001asking are you sure right here it's po it's p84 unless people want to speak but there will 17 we have returned from executive session to begin the public portion of our meeting if we could please the RO M Jordan here Mr Spicer here Dr Collins here miss Anderson here Mr Ryder here m fitgerald is excused miss coron here Mr Fitzpatrick here Mr L here flag of the United States of America the stands na indivisible withy and jusice for all we have one action pertaining to Executive session um I'm going to Mo a motion to approve Boe 42 approval of a separation agreement be it resolved that the Board of Education approved the terms of a separation agreement and general release between the district and employee number 3216 and authorizes the superintendent of school sign said
002agreement the terms of the separation agreement and general release shall be incorporated by reference within the minutes of this meeting so second all in favor of Boe 42 any opposed soe 42 has brings us to our student recognition sure it looks like our student is not here I know it's particularly treacherous outside so maybe he's the family decided not to come yes so maybe we should once again reach out and try to get eban on for our next meeting unless he wanders in between them but is particularly nasty out tonight so that brings us to public comment is there anyone in the audience that would like to address the board all right moving right along we are the superintendent report dral thank you Merson um first on the superintendent report we have um our Edson
003presentation and principal C good evening everybody just wait for our slides to show up but I am really happy to be able to share information about harriel Edson I really enjoy coming and presenting about our wonderful school and I want to thank our board trus Dr patalo our cabinet my Elementary School colleagues our great and fantastic EDS and teachers staff and our students and families of course hope I didn't miss out on anybody that I wanted to thank so I wanted to share a little bit of about our students we currently have 415 students enrolled at Edson 58 of those students are L's and the primary languages of our L's are Spanish followed by Ki which is represented in the Mayan and we still do have some students that are listed as English even though
004they're English language Learners it's kind of phasing out as the L identification process has improved at the district and the pie chart here shows the breakdown of the student population in our building so primarily white followed by Hispanic multiracial and black are about the same the American Indian again is a lot of the students from Guatemala who be catchy well into that range there and our St commitments for this current school year for 2024 and 2025 are focused on our students social and emotional health and our student academic growth so these have been commitments that we working on we tune what we're doing to support them every year and with our focus on social emotional support one of the things that we want to do is make our children feel welcome and included and every
005day they're greeted as they enter the building by staff members and myself music is playing throughout the building live through teams our announcements which are bilingual are live on teams and some of the things that I include in the announcements are student and staff birthdays to recog each each individual uh we have a daily seal Focus mindful Monday tactful Tuesday word of the day Wednesday thoughtful Thursday and fun back to Friday and we also have our monthly character trait based themes and our word of the day and our thoughtful Thursday are often tied to those and we highlight our PBIS program and I use think sheets for reflecting and changing responses when students are faced with challenging moments I have an example of the thing sheets coming up in a moment we also include our
006Edson pledge in English and in Spanish every day and even our English-speaking students who are not in our dual language program can recite our comprom in Spanish which is really great to see and this is something that our students really look forward to every day these are our Cougar Paws and our characteristics on our PBIS are listed across the top problem accountability work hard and show kindness and respect and students get to earn those brag tags which I have samples of here and I walk around with them as a reminder and it's really great to see for tomorrow's I actually had to move over our Cougar Paws and our red example here and I've got two whole columns for work hard for tomorrow so I'm really happy to see that and then we have our
007mascot Edson who when a class is nominated for a class full class cougar paaw the class gets to the CL gets to spend the day with Edson so that's that's fun for them as well this is an example of the think sheet that I use with our students when they've had a challenging situation and they make a choice that may not be the one that we really want them to make I want them to stop and reflect and they have a couple of areas where they can just check something off or obviously we can add on that and I have them think about why they did it like what was the cause why it was a bad choice and then next time I will have some way to turn it around and I process this
008with them but my social workers psychologists and teachers use this with students as well and then because I made that choice I have to apologize and these are sent home to parents and that's often accompanied with a phone call as well and just some examples of how we include our families and community members we have a very active Wellness committee and one of the accomplishments this year was eliminating plastic straws in our cafeteria so instead of receiving those little plastic sleeves that have a little straw a spork and a napkin wrapped in plastic they get a spork there are no straws and if they need a napkin they can take a napkin so that's been a nice accomplishment and one of the parents created that little flyer that the students could color and then these
009are just some other events that we had going on where families were involved our annual Trunk or Treat upper right hand corner it was our kindergarten Thanksgiving celebration bottom left our fall festival and then one of my favorites and many of our board members and our administrators District administrators participated in this as well but that's our world read aloud day which is always the first Wednesday of February this year we had 45 Community readers parent readers District readers at our event and an evening one as well where we had today's students tomorrow's teachers participating also we do our sep survey in the fall the winter and then we do it again in the spr spring and these are this is just one of the questions I thought this one was important because it's all about
010how students feel welcome how staff members perceive students feeling welcome and parents as well our second through fourth graders did it on the computer as did Steph and parents and then our K And1 students in the fall did it on paper but they shipped it to the computer for the winter one and as you can see overwhelmingly it was positive there are a lot of yeses and then 60 to 100% um as far as the students and students and staff and then parents as well the M vast majority you know almost 90% feel that students are welcomed in affirmed at school and here are some examples of what was written in the open area on our SE surveys a lot of really positive things here I like that one of the students highlighted that I'm
011in the cafeteria and welcome everyone in the cafeteria at breakfast and lunch I also like that parents who can do this in Spanish as well reply in Spanish so that was happy to see too my student is having a good learning experience in school and going to shift over to some academics right now we are doing the ca the core knowledge language arts pilots in kindergarten first and second grade in one of each of those rooms and the top picture on the right is one of our first grade classes exploring the human body when they were doing this earlier in the fall so they were all doctors it was really really cute and then bottom left two are the students were learning about the Roman Empire and had some Roman Olympics and bottom right some
012planets also so it's engaging but it's also the teachers are really loving the themes and engaging the students in different ways of the themes I wanted to share some information from our I ready scores this is our fall Baseline data which was first grade through fourth grade kindergarten wasn't included in this right away in the fall nor were our entering level L's so we are at only a 32 sorry 23% proficiency rate in the fall and we had 30% of our students three or more grade levels below shifting to the winter halfway through the year we want at least 50% of our students progressing toward the annual typical growth at midye our overall K through four is at 61% our students are progressing toward their annual goal and if you look at the chart on
013the right that's similar to the one on the previous slide but now we've shifted to 43% of our students at meeting grade level expectations and only 16% who are three or more levels below grade level and then in the on the bottom it shows how many students on the left are meeting that typical growth goal and we have 28% of our students who have already met that goal we still have some students down at the lower level that are progressing toward that goal they're at 19% 24% of our students are 19% of their annual growth goal and then our stretch growth goal that is that lofty goal that we want our students to achieve to help close that Gap when they're not performing where they need to be and already at this point in the
014year 11% of our students have superseded met or superseded those goals and we still have work to do we still have 30% of our students that are basically less than 20% toward their stretch goal but they're definitely making progress for our ckla classes our CK CK classes are doing really really well in most cases they are outperforming the other classrooms on that grade level and interestingly in our kindergarten and our first grade behind the CK is our dual language class performance in Reading which is really wonderful to see and then our classes are not part of ccla and and dual language are are not as high as the others in most cases second grade it's a little bit more even and this is an interesting one too so this is a projection based on I
015ready reading scores if students are only making their typical growth we would expect a 42 proficiency rate of our third and fourth graders on the ELA this year compared to last year when we only had 24% proficient so if they're making the progress that we expect them to make we would should have 42% proficiency if those same students are achieving their stretch goals or working toward those stretch goals we would expect this to be even higher and shifting into math in the fall only 7% of our students were on grade level and we had almost 40% of our students that were three or more years or two or more years below grade level when you combine those two in the winter we've got 3% of our students that are at that annual typical growth measure
016right now we're looking for that 50% since it's mid year and already we've shifted to more students in the green we are at 24% of our students performing on grade level and we're down to only 177% across the board K to4 who are performing two or three years below grade level and with our typical growth we have 21% of our students who have already met their typical grow goals and we're not quite there as much with the stretch goals but we have got quite a bit of work to do and if our third and fourth graders are meeting their typical growth we should have a 46% proficiency rate on this year's math assessment where last year we were at 39% and again that doesn't account for the students meeting their stretch goals if they're meeting
017their stretch goals this should be even higher than 46% so we are a newly designated targeted support and Improvement school as a result of our subgroup of Hispanic students and we are a potential TSI school for our subgroups of black and multi-racial our building leadership team is already working on an intense Focus diving into Data to really zoom in on that continuous Improvement we will review and monitor all subgroups our subgroups of Hispanic students black and multi-racial students will be our team Focus we will be meeting twice monthly we actually have a meeting tomorrow but we will be meeting twice monthly to zoom in on exactly what our data is telling us come up with plans and for our set plan coming coming into next year we will have that very clearly articulated and we'll
018continue to focus and monitor that throughout the year next year with the hopes of seeing these scores improve I want to shift to a program that we are all really proud of our dual language program we have moved this program up from K12 this year to third grade next year will be up into fourth grade we currently have 83 students enrolled in the program and the breakdown is there we have our some in many cases well in all cases English language Learners in the class we have students coming from that are coming in with a bilingual repertoire as are already coming into kindergarten but now our students are really demonstrating the they're gaining Proficiency in both English and in Spanish regardless of their home language which is really wonderful to see we use the school
019pce management system which is part of the American reading company program which is the core Ela program for ELA and SLA Spanish language program for our dual language program and two key components of that are the eara the independent reading level assessment which is the reading test in English and then the and ESP and Spanish and the information here is from our first cohort who are current third graders and in kindergarten you can see that they're all on the emergency level both in English and in Spanish 95 and a half virtually all of the students in the program are at the emergency level in Reading as they moved into first grade we're starting to shift that into at risk and proficient or above in English a little bit of a shift in Spanish brand new
020program and there were some other factors that impacted that a little bit and then in second grade we're seeing more progress but look at where these students are in third grade now where 62 and a half% of those students who are at emergency in kindergarten are now proficient or above in ela and in reading and these scores correlate with what they're doing on the I ready as well we're seeing that progress on there it's not exactly the same numbers but they're definitely showing that progress and in Spanish they're not making quite as much progress yet and we are zooming in on this but when you take a look at our kindergarten cohort as we've improved our kindergarten cohort we have 31% of our students at proficiency 56 at risk in English but look at Spanish
02193.8% of our students in kindergarten are performing where we would expect them to be in Spanish and the majority of our kindergarten students are coming from English speaking households we do have several bilingual and two English language Learners who are Spanish speakers but this is really wonderful to see and I didn't include all the data in there but you can see our first grade cohort well our second grade cohort is stronger than the third grade cohort is and our first grade cohort is stronger than our second and so on and so forth so we're really seeing this program grow and it's really exciting I have some writing samples these are from kindergarten we have our sample in Spanish and our sample in English and then I wanted to share a third grade sample and this
022is from a student who is is a dominant English speaker household is English only so he's writing about amazing tornadoes and in third grade they switch week by week so one week they're focusing on writing in English the next week in Spanish the next week in English the next week in Spanish so as they're writing their weather units they'll have one page in Spanish another page in English and here is one in English from another student this is a student coming from a bilingual household and these just other elements that were part of this writing assignment as well so the picture and then the glossery and I think it's cute that this student wrote this in English but his glossery is in Spanish so it is really a bilingual it's a bilingual report so our
023opportunities so one of our primary opportunities is improving our New York State Testing participation and performance rates when we looked at our results from our Hispanic students for last year our previous years we did have a high level of opt out so we're zooming in on that we are also focusing on the skills and knowledge that have been areas of struggle for our students on the New York State Ela and math exams we will have a continued growth through a focus on already ready reading and math data for our students that are not in our dual language program and for our dual language program we'll do the same thing with the American reading company reports but our our dual language students also take the I ready so it's a really great opportunity to have that
024dual measure and we are really excited to be rolling out our between gen joy and genius project it's a whole school book study with guidance from Dr Javon Hunter and Dr Kathy sidy and we're focusing on my poy has a motorcycle orioto and we have grade level projects planned out for everybody to be working on to unite us as a school and it's going to focus on our community of Kingston as well so that's really exciting and this is how a very similar slide to how I end our daily announcements I Chang the pictures but it's of about being kind that's what I have for you tonight Mr mder thank you for a great presentation a lot of great information I I think it's one of the things I wanted to highlight was the think
025sheet I think that's a really great way of kind of using the program um haven't seen necessarily done this I appreciate that Dr K thank you so much for a really thorough and clear presentation and all of the data I really appreciated the way in which you were able to project to the New York standards um from I ready so that was really useful and um showing real progress already this I read them I also really appreciate the longitudinal approach with the Dual language foram that that's really nice to see that coming to fruition um I had a question around the uh interaction between CA and um the Dual language program and just that curriculum do those there's nothing different about what's happening in those dual language programs with respect to that curriculum or maybe
026it wasn't piloted you you showed a slide that went very quickly and to me I didn't actually get to digest it but it was um something about the progress of the pilot classrooms who were using CA and you were comparing it to Something in the Dual language program right so we have I can go back to that slide just to this one here so with this one we have our CA pilot classes are highlighted here and it's nice to see that the CK classes the classes that are using that curriculum are doing really really well and then our dual language classrooms in first and kindergarten are performing at higher levels in the non CA and non- dual language class I mean sorry they're per the da the Dual language classes are performing if you were
027to rank them after CA so it would be ca dual language and then non dual language non CA excellent that's really clear um thank you and then so there's nothing um the ccla will be implemented within that dual language classroom nope we use American reading company which is also based on the science of reading and it's a very thorough program but that whole program was built on the science of reading okay thank you yes and that allows the program to go like the English and Spanish Zone days are questions or comments so just for clarification because I so um although the CK program does have it is available in Spanish I'm familiar with it you're choosing the choice has been to not use it in your dual language programs right we've invested in the American
028reading company program yeah from the very beginning and I know that the district purchased that program several years out so that we would have that as we roll up to each grade so we already have trade as well so this isn't about the presentation necessarily but I know you have a fairly active Green Team at the school with both parents and students and just putting on my other hat they are coming this Wednesday for a tour of the facility at UC that they've coordinated through our Outreach team and um probably we'll have some good ideas after that and and we're here always for any school but if you need assistance after that kind of presentation always happy to provide any fantastic thank you y we're really looking forward to some of the changes that we
029can make Mr Spicer all right um all board members get a chance to see the report to for the com so I saw you as and I made a whole bunch of notes I'd like to share focusing on social emotional support lows it children's anxieties increases calm allowing teachers to raise expectations and allowing our children to to rise to the challenge it's all a win-win so thank you for that concertive effort feeling like you are welcome anywhere is the beginning of feeling like uh I belong here and people care if I'm happy here no matter what the results of your seep survey were the fact that you would even care to ask shows a level of professional institutional concern that can only lead to more accepting to a more accepting educational environment but look what
030your survey did show 98% of your children survey feel welcome that's wonderful 91% of your parents say uh uh 91% of your parents say their children feel welcome which is also echoed in the positive Community sentiments reported the results speak to a caring School supportive of its children and parents so thank you for that it's also very encouraging to see edson's du language program flourishing studies show that it's not only the beginning of making both native English and Spanish speaking children better at their new language but better at the Shared crosscultural education that is also a valuable effect so thank you and last I wanted to thank you for incorporating the joy and genius project project into the program because it allows children to tap into high achievement learning activities Dr genius part while supporting
031a positive fun culturally enriched learning environment so thank you for all of that and thank you for your presentation thank you thank you m thank you thank you so I just have a few very other very brief um District updates so we have um our April 2nd meeting will be a budget only meeting so information on uh on a preliminary budget and we'll all be available to the board well in advance um obviously that's we spend a lot of time on the budget there we are still working through um you know going through our budget over and over and over again finding different things find still getting new um information that's helping us to uh make sure we can deliver you uh you know as much information as you need and also of theity balance
032budget so again we're early in the stages but we're working every day on it I know um we're getting new information that's adjusting numbers every day we have um we've been calculating recalculating our tax levy limit so by the time we come back to a week or so we should probably have a really solid um budget uh preliminary budget to provide and again I know we're not meeting in a week but we will provide you with prior to the next meeting April second next meeting um just also for I've get a lot of questions about the school calendar the school calendar will be on the agenda for our next meeting for your approval so that will also be in your practi please look for that those questions I actually was right I had of discussion
033about school calendar prior to this meeting um you're talking about the 2 26 25 yeah the board has to approve the 2526 calendar um and then last the two last things I have is number one um we have our superintendent conference day next Wednesday March 12th so there will be no school for students and lastly we did make an addition to the to the website at the um request of the DLT and I think we got it up there and we showed it to them at our DLT meeting last week and it's our new parent page so if you go on to our website and you go to parents parent corner there is a lot of information it's going to it's going to grow every day uh we're putting tutoring um uh videos up there's
034there's contact information there's all kinds of things so our Communications team got that up um a couple weeks ago so we were able to show it to the DLT so just so we know people who are participating in the DLT were hearing what they're asking for and and we're moving forward with it so it's been and our DLT meeting last week was excellent had a lot of great participation we have some new things that we're working on coming out of that out of that uh out of that meeting so um that's really all I have for you I actually have two things um one is do we have an extra day off in June does anyone know what the answer we are not mandated to have that day in June good all right New York
035City Schools but not kingst not not outside of the city and then the other thing is I attended the parent University at um GW and I'd like to thank all the people who present it um it was very valuable to the people were there and one mom got firsthand help with the computer that she was having difficulty with because she was there and asked and you know it it was a wonderful event so thank you all for doing that that's what happens any other questions comments for I question on I think it's probably okay hold it all right that brings us to Board of Education committee report teaching and Lear okay so the teaching and learning committee met on February 24th um the major topics were Q2 data GW review and monor program review and
036then um a brief overview some discipline and restorative practice data for the district um so for Q2 data we first looked at the I ready reading um and very generally saw a consistent growth in all grade levels as we would expect to see Midway through the year overall around 20 to 30% of our students were on or above grade level um and most notably we saw growth in elementary relative to our middle grade so um and when I say most notably the growth I'm talking about is from the beginning of the year to mid year um and also notably among elll populations in terms of math we saw again consistent growth in all grade levels so to see um 10 to 30% of students were on above or above grade level stippers for each specific
037grade but that's a general overview um the bulk of the data reflect the academic outcomes um one grade level below and we expect that many of the students testing at one grade grade level below right now will shift into that level bracket by the end of the year so um large and speaking we are seeing progress and outcomes that we expect um we are still seeing strong disparities and outcomes among our subgroups particularly in math um but one really optimistic um and positive note was the market growth by elll population it's particularly noticeable we talked about the ca um curriculum that was approved by the board at the last meeting um and saw really the data that had informed that decision um and in particular some of this was just alluded to in Miss L's
038report that Ela growth for students in CA pilot classes were compared against classrooms that did not have that curriculum and there it was piloted in 22 classrooms um all grade levels at JFK um students in the majority of the CAA classrooms displayed more growth compared to non-private classrooms as we just saw presentation um they'll be training for teachers actually in this upcoming superintendent day um in March so we'll be looking forward to seeing the growth across the district as we adopt that curriculum we then focused on GW um really beginning with a an overview of the two-year implementation plan that began in 23 24 so that overview included long laundry list that among those things I'll just highlight a few of the actions that were put into place in 2324 including curricular revisions a mon
039monor coach was hired um a new professional development calendar that included um trainings by Elizabeth slave the expert in monor um identifying training programs that meet the the needs of the school um that is being used to help train um or as professional development um inventories of all of the um educational materials implementation of an uninterrupted work cycle of 1.5 hours and then a lot of work aligning the curriculum the report card and the record keeping that's necessary to accommodate this individualized instruction system so we had a little bit of discussion about this and understanding that monori needs a very individualized approach to record keeping and so matching that with the way the district fors records has taken some time and practice and then along with that developing crosswalks the district curriculum um and developing
040shared files and resources for all of the teachers at GW in 2425 some of the major um efforts included identifying new teachers for monor training so there are two teachers that started in January 2025 increasing the work cycle to 2.5 hours um which is very close to the three that is desired I think by the ideal monory setup and um a lot of work reviewing achievement data both historically and more recently in the last few years so we as a committee reviewed some of that those data and saw that um the outcomes in ela and maap for the NoNo and non-economically disadvantaged students are similar or in some cases even above District outcomes however GW is a TSI school for economically disadvantaged elll and Hispanic subgroups for those students proficiencies were quite low and though
041um and though there's we're seeing some movement very few and for some topics like math none of our Ells at GW in third or fourth grade were reaching for proficiency um we discussed the need to compare elll populations and other tze schools and to more broadly understand the context for this pattern um and also discuss how challenging integrating C CA with monitor methods maybe and there'll be some um profession the summer to address this um and just as an as I was writing up this report I actually reached out um to Dr Pella for one the answer to a question that had not occurred to me during the meeting which is um just comparing the supports for enl at all of our schools and and so just at GW they're comparable to other schools this
042is what I understand so um GW has fulltime enl teachers to 89 students um class bys Edson has three full-time enl students to 58 Ells Chambers has three enl students to 79 students Crosby has one enl to 23 students and JF is 1.5l to 37 students so ratio wise they it's it's fairly comparable across our schools um we then when moved on to our discipline restorative practice data and we um really the focus of this last part of the meeting was on just looking at the data collection methods although obviously they're data contained in that but it's the first year that we've had pretty thorough meth uh data collection along all categories particularly at the elementary level so we are looking at data for discipline and restorative practices um with hopes that they're being uniformly
043collected um we're still working to streamline that data collection across buildings so come a long way um couple takeaways include that um administrators are increasing the number of restorative meetings relative to other types of disciplinary responses um the report in general highlights the number of infractions not the nature of infractions so it really is of sorts and so not um so just limited in the types of information and interpretation we should take from it to say that um it was worth noting very important that the district was not cited for dis proportionality and discipline measures by the state in our last review is terrific um mostly the data at this point is giving us some idea of where to focus efforts at prevention for instance understanding disciplinary responses that minimize removing a student from class
044um given that there were a fair number of ISS and LSS incidents we also learned a little bit about the context for those numbers so for example I'm going off the notes to make sure I get this example right so tell me if I'm wrong but if a student misses a class um waiting to talk to a principal that would count as an ISS is that correct after so in which case um those numbers don't always reflect exactly what we are imagining when we say ISS but um otherwise we don't have any data to go from and so that's a perfect lead into the closing statement by Mr Spicer that I think I'll just share because it was really about being brave about collecting data and looking at the data and we can't fix what
045we don't know and we can't try to understand what we don't see so um those numbers were a great start at trying to understand the patterns in the district um as well as just get better at collecting data and recording our responses so our next meeting is April 7 thank you questions Mr I don't know if this is a question Dr cullins or Dr padalino but um any of the subgroups that um are not meeting proficiency do we have numbers on like elll students economic leadist Advantage who are actually opting in to the monor program at George Washington compared to that being their home school yeah we have to yes we can have and their number I mean there are we don't we don't have them I mean we have them you could easily get
046them would be interested in in knowing that um and I'll have to go back and listen to the whole policy because I am interested in the presentation on GE Washington the mon so was your question about um Els that opt in to mon yeah like how many we have who who really don't have if they it's their home school that they don't really have a choice right I mean they do but they'd have to provide their own TR if they didn't want to do monor they would have to go to to a different school and we don't provide transportation so that so my my concern is that we are you know as we compare like what those subgroups are I I don't know the AC Acron TSI I'm showing my examp targeted support so I
047don't think we should just look at data from those subgroups at TSI schools because those are targeted schools we should look at data for those subg groups at all of our different um elementary schools and see where where they stack up because I mean they you know they may be similar to their peers at TSI but not at the non TSI schools yeah I think the reason why we I specified the TSI schools is that if they're not designated as TSI schools then those students are not being singled out for performance atle schools so the data in some way that that answers your question but the the subgroups performance matters right right at all of our schools um so I right but if we are being if we're targeted if we're at TSI school because
048of the performance of our L students in in four of our schools two of our schools but we're not that that I mean not specifically but that tells you that the that the L's in the other or English language leers in the other schools are not meeting the threshold to become a TSI for that subp correct right okay comp at just the TSI schools for those subgroups they're going to probably maybe be similar but but it would be more disperate I think at the nonsi school and I think it would be valid or valuable to know the performance of those sub groups at the other yeah and we can I mean a general statement it's better that's that's why they're not or there's not enough the subgroup to create a category inability so that could
049be a case too but we can that that's simple we have that I think the only other thing I would add is that we did look at attendance and attendance across the board districtwide is very positive and I think that's a great thing that we should celebrate so um all of the programs that people have put in place um I congratulate that because uh they are coming to school I had one question about the data that I just probably missed but you were talking about the kids who are not l oh yeah in story right and when they were compared where they compared they were pulled out they were disaggregated in the montouri and then were they compared with a disaggregated group in another building um that I um I don't remember if the slides
050show that but we had the data that I looked at it across the I can't remember was actually in that same slide but it was broken my subgroup within the school and then I put back to say oh is that subgroup um doing different L at GW then so it's so that that point was that our so they were compared equally that's right to the same kind of grouping yeah so our nonell and our non-economically disadvantaged students at George Washington are performing at or in some cases above the non um economically disadvantaged nonell thank you that was just what I'm thank you any other questions or comments for Dr col thank you very much that brings us to audit Finance right so the audit and finance committee met um on February 25th at 9:00 a.m.
051the bulk of the conversation was a 25 26 budget update um by Miss carbman so she gave an update on the budget process we're still looking at the tax cap and financials for the current capital project and how it compares to the initial plan uh since the project started um later than predicted based on current numbers the tax cap could go up to a little over 6% just want to differentiate that from like the the tax levy so it doesn't mean we're necessarily going to pierce the cap um Levy for the levy it's just it's a different number um but for those who are listening I just don't want to inflate the two um the final number for the tax cap will be available in the next few days after looking through all the options
052um with help from The District's financial advisor still waiting on financials from the state and other factors impacting the budget including formul Aid health insurance oh and then health insurance rates are increasing Miss carbon also reported that we got a a not notification from State stac staff oh um review stating that uh we were overpaid for the years 2011 and 2018 they are planning to recoup the money um that we over were overpaid starting by taking approximately 500,000 from this year's budget so we are looking at the implications for that and it's 2011 through 2018 so it's the all it's not just two different it's that whole span of time what's the overall I mean there're starting by taking 500,000 I think it was reported at the meeting like what the actual number is what's
053that 492,000 total and they're only going to start by taking 500,000 they're going to take all okay we had we had we did discuss that we possibly could have broken it up but when we asked that we didn't meet the criteria you had to owe you had to be had to be more than 1.2 million or something like that in order what's that oh it was 3 million okay it had to be $3 million for them to spread it out so just we're not $3 million I think you know there was a robust conversation that when we get underpaid um that money kind of goes into a pool and it could be years for us to get paid that under payment so it's just not ironic but that they immediately take the 500,000 from us
054in this year's budget um and we do have $300,000 that is owed to us in Aid that was not paid to us that's been sitting in that account for how long Mr car yeah so for 13 years there's 3 $1,000 they owe us we don't get to just go take it we don't have set off in any of our contracts with the state set off rights that they owe us I you um Mr lamb asked about the athletic fields package Readiness to be placed on the ballot uh for the voters so there was some discussion about that and I think that um it it was will be discussed in the facilities uh committee update but um it was talked about in both committees um and Miss carbin was asked or asked if any mo if
055any more was heard about Ida funding for special ed I don't remember what that was and then um the next meeting will be on March 25th at 9 A.M any comments or questions from Mr Ryder okay that brings us to facilities and the facilities committee met on February 25th this it's a big meeting day um the am minutes from January 28th 2025 were approved our project updates include and and we are nearing completion on um many of the projects of two B the smart schools is there still um change order work on cameras and alarm is continuing in all schools the energy performance project is basically completed there is a annual verification review that is required that'll that'll take place and so we will remove energy performance from the agenda that's always good um capital
056projects we had a summary on pretty much four phases phase one the construction phas is underway way construction meetings have begun for the projects at Baran and Edon Edson right my note um and the major work will begin in June some work will begin in April in and some of the inside work not Windows phase two the technical comments from SED have been released um this phase is expected to be approved on the expected timeline phase 2A the drawings will be submitted to S this week the team will be investigating um temporary swing space for the Bailey kitchen Phase 2 a is the Bailey kitchen and that work is to begin in 2027 phase three design development continues for GW and Chambers uh construction document is to be submitted this spring Crosby boilers were moved
057to this phase due to the PO condition of the boilers and the current boilers are being serviced and monitored regularly to help to keep them operating with a lot of they don't go down phase four um planning meetings with principles at graves Meer and JFK will begin and the documents will be sent Tod end of 2025 the details of phases one and two have been posted on the district website and additional phases will be added as the plans are final as there was a concern that if there were too many things that could change it would create confusion um The Debt Service discussion was Ted for another another meeting and we ended with our discussion of the athletic field master plan the construction team reviewed the $31 million plan that was presented at our last
058meeting the team has also developed an alternative project that would reduce the cost to 20 million the new ideas were developed in collaboration with the district steering committee and the recommendations included um having a district own track on school property which would be at the cby site uh synthetic and that would include Synthetic Turf Synthetic Turf at gruner would make it a multi-purpose field upgrad at berkfield drainage issues to be addressed and to eliminate the bathroom plans and use the rollway bathrooms um there was a healthy discussion on the features of both plans um there were questions raised about State a and the community s support for another Capital project um Dr pedalino requested the Architects work with the S to um identify Aid ability for the project the bond proposal will determine the cost
059and effects of the project um and the the board this board must um we have to make a decision by the end of I think if we are going to put a project proposal out for um we had one old business issue the question about geothermal at Chambers came up uh ksq repeated their position that the geothermal was not part of the original capital project and without the funding from nerta it is not advised that that be included weed 25 and our next meeting is on March 25th I don't know Mr writer if you don't have anything to add any questions or comments Mr fck um I was wondering how much um it cost to produce um something like the Apple master plan it's $30,000 that was the that's what we paid the um cons
060cons thank you know and then um I wanted to ask about the um the status of um inventorying um the districts um oh um that came up we didn't it wasn't on this agenda but I will put it on the next agenda I think he's he's um your question is about the um School vehicles and what our plan was yeah we've inventor the school vehicles and actually m carbon is working on just getting me the um replacement scheduled for them so I will put that on the agenda for our next meeting any other questions comments okay that brings us to our content agenda are there any items that trustees would like P from the content agenda Boe 42 any others so if I could have a motion to um accept the consent agenda minus p84
061and Boe 42 second any discussion all in favor of accepting the consent agenda any opposed that brings to uming p84 I need a motion I'll move it second and discussion I uh removed this because this is a resignation of an individual who has made an unusually wonderful contribution to this it is Kurt Reinhardt who is retiring and I wish him as many years in retirement as he's had working for us um it is a tremendous you have been a tremendous gift to our district to our country to our community and you will be missed and I thank you for everything you done I think there are several trustees that would like to vote now for this Mr Riner but it's well deserved thank you very much for all you've done all any other comments all
062in favor of accepting p84 forant I with regret yes any oppos P4 is approved now we go to bo42 that is the approval of the shared decision making plan I need a mo so and discussion um I just wanted to pull this out of the agenda to say a couple things about it um first of all I wanted to thank everyone involved in the process all throughout um and I wanted to make sure it was clear that this is even though it is prescribing the way that things are going to be handled that it is not it should not be looked at that is um not being worked on every U I think two years we got to take it out or whatever um that this is going to be a constant Improvement and something
063that uh I hope to see improved on and people continue to put the same kind of energy and passion in seeing um this kind of things the I think we agree with that any other discussion all in favor of accepting bo42 the shared decision Mak plan for the school district any oppos 42 we do have a donations yes we do uh the Board of Education of the Kingston City School District hereby accepts with grateful appreciation the following generous donation to M Clifford Miller Middle School from Community foundations of the Hudson Valley a donation of $1,500 to support the photography club cameras thank you for that thank you brings us to Old business I'm to take from the table um Mr Spicer's motion on De February I'm not sure I understand the the motion that was
064laid on the table oh that was table okay so I'm still not sure what you're asking to untake the original question that was so we have a motion and we need a second second it okay discussion um so it's was my understanding that this to table something like this was it was um either going to be put on the table and would be going away um eventually but um unless we unless it was put on the table for the purpose of um something else to take place which I understood to be from this discussions the um presentation on the um you know I me um so now that I know that that's not going to happen uh I wanted to um and then I I I guess um the committee as proposed um under all
065the discussions that you know we we had um was something that I didn't exactly agree with so I have presented uh alternatives to the Charter um so I was hoping that the committee would look more like um the charter that I um proposed proposed um than it was discussed which I guess mainly would be uh more of a second policy committee than I don't know how to proceed because the original motion was to adopt the original charter Mr Fitzpatrick is proposing and I don't disagree with him either I just don't know how to perceive that we create that that we adopt the charter according to the changes that he made I just don't know how to proceed because there a motion on the floor for one charter um Mr Fitzpatrick would like us to adopt
066another the Char like I said well so I mean if that's what I wanted I would move to amend the original motion to strike that Charter and start one of the other ones but I don't think I know I was intentionally vague for the makeup of um things like the administration um I would hate for us to get the committee have the charter and then be like well actually this you know we have to make um adjustments to it so I think the standing committee would come first and then the point of order I think I have a point um I think Mr Spicer is correct the the tabled motion was regarding his proposal for a charter for a new committee I think the best way to move forward instead of discussing your Charter would
067be to vote on that clean that up and then if you want to make another proposal that's a separate motion because it's getting all muddied up now so I think for for the order I to Mr I so I am prepared to make a motion to I I'm not prepared to vote either way on on the original tonight I'm not making a motion right this second because I want to allow some conversation to happen but if if it needs to my preference would be to table we can't we can't have that until we vote yay or nay on this no I'm not talking about Mr F Patrick's right agenda I'm talking about Mr Spicer right he unted that right so it's on the table the motion on the table is to untable like right now
068the motion is whether not un motion motion and there was a second so there needs to be a vote vote on that so it's not ontable I thought that you just bring something to the table I didn't think there has to be a vote if there's aable have to untable the motion on the floor is to untable that Charter motion which was seconded cor that need yes so we need to vote on whether or not to unable so can we call the question yes yes you just did thank that's what I was hoping so all in favor of table uning the um Charter motion from September February N M Anderson n Mr Ryder n Dr Mr sper n so that means that that motion is still is table what is parliamentary procedure following this moment
069at any proceeding board member can a motion be made untable or is it set for a set time to be a motion has to be made okay I understand table is until someone makes a motion to untable it a postponement needs to have a date oh I see okay I'm move to postone it's already I know you missed the joke all right we we do have an item on um the agenda for the student EXO EX oficio board member um do you want updates yes Dr William well um so as of current we have we currently have 19 nominations 15 of the students are scheduled to be interviewed the first two weeks in March so this week and next week we'll culminate those interviews the interview committee consists of Dr the mock trial and code
070of conduct advisor the student government advisor one of the cohort uh principal or assant principal and a 12th grade student for the board's um recommendation to have a student on the actual interview committee that student serves on student government code of conduct and PBIS committee so while the uh candidates are not necessarily on any other the student government body one of the students on the committee will be that um share the voice with the students and Mr the the of the policy and also the processes and procedures and the other questions or discuss so what's our timeline that policy committee will review that yeah I think I okay we'll we'll make sure we cover it in but I think it's already been yeah approved I don't know that it has to be again but I
071I just want to thank you and Dr scor and all the people at the high school I think it's fabulous that for the first time we have so much interest by the students I think that that is just very telling and very positive and just a timeline for when the recommendation will come to the board with a just you know a finalized so we hope by the beginning of April great thank you okay thank you very much any other um old business that brings us to new business Mr Ryder um so the way that our 2425 calendar is sent currently um when we approved the schedule last year I don't think we could have anticipated having four snow days or four get back days um I'll just say as a working parent the idea of
072a two week spring break you know my wife's a teacher so it's it's not an issue but others is I I think problematic and I think we still have time to tweak the calendar so that we could take right now we only have a regular three-day weekend for Memorial Day and in years past we've added on to Memorial Day when there was um extensive days like this I know AP tests are basically the week after we would end up getting back from um this two we spring break and I think um as a parent of an a student I I have concern is that there's enough time for um teachers to review for that I know there is concern on the other end if we were add to Memorial Day to re you know it'd
073be closer to Regions but it's not nearly the same as taking a full twoe break I do want to also bring up that nisma is on the Friday that would be that that second full week and and essentially our building would be clo I mean not closed because it's not a weather delay but but they're not supposed to be there till 4 but we're asking teachers to come in and prepare whatever on a day that the rest of the district is off so we don't you I'm not asking for anything to be done now I just would request that um Dr patalino and the administration take a look and see if there's anything that makes sense to to try to just just you know a a parent that's working a 40-hour week and and would
074normally I I don't know how many of them have really looked at the calendar and realize that spring break is now two full weeks if we don't have any other snow days between now and then isn't that a negotiated item though can I can I can speak with KY if it is a negotiate well they no yes and no they get to review it I I'm sure if I I will I will meet with the administration and talk the building because a lot of them have made adjustments knowing for different things that they were doing knowing that this was going to happen ahead of time to see what kind of um things we can come up with but the yeah I I mean I think I agree with Mr Right or I've never had this
075mean in 14 years 14 Winters as a superintendent here we've never had this happen before where we had this many snow days left over and and right and it's only March but but I saw 60s I saw 60s on a snow day on May 11 yes let's hope for at least two more I mean I'm I'm all good with that like that's why I'm saying in two weeks we look right like I think we still give parents the time to make adjustments especially if we're pushing off we're not like I know last year I asked to change the calendar so that we could take the the the eclipse day off and concern was that that was you know adding a day this would at least be I think giving some reprieve to parents and then
076they could figure out Memorial Day weekend later I will tell you the nma day as a person who ran 10 of those festivals in this District having that day off would be a blessing because you can get the building set to go in the morning but I we'll we'll look at that and I'll report back thank you any other new business Anthony um I would like to make a motion to adopt New York State real property tax law 421 P2 to adopt a resolution to exempt Capital Improvements to residential new construction involving the creation of accessory dwelling units in the dedicated benefit area of the city of kingst from taxation abuse we have a motion do we have a second hearing none um we won't entertain that at this point in time I will say
077that the audit and finance is going to have a presentation from the city on that topic and with that we will have more information better information as to whether or not the board should move in that direction on that one on that one on both both yeah on both the different scenarios and what the to the district will be yeah that's the big question what's the impact the DAT Val the 2 any Anthony yes um I want to make a motion to create uh diversity equity and inclusion standing committee I'm sorry can you say that for me again uh create a diversity equity and incl standing do we have a second so at this time we are not going to act on that motion we already have a tabled motion on that topic so I
078think we have to take time any other new business things as to public participation if anyone would like to address the board hello everyone good evening uh my name is Brian Y is I'm with noresco uh we're an Energy Services Company I met uh Dr Williams this uh past weekend at a superintendance conference in Albany um just a little bit about our company we do energy performance Contracting we are also a nerta flex Tech consultant nerta is New York state energy research and development Authority and I did a little bit of research um after I met Dr Williams and the district is U eligible for 100% funding to do um energy Audits and energy types of studies um I did speak directly to Nera today and they did uh in fact confirm that Kingston is
079eligible that's the good news the bad news is any applications to participate have to be in by March 13 so um time is in the essence there um but you know with that I did speak with our a technical director um you know in order to participate in the flex Tech program you would just have to have a a walk through of your facilities uh a scope of work would need to be developed um we would have to get utility bills and paperwork would have to be submitted by the 13 all of which would be fully capable on our end but um I um I I learned a lot and listening to um you know some of the performance Contracting and the capital plans that you have so I'm not certain if it is something
080that may be needed but um it is millions of dollars of free funding from nerta to do more in-depth studies for your school buildings so did want to share that um happy to take any questions or comments or anything we don't normally interact with public comment okay but we appreciate your comments okay thank you can I ask good question sure does an application to a grant from I require can we get it done I don't know we have we'll we'll discuss it um board member announcements M um just so everyone is aware Dr patalino and I will be meeting with Hillary Nicholls the executive director of the ster County IG on March 19th can I join you for that meeting was that sarcastic no I just wasn't sure no absolutely okay any other announcements um
081Miss Jordan and Mr CH Patrick um something rotten is a good thing it's the High School Musical and it will be performed next a week from this weekend I'm not sure about the senior citizen performance so I can't speak to that but opening night would be Thursday um the 13th through the 16th can I can you back up that real quick just because it's that um I saw this on social media but wanted to highlight it um because I thought it was pretty cool I think the the cast and crew of that play got to speak with one of the original or one of the Broadway cast members this week right y came up and and had a talk so that that was that's a great opportunity for that y there's an article Facebook post
082there's a post by our Facebook whoever had to do with that thank you the theater program at the high school has a lot of connections with um the Broadway scene in New York so that is a good thing they consult a lot I just have one announcement as a reminder that the oh I'm sorry um I just wanted to say that this Friday um from 4 to 8 I believe at uh the port wooden Wheels um there's a fundraiser to support the uh daily booster club come on and La down a lot that's M Brian yes and Miss Anderson I forgot I have one more the um legislative action committee will be meeting on Monday the 10 at 9:30 in this location okay and everyone is welcome the ster County School boards Association is meeting
083on Thursday there a conflict with our our show um but it is the Reps from s will be the guest presenters so and if you plan to attend Karen needs to know so that she can respond to the RSVP and the last thing I have is um to congratulate those teachers at Miller who took their students through um a new deal project in which they had to identify an issue um and research it and then present their solution so most of the kids did a really really good job it's a good it's a good program any other announcements that brings us to a motion to in favor thank you all very much thank you