing ripple effect. You know how schools can sometimes have these silos where the English language teachers are over here and the math and science teachers are over there? Well, this program just smashed those silos. Now, everyone is working together, sharing ideas, and making sure language development

042is part of every class. So, you might think, okay, the first group of apprentices is done, mission accomplished. But for Huntington, that's not the end of the story. That's the beginning of a whole new chapter. They've now got this expertise woven right into the DNA of the district, ready to keep the momentum going. And that really leaves us with something to think about, doesn't it? The journey in Huntington kind of challenges the whole idea of oneanddone professional development. It makes you ask, how can we all move beyond just temporary training and instead build models that create deep lasting expertise inside our own schools and organizations? So that took my 12 slides that I had created for tonight and I put it in um Google LM and it created this video for me which was really

043on point and Angela were like we both said I feel like they were with us throughout the journey because that's exactly what it what it was. Um so we worked with consultants from um California who came out regularly for the past three years to do the apprenticeship program and they sent a little message for um the ladies here um about the work they did. So it's a short video we'll play. Good afternoon. My name is Pia Castiga and I am the lead of the Wested CQEL apprenticeship program and I am here with my colleagues Shirley Feldman the secondary apprenticeship mentor and Dr. Elsa Billings the elementary apprenticeship mentor. We are sorry that we are unable to join you in person to celebrate the incredible accomplishments of the Huntington apprenticeship team but are grateful to be

044able to join you digally to be part of this event. As you have already heard, the CQEL apprenticeship is an ambitious and multi-year professional learning experience that reflects what research shows is one of the most powerful ways to support quality learning and teaching. The success of this effort hinges on the depth of the partnership with the district and the commitment of the apprentices to own a new and ambitious vision for English learners and their teachers and a new and ambitious role for themselves. We could not have asked for better partners in this journey than Judy and Angela. Their unwavering commitment to our partnership, to the apprentices, and to Huntington students and teachers made possible the success that we are here to celebrate with you. They were not only apprentices in their own right. They were

045also the leaders, teachers, coordinators, and colleagues who kept the team going, kept us fed, and created priceless opportunities for ambitious work to happen. Miriam, Katie, Wendy, Karen, Alli, Chrissy, Teresa, and Kim. You embody what a cutout apprentice can be and do. Seeing you grow both in expertise and your ability to guide and lead others in service of ambitious teaching for English learners gave us the motivation we wish every educator had the privilege of experiencing during their careers. Thank you for your work. I am now going to ask Shirley to speak about the work with a secondary team. >> Thank you, Pia. While for some secondary educators, it might be challenging to see themselves as language teachers, it was evident that Ally, Teresa, Chrissy, and Kim could not separate their identity as content and language teachers.

046Their commitment to English learners and their teachers created a cohesion that was present from the first day of the apprenticeship. Your eagerness to learn was inspiring and your eagerness to share your expertise with your Huntington colleagues served as a catalytic force of what this apprenticeship team would be able to offer the district. Turning the apprenticeship team's effort into a space of expanded learning for all Huntington educators. Alli, Chrissy, Teresa, and Kim. Seeing your final presentations with your colleagues demonstrated how you have truly emerged from this apprenticeship as highly knowledgeable experts in the field. I will now pass the mic to my wonderful colleague Elsa to share her experiences with the elementary team. >> Thank you, Shirley. Miriam, Katie, Wendy, and Karen. As elementary teachers, you already have an extremely hard job and that they you

047are generally responsible for teaching all content areas. In addition, you are working with young learners who are in the early stages of their literacy development while they're also learning how to do school all while learning English. And even with this complex workload, you embrace the challenge of this three-year apprenticeship, probably without fully realizing the commitment and many hours of work it entailed in on top of your already complex work. But during our time together, we saw you become even better designers of learning experiences for your English learners and for all of your students. As QTEL apprentices, what was exciting was seeing you become thoughtful professional developers who increasingly welcome the opportunity to support each other, your fellow teachers and Huntington educators in general. Thank you for the opportunity to to get to work with you

048throughout this journey. And I'll pass the mic back to Pia now. Thank you again for inviting us to be part of this celebration and thank you for the wonderful opportunity to partner with Huntington Unified School District. This was truly an endeavor. I don't think they really expected all of this. There were nights that they were reading and writing papers. This was really like a graduate course that they took without really knowing everything. Um as we move on to the next slide, I just want to say since 2019, we started our endeavor, our first institute in 20121, we had secondary 18 teachers and elementary 20 and that was the virtual part. In building the base we had 72 from 22 to 25 72 teachers in the secondary institute and in the elementary institute we had 90

049teachers a total of 162 teachers trained that's 4 days in the summer that they came in worked really diligently read books wrote you know responses and reflections um we also had advanced institute which has 27 secondary teachers who did building the face the next step advanced and elementary 22 combined 49 and we this year had a Saturday institute so our teachers came in our apprentices came in and did workshops on Saturdays and we had photo 40 teachers who came on a Saturday in December um and this is all all totaling to 289 teachers who have been trained and this is all the work you know that our consultants as well as our apprentices um who are now officially trainers. Qout trainers. So, um I would like to first invite the elementary. Come on. You can

050call them. So, tonight I have the pleasure of acknowledging my friends, colleagues, and just women that I admire who have worked so hard to attain this achievement. The first person that I would like to call up is Wendy Bonia, fourth grade dual language teacher at Woodhull. and her counterpart and bestie Miriam Engel. Miriam Gonzalez Engel, also a dual language teacher, grade four Woodhull. Congrats. our next unknowingly hardworking apprentice. Judy and I could go into selling used cars after this because they will tell you that they had no idea what we were cajoling them into. >> Is Katie Kalco from Washington, third grade teacher. And last but not least, Karen Swanson, our veteran former fourth grade teacher and current reading teacher at Woodhull. I'd like to present her with her certificate. I also want to do

051a little surprise apprentice who was not on the list, but Angela Burner has been there since the beginning and she is an apprentice as well. She we have both done all the work, all the papers. Anytime we wanted to show them, hey, we're doing the work, too. So, you guys do it too. So, here you go. >> Are we really ready this paper? and part of the secondary um family of QTEL trainers now who I I love and are dear to me and they have become family even though they weren't in my department I got to know them really well. Um, the first apprentice I will call is Kimberly Kimberly Schiller, English teacher at Finley, English teacher at and ENL at Finley. Miss Allison Capewell Christine Well, ENL teacher at Finley. >> Um, and finally,

052Miss Teresa Connelly, English teacher, ENL extraordinaire at the high school. >> Thank you. Um, want to take a picture? >> All right. >> Mr. Can you want to do it in the hallway? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> This is I do just want to say I know the amount of work that you put in. I know we have some families here tonight who are probably celebrating that this is over and you'll have your spouse back or your mom back or your whoever back. Um but we thank you for the work that you've done and the work that you'll continue to do as now you will be the trainers for our district. So, this was an investment so that now we have all of the tools and resources within our amazing staff that will continue to

053grow our newer staff or staff that perhaps hasn't attended the training yet. Um, but we thank you for all that you've done. I know this was such a tremendous amount of work and what an accomplishment for you and for our district. So, thank you for leading the charge and thank you to Miss Morov and Miss Burner who have been leading the charge since this started many, many years ago. Uh congratulations to all of you. >> I'm going to chime in there. Thank you so much for your passion to teach and most importantly, thank you for your love to continue to learn to be better teachers. Uh that's incredible the amount of hours that you put into it that you show up on a Saturday in December. Absolutely amazing. But thank you. Thank you very much.

054>> And now I would like to introduce Dr. Ruby Harris, assistant superintendent for finance and management services, and Mr. Christopher Hender, deputy superintendent, who will be providing our budget and staffing presentation this evening. >> I just want to say I'm really jealous because notebook LM does not work like that with numbers. It gets far I did. >> It gave me too many thoughts like that number is high. No, I don't want you to say that. So, I am going to turn it over to Mr. Hender to start out. He will go through the instructional staffing and then I will take it over to talk about the financial numbers. Thank you. >> Good evening. I know that this is our most streamed um presentation, so I know that we have some people at home watching this.

055Um first and foremost, congratulations to everybody that was just up here. Those were two really great presentations and really indicative of our teaching staff and how wonderful they are and um how they want to continue to make sure that every student succeeds in this district. So, thank you um from all of us. So, overall, I'm going to go through um our current staffing numbers, our enrollment, and our projections. Miss McCoy kind of gave a little bit of a hint away um regarding some of the staffing needs that needed to be made and I'll kind of go over it. But before I go into um the actual class sizes and and the presentation, I kind of just want to give a little bit of an overview as far as how our enrollment has kind of declined

056over the past few years. So since June 30th of 2025 um to present day, our enrollment has gone down to um we've lost about 128 students. Um to put that into perspective, from June 30th, 2024 to June 30th, 2025, in that time period, we went down an additional 133 kids. So in the past little over a year and a half span the school district has lost about 261 students uh to students either going back to their home countries moving to other school districts we have declined our enrollment by 261 students in a year and a half time span which is a lot to put that into further perspective um just to give a little histo history because we've always been a status quo kind of district with regard to our enrollment from June 30th 2023

057to June 30th 2024 4, our district only lost 23 students. And if we go a little bit further, we go one more year from June 30th, 2022 to June 30th, 2023, our district only lost three students in between that time period. So in this past year and a half, we have seen a drastic decline. And so some difficult decisions had to be made uh with regard to accessing specific staff. Um I want to start by saying that this is not something that any of us really wanted to do. We love our teachers. We know how hard they work. and just a little bit of an understanding how excessing works. Um, we follow a seniority list. So, when we need to cut staff, we need to go in seniority or order order by that staff. But

058what if they're appointed on the same day, which we've had? Um, then we need to look at who came in prior to board adoption and signed their paperwork first. Well, what if they signed on the same exact day? Then you have to look at what time they came in and make that determination as to who came in first to sign paperwork. And we did have that situation as well. Then if all is equal, we then need to go in alphabetical order, which thankfully we did not have to do. Um last Thursday we did make our rounds and we did have face-toface conversations with some of the staff that unfortunately are going to need to be accessed. Um we explained the situation to them, asked if they had any questions um and any supports that we

059can provide to them. These individuals will be placed on what's called the preferred eligibility list. Um, this is a New York State requirement where they are placed on a seven-year list where in the event that the district has a leave replacement assignment greater than 5 months or if the district needs to appoint a probationary teacher, we have to offer that position to them first. If they happen to seek employment elsewhere and they are gainfully employed, we offer it to them and they can decline it and they will still remain on that list until that seven years exhausts. So, just a little bit of a a background as to how um excessing works. So, overall, we're going to look at our elementary staffing projections, what our class sizes are going to look at, and these numbers

060were taken from our most recent um every Friday we do an enrollment projection. um and I share with um all of you, you end up perceiving it um what our class sizes look like, how many students are in each of our buildings. Just a side note, um we will continue to look at our enrollment and we continue to look at our enrollment even right before the first day of school. We have been in a situation where we out of nowhere got a drastic number of students in one specific school and we needed to open up a section right before school began and we were able to successfully do that. So, we do keep a close eye on enrollment in the event that it does increase. And additionally, I just want to share that any elementary

061class placements will be posted um and sent home in August. So, if we look at Flower Hill, here are the current class sizes at the top and the total number of sections. On the bottom are the projections. And I just want to share when it comes to kindergarten, those are just estimates. Those are not actuals. We do have some K regge numbers where we've hosted some K registration already. We've also sent out packets and items that we've received back, but those are estimates at the current moment. As we progress through the end of this school year, we'll get a closer look as to how many kindergarten students are enrolled in each of our buildings. And then again, in early September, we will see an increase um in people who perhaps have missed that deadline or

062just moved into the district. And we'll make sure that they get enrolled as well. and we'll continue to look at uh class sizes there. So overall at Flower Hill, there is no change. At Jefferson, you'll see a decline by one section. That section is in kindergarten based off of the Kred regge that we've received back so far, the packets that we've received back so far. We felt comfortable with placing it um having two gened sections and one dual language section. um in the event that more KR regge packets come in, we do have contingency built in uh to this budget presentation in the event that that does occur. Um so we have allocated just in case two teaching contingency positions in the event that enrollment increases plus there are other creative things that we can

063do. If you notice on the this year this we did the kindergarten model with the two dual language um at the kindergarten level those students will advance to first grade. So that's why you see two and two in first grade for next year for two general ed sections and two will do language sections at Southbound. No changes and same thing with Washington. Over at Jack Abrams you are going to see an increase of a plus one. This was a need. Um this is for fourth grade. Um when we looked at the combination of Washington and Flower Hills grade three, this is the only year that this was an anomaly of the number of registrants that came in. Um when I was telling you the example before of how we were out of nowhere got an

064influx of students needing to go to a school and we needed to to open another section. This was the kindergarten section that's now going to be going into fourth grade. And so those numbers were were high and so we needed to um allocate an additional fourth grade section. So they'll have five general ed sections and two uh dual language sections. And as you remember uh during the intermediate um plan, they are now going to have dual language and those are the current numbers uh for that. Looking at Woodhole, there's no change. There is a star where the dual language sections are because we will be offering sixth grade dual language uh in the areas of science and social studies. So I just wanted to point that out. But there is no actual change in the

065number of sections in that building. So overall it's a net change of zero uh minus one at Jefferson and a plus one at Jack Abram STEM Magnet School. Some of this was absorbed through some retirements um and through some creative thinking and I'll get to the next slide to kind of share that. So when we look at ICT, we are having a plus one. Um and the plus one is going to take place primarily at So Flower Hill is going to be receiving an ICT section um in kindergarten and we are losing a third grade ICT at Washington where they'll be then advancing to the fourth grade. But we do based off of our number of students that um receive services are required to open an additional ICT section at Woodhole Intermediate School, placing them

066at four uh for next school year. And that's for grade four. They'll have two sections of ICT. When we look at our self-contained classes and our life skills classes, Flower Hill is a reduction of one. That's because of students who are in grade three who will then be advancing. and Washington will have an increase and that's in the area of kindergarten. So overall for special class it's a net change of zero. When we look at other elementary services that we provide if you notice ENL um as we discussed before there are three staffing positions that we need to access in the area of ENL K through 12 and that's based off of enrollment. When we look at the world language and flex, the reduction there is because at the intermediate level, uh we are not

067offering the world language flex component. We moved uh a lot of those items to grade seven and grade 8. And so there was no longer a need K through six for the world language to be in that area. For mathematics, RTI math, a couple of years ago, we ended up uh collapsing a kindergarten section based off enrollment numbers. the numbers were low and we ended up increasing um an additional math RTI position. Being that this is a elementary tenure area, the individual will not be accessed, but there will be somebody in that department who will need to be transferred from the math RTI component to uh an elementary class setting. Um we've seen when enrollment declines obviously there are fewer students who require services and so therefore we we have a a minus one in

068that area but again that individual would be going back into a classroom and not being accessed in the area of reading. Um similar situation fewer students services go down. Unfortunately that person um is being accessed but there are some creative solutions based off of um Thank you. Yeah. Uh there there are some uh basic um there this individual has specific content area um certifications in the area of special ed where they'd be able to teach a specialized program. Thank you. Um and then for the rest those are all remaining the same. So in the elementary setting it's a net change of a minus 5.6 but not five individuals are being accessed. um some are going to be pushed into the classroom um based off of certification and things like that. When we look at secondary

069staffing, here's Finley Middle School, current versus projected, they have right now a change of a plus five. And at Huntington High School, a net change of a minus 88. When we look at the secondary staffing analysis, you'll notice in English there'll be a reduction of a 0.6 at Finley Middle School and a 0.5 at Huntington High School to a total of a 1.1. There is an uh an individual who will be accessed in the English department. Um plus we had an additional MOA. Uh just want to preface by saying that there are no electives being taken off of the tables. Class sizes are still going to be at a healthy number. Um, when we look at the ELA f uh Philly Middle School class sizes, no classes are anticipated to be higher than 23 students

070and Huntington High School regions level classes are not anticipating to be higher than 25. Um, so the class size numbers are still healthy. Um, and we are still offering the same number of electives so that we don't have students obviously our goal is to always not have our students sitting in study halls but learning growing. Um, and so I just want to share that there are no electives that are being cut. Similarly, ENL uh just a reduction K through 12 of a minus one. So, you had the two from the English uh from the elementary slide and the one for secondary. In the area of math, you'll notice a reduction of a 0.6 at the middle school. At the high school, a reduction of a 1.9. So, a total of a 2.5. This past year,

071we had a 0.5 MOA. And we are going to need to access two individuals. This isn't just based off of enrollment, but a few years back the district changed the sequence of math courses um from algebra to algebra 2 to geometry and then we switched it back to algebra geometry algebra 2. And during that influx in that time period, we needed to make sure that we had enough staff to cover the full course loads of both groups running simultaneously. Additionally, we have increased our math staff pretty drastically over the past few years. And I just want to share that um once again, the math numbers at Finley Middle School are anticipated not to be higher than 23 students. Um and at the high school level, we're anticipating them not being higher than 25. In science,

072um there's a reduction of a 1.0. Same thing. This is just at the high school. We're not anticipating class sizes being much larger than 25. Um, and no one needs to be accessed in this. This was able to be absorbed through retirement. In social studies, we had an MOA this past year of a 0.1. We're not going to need that next school year. And then if you notice at the world language, although there was a change in um the intermediate level, we still need to be able to staff our uh high school. And so there is an increase based off of the number of students who either are taking um uh any of our world languages um that we offer. So overall there's a net change of a 4.7. This is just showing you the

073slide of how many staff members are in each building. And here is our non-instructional. So over the past few years we've cut in a lot of these areas. You will notice that there will be a minus 1.0 0 and the 12-month clerical. That's a senior account clerk allocated for the payroll office. We did increase the payroll office a few years back. Um there is nobody currently in that role. Um and we are in the process as I shared I believe two board meetings ago in a presentation that we're in the process of digitizing um a lot of our onboarding. So this will assist payroll in that process. So when you look at the total summary of proposed staff changes uh it's a minus 4.6 6 in the elementary level, a minus 4.7 in secondary, and

074a 1.0 in non-instructional. If you notice on the bottom, we are um including a 2.0 contingent teaching positions, something that we haven't really touched in years past, but it's always there uh just in case we need it, and five aid positions, which we have needed to use um based off of uh students with disabilities either moving into the district or needing additional services. Are there any questions on staffing? >> I have a question. So, you indicated that we are seeing a decrease in the population of students in our district. How does that impact the state aid that we receive? >> So, that's a great question. So, um as was shared earlier and I'll let Dr. Harris kind of elaborate a little bit further on um how that kind of skews our numbers and the need

075for us to also make these changes so that we are able to to um have a fiscally responsible budget. >> So you have component of the budget that are based solely on your enrollment numbers. Um that is going to be your textbook, your library, your technology and foundation aid. Those factor in student enrollment. So as your enrollment goes down, you will see those numbers go down. Um that is why for the current well really the budget year we're planning for 26 27 we have went from the foundation aid formula running and us receiving whatever that percentage is to now being on the hold harmless list which if the calculation were to run we would lose uh hundreds of thousands of dollars in aid. So it it has an impact. Um that is why all of

076the advocacy we do is so important and will continue to be important uh as more districts are in a similar situation as we are. >> Uh just a uh quick question or maybe a reiteration. A great uh presentation, very thorough. Um certainly no district wants to see uh any lose any teachers part of the community. Um but this is a reflection of the uh declining uh enrollment that we have here. And just uh to reiterate this there is no cut in programs um that we have here or in any of the services that have always been provided to our students. Correct. >> That is correct. And out of the the eight proposed um staff members who are being accessed, we have been able to creatively um keep uh three of them so far in the

077district um for next school year. So, right now we're at five and we're going to continue to try and think creatively because every single one of our teachers are important to us and we want to make sure that um we can keep them. >> Thank you. Appreciate that. >> Yeah. I'll reiterate, thanks for the presentation and obviously nobody is excited about needing to make these decisions. Um, I know that you're projecting one fewer kindergarten class going into next year than this year and you mentioned that there's a contingency there and we can't predict and people show up when they show up. If we were to need an additional kindergarten class, do you anticipate that that would be dual language or gened or do we have no idea? We have no idea, but it would likely

078be um and I'll be you know honest, it would likely be a gened class um just because when we think about um you know how many um so next year so in first grade we have two sections of dual language and then the following year we're going to have two sections of dual language. It will eventually catch up to grades four. Um and so we want to keep a mindful eye on that just to make sure that um we're able to adequately staff >> there. I mean, can I ask a follow-up question? I would like to. >> Um, >> I guess are we not already in that position with the second dual language class from this year's kindergarten at >> We are. We are. So, right now they're in first grade. We are anticipating that

079eventually they will be getting to grade four, which we know that they will advance to. Um, and right now the numbers aren't large enough um where we need to see that concern, but if that's the case in three years from now, we'll we'll we'll make sure that we adequately staff in that area. dual language is very important to us. We want to make sure that, you know, um, we continue to roll out that program with fidelity. >> Thank you. >> All right. I'm going to leave it up to Dr. Harris. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. Okay. So, now we are going to go through the budget series. We are going to be focusing in on the 2000 series which is curriculum and instruction and cover all of the instructional areas you see listed here as

080well as a deep dive into our benefits area. Lots of numbers and information um on this slide. I know last presentation I was able to kind of merge some things together. uh instruction is a little bit more difficult because there are so many areas that are included here. I am going to touch on a couple of things. If you have questions, feel free to uh ask or have me slow down. So, you see the different descriptor areas. Um they all start with a two in the beginning. They're all part of the 2000 series. Um things that really drew my attention um you will see some items that are in the yellow for negative because red was too blinding. Um so one item is a reduction a slight reduction in the area of Boseies. Uh that

081is based on our actual spend. So every year we are looking to see what we need in the Boseies area. We are waiting for updates from them so we are able to reduce that slightly. Um after the presentation you just received from Mr. Hender uh through retirements reductions and uh some changes in some salary codes and contractual obligations. You do see the uh teaching regular school that line item came down. And another area that you see a reduction is BOSI summer school services. Uh sometimes that can be volatile. So we had a couple years where that number was increasingly high based on the last two years of averages. I felt comfortable bringing that down to be in a little bit better alignment. Um other things that may pop out to you, they may not pop

082out to me um but they may pop out to you um on here would be occupational education. that is in regard to uh some increases in career tech guidance has been working very closely with administration I'm going to say the last two or three years regarding the numbers there I do anticipate in future years that coming down a little bit and being in better alignment to where we've been historically but those are the cost um for the 26 27 year and a lot of other items are just contractual obligations as well as correcting uh account codes. I know some people may be thinking, well, if it's been in that account code, why are you moving it to another account code? We report to the state based on these account codes. Um, you want to make

083sure any of your expenses are in the correct code. So, that is being reported to the state correctly. And in case there is something they're looking at that drives aid in that category, I want to make sure it's in the correct code. So, we've been doing a lot of cleanup in this area and as we find things, as we look at thousands of codes and we find things, we make those corrections. Is there any questions on this slide? Okay. Employee benefits. Um, so, uh, some things to draw your attention to. Uh, number one, employee benefits is really outside of our control. Um these are percentages and rates that are set by others and then told to us. Uh you will see that ERS has increased 16.55%. If you look at where we were in the

0842425 school year, so the actual spend was a little bit over 2 million. And the ERS estimated bill from the state is 2.7 million for 2627. That's a huge increase. Um, it was a huge increase last year. It continues to be another huge increase. The rates for tiers five and six are double digits. Um, double digits being like 18, 19, 20%. Um, so it's a heavy hit. Uh, for the TRS, TRS is actually decreasing. I don't know how long we will see that, but it's definitely assisted in balancing out the budget. I can't imagine it going in the opposite direction. So, um there is a reduction of 705,000 due to the fact that the TRS rate has come down. Um social security that is just based on FICA that's 7.65% of your salaries. Workers comp

085uh you will see in 2425 our actual spend was 922,000. I budgeted 940,000 for 2627. I would hope we don't spend that, but if we're not putting the correct expense in there, we're taking away from other codes at some point to pay that bill because it has to be paid. Uh due to the excessing of staff, you then deal with unemployment. So, we are trying to accurately account for the possibility of unemployment. Um we'll talk about the revenue side of that at the next meeting. And uh our big ticket item is health insurance. Um this is 5.5% of an increase over last year's uh health insurance bill. Last year the rates came in around 10%. Um we've had some years where they weren't they were very minimal. uh due to retirements and other things that

086have taken place. I was able to bring that number down since the last meeting you saw it, but it's still a hefty um increase there. As the rates are known, if we do not spend the funds there, it just is part of fund balance. Uh but we need to at least be budgeting in the event that the expense uh does come in there. And then uh dental insurance. We will be going out to uh receive rates in the next month or so. So I need to anticipate for what that expense is going to be because I am anticipating right now that expense to be a little bit over 600,000 for the current year. So my assumption is those rates will go up as well. And then other benefits is really um our employees in for

087retirement pieces any payouts. So we've left that um at that level. So if we had uh 10 people in the following school year go we would be able to support that. Any questions in the area of benefits? This just shows what has occurred since March 9th. Um if you recall there was a very large expense number and there was not enough revenue there to support. Um what we do in the back end is we as mentioned we look at health insurance. We come together regarding salaries. What were the wish list items? What can we actually support? Um what is going to happen with uh retirements attrition? what can be thought of creatively to uh cover any gaps um with changes to salaries then become changes to social security ERS TRS all of those things are

088taken in consideration you will see adjustments here for the unemployment and the workers comp that I already mentioned just what I'm anticipating as a possibility one of the things we did not deep dive into last meeting was revenue I had a couple of things uh that I was meeting regarding when it comes to revenue. So, I wanted to provide a breakdown of what's happening. Uh this is a little snippet and then the next meeting will really deep dive into revenue. Um in the areas of expensriven aid, we have lost $1.2 million. That's not because the expense is not there. It is because as uh Superintendent McCoy mentioned um the state thinks that the community can take on more financially based on property assessments. Um these property assessments probably date four to five years ago uh

089in in what numbers were being reported. They have taken point06 per dollar which 06 sounds so minimal on a on a dollar but when you're looking at millions of dollars that has huge impacts. So that is shown here. I have had meetings with others it's being talked about. You don't have all districts being hit the same um at the same time but it's definitely pieces that are being discussed. So, I do think the expensive aid area will be something that is focused on uh by our different agencies in future budgets because it's great to have something that holds a number for foundation aid, but if the expense side is going to be decreasing and nobody's talking about that, we're all going to be looking at smaller amounts of revenue, which puts us in um troubling

090futures across the Um, you do see here the foundation aid. This includes the 1% foundation aid as well as the difference in what I budgeted last year versus what we actually received. So, there's a little bit more than 1% shown here. We did have an inner fund transfer last year if you recall. That was to pay off the last bit of debt we also had. So the debt came off, the inner fund transfer comes off and then we have a slight increase in miscellaneous revenue. So the net change that you see there is uh a negative million dollars. Um, so that was part of what is driving a lot of the conversation that we're having to make sure that we can cover um cover the budget, do our fiduciary responsibility to the community and still

091support programs. Any questions here? >> Yes, I have a question. >> Okay. >> Will the property assessment valuation be impacted by new construction like brand new construction? For example, the corridor, the 110 corridor is looking to be improved. A lot of new buildings, a lot of new construction. Is that going to impact our property value assessment? Is it going to look like we're a wealthier town now because of that? >> So, the overall assessment on the community, yes. how that drills down to the numbers that are reported to the state. I'd have to do some digging on that information, but just for the overall assessed value of the town and what goes on uh the tax role. Yes. >> And that could have an impact on how we receive aid and a lot of times

092these new construction, they get pilots, they get benefits. Uh and the community needs to understand that as beautiful as it's going to look, it is going to have an impact on on our district. >> Yes. A question on that then. How once the 110 corridor when would that reassessment uh take place? Is that once these uh projects are completed? I assumed. >> My understanding is once the project is completed um the town and the assessor will evaluate that. They will come up with a number uh that will then be added to our overall property assessed value. Um sometimes though you do have instances where people do not agree with what um their assessed value is and then there becomes a back and forth discussion. I haven't seen that too much um with the school district,

093but it could just be that the process here is different than prior districts, but I've seen it quite a bit in other districts. I do just want to share that with regard to the 110 corridor, we have met with the town of Huntington to discuss um agreements that perhaps or conversations that are taking place with developers to ensure that we are not going to be losing out on potential tax dollars for our district. And uh we plan to attend the SUFFK uh industrial development agency meetings as well in the next couple of months to ensure that discussions aren't taking place about what can impact our district without us having a seat at the table. So we do want the community to be aware of that and that is something that is certainly on our radar.

094>> Yes. Yeah. The rebuttal has always been that it's not that they're providing more students for the district but for example the valuation it's going to impact how much money we receive. It's not just the number of students that it's going to attract, it's evaluation as well. >> Correct. Any other questions on that? >> So, this just copies over some information of revenue at a glance and the draft budget snapshot. Um, this shows where we were as of March 9th and where we currently stand as of March 24th. So this takes into consideration the items I mentioned regarding the uh revenue any updates from the state fingers crossed uh that there is a budget that is on time uh if that occurs uh this information will be updated to include that new information. if not

095uh as we have seen at least my last couple years uh that has not been on time but we will carry forward as we have done in the past um and we will make sure that the board is well informed as we do so and then the draft budget snapshot is just showing the total expenses to date for the 2627 school year and the total revenue to date. Um we have some meetings forthcoming uh with uh other administrators to talk through their budget request. Uh we meet as the cabinet more often than not to speak through uh other opportunities. So this number will continue to uh go down because we do have to present a balanced budget. Um any questions here? Okay. This is just a reminder of the tax cap since inception. Um providing

096what has happened historically where our allowable has been whereas our actual has been and then it also provides 2627 the allowable is 2.76%. The bottom area um of this chart is our budget increase. It also shows what our levy increase has been and then what that allowable levy increase could have been. This is a repeat from our last meeting. Just as a reminder, every.1% increase in the tax levy percentage is an additional $120,426 in revenue. Um, and then this also shows the tax rate and what it looks like at each level. One of the things that I say now and I will say through the remainder of these presentations, this is based on what the assessed value of Huntington was for the current year. We do not know that information of what it will be

097for next year until the fall. This is fund uh fund and reserve balances. Um this will show where we were as of 63024 as of 63025. Um the thing to note for 31 of 2026. The only thing that has changed from 63025 to 31 is interest that has been received. So that is accounted for in each one of these areas. uh unassigned fund balance does not receive uh interest just if anybody's wondering why that number did not change. So um you will see our reserves where they were where they are um in comparison to 630 of 2024 and 25 we seem to be standing in a healthy uh position. 6:30 of 2026 assumes us using the reserve that was the reserve allowances that were allocated per our current budget. That does not include any fund

098balance that remains from the current year being put back in the reserves. So what will happen is the school year will end the auditors will come in. Um if you recall I believe it is the meeting in June. We will put forth not to and exceed amounts for reserve funding. The board will approve that. Audit will occur and then we'll do the sheet that shows how much is um how much is being advised to put in each reserve. All of that will still be forthcoming. So the same process we followed in the past. To note capital reserve funds is lower. That is because we are putting forth a capital reserve uh utilization proposition. So that incorporates the 2.115 um million that the board will be voting to approve tonight so we can move forward with

099publication and um advertising in the coming days. Are there any questions on the reserve and fund balance slide? Okay, this is the capital project uh proposal. Nothing has changed on this. Um but we are planning to touch a lot of buildings. Um doing a lot of work for um safety, security, bringing things up to uh fire code. Um at Finley, I'm just naming off a couple things that are all over the place. Um, Finley, we are really focusing in on doing the uh cracks outside of the fire alarm and the interior window replacement. The high school, we have tons of stuff um really working on anything that deals with cracks and repairs to our walls and infrastructure. Um, fire rated walls and doors. And then Woodall, if you recall, there was a picture of the

100amphitheater last meeting. Um, that is still in the last presentation. I didn't include it here, but um so the Wood Hall amphitheater is included. The uh high school student restrooms renovations and electrical sub panels. Same information. We're working on the 26 27 budget. Uh we will be back again on the 13th to talk through uh revenue and any other state updates we have at that time. Proposition number two will be for $2,115,154 including all of the items listed on the last slide. I think it is important uh for voters to know that it must be approved um the release of these funds. Uh they are already situated in our capital reserve fund and there is no additional impact on the tax levy or tax rate with the approval of the project. things to note. Uh,

101April 13th is the next presentation. So, that's revenue and budget overview. April 21st is the budget adoption. Uh, May 11th, if you want to come out and participate in the budget hearing, that's when people get to ask actual questions and maybe I'll have tons of people come and I'll have tons of answers for stuff. And then May 19th is the budget boat at Huntington High School. And as already expressed, the time is 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. One thing to note, if people do not remember, this presentation is also available on the website in English and Spanish. That's it. If no questions, great. Thank you. All right, moving on to curriculum and instruction. >> Good evening. It is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the board of education approve CSSE CPSE submissions as

102delineated. >> Motion, please. Channel one, Tom two. Go ahead. >> All in favor? That's everyone. >> I don't think you approved the capital before. >> Oh, you're right. We did not. So, I'm going to go back to items for discussion and action number four. Right. It is my recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the board of education review and adopt the attached resolution which among other things outlines a capital proposition for inclusion on the May 19th, 2026 ballot that will allow district residents to vote on the use of existing monies within the district's 2022 building improvements capital reserve fund. Can I have a motion, please? Annie one, Teresa 2. Questions, comments? All in favor? That's everyone. And we'll go back to curriculum and instruction number two. Okay. So, this is a course proposal for

103AP business with personal finance. The this course uh is an introductory college level course in business skills and strategies and p and personal financial literacy. Students explore the core business disciplines of entrepreneurship, marketing, finance, accounting, and business management through real world applications, case studies, and project-based learning. Additionally, students learn and apply the national standards for personal financial education as established by the Council for Economic Education and the Jumpstart Coalition for Personal Personal Financial Literacy. This will be the first AP course offered through Huntington High School's business department, which will serve as an introduction uh in many ways to future business pathways. This course may also serve as an excellent precursor for those students interested in virtual enterprise, though it is not a requirement that they go um in that order or in that pathway. Uh,

104this course provides a comprehensive overview of all aspects of business, allowing students to explore various areas of the business world. Huntington High School was one of a small number of schools nationwide to pilot portions of this course over the past two years in advance of the college board's roll out of the full course. This pilot was wellreceived by our students and our own instructor has been designated by the college board as a course ambassador has who has significantly contributed to the refinement of this AP course for others. >> Do we have a motion please? Kelly one Jenna 2 questions comments >> I just wanted to ask um first off this course sounds really cool. Um my question was about virtual enterprise who said this is a precursor to virtual enterprise. Uh it's an AP course

105so obviously uh they can hopefully get college credit for this course. Is virtual enterprise a course where they can get college credit? Yes. And um it's it's not a requirement that they take this course prior to uh virtual enterprise. It could be in the reverse order. Um we currently offer virtual enterprise through um Farmingdale uh for college credit as well. Anyone else? All in favor? That's everyone. >> Thank you. Um, our next course is Civic Quest. We had an awesome presentation already. I don't know if you needed another summary or if you'd wanted to just bring it forward. >> Have a motion. John, Teresa, any questions, comments? All in favor? Everyone. >> Thank you so much. Our next course um is college and AP calculus. This course will cover the essential content of Sienna Colleg's

106calculus MAT 110 course and the College Board's AP Calculus coursework including topics such as functions, limits, continuity, differentiation, the chain rule, anti-derivatives, and the definite integral fundamental theorem of calculus and trigonometric functions. Yes, I was an English teacher, but I really can spell and I can pronounce things. Partnering with Sienna College for this course provides students with the opportunity to earn four college credits at a cost of $300. Students who qualify for free or reduced lunch may obtain college credit free of charge. Additionally, Sienna provides extensive training resources, assessment materials, and networking opportunities for our teachers. We currently offer this um the college credit through Beacon and we'd be moving to Sienna. >> You get a pass after nine. So don't worry. Can I have a motion? Tom Jenna two questions, comments? >> Really? I

107almost feel silly asking this one, but clarifying question. The cost of $300 is for all four credits or times four? >> No, it's for the total course. >> Okay. I was telling my husband what a great deal it was. He's like, "That's not a good deal." And I was like, "Maybe I don't get it. >> It would be pretty expensive if it were per credit." Yes, >> I agree. >> Anyone else? All in favor? That's everyone. >> Thank you. In similar fashion, um, College uh, AP pre-calculus. Uh, this course will cover the essential content of Sienna Colleg's calculus MAT 101 course and the College Board's AP pre-calculus coursework, including topics that extend beyond the study of functions in algebra 2, including zeros and graphs of polomial functions, graphs and asmmptotes of rational functions, exponential and

108logarithmic functions, introduction to trigonometry, angle measurement, right triangle trigonometry, and properties and graphs of trigonometric functions. Partnering with Sienna College for this course provides students with the opportunity to earn three college credits at a cost of $225. Again, students who qualify for free or reduced lunch may obtain college credit free of charge. And in the same fashion, uh Sienna provides extensive training resources, assessment materials, and networking opportunities for our teachers. >> Do we have a motion? Annie one. John two questions, comments. >> Great question. uh the reason for the replacing uh I guess it was Suffach County's uh Beacon course and the re the reason being >> the uh a couple of reasons the the networking opportunities for our teachers really are um stellar through Sienna and the fact that um our students who qualify

109for free and reduced lunch can get credit college credit at zero cost is very uh important to us and it is something that's a priority. Um, additionally, the vetting process um through Sienna, they've worked very well with us and our teachers. Um, and a lot of their coursework aligns with ours. So, our teachers are um, you know, uh, just really pleased with the the partnership that we've had with Sienna thus far. >> Well, I mean, it's great coming through a four-year college, you know, a step up from SUFFK. Nothing against Suffach, but, you know, having that four-year program and, uh, you know, these dual enrollments are just really wonderful. and uh additional transfer opportunities. I know as opposed to colleges who may not be accepting uh AP credits but would be accepting the college credits.

110>> We're we're we believe the transferability is very high for these uh credits. >> Great. Thank you. Anyone else? All in favor? Everyone. >> Thank you. Getting there. Um college career and financial management. This is a course that is a half-year elective designed to provide students with the capabilities of making sound financial decisions in the working world. Students will experience real world scenarios and use strategies to evaluate the costs and benefits of their financial decisions. Topics include securing employment, calculating payments, checks, wages and income, meal planning, saving money, budgeting, medical insurance, automobile insurance, interest, uh investing, buying a car, buying a house, maintaining a home. The class will consist of individual student research as well as collaborative projects and presentations. And the college credit will be offered through Stony Brooks uh Stony Brook University's ACE

111program. Offering dual enrollment through Stony Brooks ACE program aligns seamlessly with the career and financial management course as there as our course curriculum mirrors much of Stony Brooks University's business 230 personal finance course. This half-year course provides students with the opportunity to obtain three college credits at the reduced rate of $300 in total. Students who qualify for free or reduced lunch are eligible to receive these three college credits at a further reduced rate of $100 in total. Do you have a motion? >> Annie one, John 2. Questions, comments? >> I do have a question. So, will this satisfy the New York State Eds financial literacy requirement that is um >> definitely um both that and the AP course would uh cover those five areas that are required by New York State. However, um because not

112every student will take those, we are uh planning for curriculum alignment over the summer to align our current economics class with those um areas of of uh personal finance that are required by the state. And so that will be um in place by September for all students because everyone must take uh economics in one form or another as a graduation requirement. >> Awesome. So, they'll have a few options to satisfy their own. >> They would be taking both of those if they elect uh to take one of these business courses. They'd also be taking economics um in one form or another. And so, they'd be getting sort of a double dose of all of those um those pieces of the financial um literacy. Uh but they'd be getting it in a different uh through a

113different lens. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? All in favor? That's everyone. >> All right. Thank you so much. In the area of science, we are um putting forward uh college forensics 1 and two. This course serves as an introduction to the basic principles of forensic science. The purpose of this course is to provide students with an understanding of forensic science by examining the current techniques and instruments that are commonly used to analyze chemical, physical, and biological evidence. The college forensics course will cover topics in the fields of science uh science fields of chemistry, physics and biology that are required to understand these analytical techniques. In addition, the course will examine various social, legal, cultural, and media related impacts brought about by advances in forensic science. In partnering with Sienna College, our dual enrollment credit

114um will uh students will have the opportunity to earn three college credits at the reduced rate of $225. And students who qualify for free or reduced lunch will once again be eligible to earn these credits free of charge. The current Huntington High School forensics one and two courses align well with Sienna's Chem 100 inter uh introduction to forensics course. >> Have a motion for approval? Channel one, Kelly 2. Questions, comments? All in favor? Oh, sorry. >> Yeah, I just I know this is the last college uh course that you had listed here. I'm just uh curious at this point. Um, you know, I know students for years have been graduating. Uh, some of the students have taken these courses. 30 plus, you know, college credits coming up between AP and dual enrollment. Um, do you

115do we even have a number? This is >> 20. It's 20 courses. >> 20 courses >> if you approve this one. >> So, that's half your college education. I mean, I >> Pretty sweet deal. >> Pretty well. Okay. Oh, wonderful. Thank you. Anyone else? All in favor? That's everyone. >> Thank you so much. >> Last of course, and this was um mentioned also by Mr. Rothell earlier, computer science technology 7. Um I don't know if you need a summary of that. I'm happy to give it if you'd like, but it's it really is working well with the Civic Quest course. Um so that kids can take both. >> Have a motion for approval. Teresa one, Annie 2. Questions, comments? just had one question about uh digital fluency. It's in the description. Um does that touch

116upon media literacy at all or is that something that uh could be incorporated somewhere else in the curriculum? >> I think I think it can be incorporated into this course um to some degree. It's also part of um the computer science standards that are uh touched upon K to2 uh which our library media specialists do to some degree and it also can um find its way into uh the social studies realm. You know media literacy kind of lends itself to u you know discussion of politics and things of that nature as well. >> Anyone else? All in favor? That's everyone. >> Thanks very much. I actually just one last question for Brennan. The um so with all of these courses that we have here um and you were just saying you know possible 60 college

117credits a student can have leaving um some might get um the mis uh they might misinterpret this that this is only for kids who are AP level, highest of the high. Um but these are uh meant to include students to encourage them to see what a college level life would be like and get them college ready. Correct. >> Absolutely. Yeah. This is uh really for everybody. Uh many of these courses I think any student in our high school could take um throughout the during their four years in high school. >> It seems like it's been the theme of our efforts to really be more inclusive and provide these programs for more and more students. >> Yeah, for sure. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, Mr. Personnel. It is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that

118the board of education approve personnel items on schedules 5, 6, 8, 10, 13, 16, and 22. >> You have a motion. Tom one, Jenna 2. All in favor? That's everyone. >> Just um we have some really great um people who have uh planned the next chapter of their life by retiring in the school district and we will be honoring uh those individuals in June. Um so we can't wait to celebrate you and congratulations. And moving on to business. >> It is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the board of education approve business items I through Q. >> A motion, please. Annie one, John two. All in favor? That's everyone. Believe we have some donations. >> Yes, we do. Our first donation comes from Mr. William Ahern, who is presenting a donation of $1,000

119to credit the Tommy Joanne and Steven Ahern Memorial Scholarship Award within the Expendable Trust account. Thank you very much for that donation. Our next Sorry, my computer is lagging. I think I got it. Yeah. Our next donation is from the Gilmore family. Um, they are presenting a donation of $1,400 to credit the Michael Samuel Gilmore Memorial Scholarship in honor of Mr. Gilmore son with the expendable trust account. Thank you, Mr. Gilmore and Gilmore family. And last but not least, the Woodh Hall PTA is at it again with their donations. Why is this taking so long? Sorry. try and refresh this. The Woodhull Intermediate School PTA is presenting $1,000 uh to help offset the cost of upcoming field trips. So, thank you, Woodall PTA. >> That was it, right? Just right. At this time, we open

120up our uh meeting for the second public commentary. Uh same rules apply. You're welcome to approach the podium. Any closing remarks by board members? >> We have Sorry. >> Okay. Hi guys. Betsy Flanigan, president of the Associated Teachers of Huntington. Um I have two items I wanted to discuss tonight. Um one is just because I wasn't here last board meeting. um the neurovirus hit my kids and it was rough. So, but I did want to thank the board because last board meeting you all signed on to the um board resolution for the Long Island Against Charter Schools. And I wanted to thank you um first and foremost because you were part of a group of the first districts to sign on that. And that shows that in this fight against charter schools, Huntington, once again,

121we're leaders. We're not followers. We're not waiting to see how many districts are signing on to something. We're doing the right thing. Um, I am one of the founding members for Long Island Against Charter School. So, this is something that's I'm very passionate about. And I did want to share that there are actually two bills currently for charter school reform um, and more coming out. So, a lot of really exciting things to help prevent our tax dollars being taken away and put into charter schools. So, thank you for that. Um, and then I also wanted to speak. I know this is the staffing meeting and we never want to see any of our staff go. Um, it is one of the tougher meetings when we have to access. But, um, I do want to thank

122Mr. Hender and the district for their efforts. I know this was not a budget reason. This was a numbers reason and um I there was a lot of care and compassion that went into those conversations and we appreciate that. There was also a lot of thought that went into how can we help uh what more can we do and we really appreciate that. We know that if there was a way to avoid this, it would have been done. So, we do recognize that. We appreciate that. Um, and we do thank you for that. And the association is here for those teachers as well. Um, for anything that we can do. So, thank you for that. Have a good night. >> Thank you for your support. >> Comments by board members. Closing remarks. Motion to adjurnn.

123Kelly one, Jenna two. All in favor? That's everyone. Good night.