001getting some help with the waiting room okay your usual co-host yes sir kathy acker is in the waiting room and what thank you bill just so you know your mecca's off and you're a mic right make sure you're muted in zoom this one okay you ready i'm ready hold on hold on oops somebody's open oh boy who is that i don't know who's that going it's coming from behind me i'm muted no because i muted that's why it stopped oh it's visit me i don't know why my mute unmutes all the time it's really weird magical i think we're good now okay i'm going to hit record okay hold on yeah why don't you do that it makes me dizzy go welcome everyone to the april 19th board of education meeting and i have a
002motion to open the meeting please kelly in a second xavier all in favor that's everyone goodbye 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 once again for those in the room we know where the exits are and that there's a no smoking policy i'm going to share my screen just understand that based on the new settings in zoom it just shows my screen my screen and no thumbnails okay it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools at the board of education hold on my thing didn't move approve the minutes transcription from the meeting of the huntington union free school district board of education dated april 6 2021. i
003have a motion from michelle in a second second from linda any comments all in favor that's everyone we have fyis for the budget transfers and the claims audit reports is there any discussion on that hang on one second okay okay sorry that's it did you have something you want to say no i had to switch the video oh 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 april 14th 2021 a motion please from bell and a second from xavier any comments all in favor that's everyone thank you that brings us to board member communications and announcements who do we have okay and it's to you okay just a couple of items of note i'll speak briefly to some
004of the changes to new york state department of health guidance in alignment with cdc guidance during the items for discussion assessment accountability there's no formal update on this agenda the three through eight assessments began today and i know mr cusack and mrs rothell will be putting out a somewhat detailed communication on final and regents exam administrations the last week a couple of developments at the state education department during the board of regents meetings the next generation standards in ela math and science the timeline has been extended basically in most cases for a year in terms of curriculum rollout as well as new assessment administration the board of regents also spent some time rolling out a framework for a new diversity equity and inclusion initiative that is going to take hold statewide and there are going
005to be some excellent things for us to take advantage of and some requirements that are now going to be added to district platforms in terms of making sure that all three of those items are incorporated into just about everything we do diversity equity and inclusion we're also participating in a civic seal pilot mr levy is spearheading this there is as much as we have a seal of by literacy there is going to be a seal of civic readiness it is not taking hold statewide at this point but we are in the process of participating in a pilot program in that respect among the few school districts in the state that are doing so miss alamia our guidance director did host several advanced placement examination meetings i want an english one in spanish to be specific
006and hopefully that helped to provide the information to parents and students with respect to how those exams are going to be administered both in person and electronically and just a couple of recognitions here first of all this came up right after the last meeting uh aaron yee placed third i believe in the long island science and engineering fan up there which is a big one she's done some excellent research and uh very proud of her accomplishments in that competition our poseidon virtual enterprise team is one of 20 to move on to the national level of competition this is this is big doings this is a program that is starting to take hold well beyond this area and this team along with hometown along with all our teams for that matter have been doing some great
007work this team was selected to move on to the next round and we also had five students whose artwork was honored at the recent long island's best exhibit at the heckshare and i don't want to miss anyone here we have a.z franciscovic vivian lavertou grace kenny ellis saipel and there is one i'm missing a woman called the article of basil tyler basil i had his i have the wrong initial there tyler basil thank you michelle congratulations to them it's great exhibit it does it does certainly showcase the work of a number of students from across long island and we're happy to i believe that exhibit is on display until toward the end of may congratulations to our cadre of scholar athletes and just we are working very diligently at this point to get a number
008of summer programs rolling including our summer arts program our summer enrichment program our summer uh fun program as well as our jumpstart program so these are our certainly mainstays in huntington and we're going to expand them this year to make sure that we can incorporate as many students as possible obviously they they do need the uh they do need the experience this summer for sure and i think that's all i have thank you okay that brings us to our first public commentary section as always anyone who is a resident or employee of the district can speak just please raise your electronic hand um you have three minutes to speak identify yourself in your affiliation with the district and the first people to speak should be with regard to the items for discussion action and if
009time remains you can speak on other subjects just not personnel or student individual student matters but i don't see any hands there's a second public commentary at the end so if you think of something after the discussion you'll have another chance so that brings us to our first item for discussion in action and mr polanski will present the latest latest covet developments well at this point i'm not going to formalize anything here other than the fact that we've completed our transition back to five day for those who want it and that's k through 12 at this point there was a change to cdc guidelines a change if a follow-up change to new york state department health guidelines understand that while distancing in certain respects changes we are doing everything we can in the majority of
010areas are maintaining that six feet laterally and front to back across the district wherever possible and obviously we are concerned at the secondary level now with expanded quarantines and you know we did have a situation today where we had a positive case uh i'm just going to re-emphasize to the board and to those on our platform tonight that when you have any symptom whatsoever doctor says it's a cold if you believe it's allergies you must stay home too easy to mistake for something other than covet symptoms and that did impact us today we're trying to make sure that our students in general are not interrupted there are 10 weeks left in the school year we want them to experience everything that they deserve that they've earned the experience experiences of at this point and that
011is just one easy way to interfere with that please please please be reminded to stay home with any symptom whatsoever if you have questions contact the school nurse contact the building principal they've been doing this all year long and they know what signs to look for and obviously we're going to take a conservative approach whether it be keeping people home or the quarantining process any questions or concerns there there's been some other development in terms of end-of-year ceremonies i know mr cusack is working diligently to plan along with his student leadership at the high school ptsa is involved and at every level they are working on planning their end of year events and activities there are limitations and we're going to do our very best to give the kids the best experience possible but we
012have to do it within the parameters that we are allowed to that work that we've been given anybody have questions the gathering limit for something like a graduation ceremony it can reach on the outdoor basis it can't reach participation of 500 but under those circumstances there has to be proof of negative test proof of vaccination and contact tracing information this is non-negotiable it's not something that we can play with so we are going to need the cooperation of all involved to make these ceremonies what these children deserve right what they've earned for their 13 years in the huntington school district absolutely want to follow there we're working on a number of things and this has been around the clock so because there are still things in the works i don't want people to think that
013the pen has been put down at this point or the keyboard for that matter right everybody's working around the clock on this yeah was the quarantine significantly large no okay today we had four cases two at the elementary level two at the high school one of the elementary cases required a quarantine of 18 which is not unusual at the elementary level this is going to happen we do understand that but again we want to make sure we want to work with our community to make sure that they are informed so we can avoid whatever is avoidable there are some things that we can't avoid okay so that brings us to the budget and property tax report card it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the board of education adopt the budget for
014the 2021-2022 school year and the amount of 139 million 315 854 to be placed on the ballot for the may 18 2021 annual vote and election is further recommended that the board of education approve the associated 2021-2022 property tax report card i have a motion bill in a second from cali discussion well this would be a good time to make the presentation yeah and unfortunately we had a little additional time between the last meeting and today just to make sure that everything was where we'd like it to be and where it should be for this meeting so i thank the board for their patience the last meeting as you know a lot of those numbers rolled in at the last hour prior to the wednesday workshop it was amazing that we had it at the
015workshop so thank you for that well again a lot of people to be thanked dr acker for certain absolutely she sleeps these numbers she sleeps no no she sees the numbers thank you bill that's usually my job i'm good thank you do you need one nope you're just going to well i'll take one thank you so you're going to notice if you did memorize the numbers from the last meeting that they're very similar almost identical to what you see today so that middle column in green is where we landed so we have a budget total of 139 315 854 that's a 2.48 budget increase over the current year's budget the impressive number there the number that we certainly would not have anticipated one year ago today is the 0.33 percent tax levy increase so the
016budget number is not really the primary number that the taxpayers should concern oneself with it is the tax levy number and if you look at the difference between the 2021 and 2122 tax levies uh it is a fraction of a percent specifically 0.33 percent and as the board recalls we are anticipating or estimating there's really nothing more we can do there and assess valuation in the community that remains constant from the current school year to next school year which means the tax levy increase and the tax rate increase would be identical there can be some fluctuation there we do have a slide coming up that shows the average assessed value of a home in huntington that is actually dated 2021 we are still waiting for the current value from the town assessor's office and we
017don't anticipate it's going to be that much different the other notable piece of the budget numbers that middle column this budget falls over 1.7 million below the levy limit and the idea here is we were able to do for the most part everything we wanted to do at this point that we needed to do at this point while also reducing the taxpayer burden and that is a unique situation we've done that before but not in this volume and while adding the pieces that we've added so what to follow there before you change slides could just for everyone at home that's could you just explain the tax rate line and the significance of that it's less than a dollar increase per 100 but you're going to what i was going to say christine is the way
018i look at that is when you look at the average value of the assessed value of a home in the town this is less than a starbucks coffee a year right well i think that's gonna be on the next slide that's what i think slides down that's an excellent way to frame it too so summative numbers again we just pointed this out total budget number budget to budget increase which is honestly more significant than it might have been last year primarily because we we received an extra package of money in the form of state aid the tax levy increase again is as low as it has been certainly in my time here and probably for many years before that and because the assessed value is estimated to remain where it is tax levy and tax
019rate increases are equal 0.33 percent not to break this down too specifically that may be something we do at the budget hearing highlights again keeping in mind district mission vision core beliefs board goals for the year and anticipated goals for next year this budget actually expands instructional and support programs in the district as you know it upgrades facilities in the form of a capital reserve proposition as well as a transfer to capital line and will also address any lingering and probably for some time health and safety needs related to the pandemic it does account we did plan around the fact that there is federal stimulus money below the line in the form of the coronavirus stimulus package number two as well as the american rescue plan act monies which does amount to about eight and
020a half million over several years in non-recurring type expense formats network infrastructure and technological needs even without a pandemic i know kathy and mary beth and brian landers have a plan in place to replace devices in an incremental manner that is certainly something we want to continue devices we're at at a premium this year because everybody across the nation every school district every business etc was looking for various tablet and laptop and chromebook type devices uh we have been fortunate here to be ahead of that curve and we are also doing everything we do in the context of a long-term financial and resource-based outlook so some of the editions we highlighted last wednesday i expanded on them a little bit here this does include over 11 instructional staff members beyond where we were before last
021wednesday at the elementary level math and talking about that middle school math program enl special education there's a librarian in the mix because we did remove one for this year and additional sections in close to all secondary disciplines to fill out some areas that we squeezed in terms of sections so bits and pieces that may be not full bodies pieces of bodies additional sections etc but just trying to make sure that there were no electives that were removed from the mix here particularly ones that we know are a bit well they habitually increase in their enrollment as time goes on over the summer also includes a psychologist a social worker and moving from a half-time to a full-time counselor at the sixth grade level these are things that have been deemed important in light of
022the need to expand our social and emotional progress and to address the needs of kids who have had a tough year and staff as well i don't want to leave them out of the mix and i can tell you there are psychologists and social workers etc are there to help each other as well as the kids uh transportation it is on the agenda as well tonight and as we discussed last week this is a difficult situation for us because of timing but there is a three-year contract that is on the agenda to be awarded tonight and also the addition of another capital project in this case the 525 000 on the transfer to capitol line this is above and beyond the capital reserve proposition it allows us to look at something that we are hopeful
023will generate long-term energy related savings for the district another solar project at flower hill can answer a question about that um does that uh even though it doesn't come from the capital reserves is it still required the same approvals as other capital projects absolutely the only thing it doesn't require because we are using and we do have to highlight this in our budget documentation the community does need to know that we're doing this the only thing it doesn't require is placement on the capital reserve proposition because this money is not coming we don't have the money in the reserve this is coming from the uh general fund kathy anything else you want to add on that no it covers it okay some adjustments here just based on a few actuals that have taken shape since
024since wednesday but again our shining light here is the significant increase in state aid and just a reminder that the foundation aid bump which is the most salient here it is our discretionary aid category it is up because huntington has been so significantly underfunded for for years and years this state aid package included a catch up for us to get us to approximately 60 percent of fully funded and the state budget does have i'll call it a promise there's there's nothing in place until a budget is adopted in future years but there is i think we called it an intention an intention it is uh written in the state budget legislation that over the next three years school districts will be fully funded so if we're just at 60 that means there's another 40 percent
025out there that we hope will come our way and there are districts right now that are fully funded it does change significantly from district to district but where we are right now at 60 does leave us with with room for growth assuming that the money is there moving forward and nothing is a sure thing until a state budget on an annual basis is adopted i have a question there jim yeah that three-year ramp does that include the bump this year or three years to finish this off from here it is supposed to be completed by 23-24 so that includes yeah so that this is the first of a three year boom correct one of the um grants has to be completed by september 23 the other one by september 24th that's not the that's not
026the state we're talking about the foundation need ramp up yeah that's that's in three years so the fully funding there were districts that actually lost aid this year because they were over funded uh i'm not going to say law state there was a hold harmless in there but their their funding level based on the formula at this point was over what they should have been receiving if fully funded i don't know anybody had been fully funded there is a handful i want to identify them specifically yeah so just to finish that off jim looking at the the number for this year and assuming that's about of our fully funded number right so we can expect we would be i don't know 18 million or so when we are fully funded is that correct that is
027correct back of the back of the envelope numbers you did say if right you got to put the f in there what's that you got to put the if in there right through the air yeah yeah i don't know if the word is expect or hope but one way or another that is what the int the intention has been issued in that manner right thank you and that's the reason again for the increase in in staffing i'll also mention while there is an increase in staffing the foundation aid didn't necessarily pay for most of that most of that came from the retirement savings because of the incentive so there were a number of fiscal benefits that the district realized and losing good people is never a benefit but in terms of finances there is obviously
028a and forth that goes along with that so much of the 11.3 staff members that were anticipated that were budgeted it's based on retirement savings okay all right just a quick mention here that looking at the state aid run below the line federal stimulus monies the corona coronavirus response and relief supplemental appropriations act this is the second package that is for the current school year that doesn't mean it's all going to be delivered in the current school year this is an application based process but that's 2.5 just about 1 two million for huntington and the american rescue plan act that is the big third package with the almost 5.7 million allocated for huntington that is what kathy was talking about in terms of the deadlines for application kathy september 23 is for the um coronavirus
029response and the american rescue we have to use those monies by 9 24. okay so these these monies do not have to be used all in one year you do have to file your intentions um when the online you have one year to file the online application from when it becomes approved which we're hoping for may 1st correct and i believe july 1st is the deadline for us to file the application for the american rescue plan act monies well that's the um deadline by when you have to post your plan what's the plan correct and have public comment and i think linda asked last week about the learning loss not less than 20 must be used to address learning loss i did put that one sheet document or two sheet document in the board update
030just so you can get a breakdown of the general categories of expenditures that fall into that learning loss piece a lot of them uh actually all of them are suggested as non-recurring expenditures because this is a one-time it's a nice package but it's a one-time deal here yeah summer they were pushing some right and after school it was very repetitive but we we talked actually beth and i had a conversation about the benefits of potentially incorporating an extended day program because summer gets summer gets cloudy but we can use this money for expanding our night school and just providing additional services after school hours in an organized and consistent well-planned manner do we know when that application will open up i know the plan is due july first but plan has to be posted by
031july first plan is to be posted by them do we know when that will open up should open by the end of this month the portal should open by the end of this month so we have to close the plan by july for us but you have one year to complete your application okay so we can post a plan get public input do some right research on really how to spend it but you have up to a year to file the application it doesn't have to be the final plan it has to be a plan it wasn't very specific it was kind of quick yeah there was also some mention of a plan for foundation aid that's inclusive of districts that received either a 10 percent or more or a 10 million or more bump
032right we're not sure exactly where that stands we are awaiting guidance in numerous regards but this money is there and it has to be used in the appropriate manner and we're going to make we're going to make good use of it and obviously not to focus on and using the concept of learning loss i know there's been a number of reports out there that we we need to focus on doing what's right for children and it's it's not it's learning loss yes there are gaps there but there are there are so many things that we can do to help our children pandemic or no pandemic that this money will allow us to take advantage of uh this money is treated as grant like granting aid so it's not part of the general fund and does
033not impact our budgetary process for this year next year or the year after that for that matter we talked about the application process already but if you look at our state aid run you're going to notice that both of these money packages are below the line which means that they are not part of the actual state run these are monies that are going to come to us in a one-shot deal package pretty much as good as it gets i never thought i'd see it right and i can't imagine seeing it again anytime soon but let's let's make good use of it while it's there also highlighting i think for the in the essence of transparency some of the changes that have taken place in our reserve appropriations budgeted reserve appropriations 21 22 since the new
034state aid packages came out so you can see we are designating less fund balance capital reserve obviously the proposition is what it is we did reduce some of the allocations or appropriations in the other areas where we could and it made sense to do so so the 20 21 22 initial draft you can look at that as before april 14th and the final column is where we are today i think this is where we were going before in terms of assessed valuation every home has one this is not the market value of a home just a reminder it is a unique number if the average residential assessed value in huntington is 3400 we know that's not a market value that is last year's number we do expect within the next two weeks to receive the
035current year number i don't expect it will be that far off that that value and an assessed value just just as there is a collective assessed value for the entire school district community and every home every residential property and commercial property has an assessed value as well put them together you have the assessed value in the huntington school district community within its boundaries so just to give you a sense and i think this is what bill was getting at before what the increases look like you can compare them i've done a slide i've included a slide like this every year and gain a sense of what your tax bill is going to look like for 21 22 as compared to this year with the much smaller tax levy tax rate increase questions comments comparisons i
036think it's the right thing coffee you're getting at starbucks but it's that's i think he meant pretty good deal for months i guess he meant [Music] as opposed to per day correct who props on the ballot as always the first is the 2021-22 or the current year budget and the capital reserve appropriation is proposition number two and again keep in mind that the capital reserve proposition the monies there are in the reserve the voters will need to allow us to use them they can be used for no other purpose than for capital projects if this proposition were ever voted down that money would have to go right back into the capital reserve for future capital project use it can't be shifted to something that relates to another purpose there is no impact of proposition number
037two on the tax levy or the tax rate and just a reminder of what's in that proposition it's the next section of the huntington high school roof the findlay middle school parking lot and we're going to do as much of that as the bit allows us to do the gym bleachers which i believe go back to the creation of the building and a piece of the jim hallway flooring which is a very very small component of that but in order to get the aid back on it we need to include that component without the jim hallway flooring we could not get eight on any of that finley middle school package of projects and the two boilers at jefferson and just a note we it is not worth leaving any money on the table we've used
038we've abided by that philosophy for years so at this point there will be some return of monies based on cost savings realized and some interest but right now there's a whopping balance of 271 in the that's 271 dollars in the capital in the combined capital uh building improvement fund accounts after using the 3.525 million for these projects and this does not include the transfer capital project the additional flower hill solar and just a reminder and kathy correct me if i'm wrong the flower hill solar project is the second solar project the first at southbound is being completed this summer correct the south ends up at the state waiting approval right and i can tell you there is a data portal the new york state education department data flow mechanism they are constantly right now is
039the time that a lot of our projects are being approved and for some reason they come to me and i fire them to kathy and to george routinely but there is a lot of activity going on with capital project work at the state level jim how many more parts do we have to our roof to complete the huntington high school roof yeah i'm going to ask for a little help there yeah um right now we're trying to to get some more done this year with some some monies that we have it depends on how far based on this money will take us right and then we'll have to determine how much is left it's it's a couple more times we're going to have to do this and this is the side by the gym right
040is that sorry this this money is for the side of the school with the gym right the gym said the gymnasiums yes yes after you think after this we'll be about half you know in terms of square footage of the roof about halfway there i'd have to say we'd be definitely halfway there halfway there okay there are also some things that we're doing in-house one that's most significant that i saw a rendering of today kathy showed me a slide of what it could look like we are removing the eyesore of an awning at finley middle school that it's rusted it's leaking it's coming down we're not going to replace it in that same manner we're looking at that something a little more simple but much more effective in shielding people from the rain and we
041want it to be aesthetically pleasing as well so just to throw out there that's not coming out of any that's something we can't do in-house right that's fantastic even if even if you get under it to shield you have to go through the pouring down water off the sides of it to get to the drive correct i've been there and if you're standing in the wrong spot at the wrong time you don't need to go home and change then also just to commend our buildings and ground staff we had a lot of work done over the last break and again when you have people who know what they're doing things get done uh quickly and inexpensively we replace the bleachers and the jack abram stem gymnasium place lighting in all of the gyms we did
042a paint job at the high school everything is going to be that much brighter we're going to do some some redesigning across the board just to make things aesthetically pleasing and to highlight some of the accomplishments of our kids particularly at the at the high school level but there's a lot of things that get done that you don't see on a list here because they're not that expensive because we're doing them in-house but uh we we can certainly highlight those and uh is anything else that was done over the break happy that a lot of abatements um we of washington would replace a large area of the flooring and um start replacing doors so didn't you do the doors the finley uh the flagpole area yes thank you thank you concrete work at findlay yep
043which is it's just amazing that they got so much done over the break when we've asked so much of that of that group all year you know to help us keep everybody safe and clean so i just think that it's extra extra extraordinary that's two extras but you know what i mean they are fantastic and even when there is a contractor involved they they don't just leave the contractor to his or her own devices but some great work was done and it would that often doesn't get enough of a highlight because it's not on this master huge cost capital project list but it's stuff that's that's highly noticeable okay jim is there a chance with the parking lot that's one and two in finley right the time that you showed us the map there's a
044chance that three could get done depending on how it comes in right i'm going to say there's a chance as long as yes that's why in the proposition it says parking lot parking lot area one two three if my understanding is based on where the prices are right now we're going to get the the most bang for our buck and if we can do the entire thing we're going to do it we picked one and two first because that area that's offset in the back by the gym is a little bit off the beaten path and wouldn't be noticed as much but if we can get it done we'd like to get it all done all right it's happened before yes it has okay and obviously any cost savings from these projects we can't change
045these numbers in a material way if any of these projects came in way over what you see on on paper right now we couldn't do them because that's not what the voters are approving certainly within the context of something like a parking lot if we can get all three areas done within that price range we're in okay okay worthy of mentioning a very unique contingency budget in fact i haven't seen one like this ever a contingency budget would include a carryover of a tax levy from the current school year to the next school year so that 112 350 112 million 350 000 in 2021 would carry over directly into in this case based on this budget the only required reduction would be 368 438 which is not even the entire package of equipment it's some
046of it we don't want to have to do that but if we did that's where we would need to go and there would be nothing more than that needed and that's what it looks like here now also unique to the contingency budget usually it's a fraction of a budget-to-budget increase because there are some variations in nominal revenue in this case 2.21 percent that's this that's the state aid speaking right there so that's why you see no tax levy increase and a 2.21 budget to budget like i said a very unique year very unique and don't tax rate to 250 46 250 47 there is cents involved here so that's rounding and this is what we have left monday may 10th public budget hearing and the budget vote and election we are conducting an in-person vote
047this year absentee ballots are still in place covet is a reason acceptable reason for requesting an absentee ballot but if this is going to be more along the lines of what we deem normal than certainly last year and as of five o'clock today i can share with the board that there are four candidates for three positions on the board of education excellent okay questions any other questions i think we looks good okay then we have a motion and a second all in favor that is everyone it is carried unanimously i just say thank you very much no you cannot because we are thanking you we say thank you thank you thank you it's a very responsible budget for people that are having a tough time i think that this is uh what a lot of
048folks in homes are needing some financial help like this i know i got applause in my house when i went home [Laughter] listen i i every district is different it's very easy to compare districts in so many different respects including their budget plans we were the fortunate recipients of the catch-up foundation aid not every school district has that some school districts only received a two to three percent bump and they will not be able to do in terms of levy adoption what we did here so you can't look at one district i i throw this out there because i know it's very easy for somebody to look at us and say well why can one district do this in another district can't every district has its own circumstances and we were able to do the
049i feel like we've been saying that all year about everything it's so true it is and it's it's hard to get across and particularly when you see a tax bill right but hopefully our taxpayers understand that there's a lot here for very little but at the same time it's still a responsible course of action to take we could have taken a different course of action but we all agreed that that was not appropriate so well we were able to address educational needs and also look very carefully at the taxpayer burden and that it's that's what we do uh you know first and foremost obviously the needs of our kids have to be considered but to do it in a manner that keeps the tax levy where it is we're in a good place and hopefully
050we can continue this and that promise of that catch up over the next three years is going to become a reality it only makes another reason for people to want to live in huntington so that's good for that's good for everybody that sounds good sounds good to all of us okay shall we move on to yes okay it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the board of education award the transportation contract effective 7 1 2021 through 6 30 20 24 to huntington coach corporation as outlined in the attached proposal a motion please somebody bill and a second kelly discussion well i think we we've discussed this at length and i wholeheartedly recognize every concern that exists and i have many of those same concerns and what i will say is that timing
051was not exactly on our side here for a number of different reasons but i think it is important for us to use this three-year period to look at the future of transportation in our school district that should provide us the time and also the developments that happen outside of the district in terms of what's available to us uh that should start to materialize and be more obvious to us as time goes on here but this is something we need to start planning now i see the year two and year three increases are what you kind of were anticipating yes and again this is we are in the same situation that clients are in across the area we've talked about the pros and cons we've talked about what may be available available to us moving forward
052but like i said this gives us a frame of time during which over which we can start to look at our next steps in terms of where we go with with transportation we know we need to get kids to school you know we have to get them to school safely and i'll tell you one of the concerns i hear all the time and i'm sure you hear it as well is that there are buses driving around right now that are close to empty and we do uh we're rule followers and and the bottom line is the regulation requires us to have a seat on on the bus for every child who is eligible for transportation some school districts are less permissive than we are in terms of their their mileage limits uh we do understand
053that we need to get kids to school from every walk of of of life in the community and if kids can't get to school they're not going to learn and we have to make sure that that is not compromised by means through which we provide it and looking at empty buses this year i mean there are always some empty buses but looking this year this is a tough year to evaluate population on buses because i know a number of parents chose to drive their kids this year because of the the risks of being in close contact on a bus that certainly does not make people happy when you see these buses rolling in particularly to the high school that are not filled to capacity and i i just want to reiterate i have heard everything
054that every comment that has been made during our discussions here i know the board is is well versed in this i've you know xavier has made some excellent suggestions some of the number of you have have commented on the cost of this three-year contract i think there's nobody that's wrong here and i think we need to collectively we need to work together to look at this to find that that solution for us and it may be an upfront cost that saves us over time it may be something that you know that that's the piece that we have the most uh challenging time with you know we don't have the luxury unless it's with uh with a bond to deal with a massive infusion but there may be other ways we can do what we're looking
055to do why thank you because i know this this segment isn't easy uh for you and for the team and trying to negotiate these numbers you know these numbers are large and i just want to thank you for having the vision to understand that this can't be the way of the future for us we have to find a different solution different savings and i know i've made put up some ideas but there may not be the answers but but i i'm glad that you recognize that we have to find something else yeah this was not this this was not anybody's choice in terms of timing and i can tell you it would have been even more difficult had kathy not picked up the phone in late february to simply ask a question we would have
056liked to have known earlier in the fall that this was going to happen understanding that it's difficult to meet costs under the current circumstances i pick up the phone you call your client and you say listen we need to we need to make a change here let's work together to put a plan together unfortunately it did not happen that way and we had to work you know a little bit more of an abbreviated fashion between march and and today but we now have a time period over which to work and you know we're going to work together board administration and whomever on the outside we deem appropriate uh to work through other options maybe it was a blessing in disguise a little bit because in the fall we wouldn't have known the revenue that we
057know now so it would have been much more scary it definitely could have been but so i will talk i guess in the future about how how we're going to look for a new well i think there are i mean we're already in communication with some folks who have thoughts and ideas and i think this is going to be a matter of involving ourselves in the transportation network and just seeing you know not necessarily you know vendor versus vendor but options for transportation in general what developments are going to occur what can we look forward to over the next three years that we can take advantage of in terms of safely transporting our students in a cost-effective manner so it's going to involve some some work on our part to participate in things that keep
058us as informed as possible and allow us to stay in the cutting edge and it starts now it's just it's you're never right it's never too soon we don't want to be in a position where you have two months left to make a decision for the next couple of years right absolutely so this is this is going to be front loaded in terms of the efforts that we make okay well i look forward to that jim i just have a few quick questions i'm sorry i'm okay sorry i don't know where it's going um on the last document the proposal details towards the end of the document it looked like there was some pushback that they gave us in terms of a few of our requests where do we stand with that in terms of
059like do we renegotiate that or those details are what's in the final proposal okay look for example they said um okay so so what they came back with that's it that's final correct well it's not necessarily what they came back with it's at the end what was agreed to okay let me just clarify just so i fully understand they like for example they said um the epipen carrying uh they said that they're not in the business of administering medical attention so they won't they won't do that or they won't administer so like so if we have an issue and this is this is as we currently stand if we have an issue with the child that is at risk on a bus we will either have a nurse on the bus or a matron on
060the bus that has been trained to use the epipen okay and that's one example okay and then another example they said i i guess we had asked for two um test runs and they said only one unless we so those types of things where they said otherwise were accepting that what is in that proposal is what we agreed to got it okay so the test runs for example and i know i was part of many of these conversations myself they do two test runs they they're they're i don't want to use the word pushing back but they're suggesting that in certain circumstances with drivers who have been on these runs before they don't necessarily need two test runs but they will acquiesce if we desire a second test run on the part of certain routes
061or certain new drivers so there is there is flexibility here but there are parameters that we have agreed to with the company and those are in that that proposal and if i could just add um the original proposal was much higher right the cost was was much higher and so the way that huntington coach justified reducing the prices he was saying is that there's a cost associated with most of these i thought that's how they were able to produce it down to the alternate proposal um one one other concern it looked like we had asked for monthly safety meetings and they didn't um what did they say they said that they regularly review safety and take that upon themselves can you just elaborate on that what number is that um see item on monthly safety
062meetings yeah let me just find it okay delete reference to requirement for monthly safety meetings so their justification is that meeting what the state requires that they do so they're so basically when we score the rfp um they're going to receive a reduced score for that section of safety but they have met they do have an excellent safety right they have one of the best safety records in the state one of the reasons they get to charge what they do is because of their safety rating yeah and that factors in yeah i mean it definitely seems like they have it under control i was just wanting some clarity because there's a number of items in there that were that were definitely grounds for negotiation in terms of um gps and there's there's other items in
063there too that we had proposed that if there is i don't want to talk about school closure at this point the rate would stay the same as it is or as it as it was in june 2020 we talked about lowering that certainly wasn't going to go up a lot of these pieces were negotiated item by item yeah it seems that way and then what about the parent app what is that all about number 29 okay so the parent app is where um parents will be able to know exactly where their children are at all times on the bus like and they'll get a notification when the bus is arriving towards the bus stop or you know when they're arriving towards the house so people can get out to the bus stop in a more
064realistic manner instead you know spending a lot of time out there um we're still going to push for that and they said if we take that it's going to take place it's going to take them a year to get it in place that's why it's not offered for year one but we're still going to push to have it for year two and three okay great so but it won't be you know next year but the the last two years of the contract we're hoping to have that parent hat in place awesome thank you and bus patrol is is working with i believe they're working with huntington coach to get the stop arm program in place as quickly as possible we have signed off on it they have agreed to it the next step is putting
065the hardware onto the buses and we get cost savings for that or a rebate or something right that remains to be seen okay there was discussion of a portion of that going back to school districts for specific purposes it is a red light camera type program okay thank you okay i have one quick question about them sorry the year two and three cost increase do not include the parent app that would be in addition right it would be an addition right or an air conditioner if it were needed that would be an addition yes exactly air conditioner would be for a student based on a medical need we do that already right now with the vans use it for the large buses okay put air conditioning on it was over thousand dollars it's not included
066in our current contract none of that that's not right that would be on top yeah it's amazing that at these rates that's not included right i think it's cheaper to send my kids in fedex i mean that parent is not cheap when you add up the amount of buses and it's per month yeah it's a great thing you would think it would cost into that okay then all in favor and that is everyone it is approved unanimously thank you thank you kathy and thank you mr hender was very helpful during this process as well i'm sorry mr hender was very helpful during this process as well thank you mr hender i know keep answering the door mr hunter you're doing a good job okay that brings us to ms mccoy it is upon recommendation from
067the superintendent of schools that the board of education approved csc cpsc submissions as delineated have a motion please from bell in a second from linda all in favor that's everyone it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the board of education approved the introduction to statistics beacon program course beginning in the 2021-2022 school year as reviewed with the district subject matter and educational development councils and outlined on the attached okay could i have a motion bill and a second from kelly all right you have a question with here oh i'm sorry the next two courses are really just to give children the opportunity to get college credit through suffolk speaking program we already run a few courses in the same manner and we thought it was a great opportunity to add these two
068courses make sure you talk right into the mic please thought it was a great opportunity to add these two courses uh for students i need to vote on that so beth just to clarify the intro to stat program and the next pre-calc honors those are courses that we already offer we're just adding a dual enrollment component to those courses for those who wish to take advantage it's also a great price and obviously there is assistance available if needed i just want to say that as a parent going through the college process right now the the credits that my daughter has in dual enroll for dual enrollment are so much easier to deal with than the ap credits it's definitely a little bit different and is more of a local component and some flexibility there and
069we appreciate i mean listen it was a shame to see the article in newsday the other day and i know it's been documented that that nassau and suffolk are losing enrollment they get shortchanged in terms of the perceived quality of their programs they offer a lot of great things it is certainly a a great place for a lot of kids to start for all types of different reasons and it's impo i think this is a big part of how they more deeply infuse themselves into local school district communities and the beacon program is terrific and it provides students with with something of value so nice to be talking curriculum yeah isn't it makes me smile under this mess okay we'll keep that going for another couple of minutes at least okay then all in favor
070that's everyone it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the board of education approved the pre-calculus honors beacon program course beginning in the 2021-2022 school year as reviewed with the district subject matter and educational development councils and outlined on the attached emotion from linda on a second from bill same same common supplier exactly that's why i commented for both courses because we do already offer both courses and all in favor everyone thank you it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the board of education approve adoption of the environmental science for the ap course third edition published by bedford freeman and worth beginning in the 2021-2022 school year a motion xavier in a second from linda the textbook that we did have that we were using has aged out the age
071life for an ap textbook is 10 years according to the college board this new textbook was specifically written for the ap exam it includes extensive content to address the mathematics that has been added to this course curriculum sounds good any questions all in favor sorry do you have a question yeah this is replacing an existing textbook correct yes how is our students performance with the existing textbook i would ha i don't have that data with me but i can look it up and get back to you the results in the ap exam in that course have been have been good i mean i could say good but if you want more specifics i would have to get back to you no no i was i'm looking for big generalities oh okay i mean it really
072ultimately comes down to the teacher in front of the students right i mean that's how the kids are going to learn question textbook is a supporting element in there but you know bill i think with that course and i can speak to it specifically because i've taught it the material can change there is a section on laws and regulations that did routinely they change over 10 years worth of time that's going to change significantly there are developments in terms of alternative energy sources there are developments in terms of processes through which things are happening in material cycles this course is much different than the other ap science courses because there is a piece of biology there is a piece of chemistry there is a piece of physical science there is a piece of earth science
073and now i'm assuming we're saying math and well that's what this program specifically addresses to a greater degree and it also touches the social sciences as well as as law so there are changes that take place and if you are using i don't think our textbook is quite 10 years old but in in a short period of time things can be outdated in a course in a curriculum like this and this is why the ap has to look at their curriculum routinely for this course unlike you know not that short change chemistry which is a different type of course but the chemical element table has not expanded as significantly as the practices that are addressed in an environmental science course at least in same period of time okay all right then all in favor that's
074everyone thank you very much it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools at the board of education approve adoption of experience chemistry published by service learning company beginning in the 2021-2022 school year i have a motion i'm linda and a second from kelly the science department has been looking at resources for the last couple of years but they really hadn't found anything that they felt was what what they wanted until they found this resource this program utilizes phenomena to engage students in evidence-based ideas and practices which is in direct support of the next generation learning standards the online resources are extensive for teachers and students and we really need to address the next gen learning standards so this seemed to be the best resource and the fit that the chemistry department was looking for
075great all in favor that's everyone and just so you know you're seeing these two programs now notice i'm not called textbook proposals because it's much more than a textbook and we did hold off on some of this until dr grossani got here so she could help in the or guide the process along with her staff all right and the last one it is upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools at the board of education approve adoption of the u.s history and government new york public new york edition published by mcgraw-hill beginning in the 2021-2022 school year i have a motion please xavier in a second xavier and linda uh there are several reasons why we needed a new u.s history and government textbook the first was because the current text digital licenses expired so we
076needed to look for a new resource there also were changes in the new york new york state social studies standards in the past couple of years and this really well aligned with our middle school us history text and the global text in grade nine and ten so it really helped to transition as we go throughout the grade levels and also there's probably a decade of history that's yes the text speaks to the contributions of people from many different backgrounds including african americans native americans hispanic americans asian americans and women so there really was a careful look at that as they were evaluating the books as well that was an important aspect of the review process absolutely great the um is it the same publisher as your book or publisher actually the old book publisher is
077not in my head but the publisher of this book is or this program is on the document yeah okay any questions all in favor everyone to you mr polanski okay thank you i'm asking the board for approval of personnel items on schedules five six eight nine ten thirteen and sixteen i have a motion please from bell in a second from kelly all in favor that's everyone announcements i would like to potentially more formally do this at one of our next two upcoming meetings because we've had a number of people retire over the well certainly this year with the retirement incentive in place but last year as well we did not have the opportunity to formally acknowledge those who gave so many fantastic years to the district and the pandemic got in the way of our
078really honoring them in the manner that we wish to do so but on this the teachers had until april 12 to express their desire or intent to retire at the end of this year and take advantage of the incentive and that does lead to a greater number of people who are leaving us at the end of the school year than would have happened otherwise so i'd like to acknowledge and again we'll do this more formally and we'll talk about exactly how we're going to do that but this is in actually alphabetical order leaving us at the end of the school year a social worker nevilla armand like to thank her for the tremendous effort she's put in over the years that she's been here while not with us for that long elizabeth bromley has done
079a great job as our woodhull librarian shall be leaving at the end of the year it will be a different type of situation every morning at huntington high school without mr collect his hand up in the air waving to all who pass by within miles of his presence um paul's been with this district a long time we wish him the very best moving forward but paul will be leaving us at the end of the year guidance counselor katherine croak who has again worked with many students in moving their way through high school and college planning megan mckenna reading teacher at jefferson has also done some terrific work with so many elementary kids mrs tui su tui technology teacher at the middle school has been with us for a long time has done tremendous work with
080our our findlay tech program laurie wilcox outstanding teacher at the elementary level this year woodhull has was at jefferson before then uh she made the decision to leave at the end of this year and renee jones vaughn's a special ed chairperson a terrific chairperson terrific person they're all terrific people has put in many many years in huntington doing right by kids so we will miss these folks um and again i'd like to have a more formal opportunity to recognize them in their accomplishments and do you want to mention no schedule nine yeah i guess i can do that sorry i was so focused on 10. uh also thank you christine and my apologies to this person there is a tenure appointment on tonight's agenda has done outstanding work this is no easy job that she
081has taken on and she does with grace she does it with dignity she does it with poise she does she never complains she is as much of a team player as you can ask for as an administrator in any school district and i'm thrilled that she is a partner of mine of ours and huntington so we'd like to congratulate diana rich for her appointment to tenure this evening as director of special special education and student support services uh recommendation that i wholly endorsed as you know congratulations diana and to all the retirees awesome thank you you're welcome hey dr ecker okay it's upon recommendation from the superintendent of schools that the board of education approve items i through p on this evening's business agenda i have a motion please someone kelly and a second from
082bell any questions comments all in favor he stepped out everyone except linda stepped out for a moment i just lost them all what happened i lost all my donations you oh i can't read them you could read them from mine hold on i'm going to open it for you so the first donation we have is from a little closer the first donation that we have is from is tonya apple and mr cameron hopson this donation has an approximate value of 100 i believe that it is how do i open it what happened no it's not a question been there done that i learned my lesson with the touch screens i don't buy them anymore second donation is of a thousand dollar uh value from the gilmore family this donation will credit the michael samuel gilmore
083memorial scholarship thank you to them another donation is from the huntington pal lacrosse program it's a request of a donation for one rc 200 base station two rc 200 consoles to upgrade the scoreboard at j taylor findlay middle school and then finally a donation from the naacp from the huntington branch of the naacp in the amount of twenty five hundred dollars thank you to all those that have made the donations well the final grant there is going to go specifically toward the addition of additional regents review hours at the secondary level very generous donation from the naacp and i think there is an anonymous donor involved there but they facilitated this for us so thank you to uh to them and i'll also mention that there is another grant that not on this list tonight
084because it goes right into a trust and agency account for a specific club but just acknowledging the huntington station latin quarter for donating twenty five hundred dollars to the high school's new world club so thank you to them fantastic thank you okay so that brings us to our second public commentary same i'll just do the spiel same rules as the first commentary except that you can speak on any subject same time limitations same i don't see anybody raising their hands so i don't know if i should continue the spiel i think you're okay okay by the way okay okay do we have any final comments from board members the only thing i was going to ask about next meeting about possibly facing that way well we do have a cap are you talking about in
085person yes we do have a cap of 100 total is it 100 kathy i think it's 100 total indoors yes we can make that decision a little closer to the meeting we can consider it my only my only concern is shutting down our obligation when the meetings are in person we have to live stream so people can see in and hear if we live stream and obviously letting people in we may remove the zoom platform and we're waiting for the next executive order which actually expires tomorrow so right now executive order i believe it's 202 98 allows us to continue in this format through at least tomorrow let's see what the next executive order and see if he re-ups that he being the governor i imagine that he will right if not that'll change things
086significantly but if we remove the zoom platform those that do not feel comfortable coming in person would be able to see in here but they wouldn't be able to necessarily participate in public commentary which they may not be interested in anyway they'd have to come to the meeting to participate to right unless we made some kind of google form where they could put their comments and the district clerk could read it or something that's possible we'd have to think we'll we'll touch base with we'll touch base with i definitely don't want to do it to exclude anybody i wanted to do it too more people can can i ask a question of clarification there makes it sound like you're saying that you can't do the zoom platform in the live stream at the same time
087is that we're doing that now we can so i guess my question is even though we have people here why can't we still continue to do the zoom so that those people at home who choose to stay home for their it's just one more thing this year can do so and we can we can work them both we can it's just one more thing that that would need to be juggled during a meeting and i think once the once the requirement ends we will continue i know it seems like it seems like 100 years ago but what we had done up until the pandemic is just provide audio recordings of the meeting now that we have our our master technicians on site and we have new technologies available we can continue to live stream every
088meeting which would allow people to not only see in here live but also we post those recordings and those that cannot make it can see it um and this the zoom platform does provide something that's not going to go away uh so my bill suggestion is not it's not off target it's just a matter of how many things we want going on at the same time and that's the discussion that uh or something we can okay i just wanted to make sure we talked about that so we talked about it okay so we will make that what i'm going to do at this point now that chris has um fine-tuned the technology when there is a presentation on the screen the camera zones in on on the screen i am not thrilled with with posting
089the zoom recording because at this point unless we may change the way our account is structured and if that brings back the thumbnails i just find it to be very impersonal if you just see a presentation and no faces the zoom i'm sorry the youtube live streaming allows us to see the people in the room as well as everything on the screen it's just a little bit more personal same thing really but just you know we're here we want people to know that seeing other human beings is still a positive right absolutely okay so then anybody else have a comment then i'll take a motion to adjourn from bill and from kelly all in favor i think this is the most motions i've ever done and i mean i think this is the most emotional
090i've ever looked at a lot i've been counting i think you broke a personal record yeah yeah looking at you a lot i put pressure on you there well thank you folks thank you for joining us this evening we're back at it on may 10th for a way of staying warm budget hearing [Laughter] and we will see everybody soon okay thank you