2026-03-12: HPCSD Board Of Education Meeting

001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Okay, good evening everyone. Today is March 12th, 2020 to 20 2026. Welcome to the Hyde Park Central School District's Board of Education tonight at Violet Ave Elementary School. At this time, can I get a motion to adjourn to executive session for the purpose of discussing promotion, discipline, and employment topics for a particular person, persons, or corporations? So moved. Second, Margaret. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion carried. We're now in executive session. >> Mhm. >> Good evening everyone. At this time I'd like to return to open session and if we can please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. I

002don't think we have any modifications tonight. So, can I get a motion to adopt tonight's agenda? So moved, Tibbetts. Second, Margaret. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Um moving on to 5.1, upcoming events. On Wednesday, March 18th, there's a community schools event um called Unity Fest at Haviland Middle School, and that'll be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 19th is K through 12 early release for parent-teacher conferences. Um, that's all schools, and contact your schools for times. And also, there's a college information night at FDR at 6:00 p.m. Friday, March 20th, uh, Haviland Middle School musical, Matilda, is at Haviland at 7:00 p.m. Saturday, March 21st, is the Haviland musical matinee of Matilda, and that'll be at Haviland at 2:00 p.m. And then, Thursday, March 26th, is our next board meeting, and

003that'll be at district office in open session at uh 7:00 p.m. Any other events? Okay, moving on to pride. Lauren. FDR would like to give shout-outs to the cast and crew of this year's spring musical, Into the Woods. They did a great job and put on four outstanding performances for the community. The Haviland Drama Club has been working hard on their production of Matilda Jr. the musical. They hope to see everyone there. The showings are on Friday, March 20th at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday, March 21st at 2:00 p.m. Please come out and support their students and celebrate their hard work. Following the shows, there will be an opportunity to meet the actors, take pictures with them, and get their autographs. North Park kicked off their March Madness reading challenge. This year, they have a vote

004and bracket about their favorite cat in a book series as they prepare to welcome Eric Litwin, the author of Pete the Cat, next week. Students who participate in this challenge will earn a prize and also contribute to their million million minute reading challenge. Rochambeau had their STEAM night on March 2nd. They had about 100 people attend with students and families enjoying pizza, evening access to their book fair, and a steam assembly, and LEGO engineering activities. Special thanks to Mrs. Rush, Mrs. Bannon, and Mrs. Webb for volunteering at the event. They are also celebrating that students have received over 1,000 Hoot Loop cards so far this year. On Friday, Mrs. Farren and Mrs. Lawrence are organizing a building-wide ice cream celebration as a reward. Third graders at Violet Avenue have been working on writing essays through

005the HMH program. They researched animals that live in extreme heat or cold and explained how those animals survive. Third graders are also participating in the Vanaver Caravan dance residency, where they are learning and performing dances dances from Indian culture. In addition, they will take part in the pond keepers program starting March 16th, where students will observe pond life in a classroom aquarium and learn about how animals adapt to ponds. Fifth grade students are completing research projects about local organizations, Hope on a Mission, Sparrow's Nest, or the SPCA. After researching how each organization helps the community, students will complete the activities such as making sandwiches, delivering goody bags, or organizing a pet supply drive. Violet Avenue students are also participating in the Read Across America Challenge by reading at least 30 minutes each night and coloring

006in a map based on their reading time. Students who complete their maps can earn prizes such as Renegades baseball tickets or books. Thank you. Right from you. As we have tremendous pride this evening, first and foremost, I do want to share that the Wizards versus Bad Apples game brought out an incredible crowd at FDR and an unforgettable energy. We have some of our very own board trustees as pictured above. I want to send a special thank you to Bobby Goodwin, Goodman, and any and everyone else who put this event together. It really was a great evening for community and and it was just a a tremendous amount of fun. I also want to take a moment to congratulate and the gentleman is here this evening. Mr. Williams, why don't you stand up? Let's give him

007a round of applause. He He came in first place at the STEM Fair and I want to congratulate and thank you for your participation and I want to thank uh Mrs. Neisel for putting the event together. It's an annual tradition here in the district and uh we'll have an opportunity to recognize you um at this moment. I'm going to call Mrs. Neisel up to the the podium. Thank you. I just I wanted to say a couple words about Davin. We got to know each other at Camp Invention and I was really pleased to see this year's science fair project. It's one of the best projects that I've seen in years. Um very proud of his first place finish and I know um I'll be able to work with Davin during his middle school and high

008school career and that makes me very proud. So, congratulations, Davin. >> We also want to congratulate the All-District Orchestra. I want to thank Ms. Funigiello and our amazing orchestra teachers and students who showcased showcased their incredible music talent during the Music in Our Schools Month in Albany, New York. I want to congratulate our families because our families are the ones that really foster this at home and I want to thank once again our educators who really helped to foster and amplify the passions that our students have and and continue to foster that that talent both in the classroom and and and outside of the classroom. Next, I want to congratulate Lily White who received the Gold Key Award and Jamie Cabreja who received the Silver Key Award. We're so proud of all of our students

009who participated in the Scholastic Art Show at SUNY New Paltz. Special shout-out was mentioned earlier, but I want to give another special shout-out to the cast and the crew from In Into the Woods. It was a phenomenal play. Several of our board members and cabinet members attended this amazing musical play and I also want to just say that the talent was at the caliber of Broadway. It was it was amazing. And then last, but certainly not least, I do want to I do want to highlight our Saturday Academy. This past Saturday, we had a really nice turnout and the The uh of study was uh reptiles and and and predators. And so, as you see uh one of our very own Principal D'Alessandro, uh who loves snakes. And our amazing students had a chance to

010not only learn about uh reptiles, but also get a chance to have hands-on. Uh so, just want to thank um I want to thank Melissa Rosario. I want to thank uh Principal D'Alessandro and their entire team to to making this happen for our students and families. And at this time, I'll turn it over to our Assistant Superintendent for Student Supports, Melissa. Good evening, everyone. And I am pleased to recognize our artist and musician of the month. And we're going to start with Annaline Falcone, who is a fourth grader at Ralph R. Smith. And is Annaline here tonight? We weren't sure if she could make it. No, doesn't look like it. Okay. Annaline is a fourth grader, and she is a wonderful and enthusiastic student and a creative artist. Annaline shows responsibility in the classroom at

011all times and is a self-directed learner. She is an inspiration and a role model to her peers in the art room and beyond. One of Annaline's favorite types of art is yarn weaving. She says that she loves art because you can create anything you can imagine. Her growth in the art room has been a pleasure to witness as she continues to try new things and create unique and amazing artwork. So, congratulations to Annaline, and we'll make sure she gets her certificate. Okay. Next up, we have a fifth grade student at Netherwood Elementary School. And uh his name is Samuel Hickson. He is here this evening. So, after I read our uh description of Sam as a musician, we'll invite him to come up and receive his certificate. So, Samuel Hickson is a fifth grade student

012at Netherwood Elementary School. Sam's teacher, Miss Vincent, shares that Sam is an enthusiastic and highly motivated musician who always works hard in lessons and rehearsals. He goes out of his way to participate in extracurricular musical activities in both percussion and chorus, such as Elementary All-County Chorus, the NISM Solo Festival, and private percussion lessons. So, congratulations, Sam. Come on up. And at this time, we invite uh Principal Legare to come up to um talk about her student and staff recognition. Good evening. It is truly an honor stand here this evening to recognize um our first portrait of a learner. I don't think he knows why he's here, but um in the time that I've grown to know him and all of the teachers that have had him before, much of the same things were shared. Bentley

013Anspach is our portrait of a learner this year, fifth grade student. He always approaches his learning in a curious manner. He's always has a strong desire to engage in new ideas and new experiences. And I think what people love most about him is that he's open to try new things and he listens to others. Um even if he doesn't agree with it, he's still confident with his responses, but he's willing to collaborate. And so Mr. Daniels is Bentley's teacher and he couldn't be here this evening and he had a message to send and he said, "In life, you come across students and people that make your lives brighter. A shooting star, you might say. Bentley is one of those students to me and I am honored to be one of his teachers. Congratulations, Bentley." Next,

014I would like to share our portrait of an employee. This also was not an easy decision to make, but I believe um based on the feedback from all of our colleagues and my experience so far, this person really stands out because what makes her so special is when you walk into her classroom, she's so student-centered. You wouldn't know any behavior challenges. You wouldn't know that she she's just always immersed and engaged in her in her work. Um she's always willing to learn. Um she calls herself a lifelong learner and I think that's what makes her so special. I'm going to share some of what her colleagues said about her. Um she's very humble and confident, and those are the qualities that most people strive to have. She approaches any situation and problem with professionalism and

015compassion, empathy, and a calm demeanor. Um she is a wonderful collaborator and is an is admirable. And even though she's a seasoned teacher, she's often the first one to admit that she is still learning every day. And I think for me, in the time that I've known Paige Kelly in our building leadership team meetings, she's always looking at things critically. She looks at things from all different perspectives. And Paige Kelly, I'm proud to present to you portrait of employee for 2025-2026. Okay, any any more pride from anyone? Okay. Those of you that were here for for you're more than welcome to leave now. I know you got little ones if don't don't Okay. Give you your your Give you your escape time now. Thank you. Appreciate you. Oh my gosh. I can I can use

016one of those bowls. Keep your happy boy. All right. And so we don't have a superintendent's report tonight. Um so we'll move right on to 7.2 and our Violet Avenue School update with uh Principal Legarre. Okay, thank you very much. Good evening again. So for those of you that don't know me, my name is Jessie Legarre. I'm the proud principal at Violet Avenue School. Um I started my journey here just a few months ago and um I think what I really wanted to learn about is what made the culture so special here and what people valued. And so I started off by holding listening and learning sessions just to get a sense of what people value most and find ways that we can make some enhancements. And with that, I quickly learned that the culture

017and climate was a great opportunity for a place for us to begin. And so I'm going to share a little bit about that with you tonight. So to start, we always would like to start with our vision and our mission of our district. So our vision is that Hyde Park Central School District is an innovative learning environment for all. And our mission is that we empower all to be successful members of our dynamic society. Our discussion drivers for today is that we're going to be celebrating our successes and look at the impact of our prior investments. We'll look at the current work that we're doing and the targets for improvement. And additionally, we'll talk about our budget recommendations. I would like to start with a video that um captures a little bit about the heart

018of Violet Avenue School. And I also would like to thank Michael Davis for putting this together. We know that when students come to school feeling connected and supported by strong relationships, it has a positive impact on attendance. We also know that when faculty and staff feel appreciated and connected, it strengthens the way the students are supported. The entire community benefits. I know I belong here because like when I was younger, I used to live somewhere else. Where like the school was all right, but I felt like something was missing. But now at this school, I feel like everybody just makes me like a part of their lives. I made it a priority to learn more about the school community. I wanted to understand what makes Violet Avenue shine. This work is strengthening our school community

019and creating the foundation for higher levels of engagement, growth, and student achievement. your strengths right now that you're really, really good at, you're strong in. Um I feel like multiplication and long division are my strengths. >> Yeah, and I think multiplication with two-digit by two-digit multiplication and then like even four-digit by one-digit, right? And we can expand that even higher, too, right? Into other digits. >> We are appreciated because of our teachers who keep us motivated to go to school every day. After we picked an area focus, we are talking about a standard to set a goal, and then we're going to work on achieving that goal. I have a question. >> What's your question? How can I achieve this goal? You can achieve that goal in so many different ways. You can use MAP

020Accelerator or Khan Academy on the computers. You can use our problem sets, right? We can look at those problem sets together on that goal. And we can even use the Greg Tang workbooks that we have, too. Sound good? Yeah. It's important to for students to feel heard because it's not only just like five students in this school. It's at least like 200. And it's sometimes hard to like always have each and every one of us like um each and every one of us feel safe and welcomed. And I feel like it's really like a big thing because, you know, everybody has bad days, and especially there's a higher rate because there's a lot of kids in this school. With the help of our building leadership team and PBIS facilitators, we set goals to strengthen the

021work that was already in place and take it even further. So, next I'd like to talk a little bit about our PBIS initiative. That's our positive behavior intervention support um initiative, and I would like to have Krista Pankowski, fourth-grade teacher, and two of our fifth-grade students, May Bendina and Azra Mata, share a bit more about the work that's been happening. Good evening. My name is Carissa Bonkofsky and I'm a fourth grade teacher here at Violet Avenue School and one of our PBIS facilitators. I would like to briefly share an update on our continued implementation of PBIS. PBIS focuses on teaching and reinforcing positive behaviors so students understand clear expectations and feel recognized for meeting them. One way we support this is through our VAS All-Stars recognition. Each week staff members nominate students or colleagues who

022demonstrate our school expectations through leadership, kindness, and making a positive difference. We also host monthly character trait assemblies. At the end of each month classroom teachers nominate two students who are recognized during a school assembly. These celebrations allow us to recognize, reinforce expectations, and promote a strong and positive school culture. Recently we have also begun focusing on the cafeteria expectations. Our PBIS team worked with lunch monitors and student leaders to review universal expectations as a group to enhance more variety of activities at recess and receive student input to ensure that all students have opportunities to engage, have fun, and feel included. Next I would like to introduce two amazing Violet Avenue students in Mr. Daniel's fifth grade class and two recipients of our kindness award. Please let me introduce Ezra Mata and May Medina. Good

023evening all. My name is Ezra and I am proud to be a student at VAS. Being a leader and following expectations and rules takes courage and it helps make our school community safe and respectful. If my younger self could see me now, I would probably not believe it. I have grown a lot through these opportunities and it has been fun helping out around the school. I know I may not get to experience all the changes happening at VAS in the future, but I feel grateful that younger students will continue to benefit from them. One moment that meant a lot to me was receiving the kindness award. I feel honored that teachers recognized me as a kind leader and it was a special moment I will always remember. Thank you for supporting our school and students.

024Good evening. My name is May and I'm a fifth grade student at VAS. It feels like an honor to have the chance to have a voice and help make changes in our school. When we were younger students, we did not always have those opportunities, but as we grow, the school grows with us and gives us chances to be involved in things that need change. One change was discussed at our recess meeting. It felt really good to be part of the conversation about how to make recess better for everyone. For indoor recess, some of the students were staying on their computer screens instead of interacting with others. So, we thought of an idea of adding a mobile indoor recess cart to be shared amongst other classes with board games and activities that allow us to socialize

025with our peers and build our friendships. Being able to share our ideas that added more engaging activities and help improve our school has been a great experience and I am grateful for the opportunity to be included. Thank you for your support and supporting us in Violet Avenue. Thank you for your continued support of our PBIS initiatives and the work being done each day to support our students. Um, just one look around the room, there's there's some amazing artwork from our 100th day project and our kindness chain is hanging along the stage. So, thank you again. Thank you to May and Ezra and Ms. Pankowski. Um next, I would like to highlight some of the work that our building leadership team has been doing this year and we have Paige Kelly, third-grade teacher and she'll be

026sharing more about that. Good evening, everyone. My name is Paige Kelly. I'm a third-grade teacher at Violet Avenue and a member of our building's leader building leadership team. Our BLT is focused on fostering school community spirit through engagement, pride, and morale where students feel motivated to attend, staff feel supported, and families feel valued as partners. As part of our community engagement goal, we've hosted several events here at VAS at times in collaboration with the PTA. In February, we welcomed over 150 students and families to our family glow dance. Students and their families were invited to join us for an evening of dancing, music, and pizza. The event provided a fun and welcoming opportunity for families to connect with one another, build relationships with staff, and strengthen our school community. VAS staff and our BLT have

027worked to be responsive to students' interests and feedback by hosting engaging events such as a 6-7 math and a literacy night, a birds of prey assembly, the annual haunted hallway, and a magic of reading partners assembly that connected students with reading partners at home. The success of these events is measurable in the attendance of staff, students, and families. In alignment with our strive for five initiative, we're working to increase PTA membership by setting a goal for five staff members and five families to join PTA meetings and we've had much success toward this goal. Finally, we hope to move our attendance initiative forward. In addition to some of the attendance work that Jessie will speak about, um our BLT is working on acknowledging and celebrating building level attendance daily in order to support our district and

028building goals of increasing attendance. Classroom teachers have created class-based initiatives where students can earn incentives when monthly class attendance reaches 90% or higher or daily class attendance is 100%. Attendance is posted outside of classrooms on days when classrooms have 100% of students in attendance so staff can stop in to celebrate and congratulate those classes. Daily attendance is also posted in the lobby by grade level. Thank you for your time and interest in hearing about the work that we're doing with BLT. Okay, thank you, Paige, for that. Um, I'd like to move forward with showing you our next slide that talks about our wildly important goal, also known as our wig goal. So, we stay focused and committed to two areas, which is attendance and literacy. Um, our attendance goal is to reduce chronic absenteeism from

02923.6% to 16% and our literacy focus is to increase literacy proficiency from 38% to 45% as indicated by the New York State ELA exams. So, as mentioned before, the first goal of attendance, we have clearly defined our attendance data as Paige mentioned, our BLT, our building leadership team, focuses on celebrating and recognizing attendance while our attendance team focuses on the chronic absenteeism. And as you could see here, the trends over the past 4 years shows that attendance is moving in a positive direction and all of our attendance efforts are having a positive impact. And you can see pictured there one of the classes that proudly had 100% attendance. Um, our next slide shows our attendance team's work and I'm really proud of the attendance team. This is a newly formulated team this year. Um and

030they really have hit the ground running. The team is composed of our school nurse, a school psychologist, school social worker, school counselor, and myself. And each week we look at our students that are chronically absent and we look at the barriers that they're facing um that are preventing them from coming to school regularly. In addition to adding a mentorship program, that's our new initiative in which we've connected students to staff mentors to help build consistency with attendance. And as you can see that number stays pretty steady at 18%. The next slide looks at our suspension data. And we did have an increase in suspension sus- suspensions. I want to note that the number is connected to a few students. Um and we did put supports for those students. We did exhaust the supports based on

031district supports. And so what we needed to do was seek some external supports for those students. And so I do foresee that this number would be at more on a downward trend moving forward. Um in addition to that, we are having more of a restorative approach when we um address conflict or concerns that arise. The next slide shows our ELA and math data. As you could see, um this is based on a 1 2 3 4 rubric for proficiency. Three and four is proficient. So this shows our proficiency rate from 2022 to 2025. Um and as you can see, our ELA um our grade three had 18% and that increased to 2025 to 25% and our grade four was pretty steady fourth grade with 40%. Um also I should note that the New York State

032average is 53% for ELA and 55% for math. So, math is an area in which we've seen some growth and we've sustained some growth, especially in fourth grade. I do anticipate us seeing more growth in these areas based on the implementation of our new reading curriculum HMH into reading in addition to our multi-tiered systems of support. Which is also known as MTSS and I believe with those two ingredients, we will start to see major improvements. I do want to highlight the fifth grade cohort because this cohort has showed steady growth and as you can see that they had a 27% increase in ELA from when they were in third grade and reached 45% proficiency in their fifth grade year and then also in math, they reached 50% proficiency, which is more or less along the

033state average and that was a 17% increase. We remain steady with 64 to 65 ENL students and I think the biggest takeaway here is that we have fewer students in the emergent and transitioning and more of our students are expanding and commanding. So, this suggests that students are making progress in their English language development. Another thing to note is that last year the board had mentioned they wanted to see smaller numbers of ENL students in classrooms and so we were responsive to that and we did do that and I believe that is another reason why we've seen that growth. So, the number of ENL students in each class is much smaller this year and I do want to thank our ENL teachers and also our classroom teachers for their continued So, to summarize our budget

034recommendations, we would like to continue our PBIS and attendance supports as you've seen some of the great work that we've already done with PBIS and attendance. So, we would like that to continue in addition to continued funding to support our family and community community engagement and also continued support in our academic areas. And I know you have seen these slides before, but these are our three-year investments for our budget projection and this starts from 2026 to 2029. It's the three years delineated and across all three years, we've remained centered on staffing, admin, instructional, clerical, and TAs and this shows the 2.2% increase over the course of the three years. I do want to note that in the next slide you'll see that there's some highlight in green because we were able to take a closer

035look at our school supplies and our student school supplies and I'd like to thank the BLT for that. Again, they worked collaboratively with our classroom teachers to take a look at what are the supplies that students need and we were able to scale that back and come up with a budget of $9,000 for student supplies and also we looked at our general school supplies and we were able to scale that back by $4,000. So, the highlighted amounts that you see here, they show that the the plan savings while we're still maintaining the supplies that we need for students. This slide here shows the investment for health guidance supplies, our travel conference and our dues membership, which is a contractual um item. And so, just to summarize for the 2026-2027 school year, this breaks down our

036budget with our continuing investment um at about $7 million, and the largest portion of that is related to staffing. We also have a new investment of $6,000, but also please remember that we were able to scale back and find areas to save, so that final cost of the new investment would be $6,000. So, um the benefits of the investments that we've asked for, the recommendation is that we would like to continue with that upward trajectory of student achievement through targeted instructional support. Um we also would like to deepen our social emotional learning and leverage the PBIS framework, as you saw some of the work that's already taking place, so we'd like that to continue. And we'd also like to continue to proactively engage with students and families to improve attendance and also reduce our chronic

037absenteeism. And also continue to have opportunities for enrichments for our students. Our next steps, we will continue to implement our MTSS multi-tiered systems of support and PBIS to streamline the interventions and supports that we have in place for students. In addition to using data to um inform our practice and improve our literacy proficiency and our attendance. And we will continue to celebrate the success successes and improvements that we make and update cab- cabinet with ongoing changes. Um overall, I just like to say that the work that we're doing is laying the foundation um for students to achieve the the mission and vision. Thank you. Any questions, comments? I I do want to thank you for showing that one cohort data because that shows us at least me anyway, shows you know, progress or not, but

038in your case progress. So, you could follow the class through. I I enjoy that data is that versus just independent um you know, years that were on the prior chart. So, thank you for showing that one. Okay, thank you. >> And good job with the increases. Thank you. Thank you. I want to thank them all for being here this evening. Anything else? Nothing for Margaret? It's always something for Margaret. Okay, thank you. >> I don't I don't have a question, but it was amazing. >> Go ahead. No, it was amazing. I loved the video. You can feel the excitement in the building and you know, for for just a short amount of time, it's just great to see um the progress that's being made. So, thank you. Thank you. Thanks. And And Carissa, I'm glad

039you chose teaching instead of acting. And uh All right. Well, I think it it speak to I really am trying to build a culture of collaborative leadership and trying to build everyone and come up with ways that we're all involved and everyone really has a say-so. I think that's how we're going to move things forward. So, Thank you. Thank you. And now I know a lot of you have to get up early and so feel free to leave now. Just give me a minute. I have this effect on you. Okay, at this time we'll move on to 7.3. We have a human resources update for the TA internship program with Mr. Judge. Yes, thank you. Good evening, everyone. I'm Ryan Judge, the Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources and Professional Development. And I first want to

040start off by thanking the board for all of the opportunities over this past year. It was actually at the March board meeting where I was appointed. So, at really this time last year and now I'm standing in front of you with some new program proposals based on some transformation that we're looking at within the district. So, during my actual application process for the district that we had just conducted an audit of the HR department and there were a bunch of recommendations from that audit firm paired with the release of the strategic blueprint for the district and one of those or one of the recommendations in those was to look at how we can fill our own pipeline of staff members in the district and so what I'm coming to you with today is my proposal

041on how we can do that in one of our largest employment areas which is instructional. So what I am proposing to you while I am presenting it is not me alone. It's been a wonderful team effort. I want to thank principal Mike Ruella from the high school and our director of guidance Melissa Reader. They have been working behind the scenes with me over many many months to help put this together for you. So I want to thank them for that. So this program is a TA teaching assistant apprenticeship program and in honor of you know the Roosevelts we're going to call it the New Deal apprenticeship. And essentially what we're looking at is a pipeline from student to master teacher in our district. And one of the things that would make this really exciting is

042this is something that would put High Park on the map. This is not something that exists elsewhere. We if if if approved at the next board meeting there will be a proposition to vote on and if passed we will be the first district in New York State to have a complete student to teacher pipeline. And that is really because Um many pipeline programs exist. So, colleges and BOCES programs have a teaching assistant to teacher pipeline program. Last year, the Brentwood School District was the first school district in the state to launch a New York State approved TA apprenticeship program that was student to TA, but no one yet has a student to teacher pipeline. So, we would be the first ones to have that. And this program is up for approval through the New York

043State Department of Labor, and it is anticipated, if the board wants to move forward with this program, that we would receive state approval in time for the start of the school year in September. So, what this program uh exists for each student is when they enter their junior year of high school, so at the end of their their sophomore year, when they're doing their scheduling with their counselors, if they have expressed interest in education as a career field, their counselors would help present this as an option to them. And they would be scheduled the same way students are scheduled if they want to attend a BOCES career tech ed program, but instead of going to BOCES, they would go to one of our elementary schools or our middle school for a paid apprenticeship. Where during

044that time, it it extends the school day, so they would be there till the end of the elementary day, but they would receive a salary for hourly work in the district working under um a current TA in our district. When there is an approved apprenticeship program, those mentors are called journeymen. So, our students will be working with a journeyman who is a TA in in one of our schools and that would give them between their junior and senior year enough hours so that when they walk across our high school graduation stage, not only would they receive a high school diploma, but they would become certified to be a teaching assistant. Now, as part of that student experience, not only would they be doing the paid apprenticeship in our schools at the same time in order

045for this certification pathway to work, they need to take three college courses that align with the TA certification process. And what's very exciting is we already have two of them offered in district for dual enrollment. So that is not a stretch for us. That means that they would only have to take one course outside of what we currently offer. And we have been working with the deans and the vice presidents at SUNY Duchess and they are eager to be our collegiate partner in this program and they have agreed to move the course that our students would need from their Fishkill campus to our Poughkeepsie campus to help eliminate transportation as an obstacle so that we can get this program off the ground and running. And so upon graduation, not only would they be certified as

046a teaching assistant, but they could be guaranteed to be employed in our district. So the way that the pipeline would work is during their student experience, they would take those college courses that fit already into their schedule. They would receive mentorship and they would be essentially a student employee. After graduation and they are a teaching assistant, they then can use the presidential perks program that we established earlier this year to obtain their degree in education while maintaining full-time employment in the district, and they will be able to do that for only 8 to 13% of the cost of regular college tuition by pairing our presidential perks program with the benefits that currently exist in the HPCSUEA contract. So, in that contract, our full-time employees receive a 75% tuition reimbursement. So, if we pair that reimbursement

047with the almost dozen college and university partnerships that we have in the district offering between 50 and 70% off tuition to our employees, it really means that we as a school district have the opportunity to remove the barrier, the financial barrier of higher education for families in our community while offering meaningful employment towards a living wage all at that same time. So, as they're working as teachers in our district, they could pursue those degrees at a highly discounted rate. Again, 8 to 13% of the cost of tuition, that's without ever looking at financial aid. Almost everyone receives some level of financial aid, which means that cost of tuition is even lower than that. We worked together with the HPTA to eliminate some of the obstacles that exist to hiring teachers with an internship certificate. There

048is not a lot of state guidance on doing that, so that tends to present a lot of risk to the school district, which is why that's not a common practice that is utilized, but we worked with the HPTA to have an an agreement on what employment for a teacher with an internship certificate would look like in our district in a way that not only supports them as an employee, but mitigates risk to the district. And that would mean that if we have a vacancy in district, and our former students now teaching assistants have reached the level of credit hours to do student teaching, instead of doing student teaching, they would be able to take that probationary role that exists in our district so that we can start to fill our own teacher pipeline. In order

049for this to occur, the district would have to make a number of commitments. First, we would have to commit to placing the apprentices in our elementary and middle schools. We would have to commit to compensating our apprentices at the Department of Labor required rate, which is minimum wage, for the required amount of hours. We would need to maintain an agreement with um with SUNY Duchess or another college or university to offer those concurrent courses. Um and then lastly, we would need to commit to employing those those individuals for at least 1 year upon graduation, regardless of the vacancies. So, while that may present some level of risk, we have control over how many students can enter this program, which means we should be projecting out our vacancies based on eligibility for re- for retirement, turnover

050rates, etc. So that um the chances of employing more than we actually need um is very, very low. So, this sounds really expensive. But what I am happy to report is that innovation doesn't actually have to cost anything. So, the cost of this program, if we do it, the compensation costs for one student over two years um is approximately $26,800. That's not just in the hourly compensation, but that's all of the costs that come come in association with having an employee whether it's it's unemployment, FICA, so on and so forth. And so where does that money come from? Well, there are grant monies available to help us get this off the ground. However, grant monies will make instituting this program a cost savings to the district. If the district were to get no grant monies

051at all, it would almost be a financial wash because if we look at how much it cost the district every time we lose an employee in soft costs, those soft costs are about $13,000 in soft costs every time we lose an employee. And so if this program helps us to build our pipeline and retain those people in district and we lower our turnover rate, this program actually winds up paying for itself. Additionally, the cost of SUNY tuition is covered by the Department of Labor, so that is not a cost that the district would need to ensue. Um currently the grant that is offered by the Department of Labor that covers up to 50% of the compensation costs is not is not available for this upcoming budget cycle. However, there are other grants that we are

052pursuing to help cover those compensation costs. I just had a meeting earlier this week with folks from the Workforce Development Institute of New York and they are very interested in getting behind us and supporting this program. The way that they kind of posed it was sometimes you have to break something to fix it and you have the plan. Um and so that is how um the state is looking at this model at the moment. Again, no grant money's financial wash. Grant money's mean that this would actually in the long run save the district money and soft costs. In terms of whether or not we have the students the student interest to do a program like this, we looked um at how many of our FDR graduates go into education and we certainly have enough interest

053there. We also did a very deep data dive to see will this work, right? If we're going to invest all of this time and money, let's try to think of everything in in advance. So we analyzed student schedules. We analyzed the high school master schedule. We analyzed our dual enrollment courses and offerings. We analyzed the time frame for students that have early release and late arrival. The amount of students at our high school that have early release and and late arrival, our different school building start and end times to make sure um as Linda Steinberg always says, does the math math? The math maths. This also ties very nicely with the changes that New York State is looking for the portrait of a graduate. This is really the way that education is is going and

054moving and we will be far ahead of the curve by having work-based learning um already here in district through this program. So if at the next board meeting the board would like to support moving forward with this program, we are looking to pilot it with two students. We know that if we pilot it with two students, it will not be a cost to the district because we can project out um at that uh level of uh openings at the end of the program um based on our historic data. Um we are have been working with the HP CSE to come to an agreement on what it will look like for our current teaching assistants to be journeymen. Um, the Board of Ed would need to approve the program and any budget allocations for this. Our

055application is currently with the New York State Department of Labor for this program. Um, we were assisted in our um, appeal to the state from New York State Educators Hub and it is uh, expected to be approved. Um, and then lastly we um, have developed criteria for entry into this program uh, and we'll be working with school counselors and the the admin team um, to get this rolled out. And one of the things that I want as a main takeaway from this regardless of if we move forward as a district is innovation innovation doesn't have to cost anything. And this is an example of how we can move our district forward while eliminating obstacles that exist in our community with a way that is responsible to our taxpayers. Any questions? I have a few. So,

056I'm I'm confused a little bit. So, in here like you say upon graduation as a they get employed guaranteed employment as a TA. Which graduation? High school graduation or college graduation? High school graduation. Because the requirements for a teaching assistant is that you need nine college credit hours which they would receive while enrolled in high school. Um, and they would receive the work-based credits through the hours in the apprenticeship program. So, the only thing that they're missing at the time of graduation is a high school diploma. Um, and so once they receive that high school diploma, they meet New York State's requirements for a teaching assistant. So, wasn't this Did you start out saying this was a program to go from a student to high school student through being a teacher? Yes. >> So, I'm

057missing I'm missing the connection to the teacher here. >> Yes. So, uh the part of the pipeline for teaching assistant to teacher currently exists in the district through the presidential perks program. We have uh part a partnerships with over a dozen universities that offer specific um TA to teacher programs at 50 to 70% off college tuition to our High Park employees. Um on top of that, they receive the um benefits that are in the contract for tuition reimbursement. And we eliminated the obstacle of being able to hire them under an internship certification, which traditionally, when a TA wants to become certified as a teacher, they have to leave employment in order to do their student teaching. And so, the district actually loses them as an employee to make that next step, but with the support

058of the High Park Teachers Association, we were able to eliminate that obstacle so that they could remain employed in the district while still fulfilling the requirements to become certified as a teacher. So, how I mean, it'd be nice to see that in in this, right? Cuz isn't that part of the whole end end story, right? >> this this to me shows us that, okay, we got somebody in high school, they're going to be a TA, and then it stops. Yeah, so if we go back to the slide building the pipeline, from where it says teaching assistant to teacher, that part we already have. So, >> so during that Well, so you should be clear on that, but so during that that part, they're still an employee of the district as a TA, Correct. >> which

059implies they have to go to a local college, right? Not necessarily, but they would have to go to one of the dozen universities that we have a partnership with, many of which are online and in in the evening. >> they can't go off to California for college, right? >> Correct. So they still have to be a district employee. Correct. And then so now we transition and then after they graduate college, is there a guarantee of teacher? Not if we don't have a vacancy, but what what this does for us is when we have a vacancy and we have someone in the pipeline, we have the ability to move that person into that role because we eliminated the other obstacles needed. So if there were no vacancy and they got certified, yes, they could either leave

060the district or wait for for a vacancy. But what's really nice about this is we know who we would have in the pipeline so that when we have a vacancy, we can move someone in the pipeline in into that role without having to worry about all of the other hurdles. Okay. And in that box there where it says 75% off of college tuition and 75% Is that that's not tax that's not tax dollars right doing that? That comes from something else? Correct. >> Okay. That's just through partnerships and agreements that we have made to support our employees. The presidential perks program does not cost the district anything. >> Okay. And then lastly, I I didn't see anywhere in here the obligation from the employee, the student / employee, right? I mean, is there going to

061be something on, you know, how do they hold up their end of the bargain? I mean, is a minimum GPA or something or something or something? Yes, so that is part of the framework that we're working on right now as part of the criteria for who would be selected for the program. There would be an application process. They would have to you know have a certain GPA so on and and so forth. But we didn't want to get too far down the path if it wasn't going to be approved, but we do have an outline set to be able to roll that out in time for September. And I would assume that once they're in a teaching assistant position that normal employee performance guidelines >> Correct. Yeah, like this this isn't going to be a

062separate thing where they you know you have to perform Correct. >> as a good employee to to be employed in the district. >> as an apprentice they are evaluated. So if it's not working out they would not be able to continue in the program. Okay. Kind of be good to see that bigger bigger picture like that. All that stuff. That's all I had. First of all I love the idea of home home grown teachers getting people who already have a connection to the to the community is wonderful. I do have a couple of things that you know following up on Mike one of the questions I had was sort of the selection criteria. I know you haven't had a had a chance to look at the yet, but that's something I'd be really interested in

063seeing before I could sign on to this. Sure. In part because what makes a good teacher isn't just a GPA. Right? And I and I'd want to know there was some deliberate thought about the kinds of things we have a lot of experts here on what makes a good teacher. The kinds of things that that that would that would really signal that this person is is destined to be you know we're making an investment, right? We want we want to have a good sense of that. So that's that's point one. I'd really want to see Sure. >> some sense of that. And the other thing is what what wasn't in this and maybe it's coming further is some formal or informal coaching associated with the TA. We don't want to just throw them in and

064say go, right? Correct. So, that is a a a formal part. Um they would receive um not only the in-classroom mentoring through the the journeymen. Um they would be meeting um with either uh me, someone from BOCES for professional development, so on and and so forth once a quarter. Um if I were to put in all of the nuances of the program into the presentation, we would be in here a really long time. Um but right now in terms of the selection criteria, the high school feels it's appropriate to model it after the selection criteria for going to CTI for certain programs because that does require teacher recommendations, a certain GPA, um uh and essentially they would be writing an appeal similar to, you know, if you're applying for a college and you have an

065admissions essay. They would it This wouldn't be of of the same level, but there there would be an an interview process, an application process. Um and I'm happy to provide you prior to the next meeting um with what the high school has been working on so far. Any other questions? There you go. Um very interesting. Um thank you for sharing. So, one a couple questions. Number one, um I'm wondering why it's a paid process. A lot of times for the teachers in the audience, for for Margaret, for Katie and I, when we were teachers, we did something called, you know, uh student teaching for 6 months where we worked for free. We not only worked for free, we paid tuition. Right. So, we paid to work. Um so, I'm wondering why number one it's paid.

066Sure. So, in order for um the program to count towards certification, it has to be approved through the New York State Department of Labor. And the New York State Department of Labor mandates that we pay the minimum wage to all apprentices. Interesting. Um I I think Mike Connor was touching upon it. I'm sure there'd be some kind of local committee where there'd be a rubric and they'd they'd go to the committee if they expressed interest and they'd be um interviewed and it wouldn't be based solely on academics, but on recommendations of teachers, that sort of thing. >> My other question is, if they go through the program, um is there any kind of commitment to say that now we've made this investment in you, that you are going to make a promise that you're going

067to at least work for us for 2 years or 3 years, something of that sort? Otherwise, what would stop them to say, "Hey, you know, XYZ district down the road is paying more, so now I'm going to go to them. Thank you. Goodbye, Hyde Park." Correct. Um so, the short answer is nothing. Um the long answer is we could work that into the model, however, it would not be legally binding. Yes. Sure. So, um in order to fulfill the amount of hours prior to graduation day, they would either need early release or late arrival, but that was part of that deep data dive that we did um at the high school. Um I could provide you with that that data. Um By the time they are juniors and seniors, more students have it than don't.

068Another question I have with the three college classes, is that required to be done before they start being um It's at the same time. Again, two two of which they would be taking in the morning at FDR before they go to their their apprentice site because we offer two of the courses through dual enrollment. Um only one of those courses would have to happen outside of the regular school day um with enrollment at at Dutchess. My third question, you mentioned they could access presidential perks for tuition. How much of an employee do they need to be at that full-time or part-time? Our presidential perks program is open to any employee in the district in any capacity. Yes, I mean we don't employ TAs at that level. We only em- employ them for full-time. Um so,

069they would be a full-time employee. Part-time but I guess they could do it in the evening. And then, Ryan, one last question. Being a data privacy officer, how do we handle the confidential nature of what could be said in the classroom? You know, the teacher is dealing with, you know, special ed data and assessment data. So, how how would that be handled? There might be a parent to say, "Wait a minute. That that teacher assistant in the classroom is still a student at the high school." Yeah. So, how do we handle that? >> there are a whole set of labor laws around student employees. Um and so, they are they are still employees of the district at that point in time and would have the same expectations as any other employee. Um and so, in

070terms of privacy, you know, what what they would have access to is minimal um because really the the teacher of record is the only one that that actually has access to that information. They would be more there for a couple of hours each day um to be in the classroom learn learning how to do that role. Absolutely. Thank you. Absolutely. You're up again. I'm next. So, now that I talked about the fun stuff, I get to talk about budget. So, in looking at um the budget recommendations for uh next school year, I really want to point out that a lot of um my work over the past year has been really trying to transform our human resources department from transactional to transformative. Really putting the human back in human resources and taking the approach that

071our job is to connect people's passions with professions in the district. So, for example, right before this evening, I was at the Poughkeepsie Galleria for the Dutchess County Works Job Fair. You know, and as people would approach the booth, I wasn't saying what openings we had. I said, "What type of employment are you looking for?" And then, "What is your background?" And then, "Here's how this relates to working with a school district, right?" And so, I really feel that in general, if we take that that approach, it will help to um help us fulfill our vision and mission in the district because while those are student-focused, those cannot happen without wonderful employees. Um and so, the role of human resources is to make sure that we have those. Um, so in terms of our discussion

072drivers for um for this budget presentation, I want to go a little bit into the impact on prior investments because we have made a lot of improvements over the last year in the Human Resources Department. I want to talk about the work that we've been targeting in the HR Department for improvement and then present my budget recommendations for the future. So over the past year, we really focused on compliance. Um, one of the things that came out of that that HR audit was that there were things that needed to be addressed. Um, and the compliance issues take priority over any other part of the audit. Um, so we have worked over the past year to become fully compliant with things dealing with our historical records, our unemployment data, Cobra, and the the Affordable Care Act.

073Um, and that I have to give a big shout out to Josephine Perino. She has been my partner in crime in all of that. Um, and she has really been a wonderful asset to the HR Department in helping to ensure that we our records are are in order. We have also worked on trying to digitize um things that no longer need to be pen and paper. Um, so we have launched an electronic customized onboarding experience where when uh an employee is coming to the district, they're able to fill out all of the forms that they used to do pen and paper online in digital and in their home language if they would like. Um, in addition to that, um it takes away the district's risk for I-9 verification. So in the past, people would bring

074paperwork to the Human Resources office, someone in HR would would look at it and say, "Yes, you are a United States citizen." But, we didn't have the resources to be able to verify if those documents were real. Um so, this electronic process takes away that risk because um the I-9 verification process happens electronically integrated with the government's systems. So, we don't determine if their documentation is um real and if they are citizens. It happens electronically through government databases instead. Um in terms of how we post for our vacancies, we used to post in two places. Now, when we have a vacancy, it's posted on over 250 different websites. Included with that, we do very targeted recruitment to professional associations for hard-to-fill positions, for leadership roles, um and to professional associations um if there's a particularly

075uh hard area to fill. Through the work of Linda Steinberg prior to my arrival, um she worked with a partnership with OU BOCES to help um turn our historic records electronic. Uh over the past year, we have been able to get all of our um Well, actually, it's been more than a year, over the past couple of years, um the the district has been able to get all of its human resources records that existed on paper from the time the district was formed, um digital. Um and so, now we have electronic records retention. So, now we only have physical copies of human resources records on campus in the district office for the last 7 years. Um and then annually, that that uh last year will move to to be digitized. We also launched that presidential

076perks program as part of our recruitment and retention effort to show folks that we offer supports in High Park that are very unique that our other districts do not have. No other district has a program like the presidential perks program where we where we have partnerships that offer college tuition discounts at 50% off for employees and it doesn't cost the district anything. For our people who are on their feet all day, work a work shoe program where that's discounted discounted legal and financial services. All of the things that we can do to help make sure that their life outside of work doesn't impact their ability to continue employment with us. We've also implemented exit and stay interviews so that we can be strategic about our retention and recruitment efforts. And we have been actively recognizing

077and appreciating our staff in ways that they haven't received before. In terms of our targeted works for improvement, my goal is to increase the district's employee retention rate. A lot of the um employee retention are things that are outside of our control, things like retirement, so on and so forth. But we are implementing a bunch of programs in order to be able to help with that. We're also looking at decreasing staff chronic absenteeism. And we're looking at standardizing the operating procedures in HR. So the priorities in next year's budget are to maintain and build on our current improvements, to implement a grow our own program with career coaching, to have high-quality professional development for all staff and all employee groups, not just instructional, and then to streamline and digitize our practices and procedures. So now

078I have for you a quick video of what our vision for human resources is in the district moving forward. Welcome to the Hyde Park Central School District. We are driven by one vision, one mission, one team for one dream. We invite you to join our innovative learning environment where we empower all learners to be successful members of our dynamic society. Here, you aren't just taking a job. You're joining a team where individual efforts align toward a shared North Star. If you are ready to be part of a mission-driven team that defines its why through inspiration and collective impact, your journey starts here at Hyde Park Central School District. Hello, I'm Ryan Judge, the Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources and Professional Development. It's an honor and a privilege to welcome you to our team. While the

079Hyde Park Central School District has historical roots in presidential legacy, we focus on providing an innovative learning community for all. Here in Hyde Park, we look to connect passion with profession and hope that people who simply came here for a job can retire having had a long, meaningful career by growing with us. We have a truly unique benefits program we call Presidential Perks. It provides support to our employees to make their everyday life easier with everything from counseling, financial and legal services to pet insurance and a discount work shoe program. The Human Resources Department will help you to create a career plan and provide assistance in helping you to achieve your career goals through coaching and deep discounts for college tuition. I have made the Hyde Park Central School District my home and I hope

080you do, too. illustrates for you what we're trying to do in the HR department. So, this brand new video is going to be used in our electronic onboarding platform to welcome our new employees as well as being used in kiosk form at our uh recruitment fairs. So, in terms of the budget, the vast majority of the HR budget is contractual. They're it's not things that uh we necessarily have have control over. Um the budget item for HR staff are uh salaries and benefits. The uh Then the next line is the life insurance benefits that are in our contract. Unemployment benefits. So, uh schools don't have unemployment insurance. They have to pay uh unemployment out of their their budget. Um we reimburse as part of our bargaining unit contracts for Medicare Part B. We have to

081have a budget item for staff members who choose to not take district insurance and they receive an insurance buyout. We have a budget line for dental benefits. Our union welfare benefit trust is where most of our employees receive their dental and vision. Uh we have administrative fees for HR benefits. So, we have outside vendors that that we use to manage our Cobra and ACA compliance. These are the things that we have control over that are not contractual. So, uh professional memberships uh and dues. The personnel contractual line item covers things like if there's a staff member that needs an independent medical evaluation, drug and alcohol testing, things of that nature that falls in in that line item. The classified ads is where we pay for our recruitment and our job boards. We do offer reimbursement

082for fingerprinting to employees that come on who make below a certain dollar amount. There's travel mileage and conferences, a lot of which is for going to career fairs and colleges to recruit our employees. Um and personnel supplies is where we buy not only our office supplies, but things like retirement recognition, tenure recognition, so on and so forth. In-service contractual is the line item where we pay for professional development for staff members who are non-instructional. And then the supply line to buy items for those superintendent conference days. But this is really the slide that shows the difference. So, I'm proposing to restructure the human resources department because we are making most of the transactional part of human resources digital. The skill set that we need in the HR office is changing. Um so, we are looking

083at reducing the amount of staff in the human resources department and replacing with new titles that don't currently exist. So, instead of having a roles that we currently have, we would move towards having a staff development specialist and a benefits coordinator. That would allow us to move money back into the district that we currently use outside vendors for by doing that that work ourselves at a lower cost. Um so, that will allow us to also reduce the money we pay to outside vendors. Um I'm looking at a small reduction in classified ads. I am looking for an increase in supplies so that we can continue our employee recognition and appreciation program and a slight increase for travel conferences and mileage because not only is the cost of that going up um in order to implement

084our career coaching program, we do need some professional development ourselves in the HR office. But that would mean that for next school year, I am proposing that with those strategic cuts and a strategic realignment of staff roles that we would be able to cut $92,533 out of the human resources budget. And the benefit of doing this again is moving from transactional to transformative, addressing our recruitment and retention, putting the human back in human resources, removing barriers to employment and promotion within our district, implementing our grow your own program and career coaching, and improving our customer service, speed, efficiency, and accuracy by moving a lot of our processes digital. So our next steps will be to continue to recognize our staff and implement these recognition techniques, to attract the highest quality staff, to continue to track

085our staff attendance and because that only not only impacts retention, but it also impacts our students learning, and to standardize our operating procedures. Thank you. Got a couple of things to I like the video. It's very nice. Thank you. So hopefully that gets us some notice. For the retention rate, you say you want to go from 85 to 85.6 to 87. What what have we been historically? Um in that range um sometimes much lower. Um again, a lot of the retention rate is outside of our control because of retirements, misconduct issues, so on and so forth. But we're really trying to focus on the employees that that we're bringing in making sure that we're investing in them, making sure they have a wonderful experience while they stay with the district, which is part of why

086we've implemented all of these supports through the Presidential Perks program. Okay. And then in your going through the line items, you mentioned um dental twice. So you had something a line item for dental benefits and then in the next line you said union welfare benefit trust, which also includes dental. Why why is that? >> Yes. So not all bargaining units get their benefits through that benefit trust. So that other line item is for the bargaining unit that does not receive support in in that trust. Okay. And then lastly, I didn't see anything for the new apprentice program in the budget like does that not >> Correct, because it's at no cost to the district. Oh, but I thought one of your things was district approved the budget or something. Well, So yes, you would be

087approving the expenditure of that money, but the money already exists elsewhere. It just it doesn't have its own line item. We would essentially be reducing soft costs to pay for it, but then also we're looking at grant funds as well and we would be utilizing some of those grant funds to pay for those costs. But even if we didn't get the grants, it would be a financial wash, but there's no current line item in the budget that addresses that. Shouldn't there be? I mean what what what you know, just say the two people that get into there. I know I know we always have vacancies, but let's assume we don't have vacancies and we guarantee these these people a job. Now we have two additional TAs that have to be funded somehow. How is that

088being >> Correct. That would be about 3 years out though. So if that if that scenario were to happen, it wouldn't be for a couple of years. Um but if we're enrolling in the program based on the projections um and the data that we have available to us, um we we don't have I I mean it's never a perfect science, but the chances of of that happening are not great. Right. So, basically there's no impact to this budget cycle. >> Correct. Because of timing, but the next one we probably would have to see something there. Potentially, but it'll most likely be grant funded. Uh we just don't have those grants yet, but we are in the process of looking at those grant monies. Okay. All right. Any other questions? Uh just you referred to soft

089costs in both presentations. Would you just expand on that a little bit? Sure. So, a lot of the cost of employee turnover doesn't come from one budget line. It deals with costs for paying substitutes, costs for paying for for ads and and advertising and marketing, um the payout of unused sick time and vacation time so on and so forth. So, the soft costs are money that the district ends up spending from various um different areas because it costs the district money when someone leaves. But it there's no one line item where it's like, "Oh, when someone leaves, all of the cost of them leaving comes from this part of the budget." It comes from all different areas. Um you talked about the presidential perks. I'm just curious at some point, do you get not necessarily

090specific people, but percentages of of how many people are taking advantage of a lot of these programs since it's worked into um incentives for new hires. >> Yes. So, um not yet because we're completing our first year, but I have had staff members reach out already to to say, "This is happening again next year, right? Because I'm I'm working on blank degree and this is wonderful." so on and so forth. So, I have anecdotal data, but I don't have hard numbers yet because we haven't completed our first year. Absolutely. Anything else? All right. Thanks, Ryan. Thank you. All right. Next up is uh 7.5, our math and science update with uh Ms. Thiesse. Hi. Thank you for having me. Um I wanted to just commend Ms. Legare on her presentation and and just say it's

091a pleasure to be here at Violet Avenue presenting with such wonderful teachers and staff. So, thank you. Um so, I'm going to give you a quick update on um how we are trying to fulfill the Hyde Park mission and vision through math and science. In this first slide, um I wanted to show you some things that I'm I'm the most proud of um and those are the 3 through 8 math assessment scores. I chose to um start with a line graph over time, 2021 through 2025 from left to right. You can see um most of this is really our post-COVID math data. Um there was a great decline um in our math scores nationwide um after COVID and we've really have started to um reach the New York State average and increase uh significantly. This

092is straight achievement data by grade over time. If the board or the community is interested in looking at cohort cohort data here, uh I don't I don't have a a little red laser, but if you look at the left upper left green um line in 2021, that's grade three. You can move to the next uh uh highest yellow line to see those students move into grade four. Then the bluish-green line in 2023 shows those students in grade five. Grade six, they're slightly below another uh group, but then um going back up in 2025. So, you can read the cohort data if you want to too by just following third, fourth, fifth, and so on. So, I also just wanted to present this data in a bar graph in case um it was easier for some

093folks to to realize um the information in a different format. So, that's why that slide's included. And because I'm such a math person, I couldn't help but just show some actual numbers. Again, this is a lot of the post-COVID recovery data from 2021 through 2025. You can really see at the top of the chart grade seven and eight leading the recovery. Um that is uh some of our middle school students really who were most impacted by COVID and remote learning. So, I I'm really pleased to see um those seventh and eighth grade scores increase. Um and uh it's just another way to look at the same data in those graphs. So, in addition, I thought it was important to show Hyde Park in comparison to New York State. So, we are in green. We are

094performing under the state average, but as you can see, our growth has been tremendous and improving, and we are just looking forward to continuing to improve and hopefully hitting around 50% proficient um maybe even by June. So, I also wanted to talk about fifth and eighth grade science. Uh here you have um some of our information showing the fifth and eighth grade science testing. For this graph, chose 2024 on the left and 2025 on the right. The reason I chose to display this data is because we had new testing at fifth grade and eighth grade with new science standards. So if you look at the purple bar in the first year, we had a lot of level ones. You can see how much that decreased. It really was cut in about half. And then if

095you look at the green bar, our level three proficiencies in 2024 on the left, it's much higher on 2025 on the right. So I also wanted to include high school data. This is a comparison of just the June 2025 math and science regions. FDR actually that technically includes Haviland and is in the green and New York State is in the gray. Couple of things I'd like to point out here. Our algebra scores are underperforming or did underperform in 2025. However, we had a new algebra test with new standards in 2024. Believe it or not, 2025 was a 21% increase in in scores, which is actually a 53% increase. So it's really tremendous. Our algebra two scores are outperforming the state. They usually do. That's 88%, so almost 90%. And then important here, our geometry test

096was new in 2025. We were just one point below the state average with that new geometry exam. And then if you look at Earth and Space Science and Biology, Biology had the same state percentage and Earth and Space we exceeded the state average. And those tests were really difficult. There were a lot of complaints statewide about the I would say off-curriculum questions that people said were kind of given on those tests. And there was also a real increase in the literacy demands on that test. A lot of wording and a lot of reading. So, very proud of the high school as well. So, some of the things we're working on. Um I talked to you last year about our Eureka Math Squared implementation. Really feel like um we've gotten into that program for several years

097and have now excellent fidelity to the program. Our math coaches to date have had uh 30 uh I'd say interactions. They've been through 30 coaching cycles with our teachers at the elementary level already, and we still have to go for the fourth quarter. They've also implemented 32 professional development sessions with our our folks. I talked to the board last year about targeting interventions with progress monitoring and AI tools in math. We piloted Magma Math as well as Khan Migo. That is still in progress. Um and we're going to kind of make a decision and go with uh probably one of those for the fall. I also want to talk about my wildly important goal. I want to commend and thank um Jen Kaiser Amy who's behind me. She really um supported uh the literacy goal

098throughout the entire district and helped plan all of our superintendent conference days. Um you'll see the word Wit there at the high school. She brought in um Wit which is writing is thinking with strategic inquiry and that has really supported my math and science teachers at especially the middle school and the high school in uh not just um sentence creation and working on like things we wouldn't talk about in math like sentence fragments and and because but so and all these different strategies for writing, but it it really ties well into the new literacy demands that we're seeing in the test in math and especially in in science. And she really customized the last professional development for us by having our teachers be able to deconstruct the Regents exams in math and in science and

099the work was really productive. It's not something we had thought of doing in the past and I'm very proud of our teachers for kind of taking that on. I'm also working as one of my other wildly important goals on vocabulary acquisition in elementary. And then I mentioned we had new science curriculum. One of the things we're implementing is the new science investigations at 3 4 5 at the elementary, 6 7 8 and for all four of our core high school science courses. We have required mandated new science investigations that have to be completed in order for students to sit for the fifth grade, the eighth grade and the high school Regents exams. So next I'll show you my budget recommendations. The priorities are listed here. I won't read them because I'll kind of go through

100them on the slides and the tables that are upcoming. Here you have our three-year investment projection plan. The first slide is mostly personnel and contractual membership. So we have administrative fees, I share a clerical staff. We have two math coaches in the district and memberships. This next slide talks about Eureka math science 21 which is our elementary school program. Contractual monies related to mostly professional development and then conference and mileage. I want everyone to know that Eureka materials most of them come from our textbook funds which are aidable and then we do have an assessment package which is aidable through BOCES and a co-star. And all of our science 21 budget is uh cross contracted through PNW BOCES. So that's also aidable. We do have lines also for K-12 math supplies. The majority of that

101budget goes to graphing calculators. We have uh science supplies. That is a slight increase for me this year because we do need microscopes. We were able to with the new uh capital project in science labs, transfer some microscopes from the high school down to the middle school. Uh but they're over 30 years old and really need replacing. So, we have some uh need for seventh grade microscopes where they have now new curriculum to cover work with microscopes. And a lot of that money goes towards those science investigations that I talked about. Um they're not just one-day labs. They're kind of week-long um processes that are built into the curriculum where they will study um lots of different topics. And uh there's lots of supplies and materials needed for those investigations. Uh we had the STEM

102fair uh last week. So, there's a budget line for that. And then this is the summary. So, just briefly, some of the benefits of the investment recommendations. Our coaches have really helped with fidelity to the curriculum and I believe are an integral part of uh why we're seeing higher achievement in math, especially at the elementary school level. Eureka Math Squared has provided teacher support, improved digital tools. Um it reduces prep time for teachers and ensures that all students receive instruction from the same high-quality research-based materials. It also uh increases what I believe to be the rigor in the classroom. Science 21 addresses the new Next Generation Science Standards and NYSSLS Standards, which are the New York State Science Standards. We have been using BOCES PD. Uh we have a math BOCES specialist and hopefully they'll

103hire a new science staff specialist. Um that helps our teachers collaborate and share best practices with colleagues from different districts. And also allows them to have more individual support from um you know, more local vendors that that are um more cost-effective than sometimes going out to to bigger vendors. Math and science supplies, uh that uh you know, it deals with compliance. We make sure we have up-to-date safe materials and equipment available for especially that lab work and those science investigations. And the STEM fair helps us to increase community and school engagement in the STEM fields. So, for next steps I will work on continuing to collect achievement data uh hoping again to reach some of those benchmarks that I talked about. My coaches have been really integral in trying to provide information to teachers on

104the numeracy briefs. Those are briefs similar to the literacy briefs that nice it put out and uh talk about the best way to teach math and build numeracy. We're working on uh updating our coaching framework with our coaches as well as our instructional coaching playbook, which is a a playbook that is uh intended to be used with uh and amongst teachers during coaching cycles. We're also going to continue work on curriculum writing and pacing guides with all the changes that are happening in math and science and testing and work on those New York State investigations and updated exams. We still have Algebra 2 as new exam uh in June and also chemistry and physics will be new exams this June as well. And I didn't have a video, so I'm going to have to tell

105Michael Davis I'm very disappointed. Anybody have any questions? Any questions? Um Thank you. How many math coaches do we have? We have two math coaches at the elementary level and I should um uh say their names. So, I'm really happy to work with Jamie Conway and Jackie Voytek. Um they're incredible coaches. From from sitting and listening to conversations here, but also with Jen's conversations about the other coaches, they seem to be particularly effective. Two's enough. I you're not asking for anything more, and I'm not saying giving you stuff, but you think two you think two is is is the right size for this? Right now, I do think it is. Um, the my two coaches, as well as Jen, I know she has a similar number, if not the same, have completed 30 coaching cycles.

106So, they've sat elbow to elbow for a quarter with 30 teachers already, and we still have the fourth quarter to go. Um, they're seeing new teachers, they're supporting, um, veteran teachers, they're going in and supporting during wind time, and helping progress monitor for upcoming assessments. So, right now, two is sufficient. Um, I think maybe if I were looking for something more, it'd be at the middle school. Um, I'll be just say you didn't have a video, but you had charts that I could understand. >> Okay. Really hard for me. Um, no, I like that you you presented the data in different ways >> Thank you. >> those of us who needed the color graphs or the Um, but especially on slide five, um, it was just really nice to see the percentage rates and seeing

107the changes. For me, that was really impressive. Um, and even, you know, starting at third grade, a plus 7% increase is nice, and it just seems like as the grades go up, we're we're building with our, um, performance rate. So, that was helpful. Thanks. >> Thanks. Thank you. Just have, um, a comment first. So, on the, um, Regents exam, I I'm happy to see that we're beating state, uh, state averages. So, I I always like to see that, and there's several categories where we're uh, beating them or tying, so that's that's very good. Um, on the earlier charts, I noticed sixth grade seems to be different than the trend. Like, your your first chart, you know, the line chart, it seemed everybody was on an upward trajectory. Uh sixth grade took a dip. Did you

108look into that and is there any Do we have any Yeah, I'm not sure. It isn't It isn't the cohort, so it could have been just a different cohort, but there is a dip as I can see right now in 2004 and 2005. I I didn't particularly look into what happened maybe that year because it was all going up. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Be interesting to see cuz it is stands out out in this chart right in Yeah. 24 to 25. >> And you'll just notice too, it's probably I don't have the number on my paper, but it's if the scale is only to 50, so it's very the graph is very uh wide. Okay. Um if the scale was to 100, which is a percentage that it would go to, you would see that it

109was it's much more compressed. So, I think part of that is because the scale is so large. So, if you look at 2024, it's probably around 46 or 47% and was about 39%. So, it's significant, but not not as significant as it looks with a scale going only to 50, if that makes sense to some Okay. math people. Thanks. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Moving on to 7.6, our budget update. Ms. Sikorski, may I ask for a quick brain break? I'm not sure if everyone has been sitting for a long time. Just kind of stretch out for a quick second, stand up, let the blood flow. Um I'm not sure I don't I don't I I needed a brain break. That That just means you stand up, let the

110blood circulate, and just let it flow. There you go. Good evening. Uh tonight marks the fifth presentation of the budget cycle. Let's get there. Of our budget uh presentation. Uh as we move through this process, we continue to ground everything with one vision, one mission, uh with one team for one dream. And our our North Star continues to be the same, which is in a uh providing an innovative learning environment for all students. And our mission is to empower every learner to be successful. And so uh this evening, uh just want to remind uh the board that we have been anchoring all our decisions around our budget drivers, which is preserving essential programs and services for our students, ensuring long-term financial sustainability, improving all all our overall efficiency and effectiveness, and then also balancing the

111district's needs while remaining deeply mindful of the impact on our taxpayers. Dr. Roman, for for this one, is it okay if we can ask questions along the way, >> Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Uh >> Absolutely. Absolutely. The first thing that we're going to do is um I'm going to have Tonya just speak to the uh bus proposition, proposition two. And it does certainly feel good to stand up after all those presentations. Um I just wanted to thank take a minute to thank the business office staff and everybody I've been working with um getting up to speed in the middle of a budget cycle is certainly a challenge, and everybody's been really supportive. I'm full of dozens of questions, and everybody's been very patient with me. And technology, anytime I need something, they come over to my

112office. I've been sequestered um in my office, and they they help me get up to speed. So, I I appreciate that greatly. Um, it's nice too to see all these presentations and it really helps you get to know what we're doing in the district and uh to acclimate to all of the different priorities in the building and see the support of the board uh and what the goals are of the district. So, that's been very helpful, too. So, tonight I'm going to start by talking about proposition number two for our gas and diesel buses. So, part of this process we we're asking for four 66-passenger buses who uh that use diesel gas and three 30-passenger buses for a total cost of $1,090,000. Um, state aid is earned on that those buses over time. They're financed

113over a 6-year 5-year period. The aid flows for 6 years and the net cost after state aid is $442,000. As a part of this process of looking at this as a new set of eyes on the district's fleet, I did ask Nicole some questions about the fleet and I'm going to share some information with you. So, the district currently operates 103 buses serving 77 routes. Uh we cover approximately 7,000 miles per day in 71 square miles. Um, as you know, our district is very much spread out geographically. Our fleet includes eight different bus capacities ranging from a seven-passenger vehicle to a 72-passenger bus and the oldest bus in service is 12 years old. All buses are equipped with tablets and GPS tracking for the student and staff safety. All small buses have air conditioning and

114eight large buses currently have driver-only AC. The buses being purchased this year will be equipped with full bus air conditioning. Bus purchases are financed through short-term borrowings called bond anticipation notes. And in the first year of BAN, the district pays interest only resulting in and first-year cost of approximately $39,000 on this ban issuance. Transportation state aid is received the year after the expenses reported to NYSED, typically 1 year after the bus purchase. Our ban financings are laddered, meaning new issuances overlap with prior ones until aid is received. The district currently has five active ban issuances with a combined annual cost of approximately $485,000. Any questions on the bus proposition? We're going to take slide five. So, in terms of the budget development process, in order to achieve the drivers that we had shared before, we

115have we are currently in the reevaluation phase. We're continuing to reevaluate positions, programs, and other data to prioritize additional budget changes. Our goal this evening is to share some of those strategic reductions, and then our goal for the next meeting will be that will be our finalized presentation in terms of the superintendent's recommendations. And so, at this point, we still have April 9th, which is going to be the recommendations, and then the board will have the opportunity to adopt the the budget on the 28th, and budget vote on the 19th for our registered voters. And then, on the timeline, are we planning to do something in between? Cuz if you like if you present on the 9th, and then propose a budget to us on the 28th, there's no board meeting in between there for

116public comment. So, will there be March 26th is a is a board meeting, which will be updating the numbers. No, I think it says present superintendent's budget on April 9th, adopt a proposed budget on April 28th. We just left out the 26th. We will be presenting updated information to you at the next board meeting as well. So, that that date is not on that slide. Okay. But, between the recommendation and the board approval, there's nothing in there. Correct. Okay. That is correct. Let me just say one thing. So, on March 26th, that will demonstrate all basically the final budget, um unless the board provides us additional information at that meeting, and then we would go back to the drawing board for the following meeting, which would be April 9th for the final recommendation. But, there

117there won't be no changes from the 26th, March 26th through April 9th, unless we receive um feedback otherwise. Okay. But, the the March 26th meeting is a point where there could be public comment as well. Folks could see us. Um there are several tasks that we have to complete between now and when we uh make the superintendent's recommendation um and before the public hearing on the proposed budget. Uh yesterday, the Dutchess Health Insurance Consortium or DHIC provided the final health insurance rates to the trustees. The blended increase is 9.87% on all health insurance with the highest increase for active employee plans at 10.98%, bringing a family plan annual cost up to $49,008. Um the lowest increase being the Medicare primary EPO Select individual rate at 3.97%. Uh in addition, between now and the public hearing

118and uh in accordance with state law, we will prepare the APC or the administrative program capital breakdown of the budget for the board as well as the contingency budget next time around. Um these items are required as part of the property tax cap report card disclosures mandated by New York State law and will be included in the budget notice and mailer that will be distributed to residents in late April. We reviewed the tax cap calculation at our last meeting. And the just as a review, the largest factor impacting the tax cap this year is the exemption add back for the capital exclusion, which is calculated by totaling our existing debt service cost and subtracting corresponding capital aid generated by those expenses. At our next meeting, we will propose options on the property tax increase. Um

119these options will be dependent upon additional information related to the state Senate one house budget passed yesterday. So, the governor puts out their executive budget proposal. And as a part of that legislative process, the Senate um authorizes their response to that budget and um it has some proposals in it to that may have impact foundation aid. Uh we are hopeful that the final budget will provide more clarity on the foundation aid formula, uh which could allow us to predict project additional foundation aid revenue. Here we're going to go over the state aid projections. So, this slide shows a comparison of year-to-year state aid projections. When the the foundation aid formula for this year, the district moved from being a formula driven driven district to a hold harmless district. And this means that the foundation aid

120formula calculation produced an aid amount that was lower than the district's current foundation aid level. So, we are hold harmless. So, what that means is they won't allow us to go underneath the our current year level to the calculated level. The formula consists of factors that um impact the foundation aid formula, such as uh local wealth factors, student enrollments, and student need. Under the hold harmless provision, like I said before, districts can't receive less in foundation aid than they received in the prior year. So, Hyde Hyde Park's aid is maintained at least that level. Uh the governor's executive budget proposed a guaranteed 1% increase from the prior year foundation aid level for hold harmless districts. And the one house budget adopt adopted by the Senate yesterday includes an additional 1% increase for a potential total

121increase of 2% over the prior year amount. This would represent an additional $304,000 in revenue for Hyde Park. So, um we'll have to uh ASBO, our statewide business officials um organization, will break down some of the um the language in the proposal from the legislative branch, and they will um everybody will weigh in on what they think the um probability is of that um being enacted at the um two two-house budget on April 1st, and we'll decide whether or not we're going to include that in the final budget. Um the foundation aid on this slide shows a 1.44% increase from budget to budget because the actual foundation aid amount that we received exceeded the budgeted amount by about $130 by $132,000. Um another interesting proposal in the one-part budget is the opportunity for transportation aid

122for UPK students. So, that would be a nice impact for us as well. So, here we're going to we're going to review the budget-to-budget revenues. These are proposed. Um budget-to-budget revenues are projected to increase at this point from the previous budget by 4.10% point point 1% uh compared to the the 4.03% increase previously presented. In this budget, the transfer from debt service fund has been decreased from the prior year. Uh this transfer is a revenue that is used to offset capital expenditures in the general fund. New revenues for this year year also include the planned use of reserves to help mitigate increases in the district's TRS and ERS expense. So, this slide highlights the use of our reserves um in the 2026-2027 budget and reflects audited reserve balances as of June 30, 2025. Here we

123show the estimated ERS and TRS expenses, the amount of reserve being used to balance the budget, and reserve use as a percentage of both the expense and the reserve balance. So, for the ERS reserve, our June 30th, 2025 balance was $6.6 million. Our annual estimated expenses are $1.9 million, and we'll be using $1.5 million of this reserve to apply towards the 2026-2027 budget or 75% of the of the budgeted expenditure amount um or 22% of the reserve overall. Um Sustaining the reserve for uh for about three budget cycles. So, if we continue to use the reserve at these levels, that would take us three budget cycles. Um for the ERS I'm sorry, that's four budget cycles. The TRS is three budget cycles. So, for TRS, the proposed use represents 24% of the expenses and 30%

124of the reserve balance, sustaining the reserve level in budgeting for about three budget cycles. A well-planned multi-year budget strategy will allow the district to preserve these reserves and gradually replenish them through conservative budget practices. Okay. So, can you explain this a little bit more? So, we have reserves for ERS and TRS that are earmarked for ERS and TRS. >> specific purposes. So, those are prior year fund balances that we have been able to reserve from uh either the underspending of expenditures or the overearning of revenues that we've been able to the board has allocated for specific purposes. >> Right. So, so we put money from the, you know, overage into the ERS TRS, right? But now we're taking it out of the TR putting it into the general fund. >> No, this is cash that

125we have in our bank accounts that we've reserved for specific purposes that we can use for multi-year budgeting to smooth out different um budget cycles like this one where we are having a shortfall of revenues from year to year that helps us mitigate any um large impacts to the tax tax base. I know, I get but what I'm trying to say is we put it in the savings account for ERS TRS. Are we now saying that maybe we put too much in because we have a balance of 6.6 million and expenses what, 2 million a year that we do on that? Is that what that's saying? >> saying that we have too much in those reserves. What we're saying is they were put there to and allocated to mitigate or to balance the expenses associated

126with these to balance the expenses associated with these types of things that run through our budget. And it was proper planning so that in budget years where we have a very low increase in foundation aid and other types of revenues where we can use these to balance the budget over time. The goal would be to we usually try to plan for a budget that is roughly 4% under budget either through the uh collection of revenues or under expenditures, so that we can continue to put those budget those um fund balances back into reserve, so we have them when we need them. So, that's long-term financial planning. And it's the ebb and flow of the fund balance use. Yeah. I I guess I'm I'm back conveying my question properly, because if we put in an ERS

127reserve and a TRS reserve, right? So, we have savings over the years, and so now we built up this balance of reserve of 6.6 million and 3.2 million for ERS and TRS. Yes. >> Right? This year we're saying, "Wow, we're taking money out of ERS and TRS and just putting it into the general fund." Correct. Right? So, does that leave a shortcoming in the reserves that we build up and plan for over the past several years, right? You had mentioned that. >> you don't use your So, Hyde Park um traditionally does not use reserves to balance their budget. But, if you don't I've been in situations where we I had not used reserves in multiple cycles, auditors will comment on the fact if you collect too many reserves and you don't use them for the

128budgetary cycle. So, it's a good practice to utilize them and to to maintain certain balances and have certain board policies and to present to the board a long-term plan for reserves. And what are our criteria by which we think we should be reserving these monies and what percentages of the annual expense we should be reserving them for. So, that's the reason >> don't I don't remember ever seeing an ERS TRS transfer out of reserve before. So, That's correct. So, that reserve was just there and we we never used it in the past several years, and it was just there. And but, what is it intended for? It is intended for fiscal stability over the long-term budgeting, right? But, but it specifically says ERS TRS, so it should it not be for a specific thing related

129to ERS and TRS? >> It is. It's for the ERS and TRS expenditures in the 2026-2027 budget. So, it helps offset the cost of those. >> Okay, so that Okay, so that explains. So, so there's an increase in ERS TRS this year. So, now we're pulling from the funds. >> Exactly. >> Where normally in the past we may not have had pulled from the funds cuz there's not a there wasn't a drastic increase like we're seeing this year. >> Right. Right. >> So, so we are using the reserve as it's intended to use. It's not going into the Well, it is going to the general >> But it's going to be >> of the two the two line items had such a significant increase this year. Right. Right. Specifically the ERS. ERS increased about like

13017.6%. TRS went slightly down, but we would be using those funds to mitigate that increase. Okay. So, this reserve is intended for when we see a large fluctuations in this line item in a budget. Past years we've never seen a large change, so we never had to do it. This year we're seeing it, so we're pulling from the reserve. Right. And And I think it also speaks to the the the revenues, right? So, we we we have certain amount of revenues, but this year our expenses are exceeding. >> I get it. Yeah, I do. So, it's being used for its intended purpose. >> Correct. That's the purpose. Okay. Yes. But But essentially I think what you said before is if we continue to see the same kinds of issues we've had for the next few

131years, we're going to run out in up to 3 years for TRS, 4 years for ERS. Is that Correct. That That is correct. If we use them at the same levels, but the goal would be to replenish them on an annual basis. >> Right. Right. But But if the budgets continue to be as they are, we we we don't have a decade's worth. And I guess the the other question I had is And maybe this is an unfair question. How long does it take to build up to the levels we have now? It It can take decades of good financial planning. And as you see, they can go away in a few cycles. And so, it's really important to continue to try to right reduce overall long-term costs and build budgets that are fiscally sound

132so that you can replenish reserves and you have them. If we didn't have these reserves to use right now, we'd be we'd be looking at a lot more um reductions to expenditures. Sure. So, I I I just want to amplify a point that Tonya made, which is we we went to the zero-based budget approach intentionally because we knew we had to reduce our costs. Um so, we've we've had to um make some strategic reductions, which we'll we're going to be going over today, but that's why we have to continue to be thoughtful about this and continue to look at ways that we can reduce costs because we don't want to end up in a situation where we're exhausting all of our reserves. Um so, that's going to mean like this is not going to stop

133this year. We're going to have to continue to be very strategic in our our our our expenses um and making sure that we're being efficient, we're being we're maximizing every dollar, and we're being we're just being uh very very um intentional about the spending as we move forward invest spending our investments forward. Thank you. Um so, now we're going to go over the um budget to budget expenditures that are proposed at this point in time. Through continued budget analysis and decision-making, we are able to present a balanced projected budget at 4.1%. Uh last year's budget to budget increase was 4.63%, so this is a good number um if you look at historical budget increases. The budget presented at our last meeting uh reflected a 5.21% increase year to year and was out of balance with

134our revenues. Uh since then, we have identified another 1 and a half 1.4 million dollars in additional reductions, bringing expenditures in line with projected revenues and reducing the budget to budget increase to 4.1%. These reductions include adjustments to salaries and benefits, professional development, equipment purchases and transportation and facilities, and special education tuition. There's also been a shift of eligible costs to the remaining CRG grant rollover balance. Um this chart >> just a to public. So this chart that you're showing isn't what's in the um agenda. So it's it's like the the only thing like I got the what's in the agenda starts at the BOCES. We don't see a title, we don't see salaries. Just so people at home will know that we'll update the presentation after the fact so that they can see what

135we're showing here. Thank you for pointing that out. There was a typo that was identified before we uploaded the presentation. So and we will we will upload that one. Jay will help us take care of that. Um so this this pie chart represents um the district's contractual, legal, and state mandated expenses compared to discretionary spending. Um and it shows why in the budget process it's critical that we accurately estimate our mandated costs and they're as many are largely outside the district's control. A significant part of the budget process focuses on validating the data behind these projections, including staffing levels and vacancies, retiree census information, and fluctuations in special education enrollments. We also compare current costs to prior year trends and current year budget to identify any anomalies and ensure our projections are as accurate as

136possible. Um this chart shows the projected budget broken down by expense category just to give you an idea of the different budget drivers in a different view. The next slide highlights our budget investments and reductions. Here we have several of the reductions made from the rollover budget highlighted. Significant expenditures that have been shifted to the stronger connections grant so you can see in the second column there. Uh those are items that were either in the general fund or represent one-time investments that we're going to move to the stronger connection connections rollover money. Uh so that's been very helpful in balancing that budget and some of those items will have to come back into the general fund next year so that's part of the long-term planning process knowing that those things will come back to the

137general fund. Um we've also included previously high highlighted reductions such as equipment purchases here. Office facilities equipment reductions include um several pieces of equipment that I sat down with Greg when we talked about that we could invest in in the future. Just pause here for a sec. Sure. So Yeah. So on that So if I I struggle with this because like this first one says student supplies it's a negative $165,000. So that means we're saving out of the budget $165,000 but yet we're using stronger connections grant to pay that so there's no impact to the No no impact to the general fund budget. It's the the expense is going to be funded through through the grant. One-time one-time expense. >> So then the next line it says negative $301,000 but then blank and blank so

138what does that tell us? >> Yeah so so the next item underneath student supplies is general supplies across all the entire district. So, what we ended up doing was doing a 25% reduction um to the supplies, bringing it down by $301,000. >> So, from from last year's budget to this year's budget, we reduced $301,000. >> Correct. Correct. >> Michael has picked up on a typo there because we should have carried that over to the 26-27 budget column, very similar to the facilities equipment equipment reductions on the bottom. So, you you have picked up a typo in the slide. Okay, so okay, I got it. So, the the first one is, "Hey, we identified a savings over last year's budget." Then we said, "Can we cover it with the strong stronger connections grant?" >> Yes. And

139then we see it in that column. If not, then it comes out of the budget for >> Correct. So, if you look at So, most of those expenditures listed underneath the supplies of $301,000 are things that we've moved to the stronger connections grant, and you can see under that um line line the facilities equipment is a reduction in something that was previously in the budget when we met with you last time, and we've we've reduced it from the budget further. And so, those supplies were were reduced from the budget as well. Okay, so then when I get down to students record assistant, it says 85 So, somebody's asking for 85,000 in this school budget. And we say it's not going to be covered in stronger connections grant, but since it's a zero, means it didn't

140make it to >> to be in the budget. That's correct. >> approved. That's correct. That's correct. >> Okay. Yep. So, student records assistant was a new request as well as the monitors. The monitors after evaluation, we did approve that at the high school level. Um that's why that's indicated in the 26-27 uh budget. Uh, additional items that were requested were uh adding coaches, assistant coaches for flag football, uh but that was an area that was re- funding was reappropriated to support that due to low enrollment in um in the boys varsity um lacrosse team. Uh, unified basketball head coach um and unified bocce coach, those two were also new requests. Um but because the board approved last year uh unified bowling, uh we spoke with the director and we're looking to expand that before we

141bring on any new um and additional sports. So, those are Those are the only uh new requests that we had. Uh the last five items. Okay. So, the the the question I have is the column on the right, the bottom number 343, is that supposed to all these numbers add up to it cuz they don't. So, what does the 343 011 represent? And was that 301 and the supplies, should that have been moved over and added to that? So, I'm I'm I'm I'm curious where that 343011 comes from. Um I I think you're picking up another typo. So, I apologize. >> got to subtract the 44 brackets You have to add the add the 44 subtraction. Right. But, that still But, that still doesn't that You said the supplies should have gone over to 301?

142That should have gone over to the 26-27? So, then should that be should that be another 300,000 1,000 more? Correct. >> should be 643. >> Correct. Yes. All right, thank you. Saved and sealed. Saved. Saved. Saved. I got it. Yes. Good the good direction. I got >> It's a tough presentation because we started at a rollover. We did zero-based budgeting. Right? I'm not I'm not trying to I'm not trying to I'm not trying to be picky. I just want to make sure I'm I'm clear. It's okay. I mean, it's a good dialogue. It's not supposed to be representative of every savings that happened in the budget from the beginning to the end. Obviously, Linda started the process. We had an interim and I came in at a difficult time. So, we appreciate your patience with

143that. And you know, there have been some many other savings that we've sat at the table and made. These are just some highlights of some of the savings. >> But we can get this corrected and reposted? >> Absolutely. Just so we have Yes, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, that's as much for the for the for the rest of the community to understand. Absolutely. We'll we'll get that corrected and updated tomorrow. Okay. Thank you. So, as as the uh pie pie chart that was displayed earlier, the majority of the pie consists of salaries, benefits. Um the portion that we have control over, I feel like we've done an amazing job as a collective administrators um sitting at the table um to determine what what can we strategically reduce. Um we have we have had to look at other

144places because um that's where the bulk of of the investments go. Um so, at at this point um we have broken down by collective bargaining uh units because we still have some information to share with with additional folks um that we didn't want to identify specific titles until we had all the information. We can meet with all the individuals. Uh but at the next uh meeting, we'll be able to identify uh based on the board's request individual titles so that that's clearly outlined. Um what we ended up doing was just demonstrating the number of reductions uh that we've made by unit and the proportional percentage um, is indicated to the right of that. Um, so that means um, if there's one reduction in cabinet, that's one out of out of the five uh, that that

145members that we had. Um, and so on and so forth for the rest of the collective bargaining um, units. Again, this is the these were really difficult decisions um, to make. Um, and we certainly um, value our people, um, but we we are coming to a crossroad where we've been able to add uh, a number of positions. Uh, we have robust programs, um, but in terms of sustainability, we have to ensure that we we are doing these strategic reductions so that we can continue to provide the services um, to our students. Um, we just can't keep the number of staff that we currently have um, in terms of the levels um, and still present a balanced budget. So, those are some of the challenges that we've been faced with uh, this year. So, can I

146You said an interesting thing specific to the cabinet. You said the number five, right? So, when we see the cabinet, there's four, right? So, I it it's fair to say that this is total number of reductions budget to budget. That's correct. >> So, it was if it was in a budget last year >> That's correct. it won't be in the budget this year. >> That's correct. >> So, not all of these reductions translate to actual people sit you know, sitting in the chair. >> That That's correct. And I And I can speak I can speak specific to that one because Yeah. that reduction took place after last year's budget uh, and that was for the deputy superintendent position which didn't make it to last year's budget. So, that's why we included it here just to

147to show what that reduction is in this current budget. Right. So, it's important for everybody to know that it's budget to budget, not necessarily a person. That's correct. That's correct. And and and in all these cases, right? That's correct. Okay. Yeah, roughly half of these reductions were through retirements and vacancies within the budget. Right. And that's a an important point at this time. So, some of the requests and rationales were provided at the end of the budget slides. There's any questions on those slides if you wanted us to go through them. So, we just we provided that information for for just general information. I think we've already identified which of the five requests we're moving forward with and that's going to be the supervision at the high school for lunch for lunch periods, which is

148going to be the three school monitors. Those are those are part-time positions. And I think you said somewhere early on in that we always see the breakdown between admin and capital and program. >> Yep. I just Did it say earlier that that was going to come Yeah, so I'm going to click here. So, that will that will be in the next presentation. Yes, in the earlier slide it did show the APC. Um So, in terms of the next um budget presentation, so we'll have one on the 26th, we'll have one include that that breakdown. Um we'll have the positions listed at that point. And then April 9th, we'll have the the recommendations provided to the board. And from March 26th to April 9th, at the March 26th, if there's additional feedback from the board that

149we need to consider before the the final recommendation will will be will be ready to make any adjustments needed as as necessary. And then April 28th, we'll have the the uh BOCES budget as well as the budget presentation um at that meeting. Um and then May 19th will be the school budget vote. The hearing will take place on on May 7th. And and I think I just want to remind the public too that we switched over to our community chats as needed. So, during this time of a of a budget, you know, if the community feels that, you know, a community chat is warranted, please send us an email um to either J or to the board, the entire board, [email protected]. Um and we would get something scheduled for this time. So. Any other questions?

150Thank you. >> from none from me. I think I'm done. Thank you. All right, so moving on to 8.1. Um can I get a motion to enter our first public participation? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Um so I'll just read some rules. A total of 3 minutes per speaker for a total of 21 minutes will be allotted for the first segment of public participation. Um the second one will be limited to 12 minutes. Uh please provide your name and address when you address the pro- podium, and please keep um all comments respectful and courteous. That's it. Anyone like to address the board? Well. Hi, it's Nancy Holton. I'm a resident in Staatsburg. I had two questions on the apprenticeship thing, and I have a comment just on the budget process. Um first

151for the apprenticeship, will the apprentice still have to take the ATAS in order to get their certification, which is a requirement for certification? That's a state test for TAs. Second, on slide six, where it says each year a TA vacancy is replaced with the apprentice, is that with an apprentice or with a graduate who has their teaching TA certification? I've just not clear on that. And then I just have a comment. This budget process for me, and I've been watching budgets for 20 25 years, has been very difficult to follow. The way it has been processed, I've had trouble understanding what's being done, what's being added, what's not being added, and as a community member, and my son's girlfriend will have students here next year, um I'm worried that as the public, I don't know

152what's happening with programs. I don't know what's happening with teachers. And I understand it's been difficult because Linda left, and we haven't had that going up that we're used to Linda. We're used to how she presented it. So, I just would hope that in the future that we look at a way that we're presenting more information to the public about public earlier about programs, about teachers earlier in a way that we can understand it better. Thank you. Anyone else? I think you wanted to go. Good evening. My name is Mark Fleischhauer. I'm I live in the Rhinebeck school district and I serve on the Rhinebeck school board. I'm here as a candidate for Dutchess BOCES Board of Education and I just wanted to come and introduce myself. I'm excited about the future of Dutchess BOCES.

153They've made great strides over the last few years with new programs and the completion of their building project. I have been on the Rhinebeck board for 20 years. I have served as president and vice president of the Rhinebeck school board. So, I'm a very experienced board member. Served on many committees. I represent Rhinebeck at the Dutchess County School Boards Association and I've been president and vice president of that organization as well. I'm a great believer in collaboration. BOCES is a prime example of collaborative service and I believe in the importance of programs for students who may not be college bound such as CTI. I'm just asked that you consider nominating me for the BOCES board and voting for me in April at the budget BOCES vote. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, at this

154time we will close public participation. So, Ryan, do you want to answer those two questions if you have the answers? Yes, absolutely. So, the ATAS exam is actually being retired. So, they will not have to take that exam, but they will need to take the exam that is taking its place. I forget the exact exam name. It's Foundations of something something, but so not the ATAS, but yes, they will need to pass an exam. Um, and in terms of the replacement, yes, when someone graduates, they would be replaced with a FDR graduate who went through the apprenticeship program, not a student currently working as an apprentice. Thanks, Sean. And as far as the the budget goes, Nancy, I this year we did a zero-based budget. So, I I you're not alone. I mean, it it

155that's why I had so many questions. I It's different this year, so you're not alone and you know, hopefully it's a refined process going forward to to make sure we get that information in a in a timely fashion, but again, it's I think it's driven because of this new zero-based budget to kind of scrub things clean and start from scratch rather than just keep on rolling over. So, that injected a lot of that injected the most amount of churn for us. They really, so um, thank you for the comment. It's okay. Okay. Um, thank you for uh running. So, good luck. All right, moving on to 9.1. Um, board subcommittee reports and professional development updates. So, the Dutchess County School Boards met. I wanted to thank Mark as Mark has showed to the tonight's meeting

156and Mark is a valuable member of that committee. What we talked about last week at our meeting was committees. At our committee, we talked about committees. And so, what we said was we wanted to kind of talk to all the members from the 13 districts in Dutchess County and ask how many members are on your board. How many committees do you have? What are the committees? How is somebody put on a committee? Do they choose themselves? Are they nominated? Etc. Etc. Etc. Are they, you know, required committees by the state or they ad hoc committees or they committees that extension of the superintendent? So, really really um interesting enriching discussion about committees. It ran from a low of one district, won't mention names, that three committees. And one district, I'll mention Hyde Park, has 11

157committees. So, some are a little, you know, up towards the top and some were a little down towards the bottom. It was very very interesting in that um you know, there's some committees everybody has policy, they're required committees and things of that sort. And everybody I believe at this point has a student board member on their board. Um great discussion. Kelly Lappin, the executive director and I are crunching it and putting it all into a spreadsheet. And then at that point we can share out with the board and with other districts just so people can compare. Sometimes, as a board member said, we had a new board member from one of our districts from Pawling and he was very interested in knowing you know, how many committees there are and how those choices are made

158and so forth. So, it was a great discussion. Sounds like a Seinfeld episode. A committee about a committee. You got it. Got a meeting to talk about a meeting. Any other committee meet? The technology committee. Now I'm too loud. The technology committee met and they formed a group that met during the um superintendent's day and they created a document for looking at AI that had to do with um the both AI generative AI practices and statements for teachers and students, and it's a wonderful document, very thorough. But, I do think it's something that as a board we do have to look at clearly, and I know the policy committee's working on it, and that's basically the whole technology committee talks about generative AI. So, it's a real important new topic. The wellness committee also met,

159and our meeting this time was to create a mission statement, and everybody brought kind of a pre-made permission mission statement, and finally the committee um agreed upon a wellness um statement, which actually I wrote down, that their mission is to force foster a safe, restorative, inclusive environment that prioritizes holistic wellness and quality of nutrition, empowering every Hyde Park Central School District member with the empathy and adaptability to thrive as a global citizen. And what's really great about the committee is the diversity of the members. So, we have a representative from the district from every from many different branches. Okay, thank you. Any other uh committees? Um the special education subcommittee met. Um we spent a bit of time going through the um special education website, and I am embarrassed to say I did not realize

160it existed. Um it and I think just for everybody out there, especially whether or not you have kids in special education, but especially if you do, it's definitely so much really great information that I wish I had known about when my oldest was going through the special education process. Not my oldest, but you know, the first one that went through the special education process. Um Yeah. Um but that's linked right to the to the district website and the under the special education department. It's great for anybody, especially if you're trying to maneuver that part of education, which is a lot different than just general education. Um No, I agree. And um I would just encourage board members to um when we get questions about special ed, um you know, we have our chain of command,

161but putting them in touch with the website, encouraging families to look at the website, because it's really a great resource. There's um you know, information specific to our district, there's links for workshops for parents. Um so, a really great tool um that I am planning on when I have parents asking me about special ed questions, that this is going to be a great resource for me to help them uh gain more information. So, thank you. Okay. Any other committees? All right. Moving on to board discussion, including consent agenda items. Um I did have one uh thing I I everybody to think about um like a board retreat topic. I know you had mentioned something to me, but I have one. you know, set set let's let's email around uh topics. I have a couple that

162I want to throw out there, so let's uh let's start doing that. >> mention the one? Based on the last couple of presentations we've had, I'd like us to consider looking at AI and the use of screens as it relates to instruction. Um because that's coming, and you know, we're always talking about kids are on screens too much at home, but I think we need to look at that and as a board, we we I think that's a really um important topic. So, I just want to throw that out there a possibility for a board retreat. And also to clarify for parents, you know, you hear the word retreat, everybody's thinking we're like on a beach somewhere. Um we're basically at central office in a room sitting around a table learning and studying. That's what

163our retreat is. So, um but I I think that would be a really great topic for us to talk about. Yep. But again, everybody send send in ideas. And then we'll try to plan it um before everybody starts booking vacations. Yeah, I don't I don't know if this is a retreat item. It was something I was thought about during the budget presentation. I decided I would hold back until now cuz I think it's probably more appropriate to talk about now. It One of the things I think Nancy brought up and I've also heard other community members thinking about the perennial question of class size and the relationship to budget. And I think of it more in terms of student-teacher ratios. And at some point just just for my for my own edification, I I would

164really love to learn more about how decisions are made about what is the right student-teacher ratio, what kinds of research has been done out there. You know, just just just to learn about how those decisions are made because I mean, that is potentially the biggest impact on our on our on our students is is is that ratio. And so, I'd really love for myself to have a better sense for the rationale and the Thank you. Okay. And then I'd sent you some um things for the consent agenda. So, a a couple of questions came in via email. So, um the person couldn't be here. So, I I wanted to get those clarified. So, I'll read them and then you could respond. So, health health insurance benefits account, why are most uh transfers being drawn from

165this account? So, in So, in terms of the health insurance line, um when we budget for that, we typically budget for all the employees in the district. So, that that typically um has um you know, we typically don't hire all the individuals. Um so, we we sometimes have to use those funds to provide uh flexibility in other areas that we may overspend when we have a a new student who comes into the district. Um you know, it may increase our BOCES costs. And so, that's where we typically have those budget transfers uh take place. But, it's typically in areas that we overspend uh we typically um utilize that as a as a as a potential um revenue to cover those costs. Okay. And then there was uh another one, transfers 2020 2251 and 2265 BOCES.

166Why are these transfers not consolidated? Uh furthermore, for transfers 2265 uh 325K is being moved from an unnamed account. Please clarify the source of these funds. So, so the budget transfers typically take place on a monthly basis. So, one you know, so we typically submit those. So, it it looked like those two particular ones were one was for the beginning close to the beginning of the month, one was close to the end of the month. And that's the reason why those those two weren't consolidated. Um in terms of the um un unidentified account um description, it's a it's a BOCES central um data processing. Um and this account is sometimes interchangeable with uh the computer assisted instruction, uh which is where it has since been moved to. Um so, yes, it was it wasn't clearly

167identified there, but the the uh it's a BOCES central data processing um um line line item. It might Well, I don't know, but it said in the >> Can Can we back up for a minute? Go back to the health insurance line. Cuz like a million seven was transferred out of that. And that's a lot. A lot more than not hiring a couple of people or a couple of retirees. Did that extra money have anything to was to do with the DEAC holiday last year? The fact that there's there's so much extra in that line. I We I I'd have to take a look at that. I have to go back and take a look at that. I don't have the actual document with me to to refer back to. Um we can we can

168certainly take a look at that and get back to to the board on that. But I think they were asking it came from an unnamed account. That? Yeah. Moved something to No, he's going to look at that one. I'm talking about the the next >> one about the BOCES >> The unassigned Yeah, the unnamed account. It said it moved from and I I didn't The unnamed is the um is the BOCES central data data processing. Okay. And the next one, 2259, F and A F and O contractual cost. Why were the costs for FDR graduation and HMS moving up day not included in the budget? So So sometimes though those particular lines um are used to cover expenses such as chair rentals, tent rentals, and that's why it would come from that particular That's That's

169how historically it's been it's been paid for through the um those those particular lines. Okay. And then the last one, 2269, for a plaque, what is the justification for this expenditure given the current fiscal climate? Yeah, so So that is actually um we're going to get reimbursed for that. Um so the plaque that we had at Haviland Middle School, that was actually donated by the architectural firm. Um, this the one at FDR is going to be um, donated by um, the Palumbo Group. Um, the the the issue is making sure that it's ordered in time. So there'll be a donation made to the district and then that particular donation will be will reimburse that line that the funds were were transferred from. Okay. Um, any other board discussion, consent agenda items? All right. Can I

170get a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda? So moved, Tibbetts. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. 11.1 capital project change order TCO-1-phase 3A 35.7 million train. Can I get a motion? So moved. Second, Tibbetts. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Um, 11.2 capital project change order phase 3B for 35.7 million. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Uh, Dutchess County BOCES board candidate nomination. Uh, what is this is a special thing we have to do? Oh, we're doing that tonight. Okay. Um, can I get a motion to uh, nominate board? Okay, any discussion? Just for a second, I'd just like to speak up again just about um Mark Flushower. Um he did talk about himself and so forth. I just wanted to say that in in

171the time I've known Mark, which is probably for about 5 years now, um he's he's always been very thoughtful. He's been very dedicated. Um being at the meetings, he always brings up very, you know, poignant questions. He's He's not somebody who's just is a yes person who wants to go along with the board. He'll ask difficult questions when he has to and so forth and uh um his whole family's about education. I've been in his wife's classroom. I've substituted for her in Rhinebeck, so um I would speak very highly of Mark. I think I think as I read it, there are two openings and two people asking to be nominated. And And just >> what I I read in it as well. >> as far as I I looked at both of theirs and I

172and I see no reason to object to nominating both of them. Okay. So um we say do we have to name them or just say We have to name them. Okay. It's Mark Flushower. So So So one at a time. >> So I I I would like to nominate Mark Flushower and Judy Moran. Okay. All right, any discussion? All those in favor in nominating Mark and Judy? I. Opposed? Motion carried. I didn't have to do a roll call or anything. Nope. Okay. All right. Moving on to our second public participation. Can I get a motion to enter it? So moved, Tubbs. All those in favor? I. Opposed? Motion carried. Um same rules apply except we'll limit this to 12 minutes. Would anyone like to address the board? Okay, at this time we'll close public participation.

173Um any other matters deemed necessary by the board? All right. No need for a second executive session. So, at this time, can I get a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting? >> So moved, Ed. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Meeting adjourned. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for those who stuck it