2026-01-08: HPCSD Board Of Education Meeting

001[clears throat] All right, I'd like to call tonight's meeting to order. Today's January 8th, 2026. Happy New Year. Welcome to the Hide Park Central School District Board of Education meeting. At this time, I'd like to get a motion to adjourn to executive session for the purpose of discussing promotion discipline of a particular person or persons. >> So moved. >> Second. Tibbitz. >> All those in favor? >> I opposed. >> Motion carried. We're now in executive session. one. At this time, we'd like to return to open session. And if we can please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. I don't think we have any agenda modifications,

002right? So, um, at this time, can I get a motion to adopt tonight's agenda? >> So, move Tibbitz. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. Upcoming events. Tuesday, January 13th, North Park Elementary winter concert, and that'll be held at FDR at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, January 14th, the FDR Prisms concert, and that'll be at FDR at 6:30 p.m. Monday, January 19th, is a holiday for Martin Luther King Day. No school, all buildings closed. And then January 22nd is our next board of education meeting, and that'll be held at district office. Open session will be at 7 pm. For the most up-to-date information, look at the school calendar online. All right, moving on to 6.1 Pride. FDR would like to shout out student government for organizing their holiday spirit week and

003to all of those that participated in it. They also want to shout out their PE staff and all the students that helped organize and participate in another successful Benmittton tournament. North Park has begun their annual leave a legacy mural with their fifth graders. They worked with a local artist and art class to brainstorm ideas that embodied North Park and leadership. The students' ideas were turned into a drawing which is being drawn onto their onto a wall by their gym. All fifth graders are contributing to painting which began on Wednesday and they are eager to see the completed project. Rafar students participated in a pajama spirit day on Friday before break which was organized by their PBIS team and PTA. This week, fourth and fifth graders had a concert at Havland on Wednesday evening, and their

004monthly PBIS assembly will be on Friday morning. Their PBIS coaches have invited officers from the Hide Park Police Department to honor and recognize them for National Law Enforcement Day. Violet Avenue had their annual winter workshops on the last day of school prior to winter break. This year, they were able to offer their students a variety of 21 different workshops to choose from. The workshops varied from different craft workshops to athletic games and board games. It was a fun morning for students and staff alike. They would like to thank Mrs. Katani and Mr. Zagorski for volunteering their time to run a workshop as well. Additionally, they want to thank Hudson Valley Fresh for donating the chocolate milk used for the hot cocoa. Mrs. Conklin had her second grade class engaged in a shaving cream activity to

005practice to practice their heart words. Each student got shaving cream on their desk and they got to practice their heart words and different words that they have been working on. And Netherwood participated in a PBS winter workshop event right before the holiday break. students took time to celebrate achievements, reflect, and share what they are thankful for. >> Thank you, Lauren. Um, we're going to start with our artist of the month. Sorry, technical difficulties. Good evening. And um I'm very pleased to uh introduce our artists and musicians of the month. And uh we're going to start. I think Gabe is up first. Gabe Pizaro is a third grader from Netherwood Elementary School. And is Gabe here with us tonight? I wasn't sure if he could join us. Doesn't look like it, but Gabe is a wonderfully

006creative third grade artist at Netherwood. Gabe loves to create art, especially drawings of new things like dragons, mythical creatures, and animal mashups. He loves to draw, and he especially likes using mechanical pencils, colored pencils, and any pencil at all. When asked to share what he likes about art, Gabe said that he loves that you can express your imagination however you want. In the classroom, Gabe is a positive role model for his classmates, taking care of art materials, being kind to others, and focusing on expressing himself creatively. He contributes thoughtfully to our conversations about art, and tries new materials with curiosity. So, congratulations to Gabe. [applause] And next we have Ella Sardino. And I believe Ella is with us tonight. Oh, good. So, Ella, we I'll read a little bit about you and then I'll invite

007you up to get your certificate. So, Ella is a 10th grader at FDR and Ella has always been a significant member of the music department. She is a band member in our wind ensemble, full orchestra, and jazz band. She consistently masters her music very quickly and plays with a tremendous amount of musical leadership. She is a true asset to the music department. When asked why music is important to her, Ella said, "Music is important to me as it is something that has stuck with me throughout my entire life. I started playing piano at four years old and the skills I developed then have helped me be successful playing the saxophone in all of the ensembles I've played in. I'm so grateful for everything music has taught me and for the role it continues to play

008in my life. So, congratulations to Ella. Come on up and get your certificate. [applause] Congratulations. [applause] You're welcome. You can shake everybody's hand. [laughter] >> [applause] >> And at this time, I'd like to invite Mr. Darling up to um highlight some of the students and staff at Ralph R. Smith. >> Good evening. Thank you, Mrs. Lawson. And uh happy new year, everybody. Good to see you all. Tonight, I have the privilege of recognizing a student uh and a staff member momentarily who truly represent what it means to be a learner in Hide Park Schools. It's my honor to present the portrait of a learner award to Liam Hall, a fifth grade student in Mrs. Taft's class. Liam, if you want to come on up. [applause] So from my perspective as principal, Liam's the kind of

009student every school hopes to have. Respectful, thoughtful, and consistently trying to do the right thing. But what what makes this recognition especially meaningful is that when staff members were asked to nominate students, Liam's name came up again and again along with the same words, kind, motivated, focused, and a joy to be around. Staff members describe Liam as incredibly sweet with a caring nature and a strong sense of empathy for others. They've shared that he works hard, stays focused, and puts forth his best effort every day while balancing that with genuine, respectful relationships with peers and adults. Teachers have also noted that Liam's a confident learner. He participates openly in class, contributes thoughtful ideas to discussions, and seems to truly enjoy the learning process. especially during SEAL activities where he reflects carefully, considers different perspectives and

010builds on the thinking of his peers. Liam is also recognized as an effective communicator and responsible citizen. He gets along with just about everyone, navigates conflict with maturity, listens when others are speaking, and responds with care. He looks for ways to help. Whether that means supporting a peer on the playground, lending a hand during school events, or stepping up when opportunities arise, like becoming assistant coach with coach Shudo in the gymnasium this year. Liam, you reflect the very best of our school and our sore values each day. We're proud of you, grateful for your presence that you bring to the school community, and excited to see where your journey takes you. Congratulations, [applause] Now, Liam, I told him he didn't have to do this, but he also prepared a few words to say on his

011own before he shakes your hands. >> Good evening. Good evening everybody. I just want to say thank you for this award. First, I want to thank God being because without him, none of this would be possible. Also, I would like to thank Mr. Dar darling and all my ths at Ruffer Smith at Ralpher Smith that has made learning fun and helps me and helped me get to where I am today. Finally, I I would like to thank my mom and dad for for helping me with my work supporting me and help and helping me to get to this point. Thank you. [applause] >> [applause] [applause] >> Uh, all right. Tonight I also have the honor to recognize somebody who represents the very best of our profession. Someone whose impact is felt not only in classrooms

012but in families, in colleagues, and in the culture of our school. It's my pleasure to present the portrait of an employee award to Amy Seamanic. Amy, if you want to come on up. [cheering] [applause] >> Congratulations. Amy is currently in her 25th year of service as a special education teacher in Hide Park Central School District, which is a reflection of her deep commitment to children and to this community. Throughout her career in Hyde Park, Amy's worked in our kindergarten through 2 grade 1211 or this year 1212 setting, supporting some of our youngest learners at the most important stages of their development. Amy's been at Ralph R. Smith since 2015 and taught at Violet Avenue in North Park prior to that. Everywhere she's gone, she's brought the same calm presence, deep expertise, and genuine care into

013her work. Colleagues often describe Amy as somebody who handles the complex and demanding work of special education with poise and grace. With patience and creativity, she meets each child exactly where they are, celebrates growth in all its forms, and never loses sight of the strengths and potential each student brings with them. Beyond her classroom, Amy's commitment to students and families extends into the broader life of our school. She's been an integral part of our TSI improvement work, a regular presence at family events like popsicles on the playground, and a trusted partner to parents. Since I started at Ralph R. Smith, I've personally heard from countless families about the positive impact Mrs. Semantic has had on their children academically, emotionally, and socially. When asked what she loves most about teaching, Amy says it's seen the growth

014and success students achieve by the end of the year and afterward. And that says everything because that growth doesn't happen by chance. It happens because of her belief in children and her dedication to their success. Our school is stronger because of her and our students lives are richer because of her work. And I know knowing Amy uh she would want me to mention that she has an incredibly strong teaching assistant team in her in her room with her. Uh Don Doland and and Rita Musa who I know she wouldn't be able to do her work without them. So thank you to them as well. Uh, so please join me in congratulating and thanking Amy Seamansic. [applause] >> [applause] >> I love that. [applause] Can I add something? Um, so I just want to add that

015not only is she an asset to this school, um, Mrs. Smik has been a strong partner with Maris University. um she willingly accepts future teachers into her classroom and is a great role model and every future teacher who works in her classroom comes out in awe and so much stronger. So we thank you for that. Okay, any more pride from anyone? anybody was here for Pride, you're more than welcome to leave at this point or you could stay if you want, but you're more than welcome to leave. Um, and we'll move on to our superintendence report or just I guess give them a minute here to Good job, Liam. All right, now we'll move on to 7.1 Superintendent Report with Dr. Roman. >> Thank you so much, President Zagorski. Um, so first of all, I

016want to say happy new year to everyone. Uh, we're really excited about uh a lot of things that are happening across the district. Um, our teachers are doing some amazing work with their support staff in terms of implementing our uh, HMH program and I'm really excited about the work that's that's happening. Uh, I want to thank Jen uh, Kryser Amy for her leadership as well as all of our principles and and literacy coaches around the work that we're seeing. Uh in terms of uh this flyer that's going to be posted um it's going to be on our website and it's also going to be on our uh district website. We are uh looking to do some community conversations. Uh we have two that are scheduled uh to talk about uh budget. Um we actually have

017one scheduled for the High Park Library and then one at the Statsburg Library. Uh we also have some meetings going on with the Rotary as well as the um High Park Chamber of Commerce. Uh so we're looking to just share information as we start to uh engage in the budget process today. Tonight will be our first uh kickoff meeting. Um so we're going to have this posted on our website so that if community members want to participate, that is a great opportunity for us to engage in conversation. Uh we're also doing snack chats with the staff at each of the schools. That's a great opportunity to have just informal conversation but also um just getting some input on the budget process as well. Um and then lastly uh the student advisory council uh we are

018meeting with uh students across each of the schools and I'm also looking to get their input as well uh in terms of ideas around the budget and our budget priorities. Um lastly um we have different communication that is um being sent out on a weekly monthly basis. Um so this information will also be posted so that uh our community knows um the information that's being sent out and we're going to be you utilizing our Facebook because that seems to be uh one of our top um areas where people get information from. So, um, so just wanted to share that with you, uh, folks. And, um, more to come on that. And, uh, I know that Melissa had something that she wanted to add for her area. >> Yeah. I just wanted to mention that, um,

019the extended day program for students in kindergarten through fifth grade will start February 2nd. And a parent square message went out to all families this week. For those that are interested, we encourage you to sign up. And we're looking forward to having some projectbased learning using our club invention materials, which is similar to camp invention that happens over the summer. It's hands-on, super engaging, and the kids love it. So, we're looking forward to getting that started. >> Okay. Thank you. Moving on to 7.2, our Ralph R. Smith update with uh Principal Darling. >> All right. So, I just want to start by thanking the board for the opportunity again this year to present uh some of the great work that's been going on here at Ralph R. Smith. I want to shout out Mrs. Torres,

020our art teacher, for uh again every year beautifying the cafeteria for your backdrop here on the video. Um I'd like to thank our district leadership team, Dr. Roman and and the whole team for the ongoing support over the course of this year um and always. And lastly, I want to thank our students, families, and fabulous staff. Uh many of whom are are here tonight for the work that they've put in over the last few years, which has resulted in growth uh that I'll share tonight and we're we're very excited about. So, just a quick reminder of the district uh motto, vision, and and mission for us to keep in mind in our daily work. And then similar to the other presentations you've received at North Park and Havland, uh I'm going to keep that format

021consistent for you. So we'll start by talking about uh some of the successes that we'd like to uh share and celebrate which are are a result of some of the prior investments of both time and money that um that have been put in over the last few years. And then we'll talk a little bit about the current work and targets for improvement within Ralph R. Smith. And finally, we'll end with uh the budget recommendations and some of the priority areas that we've identified for moving forward. And just to start off, um I'd like to do a quick student showcase of something a program that we brought in last year uh called meaningful work. You might remember me talking about it a little bit. Um but I'll start with the video and then add a little

022context afterwards. [music] >> [music] >> Hi, my name is Mrs. Taff and I'm the meaningful work coordinator. This is a program that provides leadership [music] opportunities for our fifth grade students around the school building. >> I'm Leelyn and I work with Hayden. So what I do is I go to the hours nest every morning usually at 9:30 [music] and um I help Hayden and sometimes I help my cow, but it's mostly Hayden. And um I love working with her because she's a [music] sweet and generous and kind of little girl. Hi, my name is Tristan Darmmo and I do Owl's Nest with my buddy My Cow. What me and my cow usually do is we have [music] breakfast in the owl's nest together and talk about his days. Uh, I really like this job because

023we it like helps me make more friends and I feel welcome doing it. I am helping with the meaningful work uh program by um hosting two fifth grade photographers. >> We take we take pictures of special events in the classroom [music] and and assemblies. >> We love taking pictures of kids having fun. >> We feel like a leader of our school. >> My job is assistant coach. I like assistant coach be because it's really fun. It it gives me a good workout and and it makes my day whenever I'm down on myself. My job is academic [music] counselor and I help these two little kids. >> My job is library league with Mrs. Web. I help check in and out the books and organize [music] the shelves and decorate. It makes me feel important and

024like I have a purpose in this school. I coordinate [music] the creative crew for our meaningful work program. During creative crew, um we do lots of art projects. I work with Mrs. FA first. We do arts in [music] class and posters. Um we do posters for the hallway school [music] and I like when we do posters because they make the little kids happy. [music] So, huge shout out to Mike Davis who took the time to come to the building before break, interview all the students and staff involved with the program, uh, and took the time, some of which was over break, to put that together for us tonight. Um but essentially meaningful work is a is a program that uh allows students to get a different responsibility and level of independence in the school with

025the goal of building a connection to staff students um the building and and really growing their their belief in themsel. And so we have several different jobs that Mrs. Taff and our and our staff have created over the last year. Some of which are academic coordinators that work with some of the younger students who might need support. Uh some are peer mentors who might just be focused more on social emotional goals. Uh some like they said do photography. Uh some just wanted a role as simple as sharpening pencils in classrooms to get to get students ready for learning. Um so we had a we had a role for anybody that was interested. This year students had to apply digitally, submit an application. Um and there was a whole a whole uh employment process if you

026will. Um I'm not sure if there were background checks, Mrs. But [laughter] um and then as students have been working, Mrs. Taff has been doing evaluations with them. So whoever their supervisor is uh a mentor in the building would fill out an evaluation and then Mrs. Taff as the coordinator will meet with those students, go over that evaluation, ask them how they think they're doing in their in their job, um and work on that to try to build their confidence and expertise in those areas. Um, so I'll talk a little bit about some of the impacts that has had momentarily, but we really feel aside from the from the data points. Uh, students, especially in fifth grade, we've seen just tremendous growth in their connection, their their want to be in school, um, and as

027far as we can tell, their perception of how they feel when they're at school. Uh, so the next slide here is the state test scores for Ralph R. Smith going back to 2018. So you can see on the left is our ELA and on the right is our math proficiency. And just a reminder at elementary it's a one two three four rubric. Uh three and four would be proficient proficient scores um with the one and two coming in below proficient. And so you can see the trajectory for for ELA I'll start with over the last uh several years has been a little bit of up and down which we always tend to expect. It's different groups of students taking the tests every year, uh, which is something we've talked about here over the last few

028years. But last year's state test, the 2025, spring of 2025, we saw tremendous growth, uh, more growth than I've ever seen in an ele in an elementary school building in one year. Uh, we went from 28% proficient in ELA to 43% proficient in ELA. Um, which is really Thank you. [applause] So, it's really a testament to the work that our staff and students and families have put in. Um, as well as some of the initiatives at district office that have helped us get to that point. Um, and then in terms of math, we also saw significant growth. We went from 32% proficient in 2024 to 41% proficient this year. Um, and I was most excited to see that both subjects grew, but also it was the first time we've been over 40% in both subjects,

029um, as far back as I could look. So, we're really excited about that growth. Uh, and we're we're hoping to build on that momentum this year. And one thing that we've talked about, uh, just going back to my point that each year it's a different group of students taking the test. So, if we look at third grade year after year, it's kind of comparing apples to oranges. So, one thing that our staff uh does as well is look at a cohort analysis. So, how how does a group of students do in third grade compared to fourth grade compared to fifth grade. Um, and you might remember I talked a lot about over the last few years our our last year's fifth grade group, which are now sixth grade students. They were in kindergarten for COVID.

030And so, they missed the end of their kindergarten year. They had a disrupted first grade year. Um, and we saw the lasting effects of that. And so this slide indicates that cohort's progression in third, fourth, and fifth grade. So in ELA, they were 25% proficient uh in 2023, and that was their third grade year. In 2024 and fourth grade, they were 23% proficient. And I want to shout out our third and fourth grade teachers because they although it might not be reflected in the proficiency rates there, they spent a tremendous amount of time trying to build those foundational skills because the students could not score proficiently without being able to read at a and the foundational building blocks of reading. And that really allowed for our fifth grade teachers to focus more on the skills

031needed to be successful on that fifth grade exam. Um, which they knocked out of the park clearly. So from fourth to fifth grade that cohort went from 23% proficient to 49% proficient in ELA. And similarly in math they went from 27% proficient to 44% proficient. So a 26% and 17%. [applause] And so um you might know over the last few years we've been identified uh my first year in 2022 we were notified that we would be a TSI school uh which is a targeted support and improvement school um which is not what you want to be. Uh and so that we started working on a plan in 22 23 to put in place for the 2324 school year where we were officially identified as a TSI school. um we implemented that plan. Uh we were

032still identified at that point based on our state test scores going into the 2425 uh school year as a TSI school. Um and while we haven't received official uh an official update on that, based on our projections uh from the information we have received, uh we're projecting to be a school in good standing in all subcategories as of this year. So, [applause] So that's um again just a testament to the work that our staff has has put in over the last several years. Um and one of the aspects that I'll get to is that we truly believe that's that's partly PD and and really solid instruction, but the other piece of it is is again how students are feeling when they're in school. And so I'll talk a little bit about our PBIS initiative momentarily.

033Um, but the last data point I wanted to share was our chronic absenteeism data. And so again, chronic absenteeism is uh quantified as students that have missed 18 days of school over the course of the full school year. So that would be 10% of the of the school year that they've missed. And so going back to to COVID time um 2122 school year we were at 33% because there were a lot of regulations around when students could and could not come to school and how long they needed to be out for. So many students were out for 18 days uh over the course of that year and we've slowly progressed. Um just before a break we were for this school year 2526 we were sitting at 14.8% um which was huge growth. I know um

034and talking I talked to Melissa about this today actually but we know that we have gone up slightly that last week in December before break because the flu's been going around. So we're sitting more like 16% right now. Um but con compared to previous years and last year in December we were around 28%. So again just really positive growth that we're making due to our staff and students there. And um again, I I really think a big portion of the growth that we've seen has come from our PBIS coaches and our staff's um buyin to a PBIS initiative. And so some of the things that we've implemented over the last few years have been monthly assemblies. At those assemblies, we have individual classroom and uh and staff recognition and awards. So each month uh teachers

035are able to uh nominate students for that sore award within their classroom. Students are called up, families are invited to the assemblies to to promote that family engagement. Um and we've also continued with the hootloop cards that we started last year. So far this year, we've we've distributed more than 720 cards. Um which is exceeding my expectations that I set at the beginning of the year. So I'm really really happy to see that. Um and then lastly, we were able to attend a conference earlier this year. Uh a team of six from Ralph went to a conference on PBIS and we got some some valuable information about how we could better use data um specifically from our behavior referrals in Infinite Campus to leverage some more growth. Excuse me. Um, so moving on to to

036this year, we're continuing with the focus areas of literacy, attendance, and PBIS. And so our goals uh for this year are on the screen. Uh we're we're looking to increase from 41% uh proficiency in ELA to 55% proficiency at the end of this year. In in literacy, we're looking to decrease attendance or chronic absenteeism from 22% to 16% uh which we're on track to do at this point. And then for PBIS, we send out a survey um over the course of the year to our third, fourth, and fifth grade students with just some simple questions that we can track over time. Um one of which is students treat me with respect and they can rate that on a scale of 1 to five. Um in the past that average has been 3.49. We're looking to

037increase that to 3.75. Um and some of those some of those questions are really good indicators of how students feel when they're in the building. So, in terms of how we uh would like to do that and and shifting to the budget um priorities because I know we are approaching budget season here. Um some of the things that we've been able to do and that would be a challenge if we got off the list or when we get off the list for uh TSI is that you lose that funding from the state. So, we've already been uh contact with the district office officials, Mrs. Lawson, um Jen Kryser talking about some of the work that we're really proud of that we'd like to continue and trying to figure out how we can incorporate some of

038those funds that um we'll likely be losing from the state to keep some of those initiatives and and opportunities running for our building. Um and so again, I want to thank Mrs. Lawson for for, you know, providing space to have those conversations and plan ahead because we'd like to see a lot of this work continue uh in the future. Um so some examples of that would be PBIS. So uh in our first year we had a PBIS coach role and then moving forward the district has has since um kind of absorbed that stipended position and so that's something that we haven't had to fund out of our TSI funding. Um we also have purchased PBIS materials over the last few years that we plan on continuing and then opportunities for professional development. So this year

039we've uh Jen Kryser spent a lot of time organizing for uh several days of of professional development for teachers to receive information about HMH and into reading new curriculum. And so we'll want to continue those type of supports for people moving into the future. So just a breakdown of our three-year investment plan uh for the building. Similar to what you've seen before, uh you'll see different salaried roles. So administrative staff, instructional staff, teaching assistance and that's inclusive of salary and benefits. There's also a uh an alignment or priority alignment there. So some of the things are regulatory or mandatory. Some of them are for evidence-based improvement strategies and some would be program enhancement. Most of the categories I would say fit more than one of those criteria. Um so just something for you to be

040aware of. And then continuing on to teacher aids, student support staff and security or school monitor. And the the third slide in this iteration, we have clerical office staff, extra pay items. So that would be subs, chaprons, uh overtime pay, things of that nature. We also have textbooks listed there. And then uh our other line items would be student supplies. So that's something I'll talk about a little bit more uh momentarily. Uh general supplies, which would be um just general things that come up in the building, office supplies, things like that. And then our guidance and health office supplies, which come out to $2,425. And lastly, our conference uh mileage and travel budget, our dues and membership, which is really just um subscriptions to things like the Marshall memo, some of those different subscriptions that

041um would help us enhance our our programs and awareness. And then you'll see at the bottom the total investment of around $7 million in the 2026 2027 school year and uh percentage increase uh that I received from from Linda previously for the following two school years. And so just a summary of um my requests if you will for next for next year. Um so basically we're not looking to uh increase any of those line items. Um, at this point, what I what I will share is that I spent a lot of time this December working on our our building budget and really just trying to rep prioritize some of the spending and some of the line items that we haven't utilized as effectively or or as much as we as I may have thought. Um,

042and so really trying to shift and absorb some of those uh funds that we've received through the state to try to be able to buy PBIS materials out of our building budget next year and not have to rely on that state funding for when we get off the list. Um, so the one change that I do want to mention is that school supplies in the past for the district has uh funded that through a grant which is expiring. And so I know the other buildings have mentioned that um that that would be a new investment for for the 2026 2027 school year which for us was $17,000. Um and so you can see that reflected in the total cost as well at the bottom. And so, um, by continuing to do these things, we feel

043that [clears throat] we'll continue to see an increase in academic performance. Um, but I would argue more importantly, we hope to see student needs being met and positive perceptions of school. Um, you know, what we what we're looking for is really that full picture of a portrait of a learner when they when they leave Ralph R. Smith. Um, and finally with the with the new program implementation, just making sure staff uh have the information that they need and the materials that they need to continue to implement that with Fidelity. And moving forward, next steps, we'll continue to use the data for continuous improvement cycle that we have each year, continue to celebrate successes with staff, students, and families. Um, and update cabinet and the board with any changes to these projections. So, I want to

044thank you for your time and I'd be happy to take any questions you might have. >> Not a question, but we have to just say how incredible those scores are. I don't I'm not a big believer in standardized test scores. It's only a snippet, but to see the improvement um in this building is incredible. And it it really um you know looking at at the programs that you've initiated, it addresses uh student value um staff involvement. Um just really really great to see. Congratulations. Um so glad we're off that. It looks like we're going to be off that list. Um, I would just be curious to see what the fifth grade attendance is like versus the other grades because that fifth grade program just listening to those kids how they love coming to school and

045being a part of this program. Um, and then looking at ways that we can replicate that. I mean, other buildings might be doing something similar, but um, that would be something I'd just curious to see how they're doing. >> Great question. And I I meant to mention that, so sorry about that. But we only right now we only have two fifth grade students who are on track to be chronically absent which is uh our lowest percentage in the building. It's less than 10%. So and again I attribute a lot of that to not just the meaningful work but a lot of those opportunities to get involved and connected with the building. >> Yeah that's great. Congratulations. Nice job. >> Maybe I missed it but in a meaningful work how long do the jobs last? >>

046It really depends on the job because we want to balance not pulling them out of their classroom. So Mrs. staff spend a lot of time scheduling around instructional periods. Um so they some students are are participating in that during their own, you know, arrival or lunchtime, something that's not going to impact their academics. Um but most most of the jobs are only 20 to 30 minutes a week. Um some jobs are are more often than that. And we again we want to kind of balance what the students want to do. We want to give them some choice in that. So some students just want, you know, once a week I know I'm going to sharpen the pencils for 20 minutes. >> But everybody gets an opportunity. All fifth grade students get an opportunity to do

047something. >> All fifth grade students that have expressed interest in it. So we have some students that just don't want to be involved with it, and that's perfectly fine, too. Um, but our goal was to have enough opportunities so that every student in fifth grade, if they wanted to, could participate. >> Good. Thank you. I'd like to say that when I entered the board, I remember you took on this job. So, I want to say I think I remember thinking Mr. Darling is very brave to come on to a TSI school. So, it's nice to see the turnaround. And I've never seen anything like that meaningful work program. I think that's exciting. Is that something you came up with or >> No. So, Joanna Murphy um actually during our TSI committee work a few years

048ago, she had mentioned that she attended a PD. It piqued her interest. She shared some resources that we then uh discussed as a as a TSI team and our committee was really interested in pursuing that and learning more about it and everyone's really just jumped on board with it. >> Seems like a nice process. They have to apply for it. They have to go through those steps to to be because I've seen buddy programs, but this is a step further. >> Yeah. Yeah. And Mrs. Taff is a hard coordinator. You don't want to get on her bad side as a as a boss. [laughter] >> Did Did Ryan conduct the interview? Hey, Matthew, I just want to I want to add my congratulations to you and particularly your team. Great job. >> Um, can we

049just for a second look at the state test scores? >> Yeah. >> Um, and like Margaret, I the one before. Yeah. like like Margaret, I you know, I think test scores show one thing and I think we some oftentimes tend to overfocus on them, but just for context sake, can you tell me what the state numbers are for fifth grade this year? >> How close are we to the state? >> This this year they're in the 50s 50. I don't know the exact percentage off the top of my head, but they're uh mid50 average proficiency. So, some years we've been as far as 20 points off of the state average um or more. And you know, so we've really cut that gap. Yeah. I'm not trying to take away from the success. It's you really

050deserve to be very proud. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions, comments? >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] >> I think you could probably leave that up there for the next Yeah, for the next person. Yep. Thanks. Okay, moving on to 7.3, our EPC presentation with Honeywell and Energy. [snorts] >> What's that? >> Good evening. Honey, you're not on. on. There you go. >> Justin from Eneria uh was was sick this evening, so we couldn't make it. Um so I'll provide a brief update on the EPC. Um promised um Dr. Roman and Christina that I would keep it to 10 minutes, but we have a lot of good news to share from when I had presented uh to you at the November meeting. So want to give you a uh a brief

051update of what has transpired since then. Um, want to then give you a quick overview of what that uh total EPC looks like, the base job and then the Ralph R.Smith amendment. Uh, and knowing that I'm presenting here [snorts] tonight, I wanted to take a minute and just uh give an overview of the scope of the capital work that that's going to be done in this building. Um, it's a significant part of the overall project. Ive probably represents almost 40% of the job driven um predominantly by the NAERTA grant that was secured for this building and I do believe and and kudos to Matt for the great results um an improved learning environment which we are going to be part of in terms of um outside air fresh air ventilation improved temperatures and improved lighting

052um does go a long way towards improved learning. there's there's significant studies that support that. So, um hopefully Honey Well and Energy it can be a small a small part of the great uh results to date. And I think I'm Were we missing a slide there? >> What was there? >> There should have been a uh a timeline. >> Yeah, it's it's it's here, but it's not up there. Right. >> Perfect. So, I can speak to it. Um, so before getting into the overview, I wanted to tell you what's transpired since the November meeting. Uh, I gave you a a brief overview of that Ralph R. Smith amendment. Uh, thank you very much for your support and approval at the December meeting, which was December 11th. Following that meeting, then we were able to submit

053to the state department the Ralph R. Smith piece here which entails drawings and specifications um for their review and approval like you do any any ordinary capital project and we went back and forth um heavily over that two-eek period and we secured state department approval on December 29th which was super critical because the pricing that was in that amendment uh which was tied to the NAERTA grant um was all good only through the end of the year because we you know, commitments on equipment that needed to be ordered. So, we were under the gun. But the good news again, we secured SD approval. And then the following day on December 30th, the district had closed on the financing for the EPC. Um, so a lot of work there in the two-eek period. We are in

054the process now of putting together uh a detailed installation schedule, you know, for the work. The work will occur over approximately a 16-month period. I would say the majority of the work though is earmarked for next summer. Um what pulls it out to 16 months is is predominantly um the solar piece. Um you know just dealing with the utility company. It takes a little bit of time to coordinate with them and getting interconnect and and permission to operate approval and all that. Um but the mechanical upgrades that I'm going to speak to specifically here are earmarked for next summer. In terms of the the overall overview, you can see so the base job and the amendment combined represents over $20.6 million of capital work. We talked about it in other previous meetings. There is no

055overlap whatsoever with with any previous bond work that was carefully reviewed. This is to address items that were not previously addressed in in uh in prior bonds. I wanted to highlight now in the next three bullet points the revenues that come in to support this self-funding program. This is not being funded through uh increases in taxes. You've got over $9 million in in grants from the federal government for the solar from Naerta for the work here and from Central Hudson through utility rebates. Huge amount of I like to call it free money but it but it comes with a lot of work. But um in essence it is free money for the district. On top of that then we're driving significant savings off your utility spend over $665,000 a year. Typically cash flows that we

056show districts I show for an 18-year period because that's the state law that an energy performance contract needs to have a simple payback of better than 18 years. The reality is those savings don't go away. The solar systems don't stop generating after 18 years. But just from the standpoint of of the cash flows that have been shared with the district, just think of those savings at least for an 18-year period because then I showed the state building aid that's tied to this project that comes direct to the district that gets paid over a 15-year term, but significant dollars over $750,000 a year. So you can just do some simple math and see that those revenue items coming in and the rebate dollars and grants coming in far exceed the cost of the work. So it's

057a it's truly I think a a wonderful project, you know, for the district and the community. In terms of the energy conservation measures below, we've got a mix of 12 different measures. I'm not going to go through each one. I'm going to highlight the work here specifically, but I did want to show up show you a quick um matrix showing that the work is is quite well spread over the entire district. Some buildings are getting every single measure like lighting for example or or building automation work. Um other mechanical upgrades are specific to say just a few buildings like boiler plant upgrades. That bottom ECM which stands for energy conservation number 12 building electrification that's here that was the NAERTA grant. Electrification meaning we are physically decommissioning. This is an old steam boiler plant. Um,

058oil fired in this building will be decommissioned in its entirety and replaced with a an electric uh heat pump system that will now deliver both heating and cooling to this building. So, think about that cooling in areas that don't exist today. So, that's the other benefit. Not only we upgrading the heating equipment, but by nature of the type of equipment we're using, you know, you're also getting cooling now in these areas. And again, I wanted to highlight specifically the work we're doing in this building which again represented probably almost 40% of the overall work. Again, primarily fueled through that NAERTA grant. We'll look at the you know the five different measures there. We are doing a complete conversion of the lighting in this building to LED. We're installing a digital automation system. So all the

059mechanical equipment will be on a digital system that could be remotely reviewed and controlled and equipment started and stopped appropriately. Equipment not running in the evening or weekends. It says a computer power management system. We're putting in a system districtwide to control the power usage of of any of the district computers that are on your network. There's quite a bit of time when when computers are not being used where we can power down a CPU or power down a monitor and save some energy. >> What are you skipped over building envelope uh improvements? >> Oh, building envelope. >> What is that? >> So, building envelope is really sealing the perimeter of the building. So, think about exterior doors. You've got worn weather stripping. If I were to show you, you've got significant gaps that creates

060both um infiltration of cold air or exfiltration of cool air from the inside. You've got gaps that you can't see from where the wall and roof intersect. So, it's really a complete ceiling of the envelope of the building, which we like to do before we then tackle the mechanical upgrades inside the building. And that's actually um a comprehensive measure across all the buildings districtwide. And then the last bullet point is the one we had talked about in terms of just a complete replacement of the HVAC equipment in this building. And that runs the gamut of unit ventilators in classrooms. And I'll show you pictures. You've got original classroom unit ventilators, some probably 50 plus years old. Um, you've got in many areas um because the building was built obviously a long time ago, you don't

061have proper outside air ventilation. So once we touch this equipment, the state department requires us to bring all these areas up to code, you know. So we're putting in a lot of fresh air ventilation units in the gymnasium, in the cafeteria, in the library, in office areas that don't have fresh air today. They're heated 100% through baseboard radiation, and that's all there is. Um, some of the classrooms have fresh air through those unit ventilators. you see built into the outside wall. But beyond that, many areas have no fresh air ventilation. So, um, again, this is a complete replacement of all that equipment and giving the district now air conditioning in all these areas and proper ventil ventilation up to code. And I just wanted to highlight then some of these are pieces of equipment you

062you probably can't see. They're there are mechanical rooms and some are are uh pieces you can see. But this is the an old airline unit that serves the auditorium in poor shape. This is being replaced again with a new airing unit to bring in proper outside ventilation. Here's your gymnasium. You've got two unit heaters at the top of that ceiling that serves the heating. There is no fresh air being brought into this area. All of that is being upgraded. Here are the old classroom unit ventilators. Yeah, I saw some of the reactions there. If you if you were to take that cover apart, which we certainly did as part of our comprehensive audit, you would see old controls in there. You would see uh, you know, dirty filters. You can only do the staff can

063only do so much with what is there. Parts aren't even available for most of these pieces of equipment. So Greg and his staff is left to try to figure out, you know, how do I band-aid this? And it's um so aside from just the obvious upgrades, there's significant operational savings in terms of just repair dollars that will go down with all new equipment going in. And along the um you know the the floor and uh below the windows, you see the existing baseboard radiation. All that is being replaced. And that's it. So again, we are um so the next step for us is uh is to get with Christina and Greg and and and Stephen staff to review our schedule. We're going to be scheduling that over the next few weeks uh because we do

064want to start with some of these measures um over the next three four months where we can get in like lighting in the evening when the buildings are opened up and um present that schedule for your feedback. Obviously, it's not set in stone. So, if we have to move some things around to work with events and the district's calendar, we will we will do that. That's the purpose of that kickoff meeting. Um, but we're excited to get going. Like I said, the majority of the work will be earmarked for this summer and then we use the next heating season to really commission a lot of that equipment and I think the last few measures will be on the solar front just um coordinating final interconnection with central Hudson. So again, thank you for all your

065support. We're excited to get going. Um I'm looking forward to a wonderful program. >> And and so the state doesn't recognize our drafty doors and windows as our fresh air program. [laughter] >> They did 50 years ago when it was built. Like that was the code like that. Uh or a manual window. They they certainly viewed that as as as means of fresh air. Open the door, pry it open. But um yeah, I think I think that's probably the one measure that's going to that I've seen the greatest impact um after work is done from you know from teachers and students like wow this especially like a gymnasium you think about if it gets a lot of use um just how it kind of senses or feels when you're in there for an event. So,

066>> I think you're going to I think you're going to notice quite a bit of um an improvement. And even lighting, like we we're not allowed through the state to achieve lighting savings by I often get the question, are you just lowering light levels? No, you're not allowed to do that. I mean, in many areas, um because I'm touching lighting again, I'm required to bring it up to code. So, you're going to see a lot of areas that probably appear more well lit because I'm required to big enough to code while I am still driving significant energy savings because the LED fixtures or lamps that I'm using are just um consuming so much less power than what's there. Um yeah, so I often get, you know, teachers or students walking in and saying, "Wow, did

067did we paint this room or did we do something?" And it's just literally from the lighting effect of things getting a little bit brighter and it's um it's kind of a softer light than you know than what you get with a lot of the fluorescent lighting. So, >> okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Moving on to 7.4, our program additions for FDR, Introduction to Accounting and Principles of AI with uh Mr. Wart. Good evening everybody. So um FDR High School, we're always looking at ways to offer more in the terms of electives. We don't want kids in study halls. We want them engaged in doing something purposeful and interesting. The teachers, um Michael Gonzalez, a new hire last year, he's a new business teacher for us. He presented this course, Introduction

068to Accounting. um the course offerings in the business department right now. If you remember Maggie Shim Shimlfinig, she was our sole business teacher for about a decade. Prior to that in 2001 when I started, we had four business teachers. So what happened over the ensuing years is we slowly chipped away at what was available. Accounting was offered over a decade ago. Um we are now it's career and financial management which is a very popular course, business law, intro to business, uh and there's multiple sections of those. One person did that for about a decade. Now with Michael coming in, Lisa Vanata, who was hired three years ago, the other business teacher, we can actually bring back some really important things. In my mind, um, in Michael's mind when we talked about it, this is one

069of the key legs of business accounting. Where is the money coming from? Where is it going? So, we'd like to bring this course back. Um, it would complement what we offer already. I know the board is concerned about financial literacy, as is the state. this would certainly address that issue. Um, and it does support our CTE business management and finance pathways. So, it it fills some needs. Budget implications, we don't need to add any staff. There is a textbook that if we approve the course, I would bring that recommendation forward the next time. I put the information up there for you. Um, we're looking at about 20 25 students a section. We can go as high as 30, but we'd probably look at 2025 based on enrollments in current electives. uh so at 110 bucks

070a copy that includes a digital piece as well that we'd vet and then a consumable uh workbook that the students would use as well that would come out of supply money. So you can see the budget implications there um and the impacts upon learning again as we talked about this is um a key piece of the business curriculum and a good skill for students to acquire. So I don't know if if we want to pause on that course there any questions about the intro to accounting? Um just a question of um sorry um you said 25 to 30 in a section. Um I I could see this being a course that more than one section it might fail. How how many could you um service before we we would have to look at staffing changes?

071>> Right. Um so this is the time of year we're coming up into it. Um, end of January, teachers will have made their course recommendations for current students for next year. And then through March, the guidance counselors will be scheduling students. At the end of March, um, I think it's March 27th, but it jumps to my we just had a meeting about this today. Um, Marge Gibson Amara will run the reports for us and say, "We have this much interest in these courses and it should be these number of sections." Um, in my department, I sit with the teachers. We go through those numbers and we say, "Okay, we've only got five kids who want to do this course. We're going to cut that course so we can add a section of this course over

072here." So, it varies every year. What we try to do is fill where the interest is with the kids. So, I can't give you a really good definitive answer. I think my own sus uh suspicion is that for a first year course and kids aren't sure what it is, we'd be one section. Yeah. And then build over time. Current financial management is a really good course. Um I that's really where we've had our most number of sections in business courses. Okay. Taking the computer science piece out of it because that's David. So okay. So thank you Rick. I love this idea. You know I have an accounting degree and it all started at John J High School where I took accounting, I took business law, I took marketing. So this is great. This is just

073what the state is asking for. What software will they be using? You know, when I was back in high school, back in the stone age, we had little pieces of paper and we'd have to do it all paper based and journals, paper based, >> you know, is there something that comes with the textbook? Is it QuickBooks? What's the software? So, my understanding in talking with Michael a little bit is the online component that this textbook has is a piece of that. Largely, he would default to Excel just teaching spreadsheets. So, I'm not sure if there'll be anything else to look at. We haven't talked about adopting any new software. So, I think his focus is the textbook, the workbook, and the online piece as well as Excel, >> right? It'll give them a good start.

074And then, could students potentially get math credit? I know this is a business class, but could they get a math credit if needed? >> We haven't talked about that. We do have some tech courses at Bridge. So, you know, um, design and drawing for production qualifies for an art credit. And um one of the uh PLTW courses I want to say it's IED introduction to engineering design also qualifies for there's one David's back there going uh but there's one that qualifies for math credit but off the top of my head I can't tell you what that is but yes that is possible. I'm not sure what the process is. I've never been involved in creating a course that would work for dual credit. My assumption is Kim Nisel and I would sit down and talk

075about it. Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna move on to a fun one. Principles of artificial intelligence. Um, David Shakowski, who's in the back row over there, uh, came up to me with this idea. PLTW is offering this as a new course. We are a PLTW school district. We have the program at the middle school with Gata Bayumi. Um, and then at the high school, we have a number of different courses. Um, introduction to engineering design, I noted. um principles of engineering. We have the cyber security course which you approved last year graciously. Computer science A and B which David has worked and remodeled a bit. Train your pet robot is an even one of them. Um so we we're a pretty good PLTW school. The interest goes up and down in some of these things. Um

076so we're working out the program. I think this one in particular because it is such a hot topic right now with artificial intelligence would be of significant interest to our students. Um and we have some really good basic computer science courses. This would allow kids to go to that next level. So you can see there uh broad areas are studied machine learning training models impacts of AI, AI innovations. It would expose kids to professionals and concepts. Um David has done a lot of work in the area of artificial intelligence and generative AI. He's actually done a couple lectures around the area in the tri-state area. So um he's a great leader for this. Um we're fortunate to have him on the staff and really this course under his toutelage would be pretty amazing. There is

077a cost PLTW courses we have to train every teacher in order for for them to be qualified to teach the course. So we've done this numerous times with different courses. We would send David off to a summer institute 40 hours of work. Um, we pay him his daily rate uh while he's there plus the PLTW course fee of $1,200. Um, so it's it's worthwhile training. It's intense. They don't go and go, you know, off the golf course. It is an intense training experience. Um, and I know we gave you the course outline and guide books that came right from PLTW. You can see more. You you have questions about that, we can talk about that. But um if you've been fortunate to visit David's classes, it's definitely a coaching model where kids are engaged in

078the work. It's hands-on experience. It's individual. It's group. Um I'm excited about this. I'd like to take the course [laughter] because um yeah, right? because our instructional technology committee just met yesterday and we're talk our focus this year is how do we bring generative artificial intelligence into this district in a practical systematic way? This course just ties in beautifully to it. So any questions about the principles of artificial intelligence course? >> So as you mentioned we were just talking about this yourself I and Katie and the tech committee. So I think this is great. Um, uh, is this again, what type of course is this? Is this considered, you know, a math course, a special studies course? What kind of course would this be in? >> Technology course. >> It's a technology course. >> Yeah,

079we haven't looked at any dual credit for this. So, this would earn students a half credit in the technology elective sequences. >> Yeah. It's interesting because I'm teaching a graduate course in AI with Sunni this summer and it's more of an ethical course. So, they considered it more of a, you know, even almost like a philosophy course. So, but they're going to be using the tools which is great. So seeing this at a high school level is a is a great thing. I think it'll be a great experience for our students. >> Thank you. Other questions or thoughts? Okay. Thank you. I'm in the back row if you need me. >> Thanks, Rick. All right. Moving on to 7.5 zerobased budget. Dr. Roman and Miss Five minutes. Five minutes. Good evening, board trustees. We're really

080excited to get started and kick off our budget development process. Uh this evening is our first of many meetings. Um our theme this year um is and uh continues to be the strategic investments nurturing 21st century skills for all students. That's because we really want to make sure that we're preparing our students for the world that they're going to be encountering which is ever changing. And so our philosophy continues to be we are one uh one mission, one vision, one team and one dream. And we anchor everything toward our mission and vision here, which is our north star. And what we really want to do is we really want to continue to create innovative learning environments for all students and empowering all students to be successful members of the everchanging society that they are going

081to be encountering. In terms of our budget drivers, this is really what we're aiming to accomplish with the budget that we're going to be presenting to you folks for re as a recommendation. We really are focusing on preserving our programs and services uh for our students. As you saw this evening through the Ralph R presentation, there are many programs and initiatives that we're engaging in that we are seeing positive impact and that's across all schools. We're seeing great momentum taking place. So we want to preserve those programs in terms of ensuring financial uh sustainability. We want to make sure that once we implement these programs that we can continue to offer these programs and services to our students uh because again we are seeing the impact of these programs improving efficiency and effectiveness. The zerobased

082budget approach is just that we want to make sure that we are streamlining processes. We're evaluating every line that we come across to determine whether or not that's an an investment that we want to continue to pour into. Um we're looking at ways to streamline work processes. Are there ways that we can reduce costs in other areas. So that is all the work that our team is doing um as we're engaging in this process. So when we provide you with the list of recommendations for next year, these are the things that we're keeping in the back of our our mind and this is what's anchoring our discussions. And then lastly and most importantly uh is balancing the needs of the district while making sure that we are mindful of the impact on our taxpayers. So

083the zerobased budget approach it really is again just looking at every line um in our budgets across schools across departments. We are charging our administrators to analyze and start to justify the investments that we have made and continue to want to make in order for us to make sure we're providing you with a a sound budget. a budget that we know is going to continue to support our students and help them thrive. It's not simply just rolling funds over from one year to the next. It really is being very strategic and measured and looking at every dollar that we're investing to make sure that we're getting maximum results. In terms of budget investment alignment, as you saw in some of the presentations, they're aligned not only to priorities, but we're also going to be aligning

084those to whether or not they align with um our our district priorities in terms of um our goals towards uh literacy, our goals towards attendance. So we are going to continue to use the the matrix that we've used before in terms of whether or not a new request comes in and does it align with the the things that we said are important to us and that we're seeing uh progress being made towards. So um for any new requests or investments justification and we really want to focus on reallocation measures, right? So simply just because you had $10 last year doesn't mean that you're going to have $10 the following year and we also want X Y and Z. Well, that $10 that you had, could you reallocate some of those funds to start doing something

085new that you want to recommend and move forward? So we really want folks to reallocate um measure uh funds as uh to the best of their ability as we engage in the work and then also grounding it in research and data. That's really important. This next slide is really going to address some of the budget considerations that we're looking at, some of the known, but also some of the unknowns uh because there's still a lot of information that needs to be uh rolled out and unpacked. Pass it over to Christina. >> Thank you, Dr. Roman. Um these are significant budget considerations. So, with all of the things that the district is trying to maintain and keep in mind, there are going to be significant challenges over this budget season. Um, we anticipate that the CPI,

086which is part of the tax levy limit calculation, it's going to be 3% which means that excuse me, for the purposes of the calculation, it's going to be capped at 2%. As you know, there are eight steps to that formula. The CPI is just one of them, but that's going to be kept at 2%. Um, we've heard from the Council of School Superintendants in very preliminary terms that based on current law, there is no provision guaranteed for an increase in foundation aid. So that means foundation aid is going to be flat. It's important that we're not losing anything. So I'll take flat. Um the other factors haven't been considered yet. When the governor puts out their budget at the end of the month, we'll know more about that. Um, we've heard the retirement rates for

087the teachers retirement system is actually going to go down. In terms of the current budget and some of the projected salaries, that will actually be at savings of about $250,000. However, the employees retirement system rate is expected to increase from 16.5 to 17.6. Again, in terms of the high park dollars, that's an increase of almost $650,000. Um, Boseies will provide us with their service request in March. So there's still a lot of factors to be considered in the budget process, but we have heard that the health insurance rates are presently being estimated at 16%. Last month when we heard about it, it started at 13%. But there was a meeting in December where Boseies adjusted that to 16%. In terms of high park dollars, that increase amounts to a $3.7 million increase. So those are

088>> what's the percentage this year? >> Percentage. Sorry about that. I'll have to get back to you on that. >> Ryan, do you happen to Thank you. Ryan was actually at the meeting. >> Yeah, sure. So um our insurance con our Duchess County consortium um had met and uh one of the things is that this isn't like last year it was a certain per a certain percent and this year it goes to a different percent. This is a 16% increase. >> Um and that increase is mainly driven by the fact that prescription drug costs over the past couple of years have skyrocketed. So much so that our insur our our ins insurance and help if I can talk consortium um over the past couple of years has been um putting more out in claims than

089they have been taking in in revenues um for premiums. And so the uh projected rate of uh an increase in the premium to the district and to employees is estimated to go up 16%. Thank you. And there's another meeting next week. So we'll have like there will be more information to come. I know when boat seas does this they try to estimate conservatively to take into account everything. So that percentage may be tweaked a little bit but to the best of our knowledge we have to work with the information we have at 16%. Um, so ready to move on, >> if I may. >> Yeah, of course. >> Um, I just it something's baffling me a bit because the last two years DHICK has had a premium holiday in December where one of the 12

090monthly premiums wasn't paid. Yep. They're shelling out money and not collecting premiums. So I don't >> So there actually was no holiday this year. >> 25 correct >> this current year. >> Okay. So it was 24 and 23. Correct. They had it. >> Yes. So um that was a surprise. Districts >> my surprise two years ago. [laughter] >> Well, districts were anticipating the premium holiday and there wasn't one this year. It's not anticipated for this year, which kind of speaks to the condition of the fund. Ryan, did you want to add something? >> Yes. So in terms of um spending more money than the consortium is taking in um unfortunately the consortium was not prepared um for some of the um health or the the mergers of our hospitals and our um various doctor's groups

091for example you know Optum and Northwell and and all of those and so um in the process of merging with various companies, it changes the rate paid back to medical providers. And so a lot of the mergers in the Hudson Valley area um have resulted in um a higher amount being paid to medical providers than they were prior to mergers. And so they've had to go back and adjust prior years um to match the the rate that was agreed upon to the company that they merged with. >> Okay. And I guess and also with the retired teachers, they're what I'm on. Can you hear me? >> No. I'm sorry. >> Yeah. I'm just I and I guess the difference in the the percentage increase also I would assume that more of the retired teachers are

092on the PO system instead of the >> alter the alternate which has a lower premium and higher out of pocket. >> Part of the challenge of these budget considerations are these are things that are outside of the district's control. >> Yeah. Oh yeah, absolutely. >> That's been the biggest challenge. We have to balance the things that we want to preserve in the budget based on the things that are at park. >> Yeah, I I get that. My biggest question just why these these holidays if their direction isn't going well? >> Ju just to add a little bit more doom and gloom. Um so so there's also the uh still on the table in terms of uh the 37 billion that the federal um government was going to slash in terms of title title funds that's

093still on the table uh for title one. It's also looking to they're also looking to eliminate title two which is for teacher development. Um and then also title three which is uh language acquisition for English language learners. So um right now that's still on the table. So those are things that we're paying close attention to because we're we're talking some some big figures. Um and if we want to preserve uh programming for our students to continue to thrive, we have to make some really difficult decisions um as a team. >> Thank you. Next steps in our budget process will be a series of budget presentations at all of our future meetings. Um we'll be reviewing the tax cap calculation towards the end of February. As I mentioned, we'll have the rates for the health insurance

094finalized in March. So, there's still a lot of the budget process to go, but we'll be doing budget updates at our next meeting, January 22nd, February 12th, February 26th. They're all listed here, so I don't won't go through them, but just a reminder to everyone that the vote will be on May 19th, 2026 this year. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, moving on to 8.1. Can I get a motion to open public part participation? >> So moved, Margaret. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carried. We're now in public participation. Um, if you'd like to uh uh approach the podium, please provide your name and address when you reach the podium. A total of three minutes per speaker for a total of 21 minutes will be allotted. Would anyone like

095to address the board? Okay, at this time we'll close public participation. Uh moving on to 9.1 uh board subcommittee reports and professional development updates. Any committees meet? the policy committee has meet has met. Um on under consent agenda there is second consideration and under new business there is first consideration of some policies. If you look at the attachments for that you can see that there are no substantive changes. They're all sort of wording kind of things. >> Okay. The technology committee met and talked about approaching the policy committee and adding the AI policies to the um three sections of the code of conduct. Instead of coming up with a whole new section, perhaps they'd add it to the academic integrity section, the student responsibility section, and the acceptable use policy section of the code of

096conduct. They also talked about teachers using AI and having a copyright checklist for teachers using AI because there's a difference between contracted AI for the district and uh things like chat GPT are not contracted by the district. So there's a copyright issues there. And then Rick presented about the new class and I think he's entering he's joining the PD committee and um wants to do a PD on generative AI. >> Okay. Any other committees? >> Uh the Duchess County School Board uh actually meets tonight. So I came to this meeting instead. We're going to try to coordinate for next year because we found we have three instances where the meetings occur on the same evening. So, so we're going to work and we're going to try to fix that for next year. >> Aren't most

097school boards on like a Thursday like with us? >> No, >> it's because of the holiday schedule >> this year because they always meet on the first Tuesday. And the reason they meet on the first Tuesday is because none of the other districts >> meet on the first Tuesday, Thursday, I mean. >> So, that's why it was set up that way. It's been set that way since 2019. >> You guys couldn't meet on New Year's Day. [laughter] >> They're going over negotiations tonight. I will share what was >> okay. Any other committees or professional development updates? All right. Moving on to 9.2, our board discussion, including consent agenda items. I I had uh something I wanted to bring up about the uh the electric bus that we have. Um, and I don't know you guys

098on the bus committee if you're aware, but it's been out of service for over four months, right? So, and this is like I think the second time it's been in the shop since we've um gotten it. Um, and so it's out for four months. I don't know if there's an end in sight. I don't know if we get a loaner, which I don't think they give us an electric bus loaner, so we can still test the waters with an electric bus. So, I don't know if you've able to to find out more on that. >> Yeah. So, um I did have a chance to speak to Nicole Artetta, our director of transportation, and it sounds as though there's some issues with the manufacturer warranty. Um so, everything has to be regulated by the war the

099the manufacturer. So, there's they're waiting right now. There's a waiting period. We do have um Christina, myself, Nicole have a meeting with Jose um from uh Leonard Bus. Um so we're going to be meeting with them to find out, you know, what's going on. We need to have a timeline and um you know, what are some things that we can do to mitigate this from happening again. Um so I I'll definitely give the board an update once we have that meeting uh in the next week or so. And I don't know if it applies to a school bus, but like does the London law ever come into effect? That's a good question. >> I mean, you know, because if if I bought a car and it was in the shop this much in in a

100year's time, I would be looking at that avenue for sure. >> I talked to Brian a couple of weeks ago and they uh it's apparently it's something with the the main software >> and that's fine, but it's got to be fixed, right? I mean, everything mechanical has a problem or electronic is going to have a problem, but >> it's got to be fixed in a reasonable amount of time. I mean, this is only one data point, but if we had a fleet of these things and, >> you know, buses were out for four months, we wouldn't be able to bring kids to school. >> So, I think it's something we really got to kind of find out from the bus company. if if if a maybe they're not the right bus company, you know, so

101um if they can't get us back something in four months, >> that seems ridiculous. But okay, thank you for looking at that. >> Any other board discussion? >> I would just agree with Mike. I mean, maybe there is something in the lemon law. I know they're yellow, but uh seriously though, if something is defective to this extent, we should really investigate that. So, that would be, you know, a good idea. I'm sure they're not I'm sure it's exempt from like school districts and entities like us probably, >> but it's worth looking [laughter] into. So, >> okay, moving on to 10.1. Um, can I get a motion to adopt tonight's consent agenda? >> Second, Carl. >> All those in favor? >> I I opposed. >> Motion carried. Yep. So at this time I want to congratulate

102a number of folks that are in the audience. Uh first and foremost um we call him Mr. G. Um we want to just congratulate you for earning tenure. Congratulations. Way to go. Welld deserved. [applause] And I also want to welcome um our new assistant superintendent for finance and operations Tanya Mro Malrad. Congratulations. [applause] And we want to officially uh congratulate Jesse Lair for the probationary position as principal of Violet Elementary School. Congratulations, Jesse. [applause] Okay, thanks for that. Uh moving on to new business 11.1 policy. We we haven't voted on the consent agenda. >> Yeah, we did. >> We got a motion and we got a seconded. I didn't think we had a vote. Did we have a vote? >> Yeah. Did I Okay. Okay. Never mind. >> There's no discussion, but he said this

103after the vote since there's no discussion. >> All right. Uh pardon that interruption. Moving on to 11.1. New business policy first. Uh policy first consideration of policies. So move >> second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carried. 11.2 capital project change order for phase 3A or 3 $35.7 million um project and there's a change order from Ferrari and Suns Incorporated. >> So move Tibbitz. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carried. >> 11.3. Uh, can I get a motion for our first consideration for course edition intro to accounting? >> So moved. Katie >> seconded. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. 11. 11.4. for our first consideration for course edition principles of AI. >> So moved Christine >> second Katie.

104>> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carried. Can I get a motion to enter our second public participation? >> Second. Christine. >> All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. We are now in our second public participation. Would anyone like to address the board? All right. At this time, we'll close public participation. Uh any other matters deemed necessary by the board. All righty. And I don't think we need a second executive. We do. [laughter] >> Make him stay for that. All right. At that this time, I'd like to get a motion to agend adjourn tonight's meeting. >> So move that. >> Second, Katie. >> All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned.