2026-01-22: HPCSD Board Of Education Meeting

001today or welcome to the Pike Park Central School District Board of Education meeting. I like to call the meeting to order. Um and can I get a motion to adjourn to executive session for the purpose of discussing promotion, discipline, and employment topics for a particular person or persons? >> So move Tibbitz. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I oppose. Motion carried. We're now in executive session. Sir, I don't Okay. All right. Good evening everyone. At this time, I'd like to return to open session. And if we could 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. >> We don't have any

002uh agenda modifications. So, at this time, can I get a motion to adopt tonight's agenda? >> Move. Second, Christine. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> Motion carries. 5.1 Upcoming events. Friday, January 30th, uh, a capella invitational concert at FDR at 7 p.m. Uh, Saturday, February 7th. Saturday, academics at North Park Elementary, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. And then February 12th is our next board meeting, and that'll be at uh, Netherwood. Um and open session begins at 700 p.m. Any other events? Perfect. Moving on to Pride. >> FDR would like to give a shout out to all the student presenters at their eighth grade scheduling orientation this morning. Ralph RS PTA organized a movie night where they showed Leela and Stitch on Friday the 9th. In addition to the movie, the PTA had activities,

003hot chocolate, other and other refreshments for students. They are also working with Ronzone to do their annual heart-shaped pizza event for Valentine's Day. Flyers are in the main office for families to fill out an order form to purchase a heart-shaped pizza kit for $10. Violet Avenue, grades 2 through 5th enjoyed a special trip to Maris University for a basketball game on January 14th. It was an exciting exciting experience to join approximately 2,400 students from across Duchess County for a day filled with school spirit and community. Being on a college campus gave their students a chance to imagine future possibilities and watching a college level game made the day even more memorable. Their students and staff had a wonderful time and they are grateful for the opportunity opportunity to be part of such a positive event.

004On Tuesday, January 20th, over 50 Violet Avenue families came together for their math night. They hooked the students by calling their event the 67 math night. Students and their families enjoyed a fun evening where they learned a variety of math fluency games. Most of the games involved the use of dice or cards. They had eight classrooms, each staffed by two dedicated teachers from Violet Avenue who volunteered to teach these games and provide support as the families practiced playing. Each family was provided with a deck of cards, dice, and playing instructions for various math games so they could participate in the evening's fun and to keep learning and fun going at home. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So, you have stuff. >> Yes. So, uh good evening everyone. uh want to share um some exciting news

005about one of our most recent events through the community schools family resource center. I want to thank uh Melissa Rosario is here, Melissa Lawson and the uh lays on as well as uh Megan Delisandro who uh overseeed the program. Uh it was an out of thisworld experience. Uh there was an indoor uh planetarium for families to go in with their students. Um and they also had some yoga activities and um some other activities um to really think about um you know just planning for for for their future. Um so it was a really great turnout uh really exciting. Uh I even had the opportunity to go into the planetarium which was really cool. Um so just want to say thank you to the entire team for putting an amazing event. Uh and then um the

006second point of pride uh that I do want to share is um oftent times we we have individuals in the district who do some remarkable things to help us keep our schools open. Um and and sometimes we don't see the work that happens. And so I just want to recognize um our facilities uh department, our grounds uh crew who are constantly helping us keep our schools um safe uh by making sure snow is plowed when many of us are in our homes. Um they're out there shoveling and and plowing to make sure that we can we can attend school. And so um I've already got calls in to make sure that I'm making the call on Sunday evening. Um, I told everyone we we'll see. We'll see what happens. But nevertheless, um, I just want

007to thank the entire team for all that do uh to make sure that we're we're safe and able to attend school. Um, and then just one more uh piece of pride. Um, it will be released shortly. Um, but one of the things that I'm most proud of is the work that collectively from the board to our schools, our staff, our administrators, our support staff. Um, this is the the first uh year since 2018 where all of our schools are in good standing. It was mentioned uh previously that Ralph R is making some significant gains, but collectively um that is a huge milestone. um the challenges to make sure that we sustain and continue to push ourselves to get better uh each and every year. But I just want to say uh thank you to everyone

008because it's a it's a collective effort um that that we're able to you know um attain this achievement uh thus far. So just want to say thank you u to everyone for for their hard work and making sure that our students have access and opportunity to thrive. That concludes uh my point of pride. any other pride? >> Um, last week there uh I attended so two two school concerts. North Park Elementary School had a concert um fourth and fifth graders and um FDR had their Prisms concert which was actually really cool. Um, but I think that the coolest thing for me was going on Wednesday, I don't Wednesday and seeing the elementary schoolers perform and then going the very next night to see the high schoolers because you get to see their start and then

009you get to see their end and it was just really cool to see. And um the Prisms concert was so great and so was the elementary school in a different way, but they ended the the Prisms with Fortuna, which was all the all the ensembles play together, the singers, the orchestra, and then the organ. Um it was just really cool. Um, also this week I went to an I see the International Thespian Society had a coffee house where the um the actors singers performed um in a little coffee house setting. That was actually really cool also. >> Are are you good back there? Do you need us to pause? >> Yeah, we're good. We're good now. You're good. >> [laughter] >> All right, moving on to 7.1 superintendent report. Just a quick update on the

010governor's um executive budget. So um just some key points to highlight. Um the governor is proposing proposing a $ 1.6 billion increase in total school aid. Uh foundation aid across the state um is increasing by 3% for our district. We're currently staying flat. Um, in terms of our foundation aid might go up slightly, um, but nothing significant. Um, in terms of her overall school aid, uh, funding, UPK is being um, funded. Uh, there's a 52.5% increase um, to try to attain true universal prek for all four year olds. Um and then the one other piece that was um interesting was similar to the um science of reading. Uh they're also looking at back to the basics with mathematics, a similar approach. Um so that's also coming down the pike. Um the the timeline for that

011is September 2027 for full implementation um across all schools in New York State. Uh and then lastly just some um some some areas in terms of funding for special education. Um the budget again is proposing for making shifts of residential placement costs from the state to local districts which is going to be an increase um if that continues to move forward. And then the the last piece which we've been talking about in policy especially uh the proposal um does does not include the state funding for continuing special education services for age 20 for up to age 22 meaning that despite the recent um court uh cases and mandates um that that cost is going to be shifted to school districts and not funded by the state. So, those are some areas that I know that

012several organizations are advocating uh for changes, but wanted to give the board a quick update on some of the key points in the budget. >> Do you guys have >> I do, but Mike had a question. >> Point of interest. Um I was reading the newspaper last week. I think it's Mississippi is being recognized for the most dramatic improvement among particularly poor students. And one of the things they highlighted was the science of reading. >> So >> yeah, >> that's a as a as as a as a cause for for why they're seeing such great improvements. So >> yeah, we're so that's great news for us. >> Yeah. No, thank you for sharing that because that that that article in the New York Times, I shared it with the team. Okay. >> Um and and

013they've done some interesting things. So So one of the pieces >> was a big part of it. >> Exactly. Exactly. Coaching. Um, so a lot of the ingredients that we currently have in place, >> it's it's really exciting. It's really exciting. >> So, [clears throat] uh, on the consent agenda tonight is, uh, the updated um, districtwide safety plan, which includes DESHA's law. It is a new requirement for a cardiac emergency response plan. Anytime we update the district-wide safety plan, we are required to have a public hearing, which we did in December. And we are also required to have uh a opportunity for families to review and the public to review and provide comment. So, um, we had five people respond in the public comment period and, um, there was some very nice comments about how

014they're 100% on board with this initiative. There was a comment about why can't we have all staff trained in CPR? Um, we do offer it to all staff, but we don't require it of all staff. Um there was also a request to have our AEDs readily available throughout the building. That is part of the plan. So we do have that in place. There were some um word smithing that that was suggested around the use of the district may provide CPR training to the district will provide. I felt like that was an important distinction to make. So we did change that language to will provide. It is a requirement that we provide that. So that made sense. And then there were some questions about our um drill procedures that aren't related to the emergency response plan,

015but I am uh taking those under advisement. For example, one of the uh public comments was we have our emergency dismissal drill on the same date every year and we publicize that date and there's a concern about safety um because we put that out to the public and it could result in um an unsafe situation. So, um, just thinking about how we can change that up and and protect our students, but also inform our families that this is happening. So, we'll be working on that through the safe committee. >> And that's it. >> Concludes items. >> Okay. Moving on to 7.2, our community schools uh, presentation with Mr. Zargo. And as as Melissa is coming to the podium, I just want to say that most of our administrators are presenting on their budgets as part

016of their presentation. Melissa's presentation does not include budget. That will be part of my presentation um in February. >> So, hi everyone. Good evening. My name is Melissa Rosario. of the community schools facilitator here at Hyde Park and I'm going to talk to you about our community schools overview, our strategic plans and key initiatives and the progress that we've made over the last two years. Okay, so the community school at High Park. So first off, I wanted to tell you guys what a community school is. So a community school is a strategy in which all stakeholders which are our admin, our principles, our school teachers, community partners, students and families, they collaborate together to ensure that all students are thriving in and out of the school setting. And I'm going to talk to you about

017what it means to be a community school at High Park. So no community schools are the same. They're all different because we all have different needs, families have different needs, and students have different needs. So these are some of the things that we believe in at HUD Park as a community school. So what we believe in supporting the whole child academically, socially, emotionally, and physically. And some of the ways that we do that for physical needs is we are excited to announce that next month we're going to be partnering with Healthy Smiles to ensure that students who want to participate in dental health cleaning will be able to um have that. and we're working with them to fill out some consent forms to make that happen. And so these are some of the ways that

018we do support some physical needs and um we collaborate well with our staff to ensure that we are removing barriers to learning and promote well-being and we also opened up our family resource center October 19, 2024. And here we serve as a hub for resources, referrals and family support. So some of the things that we have done this year is we opened up um playgroups that happen two times out of the month. So we started doing that for children zero to three and they come for about an hour. They come together, they have snacks and they learn. We partner with the High Park Library to make that happen. And I also lead the other um time. And then some of the things we also do as well as providing essential needs such as food and

019clothing, we also do referrals for families who need like mental health support or um we help out for like crisis if like a family had a house fire, connect them with community partners to ensure that they have the needs and things that all right. So our mission and vision. So, our mission for our school districts is an init um is for uh sorry, I'm nervous. It's an innovative um a learning community for all. And we hope to empower all learners to be successful members of our dynamic society. And so, some of the ways that our community school strategy has helped with this is implementing programs such as our Lego camp. So during our LEGO camp, we had um the opportunity to teach kids about coding and how how they can build different structures and we

020had a full day program in the summer and it was amazing to see. I had about like 60 kids all come together from different schools and it was fun to see them interact and really enjoy this amazing um Lego opportunity. We also started our Saturday academy and like Dr. Roman had mentioned in the pride slide. We had um the Mid Hudson regional museum. They came out and they showcased their portable planetarium. They learned about planets and so these are some of the things that we do to ensure that kids are learning out of the classroom as well. And some of sometimes they get to be with their family members to do this stuff. So we also host some evening events. So recently we had our holiday celebration in which we had about 224 people come

021out. We learned about the different holidays. We did some art activities together and then some families also were able to get um gifts and take them home. It was a really nice event. Park schools. Our schools are more than just buildings. [music] They are hubs of opportunity, support and community [music] [music] in H High Park. The community schools framework strives to have all students flourish [music] and thrive in the school community. The key practices we're focusing on are building strong [music] trusting relationships, engaging in inclusive decision-making, and creating a thriving community. We do this through [music] powerful student and family engagement, collaborative leadership and shared power and voice, expanded and enriched learning opportunities, [music] rigorous community connected classroom instruction, and a culture of belonging, safety, and [music] care, as well as integrated systems of support.

022We're excited to work on making our data actionable, creating a [music] place where students flourish. Hello, my name is Melissa Rosario, the bilingual community schools facilitator at [music] the High Park Central School District. I'm going to talk to you about community schools. Community schools [music] ensure that we are supporting the whole child and their family members by meeting student needs and priorities beyond the classroom. By collaborating [music] with stakeholders and community partners, we connect families to essential services and resources. We help [music] remove barriers to learning so that teachers and staff can focus on providing the high quality education every student deserves. I I do feel very welcome um [music] since day one. Um the resources have been great to me and my family with um the food pantry [music] and also this play group

023now where my son is able to learn and to play and interact with um different [music] children with different ages. Every community school is different. At High Park Central School District, we have focused on increasing [music] family engagement and also working on improving our attendance. When we have students and families who feel connected and engaged with their school [music] district, um they seem more comfortable and kids want to come to school. Our goal is to always [music] have our students in schools feeling safe, welcomed, and um productive. very passionate about is improving attendance on the high school level. I'm collaborating [music] with administrators, social workers, and teachers to identify the barriers that keep students from attending school. And then we work together [music] and in some cases with our community partners to find ways to

024overcome those barriers. Community schools serve as hubs that integrate education with vital services such as mental [music] health, health, food, clothing, housing assistance, and vital family support. Being able to do this [music] and have a wraparound partnership improves student outcomes, helping them thrive inside and outside of school. Community schools is engaging and involving our families [music] in school communities. We aim to build solid relationships with our students, families, and community organizations. [music] >> In order to do this, we have our monthly events with our families. One is our Saturday academy and the other one is our weekly event. >> [music] >> The more that we expand this program, um the more families uh will [music] feel supported by the district, uh we'll be able to build trust [music] in the district. We'll feel that the

025district has their child's best interest in mind. Um and [music] one of the things I really hope is that families will become more involved. We'll see families showing up to activities, showing up to meetings, um being um part of [music] this collaborative process of their kids being successful. Watching the parents get [music] excited to see what their kids are able to do. Because a lot of times students don't share what they do in school. So hearing [music] parents say, "Wow, I didn't know that you could do these things." Um it builds builds connections not only for kids with school, but for parents with their students. And that is something that [music] I think will only benefit our school district in the long run. [music] So this is a video that we put together to um

026give you more information about community schools and some of the initiatives that we have started. Um so some of our goals for our community schools was to increase family engagement and trust within our school community and also to reduce chronic absenteeism. And so we hired community school liaison to provide provide student support on the school level. And we have them participate in attendance meetings and do outreaches and collaborating with other staff in the school level to find out why students aren't coming to school. And then together they work on doing initiatives to help improve attendance. And then we also um do something where we collect data and feedback to make sure that we are not only starting programs because we want to but we have the data to support why we are starting things and

027why they will benefit our school district. So this is the community schools framework and Melissa Lawson in her videos spoke a lot about it but one of the things that I wanted to highlight is um collaborative leadership shared powers and voice. So we collaborate with many family, students and community partners at our community school steering forum. We meet by monthly and here we work together, talk together about what's working, what are the some some of the things that we still need to implement and to ensure that we are meeting our goals. So the key initiatives we spoke about are Saturday. This takes place the first Saturday of every month and we provide a nutritious breakfast for families and we also provide a learning experience and also an enrichment opportunity. So we've collaborated with many different

028community partners here. We've had many different opportunities. We had some merit students come out. We've also had some community partners to talk about like budgeting and financial situations. We've had um reptile birds of prey and things like that. So, we've had a lot of different and fun opportunities at our Saturday and every month we see our numbers growing. Um, same as well with our evening events. We've had um our unity fest where we talk about different cultures. We've had our holiday celebration. We had our family game night and recently we had um the Statsburg library do a Lego fun challenge experience where families were able to get a challenge uh card and they were able to build a Lego together with it. So our family resource center right now we serve about 30 to 35

029families per week. Just yesterday, we actually had about like 22 people come to get some food. And then we've also had some people coming in for child care support. So, looking for before and after school care and I helped them get the application from DSS, put it together, told them what they needed and things like that. So, those are some of the referrals that we've been getting recently and make this possible through our community partners. These are some of the people that we do work with on these photos. This was our summer barbecue where we had about 15 community partners come out and give resources for our families. And our summer barbecue, we had about 5 and two families attending people attend, but we'll talk about that when I show you some of our data.

030All right. So, these are some of our milestones. So this is how we've been increasing our family engagement through our Saturday through family resource center and our evening events and our summer programs. So 2024 to 2025 we see in the green and then through the yellow we see 2025 to 2026 which is to date. So we see that our numbers are going up and almost doubling for our evening events and the summer engagement. So, here we had our summer barbecue. We had a trip, we had about four trips. We had one to the Springfield, the Springfield Museum, the Dr. Seuss Museum. We did the Bronx Zoo, we had our Lego camp, we did a college tour trip, and then we also rented out the Pipsy Museum. So when that we we totaled for about 687

031people that we connected with over the summer and you'll see in our data that a lot of our families are wanting summer programs and summer enrichment opportunities. Another milestone is that we were able to decrease our chronic absenteeism. And when I first started, we had started our attendance matters campaign. And I know that we handed out magnets to families that spoke about some of the reasons why kids should be in school and some of the reasons why they shouldn't be in school, such as if they have like a fever and things like that. And we had to inform some of our families as to why and why not their kids should be in school. They also work with principles to um help support the message and how to make kids excited about coming to school

032every day. And this is some of our testimonials from our families. So we have some families talking about the Saturday and enjoying going with their children and also about the resource center and how it's beneficial to go in and out and get their resources after work. So we started our needs assessment and from this we got some data. So we actually started collecting surveys from December all the way to January. So we didn't have that much of a time collecting surveys but we were able to collect about 233 and this is some of the data that we got from that. So we found out that 56% of our families knew of our family resource center in community schools. And so part of our goal is to increase our knowledge and sharing that information with other

033people. And then this was also some of the data. 93% said they felt welcomed and respected. 92 said they felt safe. And then 10% wanted assistance with booking. This is also some more data. So we had some people saying that they wanted more summer programs, some more reading and writing and math skills. And so with this, we don't stop here. We we try and do focus groups like our some of our Saturday and things and to find out what exactly families are wanting and needing so that we can try and implement it and this is just more data. The future planning and next steps, like I said, is to increase awareness of our services and resources offered by our community school to continue to boost family participation in programs and events, to strengthen partnerships with

034our community organizations. So, we want to be able to work with more community partners to help meet some of these needs, and then to gather more feedback from families to continue guiding our future initiatives. And so I just wanted to say that we are truly fortunate to have an amazing school district already and we work with amazing staff with dedicated families and with successful students. But sometimes there are gaps and I think that community schools is a great tool to help um close some of those gaps to make sure that all of our students are successful and thrive in the school. Thank you. Um, quick question. So, this is a lot of good stuff. Are are there things that you're saying that you you need that you don't have resources for to help out families?

035Are we falling short anywhere? >> I would say um we have a lot of families that are wanting some tutoring support, some free tutoring support, and that is has been really hard to get for families. And so I know Dr. Roman had shared with me a good idea grant and so I recently applied for one to see if we can get some some support and being able to help families for some free tutoring. >> Yes. >> Um Lauren, what about at the high does a National Honor Society need like volunteer hours and stuff? Would they would we be able to look at Yeah. >> them to see if we have tutor? I know they um offer tutors for like upper classmen to like tutor the lower underassmen, but I'm sure if people need vol. >>

036Yeah, that may be something you could look into. And you know, if kids kids need the volunteer hours and >> in addition to that, I would love to open it to a broader audience of kids just because one group has to have community service hours. I think there are kids who maybe there are students who are thinking I want to work with kids but I've never had that opportunity and I could work with a first or a second grader or a fourth grader. So if we're looking at National Honor Society, I really want to look at other groups. Um what what other kids on campus um or around FDR would be interested in in doing something like that. I think it's a great idea to use our our students. Um, but I think there's a

037there's a lot of other groups that we could um be tapping to. >> What about like mar does marriage for marriage kids have time? >> I already wrote down >> we're we're working on it. [laughter] We're working on it. Um, yes. It's a great opportunity. >> Any other uh questions? >> I just want to know if we're doing Oh, sorry. I didn't see your >> Very important. Are we doing a summer barbecue again this summer? A back to school barbecue? >> Yes. >> Okay. So bored, we're barbecuing, right? You have it on camera, so you got your grillers. We're going to step up our game this year. Um, but I just have to say it is it is the best part of my week when I get to go to Saturday Academy. And I just

038encourage board members if you have a few minutes to stop in, meet some of the families, see the kids. Um, it's it's really impressive. It's really nice. So, thanks what you're doing. The other thing was you talked about people liking to go after work and get um donations of food. Do you accept donations? Can you kind of share with people who are listening if people want to donate if they hear this and they're like, I like this. How do people go about um donating to their >> Absolutely. So, um people can reach out to me if they wanted to like drop off some food or anything like that. Right now, we have received an abundance amount of clothing. So, we're really not accepting any more clothing because we have a lot. and um when more

039clothing goes and I can accept more. But um we've also partnered with the regional food bank in which we order food and then we actually applied to a grant and so we were just awarded a $10,000 grant to continue to get more food funding for um the family resource center, but we always do accept food. Um clothing is not a need right now, but food is always welcomed. Are there specifics that you're looking for or um >> I think families um are needing some more meat options and with the grant that we just got um my plan is to get a deep freezer because during the Thanksgiving it was hard to store all these turkeys that we would give out. So a deep freezer right now is a priority to get to be able to

040store all this meat and then um I think some milk is always a need but we're we get that from the regional as well. Do do you have facilities to store fresh food like if you >> So the family restore center right now has two refrigerators so we're able to store the food there and it also has two freezers but the freezers are small so sometimes if we order meat we can only store a little bit of it and just Wednesday I picked up an order and we had about 22 families come and so the meat immediately is gone and I couldn't order anymore cuz I couldn't store it. So that but that's an issue that's going to be resolved with a deep freezer. >> Is that on the horizon to get a deep freezer

041or she just >> Oh yeah. So we just got the grant and it's >> okay. >> It's there. So now we can try and order it. >> Good. So, first of all, congratulations on the increased participation of you. You also quite rightly point out that that's sort of your number one um goal is to continue that because I think you said 56% say they know about it. >> And great ideas are great ideas, but you got to get people to and so I'm wondering do do you have any particular strategies for getting the word out more that you can share with us? >> Yes, absolutely. So, we just um created this video. It's actually not out to the public now. You guys are the first to see it. So, that was one. And then also

042um we spoke with um Dr. Roman in terms of presenting it to more of our staff members, right? Because if our staff members don't know about it, then they can't share it with families. So, we spoke about putting it in the superintendent conference and spreading the word that way. Um, we have the liaison now in the school buildings who can also share information about it. But I think we really need to share it more with staff and once more staff know about it then they can share it with our families. >> Thank you. >> Any other uh questions? >> Good. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Moving on to uh 7.3, our guidance update with uh Miss Reer. >> Good evening everyone. [clears throat] Good evening, President Sakorski, members of

043the board of education, superintendent Dr. Roman, district leadership in the High Park community. My name is Melissa Reer. I'm the director of guidance for the district and I'm grateful for this opportunity to share an update on how our strategic investments in the guidance and wellness space are directly elevating student outcomes and strengthening our district's mission. It is important to remain grounded in our vision and our mission. And here at High Park, we are one. Um, we are an innovative learning environment for all and we empower all of our learners to be a successful member of a our dynamic society. As my colleagues before me, I will be celebrating success of our prior investments, sharing with you about the current work and targets for improvement, and share budget recommendations with our priorities delineated. Oops, sorry. I

044am thrilled to announce a major milestone, the completion of our intensive 2-year American School Counseling Association or ASKA National Model Training. We are officially moving away from a reactive encore service to a proactive datadriven program that supports our every single student. This shift isn't just a trend. It ensures we are in full compliance with the NICE part 100.2 regulations, satisfying state mandates for comprehensive K12 planning. We've moved from guessing to knowing using hard data to close achievement gaps. To see this in action, you may look at our current targeted goals. At the elementary level, an example used from um Violet Avenue is um where we are using MAP data to move third grade literacy proficiency, aiming to reduce the number of non-proficient students who are not in a 12 to one:1 special ed setting from

04521 down to 12 students. In middle school, we are correlating English performance with state assessments to catch gaps early. And at the high school, we are targeting the ninth grade slide um aiming for a 20% reduction in falling grade and failing grades by the um end of the year. These goals are in strategic alignment with our district's widely important goal of increasing literacy proficiency. We are no longer just a guidance office. We are strategic partners using data to prove that our work improves school climate and academic success. I'm also proud to celebrate the full implementation of the SecondStep digital program at FDR High School. This represents a critical shift in our MTSS framework. For those new to the platform, SecondStep is a researchbased social emotional oral curriculum designed to build human skills like growth mindset,

046empathy, and stress management. The New York State Education Department or NISED views tier one social emotional learning as not an optional add-on but as a mandatory foundational component of a high functioning um school system. By adopting second step as our tier one universal curriculum, we are establishing a consistent baseline of preventative support for all students. It is the foundational layer that makes our entire MTSS system viable. Our completion report for high schools shows a total of 163 educator practices completed so far this year. These practices encourage classroom teachers to embed high quality building um highquality community building and social emotional pedigogy into their existing academic instruction. This means that 163 classroom lessons so far this year have featured embedded social emotional themes and ideas deepening students learning and relationships in their subject area classes. Another

047major point of celebration is our continued expansion of the DESA which serves our district's well serves as our district's wellness checkup. By partnering with Aperture Education, we are applying the same scientific rigor to students resilience that we have traditionally reserved for math and literacy. Our approach is developmentally um tailored utilizing a quick one minute educator screening for our K5 students and a self-report tool for grades 6 through 10 that empowers our older students to take the agency in their own personal growth. And Desa is it stands for the DVR um education student support uh assessment. I think that's what it means, but I'll I'll um get back to you on that because I feel like I lost that um train of thought. This system is built squarely on NISE's compliance specifically aligning with the 2018

048mental health literacy guidance and the 23 M 22 the 2023 MTSSI framework which identifies universal screening as a foundational requirement by using objective T scores instead of subjective referrals. We are also meeting part 117 academic screening standards and fulfilling the CRC framework by removing unconscious bias from our support systems. The most exciting development, however, is that we've moved beyond just screening to supporting. We have pioneered an innovative intervention support plan now fully embedded in our MTSS handbook. This framework uses DESA data as a formal benchmark to trigger targeted interventions functioning with the same precision and accountability as an academic intervention support service. We are no longer guessing why a student is struggling. We are using data to guarantee that every student is emotionally equipped to meet our district's highest academic standards. Another point of celebration

049regarding our commitment to student well-being is seen in the incredible success in the DESACL screener um scaling it. In just three years, we've grown from a small pilot of 815 students to a full district-wide implementation over 2,300 students. What's truly remarkable is that our numbers tripled. our results actually improved. To give you a quick visual, green represents student strengths, blue is the typ is the typical range and red indicates a need for instruction. When we identify student strengths, we recognize that these students have acquired specific skills and are applying them successfully across different contexts. However, for some students, while they have developed these skills, they may not be using them consistently in all situations. These students may land in the typical range. And for students who show a need for instruction, it's likely that they

050have not yet fully acquired these skills or are struggling to apply them across different settings. This is where intentional support becomes critical. We've moved from 19% of students in the strength range to 26% this year, above the national norm of 16%. This proves our teaching strategies and interventions are working for the many, not just a few. Even more impressive is our early intervention data. 13% of students currently fall into the need for instruction category. This return to pilot level lows at a district um level um are able to be incredibly intent. Now we are incredibly intentional with our resources providing laser focused support to the 13% of these students to ensure every student is truly life and future choice ready. The DESA impact report tracks student growth and social emotional competencies by comparing fall preassessment

051and spring preassessment data. This is our elementary educator rating. In this chart, if you notice in the chart um there there is uh competencies listed below. There's um the first bar will be um representative of the fall 2425 data. That's our preassessment data. The second bar is the post assessment data or the spring 24 um data. The colors again red mean need for instruction, blue is typical and green equals strength. We see a significant reduction in students requiring intensive instruction and a measurable increase in those reaching the strength range across all competencies. This data is of our middle school student self-report impact report. It highlights an increase in strength in self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, responsible decision-making, and a decrease in the need for instruction and optimistic thinking. This data comes to from our

052high school student self-report. It indicates a reduction in students in need and increase in growth overall and across all competencies. This all matters because social emotional growth is the leading indicator of academic and life success. When a student moves from red to green or on the screener, we are not just moving a data point. We are watching a student gain the self-regulation, resilience, and problem solving skills they need to sit in a classroom and actually learn. These results prove that our interventions are working. We are essentially leveling the field. By strengthening these core competencies at scale, we ensure that a student's success isn't left to chance. We are giving them the internal tools to navigate a complex world making them not just better students today but more capable future ready cho future choice ready adults

053tomorrow. The bright or bridge for resilient youth and transition or star which stands for the student transition academic resource which is named at Havlin Middle School is a program that supports students returning to school after experiencing mental health challenges, medical issues or crisis and behavior dysregulation specifically at the elementary level. As a tier three intervention, the Bright and Star program supports students with the highest need offering intensive personalized support to help them successfully reintegrate into the school. The Bright program is no longer just a support system. It is a vital lifeline for a student population in escalating crisis. As the mental health landscape or youth becomes increasingly complex, the demand for our specialized bridge services has moved steady growth to um to an urgent surge. During the 22 23 to 23 24 school years, we

054saw growth from 35 to 50 students, a 42.86% 86% increase from 23 to 24 school year um to the 2425 school year. That need grew from 50 to 73 students, a further 46% increase. This growth reflects both deepening need the deepening need in our community and the proven efficacy of our clinical academic model. We maintained a program graduation rate of 97.26% by the end of the 2425 school year. While the lengths of participation vary from student to student, the typical length of an intervention is about 8 to 12 weeks and 37 39.73% students graduated by week 12. These results prove that our model provides the stability students need to return to their education with confidence. We are seeing a similar evolution at the elementary level. After an explosive 150% increase in student served from the

05522 to 24 school years, moving from 10 to 25 students, we have shifted our focus to clinical excellence. Last year, we served 26 students, a 4% increase that allowed us to refine our highfidelity model. By managing dysregulation early, the Bright program ensures our youngest students remain present, regulated, and ready to learn. At the elementary level, this regulation is a barrier to fundamental for to foundational literacy and social development. By improving our entry process, we've shifted our focus to serving better. We are ensuring that our model isn't just a temporary fix, but a highfidelity clinical resource that keeps students regulated, present, and ready to learn. This is a point of pride for me specifically as a school counselor at heart. So, I'm gonna This is exciting. Very exciting. Our elementary counselors are the architects of student

056success and their impact is built on four vital pillars. A social emotional foundation as they teach the hidden curriculum of regulation and empathy which is the prerequisite for all academic learning. Cultivating school climate by fostering a sense of belonging. They directly drive our engagement and attendance. They are bridge for our families. They serve as the essential link between home and school to ensure holistic support. And at early intervention and prevention, by identifying shifts early, they prevent small challenges from becoming lifelong barriers. We see this impact, for example, in our 93% career plan completion rate at both North Park and Violet Avenue. In alignment with the NISET standards, we are pioneering um early readiness, ensuring nearly every student is documenting their strengths and passions. By starting this career awareness now, we aren't just teaching kindness. We

057are providing the psychological armor and purpose-driven focus our students need to thrive, have different emotions or like I'm sad or something, she [music] can cheer me up and she really changed my life from now and every day. when people get in arguments and stuff, she's always there to solve them and and they end up being friends again or they start talking and then become friends. [music] Having a counselor has been amazing here at Netherwood. The students have established great relationships with her and it's so awesome to see how comfortable they are with another adult in the building. Our elementary school counselors are the foundation to our students supports. [music] They are the people who are on the ground working with our students, helping them to develop their social emotional learning skills and helping to bridge

058any [music] academic gaps. They're on the ground helping our students through crisis. They're on the ground pushing into classrooms and facilitating [music] all tiered levels of support. Our counseling staff is an integral part to our school community. We need them because every [music] child deserves a champion who knows their name, knows their story, knows their potential. When a student feels seen, they feel safe. [music] And when a student feels safe, they can actually learn. They support what we're already doing for SEO on a daily basis, but they go above and beyond that. So, they come in and do bullying prevention lessons. They teach the students about responsibility. Counselors [music] are a vital part of the school community from finding out what are the barriers that are preventing students [music] from coming to school, addressing chronic

059absenteeism issues, in addition to working with teachers and support staff to come up with academic interventions [music] and social emotional interventions to address the students needs. My counselor makes me feel like not alone because um she's [music] always outgoing and always tries to make us comfortable. I'm so grateful and happy to have counselors in our school because without counselors, [music] stuff can be much harder and they come in our classroom and teach us to help us with our emotions. If we're not feeling good, we [music] can talk to one. >> We're just so excited to have them here and to see the impact that they've made. These datadriven, well-informed [music] lessons that they're providing to our students is really making a large difference and it it will it will show. Mike Davis is a videographer,

060eyecatching genius. Thank you. Thank you. [laughter] >> Okay. >> Currently, we are working on bridging our district's wildly important goal for literacy with our ask a national model training. The district is committed to increasing student literacy proficiency from 55% to 62%. To reach this, we are operationalizing the ASA standards or the mindsets and behavior standards to shift the dial on literacy from 0 to 60% by addressing the non-cognitive barriers such as self-discipline, belief in one's ability, and organizational skills that often prevent students from mastering core academic content. Aska mindsets and behavior standards provide the foundation for literacy proficiency. Students cannot master complex reading if they lack the self-regulation or growth mindset needed to persevere through challenging texts. By integrating these standards, we aren't just supporting wellness. We are removing the cognitive barriers to reading. And

061also, we are continuing to move all schools to a define, manage, deliver, assess model, shifting counselor time to 80% direct student services, investing in the two-year um ask a training model. Um, it isn't just about supporting our counselors. It's about maximizing our existing human capital to improve every student's chance to success. It turns our district strategic um mission into real life. Working with a school nurse cons Oh, currently we are working to improve our school health services. Flip the screen. Working with the school nurse consultant, Linda Khalil and Khalil Consulting, we are leveraging her over 40 years of nursing experience and 29 years specifically in health leadership at state and national levels to support our staff, ensuring full compliance through direct alignment of our health services with New York State education laws, commissioner regulations, and

062the nurse practice act to protect students and staff. Um, we are accessing specialized professional development that maintains currency on clinical best practices and evolving New York State health regulations. Her expert analysis and modernization of our electronic health records, district health policies, and sustainable documentation processes have helped us to optimize health operations. This is an effort to enhance the student experience with a commitment to equity. implementing the whole school, whole community, whole child framework to ensure health services are delivered through a lens of diversity and inclusion. That we are improving um student health outcomes to directly boost academic achievement particularly for those managing modern uh managing chronic conditions and enhancing communication through the development of a streamlined health literate school health web page to keep families informed on attendance and safety requirements. So the budget recommendations

063with priorities delineated. We're going to continue to provide relevant professional development to our counselors, our bright and star teams and school nurses. Develop our capacity to support increasing literacy proficiency from the counseling scope and optimize student health services and district compliance. This three-year investment plan includes the salary and the benefits for the director of guidance, a 0.20 FTE shared clerical staff, the district float nurse who supports at each building, and the Holy Trinity annex school nurse. This year-over-year increase in the plan, the year-over-year increases in this plan are driven by inflation assumptions align with Congressional Budget Office projections, specifically 2.4% 4% for the 2627 school year and the 2.2% for the 2728 and 2829 school year. This three-year projection plan details the director of guidance operational budget. Our contractual PPS budget funds are dedic funds

064are dedicated to guiding guidance training and activities and the initiatives that directly impact student achievement. Our FDR contractual funds are allocated specifically for student opportunities at FDR High School, covering the costs for Project Lead the Way, for example, college courses. The Hugh O'Brien um youth leadership registration and PSAT examinations. Finally, memberships line um item covers negotiated reimbursements for professional dues to state and national organizations for the directive guidance. This is a continuation of the operational cost over the next three years. The FDR guidance supplies cover general office materials for all guidance department staff at FDR. The PPS guidance supplies support all of our buildings, providing bright coordinators and counselors with updated curriculum, specialized practice tools. Additionally, PPS conference and mileage covers the director of guidance districtwide travel out of district work and conference attendance. FDR

065guidance mileage reimbures guidance staff for travel required to perform district level work in and out of the districts. The health services contractual code covers nursing agency um contracts such as rorow health acupare nurse acuteare nursing and comforting hands for substitute nurse coverage. It also provides um the oxygen tanks and CPR supplies a maintenance through school health corp and nason memberships to ensure staff are current on national nursing standards. The health services equipment. These funds provide essential medical supplies and hardware. The health services school physicians allocation covers contracted services for our district nurse practitioner and medical director. And the health services supplies at St. Peters cover the health office supplies at unholy trinity. This financial summary includes our operational cost for the 2627 school year. We are looking to increase the guidance contractual FDR budget to

066support all 9th through 11th grade students taking the College Board PSAT exams. In order to provide the PSAT exams to all 9th and 11th 9th through 11th grade students, we will need to increase the guidance contractual FDR budget to um by $15,000 to accommodate the cost. We are seeking a $16,38 increase to the health service contractual budget to support our continued work with our school nurse consultant. While our policy and process audit will conclude this year, we propose transitioning the school nurse consulting services from the stronger connections grant to the health services contractual budget. This ensures continued investment in high value professional development ongoing support for our nursing staff. When we look at our current investment recommendations, our primary goal is to move from a collection of a separate services to a single high performing

067system of support. First, we are investing in a in data as a tool for academic equity. By utilizing the PBSAT as a universal screening tool, we are removing the financial and logistical barriers that often stand between a student and their future. This is a vital lever for equity, but it also it is also a strategic diagnostic. We will use these results as a metric for student literacy and math proficiency, giving us the objective data needed to bridge achievement gaps and build a more viable MCSS infrastructure at the high school. This ensures we are delivering targeted instructional strategies to every student regardless of background, providing clear pathway to future choice readiness. Second, we are investing in operational excellence within our health services. Through our partnership with Khalil Consulting, we are modernizing our health offices to ensure

068100% compliance with NICE um with New York State Education Law and the Nurse Practice Act. This protects our staff and students in our district. Furthermore, by optimizing the electronic health records, we are reclaiming valuable time for our nursing team, allowing them to pivot away from administrative hurdles and back toward direct student care. This follows the whole school, whole community, whole child framework. When we treat health outcomes as a bridge to academic success rather than a barrier, we are ensuring that students with chronic conditions have the support they need to stay present and focused in the classroom. Finally, we are sustaining our success at the highest levels of need by continuing our investment in Brighton Star. We provide the intensive tier three clinical academic support that allows our most vulnerable students to thrive within their own

069community. Next steps. Our focus for the coming year is to move from foundational growth to systemic excellence. By ensuring our support structures are proactive, datadriven and fully integrated across three key pillars. The strategic MTSS integration, we are evolving beyond basic integration to make MTS the engine of our school. By leveraging student data, we will move away from one-sizefits-all models and instead align our time, staff, and curriculum to the specific intensity that of our students needs, ensuring highquality, universal support for all and precise evidence-based interventions for those who need them the most. Our ASKA systemic implementation, we are shifting our counseling mindset from service providers to program managers. By moving the ask a national model off the shelf and into our daily practice, we will use protected time and intentional calendars to deliver measurable results that

070directly close the achievement gap. And through modernization of our health protocols, we are committed to building a state compliant high standard health office. Our goal is to transform student health from a reactive service to a proactive wellness system that offers ongoing learning and current evidence-based care. This concludes my presentation. >> [laughter] >> Thank you warmly for your time and your consideration. >> Thank you. Um I had a quick question on the DESA impact reports going from um the middle school to the high school. >> Yes. >> So like in the middle school there was a small number of students that needed uh instruction but then when you go to the high school those numbers grew. Is is is the assessment different or what like what what what would explain that? >> So I what would

071what we think is explaining it is that well one students are self-reporting grades um six through nine. Last year we piloted with grade nine and most times that students are rating themselves or or assessing themselves they're really harsh on themselves. So they're like you know an educator might see some bright spots where a student who's rating themselves might not see that. So there's things that we obviously want to work on in building our students capacity to be able to like see themselves more positively. So that's one thing, but one of the other things is that um the transition from 8th grade to 9th grade can sometimes be jarring. And when we saw the initial impact report from 8th grade to 9th grade um at last year I spoke about it a little bit um we

072saw that there were some um a lot more students in the need for instruction range than um you know we would have liked to see. However, toward the end of the year, there was some shifts and we saw some um increase in in the typical and strength ranges toward the end of the year. And this year, it looks a little bit more positive. Um, and you know, if we were going to qualify it as positive or negative. Um, but basically those are the two reasons that we've been um rumbling through. It's student self-reporting and then really the transition from um 8th grade to 9th grade, being in a new building, being new, you know, having new support systems, finding out who your people are. um you know what's my purpose? Where do I stand here?

073And how all of that you know uh can define like resilience and optimistic thinking and you know all the things we would want them to be able to show in their skills. >> Okay. Thanks. Any other uh questions? >> I'm not sure it's actually different for but we give it a shot. >> Sure. I was looking at the pie chart um and I and I looked at it and I thought from year to year if I were to if I were to make an assessment I would say gee it looks like we're having some success moving students from typical to strength >> but that need for instruction seems to be particularly reticent particularly stubborn >> number and then I wasn't sure whether I was reading it properly because there's a pilot that's pre and post

074and there's pre I wasn't really sure if if I was reading it correctly, but but but if I am, then then that's the group that I'm I'm most concerned about. And I and and first of all, actually, I should start by saying I really like the shift to what I would call a proactive deliberate data driven driven system. So, congratulations on that's really terrific. But what I'm what I'm really thinking wondering about are there strategies to get at that really tough looks like a persistent 13% Yes. And I think that's an important question, right? So like that's the goal of this and having access to this information. You know, we're not just making um you know decisions based on our own, you know, thinking about a student. We have actual data points that are telling

075us what a student particularly needs. So now we can go in and do that work more intentionally. Um, it also gives us that opportunity to see the actual pyramid the way that it is, the MTSS pyramids, who's really at a tier three in need, who's at tier 2 and tier one. And what I will say about the DESA is that we shouldn't think about a student who is in need of instruction as some like is it not a red flag. It's more about like this is a work a warning system. We have some skills we got to sharpen up. Let's go and be intentional about doing that. And of course, anything we do at a tier three, we can do at a tier two and we can do at a tier one and everybody can

076benefit from it. So that to that point well we we might always see some areas where there's going to be a need but we can then say we can drill down and say we have this group of students in my in our class that are struggling we can >> so it's a very targeted approach those those student really >> need exactly so yeah >> I'll just add that DESA is aligned with our second step program so that we can really hone in on what lessons are going to support our students. So, that's a nice connection as well. >> Any other questions? >> I have a question. The Bright program, is that separate from the second step? Is that a targeted program? >> Yes. So, Bright is a tier three intervention. It's second step happens at

077tier one. We have groups and other activities happening at tier two, which we're still building. And then at tier three we would have a program like Bright. >> Can you give one example of a Bright intervention? >> Bright interventions are really specific to the students in need. So basically a student who is um coming in from the hospital post um coming in back to school from long-term absence or um experience trauma um hospitalizations and other other reasons why they wouldn't be coming to school for mental health purposes. They would receive um mental health support in school. They would receive the ability to um get, you know, complete their work in a smaller setting outside of their classroom environment as a means to sort of help them to reassimilate back into the regular day-to-day. So, they'll

078gradually go back to class. you'll, you know, so it it's a really and they're doing this in conjunction with um a really tight-knit support team that helps them through with regular meetings and check-ins to decide when they're ready as a team to then move into the next phase of um reassimilation back into into the school setting, the regular day. >> And that 97.26% is that that phase that you were just talking about. >> Yeah, we we're all back. where we've we've successfully reintegrated back into or we've reintegrated back into the school regular school day. So, I mean, and graduation, you know, also means that we have alumni that we stay connected to. Um, and some students may exit the program, but they are back in class and we stay connected. >> Okay. Thank you. >>

079Thank you. All right. Up next is uh Dr. Roman and our budget update. >> Three minutes. Six or seven minutes. [laughter] >> Good evening members of the board. uh this evening. This is presentation number two for our uh 2026 2027 school budget. Uh again, continuing to focus on our strategic investments uh making sure that we're preparing students for beyond uh the classroom setting and uh for the future that awaits them. Again, as was already mentioned, we're aligning everything to our mantra for the year, which is one dream, one team, um one one one uh one focus uh for the year. And uh our vision and mission statement is stated there. So, um, here are the various, um, funding, um, types, and I'm going to have Christina kind of review these overall just to refamiliarize ourselves

080as we continue to engage, um, in the, uh, budget process. >> Okay. So, we'll do a deep dive into school district accounting, >> right? That's what you said, [laughter] >> the three-hour version. >> Yes. So just generally speaking, municipal accounting is divided into funds and each of the funds listed here are for a specific purpose. So it's basically segregating the funds for the district to to ensure the expenditures and the accounting are done in accordance to the specific purpose of each of these funds. Now, the one that we talk about the most is the general fund because that's the one that um maintains all of our general operating expenses and that's the one that the taxpayers vote on. So, you'll see that's the biggest fund. It has all of our um salary expenses, utility expenses,

081everything that we use to operate the district on a daily basis. School lunch fund is just what it says. The cafeteria fund, that's the only fund that although it has state and federal aid, it's also the only fund that generates its own income as a result of the sales. So the better they're doing at providing lunches, the better the fund is doing by the sales and the participation in the lunch program, which actually helps them to continue to grow that program to offer meals that are appealing to the students. Special aid fund, we talk a lot about that one because that's where our state and fun federal grant money is maintained. So those are likely strong connection grants or grants and uh those are maintained separately because they have very specific requirements. Capital projects are

082for all of the capital improvements in the district that's also maintained separately so that we can track all of the expenses for that. The debt service fund complements their capital projects funds because that's where the money that goes to pay for the capital funds is maintained. So those are kept separate. You'll see in parentheses the alphabetic category sheet that's those are what the funds are called the A fund, the C fund, the F fund. So, if you're looking at it, if [clears throat] our financials, you'll see that the account codes all begin with the fund code. So, that's how you'll know what fund you're looking at. So, the debt service fund is where we keep the money that's used to pay for the capital expenditures. And then the CM fund, the special revenue, is just

083like it says for scholarships and donations. This is intended to make sure that none of those funds co-mingle so that they're all being maintained for their specific purpose. Any questions? Okay. Um so school districts also have reserve funds. Those funds are intended and set up for very specific purposes and they're kind of self-explanatory. So, I won't read them all to you, but there um those are for monies that are set aside to be used in difficult budget years like we're looking at now. So, one of the things that once we get further in the budget process, we'll look at and talk about is maybe utilizing some money in some of these reserve funds to try to mitigate some of the increases that we're going to experience. And um one of the biggest one, the second

084reserve is one we'll talk about a lot, the retirement contribution fund. In a slide further down, we'll review what we talked about at the last meeting with the retirement contribution increases, but that'll be a fund that we'll look at to see if we can't try to mitigate some of those increases in order to preserve all of the priorities that we're considering in this budget process. Uh these funds are very closely monitored. When the auditors come, they look at them for appropriateness, uh, to make sure that districts are using them in accordance with their purpose and to make sure that they're funded appropriately. So, they're going to review those funds to make sure that they're not overfunded and that um you're number one using them, but also replenishing them so you can build budget stability. Any

085questions? >> That that's not true for all of these funds to to shore up the general budget. Like you can't take from capital reserve to to That's >> correct. So some of these are approps assigned fund bounds where you like you're legally obligated to do something and you can't touch it only for that purpose. So you can't take things right. So a capital reserve fund uh I'm sorry. So the specific purposes that are on this slide are the only uses for those funds. Some of them you can use at the board's discretion, but some of them require voter authorization such as the capital reserve. But the ones that like we'll be looking at are the ones where the board has that discretion such as the retirement contribution, the employees benefit acred liability reserve, the unemployment

086reserve. Um, but they each have a specific purpose and that's the only thing that you can use them for. So with regard to retirement contribution fund, you the board can um decide to use that in the general fund, but it can only be used to pay for retirement contributions. Does that make sense? >> Right. Yeah. Yeah. So they can only be used for the intent purpose. Some of them at board discretion, others have to be voted upon like the capital reserve. Did I clarify that? Okay. Thank you. So just a reminder, these are the budget drivers that will be guiding um the process. Uh making sure that we preserve programs and services for students, making sure that any any of the initiatives or strategies that we're implementing provide for uh financial sustainability over time. We're

087constantly looking, especially with the zerobased budget approach, we're looking at efficiency and effectiveness. So if we are funding something that is not proving to be effective or we don't have any data to support it, those are things that we're looking at as uh we move forward because we know of the increase in in the insurance that we we have discussed um in the previous presentation. And then lastly uh most importantly balancing the needs of the district while remaining mindful of the impact on our taxpayers, our community. So, just as a reminder, um everything that we're doing um in this process, we're aligning it to the pillars in our strategic plan. This year, our two wildly important goals are aligned to student experiences. Um that is improving literacy across the district as well as uh attendance.

088So those two areas are aligned with this uh student experience. In terms of the budget development process, um what we are doing is making sure that we are in the we're in the process. We have already started this but we need to go continue to dig deeper and deeper into the individual budget line items to ensure that uh we are maximizing every single dollar to ensure we're seeing maximum um impact as well as things that are not working. What can we reallocate or potentially eliminate? Um we're going to continue um to do this as as we move forward. Our goal is in February to come to the board um with items that have been requested and the decision-making process around that around those decisions based on the uh budget matrix that we've developed um last

089year. We'll continue to use that this year. uh but we're also going to look at other cost-saving measures and strategies that we'll be presenting um in addition uh to to to the uh new items that have been requested. Want to figure speak to the next points terms of state aid. >> So we got the governor's projections this week. Um, one thing I always say is that those are projections based on estimates. So, it's very important to analyze them to see what's reality. And um, we'll be doing that over the next couple of weeks. Once we get that, we'll have to look at our um, tax levy limit formula. We have the new EPC lease lease that's going to factor into that. So, we're working with our um consultant Bernick Donigan to make sure how that

090impacts the formula, you know, the eight-step formula. When you add new debt, it has an impact on the calculation. So we want to make sure that we are intentional about adding debt and aligning the debt payments so that it doesn't have a negative impact on our tax levy calculation. Okay. Yeah. >> No, our team will continue to analyze um each of the um expenses as well as looking getting a clear picture with Christina's help on the revenues um that will be coming into the district and then we'll determine what the budget gap is. Once we decide once we have that number then we can decide okay in terms of the various scenarios that we're coming up with which scenario um best matches uh the current financial um landscape and then we'll be uh presenting that

091to the board. Um once we go through that, get some input from the board, then we're we're going to be moving on to the next phase, which is the preliminary budget, which will be my recommendation to the board once we have several um opportunities to discuss um those budget changes. And then uh lastly um uh on or about uh April uh adopting the proposed budget and then the vote um May 19th. We did discuss many of these things at the last meeting. So uh this is just a quick review. The the only bullet that's changed a little bit is the last bullet regarding the health insurance. As we said, that's u a very dynamic situation. So, all of the districts in Duchess County are faced with the same challenge with this health insurance increase. Um,

092so we know that DHICK is looking at it very closely and they will be making some recommendations, but unfortunately the rate won't be final to March. So, at this point, based on all the things that Dr. Roman said, we'll have to be considering, we're going to have to look at it with that 16% increase. Now, that number won't be set to March, so we'll be able to adjust it if it changes well in time before the ports asked to consider adopting a budget. But just so you know, we have to budget with the factors that we have today as we and just to remind the board um that that percentage was was monetized and that's about $3.75 million. Um so that's something that we are considering as we're coming up with our different budget scenarios.

093um that is a significant amount of an increase. Um and so we're we're going to be doing that difficult work as an administrative team to figure out cost uh saving strategies um and then presenting that to the board. And then just a quick uh review in terms of next steps. Uh we'll we hope to have um some of the initial thinking um around the various budget strategies um bless you by February 12th and the 26th. Um and then we'll continue to have budget presentations to allow for opportunities to have um dialogue um as we continue uh moving forward. And then as discussed earlier um budget adoption um and May 7th May 7th with the budget hearing and then the the vote will be on May 19th. That concludes our presentation. I think we did six

094minutes question. >> Um I know you had a presentation at one of the libraries for the community. Anybody who wants input for the budget would did I understand there were going to be others or >> Yeah. So, thank you for bringing that up. So, that wasn't a budget hearing. It it it really is an informal conversation uh with the community um to get get ideas what's working in the district, what are some things that we can continue to improve on? um as well as um you know if there are any thoughts on what's happening in the district in terms of some of the outcomes and also input on on the budget. Um we are going to have uh another presentation at the Statsburg Library. Uh we're also going to do one virtually. Um and I

095don't have those memorized right now, but we'll make sure that we we get that on the next um list of upcoming events. We'll make sure that we plug them in there. Uh in addition to that, we're also visiting each of the schools um to get some some uh input from staff and thus far the conversations have been very fruitful and I want to thank all the administrators for getting the word out um and the staff that that are coming out to give us some some really good input in terms of what's working, what do we need to tweak and um I think that that type of feedback is invaluable. All right. Any questions? All right. Thank you. >> 8.1. Can I get a motion to enter our first public participation? >> So move. >> Second.

096>> All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carried. Just a reminder, a total of three minutes per speaker for a total of 21 minutes will be allotted. Uh for the first segment of public participation on the agenda and for the second segment, a total of three minutes uh per speaker for a total of 12 minutes. Uh the segment of time may be modified by the board. Um we ask that all comments be uh courteous and respectable of all and please provide your name and address when you reach the podium. Would anyone like to address the board? Uh Roman Peton, Free Stoutberg Drive, High Park, New York. Um I think it was in September I asked the board if uh why don't the why doesn't the school district pay for AP exams, but I can't

097recall if you ever answered it during a board meeting because I tried to go back and find it, but I couldn't. So I don't >> My mom says you answered it at some point, but I couldn't find it and I don't remember it. I figured I'd ask it again. Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> My name is Teresa Miller. Address 40 Woodland Circle, Hide Park, New York. Um, I just want to start before I read what I wrote, um, that my son has been at Netherwood Elementary. He was there from kindergarten to 2nd. Due to unforeseen circumstances, he was at a district last year. Um, and this year he is back at Netherwood. Um, he was he did not like where he was last year at another district. He was eager to come back. Um,

098there was um, prior he had some issues with other individuals in the school from K to 2. Um, the school has been amazing with dealing with situations. Up until this point, I've not had any qualms about um the district. Um but I just feel that this needs to be heard. Um so on January 6th, around 2:30 in the afternoon, I received a call from the school psychologist that my son along with his friend had reported that they overheard a student say they were going to bring a gun to school and shoot a specific individual along with some racial slurs um the previous afternoon. Shortly after this phone call, an email came out from Miss Wilbur that there was a quote concerning statement made. It's my opinion that this threat was not taken seriously as there

099was intent towards a specific student to cause harm. I understand that these children are in fourth grade and they're only 9 and 10 years old. However, school shootings have occurred at different ages and I feel the district is turning their heads to the seriousness of all of this. I had sent an email to Dr. Roman with my concerns. And he did respond and he stated that the ser um there was a series of comprehensive steps that need to be taken before the student is reintegrated into the classroom which includes law enforcement, formal threat assessments, coordination with mental health agencies and district staff and CPS were applicable. Completely understandable. But if this threat was made at the end of the day and reported on January 5th, I question how all of this took place in under

10018 hours because the student was back in the school the very next day. [snorts] This individual may have had ISS, but he was in the school by holding nonetheless after making a threat of bringing a gun to school to shoot a specific individual um whom is friends with my son. This brings me to question the safety of all the other students. My son heard this child state he was going to bring a gun to school and shoot one of his friends who he named. And my son now has to sit in class with him wondering what is going to happen next. I also question whether law enforcement was called because these same threats have been made in other local schools and local police departments have sent out press releases ensuring the protocols were followed and

101ensured other safeties and I had not seen anything from High Park VD. So maybe things were checked out. Maybe the student has no access to guns, but he does have access to items within his natural environment, such as knives from a kitchen, a screwdriver, a hammer. These are all items any individual can access and could slip into their book bag. I know I know I'm not privy to this information, but I would hope the student is at least being searched upon coming to school to ensure he has nothing on him specifically um since the threat was made. In addition, about a week ago, my son witnessed a physical altercation with the same student and the individual whom he threatened to shoot. My son was called down to Miss Wilbur's office and questioned as to what

102he observed. Again, why are these behaviors acceptable? My son has told me that this individual sits alone away from everyone because he can't be around other kids. My son has to constantly listen to the individual curse and use foul language. Again, I completely understand that every child has the right to an education, but at this point, my son's education is being affected due to significant behaviors of another student. My son's rights to a proper education are also being violated due to the constant disruption of another student and the district's lack of involvement. In my opinion, these behaviors are becoming acceptable to my son and shrugged off at when I questioned how the days were. Oh, it's just this student. This is not okay. Okay. And I'm wondering why the school is making it seem like

103this is. I believe all of the Hide Park schools are participating in PBIS, but I know Netherwood specifically is. For those of you who do not know, PBIS stands for positive behavior interventional supports to try and increase positive behaviors throughout the school. I am very well informed about PBIS from my place of employment as I am a lead coach and I train other staff in PBIS. I am sure many many parents have seen what I know as the acknowledgement cards that come home with these students and this is a great program. However, I again know I will not be able to be provided with specifics. But if the student is exhibiting such negative behaviors, there should be behavior plans put into place or the teacher should be provided with assistance to develop a plan for

104her classroom to allow for more benefits. Um, and maybe others receiving reinforcement may help him act in a more appropriate manner. At this point, something needs to be done because in addition to the specific verbal threats and physical altercations, the student has also been involved in inappropriately touching other students. I >> just interrupt. Do you have a lot more to go? Cuz it's >> like this much. >> Okay. >> I'm sorry. Um, I'm just wondering, is the school district waiting for a student or staff to get injured? Is the school district waiting for something to seriously happen before they take action? Again, I totally understand and respect that every student has the right to an education, but I also know that when behaviors consistently present themselves that other alternative education claimments can be sought. It

105is not fair to the students who go to school and follow the rules and listen to directions to be subject to the violence and negativity of other students. It is not okay that my child is accustomed to the students behavior. When will the rights of the students who are coming to school wanting to learn and who follow directions be taken into consideration? When will the rights of the students who are scared and emotionally and academically being affected be considered? Something needs to be done and I'm hoping that the board of education will take this matter seriously and look into this further and take action. Thank you. >> And I apologize for it. >> Anyone else like to address the board? Okay, at this time we'll close u public participation. Uh I thought we did address

106the AP stuff, right? >> I can I can share a little bit. Um so when we looked at the fee for AP exams, it the cost for each exam is about $100. It's $99 to be exact. This year we ordered 335 tests. This would be a total cost of $33,165 for the district if we chose to pay for um AP exams. However, we did not budget for this expense for this school year. Um that is something that we do set aside funds for students who have economic hardships so that they don't have to pay out of pocket for those. Um, and we do have an opportunity to look at next year and the budget for next year. Um, as we may be getting some money back from our concurrent enrollment plus through Duchess Boseies that

107could we could use for this purpose. So, um, it's up for discussion for next year, but unfortunately this year we didn't budget for that. And that wasn't there was a category of funding. It was either the tests or PLTW or or something that the lawyer said we couldn't do. What what which one was that? >> I don't know. That might have been before my time, but I can find out. >> It was when this whole discussion came up about paying for, you know, like, you know, Project Lead the Way and AP and even even some of the um college credit courses. And I think the lawyer said that's something we couldn't we couldn't do. I don't remember which one it was. >> I don't know. I'll have to look at that. I don't recall that.

108Is >> there also an issue though with paying for the AP? If we paid for the exams, the student can opt out of taking the exam. Correct. They've paid for it and >> yeah, >> student doesn't have to take it. But I have the same recollection Mike does that there was some legal reason why we weren't allowed because the board was in favor of covering it for everyone, but we were told at that time that the lawyer said there was some or there was some legal reason why we couldn't and I'm pretty sure it was the AP. >> Was it? Yeah, I know it was something that we were looking at again. Yeah, I think we were in favor of it, but there was a a reason why from from legally that we couldn't use

109taxpayer money for that. >> Something like that. I'll look into that because I don't have that in my notes. But yeah. >> All right. There you go, Roman. Um and I'll let you address the other comments. >> Yeah. So, uh c certainly, um we would like to engage in conversation around this, but due to confidentiality, we can't go into specifics. What I can share with you, what I can share with you is we certainly hear concerns from families as it relates to safety. Um we do um hear the concerns about um you know making sure that we address the needs of all the students in the classroom and that's certainly our our top priority. Um I'm I'm what I can share with you in these types of situations. We are working in collaboration. We we

110are fortunate that we have school resource officers that are park police officers and um we get them involved every time there's a situation like this. This is something that we don't take lightly. Uh we certainly want to make sure that we we are parents as well. We want to be reassured that our our students and our children are safe in schools. And so we we really um take that that that responsibility very serious. Um, in terms of of supports, um, we are working in collaboration to make sure that we're in constant communication with teachers to make sure that all the students are getting the supports that they need, not just an individual student. We want to make sure collectively they get the supports that they need. And we do take each case on an individualized

111basis. And there although um everyone doesn't see all the actions that the school is taking um you you work in an educational setting um you know that there's a lot of things that take place behind the scenes um whether it's individualized behavior plans whether it's child protective services uh we just can't share um those things uh what I can reassure you is that all actions that we have um at our disposal are being taken um and and you putting into place and implement it to make sure that all students are getting what they need. Um, we can certainly, you know, as I mentioned in the email, if you wanted to schedule a time to have a more thorough discussion, I always welcome that opportunity. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Welcome. >> And from the board,

112whenever in this particular incident happened, we get um notified um on incidents like this. And what our questions always back to them, are we doing what we're supposed to be doing? are we engaging law enforcement? And so we do have the, you know, the the insights of what's going on. Like it's not like the board's the board's role isn't to call law enforcement. Our our role is to work with administration to make sure they're following our policies that we have in place, right? So we have a code of conduct. We have our safety plan. We have a lot of things in place to make sure that incidents like this are handled in accordance with the law, you know, in our policy. So that's our our involvement is to make sure that you know we're working

113with Dr. Roman to make sure those things are happening um in there. So um that was the only two comments. Okay. Um moving on to 9.1 board subcommittee reports and prof professional development updates. Policy committee met. Um, on the consent consent agenda, there's a second consideration, but we also had a conversation last week. Um, and the one thing that I, and it's not even for first consideration yet, but the one thing I do, uh, think is a point of interest is one policy, and Melissa will correct me where I where I go wrong, that has to do with, uh, the compliance with copyright law and the complication that AI may may create in that situation where if you're doing an AI search, it's pulling stuff that may be copyright protected. And so how do we

114as a district deal with that and protect ourselves? We tabled that because it's something the technology committee is going to engage with and hopefully come up with some real recommendations. And I think the other thing we said is whether the question was whether we have a separate policy or if it gets folded into the code of conduct is one thing that's also in consideration. So just so the board knows that that's something that's on the horizon. >> Did a good job. >> Yeah. the other committees. >> Save committee met this morning. Um just a couple of things. Um you know, people from different buildings mentioned minor building stuff that they're checking on. Uh Melissa Lawson, um I thought it was really important that she clarified that um anything that's happening around the district, she encourages

115staff to put in work orders. And I'll say that I remember that as a teacher, you know, like why is this not working? it's not working still. And then you realize nobody ever actually reported that it wasn't working. So that was a good reminder. Um overall it was, you know, things like snow removal, um water issues, heating issues. Uh the one thing that I do want to follow up on is the security vestibules. Um there was some inconsistency. You know, some built justifiably, you know, whenever you do a project, you run into little glitches here and there. Um, but just maybe we could get in at another meeting a follow-up on specifically which buildings are not set up and ready to go uh with the security vestibules because even though technically all the work is

116done, they might might not be activated and I think that's really important for us to get regular updates on. So that was something that we talked about because it wasn't clear um where some buildings were in the process. Um, so I and I think that was pretty much um yeah, it was just a lot of a lot of building levels. >> Okay. Any other committees? >> All right. Moving on to board discussion, including consent agenda items. Any [snorts] discussion items or consent agenda? All right, moving on to the consent agenda. Can I get a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda? >> So move to this >> second. >> All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion carried. Um 11.1 new business compensation rate for 2026 election officials BMT. >> So move tickets. >> Any

117discussion? All those in favor? Opposed? Motion carried. Uh moving on to our second uh public participation. Can I get a motion to enter second participation? >> All those in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carried. Would anyone like to address the board? Okay, we'll close. Second public participation. 13.1. Any other matters deemed necessary by the board? Nothing. >> No need for an executive session. Now's your time, Carl. Motion to adjourn the meeting. So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carried. Meeting adjourned.