001[music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [music] [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Hey. Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> I'm Heat. [music] Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. What you are? Heat. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat.
002Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. I >> [music] >> don't know. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> We
003ready? We're good. Okay. Good evening. Do I have a motion to convene the February 4th, 2026 meeting of the Levittown Board of Education? Jen, do I have a second? Phyllis, all in favor? Five. Okay. Um, do I have a motion for the Levittown Board of Education to move into executive session for the purpose of discussing negotiations with the CSEA bargaining unit and to seek advice from district counsel? One breath, Mike. Do I have a second? Phyllis. All in favor? Five against. Zero. Fabulous. We will return at 7:30. Please note that we will recite the pledge of allegiance when we return. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat.
004[music] Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music]
005Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> I'm Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Hey, heat. Hey. Are you >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat.
006Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. >> [music] >> Yeah. Is it yours? We're good. Okay. Where are we? >> Where are we here? Right. Okay. Do I have a motion to convene the >> We are uh this right here. >> Oh, okay. Good evening, everyone. I would like to welcome you to the February 4th regular meeting of the
007Levittown Board of Education. Before we begin the meeting, just a reminder that for anyone who wishes to speak at public be heard, you must sign up prior to the start of the meeting. Thank you. Anybody signing up? Good. Moving on. Okay. May I have a motion to reconvene the meeting? Phyllis, do I have a second? Mike, all in favor? We're five. Five. Please note that Peggy Morang and Maryanne Adrien are excused from the meeting. Um, please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> As you may know, the Levittown school community recently lost two graduate graduates in a devastating car accident
008several weeks ago. Just read that. Go ahead. >> May I please have a moment of silence in remembrance of Lindseay Park and Alex Dura as well as the for all those serving our country at home and overseas? >> Thank you. Sorry. Okay, please take a moment to enjoy the beautiful artwork on the walls and in our hallways. We're so thankful to the students and faculty at Gardener Avenue Elementary School for sharing their talents with us. >> Thank you, President Lang. Uh so we have some special things going on tonight uh in our board meeting. We have our next student academic presentation which tonight is going to be cutting edge because it's about artificial intelligence. And so I am going to ask our uh career exploration teacher uh Miss Britney Cerrone to come on up. And
009I am going to ask for the board of education to please take seats in the front row of the uh audience. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening everyone. Um, I want to thank the members of the board of education for the opportunity to share this update with you tonight. We are so grateful to our central office administrators, principles, and directors for their continued leadership and support. In addition, I want to say a special thank you to Todd Connell, our director of technology, and Michelle Kelly, our director of elementary education, for their guidance in moving this initiative forward. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you as well for our incredible teachers and students that are participating in tonight's presentation and sharing their experiences with Magic School AI. My name is Britney Cerrone and I am the currently a
010teacher on special assignment with a focus on instructional technology. This position along with the adoption of Magic School AI were was approved by the board of education in last year's budget and this year marks our first year of implementation. In my role, I work collaboratively with the educators across our elementary, middle, and high school buildings, leading professional development to support the integration of instructional technology to enhance our teaching and learning. Magic School AI has quickly become a valuable resource for teachers and students across all grade levels and content areas. From our youngest students engaging with reading tools to our high school students using study features to prepare for their assessments, the program has had a very meaningful impact. This initiative reflects our district's ongoing commitment to thoughtful innovation and to using technology as a tool
011to strengthen instruction and deepen student learning. Tonight, you'll hear directly from our students and teachers from the elementary, middle, and high schools as they share how Magic School is already making an impact in their classrooms. I will first share some district level data that highlights how the platform is being used across our schools. Thank you again to the board of education and our leadership team for your continued support of innovative future focused learning opportunities for our students. So what is Magic School AI? It is an education design platform created by educators for educators. It provides over a 100 tools that can be used to personalize learning, streamline planning, and give every student the support that they need. So, our district plan last year began in phase one where we piloted several different AI platforms to
012find the best fit for our district. This year we're currently in phase two of the plan where we are introducing Magic School to teachers and staff, providing opportunities for um familiarizing themselves and experimenting with the platform. Next year in phase three, we'll be introducing Magic School to our students. So, the impacts of Magic School and how it could help our teachers. Through the use of its tools, Magic School creates opportunities for our teachers to create innovative instructional material, differentiate for success, engage our families and communities, and create engaging and relevant content. Why are we introducing students to AI? Well, 65% of our current kindergarten students will work in careers that do not exist yet. And 66% of leaders state that they would not hire someone that did not have AI skills. So, exposing our students
013to Magic School reflects on our continued commitment to providing our students with the skills, tools, and confidence that they will need to succeed in this rapidly changing world. looking at our success so far as a district. So for a magic school, a generation refers to a single piece of content that the platform creates using AI. So the goal for each month would to be ha would be that each user would have 22 generations. Levittown is at 51 generations per user. Um so when we met with magic school this was something that they were extremely um excited and proud of because we are exceeding those expectations already in our first year. Our teacher usage. So, we already have consistent staff and teachers using the platform starting with around 5,000 generations in our first month in September
014to now around 33,000 generations in January. So, within a few short months, we can see that there's been consistent growth in our teacher usage, which just shows the dedication for our teachers and and in their classrooms. On the next slide, I will share our student usage so far to date. While student usage is officially planned next year for phase three, many of our teachers have embraced Magic School enthusiastically that they are already proactively using this platform with their students. So, as you can see, these numbers are incredible. Starting with 4,000 student generations in September, and to date, we have 120,000 student generations. These incredible numbers speak to the excitement surrounding this platform and the opportunities it presents for our teachers and students. We've given you a quick glimpse into Magic School journey so far, but
015what better way to see its true impact than from hearing it from our students and teachers. I would like to introduce AI Witness News and backed by popular demand after his stellar performance at last month's board meeting. I would like to introduce tonight's correspondent Nathan Dotay and cameraman William Amato, both students from Sulk Middle School. >> [music] [music] >> Good evening. I'm Nathan Dotay with AIwitness News coming to you live from Levittown School District in Nassau County. We came here to see firsthand how AI is being used in real classrooms and the results are remarkable. AI is everywhere these days, changing the way we work, learn, and connect. And now it's making its way into classrooms. Let's go live to our first classroom to hear from teachers and students in Levittown. I'm here with Mrs.
016Master Monica, a special education teacher from Abby Lane Elementary School. Can you tell us how your district is using AI in the classroom? Sure. So we are using a program called Magic School and it is an AI platform and it helps teachers save time. We can use it to quickly create lessons, assessments and classroom materials. That sounds really interesting. We all know that successful te teaching and learning starts with recognizing that every student learns differently. Can you share how magic schools impacted instruction in your classroom? >> Absolutely. So every student who walks into my classroom is unique with different strengths, needs, and ways of learning. Meeting the students needs requires thoughtful differentiation and planning. Magic School is a key part of my classroom because it helps me personalize instruction more effectively. For example, supporting students
017in communicating and expressing emotions is a daily priority within my classroom. Using Magic School, I've created an interactive morning check-in which encourages students to communicate just how they are feeling and to navigate through those big emotions they might have. It's truly incredible to see the increase in students in their ability and their willingness to share. These photos here capture some of the enthusiasm and excitement within my classroom. One student is able to share that he is so happy he received a new pair of shoes. And another student proudly shared an important personal goal that she had set for herself in 2026, sleeping in her own bed. Magic school allows me to focus on what matters the most. Building relationships, supporting social emotional growth, and helping every student succeed. >> Wow. I don't know how teachers
018do it. Planning all those lessons, keeping track of so many different needs, and making sure every student feels supported. That's incredible. I'm here with Alex, a student from Abby Lane Elementary. How does Magic School help you in the classroom? How does what does it do to make learning easier and more fun for you? I really enjoy using Magic School because it makes learning fun in new ways. My favorite tool is the writing feedback tool. It doesn't just correct me if I'm wrong, it gives me easy step-by-step guidance. For example, when I was writing my VIP paragraph for my mother, it magic school helped me add specific details about my mother. It helped me brainstorm ideas and turn those into strong supporting details. Thank you, Alex. Next, we turn to middle school. I'm here with Mrs.
019McCarthy, an ENL teacher from Sulk Middle School. How does Magic School help ensure all students can succeed? >> Hi. Um, I work with English language learners, seventh and eighth grade English language learners at Sock Middle School. Uh, my students have different levels of English language proficiency, a wide range of academic skills, and are diverse in just about every way imaginable. Um, I have used Magic School to provide language support so that my English language learners have access to grade level curriculum um, such as vocabulary tables and translations and um, sentence frames. One magic school magic school moment that really resonates with me is one day when we were working on a writing assignment. Um, one of my students called me over to share with me that the sentence frames created by Magic School were incredibly
020helpful. Um, this is a student who at times struggles to start and complete writing tasks. So it was extremely gratifying to see him um work with confidence and to complete the task. Um by providing these tools across classrooms, Magic School ensures equity, consistent access to learning and the ability for all students to achieve their goals. So So Magic School is helping ensure success for every student. Sounds like the ultimate team player. Let's hear from a student and see what it's like to actually use it in class. I'm here with Julia, a student from Wisdom Lane Middle School. Can you tell us what it's like to use Magic School in your classes and how it helps you and your classmates succeed? Yes. I really love using Magic School because it really makes learning in different ways
021possible. For example, when I'm studying for a test, I can use the Escape Room tool to practice in a fun, interactive way instead of just doing worksheets. Also, if I get something wrong, it doesn't just mark it as incorrect. It explains why the answer is wrong and helps me understand how to get it right. It turns the review into a game and keeps me also engaged. If we need help, the tools can read the text out loud, translate it, or even let us talk instead of type. It makes learning easier and helps every student understand the lesson. >> That's amazing. I'm sure a lot of our parents wish they had tools like Magic School when they were in school. Magic. Uh, and that really makes you think. Technology is changing the world faster than ever.
022So, how is Magic School helping prepare students for what's next in this fast changing or fastm moving everchanging world? Let's find out from Mr. Lehey, a business teacher at MacArthur High School. Mr. Lehey, how is Magic School helping you you to prepare students for life after high school? uh as a high school business teacher, we have a ton of different uh students that come in with different career goals. Uh and it's really nice to have all the different options that we have with Magic School to try to, you know, instead of just having a regular worksheet you hand out to every student, Magic School has all these different programs that we can have that we could take that material and display it in a different way because a lot of children learn differently. Uh so
023instead of it just the the way the traditional way of just putting it up on the blackboard, um like they have a char a character chat box. So if I want to go over like a CEOs from all different companies instead of just having the kids report it in a traditional way, students are able to interact with this chat box and the chat box becomes that CEO. So if you saying like someone like Steve Jobs from Apple, now they're getting to interact with all the knowledge of that and it's such a different tool than we just having them doing research on it. So it's very interesting. Um and the other big one we're using, I teach a a college real estate class. Um, so I had the kids create their the 2026 portfolios, which is
024something you would see in all different type of industries. So we're trying to really embrace the kids using AI. Um, especially for like a business teacher. You're sitting there and saying, "All right, we're going to use this to really get gain knowledge with the students." So in our projects, the students had to go in and find out the different interest rates, go on to different websites from uh all different type of political backgrounds to find out what what they think the forecast for real estate is going to be. uh what are the inventory on Long Island's going to be and what the price range is going to be. Then they had to look up so social like macro microeconomic uh situations are going on. Now the kids when they pulled all that information into the
025uh the AI they got bullet form uh information from that. Then the students had to take that information come up with their own hypothesis and then they created these flyers that would go on social media to go out to their potential clients saying why 2026 is going to be a great year for them to buy real estate. So, it's really taking the technology and trying to use it uh something that they would use after this. >> That's impressive. Magic School isn't just teaching lessons. It's giving students a sneak peek into real world careers and helping them build skills they'll actually use after graduation. But I've got to ask, what's it like for a student to use these tools today? Let's hear from Ava from MacArthur High School and see how Magic School is shaping their
026experience. Using Magic School as a tool not only helps me think deeply, but also analyze and organize my ideas concisely. I'm not just memorizing facts, but I'm able to ask better questions to my peers and teachers in my in the classrooms. For example, last year when I took AP World History, there's a lot of information I needed to know in a short amount of time. So when I was able to use Magic School AI, I was able to talk to past and philanthropy figures and historians and they were able to help me immerse myself into the atmosphere and helped me interpret the environment and the information even better than possibly a real life teacher could. Um, assignments and projects now feel more engaging and interactive than if it were to be done without the tool.
027And now I'm able to go into the rest of my high school career and college and beyond high school with the thoughts and knowledge that I've learned from the tool. >> Thank you so much, Ava. Reporting live from Levittown Public Schools, the district putting the magic in magic school. I'm Nathan Dotay. Thank you. >> Thank you so much to our teachers and students for being here with us tonight and speaking on Magic School. Um, this pres presentation encompasses the positive impact felt by just a few of our teachers. On the screen, you will see quotes from administrators, teachers, and staff members from all 10 of our schools. Thank you so much. You guys can sit. >> Okay. while you read that was a phenomenal job by our students and our teachers come back with everybody.
028So if we are photoc will take a photo and parents can take a photo. Come on in. That was fantastic. >> Students in the front. Now wait, don't go anywhere. Parents, if you want to stand up, take a photo right in the middle. Get a good photo. Don't go anywhere yet. I just want to make a comment that uh there's been some recent uh like media stories coming out about AI and about some concerns about you know how AI is going to be used and if you know AI is a problem. Um but I do think like Mr. mentioned uh that the goal really of school district is to take the tools that exist and use them to really help our students uh because all of us really even here in central office do use
029different AI tools all day long. So it is true I think mentioned that 66% of employers said that they would not hire someone that did not have AI experience. I can tell you with a student child in college and one recently graduated is true. And so while there might be some concerns about AI, there's no better place to learn about it and be supported and really get the best out of it uh than doing learning in school. Uh so kudos to everybody up here as well as to Michelle Kelly. I know refuses to take photo with us. Uh but that's okay. Uh and and Dr. Z who didn't take a photo with us either. Uh they have been very in >> you're supporting you're supporting her. Is that what you're doing? That's sweet of you.
030Yes. >> Uh but though they're behind the scenes as well as Mr. Connell who's sitting there refusing to take a photo of this uh and the elementary and and other principles. >> No no I'll be torched tomorrow. Um but uh just again thank you to all of them and thank you to all of you for really embracing this. Like said once again, Magic School AI was like very thrilled with the level of investment and involvement that we've had in this. It really does kind of speak to itself that it is a tool we need to use and we have the right people Come continue now with our budget uh presentations tonight. Uh first off, we have Mr. Fabiano with a brief update on where we are in the process in regards to uh getting that
031budget down as well as a little bit of feedback from his recent visit to Albany. So uh Mr. Fabiano, >> thank you. Superintendent Winch. Yes, this is a a very brief presentation tonight. Uh uh the work that we've done uh in between uh our last meeting and if I keep No problem. And I'm not going to review the timeline that nothing there has changed. Uh so uh since January 21st uh we have we have made some uh amendments to the budget. These are primarily reviewing um our salary codes and um uh because of the very successful early retirement incentive we have. We know of certain positions where people are retiring and we're able to take what we call breakage. Uh we're able to reduce their salary by the incoming teacher or the anticipated amount of
032the incoming teacher. Uh this is this is made uh possible uh by the fact that um we know who's retiring a bit earlier than uh we have in the past years where uh many times people did not let us know until after the budget adoption. So that was not uh possible. So we've reduced uh we've reduced total appropriations by approximately $1 million and we've brought the budget to budget increase uh down from 5.8% to 5.47%. Um and there'll be more on this uh in in the uh at our next presentation. Um uh I'm happy to report um we were able to uh make the trip I was able to make the trip up to uh Albany uh uh this week. Uh I belong to an organization called the association of school business officials and I
033serve on the government relations uh board uh which is really charged with uh helping to analyze the uh proposed budget uh the governor's proposed budget and to make recommendations for um hopefully improvements uh to that plan to that spending plan uh and present these ideas to our local legislators uh so that they have additional information uh in making the final determination uh on the budget uh which is expected uh on or about April 1st this year. Uh so um uh just have a brief summary of the talking points that we used in in in talking to our legislators. Uh some of them uh are not not all of these are necessarily applicable to uh uh Levittown. Uh the first uh uh the biggest issue is the increase in foundation aid. And while News Day reported
034uh an overall increase of about 3.6% uh statewide in foundation aid, uh approximately twothirds of the districts across the state only received the minimum 1% increase. Um and uh so there's a lot there's a lot of uh lobbying going on because the 1% uh really doesn't come close to the increase in cost um or uh the inflation factor was 2.6% this year. So obviously you're losing ground there. And I've discussed and as I've discussed um inflation for school districts are probably running even higher than that uh when we factor in things like transportation and health insurance costs. So, uh I'm happy to report that uh the proposed package for Levittown uh is uh substantially uh greater than uh the minimum uh and will certainly help us to um craft a budget that uh that benefits
035all uh but uh I guess what we what was a little uh uh disconcerning is that all the time and effort that was put into the Rockefeller study, there was really nothing new that was uh uh put into the governor's proposal. proposal this year. Uh they had only uh picked a few points last year and made some adjustments. Those adjustments did benefit uh the Levittown School District because they uh the different weights that they put on our most needy groups uh certainly benefited us and drove additional money our way. Uh so like I said, our foundation aid package is good. Uh but there are some concerns around the rest of the state uh with like I said uh almost twothirds of the districts uh only getting that minimum 1%. Uh the next um the next
036big uh item uh that was discussed was the uh was the change in universal prek. So uh again we were lobbying last year that u uh to have uh kind of an equalized amount of uh per pupil funding uh across the state. Uh the governor's proposal does achieve that uh and and puts in uh uh per pupil uh spending at $10,000 a year unless your uh unless certain um other factors for very needy districts uh are taken into account and there are a few districts that got more, but for the most part uh $10,000 per year per pupil uh is the new number. Um, and this is I'm sorry and this is particularly good news. Yes, we have a question. >> Uh, in regards to the foundation aid since the I guess the way they're
037figuring out how to give who money, right? Is that was redone? Is that part of this? >> Yeah. Uh well, with the with regard to the foundation aid, it really is supposed to be a formula that everybody agrees on and then we just plug in all the numbers that we send to the state, all school districts, and and and and an aid number comes out. And it's based on uh many different demographic uh metrics of a school district, your wealth ratios, your special needs index, uh the number of English language learners, etc., etc. Um, so I don't know. >> My question more has to go with so like this year you said approximately twothirds of the school districts are receiving the proposed minimum increase of 1%. So like I guess I'm like kind of thinking
038for like next year, the year after like is that something that could potentially happen in our district? Because this doesn't count like the big five, right? Like that's a different funding way of their the way they're getting money. This would primarily I guess affect like Long Island districts or like upstate districts also. this is included in I'm just worried to be in that 1%. I just want to >> Yeah. No, that that would that that would certainly be problematic and and actually I don't I don't really have an answer for that. Uh I I just do know that uh you know uh based on the changes that were made when they fully funded the foundation aid formula. Uh we were the benefit of that. Uh Levittown school district was the benefit of that. And now
039moving forward with the changes that they made in the recommendations from the Rockefeller Institute study, uh we we again benefited from that. Moving forward, I don't know, um I I don't know where to go, but as you will see, we will do a five-year projection. uh and um you know the assumptions that we make I I generally choose I I recommend not to increase it by more than 2% uh uh moving forward in the out years but clearly that has you know we've gotten more than that in the last few years and and we're certainly grateful for that. I don't >> just just to comment on that that when they did the Rockefeller study which I think cost the state $2 million correct it >> um they only chose certain small components of it to
040modify the foundation aid formula whereas the study was was supposed to really lead to completely revising the calculation which it has not they have not done any of that but they did make some small changes to it I think especially in regards to how it determined uh community wealth and um moving away from like the free and reduced lunch number and those small tweaks that they have made with that as well as from when several years ago they fully funded foundation aid. We have definitely been um you know beneficiaries of those changes while a lot of districts are not right. So, um the problem is that we're we don't quite know why that is the case in regards like we the the way they calculated is not really very clear and so um while we
041only really predict about a 2% increase we definitely have been getting more than that um but I agree with you we never know from one year to the next it could be 1% it could be 8% right now we don't really our numbers don't change that dramatically in house so we not quite sure exactly what they're doing or if they made it next year. You know, keep in mind this is an election year and so there are definitely not going to be massive cuts in state aid this year. >> Uh next year is not an election year. So who knows what's going to happen then. Um you know so it is a little bit uncertain but in our projections we always estimate quite conservatively. Um part of the problem also is that these are the
042governor's proposals. This is not the final um agreement. You know, the legislature will [clears throat] now come back with their uh recommendation and then both sides will have to argue until April 1st. Typically, it's been going past that. And then like last year, I want to say that the the final budget came out very close to the budget vote. And so, it's very hard for us to kind of make a budget relying on numbers even like this the prek aid that Mr. Fabiano is talking about. We've been advocating for an increase in the UPK aid because we've been getting the same amount of money since 2006. And so we've been paying about $5,400 per student for full day prek. Uh which is very very difficult really for we that's why we had one of our
043two prek providers pull out because it wasn't enough. Um so this is great news. Uh but once again this is the governor's proposal. don't know if this will remain in there as it is. And again, we're we're trying to plan for September. And not knowing whether that number is really going to be 10,000, is it going to stay the way it is now? Um it makes it very very difficult uh to plan because part of this recommendation or this this this proposal about $10,000 per student per year is that by 2829 the district would have to move away from a lottery and provide prek to anyone who's interested from the district. Um, so again that comes down to space and and all sorts of things. It would be great to be able to start planning.
044We had a meeting about it today, but a lot of the answers were well, we don't know for sure because we don't know whether that, you know, they could come back and negotiate that down. They could negotiate as a phase in all sorts of stuff. >> The only problem with the Rockefeller Institute is that the state uses them to cut costs. 90% of the time they come back with things and they'll tell you we're going to give you this but they're taking away somewhere else. There's no free money floating around anywhere in the state. That's a problem obviously and unfortunately the money comes out of the taxpayers wallets and bank accounts. Um but we do have a lower combined wealth ratio than other parts of Long Island which actually does help us. So that's something
045going for us. >> Yes, that that that is correct. Uh so some you know some of the challenges that we face uh you know obviously uh we are we as the superintendent mentioned we we met today uh to to to see what it might look like uh in September uh obviously space is is is uh uh one of the biggest issues that we're facing right now. Uh but um uh the legislation also provides as the superintendent mentioned that we would have to educate uh all prechool kids uh children uh whose parents wanted them in the program. We could no longer run a lottery. And so while we've been averaging I think around 330 340 a year for the last few years uh our cohorts run in excess of of 500 students. So the universe of
046prek students is obviously much higher. Uh and there really doesn't seem to be enough community- based organizations. They don't have enough space. Uh the Levittown school district doesn't have enough space. So if we were to embrace this program and and and plan moving forward, uh really it is two years is not enough time to put all the measures in place, especially if the answer is to either modify an existing building or or extend or put extensions on other buildings. Obviously, I'm getting way ahead of myself, but um like I said, we're going to be we're going to be focusing on 20 September 26 27, making sure that um we educate as many preK students as uh as we can. Uh and then there'll be further discussions on what we do uh moving forward in the
047out years and maybe the adopted budget will provide uh more answers or give us a uh a more workable timeline. I don't really think you're jumping the gun or putting the cart before the horse. I think you're rightly so. You're thinking of what needs to be done in the future because uh if there's a storm coming, we're going to almost double our prek population. We need the staff. We need the the room. We need the money >> and we need the electric buses to get them there. [laughter] >> I'm sorry. >> I had to do that. >> Make them an electric bus. The wheels on the bus. >> Very good. That was good. >> All right. Moving moving on. I I I I promised I would keep this brief. Uh so again, we we we
048did discuss the uh the uh zero emission uh bus transition. Uh again uh many of the legislators un legislators understood um uh really the wisdom behind moving out the uh uh the front years um where you can purchase a bus but not moving out the the back year 2035. So, you know, it is possible based on the current legislation that we could get extensions out to 2031, but they're not moving off the 2035 deadline where we could no longer operate a a diesel bus. Um, uh, a lot of discussion going on up there. I think they're going to have to be a lot of exemptions to this. Uh, but we are moving forward uh, as we are required uh, to do the feasibility study. Um uh last last meeting or the meeting before we uh
049we had a presentation by uh Wendel Energy. Uh so we're going to be getting started on that. Uh and and that will afford us the benefit of applying for an extension. Um uh some of the other uh there were some smaller things uh that aren't really going to affect our budget per se. Uh but the um our our current ability to piggyback on other municipalities contracts uh are are going to expire and we're advocating for the extension for another 5 years out to 2031. That will certainly save us money. Uh there does not seem to be a lot of opposition to that. Uh but there there does seem to be a lot of opposition to these project labor agreements. uh and um what um what the concern with with uh with my subgroup that that
050went around we met with all local legislators right now the project labor agreements and uh correct me if I'm wrong here uh um is that um it's applicable only to school districts on Long Island and there were a lot of questions as to why it wasn't being rolled out in the state. it wasn't being characterized as a pilot program. Uh but due to the nature of uh of of the available labor on Long Island, uh they thought it would have less of an impact down here. But what we what I did learn up there is that um utilizing a project labor agreement, while some people are opposed to it, does allow you to uh bypass the Wix law and uh so you can have a general contractor for contracts in excess of 1.5 million. So
051there could be a benefit on the other end. Uh and we will have to certainly work with our attorneys uh to see uh what we could do with that. I've never personally done a a project labor agreement. Uh but I understand they're prevalent in the county and and and in a lot of towns. So uh we will see. Uh, I don't I I think um I'm not I'm not as necessarily opposed to it as I first was before going up here because like I said, if we can if we can uh go with one prime contractor and not have to hire all the subs, that has the ability to save us um uh a great deal of money on our capital projects. >> Did you mention something about why it's only done in Mass and
052SA counties, not the rest of the state? Yeah, like I said, I I I think that uh I think that labor is is is much tighter up there. They felt that it with the amount of competition, we do have a healthy amount of competition on Long Island, uh with regard to contractors, that um it wouldn't be as ownorous down here, and I guess they would see see how that goes. So, um more more to come on that. >> Thank you. Uh and our next update will be at our very next uh planning session and that's on uh February 25th. So does anybody have any questions? I know that was a real top down approach to uh our budget. But um >> I just want to thank Mr. Fabiano because obviously he doesn't have to be
053on this government relations board in Asbo and by him being a part of that a actually uh does help Levittown because our uh our ideas and our needs uh are able to be expressed directly to the legislators up there in Albany and aside from Mr. Fabiano, I don't know anyone else that really wants to go to Albany in the winter. And so I do appreciate him going there for I several days you were there, right? >> And and and believe it or not, it was colder up there than it was down here, if that's even possible. So that was a lot of fun. >> He was there for a few extra days because he couldn't get home in the snow. [laughter] >> But no, just thank you for spending that time away from your family
054uh and advocating for our district. So much appreciate. >> Thank you, Mike. >> I bet. Um, okay. If there are no more further questions on that presentation, we're going to move on over now to Dr. Zerianis, uh, who is doing a presentation on curriculum instruction and we are dovetailing a, uh, short presentation by facilities into that presentation in our new model. Uh, and so without further ado, Dr. Zionis. >> Thank you everyone. I do before we get started want to uh in the spirit of what the superintendent just said about uh our staff taking on additional roles that they don't have to that takes them away from their family. Um but they do it because it's good for the profession and they do it because it's good for lavatown. I do want to uh congratulate
055Craig Camarada. He was just named the president of the Nassau County School Facilities Association. So congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. >> So, uh, that's going to bring us a lot of inside information and I'm happy to be partnered with you for all our fun projects we're going to be talking about tonight. Yeah. So, congratulations. >> Thank you. >> All right, I will get started. Good evening. Thank you for this opportunity to present tonight. I would like to thank the board of education as well as Superintendent Winch and our principles and directors for their leadership and support. Tonight I am presenting alongside Mr. Craig Camarado, our director of facilities, and we are presenting together because our departments share a major fiscal focus for the upcoming school year, the enhancement of instructional spaces. By aligning our budgets,
056we ensure that the physical improvements to our buildings directly support the curricular goals and student experiences happening inside of them. I will keep our highlights and achievements in the area of curriculum and instruction very brief this evening as much of that work was covered in my two state of the district reports earlier this year. Likewise, Mr. Camarader's review of highlights and achievements will be brief as he has provided a very comprehensive overview of facility enhancements at the start of the year. So, I'm going to start off with just some key uh highlights and achievements. And again, this is not an exhaustive list, but many of these things uh were highlighted in the two state of the district reports. So, there are a few things though that I will highlight tonight. First, of course, is innovation.
057And as you saw earlier this evening through our student presentation, we saw firsthand the success we have had this past year with the adoption and implementation of Magic School AI. It is incredible to see how our students and teachers have been leveraging these tools. Second, professional learning. We have significantly expanded our opportunities. I am proud to share that we graduated in December our first cohort of future leaders through a post-graduate partnership with Mallaloy University. This in addition to the micro credentials that we are going to be starting in AI as well as the one on mental health which started this past week that we are now offering. We have been uh giving numerous inservice opportunities taught directly by our own talented teacher leaders and administrators. That has been a real source of pride for us
058in this school year. Finally, data analysis and leadership development. We continue to emphasize data analysis and expanded our leadership learning walks. These walks began last year with the elementary leadership team and have successfully expanded to the secondary team this year. In fact, I had my uh we had all of our assistant principles K12 engage in learning walks several weeks ago. Um and I had uh a wonderful uh meeting today with all of our assistant principles K12 uh just debriefing those learning walks and that experience and calibrating our vision around uh you know teaching and learning and it was a wonderful conversation. So we will continue to expand those uh into the year beyond. This expansion has been vital. It gives us all an opportunity to calibrate our vision of what highly effective instruction looks like
059across the district. So now let's look ahead at some of our initiatives uh for the 2026 2027 school year. Some of these of course uh have an impact on the budget that you'll see the budget numbers in a few moments. But our initiatives are designed to broaden student opportunities and support our educators. First, building on the success of our elementary program, we are expanding career exploration to grades 6 through 8. We are currently integrating two of the 14 national uh career clusters into the sixth and seventh grade family and consumer science curriculum. And for eighth grade, we are developing an entirely new course called career exploration 8. We are super excited about that. Um I'll talk uh Miss Gadis will talk a little bit more about what that looks like as far as FTEES and
060expansion of um increased staff at her presentation, but uh it will be the first time in a long time that we will have an opportunity like this at our middle schools. And it's something that our parents have been calling for and uh what a great way to expand our career exploration program uh with an eighth grade course. This course will serve as a bridge between our K7 program and our high school electives focusing on modern careers such as coding, video game design, cyber security, and small business entrepreneurship. Next, to support our teachers, we are looking to add an additional instructional coach. Given our continued emphasis on data analysis and the success of our two current coaches, we want to maximize that impact. Currently, our coaches are assigned three grade levels each, which limits the time
061they can spend with individual teachers. Of course, right, in a district of this size, you have three grade levels across six buildings. Uh time is very limited with each individual teacher. So, an indivi uh an additional coach will reduce these assignment ratios and allow for deeper, more effective support. I am also working closely with the superintendent and our high school principles uh and Miss Gadis to explore and develop a framework for a potential alternative high school program. This program would be designed to support juniors and seniors who are struggling within the traditional high school model. It would be housed at one of our high schools but operate on a flexible alternative schedule. In a few moments, Mr. Camarada and I will discuss the budget for enhancing instructional spaces, but I want to highlight the why
062behind it. Our team, myself, facilities, uh the superintendent, and our principles have been touring each of the buildings. We are looking at spaces such as our family and consumer science rooms and our tech rooms that in some cases have not been redesigned in over 50 years. As our curriculum focus shifts, so too must the spaces in which we teach. And I highlighted that because in a few moments, we're going to take a look at some of the photos of some of the spaces that we are looking um to redesign. And when I say 50 years, that's probably a a a soft estimate. It's probably more than that, but we'll see. Um, in athletics, we are proposing a professional development partnership with the positive coaching alliance for Division Avenue and MacArthur high schools beginning in August
063of 2026. This initiative will provide research-based workshops on positive coaching, mental wellness, and culture building. It reinforces our commitment to sportsmanship and character, ensuring highquality experiences for all student athletes. and uh give kudos uh to our new athletic director, Mr. Kasha, who brought this idea for me uh to me uh in a continued effort to uh really support our coaches and uh you know advance that positive uh athletic outlook that we want for all of our athletes. So, we're looking forward to that and that training will happen four times over the course of next year with all of those coaches. We are also launching several new electives at the high schools to address student in uh interest including college introduction to health professions as well as health beyond high school. Finally, our book love initiatives
064of course continue. We are planning the final library overhaul at Division Avenue which is going to take place this summer. That library is getting completely um redone. We are super excited. I am super excited about that space. Um it is going to be um the peace to resistance of all um libraries. It will be amazing. Um and we are continuing the development of our classroom libraries with a specific focus on grades K to one um in the coming year. Uh I will have another exciting booklove initiative um that I'm going to share in a few slides, but I'll I'll hold the suspense for that one because I'm super excited and I know the superintendent is shares my enthusiasm for it. So, uh, on the next few slides, you'll see examples of some of the secondary
065instructional spaces we are actively working to modernize, including our family and consumer science rooms, our technology classrooms, and our sock little theater. Many of these spaces were designed decades ago for programs that look very different from what we offer today. As our curriculum continues to evolve to reflect modern careers, hands-on learning, and student interests, it is essential that our physical environments um you know, evolve as well. These overhauls are focused on creating functional updated spaces that support today's instructional programs and provide students with the best possible learning experiences. So, jump in if there's anything um that I'm missing, but I just to tell you what those first two photos are. Obviously on the left is the Sock Little Theater uh which no longer serves uh a purpose uh in a building that already has a
066limited um capacity, limited spaces. Uh so we are looking to overhaul this space to be uh pretty much more like an all-purpose room. That stage will come out. Um there'll be uh areas where we're going to be able to um some of the things that we have in other buildings that we're able to do for the students that we don't have the space to do there at Sock. But we will be um re uh I guess uh creating a more modern uh seating area, the college style seating area uh that does not look like this that has uh actual built-in tables uh so that we can also then use the space as a classroom, a modern uh classroom space. So, the space will become multi-purpose uh as we move forward. Did I miss anything with
067that? >> No, just uh >> yeah, >> just uh the on the left there, that's that's the Sulk allpurpose room, and it it does have a slightly slanted floor uh similar to a lot of auditoriums that you may see, and it really doesn't serve the school uh very well. So the the plan is really to remove all the seats uh new flooring, new ceiling, remove the stage, the curtain overhanging curtains, uh freeing up the room, and then uh bringing in some modern furniture very similar to like a college lecture hall uh with curved tables that uh you know be much more useful to uh the school and the students. >> How is the how is the um stage being removed? >> In-house. We'll >> Oh, you guys can do that. That's excellent. >> Yes. Yeah,
068we have very talented group of folks. We try to. >> Yeah. This whole project is pretty much going to be done in house. >> We try to. >> Jaden, I'm so Miss Msino, I'm sorry you have a question. >> I wanted to ask about like what happens with the materials that are currently there. Like do they get repurposed or is there like I just is you don't have to know the answer to everything right now. I'm just wondering like if there's anything that could be used somewhere else or donated or whatever. Um >> yeah, the is there like a process for that? >> The seat the seats that are there are really uh really not in great shape. I don't think they would really be worth anything. uh the maple strip flooring on the stage.
069We we'll probably will save that because we can make repairs on other stages and you know throughout the district and any other places we have wood flooring like that. >> I'm just going to mention on that as well because Mr. Fabian, I think it's on the excess list tonight. I know one of the board members had asked about it that we are uh clearing out the bakery room here at LMC that we rent to Boseies. The that bakery equipment is very old, but there are things in there that might be of use to someone. So like there's some older like ceramic dishwear and things like that that we are reaching out to local um organizations that take donations. Uh so like there's the I think um Mama's House behind St. St. Bernard's. So we reached
070out to them. So like the goal is to the none of those things are like we already asked Chartwells right if we if they I think they took some did they take a table? >> Yes. >> Yeah. So like a stainless table prep table they took for our cafeteria. So yes, things that we we can repurpose that are that are worth it. We do other things we'll donate and then we do send a lot of stuff to auction as well. Auctions International, right? >> Correct. Yeah. Any uh speaking of the kitchen, like any kind of kitchen equipment like that, if we remove it, we'll we'll sell that on an auction site. We won't just throw that out. Uh some of the, you know, the other stuff like the seats there. Again, you know, we'll look
071around the district, see if those seats could be used elsewhere uh to make repairs, but you know, if not, there's really not much value there in keeping them. Yeah, some of these rooms that we did go into, we have definitely used the full value of that equipment. >> I don't even think the pictures make >> No, go to the next one though. The next one is the next one to go. Is the next one good? Right. >> Well, I'll just quickly say that on the right is the uh MacArthur tech room and this room is uh this summer will get redone. This this probably has not as as the superintendent said when you're actually in the space. But one of the major problems with this space is that we house two different types of tech
072programs in here. Um there's robotics happening at the same time. There's wood shop type activities. It makes it very difficult for the teachers to transition from one to the other without the room um being organized in an appropriate way and also the ventilation um needs to be updated. So there will be a lot of upgrades. Um the teacher is very excited. We've worked with the teacher and um obviously the team here to completely redesign the space so that those programs can happen simultaneously. Um plenty of storage, appropriate uh ventilation. So, it will be a full upgrade for exactly what I said. Um, so that our current programs can exist in antiquated spaces. No, they'll no longer be antiquated. >> Uh, I just have one quick comment. >> Sure. >> Uh, you could go to the
073next picture. I just think it's it's just a comment. It's just very smart that you're doing these side by side because um we do so much with facilities and to make the connection for the board for the public of the impact that it has on the instructional um component is so valuable. So [laughter] I do I just think it's really smart to um even just for my brain to see it side by side and you know the value of when a a student walks into a classroom that says one I'm valued two this is important you're important and um it it's it's just I it's just really a very smart way to do this and so thank you. That's all. >> Thank you. Just not to belabor the point, but just on that when we
074talked last year about up making the updates to the transportation and buildings and grounds and garage and we talked about that, you know, like if there are areas that are really not places you walk into that you're super proud of, it does show what you value, right? So the idea is to uh show that we value all these areas. And so instead of, you know, letting things kind of exist because they're okay and they're they're usable, they're workable, they're not dangerous, um, you know, shows kind of, okay, but then in the meantime, you're you're updating all the libraries, which is they need to be done, but you update all the libraries, but we don't update the shops or the tech rooms or the family of science rooms, right? You're making choices about what you're valuing,
075what you're not. So the goal really has been to do tours with facilities um in all the buildings to say okay like are we were over at Northside and we were down in the basement and we were we were looking it's wonderful that we don't use that as cafeteria anymore but we have some classes down there which are fine but then there's some classes that are not fine and then we're like well we have this kitchen down there that we're not using anymore let's gut the kitchen and turn it into a classroom it's got windows like so it's really about making sure that like you said if a student enters a space or a parent enters a space for back to school night They're proud to be in that space wherever it is. It doesn't
076have to be goldplated, but it does need to look like we value it and that we care about what's happening in those rooms. And so, um, it does make a huge difference. And then, like you said, we don't do it for another, you know, 15, 20 years. But we can't not we can't never do it. So, um, it really is time for a lot of these spaces to say, okay, we're not going to spend a billion dollars doing it, but we can do a lot of it in house. >> Yeah. These projects are a lot of it is in-house. The highest cost is the furniture. So obviously their effort um but we're not these are not like capital improvement projects. These are things we're able um to do and and to make these spaces function
077in a way that we can grow our programs because we now have appropriate spaces. It's very hard for Mr. McDermott to really like uh fully effectuate the um you know tech program because he's limited by the particular space or it's really hard for Mr. Z over at Sock to really do the kinds of things that let's say uh John is able to do over at Wisdom because he's limited by his space. But when he has a little theater that really was designed what probably in the 70s or 60s um us repurposing that is going to totally change um how he's able to use the building and and function in that space next year. So um it's super exciting. If you look at the next uh slide here, you'll see on the right is the uh
078family and consumer science room, one of them. Um over at Wisdom Lane. Um I no one would want that to be their kitchen, I don't think. Right. So um you know, that's going to require a lot of updating as well as on the left the family and consumer science room. You can see even the furniture in there um needs updating the the you know stoves and microwaves and and all of the resources for the students. That is sock on the lefth hand side. >> Yeah. the um the the room on the left there that those that's the actual original cabinetry that was installed in that room when the building was built. Um the the picture on the right, it's a little bit more modern. That's not the original. Uh but it need it definitely needs
079work, you know, so they both spaces really need a are deserving of an upgrade. >> Yeah. So we're we're definitely excited. It'll be a focus and it has been really nice to walk around like this with the superintendent, myself, facilities, the building principal, our directors in charge of these departments a as one kind of building tour and just really make note and kind of get our brain together and kind of synchronized on, you know, what what really needs to happen, how it can be more functional uh for the program. So that has been a really great experience and a learning experience as well. It's been our own learning walk only for facilities. Oo, a facilities learning walk. I'm gonna add that to the goals. >> Oh, I got there. I don't know who [laughter] laughed,
080but thank you to the one person. >> All right. Oh, this is my super exciting one. Okay. Um, now I'm excited to share a very special initiative that truly brings our book love mission to life. I know you guys never saw this coming, but here we go. The unveiling eventually, but we're in the process of designing it, um, of our brand new book love bus or our booklo mobile, whatever we want to call it. Um, this project transforms a small bus into a mobile library that will bring books, literacy experiences, and a love of reading directly to our students across the district. I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Joanna Reeves, Jesse Tomio, Charlie McNelte, Logan Lipult, and Brian Nestrom, and of course, Mr. Camarada for their incredible efforts in turning this
081vision into a reality. Their creativity, time, and dedication have made this dream, my dream, um, possible. Uh, we are also grateful to the Levittown Public Library for partnering with us on this exciting venture, helping to expand access to books and literacy resources for our students. So, this bus was um, what is the proper word, decommissioned several months ago at a board meeting, as we often do when we take buses um, out of service. Uh it then went uh to the garage and um our mechanics began to work on it to make sure that it of course was road ready. We got lucky. This bus happened to be in really good condition. Just a few minor tweaks. But now we begin the process as you can see in the middle photo of completely emptying the inside
082of the bus. Uh taking everything out. We're going to be doing I'll show you example of some custom shelving. Uh obviously the bus will be painted. It'll have a mural on it. where it says school bus, it's going to say book love bus. And where the stop sign normally is, it's going to say read. Um, so, uh, super exciting. And if we could just play the quick video, um, Derek, if you could do that for me, the quick video on the right of Mr. McNolte, um, really starting to take the bus apart. And this is obviously a time-lapse video, but it's super awesome. >> Yeah, he's super fast, but uh, you'll see him clearing out um, all of the seats there. It's like a Partridge family bus. And also, we'll do more of these when
083we can't use the buses anymore. The >> deal there'll be book club buses. >> Sell them to other districts. >> Other districts. Yes. So, um just to give you an idea of what the inside of the bus will look like. This is obviously other online. This is not ours. Um but we're in the middle of working um with uh you know, our facilities department and Mr. Nestrom who's going to be building all he was there today um measuring everything out and um obviously we've talked a lot about what the vision for that space could look like but it will look something um like this. >> No pressure. Um amazing. Um so once we have this beautiful book love bus going what are we doing with it? Is it driving around? Are we >> the superintendent's
084going to drive it around uh 7 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. each day? Um and probably from 10:00 to 11:00 at night. I love that. >> That sounds like a good one, right? Yes. >> Um the plan um the superintendent has come up with some really good ideas about using it during like recess times outside like for the kids to go to uh the mobile library. Obviously, if we have events, we have um different, you know, special park days and things like that at the buildings. Um, but we've also talked about like Mr. Swillshod has a whole route he thinks he can drive the bus um throughout his entire community. He actually has shown me, don't don't pretend you haven't. He's actually shown me the U map and how he's going to drive around. It's
085going to Don't laugh, but it's going to have its own like sound like the ice cream man so we can like drive around the neighborhood. Um, so I definitely see it. Mr. Margolus said he wants to take it to like our pools during the summer and park it by the pool so kids can get access to books. Um I also have a big meeting coming up with the staff from the Levittown Library next week where they told me they have some ideas as well. So we'll partner with them and um as you can tell I haven't fully uh you know figured this out yet, but it it will be great. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. Actually, two questions. This is going to make stops at children's houses as well. >> I mean, I don't know that
086yet, but yes, that was my goal. Yes. >> Wow. >> Yeah. >> I mean, I won't be driving it, but there's they're leaving a um No one wants me driving it. Um >> No, no, no. I mean, I Has anyone seen No, Todd's in the car with me. He does not want me driving it. But um that was my vision that we would be doing, you know, and that's going to come in with my partnership with the library about how kids would take books and you know, I think we could put out a summer schedule where kids listen, families might not be able to get to the library as often as they would like. Our schools are closed over the summer and kids don't have access to our school libraries. So part of it is
087about um access to books perhaps at times when kids don't have. >> Fantastic. We even talked about um you know maybe actually having it some days after school here during summer wreck when the kids get out at like 12. Yeah. Right. You have the book bus parked right next to uh >> the ice cream man. >> What's the ice cream man's name? What's his name? >> Is that what is it? And uh and so you know that way uh the kids could could get access to books and bring them home and read them and you know kind of >> Yeah. The bus will have kids could get on the bus or it will have um as per the superintendent's request, it'll have like the ice cream type window where kids can just approach the bus
088and request a book. So, they don't have to actually get on it. So, it's going to >> if I'm driving the bus, I don't know that I want kids getting on the bus. It just kind of looks strange. So, I'd prefer to hand the bus the books through a window. So, >> yeah. So, >> now is this an electric bus? So, we have to take it off the road by 2035. [laughter] >> We did. We could convert it at some point. Sure. It's not going to go very far. So, we'd probably get a good for it. But may I ask the student liaison what they think of it and any ideas that they have? >> Sure. >> Would that be okay? That's not my role. I'm sorry, Miss Lang. >> Okay. >> I I think
089it's very a very fun idea. Like, I I think uh I mean, as someone who read a lot when I was younger, I I mean, I don't really read as much as I I did when I was younger. Having that like, as you said, um at the pools, that that sounds like a great idea. um because I feel like that's where the kids are at most. Um I'm trying to think where else where else they would be, but no, that I definitely think it's a very fun idea. Um >> thank you. >> I'll come I'll come back to you. I'm I'm trying to think about about places where they would most be. But yeah, >> he's so blown away by the idea that he just needs to settle. >> I was always a fan of
090Ethan, so he knows. >> How about like the lazy days of summer when they do that? >> Yeah. >> And like block parties. Yeah, I think this is a great idea. I've seen this before actually when I've been traveling. When I went to Hawaii last year, I saw one in like a local like kind of farmers market place. They had it there which was really cool. I think this is a great idea. As a kid, I was always every weekend at the library so much that I knew all of the librarians names. Like, so I think this is a great idea. And if you want help collecting books, please let me know. I would love to get Key Club and National Honor Society involved. If you would like that, let me know because I'm sure
091we could do that. >> That's really helpful. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] >> But I think this is a great idea. >> And now you'll know all your librarians name because it'll be Superintendent Winch and you already know him. So that's perfect. Um, all right. Turning to the financials. I want to provide some important context for the primary drivers of this year's budget. instructional equipment. You will see an increase in allocation here. This is specifically to purchase furniture for the instructional spaces we are redesigning. Furniture costs have risen significantly in recent years. A typical standard classroom um setup can now cost upwards of $15,000 per classroom. While a specialty space like some of those spaces that we talked about tonight, such as a tech room, far exceeds about 70,000. somewhere between 70 and 80,000 for
092a basic um you know redo. So this investment is necessary to make those spaces as we talked about as functional and as modern as possible. You'll see an increase in the Bose services line. Uh this increase covers our commitment to Barry Tech, Lisa and GCTech. This is an estimated figure based on a standard 4% cost in uh increase to the district each year. Um sound and lighting districtwide. This is a new code for my budget, not necessarily uh new money that's in the budget, but it's now being designated under the uh the my budget codes for the office of curriculum and instruction. So, we have established this new budget code specifically for districtwide sound and lighting. Countless hours go into preparing our musical productions, and we never want that hard work thwarted by technical issues.
093Uh in the past, we've had to rent additional microphones and equipment to ensure high quality. Um, and this code formalizes that support so that our student performers can always sound their best. So, in situations where we need additional microphones or additional lighting, um, we never say no to that because we want to support our student performers. Uh, but we were pulling that money from different codes, building codes. It's now um, at an estimated cost of 76,000 for next year put into my budget. So, that did increase the bottom line >> and this is primarily not for the high school performances. Um, correct. As you know, we have a lot of performances that go on at the elementary level and at the middle school level. And while we did recently upgrade the Sulk sound system, um
094upgrading a sound system, a permanent sound system is very expensive. I want to say the Sulk project was about $150,000. Mr. Camera >> about 130 >> 130. Um so we obviously can't do that in every in every building. Uh so when but if you've ever gone to a show uh where the sound doesn't work. Um it is the worst possible place to be at that moment because it's going to be about 2 hours of torture for the kids and for the families. And so we don't ever want that to happen. It has happened from time to time, but that's why we ended up doing this was that moving forward uh when they're going to do a production that requires sound and lighting, we want to make sure that with all the hours the kids put
095into it that it's going to come off correctly. uh we do let them, you know, use the the high school facilities and the middle school facilities when possible, but it isn't always possible. Uh and so at least now we have money available so that we're not transferring funds to cover things because we don't ever have this code. So, >> um and charter schools, finally, we are projecting a $40,000 increase in charter school payments. This increase is driven specifically by enrollment changes largely due actually to one family um with multiple uh children now attending a charter school. So we estimate that will go up that code about $40,000 in the coming year. >> Mr. Fabian, I want to give you a lot of credit because that last one just popped up and you already have it
096on the board here. Very good. >> Which one? Oh. Um, in summary, wait, the proposed curriculum and instruction budget for 2026 2027 uh is 10,575,000 uh what? Well, and some more. Uh and uh this represents a year-to-year change of uh just over $600,000 which is resulting in a departmental increase of 5.8%. While this represents a fiscal increase, we believe it delivers tremendous benefits to our students. This budget allows us to modernize instructional spaces that haven't been touched in decades, expand career pathways for our middle school students, and deepen our commitment to literacy and to instructional coaching. It is an investment that directly translates into highquality student experiences. So, speaking of those physical environments, I'll now turn the presentation over to Mr. Camarada to walk through the specifics of the facilities budget and the critical work
097being done to maintain and improve our buildings. And we can certainly take um questions on both at the end of the presentation. >> Thank you. Thank you everybody for having me here tonight. I'm pleased to uh present our 2627 facilities budget. I'll just go through some of our uh my my presentation tonight will be very brief. Um, I know last I I met with you brief uh last I believe it was September for our summer project presentation. Have no fear. I will be back and we will do a killer presentation for you. I have a I have some ideas for that one. I think you'll really be excited about it when we get to it. >> And that was a great presentation and we talked about a lot and so we don't want to constantly
098duplicate. It's on the website for anybody who wants to see it, but we want to be careful about everybody's time and not have to kind of redo everything again. So yes, that was basically from the board last year was to make these things more efficient to have to more time to talk about instructional things as opposed to re you know regurgitating previous presentations. So >> yes, and we have a lot of projects this summer that you know we'll we'll be able to uh you know document and we'll have pictures for you and it'll be great. Uh but our our initiatives for 2627 will be completing uh our nice approved capital projects in alignment with the district's 5-year capital plan. Uh I was going through my office today uh at all the various building permits that
099we have and in Levittown right now we have 37 capital project building permits from the state. Three more we have in review and uh a few of them are actually completed. I will admit that 22 of those permits are our fire alarm and PA and our security infrastructure upgrades because we did a separate uh building permit for each one of those trades at each building. And uh that was done strategically so that we don't have to wait uh for 11 buildings to be finished with firearm and PA uh to start realizing building aid coming back from the state. So as we finish one, we could submit that documentation to the business office and then we could start seeing building aid come back. So we did that with the fire alarm project as well as the
100security infrastructure upgrades project. So that's that accounts for 22 of those permits. All right. We will also complete our in-house facility improvements including as we talked about uh that's the f the family and consumer science rooms, the tech classrooms, all-purpose spaces, and also right here at Memorial, we're going to build a security command center. And we'll do those tasks in a cost-effective and minimally disruptive manner. Uh that's always our goal is to not interrupt the educational day. Uh that's why a lot of these projects unfortunately we cannot do them some of them during the school year. We have to wait until the summer. So, that's uh we're looking at another rather busy summer coming up, but that's okay. Uh we'll complete our lead water testing remediation. We were required to test all our water outlets
101for lead water in 2025. We finished that up the testing in uh December. Uh we did have some exceedences. Um I could say as of today, we only have uh three left to remediate. All the other ones have been remediated, retested, and those uh areas have been put put back in service. Uh we're going to complete our energy performance project initiatives and aimed at reducing consumption uh control utility costs and improve overall system efficiency. Our energy performance project included our solar arrays. Uh relamping the entire district, all the interior lighting and exterior lighting. Um if it wasn't LED already, it was changed over to LED. That's been completed. And lastly, we're just finishing up. We have some HVAC units that will be replaced over spring break. Uh we were going to try to do that
102over winter break, but there was some delays with the weather and the contractors reached out to us and asked us if we could push that off to spring. >> Do you know uh in regards to the solar canopies that we have, which ones are online and which ones are not online? >> They're all online except MacArthur and Memorial. And the reason for that is uh both of the sites had to have some additional electric work. Uh MacArthur uh right there uh PSEG required some changes to the electrical switch gear. That's like much like the circuit breaker panel in your house. In a school, a circuit breaker panel that controls the entire building is in the size of a room. Um the meter for it was also in that room. PSNG required that the meter be
103brought outside um before they would allow the solar installation to be completed. Uh additionally, PSNG was required to do what's called a witness test. So after the everything is built and tested, they come out, they do their own test, and then we have to wait for them to give us what's called a PTO, which is permission to operate. We still don't have those for MacArthur or Memorial. So we're just waiting on those. It should be it should be any time now, you know, because everything else has been done. It's really just a a paperwork problem at this point. >> So the Gardener Abbey Wisdom Division Summit, >> They're all online. Yes. uh some some did come online before others. They didn't come all all on online all at the same time. Um I believe division
104was commissioned only in August, you know, so so we really haven't seen uh a large amount of savings yet from the electrical uh arrays. Um enough to really justify a decrease in our electric budget, which I'll get into in a minute. So, all right. So, the the primary budget drivers for our budget this year, um these are the four that we've chosen to show you. um we're seeing an increase in our natural gas utility um that we we were running short in in that particular utility and there's a couple of reasons for that. Um we use I use a couple of ways of going about forecasting what we're going to uh submit for our budget and we do that historically. We look at our historical usage. Um we we estimated on that that we were
105going to be a little bit short in that code. Uh and also the demand for natural gas is growing faster than supply. Uh it's driven by residential and commercial heating needs, power generation and industrial use. Um and as demand increases, upward pressure on prices naturally follows. Um I also use the EIA which is the US energy information administration report uh that they forecast utility usage usage in uh various areas of the country and they report that the natural gas storage levels are declining toward or below historical average making prices more sensitive during periods of peak demand. And naturally weather plays a significant role. Uh this year has been especially evident locally. You know, it's been very win, very snowy, very cold. Um exper we've experienced a particularly cold and snowy winter, increasing heating demand across
106the region and accelerating natural gas uses usage beyond typical seasonal norms. So with that being the case, we're we're asking for an increase in our natural gas utility. Uh we did anticipate that hopefully we would be able to see enough savings from our electrical uh solar uh utilities coming online that we would be able to sort of offset that. But we like I mentioned those arrays really haven't been online long enough to really justify a decrease in electrical code um in our budget. Um, even the installing contractors and the contractors that did all that work for us, they really said the arrays they need to be online for about a year. So, you could really get that historical data to uh before we could it would be responsible to uh reduce our electrical code. Our
107next one is our operations. That's our contractual code. Um, we're asking for a $400,000 increase in that. And that is to that's that's really just in there as a placeholder for our armed security. If the the district's going to move forward with that, that'll fund that. Uh our next code is custodial supplies. Uh we're seeing an increase in cost for custodial supplies across the country. Many of the u hundreds of different chemicals and cleaning products that we use to clean our buildings are petroleum based and anything that's petroleum based even though gas is down uh you know across the country dependence on custodial products on petroleum based raw materials. So stuff like garbage bags, plastic containers, spray bottles, packaging components, they're all made from plastics like highdensity polyethylene um and they're all derived from crude
108oil. So when oil prices rise or fluctuate, the cost of these products rises, which directly increases the price of custodial products. Um, additionally, some chemical compounds used in cleaning solutions has risen due to higher energy costs, transportation expenses, and labor pressures across the supply chain. Our last one is our garage contractual expenses. We're seeing a small increase there. Um, as our buses get a little bit more advanced. Sometimes our mechanics that we have in house, they'll still have to send them out to, you know, various vendors and contractors that they use to work on them. Um, that's we're seeing a little bit more of an increase there. Not too much, but it, you know, we have to we have to account for it. All our other codes remain relatively flat. Um, we but we do
109see some material increases. Certainly anything that's made of uh copper, brass, aluminum, anything like that uh is used a massive amount in electronics uh plumbing fittings, HVAC fittings, things like that. So our current budget right now is 7,697,692. Our budget for 2627, we're proposing 8,42585. Again, with 400,000 uh that's being earmarked for armed guards. Uh the difference of is 704,893 and a departmental percent change of 8 point 8.4%. >> All right, that's all I have on that. I promised I would be brief, so I was brief. [laughter] >> Does anybody have any questions? >> Does anyone have any questions? >> Um I have a question, but I think it's more towards Mike or Todd. So obviously I want we want everybody to have all of these fabulous things and they're going up. So where is
110the money coming from? >> Well, like uh Mr. Fabiano had mentioned that um as you know our pro much our presentations have changed a little bit. The process pretty much remains as it was which is we continue to meet as we go through these months to look at the budget and look where are there areas we can make cuts, make efficiencies without impacting program. So like one of the first areas that we focused on was the savings from uh retirees, right? So like Mr. Fabiano mentioned, we typically don't get retiree information until after the budget is adopted. When we asked the board to approve the multi-year retirement incentive, we um negotiated with the LUT that and also that the date had to be December 1st, which was primarily to be able to have the information
111for budgeting purposes. And this way then we can budget even like closer to actuals in our budget codes because clearly if somebody's retiring a top step and we're going to replace them at an entry step or just above that's going to result in a savings to the district. Um and that at least is a savings then that um we can then you know kind of move around to other areas where there are increases to offset those costs. Plus we do believe there will be some efficiencies when Mrs. Gadis does her presentation on staffing. We do believe there will be some greater efficiencies where we won't even have to replace certain folks primarily at the early elementary grades. And this has nothing to do with class size changes. The class sizes are staying the same. But
112our cohort numbers are dropping in our early grades. And so for instance, our like Mr. Fabiano mentioned, most of our cohorts are around somewhere between five and 600. Our older grades at the high schools are much higher. They're, you know, about anywhere from 575 to 625 for a cohort that graduates between the two schools. Um, our current first grade is under 500. Uh, sorry, current second grade is under 500 and our current kindergarten is just under 500. So, that's a huge shift in um in in population. We don't expect it to drop more than that, but it does mean that there will be some areas that we won't be replacing people simply because there are not classes. And so um there like I said it that now you're saving even more money which was the
113other intent of the incentive was as we saw this kind of shift in population we don't want to excess people uh we just want to kind of absorb and so by having people retire you can look at it and say okay we don't you know we're dropping a few sections we don't need to hire these pe you know these these FTEEs and so you'll see more of that as we haven't done a lot of that we've done some of it um but you'll see a lot of cuts in those areas um that will end up saving us a lot of money like Mr. Mr. Fabiano mentioned our aid our aid uh package that is in the governor's proposal is very good. Um so like I said I I do think that um we're in a
114good place. Um and so I I don't you know we're not adding massive things like an eighth grade course um is probably two FTEEs one right so we're not adding many things to the to the budget that are ongoing costs. Mr. Fabiano likes to mention his one shots and so when Mr. Camarada talks about doing a lot of these projects in-house and renovating a room. And while yes, maybe in in Dr. Z's uh furniture budget, it went up by however much money it is, um we're not buying that furniture again probably for another 20 years. So, at least it's not reoccurring costs and um so I I do think that we'll see those efficiencies as we continue to go through this um without having to make any sort of significant cuts this year. >> Thank
115you. >> You're welcome. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Mr. Comrada, to everybody. Great work. Um, in regards to uh my other comments, I do not have any followup to prior public be heard questions. Um, I know there were some uh questions from the board. Uh, in regards to some financial questions, I don't know if you if you want to wait until the consent agenda, Mr. Mr. Papis, to ask them. >> It's up to you. Maybe we'll wait till then. Is that better during discussion? >> Sounds good. That way it's related to the to the that time in the agenda. >> Uh so I turn it back over to you, President Lang. >> Fabulous. Uh all right. Board of Education comments and reports. Does anybody have a comment or report? Go ahead, Miss M.
116>> Um I attended the Career and Technical Education Expo dinner with um a few of central office members. It was um in Huntington Hilton. They had an amazing array of like vendors and different schools for um technical education and career. So um I don't know it was really wonderful and I thank the district for paying for me to go to find out about it. >> Now while I was driving there and unfortunately could not attend because uh my daughter got into a car accident. Um the um the I did reimburse the district just in case anybody was curious. Um the um I should have made my daughter reimburse the district. Uh but uh she's fine. She's fine. She's she's my wife's probably listening at home. She always likes to listen and so I apologize to
117her in advance uh for saying these things publicly. But uh anyway, it was a great um uh dinner that I missed which I was very very sad about missing. Um but it was a lot of CTE presentations that are very much in line with the board's vision and mission for the district in regards to supporting all students on all their paths. And so, uh, I know we we had gotten a few ideas from there and, you know, we had talked about whether or not we would want to present in the future. Um, I will say I'm a little cautious about like, you know, this is this whole career exploration thing is something that really is kind of our brand right now. I don't know that I'm really looking to kind of share that yet um
118and and give ideas, but uh I think it was very worthwhile and I think it's good for the public to know in regards to when the board attends these events that these are all the things that we bring back to then um come up with new ideas and to really the whole career exploration thing we're doing was from um a board convention. So it really does uh it does really kind of guide the vision. So, I appreciated you were there. >> And I want to thank Mike Fabiano for listening to me talk to him about potentially having UPK in our district in some capacity and he was very he humored me the entire time. So, thanks Mike. >> I mean, the one the one thing I will say in regards to the the proposal from
119the governor right now is that it is a tremendous increase in the funding and so um it does open up a lot of opportunities for the future in regards to um things that might happen. So, we're very excited >> year. >> Yes. >> And uh so we're getting money like we normally do in election year. Doesn't matter who wins in the election, but it usually goes down the following year >> or it doesn't go up. >> Never. >> Well, doesn't go down. I mean, it doesn't go up as much. >> Um and so we also were informed of something really exciting coming up. Can I put you on the spot, Dr. Z, and talk a little bit about March 4th? Um on March 4th here at LMC from 6:30 to 8:00 PM, we're going to
120have our first ever um we're calling it at the moment a post-secondary fair for families, but the idea of it is about college uh and career um path. So, we have over 80 representatives from a ton of different colleges, um, trade schools, military, um, our police department, uh, our different unions, uh, who will be here on that night. And it's a great opportunity. While we typically have these type of fairs in both of our high schools, it's not an opportunity for our parents to participate with, um, their children. So, uh, sometimes these are really big decisions that families need to make. So, we're excited to open this up to our community. um you know so that families can come here on that night, walk around. We're going to we have so many um representatives that
121we will be doing it in the gym and just have an opportunity. We're going to have bags for families baggies um so they can take all the flyers and all the information and we're really hoping that uh the community will come out any grade level uh to see the possible options for the future that might be available. >> Uh amazing. My student liaison I have some questions. What do you think about having this post-secondary fair in the evening, inviting the parents, and do you have any thoughts, either one of you, about how we can promote it, how you guys can promote it yourselves and get some people out? >> Uh, yeah. So, I I actually went to I've only ever been to one postsecary fair outside of school, like where my mom could go with
122me. So, and I think it was great because um you know it's you one person can only tell their parent so much what they learned from school. So, it's great for their parent to be with them and actually experiencing it with them. Um so, I think it's great that Levittown's providing that so that you know it's it's not like I had to go to a ha for it which isn't too far but I'm I'm it's even more convenient for it to be here at Memorial. Um I think for to get it out there um what could help is definitely letting letting the high schools know and and I think what so kind of what I I've been doing for business honor society promoting the blood drive I think pushing into classes so maybe having like
123guidance counselors um um go into class maybe five minutes just let them know hey we're having this at Memorial uh the postsecary fair um and it doesn't have to be like a long presentation that takes up the whole class like it just literally be 5 10 minutes of guidance counselors or any teachers uh telling the students there's this bring your family and we can go over uh plans after high school. >> Yeah. >> Excellent. I have to say that this is great because I have gone to a couple with my parents and they think of questions that maybe I wouldn't necessarily think of to ask and they get to hear it from the representatives themselves rather than me just retelling them things. So, I think this is really great to have, especially too when students
124do it during the school day. There is only a limited amount of time and the lines can get to be so long that they don't get to talk to every representative they want to or whether or not their teacher can take them if it's a mixed grades class. So, I think this really is a great opportunity. And even too, if there's a flyer, we could definitely give it out to the teachers and even just say one day in the beginning of class for five minutes, just say this is going on, leave them in the rooms. Um, I could also talk to the grade advisors and have them put it up like in their Google classrooms and circulate it that way as well. So, >> great idea. >> I will share the flyer with both of
125you if you could try to get it out in whatever way that you think would be helpful because we have so much participation. The worst would be if like they all these reps are here and like four people show up, they'll never come back again. So, we're looking for a but that really great points. >> Okay, great. >> Thank you. >> Where you going? >> Go ahead. >> I just want like to say a couple of things that I did uh since the last meeting today. Todd and I went to East Broadway where they had a sensory hallway they just constructed there. It was fantastic. The kids loved it. I loved it. It was just just something that you can immerse yourself in and embrace what's in there and just relaxing to the students, calming
126effect, everything. It really was fantastic. I think it should be in every building. Um, and also uh I went to a terrific kids ceremony this morning at Wisdom Lane and a lot of the central office team was here. You have to go to one of these terrific kids ceremonies. [clears throat] A lot of times as adults, we all only hear about the bad things that students that young adults do. And when you go here and you see what some of these students do to help their fellow students, no one told them to do it. They're just being kind and good. And I don't know, I hope they do, but I don't know if if as a middle schooler or elementary you understand the long range help that this gives children that they belong somewhere and
127they are friends somewhere. It's it's wonderful. It's a wonderful program by Levitan Kuanas and there's so many of the entire I think everybody up here is a member of Kowuanas at Key Club also. Same thing. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. >> Thank you so much. board leaons, we're up to you. Who's going first? >> Sarah, it is. >> Yep. Okay. So, to start off, on January 17th, we were excited to have four choir students and six instrumental students perform at all county. So, these students spent only 12 hours in rehearsals. And while that might seem like a long time on its own, it really isn't when you think about coming up to a concert, all the days and hours you put into it. So they truly pulled off amazing performances. Um,
128one of our students said that all county allowed them to meet new people and gain experiences singing in a large choir and it was very rewarding to see their experience pay off. So it really was great experience. I was there. I had some friends go and it was all around very good. Um, you could definitely see how much work they put into it and how much our music teachers really gave into those lessons and helping them prepare for this because like I said, it is only 12 hours of rehearsal and that's really not a lot of time. That huge thanks to them for all the effort they put in behind the scenes. Um, a big thing that's happened has been midterms. So, I think every student is glad that they are over, including myself. Um,
129additionally, students were very excited to have a traditional snow day. So, thank you for that. Um, I had people telling me like, "You're board of ed leaison. Can we please get a snow day?" [laughter] So, um, I also want to thank our amazing staff that made both setting up for midterms and clearing the parking lots and school entrances possible. They really did so much. We saw them at work, so thank you for that. Um, additionally, I have two exciting things to share in terms of sports. So, first off, Liliana Chow is rated as number seven in tennis recruitings networks hot 100. So, big congrats to her. Um, can't wait to see what she's going to do next at her next few years division. Additionally, as some of you already know, our varsity cheer team was
130at nationals this weekend. They made first place in the preliminary round, which is um the first time this has ever happened in Division Avenue High School cheer history. So, they were very excited and it caused them to go straight to the finals where they placed 10th out of 78 teams. So, they are very excited about that. Um for what's coming up, the National Honor Society has some big plans for PS I love you day. So we have created daisy link chains that have the names of all students and staffs which will be put up next week. Miss Heler said the sentiment behind this project is that if one link of the chain is removed the whole thing comes apart just like if one person was removed from our school we all feel the loss of
131that person. So the National Honor Society is preparing to have an event on that day as well as encouraging all students to wear purple on February 13th. Um, additionally, the guidance office is very excited to hold their junior college planning night. It'll be held tomorrow at 6:30 to help juniors and their parents get ready for senior year. And lastly, all of the students at Division are counting down the days until February break, as well as the teachers, and they're very excited for spirit week and spirit night when we come back. So, that concludes my report. >> All right. Thank you, Sarah. Good evening. I'm proud to say that there have been a lot of great happenings in general nation since our last meeting. So, from January 20th through the 23rd, we administered our block midterms
132and block time midterms and select New York State region exams. Special thanks to the MacArthur uh Sulk MacArthur PTSA along with our school climate committee for providing all students with delicious breakfast bars prior to the morning exams. I can only speak for myself, however, I'm sure all students performed very well. And to whoever decided that we're not using the gym as a testing site anymore, uh I I'm very happy about that. I I feel as though I got a lot of positive feedback about, you know, both temperature and and level of focus during the tests. Um but on January 29th, our dynamic symphonic band under the direction of Mr. Romano gave a very powerful and electrifying performance at our second winter concert of the season. Mr. Romano opened the performance with a heartwarming and emotional
133dedication to Alexa Durier of MacArthur High School and Lindseay Park of Division Avenue High School, both graduates of their respective 2024 classes whom have tragically passed away recently. Our band members performed three incredible pieces brilliantly that left the entire audience absolutely spellbound. Kudos to our entire symphonic band on their spectacular performance. This past Saturday, January 31st, our science olympiad team competed in the Nassau East regional competition. And I'm beyond thrilled to say that the R team once again advanced to compete in the upcoming New York State Science Olympiad competition. Congratulations to coaches Dr. Freriedman and Mr. Zin and of course all the members of our team. Best of luck in the state competition and let's go Generals. Some exciting upcoming events in general nation include our senior celebration event which will take place on February
13426th uh where over 40 superlotive uh winners will be revealed as voted upon by all the members of class 2026 and that voting just opened up yesterday. And for bragging rights, our highly anticipated battle of the classes competition will take place on February 27th. No doubt my senior class will win again, making us the first ever three-time champion in MacArthur history. Um, and finally, huge congratulations to our girls varsity bowling team for winning the Nassau County Championship for the second year in a row. And you saw him earlier. Congratulations to Coach Ley and all the girls on the team. And best of luck in the New York State CH uh New York State competition next month. This concludes my report. >> Yeah, I think Mr. Morram was uh was talking about possibly doing another road
135trip to go see them. Do you know where they are upstate in the states? >> I I actually am I'm not sure. I I know most of the um most of it it it depends on like the sport. I know some do it in like Saratoga. Some I know for my sport we did it in Queen. We usually do it in Queensberry, but I'm not sure. I could I could always find out and and get back to anybody. >> We'll ask Mr. Sheen. We'll we're okay. But I just wasn't sure if you knew. But it's next month. >> Yes. Yeah. Uh in March. Yes. >> In March. Wow. >> Okay. Yeah. It's a lot of time. Okay. Thank you, Ethan. >> Thank you. >> Okay. We're going to move to our publicly heard uh period
136of the regular meeting. It's the opportunity for members of the community to speak. Uh all questions are directed to the board of education. Each speaker is limited to three minutes. And each speaker is expected to use the microphone. Clearly state your name and address. So tonight we have Maddie. >> I was gonna ask you, but I don't want to interrupt. But anyway, turn this on. Even though I would put a wind screen on that, but anyway, good evening everybody. My name is Mattie Bies and I live at 1297 Shore Place in Seafford, New York. Not in Plane Edge, not in Seafford. Well, first of all, I do want to thank you to the super for Senate for the email that I've received on December 22nd in relation to calendar standards um especially with Duali and
137Eid which are not recognized by New York State but in my view and I do want to applaud the Muslim assoc but in my view it's really not necessary to have those days off. Certainly I would support you know Assemblyman Se's bill for Eid and Assemblywoman Raj Kumar's bill for DualI but until then it's not necessary and you know if I was a board member there when we adopted the 25 26 count I would have offered an amendment that amendment would have been to have October 20th and May 27th as school days and then have the 22nd 23rd December as off days which is very popular. So, I would introduce an I'm going to run for the board, but I would in to replace one of their seats. But I do want to make it
138clear that um that you know it's not necessary and I would offer an amendment to the calendar. The second thing is um I would offer is um about relation to special education. students with um people who have developmental disabilities unfortunately are the most discriminated in the entire United States. But what we do have but one thing I do want to make sure is clear that um that you know that you know parents and students choose if it's an appropriate class whether or not they should take an AP, an honors, a college, an SAT or an ACT. In my view, for the students to choose um which college to go to or if they want to take a PSAT, that should be up to the parents and the and the student to decide, not the chairperson.
139In my opinion, the chairperson is there to provide advice, but not make the decision for them. It's not their child. And the third thing is when I do run for the board, it's a motion to convene the meeting is not a valid motion. I'm sorry to refer to that for you, but and la but lastly I would like to say if you could all join me in a moment of silence to honor the 33rd anniversary of those who lost their lives in the World Trade Center bombing, including six victims and over a thousand who got injured. Thank you very much and God bless you all and I look forward to a great report and hopefully with the next with the 2728 calendar we could until the state legislate pass it. It's really not necessary to
140have Dual and Eid off especially if we have have administrators and 12 month staff come in. So thank you very much. >> Okay, perfect. >> All right, thank you so much. Okay. Um, we are moving on to the agenda portion and budget transfers. Uh, 5.1. Do I have a motion to accept item 5.1 budget transfer? >> Schedules say schedules. >> Okay. >> 5.1 schedules. Okay. In my defense, >> what >> reversing? Ah, okay. So, am I Oh, 5 point >> 5.1 schedules. >> All right. I All right, we're doing the 5.1 schedules. Do I have a motion to accept item 5.1 schedules? Uh, James, do I have a second? Phyllis, all in favor? Five. Uh, any discussion? Five. Now I'm doing 5.2 budget transfers. Okay. 5.2 budget transfers. Do I have a motion uh to
141to accept item 5.2 budget transfers? Phyllis, do I have a second? James, any discussion? >> Yes, one second. >> I actually have it on my phone here. >> So, Mike, uh I don't know if you have once again the answer to these questions. Uh I say short notice. So, the budget shortfall and the code ending in 1630, what caused that? Yeah, this is for um our uh [clears throat] facilities department uh to replenish uh some of the supplies that they use uh all year. Uh probably um the most recent one is um is for our u sand and ice melt. Um we now just p we made our third purchase this year um which is uh as many purchases as we've made in the previous three years combined. Um in addition to that I think
142uh beginning uh before the last storm we were notified that the prices doubled um and we really didn't have uh much of a choice there as we h we had to do that. Uh but you know tying it back to some of the previous uh presentations um a lot more work is happening inside the classrooms um they're purchasing uh paint and paint supplies at record levels. As you remember, we uh were able to fit uh a couple of painters in the budget a couple of years ago. Uh dramatically reducing our reliance on outside vendors. Uh but they need the materials to work with. So, um uh that that's pretty much uh the reason for this $40,000 increase. >> Okay. Thank you. I have a couple more. I'm sorry. [clears throat] Let's see. Okay. So, um
143I'm going to look at the Macarthur student activity funds. What's uh going on with the brick walkway? There's like $4,000 $4,300 in the account. And has anything been >> I have the answer to that. Do you have the answer to that? >> I I Linda forwarded that, but >> Oh, I spoke to Mr. Sheen. >> Excited. >> I because we had a conversation about he says the the the thing is that their Brook Walkway uh sale, right, which is when you have your name etched in a brick and it goes by the football field by the arch, um has tremendously slowed down recently in regards to sales. He said that in the last four years I think they've sold three bricks. So he says really what we have to do is we have to really
144transfer that money and just end that fundraiser. And so he says they will do that. So >> all righty. Um what is the broadcast fund with $5,354 in it? >> I know that one too. >> Wow. >> Uh that was Mr. Far's Club where he does like the broadcast, you know, the morning broadcast at MacArthur High School. um he does do some fundraising. Uh what Mr. Sheen said is that he is uh while he's excellent at um at the the program that he produces there, he is not excellent at spending the money that they fund raise. So he said that he will have to have a conversation with Mr. Farney about spending the money that's in there. So he said they it could be used for things that um have not maybe some additional lighting
145or things like that in their studio. Um but it's just that he they they do very small fundraises, but he does not spend a lot of that money. I just haven't seen much change in that. >> Correct. Right. Yeah. Yeah. >> Uh flag football account has 10,000 in it. Don't we supply the club with everything it needs? >> We do, but the clubs the I mean the uh teams also just do various fundraising things throughout the year. This uh Mr. Sheen told me what that fundraiser was. I forget what it was that was done recently. He said that they they rose they raised like $8,000 more than they anticipated. Um so yeah, we do provide all of their things. I think what Mr. Sheen mentioned that they were going to do is use that money
146towards bringing in um like um like professional um photographers for um I figure for what it's called like when you're trying to like get scholarships and things like that that they take the photos and things like that to you know >> they're doing that. So >> it does make a difference. >> Yeah. I I'm I'm not an athlete. I apologize. But um the uh I I know that they're looking to do something like that. Um, student council has $37,000 in it and only 4,000 expens. What is that for? >> I I don't know that I had that conversation with them. So, I'd have to ask. >> No problem. You get back another meeting. >> I don't know if that's money that will defay the cost of the prom. >> I I have No, no, I'm
147being serious. They're like they do raise money and then it reduces the cost. But go ahead. >> Um, all right. So, I'm going to skip on to this big one here. The senior prom le $90 per yeah student at the same exact location >> is now $155 per person and there's no alcohol obviously >> don't have you don't have to answer that but I know you guys are good >> not supplied by the venue >> yes so how did it go up I do have that answer 70% yeah so uh the when it was $90 it was on a Thursday and the 155 Great for the same place as on a Friday. And they typically do have it on a Friday. The only time they have it on a Thursday is if we're off that.
148Sometimes we're off on a Friday. Yeah. Like sometimes we'll have I think Eid was one one of those days. And so um this up next year on the 20 in 2027 it's going to be on a Friday and that is the additional cost. He said that on on a Saturday it's even more. >> They used to do it a lot at the Crest Hollow. >> Um besides Crest Hollow going up tremendously in price after co They also don't really like doing a crystal because they have multiple proms going on at the same time and they feel it's a security issue. Whereas the Puremont there's only one event going on. >> Uh and so that's where they prefer to have it. >> But they say that it won't be that much that we generally are able
149to keep the prom bids around 100 110. You know, it's pretty consistent. Um, even though the price of the place might vary, the fundraising that goes on by the students is able to kind of keep that that price range in a better place and so it will not be $155 student. >> Okay. You think uh even a small increase would cause some kids not to be able to afford it? >> Do we have someone social workers looking into that? Yes, we and we do have there are ways that we have of providing support for students uh both inside the school district as well as outside the school district. As you know, Kowanas is always a very strong advocate and supporter of of our schools when we have students with you know specific financial needs. Um
150but I uh typically if um if there's you know students that want to go that are having trouble with the with finding the funds, we you know are able to address that. And to circle back around to the uh student council, that 37,000 you questioned earlier, that is to make donations, the things like adopt the family, but also to help support students who can't really afford to go. >> Excellent. >> Well, I don't know if it brings down the general price so much as it's really intended for children, you know, students that uh families can't afford to send them. >> That's what I'd like to hear. Uh, we sent out five bid requests for Dream Bus. Uh, I don't have the number in front of me. I don't see it here. Uh, to do a
151route. We only receive one bid back. Now, coming from a law enforcement background, I like to I like to believe that they're not uh that for some reason they are they're not actually purposely not sending bids out. But five was there something wrong with this route that nobody wanted to do it or nobody can fulfill it. It's 100 miles long. I >> I believe this route and and and and this and and and uh in speaking to Dana and we could we could ask her as well, but uh this is a McKenna, a homeless student route that uh was actually bid the other day for transportation to um East Rockaway. So it's not, you know, it's it's that time of day where we don't have any capacity and many of the other carriers don't have
152that, you know, additional capacity at that time of day. Um we're we feel fortunate that we got uh any bids on that. Uh but as uh Dana just mentioned, um that route has already morphed that that student after three days I think has now moved to did you say Freeport or >> Freeport. Uh so again, you know, we're fortunate uh that that that anybody bid on it. I'm I'm not sure what's worse when companies throw out numbers that are just absolutely ridiculous hoping you'll bite be, you know, and they'll they'll try to figure it out. They don't have the capacity, but they'll throw out a crazy number or they just won't bid. And I I think Dana has the relationship with them. If they can't do it, they're not they're not going to do that
153to us. So, >> okay. I just I like I said, I didn't know if it was just something where we're not going to bid unless you take this type thing, you know. >> Uh I didn't truly believe that, but I just like to clarify that. >> Yeah. >> Um what else is something else? I think it's part of the same thing. If I just lost my notes in here, got them right back. Um green bus. No, that's it. But I just think that, and we've spoken this last meeting, we've got to get the uh bus driver situation under control here where we can we pay enough to to hire bus drivers and not farm out roots. It's it's costly. It's ineffective for us. And we've got to get that done. I know we're trying. And
154it's all it's all like you said when you talked about ineffective like it's um much easier for Ms. Reeves to manage transportation if we have the right number of drivers um in regards to >> whether it be late buses or whether it be McKini Vento routes or anything like that last minute very hard to manage last minute I mean Mr. Reeves regularly works on last minute medical transportation requests, right? You and I talk on the phone about that. So like not having really any um additional drivers makes everything very very challenging and more costly. And so definitely um by addressing the CSEA issues that we have um now similar to what Mr. Camarada mentioned with the electric, right? It isn't an immediate fix, right? like you're going to fix the contract and then it's going
155to take a little bit of time. And so really for this upcoming year just like we can't change our electric code, uh we can't change the contracted bus code because we don't know what what's going to happen. We do know we're going to fix the contract. So it still might be another year out. you'll have to come uh again to the 2728 meetings and uh and then you could watch Miss Ree's presentation and she'll talk about all the drivers we now have and it's all because of the effort of the board in regards to fixing the contract. >> How is he ever going to answer ask all his questions in three minutes though? >> I'll just watch it on YouTube. [laughter] Mckin Vento >> very difficult. You're trying to travel to trying to travel to
156where these children could be months. So even if you have established crowds, it's hard to have temporary transport because they don't have a Thank you, Dana. Keep up the good work, too. >> All in favor? >> Yes. Okay. Against I'm not on. Okay. At this time, we would like to make an addition to the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to suspend the 24-hour rule and add item 5.5? Um, do I have to read this? >> No, you just say a second. >> Okay. Do I have a motion? Okay, Jimmy, do I have a second? Mike, any sk uh discussion? All in favor? Four against? One. Okay. Do I have a motion to accept items 5.5? Phyllis. Do I have a second? Jimmy. Any discussion? All in favor? Four against? One. Okay. Thank you.
157Where am I going? Okay. Uh heading to 6.1 of the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to accept items 6.2 to 6.13 on the consent agenda? Uh Jen, do I have a second? Mike. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor? Five against? None. Okay. Action items. Gifts to school. A check in the amount of $200 to be donated to East Broadway School for the James Woolwitch Award from Miss Carrie Couture. Thank you. A check in the amount of $22.30 to be donated to Summit Lane's student activities fund from Boxtops for Education. Kitchen set to be donated to Summit Lane kindergarten classroom from Zoe Marcato on Oak Tree Lane. a check in the amount of $5,000 to be donated to Division Avenue High School general student from from the Shutterfly Life Touch Company. May I have
158a motion to accept with thanks these gifts? Jen, do I have a second? Phyllis, any discussion? >> All thank you. All in favor? Five against? None. >> Okay. Uh we're up to board policies. First read, Minister Winch. So, uh, just briefly, we, uh, as you know, have a, uh, a hardworking, uh, policy committee of the board, uh, that Miss Msina and Miss Adrian are on with myself as well as Miss Gadis. Uh, we meet regularly to update our current policies since we did transition over to board docs. uh and so as most of the policies are the end of the 3000s and into the 400s there is policy 1210 which uh I think we had started to work on but then I had forgotten that was on uh board of education members nominations and elections
159um that really was reviewed by Keenan Bean by uh council uh Sharon Berlin as well as the policy against workplace discrimination and harassment which is policy 3420. Those are very um those are policies that are really legally based and so the policy committee doesn't have that background to make those changes and so we didn't really make any changes to them. They came from council. Um but there aren't really major changes. They're just updates to make sure that they're current in regards to the law. Most of the other policies in this area actually um were not really changed very much. Uh many of them are just about administrative organization. uh basically the role of the superintendent, superintendent's evaluation, um professional development, things like that. The organizational chart was updated by Miss Gadis. Um it's in there.
160It does include the new assistant superintendent for special education. Uh beautiful job, by the way, that you and your office did on that organizational chart. So, um thank you for doing that. Um but, um like I said, I don't know if Miss Bina has anything she wants to add in regards to what these changes were, but um they are pretty much just some language updates. um cleaning up the way that policies are laid out and making sure that they're legally compliant. >> Um I really like policies. Yeah, I should have been a lawyer. Uh that's it. >> I will say that Miss Msina and Miss Adrian are very like very into the policies. Uh and so uh Miss Gadis is too, but you know, we have to be. But they are they are choosing to
161be interested in the policies and so uh kudos to them. It's not an easy thing uh to go there or there are almost 300 policies in our policy manual. uh and they are going through each one individually every word. Uh and so it's a lot. It's a multi-year process. So I do appreciate their time because it is additional meetings for them about once a month. So just many thanks. >> Better you than me. Thank you. >> Okay. >> This is a first read. So they will be on there again for a second read and then adoption. So if anybody has any concerns or questions, by all means, please bring it up. >> Okay. We have our upcoming dates. February 25th um which is a budget planning session number two March 11th budget planning session and
162number three and a regular meeting. May I have motion to adjourn the meeting? Jen, do I have a second? Jimmy, all in favor? Five. >> We're done. >> I don't know what time it is. I can't see. >> 20 to 10.