001Good evening. At this time, I would like to call the October 23rd, 2025 High Park Central School District Board of Education meeting to order. May I have a motion to go into executive session for the purpose of discussing promotion discipline of a particular person or persons? >> Moved second. Proceed. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. We are in executive session. >> Yeah. Hello. Hello. We'll wait few minutes. A small token from our cabinet and board. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> That's enough. >> You're going to be the envy of the school. That way, >> we're on Halloween. >> I am sorry. Switch up. You're on my left now. I know it. So I'm not looking away from you at my stiff neck. open session. And if we
002could please rise for the pledge of allegiance. [Music] Pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> You have any uh nifications? Right. >> Right. Um can I get a motion to adopt tonight's agenda? >> So moved, Margaret. >> Second. Tibbitz. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? Opposed? Motion carried. Uh 5.1 upcoming events. Tuesday, November 4th, no school superintendence conference day, all schools. Uh Friday, November 7th, FDR fall drama. And that will be at FDR at 7 p.m. >> Headless Horseman. >> And that's the Headless Horseman is the is the >> Okay. Uh, Saturday, November 8th, um, is the fall drama matinea and that's at 2 p.m. at FDR. Tuesday, November
00311th is Veterans Day, so all schools will be off. And then Thursday, November 13th is the uh, next board of education meeting and that is this correct? North Park. Yes. >> So, it'll be at North Park um, at 7. Any other uh, upcoming events? All right, moving on to Pride. >> I would like to acknowledge that they were able to provide the PSAT examination to 263 students on Wednesday, October 15th. This included all those in the junior class that were encouraged to take it along with the sophomores that signed up and the freshman class. They were able to run the examination while the rest of the building operated under a normal bell schedule. Havland is continuing their support for students to stand up to bullying as part of October's bully prevention month. This week, students
004and staff signed a pledge to be an upstander and stand up to bullying during lunchtime. They would also like to thank all of the families who attended their PBIS sponsored outdoor movie night this past Friday, as well as those who supported their Maris team Applebee's pancake breakfast this past Sunday. These were wonderful events and a good time was had by all. North Park held their family literacy night Tuesday, allowing students to be able to take gently loved books home at any point. Uh the positivity pumpkin path is their front and was an opportunity created by their teachers in second grade to provide a way for the second graders to make a difference in their own school community by greeting students, staff, and visitors with positive thoughts. Second graders inspire everyone to have a great day.
005Their second graders are very proud of their work and the difference they made in their school community. At Ralph R. The first the first grade classes took a field trip to Trevor Zoo in Milbrook last week. Their kindergarteners are also taking a trip this week to Dub Farm in Highland. and their PTA has been hard at work organizing their annual trunk or treat event for this Friday at 6 PM. At Violet Avenue, the second grade team is participating in the adopt a cow program. This week, they received information about their calf. Her name is Ivy from the farm in central New York. They get to learn all about the dairy farm, track Ivy's growth, and receive updates via videos and pictures throughout the school year. This connects with their current reading module, Exploring the World,
006as well as social studies and learning about different communities. Fourth grade classes visited the New York State Museum in Albany last Friday to learn more about the people of the Long House. While there, students attended a program that taught them about the Native American tribes of New York State, explored a partial long house, and toward the museum exhibits. Mrs. Ellis's ENL's students have been learning about fall. They have been talking about fall activities, reading poetry, and books about fall, and this week they completed a scavenger hunt around the school looking for objects that the students have learned about. After the scavenger hunt, students worked on a writing project about what they had seen, heard, touched, and smelled. Lastly, Netherwood participated in a fire prevention and safety day where they partnered with the Pleasant Valley Fire
007Department and the Duchess County Sheriff's Office to teach students about their community helpers and their jobs. Students were able to learn about overall fire safety and ATV safety. They learned about different types of tools and equipment that fire and police use. Two huge hit with their students were the unmanned aerial systems unit where students were able to see how a drone supports the police when searching for missing or lost people and bear the dog who can identify and find electronics as well as other emotional as well as offer emotional support to victims who have experienced traumatic events. They also held their first family engagement event math night. Through their partnership with Maris, their students were able to participate in math related games and activities created by Meris students. students were able to leave with math
008activities and resources that could be used at home. They had a great time and they are thankful for their connections with me. That was it. Thank you. >> Yes, I have a couple of items. So, first and foremost, I want to congratulate FDR turning that pink out. Just want to dubtail off of what was just shared. They exceeded their fundraising target uh in support of Miles of Hope. Uh for those of you that don't know what Mazipul is about, it's a organization to support services for people that are affected uh with breast cancer. In addition to that, they also provide scholarships to students whose lives have been uh affected by breast cancer. Uh and they also provide peer-to-peer uh programming for for patients um and trained survivors. Um in addition uh we are also highlighting
009the FDR uh fine and performing arts uh program. Uh as was mentioned earlier uh this fall we have our fall play as the legend of Sleeping Hollow. Uh so we encourage everyone to come out and support our students uh with their amazing talents and and uh we have two shows. One on Friday, November 7th at 7:00 p.m. at FDR. Uh this will also give our community the opportunity to see the renovations uh at FDR. So uh we welcome all. And then the second is on Saturday, November 8th at 2 p.m. Tickets are $5. At this moment, um I do want to uh recognize uh one of our uh staff members. Um I'll give you some some statistics. I'll start off with some statistics. Uh the first annual back to school barbecue we have over 500
010people. 45 free haircuts were given. On our first Saturday academy this year we had over 130 people attend. Uh our first evening event this year 123 people in attendance. Since the opening of the family resource center uh we've had 91 families access uh some of the resources that we we offer. Uh that's from September 4th through October 17th. Uh in terms of visitors, we've had over over 300 uh 40 individuals visiting the family resource center, 37 food deliveries, about 14 uh community partners. Um and we are absolutely thrilled to be recognizing um our first anniversary of the family resource center. Um we have seen some amazing work happen uh there so far uh thanks to uh the support of the board of education, thanks to our administrators, thanks to our cabinet, our leaison, our family
011uh community school lison, our steering committee volunteers, community partners. But there's one individual that really stands out and has really helped us uh move as quickly as we have and that's uh Melissa Rosario. Um so if you could please join me in recognizing uh Melissa who's with us here today. Melissa's tireless work has brought our community uh school to life. From the foundational family workshops and the vital food pantry to engaging Saturdaymies and the joyous back to school uh events that we've had, it really has led to strengthening the fabric of our community. her school, excuse me, her skill in cultivating connections amongst our community partners has created a powerful network of support, ensuring that resources are accessible and impactful. Uh so Melissa, uh thank you for being the heart and soul of the community
012schools. Your leadership has built a place where everyone feels supported, valued, and empowered. And we look forward to many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many more years of working together to help our students and families succeed. [Music] Yeah. Yeah, we can switch it over. >> Uh, good evening everyone. Um, I'm so happy to tell you about uh Donna who is receiving a portrait of an employee award. Uh, Donna's here with her husband and son. Um, Donna, would you like to do you want to >> So, I'm very happy to uh tell you about Donna. Um, Donna is our business office secretary and also the tax collector for those of you that don't know. Uh, she is being recognized today because she's gone above and beyond um the expectations of her role uh providing
013service that truly embodies the best of our organization. Uh, when the HR department needed support, Donna stepped up. Uh she demonstrated the true true spirit of a responsible citizen by managing the complex health insurance open enrollment process uh even though it fell outside of her business office duties. Her willingness to unlearn and relearn complex administrative processes is a hallmark of a confident learner. Uh furthermore, her subsequent work helping retirees transition to the new uh thirdparty uh billing administrator for health insurance is a task that she's still doing four months later. Um just shows uh that her there's no one uh like Donna. She's so committed to making sure that the work gets done and that the retirees get the service that they uh deserve. So she truly is an exemplary uh employee and also an
014effective communicator. So her uh dedication uh to fairness and accuracy is also something we should talk about. During the transition, Donna noticed that there were over 200 I don't know if that's the right number, over 200 retirees that had been overbuild by our previous administrator and she is currently working with each and every single one of them to make sure that they know what they have to do to fill out the forms to get a refund. Sorry. Every day, every day, Donna's on the phone explaining to people that yes, you are owed this money. It's not a mistake. Uh you are deserving to get this refund and she helps them through the whole process. Um I would like to say too that um Donna was nominated for this award by Mr. Judge because he recognized
015um all the work that she did with benefits. But I also want to point out that uh long before uh the work that she's doing this year, Donna has been invaluable in the business office. Uh during the pandemic, there were some times that it was just me and Donna. We had a lot of uh turnover in the business office and Donna learned how to do payroll, how to post uh staff attendance, how to pay bills, uh how to uh open bids and help with purchasing. So uh if it wasn't for Donna, we probably wouldn't have made it through the pandemic. No, I don't think so. So, I just hope everyone uh joins me in congratulating her on the So, there's one other thing I meant to uh mention and I forgot. Donna is also our
016tax collector and a few weeks ago she received a thank you card with a $4,000 check and we joked around that um it's probably the first time in history that a taxpayer thanked the tax collector for allowing them to pay their tax. >> Thank you so much for more pride from anyone. >> I last night was um FDR's Halloween pops concert. It's first concert of the year. Uh FDR High School. It's really cool showcase of just how many very talented musicians reside within the school district and the great teachers and music department in general. >> Anything else? >> All right, superintendent report. >> I have a couple of updates. Um first this week uh we are celebrating school bus safety week and this is an opportunity for the community and for the school district to
017come together to uh ensure that we're communicating and building awareness around the importance of school bus safety. Just want to thank our transportation department from uh the office staff to our drivers to our monitors to the administrative team. uh they're the first ones to welcome our students in the morning, making sure that they are transported uh safely to our schools and then back home. Uh just want to remind everyone just to please make sure that you're being cognizant of the red lights. Red lights mean stop. So please make sure in both directions when you see those flashing red lights or that that signal, please make sure that you're abiding by it. And to our students, please continue to work with your bus drivers, especially when you're exiting the bus. Make sure that you are listening
018to all the instructions that are being given and trying to stay at least 10 to 15 10 to excuse me, 8 to 10 feet away from the bus when you're crossing. Um, also want to recognize um that uh we do have on our website um a new um report that we're sharing with our school community. Um I want to thank Linda uh and also Gregory as well as our communication specialist uh Gabrielle. Um we have a capital project and district improvement updates report. So that highlights all the work that's happening across the district. Uh want to thank um our sixth graders that were highlighted earlier uh at Applebee. So I had the opportunity to enjoy a nice yummy breakfast there. And I got to say the customer service was outstanding. Uh they did a great
019job. Uh they were serving, they were running all the operations in the front and also in the back. So, it was great to see them uh doing that that great work there. So, kudos to our HMS, the staff there, administration, and our students. Um, and then lastly, uh we're going to be recognizing Mr. Michael Ruela and Mrs. Joanna Murphy uh next week. uh they're being recognized by the MIT Hudson School Study Council uh for their outstanding leadership um as a building principal as well as a director of uh special education. So uh want to congratulate them, looking forward to celebrating them for their strong advocacy for all students. That concludes my items. >> Okay. All right. That moves us to 7.2. for our volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers partial tax exe exemption from Linda. >>
020Good evening everyone. So uh tonight's presentation is uh not that long at all. It's really just to provide some information to the board about the volunteer fire and ambulance workers uh tax exemption. If the board is interested in moving forward with this, we would then have to schedule a hearing um in which a public hearing so that members of the public could come and just express uh either their concern or their desire for the exemption and then there would also have to be a resolution on an agenda for the board to approve. So, uh, the volunteer firefighter and ambulance worker partial tax exemption, uh, could provide up to a 10% tax exemption for, uh, the taxable assessed value for volunteer firefighters and or ambulance workers. Uh, the board uh would have to decide uh what
021level of exemption up to 10% that they would like to provide. It could be anywhere from 0 to 10%. Um, in order for an a taxpayer to qualify for the volunteer firefighter envance worker tax exemption, uh, their property must be, uh, used exclusively for residential purposes and that must be their primary residence. And then also the school district would have to determine the service requirement in order to receive the tax exemption. Um, it could be anywhere between two and five years of service to qualify. Um the information listed here are just some considerations uh for the board. You would have to if the board wanted to move forward, you would have to make a decision about each of these items. Um you could uh offer the uh property tax exemption to be permanent. Meaning, if
022you chose a 10% exemption, it could be permanent at 10% um after someone has 20 years of service as long as they uh continue to reside in the uh the residence that first qualified them for the exemption. Um if uh the board could also choose to extend the exemption to the surviving unmarried spouse of a deceased volunteer if the volunteer had served at least 20 years. And also the board could choose to uh provide a tax exemption for an unmarried spouse of a volunteer that uh passes away in the line of duty >> on the uh the the 20 years. >> Yeah. >> Is that from if we were to this day forward or does it's not like who has 20 years like as of the implementation of of it? >> I believe it it
023could be um anyone that has 20 years service now. I would I would definitely get that information before a hearing so that we would have um like a we would know for sure. It wouldn't be 20 years after now. If someone currently has 20 years of service and the board chooses to provide the tax exemption for the lifetime, um it could be done at this time. >> Great. >> But like I said, I would I would verify that with our attorneys. >> Okay. Um, also it's important to know that the uh tax exemption would not affect the district's ability ability to levy or collect property taxes. Um, the amount of taxes that the uh district would receive would be the same amount is in the levy. So, for example, if we had a $70 million
024tax levy and the value of the uh the exemption that was provided was 500,000, the school district is still going to receive 70 million. The difference would have to be covered by the other taxpayers that don't qualify for the exemption. And finally, um I did uh work with one of a firefighter from the Roosevelt Fire District. He uh worked with all of the fire departments in our school district to determine how many people uh were qualified for the exemption. Uh his assumptions were if they had at least two years of service and that the board would grant a 10% exemption. So if you can see um I know this chart is small but at the top uh the top chart it shows there's 80 individuals that would be affected um overall their savings if they
025had a 10% exemption would be $47,435 and at the bottom he shows that it's less than uh it's 069% of the total levy would be exempted and then I also calculated here what it would cost for the other taxpayers in the district. Um the top part of the chart shows uh what the taxes uh would be with with no exemption. So how it is now. The second uh part of the chart shows what it would be if there was a 10% exemption for all of the qualified volunteers. And the last part of this chart shows the difference. So the amounts listed there are assessed values. Um, for example, you can see in the uh rightmost column a $400,000 property and the town of Hyde Park uh would be most affected. Uh their taxes would increase
026by more than $12 a year um if the board were to approve a 10% exemption. But it's really important to note that that $400,000 is before the equalized rate is applied. So if a property in H High Park is tax has a taxable taxable value of 400,000, they actually have a home valued at over a million dollars. And I live in High Park. My house is probably worth about 400,000, but uh my taxable assessed value is less than 150. It's about 134. So I would pay um about $4 more a year for this uh if this tax exemption were approved. Now, is it is it distributed evenly amongst the towns or does it get that granular when it says these volunteers live in Clinton or Hide Park, Pleasant Valley? >> No, it wouldn't be distributed
027across the the whole district similar to the way the senior tax exemption is. >> So, uh I don't have any other information, but uh if the board has questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Um and I'm looking for some information, too. I'm wondering if the board would like to move forward with a hearing. Um, and if so, uh, do you want to make a determination this evening of what, uh, scenario you would like to offer, or would you like to do that after the hearing? >> I'm let you guys drive this. So, I don't want >> I'd like to hear it. Yeah. >> I would like to explore moving forward with this. >> I would like to explore moving forward. Yes. Awesome. Would you like to make the decision after the hearing of uh
028the the scenario that you chose or would you The reason I'm asking is our attorney could prepare a resolution for for the board so that the night of the hearing there's also a resolution passing uh or you know providing the exemption if that's the direction that the board would go. >> So, so the details are two to five years up to 10% >> 10% also. Yeah, I think it's too quick for me to be able to to make me about that, but I don't know how other people feel. >> And I do like the idea of getting input through a public hearing before we finalize. >> Yeah. And I'm going to try to steer clear of this conversation as much as possible since I am a volunteer firefighter. So, >> so that there is um
029the requirement for any exemption to be done by March 1st. Um I had talked to some of the assessors in the towns uh previously about the senior tax exemption and they had told me that March 1st was too late for them that they would like to see the exemptions approved before beforehand so they could be prepared for that. So I I'm recommending that we have the hearing at the November meeting and then if the board chooses to move forward after that have a resolution on the December meeting. >> I think that sounds reasonable. >> Thank you. Thanks. >> I have a question. Um, actually that will work out really good because the November Well, the November meeting is at North Park. What my question was going to be, do you think we need a larger
030room to house a hearing? >> I'm not sure. In my experience, a lot of people don't come to the hearing. When we did the senior tax exemption hearing, there wasn't any additional people. The people that were there were people that were there for the board meeting. But I'm not sure. I'm not sure if a lot of people would come. >> Does anybody else have an opinion? >> There's more women at North Park, so that would be that would work. >> There's more North Park than here for sure. >> Yeah. >> Um it just really depends on what kind of a turnout >> we get a lot of people. That's when we go to schools, we get a lot more people, right, in the audience. >> That's why I'm asking if we have to change the
031venue. It would be helpful to everyone to know Ed ahead of time. >> Well, but North Park can hold quite a few of them, right, in the gym. So, well, I mean, you would expect that. >> What was there 80 people, firefighters that were in that group? So, >> I'm not Yeah, they may come. I'm not >> I know. You could expect some of them to come and then some other people to come, you know, that to discuss it. So, I think part would be fun. >> Just asking the questions. Okay, thank you. All right, thank you. >> Okay. Um, moving on to 8.1. Can I get a motion to enter public participation? >> So moved. >> All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carried. So now we will be in our uh public
032participation. Each speaker will have a total of three minutes. We'll have a total of 21 minutes for the first segment. Um we ask that um all comments are are courteous and respectful of all and that please provide your name and address when you reach the podium. Would anyone like to address the board? Hi. Uh, Roman Pton, three star drive, High Park, New York, 125 free. Uh, I think like two days ago in my AP Cal class. It came up in conversation and I remember someone answered it like a few years ago, but I don't remember the answer. Why can't the school district pay for the AP exams when they pay for the um the college classes? Um, that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Would anyone else like to address the board? All right. At this
033time, we will close public participation. So, I forget we we did go through this extensively and I think there were some rules or laws that we could and couldn't pay for certain things because I do think we ended up paying for certain things that we weren't paying for. Right. We now we pay for college tuition for the concurrent classes for students that are at uh take classes through Duchess Community College uh Mars and Project Lead the Way through RIT. I don't remember the reason why we didn't move forward, but >> I do remember we wanted to but there was some legality. So if we could get an update on that, >> yeah, >> that would be great. >> We can do that. >> Yeah, there was some reason because we really wanted to and we're
034told we can't. >> Okay. >> Right. Yeah, there was there was And there were even some things if I remember correctly like because some people sign up and then they don't take it. So you know who would pay for that because you got to pay for it regardless or something. I don't know. But there was all that stuff like that. But but if we can find out what that all was. But certainly I I think the board is in agreement that if we can pay for the test, we would pay for the test. But I think there were some issues and we'll just get an update on that. All right. Board subcommittee reports, >> the policy committee and under new business, there are some policies for further review. Um, I wasn't at the first meeting.
035I think Carl talked about those policies last time. The last meeting, the policies were all HR related. So, it was a Ryan night. Um all the changes that were made were clarification word changes and to make sure that the the title of the HR person matches the current title. Other than that there were no substantive changes. >> Okay. Any other uh subcommittees? All right. Moving on to 9.2 two board discussion, including consent agenda items. >> I like the fact that we're getting money back on these change words for a change. Most of them were money left over, I think. Right. >> That's a nice direction. >> Yeah. >> Um 10.10, we talk about um No, not 10.10, sorry. 10.9 disposal of obsolete items. I just noticed this time that there were some um like old
036math books, old reading books, and I just wanted to know if we ever considered what donating them to families who um who want to support their students at home. You know, I know they're outdated and there's a there's a more current version of something, but even through community schools, if there's academic supports for parents who don't know where to go for math help, right? Um there were there were quite a few interesting um dumps of material. So, I just wanted us to look into that that as we get rid of stuff and you know, somebody's junk is another person's and um yeah, and the other thing was um just I just wanted to point out 10.14 I'm really excited about and I just want to note um I thank our athletic director for um starting
037No, was did I get the wrong number again? Sorry. unified sports >> unifor unified bowling. Um that's the to my knowledge it's the first uh sports activity for special needs students >> and I just think that's really exciting and I want to thank our athletic director for um not only coming up with the idea, you know, but but making it happen. So I'm really excited to see where that goes. I know she's got plans for some other ones in the future. Um so I just I just think that's really great. for 10.10 just I I you know I know people were playing we should acknowledge the the donations that that the district has received um money from the Chestnut Petroleum District uh for math and science play on sports or I don't know what a
038Q4 school subscription is but thank you uh community foundations of Hudson Valley go to the Hudson River Tideline program. The Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley also donated to the Together We Stand Statue of Liberty trip and Carol Pickering, former superintendent uh to the Carol A. Pickering Scholarship Fund. >> Pretty sure that one you weren't sure about is where people pay to see sporting events on TV instead. Like if your grandparents can't go to your game, watch it. It's like a subscription. And that's our >> portion of that proceeds. those posts. >> Great. Thank you. >> And I do think letters go out to all these people, right? >> Yes. They send letters to everybody. >> I think there was a question a couple of meetings ago about sending a letter and I think that's
039>> I know that's pro >> standard practice for us to do that. >> Any other uh discussion on the consent or anything else? All right. Can I uh moving on to 10.1? Can I get a motion to accept tonight's consent agenda? Moved, Christine. >> Second, Margaret. >> All those in favor? I >> opposed. Motion carried. >> New business. Uh 11.1 Special Education Services. Can I get a motion in a second? >> Move it. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carried. 11.2. Uh policy. First consideration of policies. I get a motion. >> So moved, Katie. >> Second. Christine, >> any discussion? >> All those in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carried. 11.3 capital project change order phase 2A 35.7 million. >> So move to this. >> Second, Margaret. >> Any discussion?
040>> All those in favor? I opposed. >> Motion carries. Capital project change order phase 2B 35.7 million multiple vendors. >> So move to its second Christine. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carried. Uh moving on to 12.1. Can I get a motion to enter our second public participation? >> So moved, Katie. >> Second, Christine. All those in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carried. We are now in second public participation. Same rules apply as the first. Would anyone like to address the board? All right. At this time, we'll close our second public participation. 13.1. Excuse me. Any other matters deemed necessary by the board? Okay. No need for a second exec. Okay. Get a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting. >> So move to >> second Katie. >> All those in favor? >>
041Opposed? Motion carried. >> Yes.