001welcome everyone to the March 27 2023 Board of Education regular business meeting can I have a motion to open the meeting please I'm Theresa and a second from Michelle all in favor it's everyone it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the Board of Education enter into executive session to discuss the status of collective bargaining with two District units and employment terms and conditions related to a non-contractual employees in accordance with the open meeting law about motion I'm kellyanne a second from Xavier all in favor that's everyone we will return to the table at 7 30. okay welcome back everybody um okay can I have a motion to adjourn the executive session and return to the public session of motion from Xavier and a second from Theresa all in favor that is everyone
002please rise for the pledge 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 a reminder to everyone that we have emergency exits in the back and on the sides of this room in the case of an emergency please make your way quickly but safely to one of those exits and a second reminder that like all our campuses this is a smoke-free campus um Xavier and Theresa it is upon 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 dated February 27 2023. emotion from Theresa and a second from Bill all in favor that is everyone we have
003several fyis on the budget budget appropriation reports for General school lunch and special aid funds as of 228 2023 budget transfers Flower Hill Primary School change order Jefferson primary change order southbound primary change order claims audit report and a revenue status report that is one doesn't even have any questions on any of those okay it is upon recommended that there's so many because of the chance orders okay okay it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the Board of Education approved the attached warrants which were certified for payment on March 1st 2023 and March 15 2023 emotion from Kelly Ann a second from Xavier all in favor that's everyone just to elaborate on that the three change orders are all related to actually Flower Hill related to the the solar the photovoltaic system
004that is a twenty thousand dollar savings South down also the solar ten thousand dollar savings and Jefferson boiler replacement twenty thousand dollar savings so all of those so the project came that project came in under and the others are because we're generating more power than we're using is that it's also about the installation okay the first the first time we did the solar project it was we had to estimate the BBS had to estimate a lot of the costs once we have the experience of doing one it gets closer and closer the next time we do it but obviously you you can't under budget these projects so twenty thousand dollars in in a four hundred and fifty thousand dollar context is not a lot of money but we'll take those savings time right and if
005anyone who's listening or is here tonight is interested in hearing more about the Solar projects uh two meetings ago it was last meeting last meeting time flies when you're having fun um there was a a lot of discussion about the success of that project so it's very interesting and probably a joke a big check yeah that's a lot more than the change orders by the way yeah right a lot more than the change orders that brings us to our board member Communications and announcements so who would like to go first Michelle if you have something no Teresa no you would go first go ahead yeah I attended the NASA Suffolk school boards um executive committee meeting a couple weeks ago and um as is across the state in all districts budget and legislative advocacy was
006on top of mind and there are there's a list from uh nisba that aligns with the superintendents Association in both Nassau and Suffolk and that's available online um and I'll let you guys handle the other stuff no handle something I was just going to do the two say that now well and Jim's gonna also probably talk about some of the latest right legislative stuff so who who else had your Teresa why don't you start your long list I have a very long list um well a bunch of congratulations actually just want to congratulate all the students who uh participate in the scamiya festival so I was able to attend both and they really um it's it's such an honor for the kids and a privilege um a lot of hard work goes into it and
007they were really spectacular I heard it was really impressive it really was impressive um also just wanted to mention our Frost Valley trip and what a success that was despite the delayed you know start um it's such a great opportunity for our sixth graders they they actually come back changed a little bit and anybody who's gone through it I had the opportunity to attend the Arts and Ed night and it was incredible to see the caliber of talent that our students experience on a daily basis and it was just so good to see the Arts alive um and well [Music] I will let you guys talk about the performances but I did want to also um just thank the office of Fine Arts and Music I know there's a lot of like work that goes
008into pulling all of these events off and um from back office and custodial and security staff everybody involved did a tremendous job and it was great um from a wellness committee perspective I just wanted to thank Dr Acker and also Mr hoops and Mr Marinello the wellness committee for those of you who don't know Huntington does it right a lot of districts from my understanding don't quite have as healthy of attendance participation a frequency of meetings you know look at the state mandated thing but we really go above and beyond and Mr mandelo presented us we broke out in the beginning of the year in in the wellness committee and for those of you don't know it's comprised of parents and teachers and administrators we have representatives from each building and we sort of brainstormed
009at the beginning of the year different initiatives what could be done to just increase district-wide Wellness in general and I was really glad Mr mannell presented us with what the schools ran with and based on those ideas and just a couple of things that were that were standouts for me at the primary schools they're utilizing a lot of the televisions interactive bulletin boards having Family Fitness nights growing vegetable gardens positive self talk messages incorporating mindfulness in throughout the day even yoga and the intermediate level we have the podcasting Club really talking about again positive self-talk kindness Stress Awareness at the high school they've been doing a tremendous job with Mr Cusack had the anti-vaping assembly and the messaging that's going on on the TVs in the lobby in the cafeteria and just a lot of
010good stuff going on a lot of awareness on how we can utilize existing facilities to sort of create a consistent message across the District of kindness mindfulness and you know self-awareness so thank you to them for doing such a great job and I'm really looking forward to Gabby also does a tremendous job with our Food Services Program their presentation will be next week so hopefully be able to update you on that next time around thank you did I leave anything out that was great I don't think so okay Xavier you want to tell us your great news yeah absolutely yeah so our team the Huntington mock trial team has advanced to the finals the county finals the second time uh in two years we're currently undefeated in the last three years and hopefully we win
011we advance to the state competition state competition is uh one team from every County vying for that State title our team looks very strong we're up against Northport in the last five years it's been either us or Northport so wish us luck I will give Mr Hoops a link you can watch it you can stream it or you can go in person to the Suffolk County Bar Association three o'clock it's in hotpock everybody's welcome they have some refreshments there's a real judge that sits during the competition it's like a real trial it's a it's a full trial from beginning to end what time is it at three o'clock on thurs Wednesday sub County Bar Association okay great um you have anything go yeah um all right I've got a couple of things um so we've
012obviously had an incredible few weeks of uh performances we saw Cinderella at Findlay and it was so cute so great the kids were just so amazing and talented Mrs Graber did such a great job with that um we carpeled with a bunch of kids um just throughout rehearsals and it was so nice to hear what theater brings to their lives and just the enrichment that it gives them and some of these kids who um you know they end up being friends with with students that they might not have otherwise connected with and just seeing the bond and my children weren't involved but seeing what it's brought to their friends and the other students which is so incredible um the performance was so great the theater at uh Finley is really cool too I hadn't spent
013too much time in there so to be in the LGI it was a completely different experience than being here or at the high school and it was really intimate it was a packed house both day so it was nice to see that um so kudos to the students the scraper for that the high steppers have a Spring Clinic on April 15th and it's 35 it's open to kindergarteners through eighth grade and the highsteppers put that on and it's a really cute event they do a little showcase at the end and it kind of gives them an idea of what it's like to be a high stepper and get involved in that that's that that's the gym here SEPTA has their fundraiser it's at the head of the Bay Club on March May 6th and live
014music Raffles buffet dinner so it's a great opportunity to get out and put on a fancy dress and first time back your friends yeah cash bar for that um arts and that I wanted to mention our the art night which was so much fun we won a guitar so now I have to find Mr Mike to uh give us lesson so that was great my kids had a good time doing the crafts and the art room and the performances of the Finley of the District staff were magnificent I we were blown away seeing the students teachers up there singing playing guitar playing their instruments so that was really fun for them to see their teachers outside of the school setting but in this concert performance and on that same vein for those of you who
015don't know some of the types of programs that arts and Ed puts on Finley has one this this Friday for the 8th graders it's called from the fires and it's voices from the Holocaust it's a theater troupe I think they're a local theater troupe and they come in so these are monies that are supported by fundraisers like the ones we just had also PTA contributes to that so just it's an amazing opportunity to bring culture and enrichment to the kids and then Happy 30 for 30 gen are we still opening up 30 for 30. yeah so you can um for thirty dollars you can send words of encouragement and congratulations to our two honorees um the event is this this Thursday night so thank you all of you who donated Raffles and are coming out
016to support the evening um and did anyone mention I'll I guess you guys are going to talk about the play here the um yeah the one at the high school yeah so I won't steal your thunder but it was amazing thanks uh yeah I'll hold off on the play then uh magnificent musical um well I think uh we all commented on all the wonderful things we saw we'd be here all night but uh it was really wonderful from the um from the acting and the singing to the sets um that the wonderful stage crew uh put together uh but I also wanted the music don't forget the instruments I'm sorry don't forget the pit I like I could say here all night but you're absolutely right the instrumentalist as well for sure uh no offense
017man um uh the booster club just want to say uh was the the site is alive and open for summer camps uh it ranges from kindergarten up to 12th grade they're weekly they spend uh everything from coed uh tennis uh running we have uh uh you know track track team uh coaches that are going to be there as well we have wrestling and football and Lacrosse and a whole host of others if you are at all interested it is an amazing uh offer for weeks worth of camps uh they range they start off at 50 for the week and uh for what you can get from it it's pretty terrific so if you go to the booster club website uh they have all the information that you'll need there for summer camp registration anything about
018I actually do yeah like Xavier and Michelle left me a softball I know Jim's going to cover it but on uh on Friday uh we uh we uh camera shy people took the opportunity to attend a press conference it was held at Jefferson in the cafeteria basically in support of the both houses uh the assembly and the Senate putting forth their budgets to the governor that says let's feed every kid in the state and the whole idea was to hopefully let the governor hear that that should be in her one house budget so thanks for everybody joining us that was great okay I think I that leaves me with two quick things um uh oh I just forgot the second one the first one is um is uh it was just announced recently that the
019registrations for the scale Camp are now open um to piggyback off of the two great performances and all of the art that you saw at all these events a lot of the kids that do all of that great stuff at the higher level went to the scale Camp what skill keep scoping scope okay scale isn't it called scale uh is it called scale oh it's scope okay it keeps changing um okay so scope Camp um so look for a registration for that it's a great fantastic thing I remember the other thing it um the unified bowling season just wrapped up I got to see a couple of the matches uh did you call it matches in Bowling I don't know um the kids had so much fun and I just wanted to thank everyone involved
020in getting that off the ground last year this year was the first year for actual competition I wouldn't really say it was like nail biting actual competition because everyone was just having so much fun they kept score but I don't think we ever left really knowing who won because it didn't matter everybody just felt like they won um the the special athletes the typical athletes just it was all one big happy family posing for pictures all the time laughing really just enjoying each other and it's also a great time for the parents of the students to hang out and uh catch up so it was I just wanted to thank everyone involved in that to you okay I'm going to go quickly here uh first of all thank you to actually all of you for
021the support of the press conference event on Friday I do think and hope that this is going to be a part of the final adopted budget which may or may not be ready by state budget by April 1st but it was very well organized I'd like to thank Valerie capitulo said for her Hospitality at Jefferson it just worked out extraordinarily well we had a number of legislators there a number of superintendents from across Long Island as well as the support of Huntington trustees and others as well so thank you for that and thank you for mentioning it bill I also had the privilege of attending the meniscus New York State Council School superintendents winter Institute there was so much going on up there and it is it's primarily uh it benefits me in terms of
022networking but a number of things came up the Blue Ribbon Commission on graduation measures is still in place and is still looking at the role of Regents exams in terms of exit requirements and criteria for graduation that's going to be a process that that probably takes a few years but I'm sure that that information it's through a thought exchange where comments and suggestions are being submitted that is going to be an ongoing conversation that may result in some changes to the program in general that determines how students need to meet criteria and standards and what they will need to graduate from high school across New York state do you think the panel's work will go on for a couple of years the panel's work is definitely probably a multi-year process and what they're doing is
023making recommendations to the regions uh there are representatives from across the state that are participating on this and really what they're looking at is not removing regionless exams from the equation but changing their role in terms of potentially changing their role in terms of what students need to graduate right now we still need to graduate a student they need to pass or earn some threshold score on five standard Regency exams that's for a Regents diploma and they're another uh several other exams that students would have to meet a threshold on to earn an advanced designation on that Region's diploma so they are looking at that in the composite and they will make recommendations and recommendations to the Board of Regents the school report cards were supposed to have been updated by March 16th that didn't
024happen it doesn't change anything you know obviously we are looking forward to them being released but I don't have a date on release of those but it is public documentation it is public information that principals can share with their communities I already threw out some information one of my Friday messages a couple of weeks back we're also looking at I know Brian and I have had Brian Salado and I've had conversations as well as Jeanette and and Brendan at the high school on another diploma pathway that involves the Arts we do need to get in on that prior to I believe it's August 1st from August 1st I'm not mistaken thank you um but there I know Brian is actively looking at that just one more much like the CTE sequence and other sequences this
025will provide students with another possible alternative to the standard graduation pathway also at the conference a lot of discussion on student discipline and disproportionality and I think we're ahead of the curve there understanding the importance of some of the restorative practices we have in place and I also felt compelled to attend and EV electric vehicle presentation which was quite interesting [Music] um honestly if there is there are many more questions and answers on this uh the presenters involved they were people from nyserda they were people from a district that has its own Fleet that was in the process of trying to figure out a way to convert some of the buses that currently run around 360 thousand dollars and they were also State Education Department officials there and what they were saying is the reporting
026requirement is probably going to change and be pushed out a little bit because there are just too too many questions at this point I sat in with the Nassau County colleague of mine and it was just amazing in terms of the questions that couldn't be answered it's going to happen at some point obviously it's important for a number of reasons but school districts really can't be rushed to convert fleets if they have them or push their contractors towards converting fleets when the technology is still under development and the way school districts pay for them right now if even if if it was to be if you would have purchased new buses and Equipment Etc and it was aidable that Aid is returned over multiple years worth of time and if one bus costs 360 000
027there has to be a better way to keep districts in a position where they can afford it without bonding and we have worked so hard in Huntington to remove to remove debt from the books and we obviously we don't have our own fleets we're not in that position at least at this point but again districts even with their own fleets are having difficulty trying to figure out how to pay for this so more to follow but was certainly an interesting presentation I also informed the board that we we participated in a class action suit against Jewel Laboratories or some of the damages done related to vaping and the products that they provide to young people that have led to all kinds of different problems and and addictions Etc and we were actually successful we are
028going to receive a payout from that that is still in the process of being settled but it is not going to be insignificant and um you know thank you to the board for giving me the permission to enter us into that that class action we are looked at as a large District that has participated so our payout is not going to be it will be less than a hundred thousand dollars but it's not going to be insignificant congratulations to Laurel Bond and Haley Smith valedictorian salutatorian of the class of 2003 uh 2023. and also a shout out to National Merit Scholarship finalist Cecilia Kai a great bunch of students in this in this class as and we know it really pertains to every class but these are accomplished kids that are now starting to hear
029about their post-secondary Pursuits we should clap absolutely [Applause] and quickly it's been a busy couple of weeks robotics National History Day robotics is they went to Regional competition at Hofstra University last week they have another competition coming up in Albany National History Day the local winners participated in the regional competition on Sunday on this past Sunday and I believe that the virtual award ceremony is on Tuesday so we'll have more information then our Virtual Enterprise teams are on their way to doing great things continuing the things that they've done since the beginning of the year uh thank you to all the schools for participating in the PSI love you day and Valentine's for vets I mean these are really well received and it really shows what this district is all about in numerous regards so
030thank you again and and I've had the pleasure of being a part of some of the parents as reading partner programs and some of our elementary schools and they've all got really interesting themes and they're really exciting the kids about opening opening books and reading so thank you to all of all of our elementary principals um I'm not going to belabor the Arts but a lot of great things going on with the Arts the the theater Productions were just were just phenomenal um we have such talent in this district and I'll leave it at that and thank you all for supporting the Arts here and thank you Brian for all of the the great things that you've been doing uh spring Athletics are underway uh we continue to have our New York State Public High
031School Athletic Association recognizing our teams and our scholar athletes and we're looking forward to some successful seasons in the classroom and on the field as the spring progresses Kelly mentioned happy I'd like to thank a number of people I'm not going to be specific because I'll miss somebody but uh Chris and Company for the non-instructional job fair that was held here on March 18th which landed us a number of people who are on tonight's agenda and they also went to the Eastern Suffolk BOCES uh recruiting fair in the diversity Fair um this past weekend and there were a number of interests and candidates there that were that were certainly connected with at this point was it pretty well attended great there's a number of districts there so it's a speed dating routine yeah we're an
032attractive place to be and also just I think I mentioned this to the board but we do have some security measures that are being piloted and I'll mention one specifically um I don't know if Michelle is here tonight but Washington is piloting a one a one push lockdown device which basically shuts down all doors at once and has a strobe that informs people on the outside that the building is in lockdown condition and we're also looking at different door locks and security booths this is all coming from various grants and uh with vendors I think I'm good thank you so much again with everything okay so it's time for our public commentary I don't need the agenda to tell me that except that I forgot my password I'll do it in a second um so
033our first public commentary uh should be since we have a lot of items for discussion and action the first people that would speak would be anybody um who wants to address one of those items which there are many um three minutes it's for uh anyone in the community and our staff please come to the mic and identify yourself and your affiliation with the district and sign in on the form no discussions of personnel matters or student Matters by name and would anybody like to come to the mic to stop if you do just please watch what's up three minutes right and you can come to the mic and speak if you'd like um it's not a question and answer but it is your time to speak I saw a hand just come to the podium
034you don't need to raise your hand just anybody who wants to speak can come to the podium now and we'll take you in order thank you good evening folks my name is Justin Thompson my wife Bonnie who's in the audience and I are 48-year residents of the Huntington District I wrote to superintendent Polanski about three weeks ago regarding uh proposed policy number 3430 and I'd like to read into the record the letter that I sent to Mr Polanski as a result of that discussion good morning Mr Polanski and thank you for inviting Bonnie and me to attend the Tuesday night meeting of the district district board's policy committee we gained invaluable insight to their procedures responsibilities and requirements I'm concerned about the board's possible adoption of a policy that would impose diversity equity and inclusion
035Dei in the Huntington School District among many other consequences it appears a Dei infers the potential to minimize the value of individual achievement a Shoe Personal accomplishments undervalue the potential of Staff members skill sets diminish the influence of demonstrated capabilities create a divisive environment for staff faculty and students structure a disincentive for Superior performance and distract from The District's real mission of educating our youth from my perspective the proposed policy encourages people who are physically or socially who physically or socially identify as something they are not to demand participation in a sport or activity that was originally structured to be gender specific it appears there are there are a myriad legal physical social academic emotional psychological financial and operational concerns inferred by the proposed adoption of policy 3430 diversity Equity inclusion in the district the
036district's cost implications for trying to meet all of these conditions and contingencies deferred by the proposed policy is enormous in order to ensure that policy 3430 does not overwhelm the taxpayers or cause unnecessary academic disruption I strongly urge that the board seek approval for the proposal from District voters in the upcoming election or as soon thereafter is possible thank you can you sign the form up there there's like a yeah my apologies for the mask you never have to apologize for taking care of yourself is there anybody else that just while we're waiting yeah I know I just want to have them move towards the Mr Polanski just as a a follow-up to thank you Mr Thompson the policy does provide an opportunity to lay out what Dei is and what it's not such a
037document is already in place in many districts as it aligns directly with New York State education department guidance and framework in fact Huntington is among the most ethnically and socioeconomically diverse communities in New York state in brief the policy simply reaffirms the district's commitment to educating and supporting every resident family and help them to understand that this District belongs to all of them collectively furthermore it aligns directly with Board of Education goals that have been adopted annually and also with the long-standing district mission statement diversity has always been among this District's strengths and I don't think this policy does anything to suggest otherwise thank you okay does anybody anybody else wish to speak this time there is another public commentary at the end of the meeting okay then we shall move to our items for
038discussion in action the first being our budget presentation Mr Polanski thank you clicker okay that I noticed myself okay so this is the fourth in our series of budget presentations and conversations this presentation is designed specifically to review the bulk of of the monies in our budget the 2000 series codes related to curriculum and instruction and also attached here is a staffing presentation comparing what we currently have to what we're looking for for next year okay not to read them but this is the list of itemized Lines within the 2000 cost center and I'll bring it right to this is two slides in succession some of the things that we're looking at from 22 23 to 23 24 also the First Column there shows the 21-22 actuals for comparative purposes I do want to highlight
039a few significant changes from 22 23 to 23 24. and I'll go down the list very quickly the board would like to pose additional questions on them I just want to give you some information to start so starting with curriculum division development and supervision this does add a director as I'm going to point out to you on the Staffing presentation with the addition of another director it is also going to reduce a position that current is currently held by a part-time administrator who is actually retired but not really and we're going to pull back on her responsibilities and she's of course fantastic but we're going to pull back and her responsibilities a little bit and I'm going to describe that in Greater detail but that does include an additional director director it also includes recoded
040physical education coordinator so the although it's a significant increase some of the monies have been moved around to increase that code a little bit more than it normally would have I'm going to move to research planning and development that is uh obviously it's not a significant flat dollar amount increase but it's almost 20 percent uh that reflects the Frost Valley Home programs and also the PLC surveys that we sent out earlier in the year there's a cost attached to both of those they're in that code obviously we haven't done Frost Valley Green kill no longer exists Frost Valley did not happen last year the year before that or I believe the year before that we returned to it this year and I I didn't mention this before Teresa you mentioned that I want to thank
041our students and families for being very patient and understanding even though it wasn't really crazy weather down here it was up there so what we did we shortened the trip a little bit it was in the essence of safety but they got to play in the snow they did get to play in the snow and obviously that wasn't going to happen too much down here this winter in-service training that again not a very significant dollar amount but a significant percentage increase that reflects professional development we've done a lot of it this year with the iready program it's at Findlay Middle School they have done a considerable amount of work instituting implementing as well as doing the data analysis with help from those who know the program well and we are now looking toward bringing that
042program to the elementary level it is it is truly a an Adaptive diagnostic assessment and I find it to be extraordinarily informative and helpful in terms of how we address the needs of individual students so that PD is in there uh teaching regular school that's obviously a much more significant dollar amount than percentage percentage increase and the majority of that is contractual in nature be students with disabilities line actually would typically be a lot greater of an increase than that but we've been able to realize some savings through reduction in outside BOCES special education costs and again credit to Diana Rich for all the work she does in finding the right placements for children and keeping them here when we can the occupational education budget includes 83 CTS includes 83 CTE students most of them
043attending one of the Wilson Tech or Western Suffolk BOCES tech programs and that as actually an individual cost of 13 470 per student and there's a little bit of salary recoding in there as well I'm going to jump down to the computer assisted instruction line second from the bottom that also reflects an increased software code for i-Ready and a hundred thousand dollars for the paper tutoring program now that is a program that if we don't need that high impact tutoring set aside be allocated towards something like that just based on usage we may pull that out and reallocate it it's a I think it's a great program we highlighted it when it was at its peak usage but to spend that kind of money and not have the usage where we'd like it to be
044it just may not be worth the expense we'll look in other directions for that the attendance code okay that also is significant both in terms of flat dollar amount and percentage we recoded the current Deans where student support advisors into that line and there are also um there's also a new Dean added there and I'm going to come back to that very shortly in the Staffing presentation okay nothing set in stone here but guidance line the increase there reflects an additional counselor at Findlay Middle School still under discussion but I kept it in for conversational purposes Health Services the increase there is just simply an increase in the in the rate that we need to pay and that we are paid in terms of Health Service and Health Services at our private schools so you're
045seeing this in terms of an expense you will likely see it in terms of a pass-through Revenue in the next presentation I don't know the exact dollar amount but the health services rates have gone up in most cases it's like a psychological psychologists and social worker lines the movement there up and down reflects moving Monies to the F code Grants so we we can cover some of that money some of that payment some of that salary cost to the grant lines and that's a that's a dynamic process each year so that's why you see the psychologist going down a drop and the social worker going up Social Work line going up uh by 45 and change and that 14.31 percent and the athletic increase reflects a number of new teams and a recoding of post-season
046pay so there are some more significant numbers than others but there are reasons underlying the numbers attached to each code you're going to take a breather the guidance counselor at finally that's been something that's been asked for for a while it's been tough it has been we have we have added considerably in the areas of student Support over the past several years and that's psychologists social workers and guidance the counselor at the middle school that has been requested each and every year it's a different type but not necessarily wholeheartedly different type of situation obviously there's less College counseling but we're still preparing kids to take that next step at the high school level you have two counselors at the middle school you're talking about as many as 600 700 students it is tough for them
047to get to them all on an individualized basis a third Council would help in that respect also I think with more and more new courts is that Findlay being added you know there's a lot more to discuss there's a lot more to think about there's a lot more um differentiation between the students of what direction they might want to try out or take or you know just the encouragement at Middle School to experiment with different subject matters to really find out what the kids are interested in it's just such a crucial time to do that I really you know before they go to the high school and commit to a course but you know well in some ways they do well I think also you have to also remember we you know we've implemented the
048accelerating of the Mathematics Curriculum and things like that looking into it in other areas and that puts a burden not just on the educational instructional staff but also on the the support staff for making sure that all the kids are kind of kept in line and whatnot sometimes we tend to overlook that so I'm not all not at all surprised to hear that we really do need another guidance counselor there because we're doing a lot curriculum wise they're making it right Dynamic yeah yeah because you you know it's a crucial time that kids fall through the cracks and you don't want anyone either way like somebody being not noticed for something they can do or not being noticed for something they're struggling with so that's like a crucial I will tell you that we have
049two outstanding counselors we have outstanding councils across the board but two outstanding councils at the middle school level they don't complain for even a moment so this is not something that they've asked for per se I know they're not going to say well we don't want this but this is coming from uh the director it knows that the need is there and it's it I see it and just to piggyback on a few of the thoughts of the increased uh burden on the guidance counselors they're the first line of our defense uh for clinicians for uh social and emotional uh well-being uh and they they can screen out well for you know the first line of defense for children having difficulties which if you look across the board as a a large increase in um
050the students across the nation so that sounds uh i i would support thank you that idea you have thanks any other thoughts okay all right I'm going to jump right into Staffing and I know this usually draws a little bit of a greater crowd than we have here today but I think this is going to make sense to all so first of all we look at this and and I would like to thank Mr Hender and Dr Acker and and Miss McCoy and all those who and every principal really went through their their staff from top to bottom also based on course registrations at the secondary level but this was really combed through as carefully and in as detailed a manner as possible we look at administrative staff we look at elementary we look at
051secondary we look at non-instructional four buckets per se I'll start with the administrative piece which includes central office district-wide building level Administration we are obviously there's going to be some changes at the central office level that may have a a fiscal impact but the one change in terms of what we're potentially looking at administratively is at the district-wide level and that would be taking RFK through stem K-12 stem director and breaking it into two components with the Next Generation standards upon us and the tremendous work we are and and I say this with all credit given to Miss McCoy to Dr grossani and to to all our Educators who have been involved with the computer science transition here we are looked to by other districts as a leader in terms of what we've done with
052computer science and how how far ahead of the curve that we are and there's still some work to be done but computer science is going to take on a whole new life as years go on so what this does K-12 stem um that's that's a lot for one person to handle so looking at math as one of the core disciplines and computer science in its current state and all the work that needs to be done there and supervision and oversight that needs to be in place moving forward we're looking to put math and computer science together and then take the instructional technology piece which is currently addressed by Mary Beth Robinette who retired but really didn't retire um pull that from per package and attach it to the K-12 science piece and that's the instructional
053technology piece the other Tech piece is more the hardware software which is addressed by our Network and systems administrator but the instructional technology requires the educational component and and the administrative oversight by somebody with that that specific certification so we're looking to break it into that two-person package and Mary Beth Robinette would still keep the CIO piece certain pieces of monitoring anything related to education law 2D a couple of of pieces that she currently has with New central office administrators in place myself and Dr Acker to leave somebody with experience with the Chief Information officer and the amount of reporting that has to be done she can do most of it with her eyes closed at this point when Nancy allard's help they do a terrific job it's important that that component remains where it
054is for the time being and then you know she'll she'll make a decision at some point but that would stay but the rest of it would be broken up as you see here again this is proposed looking at elementary we are facing our projections at each school on March enrollments this is not based on beds day it's not based on September enrollments we have not had huge enrollment shifts from the beginning of the year until now we are down in terms of our enrollment from a couple of years back but we'll look at the enrollment and projections as they occur into the summer particularly at the kindergarten level because registration is is simply in its infancy stages at this point and we have we have a lot of the paperwork already in place for a
055number of families but a lot of movement happens over the summer okay and we are wait this was something I had initially asked years and years back for the principals to send home class placements in June and they very nicely asked me to please let us go back to August because there's so much that changes over the summer and they did a very nice job in convincing me and they were right so we'll start with Flower Hill I'm just going to look at the bottom line here obviously we roll up the grade levels and the kindergarten is an estimate because we're nowhere near being done with that at this point but we are projecting 12 sections this year actually that's not a projection that's actual we're projecting That Remains the Same for next year 12
056sections okay Jefferson is actually predicted to increase a section in 23 24 primarily if you look at the numbers currently three two three two the two jumps out and the three moves in I don't see us in a position where we have only three kindergarten sections including dual language of Jefferson so that's up a section southbound remains as is 14 to 14. and Washington is a very interesting place we are um if there's one place that we probably could have broken a section this year it's not overwhelming but we are looking to open up an additional section in grade one at Washington next year and that brings it up by a section in total from 16 to 17. and so these slides explain partly why there's not as many people in the audience as there
057used to be in years past because these class sizes are very I'm glad you brought that up just in terms of what has transpired over the past couple of years as a result of the pandemic and I will tell you you know one of the things that we've been looking at very carefully this year is attendance and I'm pleased to say that attendance across the board is in such a better place than it has been for the past three years but we we suffered academically over the past three years we are still attempting to close gaps we are still attempting to fill holes it is important for us to really look carefully get class size and not let it get to a point that we can't do the best we can to address the individual
058needs of every child in this school district obviously we only address our own academic you know um I don't know what the right word is what's the word you just used performance achievement okay performance but um nationally I mean we just saw a released you know statistics that showed Oh it's everywhere I haven't um an article on this week's update for you on on nape scores I mean reading scores math scores are down across the nation and nape is really not a huge uh hugely impactful in New York state but everything is is not where it was in 2017-18 and I think we're really doing it with bringing in diagnostic assessments like I already and looking at class sizes and and the transitions we're making in terms of programs and curricula we listen it's not
059perfect there's still a lot of work to do but we're moving in the right direction and looking at every child and not just groups of children together um when the opportunities present themselves so moving to Jack Abrams again just based on grade levels moving up projected to stay approximately the same at 18 sections and the same at Woodhull okay so in sum taking the six elementary schools and the composite we're looking at two additional teachers to maintain reasonable class size and to address student needs and this you know honestly it is a fluid process because of kindergarten enrollment does not pan out as we expect it to we're not going to have eight students in a Kindergarten class um but this is projected based on what we anticipate in terms of initial interest the process
060has begun and if we don't need it we won't put it in but we do want to leave it available and If it wasn't if we we did need the additional additional section that at a grade level or particularly in kindergarten it would become part of contingency integrated co-teacher one down at Woodhull and this is simply based on students High EP needs so this is reviewed very carefully by Diana rich and her staff it's also grade levels rolling up so the students with IEPs who would haul this year may be at Family next year special class I guess it used to be called self-contained just based on and this may change depending on the school selection I know Diana and I put I give this to Diana look at very carefully we do try to
061accommodate requests and preferences based on the process that we have for students to select a grade for school which is based on current sections there may be one additional special class and one additional teacher needed at Jack Abrams foreign so the other positions at the elementary level are a number of things for you to talk about and I'll move through them quickly one suggestion to provide some additional support at the elementary level is to go back to and we did have this at one point a student support advisor we've kind of been moving away from the concept of Dean because it has that connotation but student support advisor and take that 1.0 and split it between the two intermediate schools making somebody who can really help with the population in both buildings while it would
062be a higher for both schools it can be you know depending on the needs of a given week that person could spend more or less time in either of the two buildings so it does provide a little bit of additional support there enl just based on nice hotel and nice and slat results and current needs and population and we're looking for one more enl teacher across the elementary schools at the elementary level and the other pieces there are math and reading both response to intervention RTI categorized positions some of this is attached to that high impact tutoring monies but honestly even if that is a longer a requirement and that money is discretionary again there are academic holes to fill we need the RTI support So this provides a little bit more extra I'm not
063going to call it extra classroom it's its own classroom but it does provide based on what we're seeing with Ames web based on what we're seeing as we get to Findlay with with iready this is what we need to help support our students on an individualized level as best we can academically and then some Jim where were these where would they live in which school building or would they a lot of these positions are split and it will often depend on the screeners and diagnostic assessments that we use and the RTI process through which we place students so they're they're movable but they're going to go to where the kids in need are and again a lot of our math RTI folks there are some that are one building just based on needs but a
064lot of them are split and we're not we're not afraid to go in any direction uh they're going to follow student needs both primary and intermediate you're saying any of those this is Elementary this is all six elementaries right but I'm saying those positions could go to either group right correct okay secondary so these numbers that you're about to see are based on March course registration so thank you to the high school counselors and the folks at the high school for getting our kids in and getting their courses selected for 23-24 uh there may be some updates as warranted but this is the foundation that we begin with and just to give you a sense of what enrollments look like so we're down based on on current numbers about and this is just grade level
065Roll Up Down 33 students at Findlay at approximately 10 students at Huntington High School and again what we are looking for here in a lot of cases are bits and pieces but not completely so the um the English enl is just to address again individual needs and trying to keep some of the sections manageable in terms of the supports that are needed for English as new language or English language learners the guidance position we already talked about the map that's primarily in the form of RTI at the middle level um again it's important I actually think there's a just to look at my notes here there's two pieces to the math one is the RTI piece the other is computer science so we are infusing this is the next step in our computer science program
066and we do need dedicated computer science teachers to address those new courses so you have two pieces there um in both are actually needed so 1.0 of that 1.8 the Middle School piece is RTI and the 0.8 at the high school is the form of computer science and then you have again special education based on specific needs new entrants in particular addressing the needs inside the buildings whether it be through ICT or special class and World languages reflects the need for an additional section of AP Spanish Literature and Spanish 2. so what we are looking for there in total is an addition of four and a half positions a non-instructional basis we have talked about support clerical support this does have one 10 month clerical switching to a 12-month desk just based on the volume
067of work in a particular office and the additional teaching assistant is due to the additional self-contained or should I say special class at Jack Abrams um that additional section must come with a teaching teaching assistant as well so in brief this is what we're looking at seven at the elementary level four and a half at the secondary level and the one instructional a non-instructional staff member and again the flip-flop the 10 and 12 does have a cost attached to it as well and we've also budgeted four teaching positions on the contingent side three eight positions and two teaching assistant positions and I do want to point out something related to and this is just careful budgeting here we're asking for additional positions in the amount of 1.2 and change million dollars to replace staff that
068are retiring that's another 1.259 and change million dollars our retirement savings are approaching two million dollars so the cost of that staff in the composite even though you're talking about um 12 and a half staff members it's a five hundred thousand dollar just above 500 a thousand dollars in terms of its price tag and I also want to let you know in terms of the recently ratified teachers contract there is a retirement incentive piece and they are allowing uh teachers who are Beyond eligible to return to first-time eligibility in 2526 thus we do anticipate so we're thinking Beyond one year here we do anticipate the potential for and I know specifically some people are are in line to do this they will retire at that point they will be savings to be realized down the
069road so that's in our head as well as we make this as we make this projection and proposal uh for next year okay I'll take a breath I'm really happy to hear about the um the potential for the dean position I think it's a smart student support student support I don't know why Dean has such a bad connotation connotation to it so it's but I think it's my I think it's much needed um and I I I'm excited to see that in here thank you I think actually I said the wrong thing to it y'all student support and I like the um going to math and computer science route yeah and thus the science route with computer science and looking at post-secondary um kids moving on whether it's college technical preparing them for the computer
070world that doesn't even exist today is really important I'm really excited about that yeah so you've seen some literature I've shared with you on the again I can call it a paradigm shift but not every child is going to pursue that pathway to college at least right away there are other things that that may were will be available to them and we want to prepare them for those things as well and some of them are quite lucrative but this computer science piece is in a much different place than it was five years ago you know we're talking about things like cyber security that we we had never heard of five six seven years ago so we we do want to prepare students for the potential to to go into whatever it is whether it be
071the workforce or college or whatever it is that they do next with the with the basic or Beyond basic knowledge in hand so we are in a good place in terms of our computer science progression but it does come with a staffing implication and that does come with a cost he had one computer science class two years ago three years ago two two years ago and how many and how many will we be offering next year from and we've reshaped something at the middle school as well right so that's incredible throughout the elementary curricula um and and Beth is working on a proposal for uh one of the next two meetings on realigning principles AP Computer Science principles with another post-secondary institution that provides us with even greater benefits it provides with the dual enrollment
072so they would be able to get dual enrollment so that's great that was something that was looked into we also have a k-6 scope and sequence that we're working on through the Smart Start Grant and that should be completed within the next couple of months so we'll be able to share it which really just delineates what's taking place in each grade level to prepare that foundation for students going into Findlay and then going into all the opportunities at the high school and cyber security is another course that we've been talking about in the future because that's another another area that we certainly all need to explore more so why not have our students start exploring it here smart and next year I'll ask for an innovation lab or as long as you make Beth continue
073to sit next to me we'll keep getting more computer courses he has to be shuffled for next year [Laughter] okay so that brings us to the updated budget draft I will say and Kathy and I are well aware of this that Newsday immediately pulls the tax levy allowable tax levy increase and the proposed tax levy from the database on March 1st I again have my conversation with the reporters and they're just pulling it from the state comptroller's website which up the portal that we submit to so I understand that but they and they they acknowledge that this is an ongoing discussion until such time that that boards and top budgets so we did the best we could to put in an accurate number as far as where we felt our proposed increase would fall and
074it was based on the last budget presentation um I'm going to come back to that in a second so what we've changed since the last presentation during the March 13th Workshop is a couple of different things here you can see the expenditure changes up on up on top there and a lot of that we've we've reevaluated uh what we need to Budget on our BOCES line and that's a safe reduction right there we've also pulled some money from transfer to Capital based on the capital proposition discussion that we had last on March 13th on the bottom you see that we are allocating additional use of money currently in the ERS Reserve to cover that budget budgeted expenditure and we also added a hundred thousand dollars into appropriated fund balance I'm going to highlight that for
075a second because when I got here um was it 12 plus years ago that number was that that whole number was significantly higher than it is today we had a state controller audit back in 2013 that suggested we reduce that number we're down to that hundred thousand dollar increase still contributes to a decrease I think it's from a million in the current year budget to 600 000 in next year's budget which is a market Improvement since all those years ago and the idea is to to whittle away at it until it doesn't need to be there at all anymore it's hard to do it all at once but I think we've made some significant strides thank you Dr Acker and all told uh because of other revenues that we're able to use and pulling out
076some expenditures pulling out expenditures from the top and using revenues other than taxes on the bottom we are able to reduce the tax levy by 530 000 so a net change in Revenue that equals net change in expenditures just over 271 thousand dollars so what does this look like today there are the summative numbers most significantly there is what I presented to the board on March 13th and what you're seeing today and it's this next slide that I think is most telling we've brought the tax levy increase down from 1.35 which is what we handed to the controller on March 1st 2.88 percent and this follows and listen every penny counts but this follows a 0.00 increase in 2223 and a 0.33 increase in 2122 if you look at that table of districts we are
077in terms of tax levy increase toward the bottom yeah budget to budget again because we're using revenues other than taxes to support some of the expenditures the budget budget is a little bit higher than that at 2.36 and tax levy and tax rate are the same in this table primarily because we are using an assessed valuation estimate from one year to the next the same number now as you know last year our assessed value actually came in higher than the flat number which actually made the tax rate increase a little bit lower than 11 increase that could very well happen again this year we don't expect it to be that far away from just keeping it flat from year to year so you're looking at the 2223 budget not actual that's why it's look at
078the assessed valuation line that 44851 997 that's the budgeted number it came in a little higher than that um I'm sorry no that's the actual number and we're just carrying that over into the 23-24 draft so I believe the actual the budgeted number was 44 823 or in that area thank you okay and we'll obviously look at this again between now and April 10th and that presentation will involve the revenue conversation in Greater detail so a couple of other items here just a reminder that right now there will most definitely be only two propositions on the ballot first being the 23-24 school budget and the second being the capital reserve proposition which is on a separate item for discussion line this evening so those are the only two that we're addressing anything related to the
079library is not going to materialize at this point and just a reminder proposition number two capital reserve Appropriations we are asking for release of monies that are already in capital reserve building Improvement fund accounts the money's there there is no impact on the tax levy or tax rate for the coming year and if that is not approved those monies go right back into the capital reserve for future use for that and that purpose or those purposes only just a quick mention here and I don't like to talk about this too prematurely here but I should have budget ever be voted down Kathy is going to have to work to create a contingency budget and that would involve the same tax levy estimated tax rate as the current Year's budget there's a couple of changes that
080need to be made any equipment in the current in the current budget would need to be removed we'd have to remove professional development and conferences contracted and consultant Services we'd have to reduce the administrative component of the three-port budget to maintain a certain percentage of the other two combined which is capital and program there would be no public use of school buildings and grounds so we would not be able to accept any facility use applications we'd also have to pull out use of reserves and appropriate fund appropriated fund balances Revenue sources so there are impacts here that are most certainly negative this is hard to see but the the presentation will be posted this is taken from a document that I have shared with the board in their weekly information packet just a couple of
081things I wanted to point out here the documents you're looking at is current it shows some of the considerations education related considerations in the executive budget as well as the two that the two one house proposals the Senate and the assembly uh and comparing exactly where the three different budget proposals stand at this point uh whether or not a state budget is adopted on or before April 1st remains to be seen I don't anticipate it it'll be much beyond that if in fact it goes past that there's still a lot of the things they're discussing now are not education related it's housing it's crime it's but these things need to be rectified before they can adopt a budget but a couple of things that I've squared out or rectangled out in red here um all
082three budgets contain the full phase in a foundation Aid and the guaranteed three percent hold harmless we are in a position to receive our final installment of over four million dollars in Foundation Aid so that's a consistent across the three proposals there is a discussion at the state level in terms of it now we're done with the phase-in so everybody's got what they're what they're designated to get now let's look at the formula that's still basing some of the allocations on 2000 census data so the governor did not include this the two houses the Senate the assembly did include money for a full-fledged review of the foundation Aid formula and the processes that feed it which that to me sounds like a great idea in theory but worries me a little bit when you put
083it in you know to re configure it we just don't know what they'd come up with this time you know listen I I do think that this is the last year we can expect oh we're receiving so regardless of exactly how they they play with this I mean we are you know we we are a district that has a combined wealth ratio that does not reflect the needs of our community and we are unique on Long Island we've had this conversation before there's no other District like us right I found the district in Westchester that's probably most closely matched to us as a similar School District but we have unique needs and we have to advocate for those needs specifically that's why I'm not confident because we're such an anomaly that other people would advocate
084for something similar to what that doesn't work for us absolutely that's that's my concern uh going back up to the top box by the way just to point out that expense-based AIDS are fully funded as well in all three proposals who are not expected and not expecting to lose anything there so we I'm confident that our Aid packages is what it is again to highlight the high impact tutoring set aside which was in the governor's proposal both houses kicked it to the curb that's part of foundation Aid and the argument there is that Aid has always been discretionary we've already got high high impact tutoring and and supports in place to make us spend to take discretionary Aid and make it non-discretionary is not the best plan in the world in both houses realize that
085the governor that this is in only the executive budget proposal I'll highlight Universal free meals I am hopeful and confident that the proposed 280 million will become a reality again thank you to all who participated Kathy and I had a conversation um when she told me directly if those if that item is not included in one or both of the one house proposals it ain't gonna happen unfortunately it was and there is there is bipartisan support for this there is no you know it crosses all lines and we know that our kids need to be fed and fed well balanced meals uh just point out charter schools there was a proposal to eliminate the regional Kaplan charter schools in the executive budget proposal pulled out in both the one house proposals just highlighting where it
086stands right now and I put this out there and again nothing here is unimportant I just picked several items to highlight here and the reason I highlighted the capital outlay Authority is both one house proposals propose um actually have in there an accommodation to increase the annual outlay um from one hundred thousand to two hundred fifty thousand for one specific Capital project for which you can get the full package of Aid back the following year so all of the capital work we do it takes years to get that Aid back it's amortized over time but we can pick a 250 if this goes through as opposed to one hundred thousand we can pick a two hundred fifty thousand dollar project each year put it on the transfer to Capital line and get the full Aid
087and we're at about a forty percent um building a building Aid ratio we can get the full Aid back the following year so forty percent of that 250 would come back to us during the subsequent year and you will notice that 250 matches that Greenhouse project at the high school which remains on the transfer to Capital lines that is not an accident not sneaky at all and I'll just point out something that I mentioned to you that's you know personal to me not not really affecting my children now but did in the past that I was um disappointed that none of the houses or the executive um you know is proposing anything to solve the problem of the lack of special education preschool seats and it's um it was a problem 20 years ago and
088it's a worse problem today so um I haven't decided personally how I'm going to personally advocate for it but if anybody if any of my colleagues or anybody who's listening is interested in talking to me about it outside of the board I I would um definitely be willing to Advocate with somebody I will tell you that Diane and I have had this conversation and she basically with every ounce of of just love and admiration here hit me over the head with that as well rightly so these 4410 schools just don't exist so what what state education what the state education department is kind of doing right now is asking school districts to put these programs in place in schools number one we don't have the space and number two we don't have we don't have
089the cash to do it so there and they run in the red generally because of the reimbursement rate and that's exactly it's reimbursement rate it's the rate they pay their dsps the teachers they it's it's bad it's a problem and um she helped me realize how much of a problem it actually is and the job that she does sometimes these problems we manage them so well that they don't produce themselves in a very obvious manner but this is something that every school district is facing uh my counterpart um my advocating on behalf of the Suffolk County School superintendents as the association president my counterpart Nassau works for an Elementary District on the South Shore and he has been on this pretty much at every advocacy event that that we've we've attended together so it is
090it is absolutely a problem you're right the last just a reminder has passed current and future dates uh the next presentation the next budget meeting the next meeting in general will be the day following the spring recess we will look at Revenue specifically and the board will be set to adopt the budget on April 17th and we remain hopeful that the state budget is going to be finalized on or very close to April 1st it's very difficult to I've actually been part of processes years and years back before Huntington where budgets did not come out on time and it does make our jobs much more difficult thank you very much thank you thank you thank you that brings us to our building Improvement capital reserve fund used uh proposition oh we do another presentation registering
091a proposition right we did the presentation already okay it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the Board of Education review and adopt the attached resolution which among other items outlines a capital proposition for inclusion on the May 16 2023 ballot that will allow District residents to vote on the use of existing monies within the districts 2008 2013 2017 2018 and 2022 building Improvement capital reserve funds Xavier's already got his hand up to make the motion bill any discussion question just for clarity yeah so um the lights on the field are on the JV field right and they are not going to eliminate the need for teams to practice in other can I make a suggestion before you just go through what I'll read them so on the capital reserve use proposition is
092Flower Hill Primary School boilers 800 000 that's two boilers South down Primary School two boilers and electric service and switch gear which is 800 and 350 000 respectively Washington Primary School electrical service and switch gear and the rooftop solar and Transformer that's 350 000 and 450 000 respectively Jack Abrams STEM Magnet School partial roof replacement phase two which is 1.2 million and the pressure boost system which is 200 000. Jack Finley Middle School reconstruction of science rooms that's two science rooms and a prep room eight hundred thousand and the Huntington High School Lighting on the new turf fields 985 000. wait am I missing the greenhouse no because that's on the transportation all right it's on transfer to Capital okay okay go ahead I'm gonna reframe rephrase my question um the I understand that the
093lights will extend the use of the field for teams to practice on throughout the fall season I guess because that's when we lose daylight but we will still need to use other facilities um within the township of Huntington to accommodate the number of students student athletes we have that's why I understood it yeah I just want to make okay yes I want to make sure I understood that it's often referred to as the JV field that field is used by him yeah I've been and that the marching band will still need temporary lights to practice on the main field right correct okay correct just because there's some disinformation right they can get out sooner too the marching band okay thank you right anything else all in favor let's see everyone's hands kill you yep okay
094everyone that's everyone thank you it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools at the Board of Education endorsed the nomination of Michelle castera as a candidate for election to the Western Sophie Suffolk BOCES Board of Education Theresa would like to make the motion and Kelly would like to Second it and I would just like to say um how honored I am that you are accepting this nomination and we could not be more well represented so thank you it's very generous to give more of your time and just to clarify she'll still be here it's just that she'll be there too I don't know if everybody is has anybody watched Ted lasso because the the Roy Kent chant is now Michelle costerichan okay she's everywhere are you gonna bring biscuits yeah bring me some biscuits
095okay all in favor that's everyone oh wait was she everybody on that one right I thought you were abstaining from this one no I'm not saying from the next one no I think we it talked about it oh sorry whatever you want to do but that's amazing sorry okay so everyone except Michelle is abstaining it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the Board of Education adopt the attached shared decision making plan for the 2023-2024 school year Bill and a second somebody Xavier any questions on this any discussion on this yeah I was going to ask can we get a summary on what's Miss McCoy is going to provide that summer I looked into some information about shared decision making and our old policy and I contacted the state of department and there
096was a regulation that was in place that was asking districts to have more of a plan as opposed to a policy and then we contacted Yuri won BOCES for their policy because that's where we get a lot of our policies from and their policy had been abolished so we then decided that we were going to go the way of the plan I reached out to many colleagues across the island to see what plans they had and I found that most of them had a policy as well so we gave them all work today so I did they were not happy with me because now many districts are moving forward with a plan rather than a policy so basically we looked at the regulation we looked at all of the requirements that were in the regulation
097for the district committee as well as the building committee and we put together a comprehensive policy comprehensive plan that I reviewed with the administrative group to get feedback I also reviewed it with the shared decision making district-wide team which is comprised of people from all of the different building level teams and then I shared it with Mr Polansky and we came up with this plan that has different pieces about what the you know rules and regulations are for building a district as well as consensus building trying to all come to a common decision when we're talking about improvements to the school district there are a list of topics that different buildings can talk about as they're creating their goals for the school year what the responsibility is of the committee members and if there are
098any issues what the process would be to discuss those issues likely with me or with the superintendent I could just share quickly the the paragraph that's the purpose maybe for everyone it's a shared decision making as a process by which groups responsible for implementing decisions become involved in making those decisions share decision making is an inclusionary process involving administrators teachers and staff and parents the goal of shared decision making is to identify issues to find goals formulate recommendations and Implement decisions which help students reach higher standards of excellence okay does anybody have any questions seems like this gives more flexibility yeah I was trying to explain oh sorry I thought you were done no it's okay why we got here as opposed to where we were as the foundation but that is included in the
099draft plan yes so as well as a delineation of all the other pieces so we've always used the shared decision-making committees and whatnot this is just simply putting a bit of a more written formal framework around it right exactly it's really giving a plan that we will review every year at the first meeting at the building level they'll review it at their meetings I'll review it at the district-wide meeting but it's different it has a different feel than a policy and it gives a lot more information for each Committee Member and the responsibilities of each Committee Member and each and what the building does as opposed to what the district-wide plan what the district-wide committee does yeah I appreciated that delineation and also just the consensus building kind of piece was makes sense okay then
100all in favor that's everyone thank you Miss McCoy I'm also not I have to attach them but I'm also going to ask the board to consider abolishment of board policies do you want to do that right now it makes sense to do that because you don't need them both in place the plan is much more do we have to make a motion to amend the no you just make a second motion but it's not on the agenda well it's adoption of the plan renders the board policy 316 administrative regulations okay so then ask for a motion to abolish is that what you're saying let me just get the number again 3160. 316 3160r or 3160 3160r is a regulation so you don't have to take action on that okay so it is upon recommendation from
101the superintendent of schools at the board moved to uh adopt a resolution to abolish it's there's no resolution it's just a motion to abolish board policy 3160. who would like to make a motion to abolish that policy and a second from Xavier all in favor that's everyone thank you okay sorry about that okay okay all right so this is just a regulation yeah do you want to just talk about do you want to just mention the next item or we can public access to records just it it clarifies a couple of things and makes a few minor modifications to 3310r based on revisions to public offices lower section 8 public officers lost section 87 which prohibits districts from charging a fee want an identical record has been prepared for a previous request within the past
102six months and when an electronic copy is available okay and because it's a regulation there's no action that needs to be taken but it is an informational item so if you had any issues with does anybody have any questions on that okay then moving on it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the Board of Education review as a first read new board policy 3400 code of conduct with options for further consideration or second read adoption emotion or Bill and a second from Michelle this this policy was not on the last that's why you have a first read or a second read option this is not a code of conduct it is a code of conduct policy it basically dictates and directs or provides guidance as to how we use the district's code
103of code of conduct and I tried to make that clear in my verbiage so we can go to second that's up that's yeah I always make a motion for us to go to second on this one okay so Andreas will second that motion okay all in favor okay all right so Joanne that motion was to bypass first read and adopt second read okay obviously if there was if it was a code of conduct there would be more to discuss yes while we're on that topic yes um Miss McCoy is spearheading a district-wide typically what has happened in the past has come weeks before the reorganization meeting we pull out the code of conduct for the current year and slap a new cover on it make some minor revisions we did put a committee a district-wide
104committee together to review that document from top to bottom will obviously get legal involved there as well there are things that are Antiquated in it but I have people across the district administrators teachers Etc reviewing this in its in its entirety so that we can we can hold a public hearing and put a revised document in front of the board at actually we can we can do that at either the June meeting or the reorg meeting but if this will be in a relatively it'll be a newly crafted document I don't know what you want to add to that we've been meeting we've had three meetings so far they're an hour and a half long and everyone is reading every single line every single word talking about the meaning of words and whether it's appropriate
105or whether we need to change that or add detail or add examples so we're at our fourth meeting which is this week and that is our last meeting that we will hopefully be able to I've been making all of the suggested revisions which will then go to legal as well as to Mr Polanski for review and then we'll have a new document to share for the board to review as well now we need a public hearing if there are material material changes to the code of conduct a public hearing needs to be public notice public hearing Etc so that could actually be done at the June meeting and then you can adopt the new code it can be done at the same meeting and it must be held in advance of your consideration for adoption
106well thank you it sounds like a large job but I think it's really important certainly worthwhile and a lot of very good meaningful conversations that's great okay am I on seven yes okay it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the Board of Education complete a second read and adopt a new board policy 34 30 diversity equity and inclusion in the district emotion from Xavier in a second from Kelly discussion questions all in favor that's everyone thank you I just want to note that we of course we've had discussion prior to this um it's upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the Board of Education complete a second read and adopt a revise board policy 6130 evaluation of personnel emotion Kelly Anderson from Xavier any questions nervous hold on all in favor
107that's everyone and that includes a regulation and a form thanks as well this upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the Board of Education complete a second read and adopt a revised board policy 6550 leaves of absence emotion I'm Teresa and a second I'm Kelly any questions no but I'm excited that this policy does a lot for working mothers and I appreciate that all in favor that's everyone thank you yep for the change it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the Board of Education complete a second read and adopt revised board policy 7512 student physicals emotion I'm Tom and a second Michelle any questions all in favor that's everyone thank you it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the Board of Education complete a second read and adopt
108revised board policy 7670 due process complaints selection and board appointment of impartial hearing officers emotion from Xavier and a second from Kelly any questions appointing a partial hearing officers no other places thank you yes all in favor these I don't want you to think you can't ask questions just give us a second read or because it doesn't happen often yes but because they take care of children the chances are very slim and it does not happen very often at all and because they listen to parents and hear them and families absolutely so okay all in favor that's everyone thank you it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the Board of Education complete a second read and adopt a replacement board policy 8450 home hospital and institutional instruction homebound homebound instruction emotion from
109Tom in a second from Michelle any questions all in favor so everyone thank you and that brings us to Mrs McCoy it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools at the Board of Education approved CSC cpsc submissions as delineated emotion Theresa second Xavier all in favor it's everyone thank you Mr Hender it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the Board of Education approved Personnel items on schedules 3 5 6 10 11 13 16 17 19 and 22. eight eight we're gonna do a second one I'm Michelle that's everyone back to you it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the Board of Education approved Personnel items on schedule 8. emotion Teresa a second from Kelly all in favor that's everyone who's Sarah is abstaining thank you for your continued
110volunteerism I have a couple of other jobs I'd like to see I was thinking the same thing Dr Acker oh sorry I'd like to welcome Carlson as a new teaching assistant with the district thank you for joining us you know there are a number of different names on schedule five and on schedule 13 and again I'd like to thank Mr Hender and our principals and administrators in general for participating in these recruitment fairs which helped we really try to Target community members with our non-instructional fare and bring folks in who are looking for work in the non-instructional realm and that worked well we're going to do that again for sure and again the instructional recruiting Fair we're trying to spread our wings as as far out as we can get as far as we can
111go to really recruit the most highly qualified candidates that we can find so thank you to all of these folks who are giving up their weekends to do this appreciate it yeah anything else I'll leave it at that okay Dr Acker okay it's upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the Board of Education approve items I through Q on this evening's business agenda motion please a second Teresa favor ites everyone thank you you're gonna have some fun tonight yeah I mean our community is just amazing it doesn't cease to amaze how thoughtful and generous they are I'm going to start with the Washington Primary School ptas presenting a donation of Seventeen hundred dollars this donation will be used to offset the cost of upcoming field trips thank you for that thank you sir [Applause]
112the Huntington foundation for excellence in education is donating a staggering amount of thirty eight thousand nine dollars and 59 cents a list of all of the separate projects that they're donating to are are there it's just amazing what they do Gala is a wonderful event that really helps out and we can't thank them enough for what they've done here [Applause] in a surprise donation an anonymous donor is presenting a donation of twenty five thousand dollars to the Washington primary school thank you very much for that [Applause] thank you it's fantastic that brings us to our second public commentary same rules apply I've seen this Hebrew coming up she knows the rules she knows we'll enforce them myself hello everybody I'm Jen Hebert I'm a former District parent and a current Community member and actually a
113current Grant coordinator with Jen biancardo for heavy so I just wanted to get up here tonight and thank you all first of all for the tremendous hours and effort that you put in on behalf of our students in our district you know I know that's job firsthand and I can't tell you how much I appreciate all of the work that you do so thank you and then I'll use the rest of my time no just a few minutes a few seconds of the rest of my time so thank you very much on behalf of heffey for you know voting and accepting our donation tonight and always always always being such a great partner for heffey and working with us to provide some really great things for the students of this district and I look forward
114to seeing hopefully most if not all of you on Thursday night at our happy Gala that's coming right up this Thursday night thank you again and I'll see you then well thank you to happy and thank you and we can't wait to celebrate yes we didn't have that rule before thank you for staying involved Miss Hebert yes Ben Stevens actually wanted to say as well but she had to get home to prep her daughter for a mock trial so I'll thank everyone on behalf of our coaches yes and no Xavier can appreciate that real sergeant hi I'm still Justin Thompson okay um I must express my very great disappointment at the board's passing of policy 3430 3034. without further consideration or discussion or concern about the financial psychological operational Etc impact on District on the
115district taxpayers and on the students I would ask that superintendent Pulaski please send me a copy of your prepared comments which we've read after I was finished and I would ask that you give us an opportunity those of us who oppose the policy an opportunity to revisit with you at some point in the future thank you good evening once again so we're back I'm sure as everyone in the audience is aware that there was another school shooting please speak can you state your name for the record and thank you UI ffo I live on Dumbarton Drive in Huntington I've communicated with the board on several occasions about this issue so again unfortunately there's three dead if you would address your remarks to the board this is our meeting not the their meeting so if you
116would address your remarks sure thank you there's three more dead nine-year-olds today because of an open door and lack of security so I came to just express my unhappiness and disappointment at the board for lack of action I could be wrong but was there a vote tonight on lights for a lacrosse field for each relax for HB lacks or for our fields on that for money to be spent for lights there was a vote to put it on the capital proposition for the voters to vote on so that money should be spent on security that money is in a capital reserve fund which is meant for Capital there's lots of donations secure our schools and protect our children okay but I guess after Uvalde when there were I think 15 or more children that were
117killed that didn't move the board to do anything so today I don't expect much else because it was only three and we all know and I've had a very nice conversation with Mr Polanski on several occasions and the unfortunate truth is that doors are going to be open all the time sometimes on purpose chalked open on purpose okay so we all know that there's a lack of security everyone's got their best interests at heart and works their best okay it's my profession and we fail all the time but today they did a good job they killed the person once they got into school too late for about six people though right South Huntington for some reason feels like they do need security they they approved security I think maybe they're building their closest building might
118be a mile away from here so they're going to have armed guards at all their buildings but Huntington will not nobody on the board wants to answer me as to why that is if any of you folks are interested in finding out you could reach out to them and maybe they'll give you an answer they don't want to give me an answer why they don't feel it's necessary but South Huntington does people that we are friends with work with our kids play sports with so they feel it's necessary I would say that I hope I would not be back but it's gonna happen again it's gonna happen again and you all know it you're all intelligent people you all know what's going to happen again there's going to be another school shooting before you know
119it it's going to happen again it's a fact of life so we could keep with status quo I said in June we can keep with status quo and complacency and do nothing or we can make some changes and make some bold decisions to keep our kids safe thank you so I'll just say on behalf of the board that um we have not put that measure on a board agenda there are future board agendas if a board member you know if the board chooses to put it on an agenda it will be discussed in public anybody else comments by board members any other comments then I'll take a motion to adjourn Teresa on a second from Bill did I see your hand yeah sure you did I thought I did I really did all in favor
120that's everyone thank you