001it so thank you for that good evening welcome to the March 12th meeting of the lber Board of Education we all can please rise for the pledge of the flag Mr peski the stands na indivisible roll call everyone is present for approval of minutes if there are no changes may have a motion to accept the minutes of the February 12th regular meeting Mr D second Mr Aron all in favor may have a motion to accept the minutes of the February 25th special meeting me too Mr stos second Mr lunar all in favor and the March 4th budget session miss pleas Mr lunar all in favor Mr cuns art gallery please the drawing and painting students of Mr cuns and Mr Senna proudly present light and Shadow a study in still life an exhibition celebrating the
002Timeless art of still life drawing through their expressive mediums of kti crayon and charcoal still life drawing has long been a fundamental practice in art allowing students to refine their their ability to observe compose and render form with Precision by carefully studying objects in controlled lighting artists develop a deeper understanding of proportion value and texture skills that serve as the foundation for all forms of visual expression this exhibition features two distinct yet complimentary approaches to still life drawing the kti cryon drawings capture the delicate transparency and reflective surfaces of glass jars bottles and bowls Ki which is rich in earthy tones and smoooth blending capabilities allows for nuanced variations in light and Shadow emphasizing the complexity of refraction and transparency in contrast the charcoal drawings focus on a variety of objects highlighting bold contrast Deep
003Shadows and dramatic forms charcoal's velvety texture and ability to produce soft Transitions and Stark lines make it a powerful tool for exploring volume and depth together these Works show loas the artist's growing Mastery of observation Mark making and value structure through the use of kti crayon and charcoal students push the boundaries of their materials to capture the essence of light texture and form light and Shadow is a testament to their dedication to the practice of still life drawing thank you thank you Mr cuns Dr Lynch presentations thank you very much Mr Belmont uh so tonight I'm going to announce the worst kept Secret in lindbrook uh so I'm going to talk talk a little bit about our valid Victorian and soran but before I do before I say the names that you all know already
004um I want to just read one quote that was in the uh online uh our our press release because I think it's just such a wonderful lindbrook way uh that these two people think about each other so the Val Victorian and salatan share a strong bond as part of a tight nipped group at La h s it's rewarding to see each other grow on this successful track we help each other out that is about the most owly thing I've ever heard our Val Victorian uh and salatan say so I'm really proud of that uh just a really wonderful thing so without further Ado Val Victorian Kate Santo and salarian Eric [Applause] Diaz e okay so we're also proud to announce uh a middle school student from South Alison Wong has won first place in a
005women in science challenge that is out of Mrs 's uh class um so she did a wonderful presentation about women in s science and she took a a good look at uh don't you hate when this happens you know what I need she had done something it was the uh thank you Katherine Johnson and who was so important to the NASA program so she did a whole highlight of that career and so we just want to make sure that we bring her up and wish her great success in the future so Allison if you want to come on up [Applause] okay tonight we're also proud to honor our Horizon staff as you know it is a much loaded higho one of the most loaded High school newspapers in Nassau County so this year's Awards uh
006most outstanding newspaper first place went to Horizon most outstanding reporter honorable mention Gian Longo best Arts review Miranda mangru and best news article honorable mention Emily Franklin so I know uh I don't think GA and Emily are in attendance tonight but uh everyone come on up for a t-shirt along with along with a good moderator I see her hiding in the don't you want Miss Sanders to come up [Applause] OPP okay so for the last few years we've had a a wonderful partnership uh with our local Elks organization and uh I'm going to call up uh the Elks to I think they have a little presentation that they want to talk about so if you guys wouldn't want to come you can have that microphone and you can tell them what it's all about my
007name is John nuzzy past District Deputy Grand exalted ruler from New York Elks Lodge number one remember this Elks Lodge has been in this community since 1924 I need to thank right off the bat for having us here tonight with us is Bill Bach our exalted ruler Lisa mivon our New York State trustee and I have two past exalted rulers Paul and Amy schneller uh I first met Paul a couple years back when we gave out Awards we do it every year for a boy and a girl at the awards ceremony and the last two years it was great that we were able to have our 53rd hoop shoot this year at one of the schools we had almost 300 children involved we went to District Nationals and we turned around and we went to
008state with one winner took third place but Paul I'd like you to come up the other guy no the other guy is [Applause] Joe make this presentation First of offic and MERS of go ahead that's where we were we used to be yor number one you with cic of appreciation for all the work that has helped us support the hoop years' app [Applause] dude that a interesting that's an interesting group of right there impressive stuff they've been here a long time been here like 100 years this individual I'm sure everybody that's in athletics knows a this is with Joseph so on behalf of the El if Paul and the board would present this to Joe the atic director we did great thank you so much and I and I just want to thank um it's
009not I I accept this on my own behalf but really um i' I've been at the Elks and the people that do the real work are our fizzed teachers because they are prepping the kids I mean I the especially the elementary guys and the ladies so they are the ones doing the real work so I'm glad this is recorded because I don't want to accept anything in my own name I'll only accept it on behalf of our whole staff let inv everybody here four of your local teachers received awards that night great during the hoop shoot that was F and they've worked with me for the last uh four years great but thank you so much Teresa thank you thank you so much I'll throw it back to you Mr good evening uh typically we
010have our retirements done in last month but we're going to do uh I guess it's bittersweet it's always sad for us when we lose that much talent but it's good for them that they get to move on to their next phase we actually have four tonight if Trudy Amadeo could please stand [Applause] up whereas Miss Trudy Mrs Trudy Amadeo elementary teacher in the lindbrook Union Free School District has announced her intention to retire effective June 30th 2025 after 34 years of service to the principes staff students and parents of Marian Street Elementary School and whereas Trudy has had the privilege of spending her entire teaching career in the LM Brook schools after completing her student teaching at Marian street she began her first classroom experience eager to teach first grade in addition to teaching Young
011Learners Mrs Amadeo took on the role of co-director of the fifth grade drama production the extensive time spent preparing students for the plays laid the groundwork for her transition to teaching fifth grade after seven years in primary education Mrs Amadeo has dedicated much of her career to learning with her students while creating a warm and affectionate environment and whereas Mrs amadeo's committee work at both the building and District levels has been exemplary she has demonstrated leadership while advocating for increased support for our students she's embraced every new initiative and evaluated how and what to teach her role go have included being a member of compact committee a respected grade level chair providing staff development for her colleagues on new curriculum initiatives and participating in the health and wellness committee and whereas Mrs Trudy Amadeo actively
012seeks new learning opportunities for her students she was instrumental in the early implementation of a pilot pushin teaching model collaborating closely with her colleagues she implemented station teaching and learning experiences to create smaller classrooms within larger ones unbeknown her she became a pioneer of the integrated co- te instructional model in the lindbrook schools Mrs Amadeo consistently sets high expectations for her students while presenting a rigorous curriculum all students thrive in her classroom where they are always met with kindness constant encouragement and genuine care whereas whereas it is no surprise that Trudy has was recognized and honored on the superintendent's honor rooll early in her career Mrs Amadeo always offers her students the very best of herself and acknowledges is the credit they deserve while the thousands of students she taught may forget the specifics of
013the curriculum they will never forget and will always appreciate how she made them feel and whereas the Board of Education expresses its gratitude to Mrs Trudy Amadeo for her dedicate dedicated service to Lim Brook schools and extends its best wishes for a fulfilling and healthy retirement alongside her husband Vic and companions Thelma Louise and Houdini Mrs amade plans to enjoy her retirement years engaging activities such as walking on the beach reading and practicing yoga that sounds really nice actually and now therefore be it resolve that the Board of Education hereby accepts the resignation of Mrs Trudy amadel for purposes of retirement effective June 30th 2025 congratulations Mr Robert karavi please stand [Applause] up whereas Mr Robert karafi band teacher in the limber Union Free School District has announced his intention to retire effective June 30th
0142025 close of business business after 36 years of service to the principal staff students and parents of the limber schools and whereas Robert karafi began his teaching career in Lim Brook in 1989 initially serving as the North Middle School band instructor and part-time Orchestra instructor at West End Mr karafi embarked on a mission to expand our Band program and was affectionally known as The Music Man his dedication and passion for music education led to early success in his career as a proficient sax of phonus Mr karafi has been a role model for his musicians and has inspired numerous students and whereas under Mr Kara's leadership the middle school band program flourished Mr karafi consistently sought to achieve the perfect John Philip Susa band sound with all his performing groups during his tenure he initiated the
015first jazz band at North Middle School Mr karafi embraced the opportunity to develop the elementary Band program when he transitioned to Waverly Park since 20 2012 Mr karafi has educated thousands of students at Waverly Park and Maran Street teaching them to play new instruments his commitment to instilling a love of Music demonstrating exceptional skill and assisting students in understanding content has been truly commendable and whereas in addition to his teaching duties Mr karafi has been actively engaged in various school activities he has moderated the student council and environmental clubs at North Middle School and participated in staff volleyball at Waverly Park his involvement in these activities has enriched the school community and created a supportive and engaging environment for students and staff alike and whereas Mr karafi has brought energy and unmistakable enthusiasm to his
016role as an elementary band teacher whether supervising lunch duty on the microphone directing concerts or inspiring students his passion for music and education has always been evident his dedication and spirited presence have left a lasting impact and his resident voice will be remembered in the Waverly Park and Marian Street communities and whereas the limber Board of Education sincerely thanks Robert karafi for his 36 years of service and commitment to the limber public schools and wishes him a happy and healthy retirement now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education hereby accepts the resignation of Robert karafi for purposes of retirement effec of June 30th 2025 [Applause] Claudia head up please stand up whereas Mrs Claudia hetel in the Lim Brook Union Free School District has announced her intention to retire effective March 31st 2025
017close of business after 29 years of service to the principals staff students and parents of Maran Street Elementary School and whereas Claudia Hetzel has greatly contributed to the education of our youngest Learners spending her entire career educating students in grades 1 and two at Maran street she has actively supported every initiative and demonstrated a strong passion for literacy Math Science and character education curricula Miss Hutzel consistently engaged with staff to establish a nurturing and academically enriching classroom environment over the years she has been an integral part of several success uccessful codeing teams and whereas Mrs Hetzel actively sought opportunities to engage with students beyond the classroom and support the entire School community over the years she has enjoyed interacting with students within the school setting one of her initial roles upon joining the Marian Street
018staff was serving as the co-director of the grade five drama production Miss Hetzel has also channeled her passion for writing by organizing the after school writers Club additionally she contributed as an adviser to the Marian Street School newspaper the chatter box and whereas Mrs Hetzel has exemplified exceptional school spirit through her active involvement in various activities she has supported PTA basketball and volleyball games as a cheerleader participated as a model in the Maran Street fashion show and is a runner in the community event fly with the owls furthermore Miss hell has demonstrated outstanding organizational skills by coordinating Maran Street Sunshine activities and collaborating with colleagues to plan family math nights and whereas Mrs Hetzel has demonstrated commitment and enthusiasm throughout her teaching career she consistently embraced curriculum initiatives and provided support support to her students
019ensuring that every child can achieve academic Mastery her passion for teaching first and second grade shines through Mrs Hetzel has dedicated herself fully to the development of young children offering nurturing guidance and building their confidence Mrs hetel and her students will always cherish the valuable memories of their time spent together and whereas the board of Education expresses its gratitude to miss Claudia Hetzel for her dedicated service to the Lim Brook schools and extends its best wishes for a fulfilling and healthy retirement alongside her husband Carl children Nicole and Matt her parents and many extended family members Mrs Hetzel will enjoy her retirement years enjoying the beauty of Life alongside her husband taking long walks and finding time to travel with her family and now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education hereby accepts
020the resignation of Mrs Claudia Hetzel for purposes of retirement effective March 31st 2025 [Applause] so we have one more but you know I can't help but think as she sits there crying a little bit about the Bittersweet nature of retiring we're about to lose about 140 so I do quick math about to let 140 years of experience go out the door which is really amazing when you think about you know the fact that people change jobs all the time and there's just something about Lim Brook where we keep people here for such a long period of time you know you realize how that's an emotional you've been coming to a place for 30 something years of your life it's a long time to do it so it's sad to see you go and to all
021of you go but we know the next chapter your life be one that you enjoy so for this next one who I can't believe this guy got 33 years in here but Bill ly stand on [Applause] up guess with that beard you're definitely looking for retirement whereas Mr William ly esteemed social studies teacher and respected coach in the lindbrook Union Free School District has announced his intention to retire effective June 30th 2025 after an extraordinary 33-year career in lmbr high school and whereas Mr leley has been a pillar of the lmbr High School faculty inspiring thousands of students with his deep knowledge unwavering dedication and passionate teaching having taught nearly every social studies course course offered in the school with a profound and lasting impact in advanced placement economics and whereas Mele has been more
022than just an educator he's been a mentor a role model and a source of unwavering support for his students always fering an environment where learning thrives and students feel valued and challenged to reach their full potential and whereas as Dr brino Dr barbarino observed during Mr ley's tenure review Mr Le demonstrates to students that he is genuinely interested in their well-being and students respond with respect and admiration a testament to the Deep connections he has built throughout his career whereas former Social Studies chairperson Mr Glenn's once noted that Mr Le's rapport with the students is excellent and his overall enthusiasm makes for an outstanding educational atmosphere highlighting the unique ability he possesses to make history come alive and economics engaging for students and whereas beyond the classroom Mr Lily has shaped the lives of countless
023student athletes through his unwavering commitment to limr Athletics his tenure in the football program and most notably his leadership in the lacrosse program has left an enduring Legacy as part of the lacrosse coaching staff Mr Ley secured an impressing seven conference championships 15 big four championships five Nasa County championships three Long Island championships and two state championships setting a standard of excellent in sportsmanship for generations to come whereas Mr Le's Devotion to the L Community extends beyond the classroom in playing Fields as evidenced by his decision to raise his own children in the district reinforcing his belief in the value of limberg's educational and athletic programs and whereas Mr ley's colleagues students and athletes alike have long admired his passion integrity and unwavering commitment making him a respected leader a cherished friend and Irreplaceable part
024of the limber family and whereas the Board of Education extends its deepest gratitude to Mr Ley for his years of exceptional instruction leadership and mentorship recognizing that his influence will continue to be felt in the halls of lmbr high school for years to come whereas the Board of Education wish Mr Le wishes Mr Ley a well-deserved retirement filled with the joys of reading relaxation and time spent with his beloved family his wife Danielle and their children limber High School alumni Emma 22 pton will be 25 Aiden 27 and read in 31 bill as he Embraces the next chapter of his life now therefore it be resolved that the Board of Education hereby accepts with profound appreciation and admiration the resignation of Mr William Ley for purposes of retirement effective June 30th 2025 [Applause] if we
025could get those four retirees to come up for a photo please e e e moving on with the meeting we have reports from trustee policy committee Mr Murray uh today we just have um the official first reading of our uh new student member of the school board which is uh a new state law um and again uh thank you to the um AP government class for their uh role in helping us put that policy together um and I believe um I think that's it for tonight second read sorry oh oh I'm sorry I have it um and then we have second readings of H School District records policy and school safety plans and teams and again those are just in response to updates to state law thank you Mr Murray uh I'm gonna wave that
026motion Mrs Kelly Dei leaz on hello last Thursday the Dei Council met and had an open discussion regarding how to move forward in our efforts to promote student belonging the recommendation was made to move this important work from the Dei Council toward the building levels and to create a standing item of belonging on the agenda of each compact our shared decision-making committee meetings members said that this move makes sense because these meetings incorporate all constituents including students at the high school level and can address specific student needs in more detail for each specific building the way that compact functions was also considered ideal since members bring ideas back to the constituencies that they represent before decisions are made a member also shared that seal will also become become a standing item at compact further reinvigorating
027that committee to keep a level of District oversight it was suggested that the Board of Education reestablish its annual meeting with Compact and that suggestions from the compacts be considered annually by the PTA curriculum committee as well the conversation then shifted towards Equity issues regarding the cost of certain field trips events and school supplies the possibility of offering more in-house field trip opportunities and assemblies fundraising and polling parents to solicit opinions regarding options were among the suggestions made this last item polling the parents that will be further explored at the final Dei council meeting which is scheduled for May 1st so we would look to send more information about that after that date and as always thank you to everyone who participates in those committees thank you Mr lunar PTA okay I have four separate
028announcements uh for the PTA uh first the PTA Council has created two additional $1,000 fly with the owl scholarships for our graduating seniors for those who are interested in applying applications uh are due on Friday March 21st and the applications are available through guidance or on council's website so if anyone's interested in applying for that scholarship please do so so you have about another week week and a half to do so um second um parent uh parent University is coming up next week on Wednesday March 19th the topic of this session is actually something very topical empowering parents with tools to help their child manage anxiety stress and time um the event will take place at the high school doors open at 6:30 uh and the event will begin at 7 o' there's going to
029be a flyer that's coming out soon so look out for that third Council was happy to send two PT representatives to join the board of aded and administration at the refit legislative breakfast last Friday where we all work together to advocate for the benefit of our students with our elected representatives um the PTA has really been doing very good work in terms of just leasing with uh legislative leaders and representatives in the community with a lot of the issues that have been circulating around lately and finally PTA is looking forward to hosting the staff volleyball game on Friday April 25th at 7 p.m. new for this year the universal PK will have a team that is going to join in on the fun that should be a lot of fun and that's all we have
030for today thank you Mr luner anything else from the trustees any attendance at events or anything of interest um I know he mentioned the refit conference on Friday um I went and uh limr had great representation I went with Dr Lynch Mr press um Mrs pigneto and Mrs DAV is from the PTA along with Mr kenberg um so basically what it was is we it was a bunch of local school districts and we met with about six local legislators it was a question and answer forum and um the legislators discussed topics such as Foundation Aid free lunch for all Bose is charter schools and the Federal Department of Education um I felt like it was actually a really good breakfast I felt like the legislators really had a great pulse on what you know problems
031the Long Island districts are facing I think it was really nice like you know a lot of the conversations that we have here when we talk about Foundation Aid and not having enough money it's nice to know that they're actually listening and they're understanding and that it's not just a limr issue it's a Long Island New York issue um but I left really positive that they're going to go to Albany and fight for us and I hope I'm not just being optimistic I think that was really how I left feeling um and I will say since the meeting on Friday I know that PTA is actively working on drafting a letter um to send to our local Representatives the letter will be available for community members to also uh be able to send it's not
032done yet but I'm sure or when the letter is done they'll somehow get it out to community members and you guys can send letters as well um but I think it was a really positive event and I'm I'm hopeful thank you Mr argon all right so moving on to uh old business under budget adoption at our March 4th budget work session the administration presented an unbalanced budget but since that time they have worked hard to actually close that Gap and present us with a balanced budget tonight so Dr Lynch thank you Mr Belmont Jo and yes thank you Mrs aragona for attending refit and then Mrs pitaro uh Mrs Davies and Mr kenberg and Mr press of course uh refit is an interesting organization uh it is an organization that is 50 years old and
033its sole purpose is to fix funding inequities in education so you've heard me say from this microphone that um mid wealth districts like lindbrook are frequently frozen out of appropriate Aid and I think there's certain images that people have of a district like lindbrook that don't realize the heavy lifting that we're doing uh and I think it hit the really hit the bricks this year with our budget so we had a hard time with this one I'm happy to say we normally I actually at one point said we weren't going to adopt in March this is our traditional adoption date but we will be presenting a balanced budget uh tonight uh and I thank Mr Mr press uh for his hard work and just a note now that they're out of the room those of
034you that were at the budget question uh session last week I told you there were going to be tears uh because those are just some really fine Educators and not all of them were quite ready to to go and uh I think you saw that with your own eyes tonight uh so we thank them and as again I just got to tell that story that to a person they came with that letter to say I hope I save somebody's job and uh that is just uh as good as it gets so uh I thank them thank Mr kerssenberg for for all the work that we've done now Mr press it's time to present a balanced budget all right do my best um if you recall again as uh Mr Belmont mentioned we presented a budget
035that was not in balance last week this was the budget that we presented uh so the Gap was about $225,000 as of last week um we were not inbalance at that time we were still digesting the responses that we got to the the um retirement incentive and seeing how that was going to affect the um the program um and at that point we were analyzing and looking at any number of things this is a slide also from last week some of the things that we could have considered um to bridge the gap were piercing the tax cap which we ruled out um fairly quickly um excessing positions which again we did not want to do um both of these things were things that again are available to us but that we really did not want
036to consider at all um so which left us really in the last week to look at um reducing expenses um and potentially utilizing additional um reserves and fund balance um the last option up here is additional state aid um which the uh the budget we would need to wait for the state to adopt their budget um at the refit breakfast um to a person every elected representative there said there's not going to be an ontime budget this year so um I don't think there's going to be an ontime budget so we can't wait around to see what they're going to give us what we will do um and and what from what I'm reading um at least from the one house bills from the assembly and the Senate it sounds like there may be additional
037funding for us when they do finalize the budget but um that remains to be seen the on house um bills are their proposals things they proposed do not always make it into the final budget um but we'll keep an eye on that uh and see if we need to come if we get if we get more revenue from the state we can come back and present to you uh a revised Revenue budget really what the community votes on is the expense side of the budget and what you adopt is the expense side of the budget so this is our updated um proposal uh you know we looked at a number of different things um part of the conversation last week was uh that our enrollment is declining and is projected to uh continue to decline
038over the next few years and we're seeing that um at uh at the KC our numbers are have been going down and and they're lower so um this one really this one's all on Dr Burman um because she looked at the busing for the KC and where we had an increase there originally of uh 276,000 in the IND District um budget um she was able to uh consolidate some of the the kindergarten routes without really having any any significant effect on the length of those routes which saves us a bus a big bus and then the maton on that bus um for a recognized Savings of about $118,000 so um so that was that was obviously went a long way toward bridging that Gap um I looked at my budget and I had mentioned last
039week that um our insurance rates had gone up quite a bit uh that our assessment from uh the company that comes in every five years and and does a physical inventory of our property and does an assessment of our buildings um some of the numbers they had there for they had the incorrect square footage and it was it was too high so we went back um I had a conversation with them they lowered the uh the square footage to the actual correct numbers which allowed us sorry this was our original increase um in insurance $293,000 um again we went back and adjusted the square footage that allowed us to save um not quite what Dr Burman had saved um and this is conservative I didn't get a firm number from them they're still working through
040that as of um yesterday they said they're still processing um the reports from the appraisal company um but based on my conservative estimate we were able to save about $7,000 there um and so those savings those are all in the central Administration line in the budget so you'll see that change there um so on the expense side of things we're down about $125,000 on the expense side so it doesn't get us to the 225 um so the other part of this proposal that we're making is that we increase the appropriation from our TRS Reserve by uh $100,000 um just originally last year when I had um put in the use of the reserve from the TRS it was actually at 700,000 we lowered it when the state aid numbers came back um more favorable to
041us so I lowered it from 700 to 660 last year um we're increasing that to 760 this is what we're proposing uh pulling that out of reserves so that would increase our overall total uh use of reserves which then we show up here increasing our um local Revenue projection by $100,000 so the two combin the reduction of expenses of about $125,000 and the increase in the use of reserves uh helps us to bridge that Gap so that when we look at the full picture as a whole our expenses going down the local Revenue going up gets rid of our budget Gap and gets us a balanced budget and that's it so I'll open the floor to questions at this point from the board um I just have one question when I was at the breakfast
042last week you know the topic of federal funding and um the Department of Education came up it is there any status on that as far as like Federal funding and our budget and so there's nothing um there's nothing yet I know the house um approved a spending package nothing's finalized yet um the Senate has its own package they have to reconcile them uh what I what I can say is that um one of the organizations that we belong to the association of school business officials so there's asbo New York and then there's asbo International um the asbo International Group has more of a national presence than the New York State group and they have a monthly Federal update um and they had one this week and and they they stressed very heavily don't freak out
043um the the proposal I think in from the house was a cut to idea which is really the bulk of our federal funding is that idea the special education grant um they said the proposal was To Cut That by about $80 billion the folks there and these are the advocacy people they said that's what they proposed last year and the cut did not go through they're not worried they're not concerned that that cut will go through um so they seem fairly confident that the funding that we receive we will continue to receive it may look a little different this is part of the conversation is does the funding come to us come to the states as a block grant and then the states can do with it what they want or does it stay the
044way it is and that remains to be seen um I I just had a question um if I recall and correct me if I'm wrong when we started this process back in September um we were talking about a deficit closer to the two and a half million doll number is that about what we were talking about um so I just it's not really so much a question as as a compliment and a gratitude um first of all compliments to the central Administration team for putting this budget together we'll find out a more Public Announcement probably next month but lindbrook got another uh reporting award from um asbo as far as our financial reporting but it also goes to our financial planning um and so I just want to thank you for the hard work it
045took to get from 2 plus million to 200,000 um and a gratitude goes out to our LTA because um their cooperation with the um retirement incentive had a lot to do with being able to close that Gap and and keep our fresh young teachers who we want to be here for 30 years on staff so a gratitude for that cooperation um in closing the Gap with the community and then I guess I just hope um that if the state does come through with additional Aid um is it safe to assume that we'd most likely then use that to use fewer reserves on the on the revenue side that that would be my intent and I think Dr Lynch same the same thank you all this I know was not easy to do so thank you
046and again a big thank you to the community so I'm to repeat myself again we only have reserves because you allow us to have reserves there are Auditors who will say that that's bad public accounting but if you don't have a savings account what are you going to do on the rainy day so we announced in September um we were seeing a yellow light not a red light a yellow light so there are districts that get themselves in trouble at this time by not seeing the yellow light and just let it go to Red um and uh thank say thank God am I allowed to say that thank thankfully we were uh able to say um that this community has given us the reserves and that and that goes away to cushion things um that
047you that you've given us so thank you lindbrook uh for always being behind this budget and we really hope you're going to be behind this budget uh again uh in May so we greatly appreciate that and I might as well go right with my superintendent report oh I'm sorry you have more business do I'm sorry so moving on to new business we have both these nominations Mr lunar you discuss I think we have information on two of the three seats so every year um the Bose's board consists of nine members every year they uh three different members are up for re-election they serve on three-year rotating terms not the similar to how we do it here um for for this upcoming year we've received correspondents um and resumés for two of the candidates whose terms
048are expiring indicating an intent to to run again their names are Fran langsner and Robert shown uh both have been on the board for some time I've gotten to speak with both in over some of the zoom committee meetings we've had or some of the zoom presentations I'm happy to recommend uh that both be nominated for reelection y consensus on that is good so let's do a quick resolution whereas the Board of Education of the LM Union Free School District May nominate cabinates candidates for three vacancies to be filled on the board of Cooperative Education Services of Nasa County and be it resolved that the Board of Education Liber free Union School District at this time we'll nominate two uh Fran langor and Robert Shon all in favor Mrs denito Mrs Kelly none opposed so
049we'll do that and then if we get further information on the third C we'll discuss at them now Dr Lynch you may do your superintendence report thank you Mr Belmont so just a brief update on our board goals so as you know our first board goal uh last year this year and probably next year and the year after that is the implementation of the profile of the owl so uh we are about to launch something um officially announcing it tonight that we will be forming a uh a professional development committee so this will be a committee of administration and uh and teachers who will be charting out the course of next year's professional development uh if you've heard me at this microphone and certainly the teachers in the audience have heard me um the only
050way to affect curricular change is to do it through teachers because that's who's in front of children so if we don't have teacher empowerment we're not going to have a changed curriculum we now know the Mandate that the community has given us we now know what the pillars of the profile of the owl are we took a whole whole year to look at the profile and to do a deep dive in it together now next year it's time to get to more work and what better way to do that then to form a professional development committee with the sole focus of of the implementation on the profile of the APPL and that will include them helping us decide what superintendance conference day looks like what the extended PD look like uh and really uh move
051in that direction so I'm very excited about that I thank Dr Bas uh and Mr mcdermit and Mrs curan for their leadership and uh we'll be meing that uh very shortly uh and on that note I'm going to pass it over for our upk report to Dr Burman thank you limber school district will continue to offer a universal prek program for the 2526 school year we anticipate receiving funding to offer approximately 156 eligible students full day prek for next year based on information contained in the proposed executive budget the number of eligible students is contingent upon Passage of the the official New York state budget and corresponding per puple allocations the upk program is open to Children residing in the school district who turned four years old on or before December 1st of 2025 eligible
052students must be born between December 2nd of 2020 and December 1st of 2021 the state funded program allows a 180 school day calendar and runs 5 days a week from Monday through Friday from 9: to 2 beginning on September 4th of 25 Transportation would not be provided the Barry and Florence F freedb freedberg Jewish Community Center The JCC is located at one sapperstein Plaza in Lim and Tiny TI's Early Learning Center is located at 49 Blake Avenue in limr they will both continue to operate the upk programs for the upcoming school year the district will conduct a virtual Lottery on Thursday April 24th at 10:00 a.m. access to the online Lottery application can be found on the district's website at limr schools.org under the parent student tab at the very bottom it will locate uh
053you'll locate the universal prek tab applications will only be accepted electronically proof of your child's birth and residency documents will need to be uploaded during this application process the deadline to apply for the lottery is April 11th at 3M thank you thank you Dr Burman and then uh Dr Bas on our summer programs thank you Dr Lynch I'm happy to report that we had an excellent response to our initial parent Square survey and we will be offering all the summer programs that we initially proposed that means that both North and South Middle Schools will be hosting summer playground and additionally at South Middle School only we'll be hosting r at school Camp invention literacy lamp CH and math Quest thank you thank you very much um and then uh might as well keep going with
054your curriculum update okay uh thank you Mr lockin uh so on the screen here we see these are our assessment results from last school year I know it's uh almost assessment time for next year but these results were recently published in The Herald and I know that uh some of the results caused confusion and I didn't want people walking away with a misunderstanding so most of the results that came from the herald talked about what happened in our lindbrook buildings the results that you see on the screen here are the actual results uh reported to the state for the entire District so that would include both students in and out of District that are uh lindbrook students the big change that you see here is that in the newspaper the grade 8 math scores uh
055were reported is very low actually that's one of the uh strongest grade levels in the middle school as you can see that is the highest data point in the Middle School uh what the discrepancy is each district has a certain number of children that are taking algebra in accelerated classes the uh initial number reported in the herald did not account for that when we look at the accountability measures in the state that is accounted for so when those kids are returned uh to the pool the percentage passing goes up to uh 71% you know one of the things that you don't see when you just look at the graphic though is that in lindbrook and you know this is a uh Long Island phenomenon that's continuing to happen you don't see the numbers of children
056that are opting out so you can see as we uh progress through the grades a lot of times uh we've had really high percentages uh across the board that has lessened over the years you know the younger GR do seem to opt out a little bit less than the middle schools and uh you can see that both for the ELA and the math again when we look at the opt outs for the math assessment the 23% overall in eighth grade is a little bit uh misleading here too because the total number of test Acres no one was opting out of the algebra regions so when you factor in the algebra regions there the opt out rate goes closer to 50% so you know again every time you look at a set of numbers the problem
057with Statistics is it's all in the eye of the beholder and how it's presented so overall though what you can see are Elementary numbers across the board we're very strong we do have a some adjustments that we need to make in the middle school I know we've talked about some of the programmatic changes over the uh last couple of meetings about uh the changes to AIS how we're introducing Humanities and uh stem Labs so those are going to be things that are uh leveraged as we move forward thank you can I ask a quick question um the scores for these when do they typically come back um is it still a delay like it's been in years past yes the scores are typically uh delayed we don't get uh individual student reports until late summer
058early fall depending on the year and you know that's why people do receive those reports in the next school year as opposed to the year that they sit for the assessments so it's good to say that the you know assessments we do in house give teachers more accurate information that they can no absolutely and I will say that you know the assessments that we give in house uh are what students are typically preparing for you know I hate to say this these State assessments for certain kids especially when you get into a middle school setting it's a very difficult Long Haul for a middle school student to keep concentration for a full two days on a test that they know in their mind does not count and I think that is something unfortunately that you
059know becomes a very Middle School mindset and you know that is something very different than when I know that this other score will be in power school and my parents will be able to see how I performed well you know my feeling on these tests I've made them pretty clear over the years so thank you you're welcome Dr belas can I ask with the one just to clarify with eighth grade sure so those students in eth grade who are are accelerated both by teacher identification and discussion with parents who will take the algebra regions they are not part of these numbers correct I know they were not part of they were not part of the herold's numers they are part of these numbers and I'll explain why so what the uh government requires is that
060children are tested in ela and Mathematics in grades 3 through 8 but if you take one state assessment they don't require you to take both but you must report the results for whatever assessments they take and that's all compiled together so uh you know there are certain districts where you know there are more or less kids taking algebra so that pool of eligible students changes so in lindbrook it's always about a 5050 split give or take in any given cohort so you know half of the children were we'll call missing from the numbers and if you look at that number up there the 20 3% you're talking about half of half that's why I said about half of them opted out so that that's really uh the mathematics behind what's happening so then just to
061clarify from a pedagogical standpoint in doing that we're actually serving the children as they need to be served in eth grade we're not accelerating everyone when we're just setting them up to fail we are trying to prepare them properly to be successful in high school and I I think that's something that we've always uh tried in lindbrook is to meet the kids where they're at you know I do know that there were many places before the common core and we're putting everything in a you know a time machine at this point that tried acceleration for all when the Common Core came in and basically in mathematics in particular accelerated every student depending on your grade level one or two school years worth of material you know that uh acceleration for all model became a very
062heavy lift for many students so that you know giving them that choice and the option of challenging yourself at what you felt was an appropriate level is something that we worked on you know for years here and I think that is something that you know has benefited the students to try to give them a strong foundation for high school success thank you you're welcome one last question am I correct we're moving the writing Labs down to the Middle School correct correct and when we look at particularly the Math and Science assessments at least what the the state has been sort of dribbling out to us the English the the reading skills that are necessary to succeed on those tests make it just really underscore the point to move the writing lab to the Middle School
063level yeah I will say and I know this is uh tough for people to understand but the most difficult reading test that children are are ever going to sit for are the new science exams and it doesn't matter if we're talking about our Youngs in fifth grade or our older students in eth in the high school those tests are all becoming highlevel literacy exams and if anybody has listened and I'm not trying to make fun of Mr belman or Dr Lynch here to some of the science projects that we have to read out from time to time all the kids are doing readings with those type of words in there which is not the easiest words to uh work with on a page and I will tell you you know it is one of those
064things that becomes very frustrating for children and if you look at the fifth grade assessment and I know that you know you have a background in science so why do we have to name things with genius and species when they're in fifth grade when those names are based on the Latin versions of Words that's a heavy lift for any fifth grader to have to deal with when they could just be talking about the butterfly life cycle right thank you so much you're welcome that brings me to two more questions sorry um absolutely for the science test will those results in addition not be back in time to be Drive instruction do we is this the second year of that well the think about the Science assessment and it's very different than the others in the
065sense that uh we only offer State assessment wise the fifth grade assessment because our students are pretty much in the living environment right now or the earth science class so it is only the fifth grade assessment results and how much the elementary school results would ever you know impact the middle school you know it's a very different uh program you know the one thing about science again in the elementary and the intermediate level it's what I would call like a schoras board of science so you do a little bit of what I'll call psych pre physics prechemistry pre biology pre- earth science and that's what builds the courses so again they're going to go through a whole another cycle the one good thing is and this is one of the nice Parts about the curriculum
066way we have it set up here is everything is taught at the lower level they get introduced to a concept and they spiral it up as they go through the system you know Elementary to intermediate intermediate to high school okay and my final question is talking about the math we've done a deep dive into our Ela curriculum in you know the kindergarten with the sounds right and changing over and um the sentence writing which I'm blanking on the word for it right now um but we've really looked into that a lot to help um all students and especially those struggling have we evaluated and how often do we look at our math program to make sure that we're really setting the foundation for our students to understand you know base 10 and to carry them
067through and just how often is that process yeah I will say that we've done a very good job at the elementary school of data collection and uh basically what I'll call an RTI process one of the things that we're looking at right now is moving toward an mtss process so what the big differences for you know folks that are not in the educational field I know you understand this but I figured for other people's edification you know we talk a lot about English and math once we add in mtss we're looking at that kid as a whole so there will be a whole component as well and uh when we're doing that we're going to try to expand the RTI process more into the middle school because again if you look at the results and
068I know I may not be as good at going backwards quickly here you can see at the elementary level those foundational math results are phenomenal you know we do need to do a better job at raising some of those uh foundational skills in the middle school for the high school so yes hopefully bringing that RTI mtss process up the ladder will help with that as well great thank you Dr Bas may I just jump in for those who are watching at home who don't know the alphabet soup of education do you mind just clarifying for everyone what we mean when we say RTI and sure yeah so uh RTI was probably brought in I want to say about 17 15 to 17 years ago we started introducing rti in the district so what that is
069called that's called response to intervention uh we uh use a datadriven instruction Approach at the elementary school we give kids Universal screenings where we see how they compare nationally in both Ela and Mathematics for kids that are not uh at the average or better uh you know points in particular we do a lot of deep data diving which means that we call it progress monitoring to see are you making in uh basically incremental gains to start closing the achievement Gap from where you are to where we want you to be so that is something that's been going on for years uh mtss builds off of that that's a multi-tiered system of supports and I know that uh as you know Dr Lynch had mentioned before uh my partner on all this stuff Mrs Curran is
070always preaching to everyone you know there is this thing called ready to learn and if kids aren't being met with their social emotional needs they're not accessing those tests for the English and the math and that's why we do need to look at them as a whole and Charter you know chart the growth in all those areas simultaneously and that is the uh direction we're moving and I do have to uh give Mrs Boyce a lot of credit she's in the uh back of the uh cafeteria right now she's helping spearhead that effort right now on the uh seal side and helping us get that plan uh starting to uh roll into action thanks uh Dr Black you know I I would also just like to say especially to the parents out there listen that
071when when you see results like this we just need to take a deep breath and realize why they tend to be a tiny bit skewed as well because uh limr when all these ridiculous assessments were you know introduced to the state we led to charge and opt out out I mean we we are one of the communities that have the most amount of students opting out traditionally if I'm not mistaken and which makes sense considering how many educators we have in this this town and Educators tended to lead that charge because if you really understand what these things are about they're not really about the kids they're about you know uh assessing how teach how well teachers teach and one assessment is not a good way of assessing how teachers teach but with that being
072said traditionally the students who opt out if I'm not mistaken tend to be students who have heavy parental involvement and those students tend to be your stronger students if I'm not also mistaken so how skewed are these numbers if the kids who tend to do very well on these assessments are the kids who opt out of these assessments so well I will say that before the opt out movement started uh you know I reported uh State assessment results all the time and uh you know why the whole populace took it and it was a legitimate measure of what the district to District did because all the kids were involved and there weren't any of these uh what I'll call ancillary conversations that happened and I'm not talking among the adults I'm talking about among among
073the children and that's why when you get into middle school it's a very hard thing to decipher you know was it because the kids didn't know the material or was it because the kids see some empty seats around them and say you know yes I know I have to sit for the assessment because I was told I have to sit for the assessment however I'm not as motivated here as I may be in another venue and I think that is always very hard to tease out and how that comes into play you know it's not something we can say cleanly anymore you know I have to give credit you know our teachers have always taken pride in their work here and it doesn't matter if the kids are opting out or not they've always tried
074to prepare the kids in their subject areas as best they've could and yes when we had the whole populist taking it our results were always up there with the best of the best thank you right I mean I think I think the point is that you know we have these results and they're a snapshot but they're really not remotely an effective tool to assess our teachers internally certainly or even our students right we we have a number of mitigating factors you have the opt out movement which as Mr peski said really does sometimes self- select out the kids who are most likely to do well on these tests to some extent you have the fact that kids realize that so many others opted out that these tests have no meaning and they don't count for
075them personally so they just blow them off so you know I I I hear what everyone's saying and I think I just want to join in that that these These are numbers but they're not really the best way to assess our students and and I think that's the problem with these types of tests and that's why there's so much criticism of them um and I think internally we do a really good job of assessing our students in so many other ways whether it's through final exams projects classwork that you know to me I put a lot more weight in what the teachers are doing to assess their students than on these types of exams yeah I think you know again you know one of the uh best ways to assess how the kids perform is
076seeing them day in and day out and I know that we've given a couple of Snippets of uh things have happened in our classrooms I know that we've projected a lot you know I know Mrs Deno mentioned about the reading and the writing you know we have been putting a lot of uh faces on the screen showing how the program works because you know I don't have state assessments at that level I don't need a state assessment to validate a program like that I need you to see look at what these kids are doing right now and I think you know that same kind of uh conversation happens at all levels in this district and like you said as they get older the work that they were able to prod you know I think that's
077a testament to what they have learned and just to be clear in LM Brook we don't use these assessments to drive instruction or to decide on advanced placement or anything like that no so what happens in lindbrook you know we have something called open enrollment so people can choose uh what Pathways they want their children to follow so you can choose to accelerate yourself in one course and not in another so you have all those typ typ options we do not bind you to these assessments we also collect our own data points because one of the things about AIS and you know AIS has been around for 25 26 years inter I'm sorry academic intervention yes academic intervention services and I think actually the other day Dr Lynch and I had a memo from uh
078commissioner Mills back then at the time who uh laid out the foundation for those services and you know like I said almost 25 26 years ago and uh that has in changed that you're supposed to look at multiple measures you don't want to just make a kid a one-day test that you know as Mr pesi said you know it may or may not reflect their ability and you know there are certain kids that show up for the assessment and uh you know the stamina just is not there and it's very different and this is one of those things about standardized testing especially when you're talking about elementary and middle school kids you know we teach them every day to be sprinters and then you put them in a marathon so certain kids can respond to
079that and others you know that's not the way they've been trained and I will say one of the things that I give again a lot of credit to the high school folks when we have the older kids and we put them in front of another Marathon test called the AP exam a lot of them are doing review classes where the kids are sitting for fulllength exams beforehand just to sit for that experience of having to sit there and focus for that long at a high level and I do think that's really benefit benefited our kids and why many of them do well on those exams because it is a big difference between going from a 40-minute test to something that again they said that uh they were making it easier for kids by making them
080untimed but when you make them untimed some kids are sitting there all day long which is another uh issue for you know many kids and I think just one more thing to put in perspective it kind of piggybacks off of uh Mr pesy and uh Mr lunar and what Dr B has just said about AP exams ultimately we have a 13 and when you consider upk a 14year journey for our students this is the middle at best um and I think our results based on our graduation rates based on our AP exams based on our region exams I mean that's the proof in the pudding that our schools are doing what they need to do to prepare students for the world um so I think we just have to also remember that that this is
081not this is like I don't I don't even know a good analogy for it but we're we're talking about seeing how we're doing at the beginning of the race and there's still 15 miles to go yeah and just actually piggybacking off of what was what Mr Murray said you look where these kids finish not where they start or not where they are on Mile two of a five mile race look at some of the schools that our kids are getting into look at how they're doing on AP exams and and on some of the I know standardized tests or not in vog right right now but on act and sat we have a ton of kids I mean I only know this anecdotally because I happen to have a kid who's in the gradua in
082class but we have a ton of kids who are hitting it out of the park on these exams so obviously they're getting educated fairly well on Ela and math because that's what they test on those two exams and we have I could think of 25 kids who broke 1,400 I mean we're doing something right here and that you know a one-year blip on these charts really shouldn't be an indictment of you know how we're doing to educate our teachers or our students so and I do just want to add something to the conversation I'm just going to I I agree with everything being said here but at the same time I do think it is time to take a fresh look at our academic intervention services uh it's almost like the same conversation we were
083having about regionalization a couple of uh weeks ago when the state says You must do it we're going to get our backs up do we need to take a look at how we're examining data systematically at our middle schools it's probably a good time to take a look at that and what measures we should be using and how we can progress monitor as just a natural part of doing education and to inform our program and to take high achievement to even the next level so I think you know where're that's part of the profile of the owl is that we want to we do want to uh do something in regard to rigor at Middle School um it's kind of what we've heard from from the parents that's what we've heard from the community and
084it's not because of this chart I just want to be very clear it's not because of this chart it's because it's an important era to to just rethink it every couple of years and I think now is a good we're looking at the whole system we might as well be looking at it at this point it's a re it's an interesting time of life those three uh grades in Middle School uh it's it's just it's it's a there's a lot going on uh and I think that's where you put the the uh Readiness for learning on theal along with some of their academic performance and all the other stuff that's going on I give you credit for doing that every day of your life Mrs Kelly that's and and love it that's I think they
085assigned me to seventh grade one year I cried that's uh but uh no I love that but no I just think there's there's some also authentic challenges and I think we're we're up to those challenges but because we want to do it not necessarily because there's a blip on the radar so I'll now turn it over to Mr press on capital projects thank you doc Dr Lynch um so we do have some uh some progress on on our capital projects the projects that we had sent up to the state uh as part of third party review uh have been reviewed by the third party reviewer and comments sent back to our architect our architect is reviewing and preparing responses to those comments uh the architect's comments should be submitted by the the end of this
086week um assuming we get no further comments back from the third party party reviewer we anticipate having approval of the projects by the end of this month beginning of next month uh once we have that approval we will um plan to go out to bid so that we can uh you know our our intent is to have that work done um this summer um in terms of the door replacement projects at West End and Maran Street um that is also moving along we have a meeting this Friday with our contractors and our architect to go over timelines um and our expectations and Logistics um we do anticipate the preliminary wiring for the wireless door locks to actually start before the summer because that is work that can happen um potentially over the April Break um
087or in evenings um so that once uh once the doors start to actually get installed um and the wireless door locks get installed the wiring is already there so the they should get up and running much faster um and then just finally the third part of that uh door project uh and what went up to the state along with the door projects was the high school elevator um cab replacement that is also on schedule to uh to occur this summer uh and that's my update thank you for all that this time we'll move to public comment if anybody wants to address the board please come up to the podum identify yourself and indicate if you live in or out of District Senor commentary we have one sympathy resolution this evening for Raquel pakis whereas the
088members of the Board of Education of the LM Union Free School District have learned with sorrow of the passing of Raquel pacis former employee in limr school district and whereas Raquel pacis served as a foreign language teacher at limrick high school for 26 years from 1968 through 1995 and whereas the board of education is mindful of the contributions made to our district by Mrs pacus during her years of service to our community be it resolved that the Board of Education records its sorrow its sympathy and the esteem in which Rael pacis was held and be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be sent to the family of raal pacus with the hope that they will find Solace and comfort and the rich Heritage of good works for which he's remembered and revered
089the board gratefully acknowledges and accepts the following donations $1,420 from the wavely park PTA for assemblies $34 from the lmbr West Den PTA for the Phyllis Rose dance student assembly on consent agenda I'd like to ask for consent agenda and resolutions 2503 C1 through 25321 25503 nc1 through 253 nc5 and 253 G2 and 2503 g28 may have a motion Please Mr Murray second Mrs denino all in favor may have a motion to accept the consent agenda Mrs Kelly second Mr Luna all in favor our next meeting will be the Bose budget meeting and regular meeting on Wednesday April 23rd after the break that concludes our meeting