2026-04-28: HPCSD Board Of Education Meeting

001All right. Uh, good evening. I'd like to call tonight's meeting to order. Welcome to the High Park Central School District uh Board of Education meeting. Today is April 28th, 2026. At this time, can I get a motion to enter executive session? >> Second. >> Wait, before that, a motion to adjurnn executive session for the purpose of discussing promotion, discipline, and employment topics for a particular person, persons or corporations. >> So moved. Second. >> All those in favor? I >> oppose. Motion carrying. We're now in executive session. So, I would like to return to open session at this time and please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge of 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

002justice for all. >> I don't think we have any agenda modifications. Um, so can I get a motion to adopt tonight's agenda? >> So move to Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carried. >> Upcoming events. Uh, Wednesday, April 29th, there's the Jazz Cabaret at FDR 700 p.m. Sunday, May 3rd, uh, High Park Central School District Art Festival. That'll be at FDR uh, from 1 to 3:00 p.m. And Wednesday, May 6th will be the FDR spring concert number one. That'll be at FDR at 7 PM. And then Thursday, May 7th is our next uh board of education meeting and that'll be at district office open session at 7 pm. >> Let me just mention that on the printed agenda, the printed calendar it says May 14th and that's an error.

003>> Okay. On the printed calendar, it says the next board meeting is on May 14th and that is an error. It should be May 7th is the next board meeting. All right, moving on to uh Pride for >> FDR would like to shout out the junior class for organizing a great junior prom. Everyone in attendance did a great job of representing FDR and Hide Park community. They also want to shout out Payton McFarland for being crowned Mr. President. North Park's sensory pathway team of school staff has been working hard to create a space that will receive all students and allow them sensory play during recess and outdoor class time. They want to give a huge shout out to five group of adults from North Park working to create opportunities for the school community. This week,

004students at Ralph Rar will be showing what they've learned this year on the New York State 3rd through fifth grade math assessment. They also have organized a tall and small ball on Friday, May 1st. And on Monday, students had the opportunity to participate in a fight for meal from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. The fourth grade classes at Bow Avenue had a special visitor from the Culinary Institute of America today to support their HMH unit to support their HMH unit on eating healthy food. Chef Ona with two of his culinary students visited and talked about being a chef, making healthy food, and how the culinary institute was created. They also talked about how the culinary institute tries to source food locally locally and even grow some vegetables and fruits on their rooftop garden. During the presentation,

005Chef Ona had his chefs and his chefs share delicious pasta and chocolate chip cookies with the children and two students got to these two chefs to help pass out the food. >> Okay, thank you. >> You need the clicker? >> Yes, please. So, I have a number of shout outs uh and points of pride to share. Uh first and foremost, just to echo the CIA uh this weekend, we have a Saturday academy and we also have uh Chef Tobias who's going to be having a cooking demonstration for our family. So, uh that's going to be taking place on on Saturday, May 2nd. If you're able to, please join us. Uh we're looking forward to trying some some yummy food. Um the next point of pride is uh Lee uh Castor. Um want to give her

006a special shout out. She has received the prestigious National Silver Key Award in Scholastic Art and uh this is the piece uh entitled Momento Mory. So just want to give her a shout out for winning that award. She's going to be recognized at uh in Carnegie Hall on June 10th. Uh so congratulations to her. Congratulations to the the the teaching staff that worked with her to kind of foster this and I just want to thank uh uh Matt for his leadership in in the department. >> Um >> that was the picture we were looking at. >> That's an amazing amazing piece. >> Exactly. Exactly. >> Uh the next point of pride um is a shout out to uh Natalie Ellis. Uh she is one of our ENL teachers over at Violet Avenue uh school and

007Principal Lair nominated her for the Mint Hudson uh school study council for teaching excellence and um she will be recognized at the annual meeting on May 6th uh at 5:30 at the Fieldstone Auditorium in the North Rocklin Central School District. Uh two more things I want to highlight. Um, so I had some of the the seniors invite me to the uh Mr. President show. I I I didn't know what I was getting myself into. Uh, but once I got there, that was really interesting. A lot of laughs. Uh, a lot of fun. Um, but uh, I just want to thank uh, SJ and um, you know, for inviting me there. Um and then uh also just want to um give a shout out to the HPTA for their cupcake challenge that they had last Friday.

008Uh they raised funds for supporting scholarships for students and uh it was um very delicious um uh cupcakes. So uh gained a whole lot of weight but you know for a good cause. Uh that concludes um my oh actually one more I apologize. bus appreciation week. So, I want to thank all of our uh bus drivers um who transport our students. They're usually the first faces students see during the day and the first ones uh to to say goodbye. So, just want to thank them for working diligently to get our students to and from school safely. Um so just want to say once again thank you and uh we appreciate um all all that um all that they do. Uh and just a a point of clarification um the cupcake uh challenge I believe that's

009an HPCSUA uh event. So um want to just make that that quick uh edit. >> You know all of them were good this year? >> They were all good. Yes. Well, the the the joke is for those of you that are are here with us and online, Mr. Zorski actually uh participated last year and um I selected one of his cupcakes. It was the last cupcake that was on my plate and and I did not finish the remainder of the cupcakes. And I didn't know that until he said, "Did you like all the cupcakes except for that one?" So, uh >> he won't let it won't let it go. >> He won't let it go. Thank you. That concludes my items. Any other uh pride? >> I first I want to talk about the cupcake

010challenge of code. I just want to add on um it was a great event, real community event. Um as you said, two of two of our bargaining units um worked together. There were they raised enough money for two scholarships. Um and just special thanks to Charlotte Auzo at North Park who organizes it. um retired principal from North Park, Lisa Hec and Heather Casto um from Chocolate Moose were uh judges with myself. Um it was a really nice time to have people from every building come out, eat cupcakes, and raise money for our kids. So um it was it was really fun. Um and I do have another point of pride. Um it is my honor to announce that Dr. Pedro Roman I'm trying to see if he's really being surprised. um has been awarded a

0112026 Mid Hudson School Study Council's Educational Leadership Award. In a role that demands both vision and resilience, Dr. Roman has consistently led with clarity, purpose, and an unwavering commitment to our students. Under his leadership, our district has strengthened academic outcomes. What sets his leadership apart is his ability to turn vision into action. Whether navigating challenges or championing innovation, Dr. Dr. Roman leads with integrity, listens with intention, and makes decisions grounded in what is best for our students. His work has elevated our schools and expanded opportunities. On behalf of the entire board, we thank you for your dedication and congratulate you on this well-deserved recognition. >> Thank you. Nobody spilled the beans. >> It's just that just that because we didn't want to really honor. >> Thank you so much. Appreciate building. Thank you. >> I

012just want to say that uh while while Margaret deserves the credit for starting the process, this truly was a board initiative. I just want you to know that. >> Thank you. >> And if anybody ever needs someone to rip apart their essays, Dr. Tibbitz, I wanted it to be authentic, so I didn't use chat, you know, any AI. And then I gave it to him to review. And boy, did he rip it apart. But it works. So, we make a good team. >> Thank you so much. It It's truly an honor and I greatly appreciate it. >> And I think he'll be at the there's a dinner that you'll you'll be at. >> Yes. Because we already so you thought you were going to be there, but that Yeah, that was that was all intentional.

013>> Yeah, that was the ruse. >> Okay, congratulations again. >> Thank you. All right. So, moving on to uh 7.1, our superintendent report. >> So, uh just a couple of updates for the board. Uh the first one is, as you know, uh on Monday, the New York State Legislature uh passed a seventh uh budget extender. So, that's going to carry us through Thursday. Um there's still some items that they're still kind of working through. Tier six, climate law, and a few other items. Um and then the um the voter registration um at the May 7th board meeting that's going to be held here uh from 4 pm to 8:00 p.m. Uh that's the last opportunity for voters to come out and and register uh for the school budget vote. Um, I also want to just

014put a plug in for a new podcast that's going to be coming out that our students put together along with uh Michael Davis and Gabby who's here from uh uh Boseies. Uh the students that led this was uh both SJ uh Cakeish and Roman Peon, our very own. Um, it it really is I encourage you to listen to it because the the questions that they're asking about the budget process and how it impacts them, it was a very natural, organic conversation. They are amazing on the microphone. Um, and just looking forward to uh hearing the the finished product, but that should be coming out relatively shortly. And uh we do have a few videos um that have been produced. um one that was sent out last week. We're going to be sending out uh the

015new one uh hopefully by the end of this week, if not next week. Um and then we're going to continue to present on the budget to all the PTAs. Uh Chamber of Commerce has has us on the uh next agenda. Um and then we're going to continue with the Rotary and um and just working to get the word out to our community. So, please come out to vote. And I I put a call to action to all of our students who are 18 years old uh to to go register. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to uh our athletic update with Miss Fletcher. >> Congratulations in person on scratch. All right. So, thank you all for having me tonight. I'm super excited as always to come share what is going on in the

016athletic department or health PE and athletics with you guys. So today we'll be talking about um the celebrating successes, impact of prior investments, the current work and targets for improvement and budget recommendations, what we're looking forward to for next year. So um before I get to what's on the slide, I'm going to actually skip to the bottom. I'm going to ask Anukica to come up here for a second. Just stand up here for a second. So, um, I've been thinking about this for months as a way to recognize Anukica for the work that she's been doing in our department. It's kind of a little bit behind the scenes. Um, but if you guys don't know, Anukica has written all our publication and hide park connections for this year for athletics. She goes out and interviews

017coaches. She interviews student athletes. She finds a story. She ensures that there's equity and that she's highlighting all our student athletes and all our teams. Um, and then at the end of the month, she comes and sits with Gabby and I, and we do a few edits, and everything that you guys see is from Anukica. So, I wanted to recognize Anukica today. Um, and I have a lot of appreciation for you for what you do. Um, you highlight our students, athletes in a positive way. You take something off my plate that, um, you do and you do very well. Um, so I do have an award for you today. I'm just going to read to you what it says and then, um, present you the award. Um, proudly presented to AnuKica Heightening to this certificate

018is given to Anukica for our outstanding contribution to Hide Park Central School District Athletics. Your dedication to going above and beyond to elevate your peers is truly inspiring. Your publications and hide park connections prove you will continue to uncover the stories that matter and serve as a powerful voice in the community. So, congratulations and thank you. sitting in my office getting ready to do a podcast. Anukica said that one of her biggest flexes in high school was writing for um The Connections because no other student does it. So um I agree and thank you and you do a really nice job. So well deserved. >> All right. So getting back to the presentation um today we're going to be talking about all our fall and winter teams. This is probably one of the things that

019I'm most proud so far because we're continuing into the spring, but all our fall and winter teams have received the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Scholar Athlete Award. I'll talk a little bit more about that on the next slide on what that is and what that entails. Um, we're moving closer to inclusivity for all. We included or we added unified bowling this year to um our teams. We had a very small team this year. We had about four students with special needs and two partners. Um, but it was very successful. if you had gone to any of the events that they hosted and that all the unified teams were at everybody's super excited. They're having fun and it's a great atmosphere. So, we're really trying to improve on that for next year

020and increase participation. Um, one thing that we've been working on over the last couple years is the growth of our wrestling program. Last year, we added an assistant coach at the varsity level based on the number of student athletes that we have. We have about 40 athletes in that program at that level. And, um, we also added a girls head coach. Adding a girls head coach to the program this year allowed for our female student athletes to go to competitions and participate in female only tournaments where in the past we didn't have the staffing um for boys to be in one location and girls to be in another. So girls didn't have that opportunity. So this year with the addition we were able to send them to um tournaments that were female only. We did

021have four student athletes that made it to the state tournament and our female Natalyia Tahada, she um had a podium finish. She placed sixth um at the state tournament. So that was really exciting for us. Um next thing is Miles of Hope and Morgan's message. We've been really intentional and Bobby I told I told her I was going to call her out before I got up here. We've been very intentional um this year um about working with Varsity Club and doing some more community outreach. Uh in the past in the fall all our teams wore pink for an event, but some raised money for Miles of Hope, other ones just wore pink and there was really no connection. So this year we decided to do a week of pink where every um team that we

022had and they every team participated in an event throughout the week. We raised money for Miles of Hope and that was thanks to Varsity Club. Um I think we raised over $2,000 for Miles of Hope in just that one week that we ran the event. Um so trying to just do some more community outreach. Morgan's message is something else that we also added this year. We had a Morgan's message game um for girls basketball in the winter and we just had one for girls lacrosse. For those of you that don't know, Morgan's message u Morgan was a student athlete that committed suicide and it really Morgan's message is geared around mental health and reducing that stigma of mental health in athletes. So we dedicated a couple events to Morgan's message. we raised some money for

023Morgan's message and um throughout the event we just talk about um the importance of mental health and reducing that stigma and make announcements during the event um in regards to mental health. Um we also have two ambassadors for Morgan's message um uh Cassie Kou and Maddie >> Renees that are our Morgan's message ambassadors. So um they're kind of leading the way in that work which is awesome. And then the last thing we have up here is just our focus on literacy and health and physical education. Um at the beginning of the school year, I will tell you my health and PE teachers were very reluctant to incorporate lit into health and fizzed. Um they automatically thought that they would be writing essays and reading books in physical education class and they were really resistant. But

024they've really embraced it throughout the school year. And even the other day I walked into FDR and my teachers came out of the hallway and they're like, "Come check out what we're doing in the classroom." and they had like all their vocabulary on the wall and they were super super excited to show me what they've been doing in the classroom. So just really like kind of like a shift in culture and an understanding that because we're incorporating literacy that doesn't mean that we have to read books and write essays every single day that there's little turn in talks and other things that we can do in the classroom that really incorporate literacy. So they've really done a nice job embracing that. Um up on this slide um is the number of scholar athlete teams that

025we've had over the three years since I've been here. Um in 23 24 you guys can see the numbers up there. Um the different colors represent the different seasons. So you got fall, winter, spring. This year, as you will see, um we had 10 scholar athlete teams in the fall and 11 in the winter. A scholar athlete team is a team that 75% of the roster has an average GPA of 90% or higher. Um the reason why this is important is one because student always comes before athlete. We're student athletes. And then um New York State Public High School gives an award over the last couple years. We've had we've been a school of excellence which means 75% of our teams have been scholar athlete teams. This year we're in the running for school of

026distinction, which means 100% of our teams would be scholar athlete teams. The only thing that's missing is the spring. Traditionally, our spring teams do really well. When it comes to being scholar athletes, we're kind of over the hump. Um, but super excited. In my three years that I've been an athletic director, there's only two other schools that have been a school of distinction, and that's Warwick and Cornwall. So, that would be great for FDR to be one of those schools of distinction. Fingers crossed. Grades come out next week. So hoping that that um we win that award, but that would be um super exciting and impactful. We've been really working hard um with our eligibility policy and our attendance policy getting student athletes into school and make sure they're staying in school and staying on

027top of their grades. We have um coaches that run study halls and really like this is um this is on my coaches and the student athletes like they've really kind of made a push and like made it important and focused on the importance with their athletes. So this is a test to them. The next chart is just the number of student individual student athletes that have a GPA of 90 or above. Um, as you can see, um, same thing this year, we're at 240 for the, um, fall and for the winter, and we haven't added the spring yet, but I'm anticipating that we'll have the highest numbers we've had since we've been here. So, super excited about what our students are doing in the classroom. Current work and targets for improvement. So, the first thing

028I have up here was creating a positive connection with athletes. One of the things that I really wanted to focus on as an athletic director this year was being that athletic director um that had positive connection with the athletes and just building more connections with more students. The first three years that I've been here is kind of like keeping my head above water and learning the job, but now like that I feel like I'm a place where I can come go out and do um more leadership activities with our student athletes. Um, I created a student athlete Google classroom this year and um, it didn't really turn out the way that I wanted it to turn out. It had like some positives where I'm directly communicating with athletes so they're seeing information that they really

029need to see, but there wasn't really like two-way communication. So, one thing that I want to do next year is have like a leadership club um, a student athlete leadership club where you have captains or two leaders from every single team and we meet monthly and do some leadership activities. I don't want to be the athletic director that kids only come into my office when they're ineligible or they're in trouble. So, um that's a really focus that I've been working on this year. So, I played around with it a little bit this year, but being a little more intentional next year on um some leadership activities with our students, reaching Noxy standards for protective equipment. Over the last three years, um we've been rotating equipment out and bringing in equipment in. Um one example would

030be our football helmets. Our football helmets have a 5year warranty or they're good for 5 years and then you have to replace them. We had all our football helmets that the end of this year which is about 75. They all expire. So over the last three years we've really been like purchasing like 20 helmets per year to try and make sure at the end of this year that all of our helmets are meeting the safety standards. And then another thing that we did this year was um for baseball and softball, we purchased one helmet per athlete, which in the past since I've been here um student athletes use their own helmets and you can't ensure that they have the Knoxy standard if they're using their own helmet. So we went out and purchased helmets for

031everybody to ensure that everybody's wearing a helmet that's up to the highest safety standards um for them to participate in during the game. All that equipment at the end of the season, at the end of the year goes out for reconditioning. um softball baseball helmets. Unfortunately, the shelf life for them is only like two years and then you have to purchase again, but they do go out get cleaned. That's I kind of made sure we had one for every student. So, they kind of take it like the uniform, they have it with their uniform, they return at the end of the year. So, they're not sharing with anybody, but then they all go out cleaned, refurbished, and then they come back next year. Weight room maintenance plan. We have like this great weight room at

032FDR um that was um dedicated and donated to the school. Um, but we have no plan on We maintain it, but we have no plan on like when equipment is done and over with and we can't use it anymore and we have to purchase new stuff. So, that's one thing that we're going to focus on next year is gathering a committee for um the weight room and creating a three-year plan on like what equipment we're going to get rid of, what that we're not using, what needs to be repaired or replaced, um and new stuff that we want to bring in, which um seems simple, but there's a lot of different um lenses and opinions on what should be in the weight room and what the weight room should look like. from the coaches to

033the PE teachers to the athletic trainer. A lot of people have different visions. So, just bringing all those stakeholders together and um getting in a room probably sitting in the wait room because um visual is good and just kind of going over and discussing like what's best for our students in all capacities and maintaining that weight room. So, it's a great space for everybody to use. So, that's coming. And um again, next year we're going to continue with our professional development. Um, health teachers are going to focus on witsy training and PE teachers are still going to continue with their literacy training as well. Budget recommendations for next year. Um, we started uh the unified program this year, but we really want to focus on building that program next year. Um, as I said earlier,

034just trying to get um more student athletes and more partners involved in that program to really make it an inclusive environment um and a collaborative environment for everybody. I know we have um a handful a good handful of student athletes that are coming up from Havlin to FDR next year. So really our team should grow and just watching that program be successful is something that um we're going to focus on for next year. And then we're also going to add girls flag football which I sent out a survey to student athletes and I have over 40 girls that are interested already in flag football and they've been knocking on my door for the last two years asking when we're going to have flag football. So that's going to be something based on the interest of

035students that we are going to be adding next year. Uh just a financial summary for next year. The first line is staffing. In the staffing that includes myself, um Mrs. Duffy, my secretary, Nick Sume, our athletic trainer, all our coaches, um security and chaperones that we have for all of our events. So that's kind of all-encompassing and our staffing. Um uh next year with the addition of girls flag football, we're just reallocating funds. There um are some sports that we don't run every year. So those funds from the sport that's not going to run next year um will just be used um for girls flag football next year. And then operations is everything from supplies to equipment to um the Boseies coaster paying for officials um and everything that is requires to run our department.

036Um the benefits of our investment in recommendations is I think the two first two bullets kind of go hand inand um positive attendance and addressing the interests of students. It's the fact that if students are interested or they're tied to something in school, they're more more likely to attend school. So just trying to get more students to be interested in athletics and join and participate on a team and want to come to school. Um, as I talked a little bit about earlier, just stronger leadership skills, really focusing on building the leadership skills of our student athletes. Um, we use athletics as a driver to build good people and to um to like hone in on our like our leadership skills beyond FDR. So, um, that's one thing that I really want to work on next

037year. still um maintaining those high safety standards to ensure that all our student athletes are as safe as possible and um greater community connections. So um increasing the amount of community service that our student athletes do and connecting with the community and next steps um just try to strengthen the unified program now that we have one year underneath our belt. This year um myself and the coaches and everybody involved it was the first year that we had done it. um we didn't really know like what we were doing to be honest. So now that we have we got it off the ground. Um we had a great successful year. We have one year under our belt. We really want to strengthen that program for next year. Um as I talked about a little bit earlier,

038gathering a committee to determine the needs for the weight room maintenance. Um continue to use research and data to guide informed decisions in regard to safety and best practices to ensure that everything that we do um ensures the highest safety standards for our student athletes while they're participating. um continue to offer a wide variety of sports and activities based on the interests of students and enhance leadership skills through real real world experiences. So that's all I have for you guys today. Um one note that I wanted to mention before I forget is next Wednesday the 6 at 2:30 at FDR, we do have our student athlete signing and we have a whopping 17 student athletes that are going to be participating at the collegiate level, which is the most since I've been here. So, super

039excited about that. If you guys are not busy, then feel free to stop by the FDR gymnasium on Wednesday 2:30 for our signing >> 6 at 2:30. >> Wednesday the 6th at 2:30. >> Anybody have any questions? >> What the flag football? Um, is that you do we play other schools or >> Yes, really. >> Yes. So, section 9 has they've been running flag football for this is the third or fourth year and there are a lot of teams in this or a lot of schools in this section that have teams. Last year was the first year they had a state tournament and state championship for it. >> Really? >> Oh, that's cool. >> I have a question. I have a question just about uh unified sports because I love the idea of unified sports

040but I have concerns that it will turn into special education or special needs student sports. Um, how do you ensure that you have, you know, a balanced number of special needs students versus >> the partners? >> No partners. >> Yeah. So, um, I think that's like, um, so we had less partners than we did have students with special needs this year. It's very typical for a team that's just starting out. But I think just like going into the community like starting with like SGO and um having conversations with student athletes on kind of what the program is and what it entails and like why we're doing it and educating our students. I think that um I know there's plenty of students out there that would love to get involved. So just putting the word out

041more I think we'll get more of that balance. Also, um, what do you have plans for other sports? Like I think I saw something about basketball and botchi, but how do you decide which sports you're going to offer as a unified sports? Because I know certain sports are very competitive and I know a lot of special special needs kids really want to play them, but they never make the teams, >> right? So those particular sports like maybe the more popular sports, you know, how how would you gauge which ones these students would want to play? >> Right. So we started off um this year with bowling um because we kind of had a late start and we didn't want to start off the school year with something that we weren't prepared to fully um give

042like 100% effort to and fully put together. So bullying is the winter so it just gave us a little bit more time. Um the bowling atmosphere is like phenomenal. I mean all the atmospheres are phenomenal. Bowling. So you have botchi in the fall which botchi they um section brought last year then there's bowling in the winter and then there's basketball in the spring. Um they say the basketball is the most competitive but it's the greatest atmosphere because it's a sport where you actually have people in the stands where if you're at the bowling alley or botchi like people are kind of like standing there on the sideline but it's like a different atmosphere than basketball. So, we started small um and then our goal is next year to kind of increase and like hone in

043everybody's skills and build the program and then expand the year after with all three. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. >> Moving on to 7.3, our fine and performing arts update with Mr. Pigello. Good evening, Dr. Roman, members of the board, members of the cabinet. Thank you all so much for having me here. Um, for those of you that don't know me, I'm Matt Funichello. I'm the director of fine and performing arts here. And uh since joining the community back in August, I've learned so much about what makes this learning community so special. And it's an honor to be able to share with you tonight what makes um you know, what I like to think of as one of the the gems in the crown here, which is our fine and

044performing arts program. So I'm going to show you a snapshot of the work that we're doing right now and give you an idea of where we are going forward. Of course, everything that we do in the fine and performing arts is grounded in our district's mission and vision, our guiding principles that help to shape our students forward trajectory in all that we do in the arts and beyond. As an innovative learning environment for all, we recognize that the arts are cultural invariance. They exist and involve in every society across all time and are a fundamental part of what it means to be human. And to find uh new ways to explore them and understand our world that is filled with them means that we're able to understand who we are today and in the context

045of um the fabric of our lives. Our programs are a core pathway with through which we empower all learners to develop their independent voices, their understanding, and the skills they need to be successful in a world that presents challenges known and unknown. By now, you're familiar with sort of the evolution of our conversation. We'll be focusing on uh some successes, taking a look at current work that we're doing, and then um budget priorities going forward to help support the work as it evolves. Before uh I get to our successes, I just wanted to to showcase some of the work that our students are doing. Uh the fine and performing arts are often times seen as being very proctoriented, but one of the things that I like to highlight as a director that we're very much

046about process and what we're doing and um in examining our process that allows us to get to our product. Um, we're we're seeing lots of 21st century skills that are so valued in the student experience being exemplified in what we're doing in the arts classrooms, in the music classrooms, and on the stage. Um, you know, these these things are that you see, creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, they're inextricably intertwined in the arts experience. And so our students are creative. They develop ideas um they take risks in doing so and they develop themselves as independent thinkers. They're speaking with their classmates and their the arts community around them um through reflection and and uh enriching dialogue. They're collaborating. They're participating in critical thinking where they're working together in ensembles and on productions in shared uh studio

047environments uh to to analyze and refine and improve their work over time. And I think it's really exciting to see what's coming forward in the graduation measures that are coming out because I think this positions our students here at Hide Park in a really excellent way to be very successful uh in the future. Now, moving on to the the product pieces. It's uh I one of the things that I've come to love about being here is it's very active. I feel like in any given week, there's just so much going on for our students in both uh art and music and theater. Uh by the end of this year, we will have had 22 concerts districtwide uh involving almost 1,500 students who participate in our ensemble um music here at Hide Park, which is really

048incredible. Um from that bunch, we've had uh students participate in uh honors festivals, uh ensembles festivals that happen across our area. We're celebrating 10 students who've done area all state, 24 who have done junior high all county which in fact we hosted here at FDR this year and then uh 24 elementary school allcount participants as well. So our high achievement is not just at the highest level, it happens all throughout the district and uh next year we look forward to um hosting elementary all county here as we are very important partners in our um in our um our DCMEA uh Duchess County Music Educators Association and they look to us for our leadership and for our spaces to uh have these events in the art world. Uh we had 18 uh scholastic art award winners

049this year for our region. I had the distinct pleasure of going over to Sunni Newalts to see some fabulous artworks. I had never been to that event before coming to this position as a as a musician and as a music teacher and it was just really amazing to see so much of our artwork there up with the very best artworks uh from students around the area. Uh as Dr. Roman had mentioned ear earlier, Ali Castor uh is being honored with a national recognition and they'll be uh going down to Carnegie Hall to receive uh that award and to celebrate with um some of the best artists around the country. So, it's a really significant accomplishment for us in this district. Uh we've had three theatrical performances and this fall uh this past fall we had

050Legend of Sleepy Hollow. This uh spring we had Into the Woods at FDR and um we also had Matilda Jr. at Avlyn Middle School. All of these uh happening in our wonderfully renovated uh theater spaces that allow our students to shine doing what they love to do uh with audiences that love them and love to support them in what they're doing. Uh and as was stated earlier uh we do have the upcoming district arts festival which is really exciting. It's an opportunity to see a cross-section of all the work that we're doing districtwide from the elementary level all through uh up through the high school level. And as was said before, that is on May 3rd at FDR and it'll be going on from 1:00 to 3:00. This is sort of the first big official

051announcement of this, but I am very proud to share with you that I got an email on Thursday of last week uh that um uh letting us know that we for the 10th year uh have been um designated as a best community for music education in the nation. Uh this is really exciting for us. It's not just a reflection of what we do as a faculty and a staff here. It's not just what our students do, but it's a it's truly a collaborative effort. This is um this is a a designation that's given uh for the institutions and the communities that support them. So, it's really exciting that things like this uh are part of our um you know, our pedigree, I suppose I could say, here, and that we continue to honor this tradition

052of offering really exciting and um uh comprehensive experiences for students. Uh it's a powerful affirmation of what we're doing and the value that this community puts in the arts fine and performing arts. Taking a look at our current work, um we've been supporting district literacy goals through some intentional efforts at the K5 level. Um as I said before so much about art and art making music and m music making is about um our ability to communicate our thoughts in those areas as difficult as it may be. So we've been working on content uh specific vocabulary acquisition at the elementary school level. Uh at the secondary level um we've been looking at supporting literacy through sort of uh supporting and uplifting conversational proficiency uh which supports creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking. Uh and of course

053um you know supporting our district-wide wildly important goal in the area of attendance. Uh we've been looking at um these programs and how they strengthen the student feeling of belonging. Uh and of course uh when students feel like they belong at school, they come to school and uh we are very proud to sort of um to feature that as an integral part of of what we do. Uh we really value the students that show up and do the work that they do because without them, you know, we wouldn't have fine and performing arts here at Hide Park and uh we're happy to know that that's one of the things that keeps them coming to school. So, our priorities for um the budget for next year are to first and foremost preserve the quality uh core

054that we've got going on. As you can see, we are a fantastic school district that offers a myriad of wonderful opportunities for students. And so, our primary commitment must be to maintain those programs for students. And that includes maintenance of uh the equipment and uh the materials and supplies that help to um make those things happen. As we uh look into next year, we're continuing to make sure that our programs uh impact the lives of all the students that we have here within the district. And um part of that is making sure that we eliminate any sort of financial or structural obstacles that present themselves that could potentially um keep students from from accessing these programs. And so part of that is making sure that our uh recruitment and retention practices and all the discipline

055areas is watertight. across the district. So, we've been taking a look at that this year and we'll certainly continue to look at that next year and begin to implement some steps to to really make sure that um as many students as possible have access to these really fine programs. And of course, uh you know, our funding is going to prioritize the high impact student experiences that we offer. So, we're looking to support well-designed, pedagogically sound, uh, programs in the fine and performing arts, uh, that really, um, make those instructional moments very impactful for students and set them up to be, um, artists and musicians for life, not just for their time that they are here at Hide Park. overall financial summary that you'll see um with the um 25% reductions for uh equipment and supplies

056making sure that we are strategic with the funds that we do have in those areas so that the um we're being more efficient but also not impacting uh the student experience. Benefits of these recommendations are just sustaining our programmatic integrity. um making sure that these students are having the educational experiences that allow them to go on to be uh you know national silver key winners and area all state participants and and all state participants. >> Um we're going to make uh these investments will help us to maintain the strategic acquisition of uh equipment that we use to help support our programs. Um the district has quite a lot of money in uh musical instrument assets. Uh our collection is quite extensive and allows there to be lots of participation for students across demographic area uh

057across the demographic spread and uh working with the technology department. We are um at the very early stages of implementing the DAPO instrument inventory system that'll help us to track and manage those assets. Uh, and again, just continue to to to put all we can into those high visibility, high impact arts experiences that um, and you know, I said before they're great for kids, but they're also really important for community. You know, what would schools be without their community? And I think uh, the fine and performing arts are really important sort of um, pot boiler for um, districts to be able to um, to build uh, fellowship with the the the community that supports them. looking towards where we're going in the future from my you know less than one year perspective uh I think

058there's a lot of great things happening but there's a lot of opportunity so trying to seize on some of the opportunities that are there um we'll uh take a strategic look at ensuring that we have coherent con connected experiences throughout the district so that uh students who are entering you know kindergarten um their instructional pathway is designed with the end in mind so that they get the the the top-notch experience uh that will allow them to be lifelong um you know learners and uh performers and artists uh and as I had said before continuing to expand access and participation um for all students. Um something else to kind of uh consider, you know, we talk about um educating students for, you know, a dynamic world that is always changing around them. And because the world

059is changing around them, the cultural artifacts of that world are changing, too. And so to make sure that the art and music programs that we have um are ensuring their success in the 21st century world of art and music. So making sure that um our programs meet student needs and uh student interests. Um, another thing that we're going to begin to take a look at is figuring out how to um use data to inform more of the decisions that we're making uh in art. Um, so establishing trackable systems and measures to better understand um how our students are participating, how they're growing through our program and how well our programs are doing uh in uh teaching and learning. And lastly, um, seeking to continue to develop deeper community connections with our programs. Um, so those

060the link between school and community is so important. We have so many public facing uh opportunities and to really uh uplift those and to ensure that everyone's being uh moved by those experiences both inside schools and out schools will continue to be our priorities as we go forward. So, thank you. And if anybody has any questions, I'm happy to try to answer them. >> Any uh questions. >> Okay. All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you so much. >> Moving on to 7.4, our technology update with Mr. W. >> Good evening everybody. I think I may be the last presentation. So, congratulations. You made it. So, um I love this picture because it's atypical what people think about with Chromebooks. It's it's sitting outdoors. I think that may be at Netherwood. I'm not entirely

061sure. It looks like the outdoor garden, but um because of our Wi-Fi, because the device portability, you can see these devices almost anywhere. And it's really about them bringing the world to the kids in many ways. So what do we do? You know our mission and vision for the district. We also have one in the technology services. And I have to admit that I misread a requirement from the state teched plan that said write your mission here. I'm like I have to create a technology mission. So I did. There it is. And then I found out they really wanted districts. But I still stand by this. I this is a good mission for the technology services department where we really are trying to make sure we can meet the needs of all learners through technology.

062So, um, you know what our discussion drivers are, what we're trying to accomplish, that picture, I just want to make a note of that. Um, there was a $100,000 project last year that was targeted for the Havland labor and workforce skills, the law's kitchen. And that project was a challenge at times, but if you I I wish I could have done a before and after picture. It is a beautiful space now. And we've outfitted it with a high quality uh camera, overhead camera that looks down on the food prep table with three big screens on the wall so every student can actually see what's going on on that demo table. So, and that camera is that little black spot up in the ceiling. So, we like to do things quietly in the tech department. We

063don't draw attention to ourselves, but it makes big improvements for kids in a case like that. Get if you get a chance, you should stop over. So, this is what we've been working on. this is what your investments in our department have been able to allow us to do. So my department I as a director oversee all those folks. Um so the laws teachers, tech teachers, business teachers, the librarians, digital media coordinators to Chromebook assistants at the high school and middle school and then the nine core folks in the office, several of whom are here in the audience today. We support 188 software solutions, a ton of titles, and then literally over 10,000 devices. And that's not just our inventory. where maybe we forgot some things. That's actually from Active Directory, which is actively monitoring

064our system to see what's out there. So, you can see it's quite a bit that we're supporting. And to further illustrate that, well, this is I love this picture, too. So, um the bottom left, those are two laser engravers that are stationed at our middle school, and uh the shop teachers there are learning how to use them. The one on the right is brand new. It is massive and it allows them to engrave up to, I think, 36 inches, which is huge. So, um, what they can do is load up a bunch of student projects at one time, do the engraving, and move on. So, that's brand new this year. And the teacher, who's also brand new this year, is learning how to incorporate that more into what the kids are able to do. Paired

065that with Gada Bayumi's classroom right next door where they're doing 3D laser printing, um, it gets even better. So kids are actually able to create projects, produce them, take them home. In the middle traditional shop class, we also make sure that they have the equipment they need. So those band saws and things you see there in Brad Phillips have them classroom. Same thing at the high school. We're constantly trying to make sure our equipment is up todate and really good. My goal has always been give the kids a professional environment which the next picture with Sean Christensen smiling there at the high school. You know about our race car program. If you've not been in to see what that looks like or watched the videos or gone to Limerock to see the race, Labor Day

066weekend, uh, Memorial Day weekend, it is phenomenal. The car that's up on the left behind him is the one from last year. My understanding is they will auction that off this spring and that will fund the car for the following year. So, it is a great program. Sean and the team, and I really do mean the entire team, the tech teachers of the high school, do a phenomenal job with the students and they walk away with some amazing skills. One of the questions we get asked is, "Do the kids drive the race cars?" No, we can't. Liability. So, what we've done from a technology perspective, they have a professional quality race car simulator where the students can go and they actually race on a digital track against other schools and they have a live sports

067caster calling the race. So, while we can't put the kid behind the wheel of the car, we can put them behind the wheel of a similar tuned race car. And this is the kind of thing where the steering wheel shakes and the brake is real and it feels like a race car. It's a little terrifying actually. And above that, uh, when I was talking about professional grade equipment, that's the Hland Auditorium. It's very similar at the high school. The lightboard on the left was purchased through the capital project and the lighting system is amazing. The sound stuff you see on the right, that stuff that the tech department purchased over the course of five, six years. When I came into the position, we were told the sound system's horrible, but it's so expensive. We just

068chipped away at it. So, the speakers are between the columns. We bought those one year. The soundboard we bought another. We just keep chipping away at these projects so they become eventually amazing places and kids are learning on professional grade equipment. So, what do we do? This is uh these charts kind of break down all the stuff we do. I think we've had 2,000 tickets so far this year. Um, which our ticket count keeps going up, which is a great thing. That means people aren't just stopping us in the hallway with the, "Hey, you got them in minutes." We're actually getting tickets. So, we spend most of our time in device management. Just about half of our time is setting up devices, purchasing devices, getting them to staff, fixing the issues with them, or deprovisioning

069or recycling them. It's a chunk of time. Next to that is our account management. People coming and going, students and staff. Everybody gets an account. We have to make sure those are configured properly. Um and then obviously software training and the administrative stuff that we have to do on top of all that. Um thanks to nine people, we get it all done in a fairly timely manner. We're proud of the work that we do in that department. So what are we working on? I had two wigs for myself. Um the team is aware of those wigs. We talk about them every week. Um the first one was about an attendance goal. So chronic absenteeism, we've been working on combating that. What can the tech department do about that? Well, the data goes into infinite campus

070and then we have to make sure that's done accurately. So on the left is an agenda from one of my meetings with the secretaries who handle attendance in each building. And the topics are on there are all about how do we do this with fidelity? How do I know that this building is recording a field trip the same way that this building is? so that we have common language and we have common practices around tenants so our data is consistent across buildings we have those meetings we tried to do monthly it got messy so we really focus on quarterly now additionally I have made a point this year to go into each building I my goal was 12 for the springtime um that's up until March so you can see I've been making bits and

071bits of it and it's really face tof face contact I didn't want to sit at my desk call them and say is everything okay? I wanted to get out into the buildings and meet face to face. And a lot of times it's yes, we're good. Sometimes is I've got this problem and we work through it. So that's my wig attendance goal. And then the literacy goal. Um what can tech do? We can look and make sure there are no barriers to student and teacher access to those programs. So we focus on HMH. These are the charts from HMH. On the left, I believe that is the student login. So, I wanted to see by percentage of building population, how many kids are actually logged into the program and how frequently. And that chart says we're

072pretty consistently over 75% across the buildings, which is great. Staff, same thing. Um, and you know, where you see the drop offs, spring break, which is good. We want them to put the screens down, but during the instructional weeks, it's pretty good usage. And then additionally, support tickets. And you can see from that chart on the far right, we had a whole bunch in the fall in September, which is understandable. It's dropped off and as they come in, we've been closing them. When we look at time on task, our service level agreement in the office is, I think, a 24 or 48 hour response time of some kind. We meet that fairly consistently. I want to say around 92%. So, I made sure these metrics were okay by looking at three other programs. the reading

073plus program at Havland. Um, and again, really high usage on that program and very few support tickets. And then learning a toz and news. Those are two programs we don't necessarily push via direct curriculum like those two programs are. That one there's a lot less usage and almost negligible um support tickets. So, it's just a way for me to double check that this isn't an anomaly because we're focused on conservative use and we're able to support that as a tech department. I think we're seeing some really good results. Jenna will be able Jen Kryera will be able to talk more to that. >> Bunch of recommendations. So, when I think about the technology department and the work that we do to support everybody else and I think you've heard through the presentations, thanks to the

074technology department, what a great video. Um, we use this program, we use that program. That all comes back to the tech services department and again we like to work in the background very quietly and make sure everybody has what they need. We've invested in the onetoone device program since Havlin started it back in 2015 I believe and then we went onetoone completely when COVID hit and everybody got a Chromebook and since then we have been one to one. We are going to be looking at the instructional tech comm tech committee Katie Ed's not here but Katie um at the next meeting I just sent out a an article for them to review. We are looking at maybe resetting that program and by that I mean we've had a significant amount of damage to Chromebooks in

075the last few years. It's extensive and I think we need to reset with the students and the staff the expectations around those devices. They've gotten considerably more expensive. Um, obviously keeping our equip u equipment and software solutions up todate and usable. So, we're constantly analyzing usage to make sure it's still a viable program that we're using. If it's not, it's time to cut it. Um, the guy over there at the table, Bobby Caulifano, is key in making sure we have a cyber security environment. So we've in we've instituted some really good end device protection uh protocols to make sure that key targets are kept safe. We had I want to say we had two fishing attacks today through emails at least right that were dangerous. They look like drive shares. They come from Dr. Romans

076click here and put your password in. Um >> wasn't me. >> It was not you. It was some some guy we think from India to be honest with you. So yeah, it is it's getting more dangerous and they're getting more frequent and more professional looking. So constantly being aware of those things and making sure our data is protected. Um cyber security effort experts will tell you it's not if, it's when. And what we have to do is have a really strong posture and be constantly monitoring our systems. And that's what those guys do. Our network infrastructure. Um I've always had a five-year plan since the day we started the department. I try to balance the costs. There are some purchases coming up in the next two years. It's a $100,000 video server, one shot. Um,

077some of our other servers are going to end of life, which means they'll no longer get support, which means they become a cyber security liability. So, we try to balance out our purchasing. So, those big expenses, which are coming, are offset in other years by making sure our TVs and our Chromebooks and everything else are up to speed. Network infrastructure. And the last two buildings, I'm excited about this. Uh, right now we are on track to to replace the aging PA and clock systems at both Netherland and Violet Avenue. The folks that work there tell you that they're unreliable right now. Once we do this, we will have district-wide paging capability, meaning Dr. Roland can get on the PA and hit every single building with an announcement over the PA and clock systems. U, they

078also announced lockdowns. It's a really powerful system. So, we're excited about that one. Use of the cops grants. That's our security cameras. Um, it's $35,000 every year. So, every year Bobby and I sit down, we go through the cameras, we look at them, we evaluate them, we create a prioritize list, we spend 35 grand to fix the problems and add cameras where we can. So, this past year, we made sure that all the exterior entrances at the elementary schools were finally covered with camera use. So, it's a safer environment for our students to have -ate funds. That's the telecommunications companies have to donate funds to public schools. We've been hooking into that for about 10 years. So instead of a $10,000 switch, it's a $3,500 switch. The telecoms pay the bulk of it. We pay

079a little bit of it. And by using those -ate funds smartly, that's how we're doing the PA and clock replacement. It's costing us 35% of what it would without that money and it's free money. So we are constantly on top of it. And then we look anywhere else we can for budget reductions. um any way we can do savings, economy, bulk purchasing. My first question to salespeople is at what point is the price break? And if it's 200 units, then instead of buying 150, I'll buy 200. That way we get the price break and save a little money. So what are investments? So um you will see there are some numbers here that went down and some numbers that went up. um technical services. Um we have a retirement with our technology integrator Susan Arlon

080who's been a fantastic teacher here for over 30 years in the district. She's been a tech integrator for the last four or five years and just a phenomenal individual. She is often the first base that people meet when they come into the district because she shows them how to use their Chromebooks, how to log in, how to do their fobs. um and just she's done hundreds and hundreds of hours of technology integration out in the district. We are so grateful for her because she is retiring. That's a reduction to my staff. So that's accounts for part of the money. The other reduction is um uh one of my network technicians, Chance Caswell, who's been here for 10 years. That is also a loss and we are going to miss him. Um but again, in order

081to do what we needed to do with the budget, we lost those two positions. district technology, equipment, software, and supplies. We there's an increase there. That increase is actually a lot due to cost increases across the board. A Chromebook that cost me 250 bucks 10 years ago now costs me 500. And they're at the point right now they can't guarantee delivery for the fall. So, if I order 200 Chromebooks right now, there's no guarantee they'll be here in time. So, we made sure we knew it was coming because the AI revolution is chewing up all the chips. We ordered back in I think February and got enough to make sure we're safe and if we can get a decent price of some we'll finish out our inventory but right now we should be okay for

082next year. Um it all goes back to that Chrome reset and trying to help kids learn to be kinder to our machines. Um we 75 the 25% cut in supplies. We also lost some software just through people saying we're not using this anymore and just some efficiencies where we had redundant programs. it was time to lose those um Tekk and Laws. Uh so I support those two programs. We did some significant purchasing for two of the programs, those two programs last year. We're able to cut those back without harming them. They can do what they need to do. FDR computer science, business, tech equipment, all that kind of stuff for the high school programs. That price went up a little bit and again that's due to some necessary equipment that they need. I tried to

083offset it with the supply reduction and and savings elsewhere in the budget. District librarians, those are all state aided codes. So that money is kind of a win. Half of it is half of it materials and supplies. The other half is supplies. So the materials and books, that's a significant amount of that. We get state aid back for every bit every dollar we spend. The digital media coordinators that I oversee that maintain our websites, those are contractual. So those went up a little bit. And then postage and printing, otherwise known as Rita in the print shop. Rita Cardi, who's just a miracle worker. Our district newsletter is done, folded and ready to go on Friday to the mail to the post office. U that is all her working hours upon hours. So there's an increase

084in that. Um that increase was actually from apparently an increase to the Bosey's budget for printing and mailing. So um the district part is fairly flat. the increased devosis um was something from someone else. So you can see the overall um we're doing a reduction about a million. Wouldn't that be great? Yeah. Right. About 100 $150,000. So >> care. >> I know, right? If I get a million, I'm giving up a million. So on the left, I just want to tout the work that we've done. Um our server closets were in steam junction rooms. They were a mess. It was a tangle of wires. If you look hard enough, you'll still find some of those, but by and large, they look like that picture on the left with very neat cabling. Very pretty. That is

085our main data facility in the district, which means all of our traffic goes to that room at the high school. It's an important room to say the least. Um, and thanks to Bobby and the gang, because Chance, Michael, we've all helped to make that happen. And, um, so that's Bobby in the center. What I like about that picture, you'll see the students behind him. David Shicowski, computer science teacher at the high school. Every now and then will call us and say, "Can can um you show them the server closet." So, this is actually Bobby, who's not a teacher, but a great guy showing the students the server closet of the high school and explaining what networking is all about. And that's a great real world experience that we can do right in house. And then

086there's the PA clock just so you can see it. And yes, we can take the seconds off. We've done that. next steps. So, the instructional technology committee is wrestling with artificial intelligence like most school districts are wrestling with artificial intelligence. It's um it's that big scary thing that's out there, except that it's not. We're looking at as a tool that we need to create guard rails for our staff and students about how they use it and how they use it ethically and it's okay if they use it, but just be honest about. And then we're also trying to analyze screen time and make some instructional recommendations. Um, there's a big concern right now that perhaps students are looking at screens too much during the day. I just read an interesting article. Jen Kryser shared it

087with me about it's not necessarily the amount of screen time, it's the purpose of the screen time. So, they're looking at social media and those time waster things that are out there, probably not the best. But if a child is looking at a screen because you're getting artificial intelligence that's coaching them in a really good purposeful practiced way to read better, you can read through the screen and it can analyze your reading and help you develop your fluency. That's a good use of screen time. What we want to do is make sure that what we're asking students to do and what we're helping them to do is use their screens with purpose. Um the tech department is relocating. Um you may be aware that High Park Elementary, we're working on renting out that space. So

088tech services will be moving the next couple weeks over here to district office. Um and then ongoing audits of our software research, hardware viability, cyber security posture. This is all that's ongoing. That last bold is nothing new. We've been doing that for 10 years. We continue to do it on a regular basis because we want to make sure this district is ready for whatever comes next. It's next ready is the great little phrase that we use. And I am not doing the budget. So, um I mean you can if you want to, but um so any questions about technology in High Park? >> What what are we getting out of a lifespan of the Chromebooks these days? >> That that topic actually makes me really angry because when I started 10 years ago, there were

089no end of life for Chromebooks. And we had these old Asus Chromebooks that would have been bought five, six years ago that were still going. And they were still going like we couldn't kill them. And then del the chrome manufacturers decided they needed to put an end of life on stuff. So now you get they may have upped it to 12 but it was like seven or eight years from the date of original manufacturer and not of the units you buy date of original manufacturer of that model number. Which is why when you go online and you go to, you know, Walmart, careful because that $55 unit you're looking at may have a lifespan of five weeks. And I I really do mean that. There's some dangerous practices out there with end of life stuff.

090So when we buy Chromebooks, we're always looking at there's a chart. You can Google it. Google Chromebooks end of life and it will give you the chart by manufacturer of what the end of life for that unit is. So we're always looking to see. Right now we're in the 3110s. >> 3120s. 3120s. Um, and those have a good lifespan, I think, of 10 years, we're we're good to long after I retire. So, >> that's right. >> Yes. We're constantly for every piece of every piece of hardware out there. >> Do we see an improvement in the amount of abuse and damage kids are doing? >> No. Right now, we're seeing an increase in just the amount of abuse and damage that's happening. And a lot of it is carelessness. Some of it is Tik Tok

091challenge. My favorite was the week where it was how many keys can you take off your keyboard with one swipe >> and the amount of damage on Chrome Chromebook keyboards was just staggering. >> And are we still making parents pay for? >> So we um we follow and I do recognize that this goes back at least one superintendent, the no shame law, which really applies to lunch accounts. We send one letter home to the family. We also send an email saying this is what happened. This is what we understand happened according to your student. It's either negligence or maliciousness. This is what the cost of the repair is. Please remit payment to High Park Central School Districts. And if they don't send payment, we drop it. There was a time when I started we actually

092were like the Chromebook was gone. We were asking the police to go checking out the house because it was lost and stolen property and belonged to the district and expensive. But we actually stopped that because of the no shame law. It it's a tough place to be in and we so when parents call me because I had that experience of being back in a building once upon a time when parents call me and we have many who are just upset about this and they want to do right but they can't. The conversation that I have with them is it's not about the money to me it's about the lesson. I want the student to improve their behavior. So if they can have the student make restitution, even it's 50 cents a week, a dollar, something

093so the child feels ownership of that device, that's so much more powerful than the parent writing a check for 2050 bucks. So I'm trying to take it from an um an instructional point of view and trying to improve student behavior. Um this year about $20,000 in charges. If we've gotten 10% of that back, yeah, Michelle's nodding. Michelle handles all those charge letters. So, >> so you said $20,000 this year so far >> in dangers that we've sent charge letters. >> How does that compare to prior years? >> Fairly steady, right, Michelle? Yeah, fairly steady. But we're not done with this year yet. >> 15 and 20. Usually 25 every year. >> Yeah. >> You say you only get like 10%. >> About 10% back. Yeah. We used it used to be more, but it's been

094declining over time. because you're saying that in public that they don't have >> honestly if you say it to one parent it becomes public knowledge right >> do the do the the is it the do they get a new Chromebook >> so I will so what we do right is if it's that oneoff the kid made a mistake it wasn't malicious it was whatever they they get a replacement Chromebook if we have um a recidivist a frequent offender, a child who just seems to keep going through Chromebooks, then we start giving them the older models that are still viable. They still work. They're still good machines, but we're not taking as much of a loss on it because it's an older device. I will tell you what's actually lowered our damage costs is having K3

095keep the Chromebooks in the classrooms as opposed to traveling with them. And that's why I'm I'm writing a proposal right now for the principles to consider about what does a Chromebook reset mean? What are we going to try and accomplish and what's it going to look like? And I'm really wondering about screen time, about health for students, and about travel and damage learning about K5 Chromebooks staying in the classrooms as opposed to traveling. I think it's it's a good pedagogical discussion about Chromebooks and how we're using them and just the ubiquitous of technology right now. Do we need to have this much? Are there ways we can do what we want to do with technology without maybe so much of a financial investment in these devices? >> Okay. >> Um just I'm I'm really excited

096that you're going to do an analysis of students screen time and and then have some instructional recommendations. Um, I would just love to see that like you just referenced K5 um, being different, but I would like us to really think about K5 is a big span and maybe we should start looking at is it is it appropriate K1 different than five. Um, because we just keep and I understand we need devices. That's not the question. Um, but certainly the percentage of time even if it is there's a purpose to it. There's too much. I have gotten quite a few parent contact me and I always send them to powers the bee um that they feel like their kids are on too many devices in school and then when they go home it's they're on more

097at school than they are at home. So I just I think we you know including parents in some of those conversations. Um but also looking at you know our teachers, our staff, our kindergarteners versus our fifth graders because our kindergarters are on devices a lot and I don't think people realize that. So, um, I'm really glad you're doing it. And when can we look forward to about this? >> Sparked this conversation because she was asked about screen time. >> And what I discovered that while I thought our filtering system, Lightseed collected those metrics, it does for a fee and I'm too cheap to pay that fee. >> So, one of the things we are doing is moving away from light speeded because it is expensive. And we found an alternative recommended by another school district

098called Securely. And in that the reporting is built in and free. And I asked the salesperson three times that question which means starting July 1, we'll be collecting data on every student and we can break that data out any number of ways by grade level, by gender, by school, any number of ways because I'm intrigued by the screen time right now. I can tell you that just from the light speeded portal, Google Classroom is our highest usage, which is good. then Google search is right there. So, >> Thank you. Any other questions? I really do thank the board for it support technology initiative. It's um I think it's important and I really hope we're keeping things on the right track. Thank you all. >> Thanks for next up on the agenda uh our 2627 superintendent's

099recommendation. Yeah, really budget update. >> Good evening members of the board. Good evening to our community both in in person and online. So this evening, our hope is uh our our goal is going to be to discuss some of the highlights that we've captured over the past seven presentations. um as well as some questions really insightful questions that came in from the community to our board. Um and we're hoping uh that some of the slides this evening will will address some of those those questions. So the first thing that we'll start off with again uh everything's anchored in our mission and vision. Uh our drivers this is really what led us to where we are today. We really focused in and anchored all of our decisions around these four drivers. Making sure that we preserve

100programs and services for students, ensuring financial sustainability, improving efficiency and effectiveness, and then lastly, balancing the needs of our of our district as well as uh the needs of and the impact on our tax uh payers. So, one of the things I'm most proud of of this um this budget is that we were able to preserve many of the programs that you've heard uh this evening from the three uh amazing presentations that were provided um in fine and performing arts and uh athletics or technology as well as many of our schools that have highlighted the impact that the programs and services have on students. We've seen an increase in attendance. We've seen a decrease in chronic absenteeism. We've seen an increase in ELA and math scores. And so we know that the work that we're

101doing collectively uh with the support of the board, the support of our community, we are seeing some improvements uh in in um our student outcomes. So we want to continue to uh preserve those programs and services that are working uh and we're seeing an impact. So our our budget for the 2627 fiscal year is $131.1 million. That's our proposed budget. It has also been adopted by the board of education. It will go to the voters on May 19th. We have a budget increase from year to year of 4.1%. We think this is a fiscally sound and responsible budget, especially considering some of the major factors that we had to um achieve in accomplishing this budget like double-digit increases in health insurance and absorbing staff from grants um and as well as hearing some of the

102great things that our programs do right tonight and um all the great great programs that we've preserved. So we think 4.1% is a fiscally sound plan to move us forward for the 26 27 year. Um our tax levy increase this year is 2.92%. This is below the allowable tax cap of 3.344%. We think that's um responsible to the taxpayers in the community. On this slide here is a highle uh review of the revenues associated with supporting all the initiatives that you've heard throughout the budget process. So you'll see our our tax levy there represents 2.92% 22 2% increase from year to year or 2.1 million of the additional funding that's required to increase the budget by $5.1 million. You'll see our state aid there represents 1.3 million of that. And you'll see in this budget

103we are um appropriating some reserves which is a new thing for the Hide Park Central School District. And um this is about giving back to the to the taxpayer. So monies that the taxpayer has contributed in the past and we've reserved for specific purposes, we will will now dedicate to help pay for those purposes as well as we will appropriate fund balance for the next year's budget. So that is a consistent practice within the district. And what that does is any any money that is left over from the 2526 budget that the taxpayer um paid for in a previous year, we will dedicate that money to helping balance the next year's budget. This is a recap of the major drivers in our budget in the budgettobudget increase of 4.1%. And this is in declining order

104of impact. So as you can see our um our our capital and human our human capital is the biggest cost driver. So the employee benefits associated with our employees. So we we mentioned double digit increases in health insurance, some increases in um pension contributions that we have to um take into account and our salaries which are contractual by nature and um out of our control. So this is all of the cost drivers associated with that 4.1 million 4.1% increase from year to year. Um a piece of a big piece of that is the Boseies um Boseies expenses for our district. So that benefits um departments across uh and students across the district. So I know that athletics brought up a piece of the Boseies bill that they use. They use the um officials, right? So

105we uh the Boseies bill does impact many of the different departments within our uh community. We use arts and ed through Boseies. Um so and lots of um equipment initiatives for technology. So they're a huge supporter in the things that we do in the school district and you can see that that that is the third largest driver in our budget. We have our contractual and equipment expenses. So those are things that help maintain our buildings. um that it could be contractual expenses for like our director of um our our director that runs health services, right? Uh Melissa was talking about a contract that we're working on today. Um also our debt service payments, our transfers to other funds, and our supplies >> to to this slide. What the one thing I do want to provide

106some context around is the budgetto budget increase. So we're looking at a $5.1 million increase from budget to budget. If you think about the way we have been rolling things over from one year to the next, we would have taken that approach this year. I just I mentioned this before, we were at almost $10 million, right? So wi with with the approach that we took this year and strategically reducing expenses um we were able to put put you know forward uh a financially um sustainable and a financially responsible plan uh before before the board and before the community. The other piece that I do want to mention is at the onset when we were anticipating a double-digit increase in health insurance, we were already starting at a deficit of close to uh almost $3 million.

107So that that if you think about again what's the change from year to year, u it ended up not being 16. We're down to 10, but still a significant increase of over uh $1.7 million for for health insurance alone. And >> just some of the other challenges with balancing the budget is um the pressure downward pressure on the increases in state aid. So that is impacting our revenue side of the budget as well. Uh tonight we're going to talk a little bit about uh the star program in our district. taxpayers had asked us to talk a little bit about the co the impact of cost to each taxpayer for our our budget increase uh the tax levy of 2.92%. So there is a star program that every homeowner is entitled to apply for. There's basic

108and enhanced star. So the enhanced is for senior citizens. There are income caps for the enhanced program and the bas and the basic program. Uh there's the credit versus the exemption. So, the credit is when you get a check in the mail, and the exemption is when there's a reduction in the um assessible value on your tax bill. Uh the exemption only exists for taxpayers who have owned their home since 2015 and they've been participating in the exemption program since 2015. Uh so, you can switch to the credit if you choose to and you prefer to get the check, but you can't go back to the exemption once you have that. So, we provided the website. You can visit the STAR website, the state that gives you lots of great information about the income caps

109for each program. And here we're going to just show you a snapshot on um a town of Hide Park resident and three different assessed values of a home um that are converted to full value based on using the equalization rate within the town of Pi Park, which is 355. So, an assessed value of $124,250 is the equivalent of a full value home, which really equals market value of $350,000. And you can see um there's a $450,000 full market value home here and and an example of a $550,000 full full value market home. So, what we have is three boxes here that show the annual and the monthly impact of the 2.92% increase in the tax levy. And so, I'm going to go all the way to the right box, the no star impact. And so,

110for a full value home of $350,000, that would be a annual increase of $169 to that tax bill. $450,000 would be a $217 impact. and the $550,000 full value home $265 impact. Um this is a snapshot of one town. We have five towns within the town of Hide Park that we we spread our taxes over and we call that an aortionment process. So we collect the accessible values from the county for each town. We use the equalization rate to to bring those accessible values to full value and then we we we split the taxes based on the percentage of accessible value within each town and then we calculate the tax rates. And so that's what this slide is going to give us a snapshot of. Um so hopefully this will help illustrate some of the

111um impact of the equalization rate in the state. So the state provides the equalization rate through the county. And so what I've done here is shown the assessed value in our five taxing jurisdictions of um what it would take to apply their equalization rate and to calculate their full value in their community of a $350,000 home. And that shows you that because the assessed value is different by town, right? That will impact the way the tax rate is calculated. So the tax rate times the assessible value equals your increase in your tax bill. And so this is an illustration of an estimated increase in the tax bill of $169 over the five taxing jurisdictions. So I know that's a lot to digest. Um but what what what it will do is this is based on

112the prior year equalization values. So when the state gives us the new accessessible value by taxing jurisdiction and the new equalization rates, the 2.92% will be skewed across these towns. So you can see that hide park may actually go up by um 2.4% and another uh town may actually go down. So we see the impact of those um things during the tax collection season when people come to pay their tax bill. They see that their tax rate actually changed by different percentages by the 2.92%. And we we what we do is we evaluate what that looks like. We write a narrative about that and we talk to our taxpayers about that when they come to visit us to pay their tax bill. And so here we're just going to talk a little bit more about

113the contingency budget. So required by law, if the voter does not pass the budget, the board has some options. Um the board can either submit the same budget for a second vote or they can work on the budget and revise it and reduce it and and submit it for a revote. If it goes down twice, um we are required to go to the contingency budget. So the primary rule of the contingency budget is that we cannot increase the tax levy over the prior year tax levy. So that means um a decrease in the budget or a decrease in the required contingency calculation plus additional revenues of $2.1 million. Right? Because the contingency budget has certain rules which we've applied and we've calculated which is part of the budget notice that went out in the mail.

114So the mailer that the the community will get will talk about the contingency budget calculation and the required calculation um includes the reduction of any raises for um non unionized staff as well as a reduction in equipment expenditures. So those are the basic contingency required reductions by law. Um so we would have to reduce the budget by the 1.274 million but we cannot increase the tax levy. So the difference between the 1.274 and the 2.1 either has to be additional reductions in expenditures or more revenue that we choose to um try to estimate. Right? So that would be things like reserves or fund balance because we know that the tax cap has limitations as well as state aid has limitations. So, these are just some this is just a little bit of um details about

115some of the things that are um on the table when it comes to a contingency budget and there's a lot of guidance on this. There's a handbook on the contingency budget. There's a lot of commissioners regulations and opinions on some of the things in the contingency budget. So some of the things on the table are community use of school buildings un so unless all costs are reimbursed to the district from the user um certain student supplies new equipment purchases non-essential maintenance capital expenditures and salary increases for non-instructional and non unionized staff as I mentioned before. So many of these are are required by the contingency law. Uh here's a recap of our um our proposition two this year. So on the voter as a voter when you come to vote on the budget you'll also

116see a proposition two and this is for our bus replacement plan plan for gas and diesel buses. Um so this year's bus replacement plan includes purchasing four large buses or 66 passenger buses um and three 30 passenger buses. So this is to augment the current fleet that we have in place and to replace um buses that are beyond their useful life um to make sure that our ensure our students are safe and that our buses are efficient and in good condition. Um and so there's all kinds of criteria that we apply to our buses when we make those decisions. This is um so tonight is the 28th and we're going to vote tonight on the Bosey's budget and um then on May 7th you're right that's that's uh >> budget >> Jay is going to

117um lead us in a budget hearing on May 7th um so the voter can come out and um to the budget hearing and and have opportunities to to talk to the board about the budget. Um, and then May 19th, we're going to meet the voters at the middle school to vote between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. Um, follow followed by the annual meeting where we will tally the vote and um, accept the results of the the vote. Any questions, >> comments regarding the post purchases? Um, has there been any official movement on the conversion to electric buses by 2035? >> So, no, no movement at this time. However, there is um advocacy um happening both at the lower Hudson uh Council of School Superintendent as well as um districts across um Duchess

118and and other regions. Um and and one of the things is just to put forward um petitions basically stating that this is not a viable option. Uh whether it's because they don't have the capacity to support the the number of electric buses that may be needed um or in a situation like like our district where we we were able to secure some grant funds. Unfortunately, our vote went down twice. Um so those are grounds for um waiverss um that are actually due in the upcoming months to buy us some time in terms of meeting that deadline. So we will be applying for uh the first two-year waiver uh in the coming months. >> Thank you. All right, moving on to 8.1. Um, can I get a motion to enter our public participation? >> So, second.

119>> All those in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carried. We're now in public participation. You get a total of three minutes per speaker. I'll give you a hands up when it's close. Um total of 21 minutes. Um please provide your name and address. And we understand that comments are respectful and courteous of all. Would anyone like to address the board? All right. We will now close public participation. uh 9.1 board subcommittee reports and professional development updates. Many committees meet. >> The DLT met on April 23rd, the district leadership team, and they analyzed what the districts accomplished collectively, for example, the wigs with the goal of attendance, reducing um chronic absenteeism, and then also literacy. And then we also heard from each of the committees, the technology committee, the future focus facilities, community schools, SAVE, and MTSS,

120code of conduct, wellness committee, and professional learning committees to see where they're at with their process and goals. >> Okay. Any other committees? I don't have a report, but I do have a request for the policy committee to make your policy, right? Your policy, too. So, we recently approved 9640 um which has to do with like staff student relationship type of stuff. >> I think we need to reopen that and look at the wording, >> you know, and and for example, there's there's wording in there that states, hold on, let me let me pull it up here. Um it says there's a sentence. It says all communication between staff and students must be transparent, professional, and limited to school related business. Now, if you read that as it is, I being staff since I'm a

121volunteer would not be able to talk to my granddaughter about anything non-school related. So, I think we need to look at the wording in there. Um, and make sure that we're not limiting communication with family members and and maybe look at, you know, if I have to drive a neighbor that, you know, just to sports type of thing that, you know, we have some sort of parental permission. >> I see >> um thing in there instead of just no, you can't do any of this because it's not realistic. I mean, we all drive neighbors here and there and, you know, we we do have interactions with people outside of outside of school, you know, with neighbors and stuff. So, I just think we need to look at the wording of it a lot of >>

122I see Melissa frantically writing down. So, >> okay. >> Yeah. Because and we had talked about it a little bit um and I saw it a little bit differently. So, right there, that's a concern. If you have a policy that people read and take it different ways, it's not clear. So this was one of the new policies that came down from >> um NISBO. So I think so. Yeah. So I I think we should >> Was it their wording or >> No. Yeah. Yeah. It it was um it was not their their wording. It was uh wording that we crafted with guidance from our our attorneys and looking at other policies. Um but the recommendation was at a training from NISBA that boards start to adopt these types of policies but they did not have

123a draft policy available. >> I think the intent of it is right on but there is some >> there is some I can't remember why why we like set is because it wasn't because it was NISB. It was because it was came from the attorneys that we decided we didn't really want to play with but I think I think >> happy to look at it again. Right. >> Okay. Thank you. Actually, um, can we get the attorneys to look at that particular wording and make sure that we're not >> we're not foralling any sort of just normal. >> Absolutely. >> Right. We know what we're trying to prevent from happening. >> This isn't do this isn't doing it. >> I mean, it it it is doing it, but it >> there's too much. >> You're

124throwing the baby out with the bath water, right? I mean, I don't know if that's the right saying, but we're doing too much. We're going too far. >> It's a bad thing. Don't want to throw the baby out. I'm going to guess, right? >> Keeping the baby. >> All right. Any other committee reports? >> All right. Board discussion including consent agenda items. >> Yeah. So, um I do want to uh before it's voted on, I do want to say congratulations to a number of retirements. uh Rick Wart uh mentioned earlier, Susan Ardolan, who contributed and provided service to the district for 32 years. We also have um a secretary uh at FDR, Susan Ellen Fairbanks, who's also going to be retiring after almost 14 years. And then uh last but certainly not least, Terry Scott

125um who works over at HPE uh almost 26 years, a combined total of 72 years of of service to the district. So just want to wish them congratulations on their next um stop in the journey and just appreciate all that they've done for our school community. >> Any other uh discussion items? All right, moving on to 10.1. Can I get a motion for the to to approve tonight's consent agenda? >> So move tibbits. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion carried. Moving on to 11.1, our Duchess County Bose's vote on the 2627 administrative budget component. >> So move tickets. Second, Carl. >> Any discussion? All those in favor I >> opposed. Motion carried. Uh Duchess County Bosey's board member election. So we have what? Two candidates and two seats available.

126So the candidates appear in alphabetical order. Mark Lishhower from Reinbeck and Judy Moran from Weeatuk. Excellent. So, how do we >> we just uh >> first we should motion and second the motion to >> Can we make a motion to vote for both? >> Yeah. >> I would like to move that we vote for both of these candidates for the two open seats on the Boseis board of education. Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? I I >> opposed. Motion carried. Congratulations to Mark and Judy from us and >> um 11.3 the H High Park Central School District 2627 school district budget notice. Can I get a motion? >> So moved. Second to this. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion carries. Uh, can I get a motion to

127enter our second public participation? >> So moved. Katie second. Christine. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carried. We're now in our second executive session. Same rules apply other than we're limited to 12 minutes. >> Public session. >> Have a taker. >> Not back. >> Um, Bobby Goodman. Um, I just have a comment about that policy um that we're talking about on the um looking at the rewriting because there's a a lot of it that is um been discussed in the bargaining units because none of the bargaining news even knew about the policy or were included in anything to do with it. So now the wording came from the lawyers or whatever. But um like it even lists like school volunteers are included in this policy like so but like Margaret I

128used to drive her son home from track practice. If I did that now this says that I could be fired. So this is very this the wording in this is very strong and says no exceptions. So there's very very strong very limiting um wording. Um, I was in a track parent meeting and half of the parents that were there are all parents that work in the district and drive the other kids or share or babysitters like so they text that other kid because that kid babysits their kid. They can't in this policy they could get fired for that. So I just would really appreciate somebody looking at that from a parent community member point of view. I mean, we do understand that you have to have this for other things, but it definitely needs to

129be Wordsmith much better than the way it is right now. Right now, everybody's really worried about everything. And like how do I I mean, even being a parent, like an emergency contact for a parent, I'd get fired for. So, if any that would be great if that could be Thank you. Any other people want to address the board? Well, we got to wait for the close. >> So, since there's no one else, we'll close public participation. >> Uh, since this seems to be really particularly timesensitive, can we have put this um on for the uh get some new wording for the next policy committee? >> Yes. Yeah. >> And yeah, I mean it definitely like if it says volunteers, we're volunteers here. So it impacts board members, >> everybody consider >> every any parent that

130works in the district. >> So okay, any other matters deemed necessary by the board? Seeing there's none, no need for a second executive session. So can I get a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting? So move to second. >> All those in favor? I >> oppose. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned.