Board of Education Meeting (03/11/2026)

001Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Okay. Good evening everyone. I'd like to welcome you to the March 11, 2026 planning session of the Levittown Board of Education. May I have a motion to convene the meeting? Phyllis, do I have a second? Jen, all in favor? Uh, five, six. Um, I'd like to, um, may I

002have a motion to move into executive session for the purpose of discussing contract negotiations with CSEA district personnel and to seek advice from district council. Maryanne, do I have a second? Jen, all in favor? All of us >> against six. Okay, there was six. Uh, we'll return at 7:30 and recite the pledge of alleg Thank you. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. into Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

003Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Okay, >> fabulous. Good evening everyone. I'd like to welcome you to the March 11th, 2026 planning session of the Levittown Board of Education. May I have a motion to reconvene the meeting? Peggy, do I have a second? Phyllis. All in favor? It's all of us. Uh, please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and

004to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> May we please have a moment of silence to remember all those serving our country at home and overseas. Thank you. I will now turn the meeting over to Mr. Winch. >> Thank you, President Lang. Uh so, uh this planning session will be followed, uh in a little bit by our regular meeting. Uh but first, we have some very exciting budget presentations for the 2627 school year. So, at this point, I'm going to turn it on over to Mr. Fabiano. >> Thank you, Superintendent Winch. Um this is a continuation of uh our discussion uh at the last meeting at our last planning session. Uh the uh just to bring us up to speed on that uh we

005have begun to incorporate uh some of the known recommendations that we will be see be receiving from the office of the state controller uh on our budgetary practices uh as well as some of the other recommendations that they will be coming out with uh in their um uh what is now coming up on a two-year audit. Um so uh with that said, I'm going to jump right into uh our presentation. Uh this is our our uh schedule uh of events. You can see we're coming uh down to the end of uh the uh timeline for the budget adoption. We have just one more meeting in March uh where you where you will be presented with the final budget uh to uh to approve and that will be the budget that will be voted on uh

006uh by the community on um on uh May 19th. Uh so uh tonight's agenda I I we're going to we're going to review some of the reports that we put together. Um you have hard copies in your budget binder. Uh the first one is our reserve funds budgetary review and annual report. This is a a new report uh again based uh uh on um uh one of the recommendations of our state controller uh that we complete um and have the board accept the use of reserve funds and appropriated fund balance in the budget and not have it just be uh implied when we adopt the appropriations. Uh I want to thank uh Miss Linda Doichek for helping put this together. um our district treasurer. Um so again, thank you for that, Linda. Uh also, we'll

007be um also in your binder, uh we have the update of the uh 5-year uh capital projects plan. Uh again, that will be accepted at the March 25th meeting, and we'll talk a little bit more about that uh as when we get to it. Uh this time of year, we also do the 5-year long long-term forecast. um a quick update on the tax levy limit and our proposed levy and where we rank in the county. Um and then a review of the appropriated fund balance and the use of reserves uh to balance the 2627 general fund budget. And then finally um uh the proposal that we do a $15 million capital reserve expenditure referendum. Many of these bullets are interconnected and we will see how uh the money from one flows into the other. All

008right, the reserve fund annual report. Uh this is required by our by our own board of education policy uh 5512 that's included in the report. So you can take a look at that. uh some of the new items there there uh we are we are including uh we are including a column for optimal funding levels so that we can discuss what the target ranges are for certain reserves and whether or not we're staying within those reserves. Um you're you you are to authorize the any transfers in and out of the reserves. So we have a copy of that uh when you accept that report uh and then clearly delineate uh how much of the reserves will be used to balance the 2627 budget. Uh five-year capital project plan. Uh this is um this is based

009on the architect's uh building condition survey. Um our five-year capital projects plan is updated annually. Um quite simply uh we have removed the projects that are underway that have been bid out uh that are either um uh near completion or um uh or have been completed and then we add in uh some new projects. We'll talk a little bit more about that uh uh down the road. Uh but essentially it is um it it it is um uh contained contained in the report and um again you'll be asked to adopt that at the March 25th meeting. Um I hit everything here. Um and we can move on. Uh long-term forecast. Uh we present this annually uh and um uh it is recommended that all districts prepare a multi-year plan. Uh it's it's it's interesting because

010this past week we had a chance to uh sit in on a uh presentation by the commissioner of education and she did recognize the challenges districts face uh in only getting their state aid packages one year at a time. Uh it's probably the most volatile variable on the on the revenue side. we can we can uh very easily predict our tax revenue but the second largest revenue in the budget is the state aid uh and without any assistance from the state uh it is very difficult for us to make those types of assumptions and I'll demonstrate uh what what we mean uh with all the issues that are facing the state with regard to foundation aid and updating the formula and implementing the changes in the um Rockefeller center study. Uh it's unlikely that we're

011going to see multi-year state aid package proposals anytime soon. Um the other thing the other practical constraint is that again the state's revenues are quite volatile. They don't rely on property taxes as much as they rely on income taxes and those obviously fluctuate uh a a great deal more than property taxes. So it is difficult for us to get a handle on those numbers in the out years. But we will go through the reports and and kind of take a look at that. So here is the here is the long range forecast. Uh we can see here that um uh this is this is the proposed budget. This is where we stand right now in in 2627. I'm showing a balanced budget, but we we are still about $870,000 away from being in balance. uh

012not necessarily a big issue, something that will be done and addressed by the by the adoption date of uh of March 25th. Uh you you do see deficits start to grow and essentially uh the way the model is built is we are not growing the use of appropriated fund balance and reserves. Uh that would be difficult to do to rely on using that more and more because at one point we will not be able to replenish those. So structurally you do start to see a small imbalance. Uh but I do want >> Hold on, Mr. Fab. I just want to make sure because I see people that's the heat. >> Okay. The bill. >> Hey. Hey. Sometimes it does that. So everything's okay. >> I see the police in the back there. Really all right.

013We're okay. Go ahead. Mr. >> Fabian budget to repair. >> This is how rules. All your parents broken, Mr. Mr. Papis, that'll be a bad use of tax money. Keep going. >> Okay. So, in in in in looking at this, I I want to point out two lines. This is the state aid, which includes the foundation aid. We've got that growing in the initial base case scenario at at 2%. Uh or the rate of inflation uh and our employee benefits uh on the appropriation side. These are our expenditures. These are probably the two most volatile lines uh on the revenue side as well as the appropriation side. And we can take a quick look at at at the uh historic average. So, um this is our state aid. Uh and as you can see, once

014the foundation aid formula was fully implemented, uh we saw some rather large increases, but we continue to get uh rather large increases. Just as a reminder, at the previous meeting, we talked a little bit about the state aid package. across the state. Uh state aid as an aggregate rose 3% uh in in New York State, but uh twothirds two out of every uh three school districts uh in the state. Many here in Nassau County got the minimum uh 1% increase. Uh the legislature is is debating that right now. There's some discussion that that could be moved up to 2%. Uh but to put that in context, we've we've gotten significantly more than that and that trend uh has um continued uh o over these past 5 years where we've averaged uh a double-digit increase of

015uh 10.4%. Any any questions on that? Uh just a couple things that uh you know one thing that I would like to point out here uh much of this state aid increase is uh due to uh uh change in the wealth measurement of the district. Uh the the changes that have been made have been favorable to Levittown. More aid is being driven our way. Uh they also tweaked out some of the weighted averages for our special needs and other groups in here. Uh the point being that some of this money is going toward dedicated directly towards services that have to be provided. So it's not all to balance the budget in its entirety. Although I will say you know averaging 10.4% over the last 5 years is is quite good. So if we have talked

016about trying to be conservative and um you know talking about uh what you know talking about fiscal cliffs like a lot of other districts talk about one of the reasons where we've why we have remained ahead of the curve is because of these increases in state aid. So um when we look on the on the appropriation side, these are our um these are our increases in um primarily health insurance, but we call it uh you know uh employee benefits because there are some other uh items in there. And again, the 10-year average increase has been greater than 10%. Um, and uh, when we when we begin to when we plug both these into the model using the 5-year average, just changing those two variables, you can see we're actually generating uh, an even greater surplus.

017Uh, that's good news kind of on, you know, at a glance. Uh but I think uh we we exercise some extreme caution uh to make the assumption that state aid will continue to increase at double-digit rates uh over the next 5 years or into the for foreseeable future because you know a piece of that what it reflects the new standard but once that's reflected in there uh it should start to level out and um you're not going to see those types of increases. you may get more increases for our special needs populations. Uh but when it comes to uh when it comes to uh kind of leveling out that number I would think would tend to start to come down. Uh but we only as the commissioner as the commissioner stated we only adopt budgets

018one year at a time. So while this is a great exercise um it again the the point of the exercise is this model is only as good as the uh assumptions that we make and it and it's very difficult to make some of these assumptions. Uh again uh I know we have a lot of other presentations tonight so we'll try to move quickly here. Please stop me at any point uh if there are any questions. Uh we submitted a uh tax levy limit uh uh by the March 1st deadline. uh we are at uh 2 uh 59%. Uh the directive with uh trying to um you know the acknowledgement of the state aid package that we had uh and to provide some relief to our uh homeowners here. Uh we are endeavoring to keep the

019uh property tax levy uh under 2%. Uh it will be reported in news day that we are going out with a 1.98% because we have to put a number in there. Uh and that's what we are targeting. Uh so right now uh the budget is uh we we need to shave about uh 870,000 off of appropriations, find 870,000 of additional revenues or some combination there thereof uh in between to balance the budget. Uh I have no concerns about that. uh we still haven't done the staffing piece and and Jackie is is hard at work looking at breakage and looking at uh some of our contingent positions uh to a to a a level that uh we you know we can live with. >> Have you gotten any information from other districts in Nassau County about

020where 1.98 or so uh tax levy would be? Does that put us like where does that put us? >> Yeah. Yeah. So we I do have I do have a slide. Yeah. Yeah. We we we uh we have a little bit more on that. Um uh matter of fact, here it is. Uh so, uh this is the uh this is the uh what we call the budget snapshot, which we've put in the budget presentations for, uh quite a while now. So, uh again, these numbers can be subject to change, but this is what the the 56 Nassau County districts have reported to the office of the state controller. Uh this is their proposed levy, not their not their levy limit, which is obviously a bit higher. Um uh they're at the average is at 2.41%.

021Uh we are almost a half a percentage point uh below that uh on the average. >> I know Mike has a question. >> Yeah, >> just a quick thing on the slide before this. >> Just a quick thing on uh the slide just before this. It was 19.7 in that uh third year I think 23 24. Um that was a correction how we got ripped off many years in foundation aid that we got and it raised everything up and also it included $340 million uh statewide was it for uh the meals universal meals and it was something on the pandemic recovery. So that number inflated what we're getting up to 10.2 too, but a lot of it was just giving us the money back that they never gave us in the first place. >> Sorry

022about on the slide that had the historic trend of state aid. >> This is an aberration, the 19.7 the money that we got there. Um, like I said, we were supposed to have gotten that years prior. >> Yes. And and many and many districts made that argument that that because the formula wasn't running, everybody was getting, you know, shortch changed, so to speak. Uh but the nice thing about that is it's now built into the base. So you know once you got that increase all future increases are being built upon that. So it wasn't like a uh all right here we're going to give you this as a onetime oneshot revenue. Uh it did actually get built into the base and you can see uh you know we've continued to get uh rather large increases

023from there. >> And I think what Mr. Mr. Papis is mentioning is that what gap elimination went on and and not fully funding foundation aid that went on for at least a decade. >> That that's that is correct. >> Which which is what you're referring to is that for for over 10 years we were not getting anywhere near the money not just us other districts too. Uh and so I we probably still aren't even back yet to what we would be getting if that had actually been fully funded and we didn't deal with capital elimination all those years. >> I I I I I think your point, Mr. Baptist is we're never going to recoup the money that we didn't get in those years. Uh but the state has at least made it right now

024in moving forward. And um you know our our the needs of our community are have been increasing and I think that's what's driving part of that number. Uh but again uh you know across the state we're see we're starting to see declining enrollments. Uh we're we're we're pretty flat. We're pretty level here. Uh but those are the districts that are only getting, you know, the the 1% uh minimum hold harmless amount. So, uh I think we're in we're we're in we're in better shape than most. Uh and uh again, that will be reflected in the proposed tax levy. >> Amen to that. >> Okay. Uh again, yes. So, relative to the county, I you know, I I believe we're uh we're doing well. Um, again, our our our budget tobudget increase now, you know, obviously

025it's it's it's more than the the proposed tax levy increase. We're at about 4.51%. I don't have any data to compare that to the rest of the county just yet. Uh, but um there are there are no eliminations of programs with this. As a matter of fact, uh we have a uh a sizable um uh list of ads uh into this budget uh as as we have listed here. Um you know, including things like new elective courses at the high school, elementary, librarian, um it's up there for you to see, >> Mike. >> Yeah. >> Uh can you go back to the other slide, please? >> Yeah. Which which one was that? >> The one that you were just on where it said uh budget drivers or Okay. Yeah. Um, so it's we haven't had

026the special education presentation yet, but I don't think the I was just looking at like register's main budget drivers, one of them is special education. >> Yes. >> Um, I was just looking at like the totals for each budget and the percentage that they're going up. So I was just um wondering how special education got in there because it doesn't look like it went up that much. >> Yeah. Uh, you know, one of the things that we do is when we're looking at tonight, when we're looking at the special education budget, we're really looking at the contractual lines only. Uh, the the special education uh the special education budget is is much greater than what's going to be presented tonight because we have all the staffing and and and Miss Gadis will be doing that

027at the next meeting. uh you know part of the shift uh we we haven't been budgeting as much in in Boseies as we try to take more of our students back you know less restrictive environment bring them back in district so uh they uh um uh uh both Dawn and and Jackie have been working to uh you know try to create uh new programs new classes obviously that requires additional staffing so while uh you know the probably the biggest the biggest number in in the contractual side is the Bosey's tuition that has remained flat. As a matter of fact, I think we've we're able to trim it by about $170,000. Uh but on the staffing side, which isn't part of those numbers, so it is a little I I I I'm glad you picked up

028on that. It it really shows you're going through the documents, but that that's the explanation of as to why. Uh so it's really still remains there, but um not from what you're going to see from tonight. Yeah, I'm not criticizing the amount of money spent on special. I just want to like >> specify that because then it looks like it's just special education, but there's more to special education than just that term. So like 2%, right? >> That was all I just want to clarify also for the public. >> I think that we're uh is it three 612 classes we're adding for next year, right? So, I mean like as much as that'll be discussed in in in the presentation tonight, it really is part of Miss Gadis's presentation because it's staffing and just like

029when the other departments went like facilities, transportation, instruction, the they those are like more programmatic presentations where it's about the overall program but does not include staffing. And so special ed is a driver. I will say it's not as much of a driver as it's been. So like I didn't last year I think we called them part of the 30 3030 club right in regards to increases it's less than that now which is good but overall out of things that drive the budget it's still it's still a driver um you know one of the things and I'm not going to I don't want to ruin um Mong's presentation uh but you know when I was at a superintendent's meeting um recently they were talking about the fact that you know we always talk about the

030fact that we draw a lot of new entrance into our district because of our reputation for special education Evidently, that is a New York state issue now where New York State is drawing more entrance into the state specifically for special education programs because New York State in general offers more services than other states in the country. And so while we may not be increasing in population in general, uh there are there's a specific draw for for certain families to New York State for what it offers, which again does kind of, you know, I guess unequally affect budgets. Um because you see declining enrollment, but you don't see declining taxes, right? So um it is a it's a fascinating conversation. I'd never heard that before that now it's a not just a Levittown situation, it's a

031New York State issue. Yeah, >> also reading >> I was also reading because of our special ed program, our property values are going up because there are people who are they want to get their child into a school district like this for special needs and they're willing to pay more for the house. >> Um it's so you it's two sides every story. Your your home value is going up, but then of course your taxes are going up. So >> Peggy, >> yeah, I'm Dr. Z. Oh, there you are. I'm sure Dr. uh talked about this in her presentation. However, I missed that meeting so I apologize. But where it says instructional co additional instructional coach for elementary school, we're just talking about one or it's coaches. >> Uh we already have two instructional coaches. So

032this would just be adding a third an additional one uh instructional coach so that we can begin to minimize the case load. Right now those two instructional coaches cover six elementary schools obviously all grades. So at least by adding one additional one, we can start to um like build capacity and allow the teachers uh more time with the coach because they have less teachers that they have to work with each individual coach. >> And the coaching is f focusing on >> the instructional coaching. Yeah. Uh elevating teaching and learning data analysis. >> Not one specific area. No. all we we uh really utilize the coaches after doing our data analysis review and where teachers need support and then collaborating with those teachers around that data. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Can I

033I just want to add on >> the instructional coaches, Peggy, they um are really trained and I'm assuming trained, please correct me if I'm wrong, to use um the data to drive instruction and data can be anything. It can be monitoring behavior. It could be it could be exams. It could there's all different forms and there's specific training correct in how to collect that data to help the individual teacher meet the individual needs of the students. Is that >> Yes. As per the board recommendation, we um have had our coaches trained by Jim Knight who is the guru on instructional rounds and uh the coaching cycle. So they have participated. So all of the training um and cycles that we do with the coaches are are done in six sessions uh around that model for

034instructional coaching. >> Yes. Christina, may I speak? >> Yes, of course. >> I just think with the um the amount of students we have at the elementary level, I always think we could use more than one just one more additional coach. >> Sold. I thought you might be. I I just think it's it's a good use of increasing our capacity for learning across the board. And we have a lot of elementary schools. So, even if we did do uh three, that's still they each have two buildings. That's a lot of teachers and a lot of students. And if we're really training them, like I do believe we are with the uh you know, getting the coaching and then that it's being then communicated to the essential areas at the elementary, I think this could be

035a very uh beneficial for our students and our faculty. >> Yeah. And you are correct cuz uh currently the way the model is is that we have a K to2 coach all six buildings and a 3 to five coach all six buildings. So we are working with the building principles uh right now as well as the current coaches to talk about when we add a third instructional coach. Should we maintain that model and do like K1 2 3 4 5 or should we now assign coaches to buildings? So we're trying to figure out what makes the most sense with those three people. Should we add additional people? Then obviously that would change um you know how we're going to go about assigning the coaches. >> I'll share my views on that later. >> Thank you.

036>> Sorry. >> Um okay. So um appropriated fund balance uh is we will be receiving a recommendation from the uh state controller. Uh they feel that it is that it is a bit high. So, uh, we have been, uh, methodically trying to take it down. Uh, we are going to continue on that trend. Um, and reduce it to, uh, 7.9 million this year. Um, we had budgeted, uh, we appropriated 9.3 this year. We are not going to recognize that all as revenue. the difference, the reduction, uh we are going to take and use as part of the um capital reserve uh expenditure proposition uh which is one of the components uh that will get us to the $15 million referendum uh that we seek that we seek. Uh we are um like I said, we've

037updated the 5-year capital facilities plan. We gave you an update on where we stand with that. Uh after committing uh approximately $14 million to do the uh ball fields at uh MacArthur and um uh and division uh it would leave us about it would leave us with about uh $5 million of free cash to move forward. So at this point u another injection will allow us to continue uh to fund projects um in in subsequent years. So I like to try to take advantage of that. Yes. You know, a lot of people don't realize that we were once only allowed to keep 2% on appropriate fund balance, which is utterly ridiculous. You can't run your house that way. It's 4% now. Um, if you look at the money that we've saved interest wise, some of

038the projects that we've done and not having to take out seven or eight% loans that the state doesn't look at that you saved taxpayer money. >> No. And um, we did question that. Uh we did I did offer that up as you know just an explanation as to why um you know it's been the budgetary philosophy of of the district and I said you know there would be nice if there was some recognition in there. The district has funded probably close to $150 million worth of capital projects. Had that money as you stated been borrowed uh uh an $180 million would have had to have been paid back. So 150 would have went into the buildings like it did just now, but 30 million would have went to bond holders. So, you know, by by

039budgeting conservatively, by saving up until you have the money to do it, we've saved the taxpayers, you know, uh probably close to $30 million now. And that's the I just the punchline here was when we asked them about that and will you comment on that? And the explanation was we didn't audit that. So, um, it's not likely that they're going to recognize that as a, uh, well, kudos to you. >> They don't audit philosophy. >> I experienced the same thing when they interviewed me. They just absurd rules they go by. >> So, okay. Um, I think we're getting to the end. Uh, and I'm sure everybody wants me to get to the end. So, again, this is just I know I know this this graph here, it's it it appears a little bit more dramatic.

040uh uh the the the reduction only because we have the the the it's crossing the x-axis there at 7.5 million. But when we look at it um when we look at it here uh it's a little less dramatic but still uh it shows a trend. Uh uh we we uh you know it was it was a high of over 12 million. It was brought down to 11. We maintained that for a couple of years. We brought it down into the nines. We maintained that for a couple of years. And now we're taking the next step to bring it down to $7.9 million. So, um, >> and just so that you know, just to cut you off for a minute, the, uh, as much as this did come from the controllers's office, our own auditors have

041also recommended that we do it. And this is all done with our own auditors guidance, not just with the controllers office. >> Thank you. Yes, thank you for adding that. >> Okay, so um, uh, this is, uh, this was a graph that we put up last time. Uh, I don't think everybody was here. I just, I just wanted to restate it. So getting to the $15 million, we had talked about um we had talked about uh creating the tax stabilization reserve uh the or tax reduction reserve. Uh and uh the blue line represents uh what how we could how we could kind of wean ourselves off that particular revenue. Uh we sold the building midyear this year. we would take 500,000 in the first year uh and then a million next year and then ratchet

042it down. Uh and that works really well. It just when we get to the end we're at 550,000 and then that falls off. So rather than create a problem down the line, uh we came up with an alternate scenario where we basically, you know, wean ourselves off over the 10-year allowable period. But um and again we checked with the auditors, checked with check checked with our attorneys. Uh money that could be placed in the tax stabilization reg could be used to fund capital projects. Uh and the nice thing is by appropriating this in the 2526 budget. Uh we will not be using the the uh the capital reserve maximum amount. This will flow right into that. And um so it it's it serves a dual benefit. Uh again, nothing you have to decide tonight, but

043this is the type of thing where uh we're going to we're going to have a plan that's going to be accepted on the 25th to demonstrate that the board was aware of the particular uses of our reserves and appropriated fund balance in in budgeting that because that was another thing. Uh you know, you adopt you adopt the appropriations. We have a motion well on the 25th. You adopt those appropriations. uh and the the what they're saying is you can't assume it's implied that they know what the appropriated fund balance and the use of reserves are that should be done also specifically to that and so that'll be an ad to u uh our our March uh 25th motion resolutions uh preparing the budget and I think I think that's it. Oh, no. Oh, here's the

044capital reserve. I'm sorry. Here's the capital reserve. Uh uh the fund balance projection. Uh so we are uh we are projecting um at this point uh a minimum of a $7 million surplus uh uh for for this year. We want to appropriate that as part of the $15 million. The aforementioned tax reduction reserve u $3 million uh coming from that. Uh, and we currently have $4.6 million in our existing 2023 capital reserve that also needs voter approval for us to be able to spend. We kind of put them all together. Uh, and the referendum will read $15 million and that will hopefully, you know, that will fund uh our next wave of projects. Uh, again, that's in the 5-year capital plan. >> Just a reminder that is not an additional tax. That is money that

045already exists. >> We will make sure that I will get that on the slide for next. This is not an these are all existing monies. Uh the $4.6 million exists on the balance sheet. Uh as does the tax reduction reserve amount. Uh the others will be generated uh from a surplus. So there was there will be no additional tax associated with this $15 million uh referendum. Uh and this is that uh you know change between the initial drafts that we've come used to uh seeing. So we started out the budget was at 5.8% 8% uh budget-to-budget increase. Uh we've taken out uh we've reduced it by 3.5 million, getting the budget to budget to uh 4.5%. Like I said, we still have a little bit of work to do. Uh we still have about 869,000.

046It doesn't necessarily mean just reductions in appropriations. It could be other things, additional use of reserves, additional uh additional revenues, uh or some combination of appropriation and and revenues. So, that's where we stand. It'll all be wrapped up for the 25th and you'll be asked to accept that. Once you do, that will be the budget that goes before the voters on May 19th. Are there any questions? >> Anybody have questions? Marian, >> I just really have a comment. Um, first of all, thank you. You always give such a comprehensive breakdown of uh what's in the budget and what we're looking at. Um, but I also just wanted to say, and this is really like an in-depth comment. I love the graphics >> that that's it's AI. I I'd like to take I'd like to take

047all the credit for it. >> Okay, I'll take I'll take >> Thank you. >> Mike, you and your office have done an amazing job. um you you relate to the board, let us know uh what's going on without having a degree, your type of degree. So, thank you very much for keeping everything straight and on the up and up for us and we can understand it. >> Thank Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. I think next on our list is the PTA uh is that correct? Is that what's on the list next? PTA budget um >> uh recommendation, their report. So, I just wanted to briefly just uh invite uh Michelle Seagull on up. I think she's doing the presentation tonight. Dr. Zerian, could you set her up with the microphone that's behind you? Uh

048just want to thank the PTA. I know we're going be thanking them later, but um thank the PTA, thank Michelle for her work with this on working with our principles as well as our business office uh on preparing a um recommendation to the uh the district. So, without any further ado, Miss Seagull, it's all yours. >> Good evening everyone and thank you for having me here tonight. My name is Michelle Seagull. I currently serve as first vice president to PTA council and I have the privilege of serving as the committee chair for the budget requests. Recently, I had the opportunity to sit with Mr. Mike Fabiano, our assistant superintendent of business, along with our buildings and grounds team, Tommy Williams, Craig Camarano, Logan Lipult, and Chris Rivera to review both past and current requests. I

049would like to sincerely thank them for taking the time to meet with me and discuss these projects. First, we would like to thank the board of education and our wonderful administration for giving the PTA the opportunity to be involved in this process. We truly appreciate being heard and working collaboratively on the completion of these projects. Over the past few years, several buildings requests have been already been addressed. For example, MacArthur requested lighting for the front lawn, which has been completed, and lighting from the front sign is currently in progress. Sulk received new bulletin boards and fresh paint outside the cafeteria as well as wired and wireless headphones. Lee Road had their teacher bathroom updated along with new mats in the gym and fresh paint with the remainder of the project scheduled for the summer. Division

050Avenue had their gym walls painted, new indoor bleachers installed, and updates completed in both the gym lobby and the main lobby. Buildings and grounds also continue to work on several projects currently in progress, including additional black top and new basketball hoops at North Side, as well as additional lighting on the outdoor bleachers and in the staff driveway at MacArthur. This year, the building requests are as follows. MacArthur requests installation of sufficient lighting for the staff driveway that runs parallel to the senior parking lot and additional lighting under the home bleachers to help maintain safety and accountability. Sulkq Middle School has requested additional recreational options for their new all-purpose rooms such as arcade style games and some foosball tables. Division has requested lighting along the walkway to the main entrance. This area is currently very dark

051and presents a safety concern. Additional parking in the front would be not would be needed if they cannot have a circular driveway and painting of the gymnasium >> division. >> Wisdom has requested to finish the floors in the lower levels of one um hallways of 100 and 400 and drop ceilings throughout the building. Thank you again for this opportunity to share these requests with you this evening and for your continued support of our students, staff, and our community. >> Thank you so much, Miss Eagle, for coming up and speaking and and sharing that. And I love circular driveways, so and lights. So, there we go. >> Thank you, Miss Eagle. That was fantastic. And thank you to the PTA for the work on that budget process. Uh so we are now up to our special

052ed uh presentation. So actually I'm going to turn this over first to Miss Gadis to introduce our speaker tonight in regards to special education. So >> good evening everyone. Um tonight um I have the honor of introducing uh Miss Don Wong who is the director of uh special education. She has worked alongside her department this year to really implement um some programmatic changes as well as other initiatives um that have been achieved. She is she worked diligently on this presentation um and we are proud to hear what has happened and what we look forward to for the 2627 school year. >> Thank you Miss Kadis uh Mr. Winch and the board of education. I appreciate the opportunity to do Am I not on? >> Okay. Um I appreciate the opportunity be here with you to

053present the budget for the Department of Special Education for the >> Can I push it? Yeah. >> For the 2627 school year. Um this summer, um after having completed the 2425 school year, um we I brought my team together. So myself, Dr. Robert Mueller, Miss Lisa Lombardo, and we gathered as a team to really reflect and we spent a lot of time talking and reflecting about the 2425 school year in particular, but also the department as a whole and started to really think about how do we move the department forward and really start to lay out a um very intentional plan um to help move the department forward. And one of the things as we reflected that we realized was we were very much as a department very much stuck in a reactive position. Um

054if that was students in crisis um instruction staff it it felt like we were always in this you know trying to react to a situation putting addressing that situation and then moving on to the next one. And so as I as we stepped into the new school year the first thing we did was decide to create a unified vision for the 2526 school year. And really what what we did was we we said we want to move from surviving to thriving. And we wanted to move from surviving to thriving for staff, students, and our families. And this vision has really been the um cornerstone of everything that we did this year. Um we were very intentional about the plans and the initiatives that we laid out for the 2526 school year. Um and this um

055vision was shared repeatedly. So it was in chairperson meetings, psychologist meetings, social workers, speech teachers, special education teachers. This reminder that we are on a journey to move from surviving to thriving. Um and it's fine to say that it sounds great. Um but we had to be very intentional about how are we going to go from surviving to thriving. Um you there are steps that we needed to take as a department to to move along that journey. Um so the first thing we we realized was we had a lot of procedures. We had a lot of processes in place. Um but they were not in one unified place. And so the first thing we did um we started this project in the summer so that we could roll it out at our first department meetings

056in September was we created a digital district-wide special education procedures and forms manual. We took all of our forms, created it in a digital manual that all of our staff who need access to it have access. Um, we created links to all of our forms that we use for CSC's. All of our documents about IEP development were included. Um, we also created a district-wide template for educational evaluations. Um, we also developed district-wide templates for procedures related to conducting functional behavior assessments, behavior intervention plans, our BIP progress monitoring data, and including in addition our aid fade plans. So, we created templates, we created forms, we have it all organized in one spot that all staff can go to if they're looking for something, if they have a question about something. Um, and this is a rinse

057and repeat with staff. So, every time I meet with my psychologist, every time I meet with my special education teachers, we're going back to the manual, um, we're reminding them that it's here, where they should be going for that information and we're always making updates to it. So, as we develop something new or we revise something, all of that is included in this document so that it's always a resource for our staff. Um, the goal of this was really because we wanted to promote consistency across buildings. the experience that a family has in one building should be the same experience that they have in another. Um, and you start by with your process and your templates being the same. Um, and reminding staff that it is the same and then always making sure and having

058individual conversations with staff to remind them this is our process, this is our expectation, this is how we do things. Um the next thing we we decided um and we really felt that the department needed was a very comprehensive intentional professional development plan for this school year. Um it had been an area where I felt in in my time up in the department in a variety of different roles um that we really did not have a a comprehensive professional development plan. And so we decided to to really think through where are the areas that we want to lean in? Where are the areas that we feel our staff need to grow? And the first thing we we really looked at was again going back to this idea that we felt like we were living in

059this reactive world where we're responding to crisis. Um and so the first thing we did was actually create a professional development um called shaping success positive classrooms positive outcomes. This is a comprehensive PD. Um there are two different versions of it. there was one for elementary staff and there was one created for secondary staff. Um because this is an emphasis on tier one and tier 2 interventions within the classroom. So looking at those foundational um tips and tools and strategies that staff need to be using um within their classroom. Um because if if we have really strong tier one interventions and strong tier 2 interventions, then you might not need your tier three interventions when you're starting to look at FBA, BIPS, and onetoone aids. Um it was it was designed to give teachers practical

060strategies that they could turn key within their classroom. Um, so far this training has already been um shared out um and given to all of our secondary special education teachers have participated in the training. In addition, I had the secondary building principles have their Dina students come. So, whoever their dean was in their building, I asked them to participate in this training. Um, we shared we did the training with social worker, psychologist, speech therapist. By the end of the year, all of our teaching assistants will have had it. um our 1211 special education teachers for K2 received it. Um it's it's been a roll out um and it is going to be an initiative that will continue into next year as we hit all the remaining stakeholders. Um one thing that I felt was very

061important about this training is I am a firm believer that professional development is most effective when it is done in small groups. um when you start to get into large groups and you have you know we happen to have a large staff and so if you start to get you know 60 70 80 you know TAs in a room you're going to lose your audience and so we were very intentional about scheduling um and organizing this in a way that was of most effective um also to foster an opportunity for questions and answers. So if teachers had questions, teaching assistants had questions, we wanted to open that dialogue so it was the most productive um training. Um and also the reason we we really made sure to even include social workers, psychologists, speech therapists who

062aren't necessarily in the classroom was we want everyone coming from the same language. We wanted to have this this is our toolbox and if we're struggling with a student, we want to start here to see what have we tried and then have an opportunity to really talk about how we move forward from there. Do you have a question? >> Uh I love that um so many people are getting trained on those things. I always had a question about um any other staff that might be getting the training in terms of like um maybe lunch monitors or recess monitors, things like that because they also have an impact on the kids daily behaviors or concerns and things like that. So it is definitely part of that roll out and plan. Um we have not made it

063to GenEd yet. Um but I see that as a vision for next school year. Um, on a side note, um, one thing that, um, Miss Cadis and I worked on together was we actually created as part of the new hiring, um, process that she has an actual video that every new hire who gets, um, hired during the course of the school year. Um, we had our BCBA and another staff member put together an actual video that is a summary and some tips and traits for working with students with disabilities. So, your your bus attendant, your bus drivers, they're getting that um training whenever they're newly hired. Um but yes, we are we we are going all in on this. Um it's just going to take a little it's probably an initiative that we'll finish next

064school year. >> It's a great question because the same question we had when we were first going through this last week was about the gened component of this because like I this is something that like everybody can use. So, great question. >> Yeah. want to tell you something although you like you had to do um I've been on the board many years I am nowhere near the I've been well aversed to some of my esteemed board members here but what I will say is that it is nice to hear you someone say not what we already did but what we can do to improve the program on a regular basis so thank you very much for that >> thank you um the the next um professional development that we focused on was um our educational

065evaluations and the standardized measures that we were using. Um some members of the board of education might be aware that the Woodcock Johnson um the WJ um 4 is suns setting at the end of this year and we are rolling out the WJ5. um the WDE5 they have made that decision to roll that out as a fully digital um assessment and we spent a lot of time this summer kind of balancing the pros and cons of how to kind of move forward. Um we do also have the Wyatt 4 um in district that we have utilized in many um cases. A lot of our initial referrals we use the Wyatt 4. We had been historically using the WJ the WJ for RIA valves. Um the roll out of the WJ did come for the the

066WJ5 with a very hefty price tag. Um and so we did start to kind of think about is this the right move for the district. Um we started to talk with some of our evaluators. Um and we as a team really do um value the Wyatt 4 as a better assessment. Um we feel that we get better data to inform decisions from the Wyatt 4. Um and so what we decided to do was um expand our use of the Wyatt 4. And so we took a journey this year to train um all of our special education teachers. We had some that had never been trained. So we were very intentional about ensuring that all of our Y all of our special education teachers know how to administer the Y4 are administering it with fidelity and

067then at the same time we rolled out our comprehensive educational evaluation template. Um and that was a lot of uh heavy work. Um Miss Lisa Lombardo really spearhead this initiative um and did a really great job on on rolling out that initiative. So, are you going to be getting the uh the WJ5 at all then? Like for certain circumstances or is it going to just be like one building, right? And if someone needs to borrow it or however that works. >> So, one of the things that we're looking at for um that we are looking to do because the WJ4 will some we were allowed to use it all of this school year. Um and so, one of the things that we're talking about is we're looking at a couple of the different options that

068they have because it's all digital. Um we're trying to figure out they have a per student cost. they they have a bulk rate. And so we're just trying to figure out what would be um most beneficial for the district and also most from a a cost um perspective. But our professional development didn't stop there. We kept going um and so one of the things that we decided to do this year was really lean in with our speech therapists um and really focus on providing some additional training. Um we looked at touch chat. Um, I know we had a an a really great um board presentation on the roll out of Magic School AI, which has been so great, and Britney Cerrone um put together a great PD for our speech therapist um to really introduce

069to them all of the things that were available to really support them in better supporting our students in speech sessions. Um, we also looked at our teaching assistants and really felt that we wanted to um, take the time to really think about what do they need, where can we lean in um, to ensure that we're providing the best professional development that we can for our teaching assistants at the same time. Um, and so a few things that we did, this is not not a comprehensive list. There were actually additional trainings that we've done. Um, but we are rolling out, we're doing classroom hacks, assisted technology that everyone should know. um an overview of understanding students IEP. Even teaching assistants need to understand how to read an IEP. And so we felt like that was a

070really important training. Um understanding testing accommodations and how to implement them. Um they're often on the front lines of implementing our testing accommodations. Um and then reading the signs, sensory strategies for classroom success. Um and so we're really excited about um the additional professional development as well. I love the fact that you're getting a lot of people involved, you know, like I know that Jen mentioned about hitting like the the um lunchroom people or whatever, but and eventually I'm sure you're going to get that because I see the vision that you're you're starting. We got the teaching assistants we and and you're just building on building on building and that's building blocks. I I I love that. That's great. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um it's definitely um been an exciting journey for us as

071a department. We've really enjoyed brainstorming and thinking of how to, you know, move the department forward. Um, but my, you know, my last initiative of this year is probably the one nearest and dearest to my heart. Um, we invested a lot of time in this particular initiative. Um, you know, one of the things that we spent a lot of time doing was looking at our 612 program, our elementary ABA program. And that was where we were seeing the most students in crisis. Um, you know, we've talked at at board meetings before last year about our students being having more needs, higher needs, um, the lack of placements in in out of district. And we, you know, I I told my psychologist, you know, we can't we can't keep doing the same thing and expect different

072results. And I kind of felt like we were doing that a little bit. So, we took a step back and we decided to um take a take a look. So we decided to so we decided to take a step back and do a little bit of research. So we started to take a look at you know what does Nasobose's CRC program look like? What does Nasobose Jerusalem Avenue look like? What does Genesis offer? What does DDI offer? What does their support structure look like? And the first thing that really struck us of course was the student to support staff ratio was smaller. In many of these um programs, you would see one support staff member that would have anywhere we found a ratio. It was probably about between 13 and the highest we heard was

073hovering around 18. And that is nowhere near the amount of support that that our you know our psychologists have much larger case loads. But the more interesting piece that we learned through many of these conversations was that in most places the support staff member wasn't a psychologist. It was a licensed behavior analyst. It was someone who specializes in behavior, lives and breathes behaviors day in and day out. And so we started on a journey to think about what would it look like if we tried to um essentially let's create it at home instead of sending our students out. Let's see if we could build it at home. And so this is kind of an overview of what we affectionately have referred to as our Lee Road pilot. And so we had three 612 classes over

074at Lee Road this year. And this is the program that we built. Um we staffed it with a full-time licensed behavioral analyst whose full job is to support the students in the three classes. Um we through the work that she did, we created um and implemented consistent data collection. She worked on creating data collection sheets that are now utilized through all three classrooms to ensure that we had solid data collection. Um we really created a team approach to supporting our students. So, one of the initiatives that we had last year that we moved forward with was we did um hire our first invited physical therapist, which is very exciting. We did hire an additional um occupational therapist. So, these two therapists are Levittown employees. They are not contract employees. They work for us. Um and

075we put them full-time at Lee Road. And we also had our speech therapists there. and we had our classroom teachers and we had our licensed behavior analysts. This was a team approach because when you're when you're working with students um in in this program, it's important to look at the child through all lenses. How a student functions in speech, how a student functions in PT versus the classroom. If you want to see good outcomes for students, you need consistency across those settings. And so that was really the vision of what we had created embedded in there. though if we wanted to get out of the crisis we had to really figure out how do we provide targeted training and professional development for the staff in the program because it's not just enough I could have

076a full-time licensed behavior analyst but if all she's doing is responding to crisis then my pilot didn't work and so what we built into it was two things one there is a programwide um monthly meeting for professional development so teachers teaching assistants aids, the related service providers, they all meet once a month and receive a PD that is led by the licensed behavior analyst. So she has done things like talking about how to follow a schedule, how to um take ABC data collection. She has talked about how to deescalate a heightened situation um very intentional about the PD for the program. Then what we did to support the individual classrooms was we created another meeting that is the classroom. So each classroom also meets once a month with the licensed behavior analyst and in that

077meeting they're looking specifically at individual students. They're looking at data. What is the data telling us? They are revising behavior plans. They are training staff on how to implement maybe a revision to a particular student's behavior plan. Um really again going after this proactive approach to building the program. Um, I have to give a a real shout out to Lee Road. Um, the team over at Lee Road, um, really has stepped up. They're an amazing uh, really just an amazing group of individuals. Um, I met with them on opening day, so back in September. Um, Jamie Ansbach and I um, got together and I said, can we get the whole team together? I want to meet with them because what I wanted to share with them was my vision. What's my vision for this pilot?

078What are we doing here? And why does your role matter? And so what I what I really said to them was I said, "We're going to take a journey this year and I'm going to ask you to step out of your comfort zone and I'm going to ask you to be flexible and I'm going to ask you to try new things. It might be difficult, but we're going to do it together." And it was I have to tell you the the reception was great. Um and um so this this is just it's such a great group of individuals. They really did an amazing job. And um man, Miss Ansbach has been an incredible leader and principal for this program um and incredibly supportive. But did it work? I mean, that's the question, right? Did it

079work? So, here were some of our some of our outcomes. So, one of the things that we did when we decided to walk down this road of this pilot was we intentionally had three students that were on home instruction pending placement um in a variety of different ways. um we decided to bring them back into district and we placed them at the Lee Road in the pilot um with our licensed behavior analyst and this program that that we were creating there. And all three students that we brought back are now being supported effectively and are no longer being budgeted or projected for out of district placements. Um, if you're curious about the cost savings on that >> question, >> the parents bought in right away or did you have to really cajul them? >> No.

080So, what I would say is our parents were actually the three students that we brought back were eager for it, you know. Um, one student was at our family of kids center um and had been there waiting a very long time for a placement. um another student was a new entrant um and another student was um being homeschooled and the parent wanted to bring them back. >> So we had all these different you know scenarios um but what we're looking at from a cost savings is I kind of did some rough numbers. They're not exact. I'm going give you some prox approximations. Um but if you calculated the tuition of what it would have cost to send all three students out, it would have been almost $400,000. Um the only real cost in the program

081is the salary of our licensed behavior analyst which is under 100,000. We do have the added cost of the we are um paying some of the staff for the meetings before school um but that is a it's a minimal cost when you look at the the overall picture. >> Good job. >> Yeah. I have a question. Could you go back to that previous slide, please? >> I'm not maybe How do I do that? >> Picture of everybody. >> Yeah. Okay. So, I'm looking at the picture and I I I believe I count it up quickly. It's 22 staff members there. So, am I thinking right that these 22 staff members are solely committed to three classes of 612? So, what you yes and no. So, the majority of them, yes. Staff the three. The the

082outliers are you do see in here our related service providers. Um so our PT doesn't just do PT for Lee Road, she also picks up PD PT at um Summit Lane and the OT um also has a case load of doing some of our OT evaluations. >> Okay. So then the 20 other members are for three classes. >> Yes. Okay. Thank you. Um so from the from the successful transition um we definitely saw um a a huge success from that perspective. Um but some other more um nuanced pieces that I think are important to note. Um I actually met with Lauren Cologne. She's our licensed behavior analyst over at um Lee Road. And I asked her, you know, talk to me a little bit about what you're seeing. You know, I met with her um

083right around the end of December. I said, 'What was your your life like in September and what is it like now? And one of the things that she shared was in September and October she was spending a lot of time responding to crisis as we would expect, a lot of time giving targeted training on individual students. Um, and what she shared with me which I thought was so great was um right around December there was a student in the lunchroom who started to um become disregulated. He started to engage in a behavior. There was a call made for crisis. Um, Miss Cologne was on her way down. By the time she got from her office to the cafeteria, the te the staff, the teaching assistant working with the student had the student calm, sitting, regulated,

084and Lauren Cologne was able to then just to coach the teacher through the remainder of the refocusing and getting the student back on track. And what that tells me is all the leg work and all the training that we did was generalized. And that's what we want to see. We want to see staff feel comfortable and coming to a place where they're able to address the behavior without the support member there. Um and so, you know, she also did share with me in the beginning of the year she was getting three to four calls daily for crisis management. Very reactive. Again, she saw this shift that she has been now able to spend so much more of her time um working on proactive strategies. She's doing a lot of work with the three ABA teachers

085on analyzing data, analyzing the program data um to inform instruction and inform behavior. And so it's I I I would say that overall it has been um an incredible initiative. Miss Msina, >> uh thank you for this uh comprehensive. I think this is wonderful the pilot. I just have a question about the time that is spent for the children that are in this uh special class that they're spending in the mainstream. Like is it like a lunch thing? Is it specials or part of specials? Is it like a truncated part of the specials? Uh just what does it look like for those children? >> So right now um they are mainstream for lunch and recess to the great to the best ability of of the students. Um I come from a philosophy that mainstreaming should

086be an individualized decision. Every student is going to present differently. Um, I have actually, it's it's it's actually funny you should mention that. I just recently met with Miss Ansbach and Miss Cologne to talk more about how can we, now that we've kind of settled in and we're in a good place, how can we start to think out of the box of ways that we can start to engage our students in the greater school community of Lee Road. Um, so a lot of that dialogue and conversation is happening now. um they're actually getting ready to roll out a great um peer leaders program where they are working with some of their um older Jed students who will be selected to come in and work in the 612 class and engage with students. Um and so

087we are looking at that as a whole but is so it's still work to be done. That's good to hear because I think there should be some sort of criteria in place like we talked about consistency that should be in place for children to then make that decision to bring them into a larger um class ratio what forever whatever amount of time because it can't just be like across the board. Everyone kind of goes in for like science or social studies. It really has to be well thought out and planned. So I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I guess we should talk about some data because what's special education without numbers? Um so our I did bring back our classification trend continuing to take a look at that. Um we are continuing

088to tren trend upwards. I will note just you know again we did um have 41 new entrance as of the end of February. Um so we are still seeing a influx of students with disabilities moving into the district. Um what we are noticing though is there there seems to be a leveling off in CPSC. I'm not sure if that's going to I'm hoping last year I thought it was a fluke but then it kind of continued into this year. So I am interested to see if that starts to level off and then will that start to also decrease our overall CSE. >> Sorry, >> just a clarification. When you said 40 new students, do you mean moving into the district or students that were classified? >> Students who moved into the district with an IEP

089from another district? >> And I do have a chart further down since July 1st. >> July. >> Yeah. All right. And then looking at our trends in terms of our number of students that are projected for out of district. Um we again this is in part because of the success of the program over at Lee Road. Um we are trending for the first time in a number of years down in our out of district projections. Um another piece where um Dr. Mueller and myself have spent a lot of time working on is being more intentional about looking at students who might be ready to come back to district. Um this is something that we've always done, but I I felt like it's an area that we need to be more intentional about. And so that

090is something that we're continuing to look at. Um we did bring back a number of students this year, which we're excited about from out of district and many of them um all of them at this point have actually um been very successful in that less restrictive environment. Um and so I am hopeful that this will be a trend that will will continue. Just a quick breakdown. This is our new entrance. Um I think this is just important because not only are is the is it the number of new entrance you will see that there are 41 students who came in but you are looking at almost 50% of that number is coming in and going into our most restrictive settings. Um so we had two students move in that were already in out of district

091placements. We had um nine students move into our small ratio classes in the secondary and elementary level. And then as well as in our 1211 and our 1511 secondary and elementary, we had another nine. Um so we're not getting a lot of students moving in who just need speech. That doesn't really seem to be the trend. Um and so this has definitely been, you know, part of the planning um of the district in terms of of moving forward for next year. Um just you know to ensure that we are in line um with Nassau County and New York State. Um I I redid this slide just to kind of give you the the trend. Um so for us we've been going from 13% to 15% to 16%. Um we are right in line with Nassau

092County. Um and we are below the New York State classification rate but there's more work to be done. So where do we go from here? Um so our our planned initiatives moving forward um we are looking to expand the program and model that we did at Lee Road to an additional elementary site um for the 2627 school year. Um and so that is in the planning and in the works. Um another initiative we spent a lot of time looking at our elementary program. We want to now look at our secondary program. We have an amazing five-star program um over in our secondary buildings. that program is growing. Um, but we want to really take time to now look at how can we expand capacity within that program. In particular, wanting to look at the experience

093for our students who are in that last few years of being with us. Um, when students transition into high school, they are in this program, they are with us for a very long time. They enter high school around age 14 and they stay until the day before they turn 22. And so we're starting to talk and think about how can we make the last four years look different than their first four years. How can we create a new experience for them? And so that'll be a big initiative for next year. >> I have a question based on this the previous slide. So it's 14 13% 15% and 16% increase each year. >> I go back. >> I'm sorry. I was trying to go back and I went >> to Oh, it's total. Okay. >> Okay.

094So then the 16% would be about 1100,200 kids. >> Okay. So the growth is not that. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Um another um initiative um that we will be undertaking is um we have started as a district um we we started this last year. We had worked with some contracted agencies to bring in registered behavior technicians to support um students with higher need. Um that does come with a hefty co um price tag. Um when you bring in a contracted um RBT from one of the agencies that we work with um it is not a um it is an expensive initiative. Um we have a number of them working in the district right now. While it does um it is expensive to do, what we have found

095is it has been incredibly effective at continuing to keep um uh students in district and not having to send them out. And so this this initiative is really looking at providing an opportunity for our aids to um become registered behavior technicians and work for us instead of an agency. I think we will get a better quality employee and I think it will come at a cost savings for the district. >> Somebody who buys in too. >> Yes. >> Is it stakeholder in the school district? >> Y >> I didn't hit the button. >> Okay. And then the last initiative that we're going to look at is our parent counseling and training. So right now all of our parent and counseling and training um is done through contracted agencies. Um if a family has parent and

096training counseling, they are provided with a provider from an agency that goes into the home and provides support. Um again, when you when you look at that, it does it is it is um costly. Um and I also don't know that it's the most effective support for our families. And so what we're looking to do is model a parent training um and counseling program with a tiered support model. Looking at how can we effectively meet the individual needs of students because every family is different. every family has different needs. Um, and leverage our staff who we know are very good at what they do. Um, and so this is another initiative where we'll be looking at revamping our parent training model. And then our year-to-year change um is a difference of $245,276.85, which is a

097percentage change of 1.43%. I kind of like that number, too. >> I like that number. >> I'm gonna direct this question to Mr. Fabiano if he has the answer. What was the uh departmental percent change last year? If you don't have it, you can get back with email. >> It was right around eight. >> Same thing. >> I think it was around eight. I was about 8% I think last year. >> Okay. >> I think. Right. >> Okay. >> That's amazing work. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Does anybody else have any questions? I just want to say as a special ed teacher I'm super excited about all the changes. So thank you very much for the presentation. I did have one question. It was sparked by Miss Morang's question. The 22 people that are

098there. I get it. It's uh the numbers were what was that? 8 to one to two. >> 612. Sorry. So I know the one and the two. >> That's three times three is nine. Who are the who are the other people? >> So, a couple of many there are a handful of students that do have onetoone aids. I did take a look at the maximum number of um staff that we have in any particular room. Um we do have one of our one of the 612 classes at Lee Road that does have six adults in it. Um that is a class that actually has two of the three students that we brought back from out of district. Did that answer your question? >> Sort of. >> I guess so. So, so the extra people that

099I know that two of them were those special people that we hired and I know the one and the two and I did the math on that. I can figure it out. But, so they are mostly aids, >> right? And the other thing to keep in mind is that they are aids, but a a student who has an aid has to have an aid the whole time. And so if you have three aids in a classroom, they actually need more than just three aids because you have to cover lunches and breaks. >> So that's part of what kind of, you know, makes it look like >> But they're aids. I was wondering if they were other prof uh and other prof, but I believe the related service providers are in that picture. >> Oh, but

100they're not with them all day. >> No. >> Okay. So they're part of the team, but they're not like Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you everyone. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity. >> That was excellent. Just thank you Mrs. Wong as well as the entire special education department. Um done a great job. So we do really appreciate all of your effort. >> Okay, >> that's our last budget presentation, President Lang. >> So just >> no no for tonight >> for tonight. You have me next week. >> Thank you so much for that. Just before we adjourn, I'd like to thank the members of the Nassau County Police Department for joining us tonight. So thank you. Yay. I do also see a lot of our members of our

101special education department. So, thank you as well for being here tonight. >> Okay. Uh, may I have a motion to adjourn the planning session? Okay. Maryanne? >> No. Um, do I have a second? Um, okay. Phyllis, all in favor? Anybody against? No. Okay. Meeting adjourned. Don't go anywhere. We're starting our next meeting, everybody. >> Except I lost my script. So, okay. This one. All right. Do I have a motion to convene the March 11th regular meeting of the Levittown Board of Education? Jen Msina. Do I have a second? Peggy Morang. All in favor? All of us. So exciting. Okay. Recognition. So, please take a moment to enjoy the beautiful artwork um and the walls of the room, the hallways. Thankful to the students of MacArthur for sharing their talents with us. >> Mr. Winch, >>

102President Lang, thank you. Uh at this point I'm going to ask members of the board of education to take their usual positions in front of the table while we do uh our recognitions of uh PTA and food service. Okay. Um so, uh we're recognizing two groups tonight. Our um folks from our PTAs as well as from our food service committee. Uh so we want to take a moment to recognize a large group uh who really helped to make our school community stronger every single day. Our incredible PTA volunteers. Um and but we're going to do things a little bit differently tonight. Um because I want to first call up uh the folks that are here to celebrate them and then I'm going to talk a little bit about all that they do. Uh so um

103I am going to call up at this time right now uh Mrs. Vulpi which I think she's here right and Miss Dolce. come on up because you you'll do the names for the food service after Dr. Zerianis is done with PTA council and PTA presidents. So, uh when your name is called, please come on up to get a certificate. You're going to shake everybody's hand and then you will take a spot next to Mr. Papis there and the line's going to go way down that end there. So, uh you ready, Dr. Zerianis? >> I just want to say up front that I didn't know I was doing this. So, I apologize um if I mispronounce anyone's name. I'm always sensitive to that with the last name Zerianis. So, I do apologize. Feel free to correct

104me. >> Okay. Hold on. >> I'll take the certificates. >> I feel like I'm being punked or something. >> Okay. All right. All right. All right. All right. >> I think you're being >> I'm being punked. >> Right. >> Next, he's gonna ask me to sing or something. >> Good. >> I can start. >> And we're starting at the top of the list, boss. >> All right. Well, call up council president Miss Kathleen Pedrick. >> Yay. I wait. Right. >> Okay. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you so much for everything. >> No. No. You're doing a good job. >> All right. Council immediate past president Beth Lions. >> Not here. >> Okay. First vice president, Miss Michelle Seagull. Second Vice President Christa Hill, Recording Secretary Jen Oampo. Corresponding Secretary Karen Martinez. >> Treasurer Rebecca McCrae. >>

105I feel like I'm doing a solid job so far. You >> did a great job. >> All right. All right. Awesome. Abby Lane School. Jane Young. Abby Lane School. Raina Brown. Division Avenue High School. Christa Hill. Not here. We know that already. Uh, East Broadway School. Andrea Coleman. East Broadway School. Lauren Kercher. Gardener's Avenue. Allison Espazito. Gardener's Avenue. Jamie. Oh, this is why he gave me the list. How do you say it? >> Duke me. >> Yes. No. >> Thank you. Thank you. I did. Lee Road School. Jen Treza. Lee Road School. Alexandria Carabalo. >> That's good. That Oh, yes. >> Thanks for everything. recognize you for everything you do. >> Um, North Side School, Faith Derm, North Side School, Barbara Buckley, Sock MacArthur, Sharon Levy, Sock MacArthur, Jackie Schultz, SEPTA, Diana Mochi. No one's

106here. No one's here to have me say their names right. SPETA Holly Kennedy. There's Holly. Summit Lane School. Kim Alvarado. >> Summit Lane School. Erin Alinger and Wisdom Lane School. Janette Readyddy. If any of you need me to announce at any upcoming presentations, I'm available. >> Now, you have to stay for a moment because we're going to move on the food service. All right. And so I just want to let you know that uh Mr. Fabiano, myself, Miss Vulpi, and Miss Dolchek did go over to Lee Road today uh to partake in the baked ziti uh which was the food that won last year's vote by the students. And let me just tell you something, it was excellent. Uh it was it's it came it's second to my wife Ziti, which is which is a

107little better, but I mean cafeteria. >> No, no, she is listening. She goes there's seven people listening. So, uh, but for the seven people and my wife listening at home, your Ziti is the best. But for cafeteria ziti, let me tell you something. This was good stuff. I cleared my plate, did I not? Right. But anyway, these two individuals are really very helpful in running amazing food service program here. Uh, so I'm going to hand it over to them to announce our food service members. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. I'm honored to call up the following people. Um Janine Quigley, she's our council representative and our Division Avenue High School uh member. Uh Abby Lane School, we have Loretta Roland. East Broadway School, we have Justine Bruno. Uh, Gardener's Avenue, Kathy Alvino, Lee Road,

108Allison Scarfo, >> tomorrow, >> North Side School, Nadia Connors, sorry, Summit Lane, Megan Brock, >> thank you, Megan. >> Thank you. >> Sulk Middle School is Crystal Ryan. Wisdom Lane, Eileen Lynch, >> and our board member, Michael Papis. >> Thank you. >> Our student representatives from MacArthur, Gabrielle Alverz, From Division Avenue, we have Brendan Hernandez. Sulk Middle School, we have Declan Rooney. And also from Sulk, we have Max Touo. And last but not least, Wisdom Lane, Allison Kim. >> Oh. Oh, and then we also do have obviously a certificate for Kim Vulpi, right? Because you are critical to the mission here and for Linda Doc. >> Now, you get to stand here and listen to my little speech. I wrote this is not chat. So, I want you to know I put some time into

109this. >> We'll see. >> Well, you'll see. We'll see. >> I don't use unwavering. >> Um, >> okay. Uh, so tonight, uh, yeah, the M dashes. Tonight, uh, our volunteers give something truly valuable, their time. All right. Whether it's organizing events, supporting teachers, helping families stay connected, or stepping in whenever help is needed. Our PTA members and food service volunteers work behind the scenes to make so many wonderful things happen for our students. Uh, a special thank you goes out to our PTA unit presidents and PTA council whose leadership, dedication, uh, and countless hours of coordination helped keep everything running smoothly. Your commitment really does set a tone for the entire organization and inspires others to get involved. Um, our cabinet and board of education try to attend as many PTA events as we possibly

110can. I mentioned this last night at our PTA meeting that uh PTA council that is a big district so a lot of times we don't uh we don't get to go to everything but um whether it's an event like uh SEPTA's uh paint night which I do have my paint night uh painting from last year. Okay. Uh we then had an internal contest where Mr. Fabiano who did not attend voted on which one was best and he chose Dr. Zerianis's. So, uh, he's not going to be voting again. Um, >> yeah, that don't understand that. But, um, whether it's that or the color run, um, or the intense division high school sweeps, which I went to the first time on Friday night, uh, and it was insane and it was wonderful. Um, or even just

111the honorary life dinner. And I say just because it's been going on for so many years, but when you go to it, um it clearly takes weeks and weeks and weeks and months to put in that time for a non-paying job. Um is really incredible. And I'm sure you get a lot of grief from it from other significant people in your lives uh about all that time. Uh, but I really just wanted you um to know that um I'm not sure that individuals outside of this room really grasp the nose number of hours to take that it takes to run a PTA well. Um, and our PTAs go beyond running well. Um, so thank you for supporting our families, our kids, our teachers, our administrators, me personally. Um, and our food service committee volunteers uh

112just like our PTAs. Many of you are in PTA. Um, dedicated group helps monitor our school breakfast and lunch programs, working closely with our school administrators and with Chartwells to help ensure our students have the best possible lunch experience. Um, you know, I we do go usually once a month our our cabinet sometimes with some board members to visit the schools and have lunch with the kids. Um, I do we do pay. I don't want you to think we have free lunch, but we do pay. Um, but I will honestly say that I think we offer the best food program or best cafeteria program uh in in the world. Uh, but I'll I'll go with Long Island since I I know Long Island better. Um, other than Mr. Rava, who I do believe eats in

113the cafeteria every single day. I Monday through th Oh, Fridays they they take out Chinese food, right? Um, I'm really not sure that anyone else is in a better position to critique what the food service committee does than than me since I do eat in the cafeterias once a month. Um, so I want to thank you because our food is excellent. Our kids get exposed to all sorts of different options. It is almost like a college campus, especially as you get up to the older grades. Um, but I will tell you that my kids did not have that experience. My younger one complains about the food at college. Um, and I will tell you that I think she would accept our food much much faster than college. And that says a lot. So to all

114of you in the different capacities that you work and you volunteer. Um, really your generosity, your teamwork, uh, I know many of you. I've worked with many of you for many years. You're a lot of fun. Um, and so I really couldn't think of working with a better group of people uh, to be volunteers in our community. So our school is better because you're part of it. So, just again, thank you on behalf of myself, central administration, and our entire board of education. Uh, thank you for giving up all of your time to make Levittown the school district that it is. So, big round of applause for our volunteers. And now we're going to do a group photo. Right. So, at this point, I will What do you How do you want to do this?

115You're you're the photo person. So, what do you what do you think? It's a lot. I know it's a lot, but we can't leave the room. So, don't make us don't make us go out in the lobby. We'll have the back Just to keep things moving along, I am going to ask Dr. Zerianis to just briefly share about our amazing uh postsecondary fair from last Wednesday. So, just go ahead. >> Yeah, I can't believe it's a week ago already, but this was the first time we did it. It was such a success. I was standing next to Mr. at one point and I said, "I'm I think I'm going to start crying." And he said, "No, no, please don't do that." Um I I don't deal with tears, but um it felt that emotional cuz

116it's something we've been working toward um for several years now. Uh to align with our vision and the fact that we were um actually able to pull it off. Uh the event was here last Wednesday night from 6:30 to 8:00. We had over 90 representatives from colleges, universities, trade schools, vocational programs, unions, police, military organizations. We had hundreds of families who came through uh in that hour and a half. And uh I really think it was really meaningful to see for our families to see how many paths uh there are post uh Levittown School District and for it all to be in one space. It it was just a really proud moment truly representing success for every student. And just as a as a as a comment, um you know, we talk a lot in

117here about things that come out of this meeting, things that board members share. You might just share some comment in passing and not know. Um but this conversation, I believe, started last year, the year before when President Lang mentioned that she was going to a college fair at Sunni Farmingdale at night. >> You remember that? >> I do. >> And uh I told Dr. Z and she was like, "We could do that here." and um and she did. And so just kudos to uh Dr. Z. Um and as I mentioned to all of you, you never know and something you mentioned is something that all of a sudden sparks. I think I think uh Mrs. Dalton mentioned that Miss Morangi sparked you to ask questions. So a lot of sparks going on, but it is

118important for us to share and to let you know that like when there are times when you may think something is just a passing comment, but then like really does let something grow. And so I was there with you a little bit late, but I was there. Uh, and it was wonderful to see because we were concerned that no one would show up. >> Uh, and >> it was like a wedding in that day. You're like, "Oh my goodness." >> And it was it was really so and the parents were uh just so thankful for for doing that. And so we had the Compass Fair >> um a little a couple of weeks before M. I think she mentioned it, but um we had a similar turnout for that that was really more directed towards

119transition services for students disabilities. And um I I was told by um Charlene, right? >> Yeah. >> Our our night security aid here. She shared that with me that night that there was so many parents telling her how proud they are that they live in this district because of what this district offers to the families. And so a lot of times you don't get to hear that, but >> and I personally I could probably interviewed a hundred families on their way out. Personally, I stood by the door. I wanted to hear from the kids. I wanted to hear from the parents. And it wasn't just like, "Yeah, that was good. They had constructive reasons why. Everybody was so uber positive. Please do this again was what I heard. You know, I have a kid in

12010th grade and I want to make sure this happens again. So, obviously a big big big shout out to Miss Hammer and Miss Nasser from our our guidance chairs from both high schools as well as our counseling department because they were there in force that night, did so much of the planning. Um, and it was really uh wonderful work on their part. >> Uh, that's it for my comments and reports. I do have one um followup to prior public be heard. Uh so I'm just going to read the letter. >> Todd, if you have >> I don't know. Do you want me to wave it? >> Yeah. >> If the person that I wrote the letter to wants to wave it, which is Mr. Bies, I will uh I will wave it. He knows what

121I wrote. >> Okay. >> So, uh I think I've answered all board questions up to this point. So, I turn it back over to you, President Lang. >> Thank you. So, we are up to comments and reports and um Miss Adrian. >> Oh, well, we can never mind. >> No, that's okay. No, no, no. I just um I just wanted to make a quick comment. Um you know, we always hear about all the great things in our district that go on. We hear a lot about our high schools and we have our liaison here. Um, I just wanted to share I was able to uh attend the uh mock trial club preparations for uh East Broadway and I was able to bring in a a lawyer for them to help them prep for their upcoming

122mock trial. And let me tell you, like in our district, we have so many great things that we offer and this is just one of the other things we offer. And I I I just wanted to share it because it's not something that we usually talk about in depth of in in what kind of club offerings there are and I know that it's school specific. Um I also think North Side uh has a mock trial club now too and I just love that and I just wanted to share it. It makes me happy. >> And just to com Oh, did you want to comment that? Go ahead. No, you >> I apologize. >> No, by all means. >> I was just going to add to what um the superintendent said before that was ironically something

123that you had mentioned. Um, and at the same time, the building principal at East Broadway, literally, I think it was about 4 hours apart. And I remember when you said it to me, I was like, "Mr. Margolus just said this to me. How did you know?" Um, and that was something that you and now we have it going on at two schools. So, thank you for that. >> Miss Msina, I just wanted to comment on how well the post-secary fair was. I got to go with my daughter, and if you look at the picture, she is somewhat smiling. So, for a 15-year-old, that means it was a good time. and her phone was away. So that just that's like a testament to how good it was. It was good to experience it with her and

124not her like have her do it during the day, which is also beneficial, but for she and I to be able to walk around and for to watch her talk to people and have to discuss things and watch her like advocate for herself, it was for for as a parent, it was it was really refreshing to see. So thank you for the opportunity to have that. >> Thank you. Anybody else? >> I'm going to pass here because I'm very close to my 15 minutes, so I'm good. Um, we're up to the board leaison. Who's going first? >> Ethan, go for it. >> All right. Oh, I do I also want to before I start my my uh my report, I do want to make a positive comment about the postsecary night. I personally didn't go,

125but my brother did and he's like he's kind of um having trouble finding like what route he wants to go. So him and my mom went and they said it was it was very helpful to uh definitely get a sense of the types of schools that were there and and the direction he wants to go. So uh but yeah that uh on that positive note >> thank you. Thank you for sharing that so much. Thank you. >> But um but on that posit positive note um good evening. Since our last meeting uh there have been a lot of great happenings in general nation. On February 12th, several exceptional MacArthur Art students were asked to display their incredibly talented artwork at the annual high school art reception at the Levittown Public Library. All of our amazing

126art teachers also attended and the evening was a huge success in recognizing our talented artists for the entire Levittown community to enjoy. On February 25th, Miss Woo accompanied her string orchestra students to Lincoln Center for the performing arts campus where they visited the Metropolitan Opera House as well as the Vivian Bowmont Theater. As students learned about each venue's history, rehearsal routines, and and acoustics that are mandatory at the professional level, they also saw the Chicago Symphony's Orchestra's performance at the famed Carnegie Hall, where all students experience worldclass musicianship up close. After observing an elite orchestra in one of the most famous venues in the world, had one student say, quote, "Wow, this is absolutely a dream come true." On March 6th, we conducted an extremely successful junior banquet in our beautifully decorated gym where close

127to 300 junior students attended. All attendees stated they had a phenomenal time, saying they enjoyed each other's company and delicious food while dancing the night away to the spectacular sounds to our phenomenal DJ. Congratulations to our junior class. They certainly deserve this beautiful party. Just yesterday, we conducted our senior class pre-prom assembly in the auditorium and last night was the mandatory parent pre-prom workshop. Both hosted by our keynote speaker and retired police officer, Mr. John Gins. He delivered very real and powerful presentations on the importance of good decision-making for any postp prom activity as well as great advice for enjoying the college social life with emphasis on health and safety. Special thanks to Officer Gian for his informative and educational presentations as a myriad of parents of senior students, my parents included, were appreciated for

128his me for his message. Some upcoming events include on March 19th, Mr. Donovan will be accompanying our physics Olympic team to compete in the Sunni Farmingale competition. And through March 20th to 22nd, Dr. Freriedman and Mr. Dson will be taking our science olympiad team to Le Moine College in Syracuse to compete in the New York State tournament. Best of luck to both teams and let's go Generals. And finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't update you and state that as I guaranteed at our last meeting, I'm proud to say that the graduating class of 2026 became the first class in MacArthur history to become three repeat champions in our legendary Battle of the Classes competition. So way to go to my fellow seniors and this concludes my report. >> Okay. Hi everyone. Good evening. So

129I know it's been a while since we last saw you, so I have a lot to talk about. So the National Art Honor Society held their successful Valentine's Day bouquet fundraiser. In past years, their numbers have dipped, but this year, we are proud to say that they made over 60 sales of their Valentine flower lollipop bouquets. Um, our art honor society members spent countless hours coming after school to help create them and then day before Valentine's Day handing them out. It was a great success and the teachers even enjoyed sending them to each other, which was really nice to see. On Tuesday, March 3rd, our seniors gathered in the auditorium for Emmy night. So, for those of you who don't know, Emmy night is basically our senior superlatives. So, it was filled with fun acts

130and videos. We had some people playing pianos, doing singalongs. Um, so it was a lot of fun. So, big congratulations to all that won an award. And I would like to thank our Division Avenue News Network for covering the event and they did a great job putting it all together. Um, on Friday, March 6th, our Division Avenue PTSA held their annual sweeps bingo night, which is always a big hit. Um, Key Club and PTSA members came out to help set up and be runners for the raffle baskets that night. Sweeps is very successful and fun-filled along with a long night for many of our volunteers. But all the fund raised from this event are going towards our senior scholarships which they are all very appreciative for. In addition, Adam Hong competed in and won the

131Long Island BrainBe, which is very exciting. He has earned the opportunity to participate in a summer research project at Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and will represent Long Island at the National BrainB which will be held in California on April 25th. So very exciting for him. And we have had some very big things going on in sports as well. I know some of you were there this past weekend when our varsity cheer team went to states where they placed second. They're all very proud of what they accomplished this season and said it was a great way to end off. Um the seniors are very proud. I know the captains were speaking with me and said it was a great way to end their season. So and then finally in terms of track this past weekend

132Daniel Smith and Lucas Aguilar competed at the New York State Championship. They ran personal bests um placing them in the first and third in Nassau County this season. Uh Danny also came back to anchor the intersectional relay for an all state finish and both boys will compete at the national meet next weekend. So we are very proud of them and can't wait to see what they're going to accomplish at nationals. And then for what's coming up, this week is a little bit crazy for our music department, as some of you may already know, as the production of the Olympians is going on tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday, and they had their inschool run through today, uh, which I heard went pretty well. Our TRM members will also be aiding with this by selling kisses for the

133cast, handing out programs, and selling snacks during intermission. So, our performers have been working extremely hard on this. They've been working for months. So, we hope you come out to see their incredible performances. We're very proud of all the effort they've put into this show, as well as our directors for all their hard work. And finally, Key Club also has a major week. So, tomorrow we are hosting Wisdom Lane Middle School Builders Club to come up for our annual pizza and play night event, which is something our key club created. So, it's a peer mentoring night where the high school students answer questions, play games, and teach them more about being a part of the Kuanas family. Additionally, we have nine members attending the leadership training conference in Albany this weekend. So, students will be

134able to get to expand their leadership skills, network with other clubs, and learn more about holding an office in Key Club. So, we are very excited for them and all they have going on this weekend. So, that concludes my report. Can I just add something? I got to tell you something, Sarah. First, first of all, both of you guys did fantastic jobs. There's always presentations. Very exciting and very stimulating. I went to the uh cheerleading competition with some of my board members up here and central office team and your principal. And having raised only boys and having a grandson, I know nothing about it. Miss Moren gave me a lot of advice and she knows it tremendously. But here's the thing. When you're watching a baseball game and you make an error in the first

135inning, which I've done many times in my life, you could still win the game. If you throw an interception, you could still win the game. In any sport, you you foul out of the game, you could still win the game. In cheerleading, you make one little mistake and there is no recovery. It is the most nerve-wracking thing in your life waiting for these judges to come out there and come out with the, you know, first, second, third, fourth, and fifth in the first round and then who goes to the finals. It's you're on the edge of your seat, you know, and it's a wonderful experience. I just last year and this year I've experienced that. Wonderful each time. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Uh, we're now moving to our public be heard portion.

136because I know >> I can't legally I'm going to I have to say it. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh we will now move to our public be heard portion of the regular meeting. This is the opportunities of the members of the community to speak. All questions must be directed to the board of education president. Each speaker is limited to three minutes and is expected to use the microphone and clearly clear clearly state their name and address. So I have Maddie come on up. >> I guess you're required to. You can't wave the reading. But anyway, thank you, Chairman Lang. And hi, everyone. My name is Maddie Bies and I live at 1297 Shaw Place in Seafood, New York, and I'm a candidate that's running for the school board along with with five four other candidates.

137So, thank you very much. Wasn't that some great presentation tonight? um from the board from the special ed. One of the things students with disabilities have in common is that they they have a diverse range of needs, but there there's a tentacle to that. When President Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act almost 36 years ago in July that that that made discrimination illegal in the in the district. It's important to look out for those who would other in my view I don't think the directors or chapters should have the right to deny a student if they want to take an AP or an honors classes if they have the supports staffs that they need. I also do not believe that they have the right to do to to deny a student an SAT or

138an ACT. One of the things I'm running for the board is to really advocate for people with developmental disabilities. And one of the things I have in mind is Beth Page School District does a collaboration with the Winter Center for Autism in West Babylon, New York. And I certainly would hope to work with the new assistant superintendent come July and we can make that a reality. In my hand is an undergrad admission for the Florida governor board of trustees. We have several students that went to Florida obviously for the weather and I will let you know that one of our students who went to the South Florida was a King O'Neal scholar and not only had their diploma signed by Governor Ronda Santis but also by the USF board of president and even by Will

139Weatherford who's a former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives as the chairman of the board of trustees. students in Florida, which we have county schools for public, um, have to take an SAT or an ACT. There's limited exceptions for those who can take it. And I'm glad that we keep transcripts here once a year, like forever. So, if a student wants to take a school, they can. So, and my view I no I think you know really it should be important that it should be a decision that's made to the student and the parent whether or not to take an SAT or an ACT and which college they can go to without an SAT or an ACT. Um you're very limited with your options. So one of the things we should do is put

140a ban in place to prohibit any teacher to denying a student who has a disability. And the second thing is I do want to wish Phyllis and and and and Jen right there of running for the board along with another component if if if we have another woman that'll be a 61 female majority. So I hope for response and I'm and to you chairman Lang I'm sorry if I interrupted I I'm used to this so you didn't have to repeat that over but if you have to do it legally that's fine. So with that thank you very much and I have to speak with counsel at the very end. God bless you all. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh we appreciate you coming and sharing your thoughts and insights and the time that you took to

141prepare them and um any questions will be addressed in writing um and at spoken about at the next regular board of education meeting. Okay. So moving on to the agenda and budget transfers. Do I have a motion to accept item 4.1 budget transfer? Uh Phyllis, do I have a second? Jen, any discussion? Yes, I do. Thank you. Let me just get my pages. That's I like doing it. So, okay. Where did I put this here? Got so many notes. Okay. My apologies. Okay. Uh Mr. Fabiano, there's a transfer of $400,000 from employee benefits and healthcare to operations. Um, can you just uh give us an update on why that was and I'm curious because the the budget line went up this year in employee benefits health insurance. >> Yes. Uh we we do we do

142put the appropriated fund balance in the health insurance line uh or at least a part of it. So this is anticipated surplus uh and the request came in from instruction. I think they're targeting uh uh all the buildings throughout the district. Uh but uh Dr. Sirius could talk more specifically about the furniture that they're ordering. >> Um I shared a little bit of this in my budget presentation. Um just the work we're doing where um we're doing a little theater at Sock. We're doing um one of the uh tech rooms over at MacArthur. And then systematically we're starting to move through every single grade level across all six buildings uh with brand new furniture. So, we are going to make right now um the start to do that by the end of the school year

143in fifth grade so that we go into the new school year with all fifth graders um you know being welcomed back in September with brand new classrooms. >> I'm fine with that. I just want to understand how we're anticipating an increase from this year's budget, but we're taking out 400,000 from this year budget and putting it somewhere else. Um yes uh you you you you are you are correct but overall we also are reducing the amount of of uh budgeted surplus appropriated fund balance in that line. However the underlying cost of the health insurance is going up by 10%. And it is close to $40 million. So even though we're reducing anticipated budgetary surplus, uh the underlying cost of the health insurance is going up dramatically. So there is a there is an increase in

144that line um >> uh that net effect for 2627. >> Okay. Um there's also a transfer of 200k from electric to gas. Um is that because we're saving money with solar? Uh we we actually have uh we we have Mr. Camarad here, but no, I I I don't believe so. We we we budgeted uh we we budgeted $1.9 million. It appears that we're coming in a little bit less than that. Um uh but we're really not seeing the electric uh buyback yet and we're not have so far have not budgeted that savings even in 2627. However, natural gas uh the the unit cost for natural gas has gone up >> through the roof >> and the compounding of it being just a severe cold winter with um you know I what about a 40% increase

145in in natural gas costs uh has has really caused the need for that transfer. So, what's nice is it's coming from one utility line to the other because we are coming under budget on the electric line, but it's not because of the electricity that we're generating. Not yet. >> And Mr. Camarada is here, but I'm I'm going to say that these are they all they are they all online yet or or not the >> they now are. So, like they've come on at different points during the school year. So there will be, I assume, some savings this year, but really won't be fully realized until next year, which then once we see what a full year of savings look like, we'll then be able to budget, you know, bring that budget line down for the

146following year. Correct. So it's really it's a it's a it's a long process, but it could be that some of this some of the, you know, expectation that there'll be money in that code could be from some of the electrical costs. unfortunately just not enough to really know fully because the different solar canopies were brought on on different times. Um really what's starting when when >> the only >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> So they're all producing. >> Great. I guess during your September uh presentation to the board about our projects in the summer and stuff like that, we can maybe put in a little bit about what our expected savings will be next year. >> Thanks. >> Okay. I have a couple of uh kudos I want to give you also. Um so the monthly

147claims audit report has 521 claims on it which is you know district payouts. It's not claims like we're being sued or anything like that. Um and a total of $23.4 million. There were 12 in the claims in the amount of 19 million that were inquired and observed with not one issue on them. That's fantastic. um invoices is a 0.58% where there were three claims had in uh I lost my train here where invoice date precedes the uh purchase order date. That's an important thing because that was one of the issues in another school district that made the news and had a movie about about uh I'm not going to mention the name of course. So I'm going to leave anyway u where um confirming purchase orders which means that when you have you buy something

148and then you get the purchase order. So, you're buying it without, you know, it can happen. You sometimes something breaks down on a truck, you got to go out and get the part. That happens. But to have only three claims is amazing. That means our our business office is really working fantastically. Uh 23.4 million worth of claims and and is it 19,900 required inquiries all satisfactory done. So amaz those are amazing numbers. So thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thanks for recognizing that. >> Um, all in favor? >> Six against? None. >> There we go. >> One, two, three, four, >> schedules. Um, do I have a motion to accept item 4.2 schedules? Peggy, a sec. Uh, do I have a second? >> Maryanne, >> Todd has a >> I just I just have

149to pull a few a few names here. So, um, you ready, Miss Espazito? >> Okay. From schedule one4 number 20 and 21 from 104 point A. Is that correct, Mrs. Gadis? >> 34 and 35. And then from 105 number six, >> I did good. Thank you. Thank you. >> That's all I have. >> Okay. All in favor? Six? Against? None. We passed that consent agenda. Remember we used to read these one by one. >> Oh boy. Don't get Mike started. Two in the morning. Two in the morning. Getting home. >> Okay. Uh I think we're all a little happy that we have this. Okay. So, >> uh do I have a motion to accept item 5.2 to 5.13 on the consent agenda, Jen? Um do I have a second? Mike, any discussion? All in favor?

150All six of us against. Nobody action item. Gives to school. Um, do I see the addresses? Love that. Okay. A check in the amount of $1,000 to be donated to the class of 2026 of Division Avenue High School for expenses from Miss Renee Motes. Thank you. A check in the amount of $1,125 to be donated to the class of 2026 of Division Avenue High School for expenses from Mr. Scott Pedri and Miss Kathleen Pedrich. A check in the amount of $2,000 to be donated to the class of 2027 of Division Avenue High School for expenses from Miss Lori Librizzy. A check in the amount of $22.70 to be donated to Gardener Avenue School for the playground and lunchroom from Boxtops for Education. A donation of 11 new Scholastic books to Jonas Esauk Middle School from

151Scholastic Bookf Fairs on Long Island. May I have a motion to accept with thanks these gifts? Phyllis, do I have a second? Peggy, any discussion? >> Thank you. All in favor? Six of us. Nobody's against it. >> Up to you. Ad hoc or >> uh this is just the second read of the policies we talked about last time when we did the first read. These are from the policy committee. Uh primarily either updates related to just getting the language in a good place and grammatical changes. And then there were several on here that went to our attorneys. Thank you Sharon for your help with that with uh modifying or bringing up to date really with the the legal language related to um the first one was about elections but then also about workplace um discrimination

152things like that. >> Okay. Thank you so much the policy committee because um >> somebody's got to do it and it's >> job. >> Yes. And I'm glad it's not me. Yes. So thank you. Um, with the upcoming dates, it says March 25th for the budget planning session, special meeting, budget adoption. Um, and on the agenda, there is an error. So, uh, please note it's April 22nd. The regular meeting is April 22nd, not 26th. That's the weekend and I'm not coming. You if you guys want to come in and do your thing on a weekend, I'm not Okay. Um, so may I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? Marian, do I have a second? Mike, anybody want to stay here all night? No. All in favor? I'm doing it. Nobody's against it. >> Looking

153good for the US up to one in the top of the eighth.