001charge I'll make a deal we want live it is 7 turn and we are returning to public session if we could please call the rooll Dr jacobo here miss Lao here miss Jordan here Mr Spicer here Dr Collins here miss Anderson here Mr Ryder is excused Miss Fitzgerald is excused Miss dandas alord is excused and please stand for the pledge of Alle Alle 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 [Music] all we do have one resolution coming out of executive session Boe 55 be it resolved that the board hereby upholds the decision of the superintendent of schools regarding a student discipline appeal student student number 765 as reviewed at this meeting we have a motion
002to accept that second any discussion all in favor I that resolution is approved our next resolution is a special recognition and gives me great pleasure to invite Mr Steve Gardner to stand in front of us along we'll stand at the end it really does I take great pride in reading this because 25 years ago this man was the coach of my two daughters and they were not the great years but they but they were fun years and they had a great time so I am very grateful for that a resolution for Coach Steve Gardner Boe 54 whereas the great honor of being inducted into the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame was recently bestowed upon our longtime girls of VAR City basketball coach Steve Gardner and whereas this award recognizes many other things Steve
003Gardner's leadership dedication Focus enthusiasm and commitment to the girls varsity basketball program and the team over the past 35 years and his incredible achievement of collecting a record of 447 wins and 283 losses and being tied in 35th place in alltime wins for New York State girls high school basketball coaches and wellas in addition to his legendary coaching skills he is also a wonderful music teacher at Kingston high school and the inspiring M marching band director thereby imparting his knowledge talents and passions in music to the students at Kingston High School and its School community and whereas this board of education wishes to acknowledge Steve Gardner's extraordinary achievement therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Kingston City School District recognizes Steve Gardner's accomplishments for and his ability his leadership of the
004girls of varsity basketall team during the past 35 years as well as his ability to teach lead and Inspire Excellence his ability to be a positive caring and optimistic role model for the a athletes and his dedication and tireless efforts on behalf of the students in the Kingston City School District and be it further resolved this could go on forever that the Board of Education hereby acknowledges Steve Garner's phenomenal achievement for himself the girls varsity basketball team Kingston High School the school district and the school community and expresses H its congratulations to him on being inducted into the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame motion there was a motion than I just listen it's been I think it's 37 years coaching and uh at 46 not that I'm counting but it has been it's
005spent 40 Years of teaching 37 years of coaching and um when I first found out that my wife was IBM Kingston um I thought it was Kingston Ontario Canada from Northern New York from B so I didn't know what a Kingston was and it has been an absolute thrill to work for this district and this constant Support over the years that we have gotten so many familiar bases that I've gotten that that the band and basketball has gotten has just been incredible it's been it's for someone who didn't grow up in this community it's our so thank you to all of you for the support we' had forever it's been it's been fun and I have one other thing Daniel Fray so we need to I got it mortified he's good he's good thank you
006so much I really appreciate I I do you believe we have to have a motion to approve that resolution still move still second and all in favor congratulations thank you and congratulations to your wife as well and I do just want to just to we we usually have comment in between I just say to thank Post gner I mean I hate that 13 years ago whenever they came here and someone told me oh yeah the that's the band director and they oh he's the basketball coach so I thought that that's that's in congruent you know and and then I went and saw our girls play and and Coach Garner coach and I'm probably like basketball a little more than the average superintended so I just had gave him a little some tips out the hallway
007and what he should have done against Marboro um I had a few things I want to say minut but it's been it's just just great to watch him work with with with the band and with with our girls Arsy basketball team and the success that they've had and um his demeanor and how he conducts himself as a coach on the sidelines um how he's been through good bad and indifferent and takes it all very much like like he he is here right now U it's just just such a great asset and such a great example for everyone who sees the King City School District and our students so thank you Mr carner thank you our next order of business is the approval of the minutes um we have minutes from March 13th if I could
008have a motion so move and any discussion on the minutes for March 13th all in favor I any opposed the minutes for March 13th have been approved and we also have minutes from April 3rd a motion to and a second second any discussion all in favor of approving the minutes from April 3rd and they are approved we are now at our public participation is there anyone here who would like to speak to the board seeing and hearing none we can move to the superintendent report Dr Panino thank you Miss Anderson um first thing on the superintendent report is our principal for thear pre School Miss C miss good evening um thank you for inviting me again to come and speak about Mahar prek um I am truly grateful for the district and board's continued support
009of this program this year my presentation highlightes the current New York State directive to utilize play as a way to uphold the expectations embedded in the New York state standards and it also focuses on how we play we use play as a valuable teaching strategy in the classroom to maintain developmental expectations because research shows that children learn best when they are engaged in active play-based learning I made a video again this year because I thought that pictures and videos of the students is the best way to capture the magic that happens here at Mahar every day so thank you thank you to my staff and I hope you enjoy thank you for inviting me here tonight to share a little bit about what is going on at Mahar preschool first let's take a look at
010what is new this year at Mahar preschool in the spring of 2023 we were awarded the universal prek expansion rant this has allowed us to open two additional classrooms for the 23 24 school year increasing our enrollment from 80 to 120 students due to this expansion we were able to hire three new classroom teachers and eight new teaching assistants this grant also allowed us to expand Universal pre in the community we have partnered with Kingston Catholic and L Learners Preschool making our community-based Universal prekas sites a total of eight when combined with Mahar pre and George Washington our district is able to offer Le 10 Universal prek options here's a little bit about some new programs at Mahar this year this year Mahar has been able to participate in the fresh fruit and vegetable program
011every Tuesday and Thursday our students get to try a new fruit or vegetable we have also implemented our Mahar prek kbis plan that our staff worked on with Laura rer and Jennifer Francisco throughout the 2223 school year our plan focuses on being safe kind and responsible in all areas of our school lastly we have been working with an Styers since September she's a forest education consultant out of Rockport main she's been able to provide professional development to all our staff and onsite training during the day to our teachers I would also like to highlight some important things that are still occurring at Mahar this year our dual program is still thriving this year we have 12 Native Spanish speakers and eight native English speakers in the classroom we are growing our work outdoors in the
012forest this year classes are outside in the forest 3 days a week for up to 2 hours each day we have also continued our work with Lindsay Barton to strengthen our students pre-writing skills including F motor skills oral storytelling and story acting lastly we have continued to strengthen our teaching this year by focusing on intentional practices our goal at mahara preschool this year is focusing on building capacity by strengthening cognitive and Social Development through intentional play experiences intentional play experiences provide opportunities for children to learn and practice important skills playful learning includes Choice exploration and engagement when folded into instruction and the daily schedule children are G given opportunities to engage in Hands-On experiences with materials develop intrinsic skills in all the domains of learning which include cognitive physical motor communication and language and social
013and emotional development think symbolically while connecting ideas feelings and facts to build new understanding construct their own knowledge and deepen previous knowledge through direct experiences set goals develop and share ideas make rules negotiate challenges and choose how long to play explore create pretend imagine and learn from trial and error and talk debate and express intenal play means providing enough time and an environment that encourages play that involves F belief symbolism role playing and having and sharing ideas that can lead to Greater learning gains this requires a careful look not only at the time in the schedule but the materials resources and space available for children to get the most out of play opportunities intentional play also requires Educators to plan and guide playful learning activities that are Hands-On and experiential in nature that are also
014linked to a concept unit or theme and focused on the process of learning this supports meaningful interactions among students and Educators and also leads to specific Developmental and learning goals at mahara we are preparing our students for Success according to the future of jobs report in 2020 the top skills employers are looking for are critical thinking analysis problem solving self-management and active learning critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally order to understand logical connections between ideas analysis happens every time a child asks questions predicts classifies Compares or evaluates problem solving which is the ability to see a different way to do something generate new ideas and use materials in new ways self-management the ability to set and Achieve goals overcome challenges and control our emotions and behaviors and active learning having sensory
015motor experiences using the body to express through movement and developing fine motor skills to effectively support future writing performance play can be classified by the types of activities in which children engage types of play usually cross over multiple stages of play and all types support children's social and emotional development and learning across domains with varying degrees of emphasis learning highlights of functional or sensory motor play include fine and large motor skills coordination exploration and Discovery problem solving and communication presenting ideas collaboration cooperation Divergent thinking and creativity self-regulation and conflict resolution make up the learning highlights of sociodramatic imaginative or pretend play constructive play is playing and building with objects to construct something sometimes with a goal in mind this can be done either independently or with a group the last type of play is games
016with rules learning highlights include conflict resolution self-regulation and impulse control negotiation and language building every year Mahar surveys families in June we use the results to strengthen and improve our practice for the following school year last June 53 out of 80 families responded and I would like to share some feedback that we are proud of 100% of families agreed or strongly agreed that their child enjoyed Mahar preschool their child benefited from attending Mahar preschool Mahar preschool respected and celebrated cultural values of their family and that they felt welcomed respected and their contributions were valued in addition to the positive feedback we also received several comments requesting that beginning of the year families be allowed to walk their child to the classroom instead of dropping at the door we listened and this year invited families to
017walk their child into the class for the first two days of school in order to support our families with this big new transition words can't describe how lucky we all feel at Mahar to have the opportunity to grow educate and Inspire our youngest learners so that they are prepared for today's world questions or comments from the board Mrs Jordan I just um I think it's just pure joy to see those those images of the kids and um and your staff having such Wonder time and I think that they have to change the little expression everything you needed to learn you learned in preschool but what strikes me really is the skills that you're working on I wish could be pushed up to middle school and high school because those those are valuable kinds of constructs
018that every child should have throughout so I really applaud you all for creating such one space thank you Dr jaob um I also it was a great presentation so nice to see all the little kids and all those smiling faces and I just love in particular all the time that you're spending outside um and it looked like some rainy time outside too which is actually really nice so can you talk a little bit about that it's the Wilderness Program or the Wilderness pleas call like our outdoor Forest education program so we partnered I think four years ago now with the acorn School in award because they received um a grant the neighboring Tree Project Grant so they um work with our staff um they have provided most of the gear um so that we can
019go out all weather so they see the snowsuits we have the rain pants they all have boots um waterproof gloves um so and they come um on Mondays um outside with the the children um usually our grade level meeting time um they are here or at least every other month um I know for our two-hour delay um an Styers is coming back from Rockport main to spend the day she'll spend two hours in the morning doing professional development and then she'll be joining the classes outside and so it's just a continued process of um being out there and learning how we could bring some curriculum out there in addition to just the open-ended play and the problem solving that occurs um and um I've already let them know that next year we're looking at trying
020to spend a half a day out there once a week um to extend that time okay thank you Dr K thank you m is wonderful and I would agree I love the outdoor emphasis and emphasis on play in general which think we all could benefit from probably um but I I was wondering if you could just speak a little bit more about the bilingual class in terms of um entry into the supply and demand sort of balance that's happening and how that process um so so far um being our fifth year we have been pretty much able to accommodate any native Spanish speaker um able to go in there based on our enrollment and then with the English speakers um you know they give a preference if they want traditional or du language and then
021we do a lottery kind of pick out of a hat type of thing if who can go enter as um english- speaking and then generally um there's teaching assist in that classroom but the teachers bilingual the T have picked up a lot of Spanish and pretty much um there's just really um exposure to to both languages for the students so it's like basic colors shapes you know the morning the morning meeting time read alouds are done in both languages that's great so it sounds like there are been more people interested than there are slots currently native English speakers yes Mr spener first I saw your a lot of not so first congratulations on being awarded the universal prek expansion grant that is a particularly challenging grant to get thanks to Dr felo and our principal
022compy and a growth from 80 to 120 children and also continuing the Dual language classroom program just just wonderful all gratitude second your participation in the fresh fruit program seems small but it can be a game changer uh for the beginning of sharing healthy eating options for a number of our children who only experience vegetables or cans so thank you for that third thank you for implementing your PBIS program PRK is the building block for install for for instilling in our children the importance of kindness acceptance responsibility and safety so thank you for that what also what I learned this is me see third to this before what I learned as an elementary principle play is not play intentional play is complicated is a complicated structured process and the beginning of children learning by doing
023and learning as part of what we do as a daily part of BL not separated now I'm doing learning now I'm doing as even as adults we all live and learn at the same time it's the same process and uh lastly I'm just so proud of this entire District again for understanding the value and and and necessity for a pre for our district population in terms of uh a later increased graduation rate effect on decreased dropout rate and increased College ready children 12 years later so thank you very much it's an outstanding program thank you Mr just I think I speak for everyone who works in Mahar it's it's really a nice thing to have the prek here um we get we get invited to a lot of their events sometimes it's ice cream sometimes
024it's you know different things that they're doing around the building but but sometimes when I'm down a teaching learning wi I can look out the window and I see the yellow rain coats marching up the hill and it's just it's just so fun see and they do go in just a little bit outside the program I do want to say another thing is when coming in every day now the new crossing guard Mr boil is amazing oh was so nice this morning I came in I wasn't in such a great mood I was pulling up the driveway and she has the biggest smile and she's saying hello to all the ks she weighs to me like you and it's like this is going to be all right so she's really what a great addition and
025I think she it's it's a nice way I think for our families and for all of us to start our day to have her smiling face up yes I agree very thankful for her any other comments thank you Miss con thank you okay next we have Mrs carbon with the school district budget feel like I've seen so many different budget presentation they're all pretty something hello again it's been so long since we had this m conversation so this evening I bring you a updated budget presentation for adoption tonight our proposed budget there will be some um overviews from our previous conversation just for those who were not able to watch um last week or all conversation since so much has changed and then a few new points as we've spoken before about uh the school
026district's Revenue resources being primarily state federal aid investment interest income tax interest miscellanous revenues fund balance and our tax levy as everyone is familiar with our largest expense drivers being staff salaries and employee benefits which is about 70% of our budget as is the case with most organizations for our students with disabilities at service to maintain our facilities our transportation cost excuse me contractual expenses sex books equipment supplies and operations and maintenance considerations for this and every budget um loss of school Improvement funding due to improved School designations as we discussed last week as our status improves we lose funding for some of those supports that we use to improve our status but we still need to maintain them so the district has committed to do so reduction in title grant funding due to get
027Dem graphic changes Revenue adjustments based on current spending levels so that's an ongoing process until we get to this point and some of our higher cost drivers Bose expenses high cost Aid which is the a category with special education and transportation anticipated changes for the enacted budget which as you know we're still waiting for special education Revenue projections anticipated uh Transportation needs as we continue to adjust um and configure to our new normal is what I call us coming out of the pandemic and still addressing driver shortages continued review on the line item expenditures which is also an ongoing process that brings us to this point looking at our our investments our last budet of stimulus funding that will expire this year the impact of staff retirements and the allocation of fund balance and reserves
028for our budget so our budget goals and this is not an all inclusive list but a highlight of some of the ongoing conversations that we've been having for several months leading up to this point and most of these have to do with art funding but there are few a couple of bullets that do not or continuations so maintaining inst structural and social emotional supports that the district funded with stimulus funds examples are RTI reading and now additional social workers by social workers guiding the counselor positions and contined support of positions that were paid from Carissa which is the second round of stimulus funding that ended June 30 last year District made commitments to maintain those supports for our students so that carries over into this year so part of this conversation for our budget this
029year has to do with a continuation of where we've been as these stud FS have come into the district we've been working through the pandemic post pandemic supporting our students and our families and how we move forward with a new normal supporting our enl students and families with additional enl teachers bilingual family workers supporting our instructional team as we continue to leverage instructional technology to instruct and support our students just a reminder of our transition to one toone Chromebooks which is a huge support for our students but then also supporting our staff and our faculty as we leverage this technology to instruct our our children differently so instructional coaches for those those efforts continue to P for the district's commitment to diversity equid inclusion and diversity in our recruitment pretention and Equity so our director
030of diversity Equity inclusion the director of diversity Recruitment protention and Equity improving districtwide safety at by placing front desk monitors in each of our buildings placing additional monitors in both middle schools to provide additional supports because safety is ongoing conc consideration so contining that support and then our last bullet continue support of District programming such as I ready which is the K8 math curriculum Assessment program that's been being implemented as we speak and then L literacy initiatives that have been instituted as well to support our students K2 and Sh those those supports up our proposed budget summary so our current budget for this year 54,8 190 sorry our current tax levy was $13.9 Million roughly our proposed tax levy for 2425 is $1,600,000 just under a 3.26% increase our proposed budget is $231 m562 which
031includes the AR salary and benefits offset by attrition and retirement our revenues sorry our revenues our base revenues come up to $224,300 [Music] have an enactive budget at this moment an allocation of $350,000 from our tax reduction Reserve which is designed to be used over the course of 10 years and our average every year since been implemented about five years ago is $350,000 and an inter fund transfer for de service of $1.4 million which was part of the 2324 budget but because our interest income Revenue has been um so far exceeding above we interest rates is not anticipated being needed for this year so rolling it over to balance next year's budget and that brings us two total proposed revenues of $ 23152 our primary changes in Revenue our state increase in total just under
032$7 million that number reflects almost a million dollar less Foundation law prescribes as we previously discussed for kingas City School District it's the difference in the CPI inflation factor in that formula that actual rate is 4.1% the governor has proposed a budget that has a 10e average that's been deflated because the outliers the highest year and the lowest year have been removed and that number is just above 2% so that difference for Kingston is just over $950,000 in reduced found a our proposed tax levy increase of $3.7 million our projected increase in interest income for $290,000 and this is what's above this year's budget so it is we not budgeting to have another banner year like we did this year knowing that the FED is looking to reduce interest rates most likely later on this
033year other miscellaneous Revenue inrees $192,800 and then the fund additional fund balance allocations of $850,000 so that's the primary drivers of our total revenue increase of 11,99 18,300 just to give an illustration of what our revenues look like and this these percentages stay pretty um stable year to year so our local our property tax revenue so for Kanas City School District that's just under 55% of our Revenue our state aid revenue is about 42% Federal would be um reimbursements for our school Lun fund that reimburse the district various expenses as well as our federal funds in terms of operations which is why such a small amount does not reflect stimulus and Grant and then miscellaneous about 3% just as another comparison in five years of revenue for our district why I wanted to show this
034graph is because the orange area shows our levels of state aid Revenue compared to our local tax property tax revenue and how it's grown over the course of time but and also our local share on tax Lev Revenue increas it's been kept pretty stable over the past several years but last year had the largest um proportion of state aid Revenue which is the only year in several years that the form was fully funded for the district this year is slightly smaller because that proportion is slightly less if we're not for the fact that we have an increase in our expense based a so a that we get based on how much we've spent this would be a smaller number so the five key factors just as a recap of our tax levy starting with the
035current year tax levies where we start the tax based growth factor set by the New York State uh property real property tax department and that's an individual uh Factor that's assigned for every District based on its own U population not population but uh properties sorry tax properties CPI our inflation Factor pilot payments that change there in year-over-year and exclusions so exclusions that are allowed for Capital uh primarily our Debt Service as well as large changes in retirement contributions and just a recap I kept this illustration for anyone who was not available last week to watch just because it shows the difference in when we talk about where you start off um affecting the revenue for the district this year's uh property tax we did not ask the community for the maximum allowable Levy The increased
036day a allowed us to balance the budget with 2.9% increase which was lower than the maximum allowable Levy of 3.26% but the impact rolling into next year's budget this is where we're actually starting if we had started with the maximum allowable ly the formula is the same and just to recap CPI or inflation is the only place in the form because constantly called a 2% tax C is n but down at the bottom the difference it's the same percentage increase year over year but the dollars change so the increase for this year maximum allowable Levy is $3.7 million whereas at maximum allowable Levy from 23 24 would give $4 million a difference of $300,000 the this difference and these differences are always considered when we're preparing budgets and proposing and requesting from the board and
037the community uh property tax increases but just for those who are not familiar just wanted to go over and give an illustration of what that difference looks like but it's a balance that we constantly make and more often than not the district does ask Community for less than the maximum allow mindful our expense allocations I started with a a graphic just so we can see our money on as previously say the salary benefits for our staff is most of our expenditures but we need people to educate our children to maintain our facilities equipment contractual supplies and other 25% tech service is about 3 and a qu% along with the interest just under 5% of and funding transfers between the fedal and the school Lund is a very small percentage so this year-over is pretty consistently
038what the different categories of our expenses look like you have the primary changes in our expenses year over year salaries being just over $8 million which includes $2 million that was previously funded by Art but also offset byri and retirements an increase in benefits of just under $1.6 million which is pretty it's less than 5% Transportation a million dollars CPI additional services in some um some instances loes $1.7 million and primarily our special education and student support programs that they offer that we increase participation in a reduction in debt service expenses 42425 $400,000 and then just miscellaneous the changes netting to just under $21,000 so that brings our expense increase to the same 11,993 any questions thank you any questions or comments from the board we don't have a budget yet we not have a
039state budget yet right just for the for the many people watching at home um could you just explain what would happen or what will happen if the budget that we relied on in preparing these numbers changes in reality when they pass it so let's say we get a better CP for instance and so there's more money that we get what would process be would we just replace the state into those categories that we've had to take from our we would depending on what that change would be we would first look at our uh fund balance and Reserve allocations but then also look at some areas depending on what that that difference is we hedged just to go back we the reason why we increased the fund balance allocation slightly was just to hedge the hope
040that we would receive additional Foundation once the budget was passed would start there but it some wonderful surprise happened and we received significantly more money then we'd have conversations about what other um adjustments um need to be made but the budget as it is we have prepared um conservatively because we don't have an acted state budget but confident that we're funding what needs to be funded and I don't mean to be vague in my answer no I just want people to understand that we still have to vote on our even if the state has not passed legally the board has got to adopt a budget and there's a for those who are watching there's a timeline by law that the board has to adopt a budget to move forward so our district as well as
041the other 700 plus districts across the street over the P next week are all the boards are adopting budgets because we have to and it doesn't matter that the state has not passed a budget um we still have to move forward which is very um challenging and unnerving in many cases for us it's not the reduction that some other districts have seen But for us we still have needs that we have to address but there's uncertainty and even with the hedging the only reason for the hedging um to your point Mrs Jordan is because historically more often than not the enacted budget includes more uh State a for districts than the executive budget but since it's not promised we can only hedge but the Hedge was needed so that we can make that we're funding
042everything um appropriately with the conditions that we're working on and the timeline thank you Mr Spicer um Miss car I find your budget presentations clear and understandable they provide a detailed explanation of how our budget addresses our larg district goals and helps our community understand our District's professional and serious stewardship of their tax dollars and I wanted to add nobody ever thanks the assistant superintendent for business because your work is exactly flashy but it's vital so thank you so much just true professional thank Dr to I agree I I really appreciate the um presentations and we've now had several of these and each one gets as closer and closer and closer so um I appreciate that here here we are um so thank you for that and for all the hard work and for maintaining
043the goals and our and the priorities that we all set out from the very beginning that are so important to us around um student support um academic and social and also Dei and safety and all the things that you listed um when the when the budget is passed soon next few days hopefully right I assume we'll get kind of like a final version we we we'll see kind of what we have ended up with and we thank you and I just want to add these conversations preparing both the budget and these presentations they're behind the scenes conversations and and work that is done as a collaborative team um for months before we get to this point and we have um in addition to our tnl team our uh operational directors are excellent what they do
044and it helps this process tremendously thank you I agree with Dr jaob with each presentation kind of fine-tuned things just a little bit better for me so I appreciate that thank you very much any other comments or questions sorry thank you thank you and I'll be freef just a few District updates uh things going on just I know um last time we were around we were talking about graduation we contined to plan for graduation in June um we are we we heard some feedback around seating so we're working on that there'll be more of that more really a more comprehensive communication coming out soon so um we continue to the event continues to evolve a little bit especially as we hear feedback and see what we can and can't do uh but I think we're
045going to be um in a really good place when we get another another week or so under our belt the planning so we're think we um you know it's doing the best we can with what we have we don't have deep Stadium obviously that's the that's the ultimate obviously that's the best venue for us but I think we're going to do everything we can to make this a special day for our graduates and our families point of order don't we have to vote on the budget oh yeah we're not coming yet we're not there yet but yes you do have to vote on the bud this time we were moving past just for um everyone um want to welcome Dr Williams who is their second day here in the kingas city school district so she's
046been making her Rounds Around buildings and making sure she has her ID and her parking PR and everything she needs I saw her working with Stevie CRA the other day so she knows everything she needs to know about teams now I'm sure um he's he's Master but yeah so but welcome Dr Williams we're looking forward to with um good news on our building project phase one so we have got we the Architectural Review is complete so I'm meeting with the Architects and BBL tomorrow to discuss exactly where we are we still have Mechanicals and other things that need to be looked at but this it was it was it took six months to get there we expected four to six weeks for for the review but it really only took two so there's some they're
047moving along so we're excited about that and I don't know what that really does for our timeline but it is still good progress in the right in the right direction so I'll have more updates next week after I speak with casc BBL uh playgrounds are moving along uh not as fast as we'd like but the weather hasn't been great as you all know um but the playgrounds are moving along the contractors have been on site Dylan is staying on top of them basically daily uh to make sure they have the right people and that they're getting the work done but we're getting close to complete obviously the the port and place Services aren't being done just yet have to wa Al it was warm enough today it wasn't two days ago so it's um welcome
048tole tomorrow and it won't be tomorrow so welcome to the hon Valley um other things going on in our buildings uh just to give you a quick beets update Mr Ryder and I met with the mayor and uh the project manager uh Jack Schoonmaker yesterday things are going along well uh they've hit some bumps as you always do especially in the first part of construction uh found some rock found some you know um envir enal issues they had to deal with but they've been doing a good job jug juggling the money and using using the um you know using their the funding to to make sure they can make that thing happen make those things happen so we're we're still looking good we're still looking like you know the the end of August will the
049the stadium itself will be ready um the locker rooms may be a little bit behind the the stadium itself but I the important part for us right now is we have the stadium for for practices and for games so we still look at end of August for that um so it's good progress being made um our smart school bond keep continues as we finishing up the install of cameras all across the district um the we're also looking at as part of our F part our project for um for the whole the whole district is we're looking into geothermal uh kind of as a a a little bit of a a trial run not a pilot a trial run for um for geothermal and our focus is on is on chamber school so we will again
050Mr um padrini will probably talk more about that when he comes at our next meeting to discuss where they are but we're I think it's an interesting thing for us to to try and to see how it works uh Athletics Fields two things on that we've been you know not blessed with great weather so far a lot of rain um but we've been keeping up the fields pretty well there were games there last night Fields were in good shape um guner in particular is in good shape and field five which is our Varsity competition field is in very good shape um hope for obviously we're not going to have another day like today tomorrow or the next day or the day after that from what I'm seeing but uh we we continue to take care
051of it we also have ksq been working um with an outside consultant to take an overall look at all of our fields and the usage and how even when DEET comes back online how can what are some improvements we can make to be um almost say less relying on beets but to have um more flexibility even with beets here so um again we're expecting that that report to come back soon uh as you all know I told you we had some water damage at KHS we had a a leak started on the third floor of West building and a leak down to the first floor through the walls and the ceiling um eight rooms were affected uh ceiling tile insulation had water in it and just a little bit of water under the cabinets um
052the drying process so we've removed removed the the wet uh the walls that were damaged we've removed the the insulation that was damaged uh we have serve pro in there they've recorded off the areas some of you on Saturday you may have saw if you look down the hall um from the from one of the classrooms there that you might have seen the kind of little containment area we have there but they're continuing to dry that area there and our construction crew will be in probably around Friday and reconstruct those walls put in the new ceiling tiles all things was probably going to take us a couple weeks but um we got on it fast so the water didn't last long got everything out of there got everything that need to be dried dried out
053we'll replace it have really and I give credit to the high school uh Administration really didn't miss didn't miss a beat able to relocate with people they needed to relocate continue on with school day without without a hiccup at all so um was that a failure of something that caused we're not 100% sure exactly correct Dy it seemed like it's kind of a fluke where a pipe was touching from what I how I understand a pipe was touching some duck work and the vibration itself from the duct work and the pipe created it where in the pipe it just a just kind of a fluke thing way making sure that's not happening anywh and that is new construction correct that is that is new construction it's new construction but unfortunately it's no longer under warranty
054so we are where we are don't they have those little indicators like if there's moisture the alarms go up so we have um give the Deets update um we are having our uh diverse Educators job fair on April 27th at Kingston High School and two other things first of all I want to thank the board for the um form on Saturday I thought there was a lot of interesting information and our tablers were topnotch that's for sure um the game uh but I think it's it's we need to continue to do things like that and and keep reaching out and we'll get better at it as we go along um but we also did I want to thank both Mr Parker and um Mr corba because they engaged with UD National to to put in
055for this award and they came and inspected us and went through all our policies and our procedures and our building plans and we received the ex the school safety Excellence award from UDA National and so we're we're proud to have that and again it's a um really a lot of work we're doing with Al Paris and with Chris corba and Mr Parker getting all those things lined up that was really the plan around having Chris here to help us um and those are the kinds of things recognition we get for that type of work so thank you to them for their hard work and that is all I have for any questions or comments for Dr Peno okay sure so that safety award like what what were the metrics what were we me yeah I
056mean it was it was a pretty big Endeavor uh you know there's a there's the whole checklist of things that they need to see they need to see all your plans they needed to do inspections of the buildings they needed to know what your drills were and how you were conducting your training um what your safety people you know how they were trained or and how they were deployed those kind of things looking at things like the um the Raptor system you know looking at our entries and and how safe are we um how safe is our school on a day-to-day basis what those it look like as far as the door like the door buzzers of Kingston High School are a good thing to put into so it's it's a it's a it's like
057a safety order yeah it is it's really that's exactly what it is so it's just a long checklist of things you look at you submit what you have they take a look and they decide whether not you're worthy of the award okay thank you that moves us into um Board of Education business our first order of business is to um adopt or approve the both these um election and budget so um I think we should probably do them separately we need to approve um membership in the Bose's board for and I'll just read the names uh Susan Gilmore from Highland Valerie story from Glenford Lucy vanle from Kingston William Hest from walkill and Steven Spicer from olster Park if I could have a motion to Summer any discussion all in favor opposed so the um
058election all those members are approved the second item is Boe 53 that is the approval of the Bose's administrative budget um whereas the Board of Education of the Kingston of the city school district of the city of Kingston New York is in accordance with education law must adopt a resolution either approving or disapproving the Bose's administrative budget whereas a vote upon such approval or disapproval has been scheduled for today the date April 16th if we could have any discussion on the Bose's budget I just want to say that um the presentation that they made with the video was very helpful I thought very clear and if anybody wasn't a to view it I think it's worth your six minutes to do so yeah actually it was very well done all in favor of um approving
059the Bose's administrative budget for 2425 any opposed that budget is approved um our next resolution is our now we Mrs Jordan it's our time the Kingston City School District um Bud budget and there are two parts of this um b75 is the 2425 property tax report card whereas the board of educate Board of the city school district of the city of Kingston New York ster County must adopt the property tax report card to be appended to the annual School District budget for the fiscal year of 2024 2025 and whereas the property tax report card required by sections 17167 and 2601a 3 of the education La is attached do I have a motion to approve the or accept the property tax report card so move second any discussion all in favor any opposed so the b75
060property tax report card has been approved and now b76 the adoption of the 2425 School District budget whereas the Board of Education of the city school district of the city of Kingston New York oler County desires to establish necessary Appropriations for the operation of School District programs for the fiscal year 2024 and 2025 whereas the Appropriations have been examined by the Board of Education in accordance with applicable regulations and education law do I have a motion to Su any discussion on the kingon board I'd just like to thank all the people responsible and also on Miss La for overseeing that on the committee I just think it's very helpful and I have a lot of confidence that people thank you all in favor of accepting that budget any oppose so our we have adopted the
061School District budget for 2425 our next board business is the policy committee we have a few items Mrs Jordan can you walk us through that yes um in your library you had several policies that are there for your first reading one is upk attendance and I did have question for Dr pel did you need that tonight or is it timely enough if we vote on it at the next meeting yeah that was I I was just wondering I it wasn't a very long policy it will be added to our attendance policy and I just wondered if anyone had an OB ction to voting on it tonight so it be available for the registration for on new upk students so that was my hope as well but right now it would be helpful I think um
062if you want to take a moment to peruse it in your library if you haven't um I think it's pretty straightforward and the biggest difference again is that uh this this requires the family to make a commitment to participate days a week and that's how the program is constructed and if they don't if they're just using it like two days a week they can't stay in that program so we're trying to make the attendance part of our policy so that it can affect positively as many families who can make that commitment as possible so it's not an update we never had a policy we never had a it was never demanded before but because we have limited slots and people are not is um dedicated to coming five days a week it precludes other families
063who would like that slot from coming so we had to put it in policy in order to make it something that could be enforced and because of the uniqueness of the upk the our regular tenants policy doesn't really apply so that's why it's a0 one to our other policy if people feel comfortable I would like to move that we adopt that tonight um so I I would move that for your approval tonight and that's policy number 51.1 upk attendance do we have a second all in favor so any opposed the the other two policies for first reading are not rushed in that way so we can take till next our our next meeting to um forward those for approval one is on number 43211 time out and physical restraint for all students the big change
064is it used to be for students with IEPs or disabilities and now it pertains to all students so you might want to make sure you read that number 2310 regular board meetings very insignificant change it's mostly around the um covid regulations kind of setting and basically anybody who cannot attend in person can video conference the meeting but they are not counted as part of the Quorum if there is a quorum present here then that person can participate fully and vote if there's no Quorum it's moot because then there's no meeting so they can't be counted for the quum so I think that encapsulates basically that and for a vote tonight is home band instruction if you looked at it and I want to thank M Siri for highlighting for us it makes it so much
065easier to see the changes but she worked with the attorney and the language awkwardness it doesn't really say anything different than it did but it's not awkward any longer or less awkward I legal and less awkward less awkward so I would move that we um vote on accepting policy 4327 home band instruction all in favor so we have approved 51.1 upk attendance and we have approved 4327 home bound instruction that's correct and we did at our meeting on March 1st or it wasn't the first whatever it was um it was on the 12th April 12th but we the minutes for March 1 that's what's confusing me um we did have a lengthy discussion about a professional staff dress code and we all look forward to the seven minutes it's going to take to come up
066with that especially Mr Reinhardt there was a a strong consensus around the idea that we should be able to discriminate between faculty and staff and students distinguish disting disting excuse me it's late and I'm tired but um but it there was a consensus around that how we get to that point where we uh can be more specific will be a very interesting exercise Dr calino is looking forward with to that process with great anticipation but thank you and again the committee is always wonderful to work with they're very thoughtful about every word and we try to present it to you in a finished form and I really appreciate um again Mrs Siri taking the time to highlight the working copy that we have so that you can see what the work is more readily thank
067you that's it thank you and now audit and finance Mrs La okay the audit and finance committee met on April 9th at 9:00 a.m. the committee approved the minutes from the March 202 meeting the committee reviewed the January 2024 claims auditor treasure and fund reports and voted to accept these reports Mr Denny asked about the return rates listed on the treasurers report it was explained that the reserves are in investment accounts that yield the better rate funds held at MNT Bank are liquid funds the committee discussed the 10-year repair Reserve plan Mr Ryder made a motion to accept the reserve plan seconded by Mr Higgins it was approved approved unanimously this will be sent to the full board for approval at the April 16th meeting so I'd like to bring the repair Reserve uh to
068the board for approval so I'll make a motion to accept on behalf of the committee second and we are we're voting to put this on the ballot correct correct for the yes we do any discussion or questions all in favor okay budget update currently being reviewed are the updated estimates for retirements and special education rate rate increases are higher than originally expected other budget needs were discussed we are still waiting on budget numbers to be released by the state and we still are there will be a budget pres there was a budget presentation to the community on Wednesday April 10th old business Dr calino mentioned that the building projects are currently being reviewed by the state and bids will be moving forward soon miss Mrs La asked for an update on the de Stadium project
069construction is moving forward and on time and budget and Dr Cal gave a report tonight current construction includes building concession stand and restrooms for the visitors side of the field new business Miss carbin updated the committee on the Food Service audit that was recently completed the department got a very high a very good review from the Auditors Department operations are going well the meeting was adjourned and our next meeting will be May 14th 2024 at 9:00 a.m. any questions good thank you Mrs La you're welcome that brings us to our consent agenda are there any items that uh any trustees would like to have pulled from the consent agenda hearing none if I could have a motion to accept the consent agenda and a second any discussion all in favor any opposed so the consent
070agenda is approved and if I could I thought you may want to just like to I would just like to um introduce with Ryan Espinosa who's standing in the back he one of our one of our new elementary PE teachers so we were very lucky to have him and secure him so we're looking forward to September and seeing Ryan in the classroom with our students thank you thank you for coming we do have a couple of donations maybe Mrs Jordan would you be I think the donation is I've talk so much okay the Board of Education of the Kingston City School District hereby accepts with grateful appreciation the following generous donation to George Washington Elementary School from the connect kids Grant a donation of $10,200 for field trips to the Senate house and Atlanta State
071historic site to M Clifford Miller Middle School from the Miller craft fair committee 42 Lasco fans valued at 1,8 $349 and I would say that that is going to be greatly appreciated by students and staff alike and I hope that there's a new circuit [Laughter] Dyan you notice Dylan in the back has got a not a real happy face about that Don thank you um that brings us to Old business just one thing um following up from the legislative action committee meeting that we had a few weeks ago I've been in touch with the Ida and we are um talking about they're very receptive to meeting with us oh great um and so we're talking about a date likely mid to the end of May we've got elections they've got a bunch of stuff going
072going on um but they are looking forward to working with us so thank you so much that's good news thank okay so you'll work with them on your dat and I'll let you know and then I have not yet sent them our our or whatever it is I'll do that in you know closer to the meeting okay so they don't [Laughter] cancel uh any other old business I think this is old business I want to thank um Dr jaob Whit and um the writer for the wonderful Community Forum that they organized on Saturday in place of our Copan conversations and I just think that it was really the best use of our time as a board and the best energy to engage the public I I think that we all learned that we have to
073somehow tap into the people coming there um but it was wonderful and it was just um I really I think a wonderful first step for us and I I would just say that I think that is much more um helpful than our traditional coffeee conversation so I hope that that's the direction we can take in the future thank you I thought I thought it was a great program um I we learned a lot and I think we would do it a little bit differently next time um but also many many thanks to Missi and Miss for all of your logistical help and there little a little bit of a rush at the end andbody everyone handled it with Grace and it was thank you it was really impressive the number of Community Partners that were
074present um to share their information and and I think we were all a little disappointed in the number of people that walk through but just just having the presence of all of those Community reps was really nice and the presentations were great I learned a lot from both of them so thank you thank you very much and thanks to Mark in his absence and I agree I think that's the direction we need to look at how we can bring people in that can share their expertise and and provide service to our students and our families yeah yeah since I've been on the board I think it's one of the best programs I've done to Bo putting it on and I a lot of us set in on the the two presentations one one yeah yeah
075I just had one an I think it's old business um we're going to try and do some intentional um timing with the Board of Ed self- evaluation um so that we are truly evaluating the work of this year's board not um getting confused with new members and so um that probably is going to push to the end of May and June um and we may need to look look at a an additional Retreat time so um Karen I think maybe could coordinate how we can identify that time it would be nice to um just truly evaluate the work of this past year after May well June is crazy because of graduation and all kinds of other things that are going on so the superintend Well normally I I think in the he has done his
076first but I think we can still evaluate the our goals and yeah [Laughter] right any other old business new business we are in our second public comment and I'm not sure that there's anyone fighting uh and uh board member announcements Mr Spicer I just wanted to mention at the BOS annual meeting Dr shanka recognized all the districts in our B for the areas they are leading they're leading example the rest of the districts our district was recognized for its work in advancing programs to increase diversity inclusion and belonging I thought that was wonderful I'm also proud of us uh for that yes but for also uh the community which we do like the number of us who participated in the so Jour of Truth March and also our writing and adopting an anti- resolution a
077anti-racism resolution a few years ago that a couple of other school boards asked if they could copy or amend for their for their own that was wonderful and I also wanted to offer a warm welcome to our newest assistant superintendent Dr Williams your reputation and professional educational Excellence precedes you and we are all very excited to see your impact the impact of your addition to our leadership team welcome thank you so much I'm equally excited I just wanted to mention the job fair the job and career fair that was at KHS on uh Monday last yesterday um and thank you to the staff who were behind the scenes working on that that was another indication of how many partners we have in this community that are willing to help our kids and adults find jobs
078so it was it was uh nicely done very nicely done I think thanks to the Tina di who's our who's our transition um and internship coordinator as well as Dr schorer and her team at the high school who put this together and pulled it off yeah it was and they did a great video I didn't see the video yeah Dr sarker did a great advertisement for it so I just want to say but you didn't mention the great food that they served us at bosis the other night uh the culinary kids amazing job they did I got I we went around and met so many of the students and it seems like everybody I asked where are you from Kingston Kingston Kingston it was wonderful and they came and talked to us at the table
079they were a great bunch of kids the food was excellent It's always a nice nice time and there were several Kingson students that were recognized yeah and um I don't recall their names I wish that I had thought to note that but um it was nice it was nice to here any other announcements that brings us to the end if we could have a motion for adjournment so move and a second all in favor thank you very much thank you I think this meeting