001All right, we're live. All right, sorry for the slight delay. Um, good evening everyone. Welcome to another board meeting here for the Manhasset School Districts uh school district. Uh so our first uh uh first item of of the agenda is obviously the the pledge of allegiance. So let's uh do that quickly. >> I pledge allegiance 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. Right. So again, welcome everyone. Um we have a lot uh a lot to cover tonight and excited to go through it and make sure um we answer everyone's questions and provide the information for the community. So uh our our first item tonight is a staff recognition. uh the board of education uh
002is going to uh recognize uh someone very special. So I'll turn it over to Dr. P. >> Thank you very much. And I am going to immediately turn it over to is Brendan. Are you doing the introduction? Yeah, please please come on up with Sarah. Thank you. All right, I'll go first. Um, my name is Sarah Duke. I am a national board certified teacher. Uh, I also teach a choir and uh at the middle school. Um, and I am very very honored to be speaking here representing the National Board Council of New York State. Uh we are a branch of the the state branch of the New York of the national board of professional teaching standards. Um so just real quick about national board uh Marissa just went on a very long multi-year journey uh
003to achieve one of the highest accomplishments that a school teacher can um achieve. Uh it is a voluntary advanced certification that recognizes accomplished teaching. Uh it is a very very rigorous process that requires teacher to demonstrate content knowledge uh reflect reflect deeply on their practice and provide evidence of student learning over time. Thus the three years uh the pursuit of national board certification is one of the most authentic meaningful and transformable transformative professional experiences that I ever went through and I'm sure that Marissa can say the same and Colleen Malone who's also sitting back there another Manhasset NBCT. Um it requires us to take a deep and honest look at our teaching. We analyze student learning. We reflect on our practice. uh and you learn to make meaningful and purposeful decisions with every student that
004you work with. You know your students deeply. Um it is a process that definitely definitely keeps you very humble. Uh what makes national board certification so impactful is its direct connection to our students. Uh it pushes us to continually refine our practice and and it it truly impacts student growth and success. Um once you are national board certified your frame your your thinking shifts when you are in the classroom and you it it definitely was very powerful. I am very honored to be part of this community of educators and I'm very proud to work in a district in Manhasset that that values that reflection the growth and excellence. And I'm especially excited to be here to applaud Marissa tonight. Thank you, Sarah. So, good evening and thank you for taking the time to recognize this
005important milestone that's been accomplished by Marissa Bidio. For those of you who do not know Marissa, she's one of our outstanding reading teachers at Shelter Rock Elementary School. Marissa is in her seventh year at Manhasset and it's her 13th year of teaching total. And I'm proud to state on behalf of all the administrative colleagues and all the Shelter Rock faculty, especially the reading department, that we're lucky to have Marissa as one of our teachers. To put the achievement in a little bit more context, as s as Sarah shared, um national board certification uh is a voluntary and advanced teaching credential and it goes beyond the state lensure. It has national standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do. And the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certifies teachers who successfully complete
006its rigorous process. As a point of reference, Marissa, please know that only 3% of all teachers in the United States are nationally board certified. So, you are joining a rare group like Miss Palone. The distinction was designed to develop, retain, and recognized accomplished teachers and to generate ongoing improvements in schools nationwide. And it's the highest certification as Sarah mentioned. And uh it's based on five key principles. They are that teachers are committed to students and their learning. Teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students. They're responsible for managing and monitoring student learning. They think systematically about their practice and learn from their experience and they're members of learning communities. So, anyone who knows Marissa didn't have a doubt that she'd achieve her goal since she demonstrates all five principles
007every day in her classroom. In addition to this outstanding impact on Marissa's career and students, nationally board certified teachers become lead leaders. They evolve into leadership roles naturally and they mentor, advocate for positive change, and often support professional development efforts. Case in point, Marissa has taken on the responsibility of being a co-director in the teacher resource center this year where she provides tremendous amount of professional development opportunities for other teachers to grow. Marissa, I know you're humble, but you've earned the spotlight tonight. We're all very proud of you, and it's my honor to present you with the certificate to acknowledge your tremendous accomplishment. Please come up and accept your certificate. So, Marissa, Marissa, do me a favor before we take a picture. Uh, just grab the mic for a second. You need support from your
008I see little ones here. Do you need support from your f? Do they need to come up and hold hands or >> Yeah, whatever. >> Yeah, please. Sure. Let them come up and hold hands. You >> guys want to come on up? Thank you. Are >> these uh future little teachers? Who are these gentlemen? >> What's your name? >> JT and >> Lucas. >> And Lucas. >> Lucas. Oh my goodness. Very sweet. So, what motivated you to to do you have little ones at home, you have family, and yet you're you're in the reading loft over there at Shelter Rock. I have visited you your class from there. What motivated you to do this? Honestly, I watched Colleen Miss go through it and we had another member of their reading team who retired GG Morocco
009and watching them go through the journey and how it, you know, transformed their teaching and they became so reflective. Um, it really was just a a great process and you just saw the growth and I wanted a challenge. I wasn't busy enough. Yeah. >> So, I was like >> I see part of your motivation is right here in your arms and and out in the audience as well. I'm sure as well. I have a wonderful team to support me. So, >> beautiful. Well, congratulations. Thank you so much. You represent this district so well. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Can we Can we take a picture? I didn't do that. Hello. Yes. All right. called one. >> That's the name of the team. >> Okay, >> that's the name of the team. If you need help,
010I'll help. >> Congratulations again. That is uh really a special moment. Well done. we're so proud and uh you know continue to be a leader in your field. Uh it really raises the level of the game for for everyone here. So it's fabulous and congrats and and you're welcome to stay for a budget discussion and all these other things. But you if you know please um I know the kids would enjoy it but please uh go home and enjoy and celebrate with your family um and have a great night. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right, those are the best uh moments and that was that was fabulous. So, um all right, next order of business is approval of the minutes from from last meeting. Can I have a motion, a second? Any any
011discussion? All in favor? All right, that's 50. And we'll get right into our superintendence report. >> Thank you very much. There's so much going on in the district. I just had to write it down this time. So, thank you. I uh one of the things that I didn't write down, but we just uh went through or just saw an incredible Harry Potter version and the cursed child. Alison, I think right particular interest in the show, but it was again once again amazing show. kids, staff, parent involvement, community. Serious, the entire community really being a part of it. And I didn't realize it until my wife told me afterwards on the way home, every kid spoke in a British accent. Like the entire I just was hearing them. I didn't realize that they all did that,
012you know, throughout the entire show. Uh just an amazing job. The set design when the kids got pulled through the library books, right, and then pushed back, it was pretty Yeah, really. It was a lot of magic in the show. That's true. It was a magical show. So, thank you so much. I just want to give them certainly a shout out. There is also our robotics team. Our robotics team is called 11030A and they are gearing up to compete at the VEX Robotics. They just Oh, they just did the championship. Right. Right. >> 16th overall in the entire state and I have a trophy on my desk. Right. Uh from that team as well when they won the last competition. So, they've done an incredible job. Um, our science olympiad team placed first at regionals
013and will be going to the states. We also uh that's on uh March March 20th, right? Is that March? That's tomorrow. The middle schooling. Okay. 17 students submitted math research papers. Association of math supervisors of Long Island 2026 now math fair be held at Hopstra. That's up from seven submissions last year. Amazing what we're doing in in regards to math. or middle school middle schoolers participated in Museum of Mathematics. Mo Mathlon Mo Math uh regional competition came in fifth place. Eighth grader Drew Yang competed in New York State Math Counts tournament last week. Uh let's see. On March 2nd, seventh grade students, Miss Conroy, Mr. hand of Miss Southwick's class at Manhasset Secondary School. Welcome historian and author Cla Beleer, co-author of Remember Liss, who spoke with students about the life of Elizabeth, also known
014as Liss, an enslaved black woman on Long Island during the American Revolution. She did an incredible joy outlining her her her life and uh for our students. Go >> ahead. She she was uh list one of the things that was really cool is that she was also part of the Co Pepper spy ring which is um a really cool piece of history. >> On Wednesday, March 4th and 5th, 8th grader visited the Long Island University White House experience, a museum of democracy prior to the start of Civic Learning Week. It's an actual replica of the White House. What are you doing over there? Okay, I apologize for that. Our students learn about the many facts of the executive branch, in particular the presidency, and participate in a variety of activities, including simulation and a museum
015tour focused on how presidents get elected, the role of many other important members of the executive branch. Uh, and lastly, Sunday, March 15th, and I'm going to have to make sure I do this next year. Sunday, March 15th, students and families participated in the million meals mission at the secondary school for the third consecutive year. The mission raises awareness about food insecurity, provides meals for food insecure communities around the world. I think it's really uh incredible that our kids have done this year after year with the community and uh recently we had Tom Denapoli vis visit the the high school and speak with he's our comp patroller and spoke about being comp patroller and uh that job. So he did a nice very nice job with that as well. Thank you. So, uh, all those
016incredible achievements and accomplishments. I had to actually write them down this time. Usually, I try to do them for memory, but no way that can be done. Uh, thank you very much for that time. Great. Thank you, Dr. Military. Any questions for Dr. P? All right. Very exciting group of uh, achievements there and thank you for summarizing them. Uh, all right. Next, we'll go to our student delegate report. Hello everybody. I hope you guys are all well. Um, today's report is a little bit shorter. The student senate is currently working on the voter registration drive which will take place next Friday on March 27th. We hope to encourage a lot of upper classmen to register to vote. It's very important. It's coming up soon. Secondly, two underassmen, two sophomores, Grace Malookuski and Julian Collard, are
017on the wellness committee and will be reporting regular updates to the student senate about community mental health and overall community wellness. So, we hope to get a lot of good reports from this and see what the student senate can do to help out our community as a whole. And that's all. Thank you, >> Katherine. I'm just going to jump in there for a moment. you you brought to us a concern around mental health and I want you to know that uh we have been working on that and that I you probably have gotten some information potentially from the school and Dr. road I'm not sure but we are working on we had said that we would be surveying our students uh throughout the school on their experience at school so that is going to be
018coming out re shortly and there is other information that will be shared with students in terms of I know we've had some speakers in a lot of thought has gone into what you brought to us here and I really appreciate that and I hope you see that uh in the school itself >> I'm glad thank you so much >> all All right, great. Any other comments or questions? All right, thank you very much. All right, now we'll get right into it. Uh, presentation of our preliminary 2627 budget and I'll turn it over to Gerard. >> Good evening. Thank you. Good evening. I am Gerard Antoine. I'm the assistant superintendent for business and operations for those of you who don't know me. And uh tonight Dr. Pelletary and I are going to present the preliminary budget
019for the 2026 2027 school year. one of these. Turn it on on the side. It's a slider. Got it. Yes. There we go. Okay. So, just quick overview, quick overview of the presentation for tonight. I'll go through the budget development timeline and then we'll discuss our district goals and our budget goals. We'll talk about the total budget and the three-part budget, benefits and staffing levels, new initiatives, security and facilities upgrades. Then we'll get into our revenue, our revenue sources, achieving a balanced budget. Then we'll discuss class size, class size projections, voter information, and then we'll end it with the upcoming meetings. >> John, I I just want to say these are all our pictures, right? That looks like a stock photo. So, put that back for a second, John, if you could. That's our kids
020actually in a craft that they did. So >> my daughter's hands are in there. That was the fourth grade. >> You can identify your daughter's hands. >> They did a project beautiful me for a couple of weeks during lunch. So that's one of the fourth grade girls uh classes. >> Which one is your daughter's hands? >> Top with the blue sweater. >> Wow. I love giving credit where credit is due. Dr. Chowski put these pictures to um together for me. So I just want to thank her for putting together all of these wonderful pictures. >> Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Chowski. >> Okay. So, so here we are. Um the first four bullets have been done. We those meetings we took place. So now here we are March 19th presenting the budget. Next week we
021will do the informal budget hearing uh at the board meeting March 22nd 26th. Then on April 16th we will adopt the budget. May 7th is the formal budget hearing. And then May 19th is the annual budget vote. So here are our priority areas. U this is how we um develop our the budget for well this is the priority areas for the 2627 school year. Inspire growth in every student. We want to make sure that all of our learners are supported academically. Support growth for support growth for our educators. We're going to provide staff development for our instructional leaders. Connect through strong relationships. We're going to maintain relationships across our school community and upgrade our school facilities. You'll see here this picture of the um the guard the guard booth. So that's uh what we're doing.
022We want to make sure that our buildings are safe to provide a safe learning environment. We build our budget around our around these goals. So we want to make sure that we support our priority areas, maintain our class size. It's we try to stay within our class size guidelines to below. You'll see that later on in our slides. Support our academic and um extracurricular opportunities. Making targeted investments in our facilities and our instructional technology. Safety and security is always at the top priority and wilderness budget. We have a commitment to supporting our social and emotional wellness of our students. All of this while trying to stay within the tax cap. So tonight I'm going to go over where we need to be. We're not there yet, but we know that based on a 3.44% tax
023levy limit, I'm allowed to increase the budget by 3,95,000, which would bring me to a budget of 1118,941 $948,591. So that is where we will end up for 2627 school year. >> So So Gerard just that 3.44 does that represent a uh is that within the cap? >> That is that is within that's at our tax levy limit which is within our tax. >> So so no piercing no having to get super majority any this is within our cap. >> This is within our cap. No piercing you know knock on wood wherever it is. No piercing of the cap. >> Yep. >> That's where >> Okay. Just want to be clear because there is this understanding out I think some folks with 2% 2% and this is above 2%. I just want to be clear
024on that. >> Yeah, that's always something that's tough for us business officials to explain to the community that 2% is not always 2% and then we like the presentation. >> Yeah, you spent an hour doing that. So I don't want you to do it again right now. But I do want to just reiterate to folks that >> absolutely we are within our tax levy limit. >> Outstanding. Thank you. Okay. So this is the three-part budget. The budget is broken up in terms of three parts. We have um administrative program and capital. The administrative part is our board of education expenses, central administration and board of education supplies and equipment, not like the board is paid. I just want to make sure that people understand that they are volunteering their time and we appreciate everything that
025they do. But that these are the expenses that are relate to the board of education central administration supervision of curriculum instruction finance personnel and legal. I'd like to say that program that is the lion share of the budget. That is where you need to spend your money. You want to make sure that you're putting money towards hiring the best teachers, the best educators to provide our students with the best quality education. And that's at 80% of the budget. And then you have a capital component which is our facilities maintenance debt service and our transfer to capital. So that just shows you how the budget breaks out in terms of three parts. Go through a little history of our health insurance. You'll see little rocky road up and down up and down. when when I'm putting
026together the budget when you try and project health in expenses for the next year our school district's budget well school budgets are on a fiscal year goes from July 1 to se um to June 30th health insurance is on a calendar year so I have the actual increase the increase for this year is 8.8% 8%. So I have to project what it's going to be for next year. So from June so so from July 1 till January I know what that in that increase is but you have to add that based on a projection of 9% for the 27th school um calendar year. So it's a little little math little projections that you have to do and then you come up with with this information. >> Rod go back one second. >> Do do is
027it our fault like why is this so up and down? Do we select this or is this handed to us? >> We do not. That information is provided to us that is uh so um um NICHIP they provide us with these rates and >> we have no control over this piece. >> Have no control over this. >> Okay. >> We just try and deal with what we have what we're given. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Okay. Over there if you can't see me over here but um so with that increase are active. So interesting to see that we have 431 retirees that we cover and 371 active employees. So with that being said um for next year 10.3 million is what's in the budget for our active employees. Health declination the um expense for those
028people who don't take our health insurance and they receive uh you know u compensation for that 350,000 retirey health expense 5.7 million and our Medicare reimbursements 1.6 million a total $18 million on um health expenses then we have our retirement contributions our teachers retirement contribution and our employee time contributions that total 6.6 6 billion and then our contributions to the MEA trust um the you know MASA 43 compensations contributions 394,000 social security workers compensation almost 5 million and other employee benefits such as um dental life insurance unemployment etc 219,000 so for a total of 5.5 million alltogether 30247,000 proposed for next year in benefits and and what percentage of that would you say we control and and what percentage are kind of told to us >> percentage that we control I'd like to say none
029>> I don't think anything >> right I mean the the the point the point is you know so of the 119 million that we're going to spend next year 30 million is benefits of the 3.9 additional that we're going to be able to raise year-over-year 1.9 is already spent, spoken for. So, we here in Manhasset, just like many other all the other districts, we run a mini health insurance program. We run a mini pension program and we run uh a health, you know, health a health healthcare company effectively. So, so that's that's just the reality. And obviously, we want to do that to take care of our employees and both now and when they retire. But, you know, it's it's an extraordinary number and it's not going to go down, right? So, it's going to
030it's going to continue to increase every year. Well said. Okay. These are our projected staffing levels for next year. And um so, teaching positions will go down by two next year. No one's going to lose their job, but we have retirements that we won't fill and we'll shuffle people around. So, nobody's going to nobody's going getting excess. But with that being said, we were able to add a special education teacher and one psychologist coordinator in this budget for next year. >> So, I I know that was an important point raised by uh PACE by the community, but concern from the board in as well to see that we did that. I'm happy that we kept that in despite the pressures of uh the budget itself and the tax cap. We committed to this and now
031we put pen to paper so to speak and are publicly presenting on it. So we're counting on this this happening. So thank you Gerard and everyone else that that worked on that. >> Yes. Increase of three positions for um support staff. We're going to add a security guard at the secondary school and add two teaching assistants. So I believe that was another request um adding those teaching assistants. So we were able to keep that in the budget. Um administrative position stayed the same unaligned. There was we had an internal claims auditor and now we have an um contract claims auditor. So it's down by 7 central admin administrative positions. That was just a change in the table of organization. So no one really lost the job. No one was excess. So it was the table
032of organization was seven. Now it's six. So the total 507.45 FTEES projected for next year. So that's hard work. And thank you, Gerard, because I think we see in the news there are many other districts that are having to make cuts and that's the reality of um inflation uh benefits and and you know declining enrollment or or other things or other decisions, tough decisions that made that have to be made. But um so you know we we've had to face those challenges in the past, but thank you for working through that this year. What does this mean? Gerard Gerard was winking at me. I had said I would take some of the burden here and talk through some of this. So, uh, yeah, hint hint. We certainly have our priority areas as we move forward.
033We're committed to keeping class size down as this budget ensures class size remain at least two below the guidelines. Historically, it's been grades five and six. That's kind of the commitment from us. But this year you'll see that we are below in K 1 2 3 4 5 and six. Maintain elementary specialist positions support small group intervention and enrichment. Um I'm not going to read word for word. Our elementary math and literacy coaches have been maintained and we are revising the elementary port code. I just met with teachers yesterday. What grade was that? Um fourth and fifth grade. Oh my gosh. We had teachers from across the district, the two schools working together, putting all the ideas out and and really making sure that we cover uh all the the thoughts that we we need
034to all the ideas we need to cover to make sure that we revise the report card in a appropriate way for our students, our staff and our community. So, I appreciate that work and that work is ongoing and that's why it's part of our uh obviously we have to budget it and be prepared for professional development and parent workshops. >> One more. I'm doing this one, too. All right, Gerard. I knew that the uh the budget does support the continuation of our engineering programs, our broadcast journalism and computer science pathways. Those continue to move forward. We continue with project lead the way in biomedical sciences pathway, which is just blows my mind. Pretty amazing the offerings that we're able to to do here. Uh the principles of biomedical science were offered this past year. Hud
035human body systems a new program we'll have next year. We have our business pathway virtual enterprise. I probably could have spoke about them as well in my superintendence report. I may have already. They've done an incredible job uh this past year also. I think they have two I think they have two teams in in virtual enterprise. Uh we do have new courses in personal finance, AP comparative government and Chinese too. And also the seal of biiteracy. I was able to take part in a classroom where I heard our students talk completely in Spanish and completely uh the teacher spoke completely in Spanish and they were talking about food. Unfortunately, it was before lunch. So, I was very hungry when when they had this conversation. Uh but really incredible to hear them go on and on
036and on and and and have the back and forth with the teacher in that language which is not their native language. Very impressive. So that's part of the seal of biiteracy and next year we will include the seal of civic readiness as well which we've talked about. So so this year for biiteracy right over a hundred students should be able to get the seal of biiteracy. How many did we have in the in the past? Yeah. In the first year incredible work. So that's that's our foreign language department. That's Miss Chowski Christina Lang. Yeah. Incredible job. Thank you. >> Is it back to you, Gerard? >> Yes. So, we talk about what we're doing uh to prepare our students. We also preparing our educators, providing them with um professional development. So, there's professional development for
037the proper use of AI in the classrooms. And I know Dr. Chowski's, you know, actively engaged in those um those meetings for artificial intelligence in schools. We're also going to have professional development for a report card revision on the elementary level and ongoing elementary literacy and math coaching in the area of instructional technology. So these are the things that we're doing. A lot of them are ongoing. Document cameras, desktop replacement, smartboards, Chromebook replacement, servers, switches, data storage. So this is everything that we're doing for in the area of um instructional technology. our facilities. We will continue um updating our facilities now that the bond is winding down. These are some of the things that we're going to do for our facilities. Districtwide HBAC replacements and repair at Muny Park and Shelter Rock. Uh indoor air
038quality. We're going to clean the duct work at um at all of our buildings. Districtwide irrigation. in some areas don't have proper irrigation. So, we're going to expand those irrigation at um some of some of some areas. Security camera upgrades. We'll upgrade cameras wherever is necessary. Vehicle purchase at my at the December 19th meeting when we talked about factors influencing the budget. We wanted to we proposed two um vehicles uh facilities maintenance vehicle and a and a security vehicle. Unfortunately, only able to add one into the budget. So, we'll add one next year and then try and add the next um another one the following year, but that is so that they when they're plowing right now, they they have one vehicle to plow. So, we'll add another vehicle with a lift gate and a
039and a plow. Um an additional guard at the secondary building and additional coverage for evening and weekend events. So, this >> you may see the guard used beyond just the secondary, but we're going to be flexible with that person. We ran into some issues this year in terms of just supporting schools and making sure that we have uh that additional support. So capital reserve proposition the district has a capital reserve. There was a capital reserve that was established in 2010. Capital reserve was established for to up to to spend to fund up to $10 million for 10 years. That one retired and then we rolled it into another capital reserve in 2018. Same same idea for capital work 10 to fund up to $10 million for 10 years. We currently have about $7 million in
040that capital reserve. So this is an area where we're going to utilize so that we we could do some capital improvements to in the district. The beauty of the capital reserve is that it's at no additional cost to the taxpayers. So that money was already tucked away and into the reserve. So I don't have to include it into my tax cap calculation. So this is additional money that we will use for gymnasium replace gymnasium renovations, replacing the padding and the sound system, continue our renovations with our bathroom, add adding a boys or girls and a staff bathroom, classroom renovations, painting, replacing ceilings and floors, additional unit um replacements. So, in addition to what we're doing at Muny Park and Shelter, we'll try and put more UNI event replacements throughout the district. A common area conversion,
041we're going to enclose a space for two meeting rooms at the secondary school and security upgrades, license plate readers. We have license plate reader here at the secondary school. We're going to add one at Muny Park and one at Shelter. So, this is uh this is great that the district has another area that we could tap into. $7 million. there'll be a proposition to spend $1.7 million from the capital reserve at no additional cost to the taxpayer >> and then we would look to with fund balance potentially this year that money back. So in essence it's you're have your savings at home there's an issue with your roof you're going to tap those savings you're going to hope to hope because you have to do that now and then hopefully you're going to be able
042to throughout the year you're going to you know try to save and put that money back into your savings is essentially what we're doing here. >> Yes. Absolutely. Okay. So, how does all of this get funded? So, we have our revenue. So, this is um how we will balance that that budget. Property taxes. Property taxes go up by $3.44% which is a $3.5 million increase $106 million. Our payments in lie of taxes um otherwise known as pilots. We have a pilot. We have a life pilot, Pawn View, and Spinny Hill. That's uh $1.6 million. State aid. We don't get a lot of state aid, but every dollar helps. So, this our state aid um is less than 5% of the budget, $5.5 million. We have our day school and split boundary tuitions, um that's 595,000.
043Health services, uh that's $760,000. interest in earnings. I took it down because you know interest rates are going down. So felt that we needed to take it down a little bit. We'll refine it. Maybe we might need to take it down a little bit more. I'm not sure but right now that's where it is 700,000. Then we have um gifts and donate gifts um so use of facilities $30,000 and then gifts and donations. We're expecting nice increase $150,000 hopefully. We'll see. Yeah. Um then uh interfund transfer. So the Manassid library has a debt service and that u so it's in our budget. So we receive we're like a pastor. We receive the money and then we pay the debt service. It's $1.4 million refund of prior year Boseies. What we would like to do is
044start buying more from Boseies. When you buy from Boseies, you get the aid back in the following year at our aid ratio. So going going to increase that. I'm expecting yeah small increase $40,000 but every every dollar helps next year grant revenue revenue miscellaneous revenue $315,000 and appropriated fund balance and reserves $1.1 million and you'll see here that's how I balance the budget. So all of the revenue that I just explained has to equal the expenses. Balancing act that made me lose here, but um you know it is what it is. You you make it work. You go. I like this picture. Nice. Look at the kids. They look amazed. But um this is our elementary class size. When we project our kindergarten class size, we use uh information from Nassau County for live birth
045rates. Uh and we project our cohort based on either three or fiveyear average for one grades one through six. We we keep saying that we want to keep our class sizes um two below the guidelines. You'll see the guidelines on the next page. And but the final selection, the final enrollment um or I guess um sections will be determined in August when we have the actual information. So you you'll see here at Muny Park, Muny Park, we peaked about 1920, 934 um students enrolled and we've been on a downward trend ever since. We're 765 this year. We're projecting that's going to go down to 714 for for next year. A reduction 38 sections to 36 sections, but people will just get moved around. Nobody's going to lose their job. And this is uh the class
046size. You'll see we stay below the guidelines. Guideline for kindergarten 21, we're at 17.2. Guideline for um first grade 22, we're at 17.6. So we're at least and way bel and below two two below the guidelines for um each section at Muny Park. over at Shelter. Shelter peaked in 2013 2014, 777 students enrolled and we've been going down ever since. 595 students enrolled. Uh this current year projected to be 553 for next year. Same situation, two we'll probably lose two sections for for next year, but you know, nobody's going to lose their job. Um class size, we're below the class size guideline. and the secondary school we're up 1558 this year$1579 projected for for next uh school year. So this this is not a Manhasset phenomenon in terms of enrollment declining right New York State
047across the island we we know that that's happening. Uh so we we are impacted. you'll end up with fewer sections and and ultimately again uh less state aid. Uh for us, we don't get a lot of state aid, but uh it it can impact us and and all those things again put pressure on trying to bring as much as you can to your students. I know we talked a lot about academics, but athletics is really important in the district. The arts is really important in the district. All of those pieces are really important in this district. And so they all will ultimately unfortunately start to feel some of that pressure, but we are hanging on. We we have great people here and Gerard is a a welcome addition to to what he has done with
048our budget and continues to do. >> Thank you. So here it's uh vote information um vote May 19th 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the um high school in the gymnasium. This after tonight this will be live. You can actually click on that and it'll take you to the voter information page. What's coming up next? Next week in formal budget hearing. Uh March 26, April 16th, we will adopt the budget. May 7th is the formal budget hearing. May 19th is the annual budget vote. I forgot to add a slide that says thank you very much. Much case clapping. We'll do that next week. So, do you have any questions? I should have asked earlier just really quick about the the purchase of a new vehicle just to understand um is it more so not because
049of the snow will that vehicle be used for other purposes? Just trying to kind of I know that's a little >> I highlighted that but they're going to use it for whatever they use it for but it's just that with all that snow that we had they only had one vehicle to plow right with three buildings. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Right. That's what I was assuming, but you know what they say about assuming. So, >> I know on the programming, we had our administrators come in a few months ago talk about what they wanted uh to include in their classes for the future for for next year. I know for example, foreign language wasn't called out. Did we have to cut that back out of the budget? They wanted a few extra sections. I think
050it was Italian one, maybe Chinese. It's in there. >> Yep. So, we we have our Chinese um and we're still growing the program. Um we are not currently running Italian one next year. That was a wish list that we were not able to do, but we are able to continue growing the Chinese program so that our kids who are in the program can continue through. >> Continue to look at it. Obviously, we're not done yet, but Thank you, Gerard. So, I know you've only been in the seat a relatively short time. Um, and and you've made some very good suggestions. Any any areas that you've been able to um create some efficiency or um do some do do more with less effectively that that um you could share. So, >> so you know, I just
051want everyone to know that we are trying to be as efficient as we can here uh across the platform because it's not easy uh with the state of inflation, but I know we we really do take that seriously and when we're thinking about it. So, >> so as you go through the budget, you're you're met with uh you know these expenses that keep going up and you you have limited revenues. Yes, that's something that you have to do. you're trying to see how you can, you know, obtain a balanced budget. So, one thing that we looked into is our Boseies purchases. We are going to take some of the money that we were going to spend. We would buy Chromebooks, like one year, we're going to buy them through Boseies on a 5-year program. So,
052it it would it takes the expense from like 350,000 to 80,000 spread out and then we'll get that aid back. So that was one thing that that was one thing that uh we did you know looking into the the capital reserve I saw that hey you have this capital reserve let's try and do some of the facilities work take some money out of the facilities line use it for the capital reserve next year put it back into the facilities line there's also um and also in our transfer we didn't have a transfer to capital same con same concept transfer to capital do some some work and then take it from the facilities budget and then the following year take that money put it back into the facilities budget. So those are some of the things
053that we did. >> All right. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Be back next week. >> All right. So we now are open to public comment and I'll just I have a discussion breakfast survey. >> I know. Just I want to see if anyone wanted to comment on the budget. >> I apologize. Um, sure. So, and I'll just say this now. So, public comment just to remind everyone and we want to have a welcoming and um, uh, you know, open open meeting here. So, but but just to remind everyone, public comment is designed to have the board listen to your comments and concerns as it relates to school matters. We may not be able to answer at this time, but we will follow up as appropriate. Please also understand that we're
054unable to to allow questions or comments about individual students or personnel at a public meeting. If you wish to discuss any personnel or student matters, please contact the appropriate building administrator or the superintendent of the school in in writing. As always, we trust comments will remain respectful. So, if anyone is present and you would like to address the board, please identify yourself by your full name and your organizational affiliation. uh state your residence in connection with the district and you're provided up to three minutes. Um you know, I'm certainly want people to go uh and and be able to say what they want to say, but I'll I'll certainly remind you if you're going uh over the time limit. So, we'll just say that. So, any any comments on the um on the budget? Okay.
055So the next item of business is breakfast survey for uh the 2627 uh school year is upcoming. So I'll uh I'll let Dr. Pelletary talk about that. >> Thank you very much Mr. Post. I appreciate that. This past we have done a survey for breakfast at our elementary schools for for many years now. And historically, that's those surveys have come back uh with the district applying for a waiver because we don't have enough people that are looking to take part in the breakfast program. This past year at Muny School, we did have enough people looking forward to uh potentially utilizing the breakfast program. We did however pass a resolution in July. I know we were going through a bunch. Gerard wasn't here. I wasn't here. our our president was our superintendent wasn't even here at
056at at that meeting at that time. Uh so that resolution ended up being passed and it it really should not have been. We despite the fact it was passed did do what we were supposed to do and applied to the state to actually have breakfast at Muny. So we followed the the correct procedure but uh we heard from the state at that time that we could not provide breakfast because our RFP would uh did not include breakfast. I'm having I'm getting thrown off by the mic here. That's why I so I apologize but see if I don't hold it. Yeah. So the Okay, lost my train of thought there. Where was I? >> So we did the >> Yes, the RFP I apologize. the RFP does not have breakfast in it. So, we would have
057to uh reopen the RFP to do that. We do have two years left on that RFP at the end of this year. We'll have one more. So, the decision at that time was we were going to continue with the process that we had put in place this year. The breakfast survey for 2620 for for next year coming out for 2627 is actually going to be going out to the community, I believe, in the next week or so. Is that right, Nicole? Nicole, our district clerk actually puts that survey out. So, we worked on that survey. We took language directly from the state website. We spoke with uh the NYED folks around child nutrition and that survey will will be put out this next week. It's due back I believe May 8th, but that will be
058included in the survey. Parents will get that one question if they wish to partake in the breakfast program and then the board will act accordingly with the outcome whether or not we apply for a waiver, apply for uh the program itself. uh reopen the RFP there. There there are different options that will take place once we get those results. So again, survey coming out in the next weeks due by May 5th. We hope to get as many people as possible to respond to the survey and the board will have to the board will certainly act accordingly as we move forward. Any questions from the board on that? Yes. >> Just a clarification. Um the contract with our food service is multi-year. Yes. So the process of opening an RFP is actually very lengthy. Correct. >>
059You would have to create a new RFP and then obviously there would be expenses around actually including a whole new meal. >> Right. Right. Right. So if if in this the the survey comes back that we need breakfast, we would then have to start that process and give enough time to to make it work. >> We would have to make a decision whether or not to do that. Yes. And and then are there additional expenses to the district uh to run breakfast in the morning? >> There there are. First the RFP would come back higher because you have that that meal, but we have to have people then in to create those meals and we'd have to have staff to supervise students in the cafeteria while they parttook in those in those meals. >> Just
060one final question just for clarification. I know that you mentioned that Muny had shown interest, but am I mistaken in that it just was um there was disinterest. It just didn't meet the the quota of disinterest. >> That's correct. It did not reach that high enough of a threshold to say uh you don't you're not going to have it. >> Right. So, it wasn't that my um necessarily requested it. It was just that they didn't meet >> the threshold is 80 and they were at 77. I believe >> at 77% of no. And then it should have been 80% at no. >> That's correct. >> Right. So that's how it technically met the criteria, but it wasn't that we had 77% of families saying we want breakfast and then >> you're exactly right. >> Thank
061you for clarifying. One last question. Just prior years just remind me because like precoid, postcoid, did we offer breakfast? Do we know? >> I'm It's tough for me to answer that one. remember did we offer >> I mean in the 10 years I've been in the district 11 years I I don't recall that but >> I don't believe historically it's ever um reached the quota of the schools um the surveys returning a favorable response for it. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Certainly. All right. Anything else from the board? All right. So we can go to public public discussion. Yes sir. um on this topic. >> Okay. My name is Alex Mlan. Uh I'm a parent of a second grader and a kindergartener. Um my wife Mary Mlan uh wrote a letter to the board in
062January and um I think that prompted some of this. Um a couple points of clarification. First, thank you Dr. uh for acknowledging the non-compliance um uh last year. Um what I think you're not understanding is that um we did meet the threshold, right? We had you guys had to get to 81 nos, right? There was 75, not 77 um on the percentage wise. Um so um I just want to make sure that everybody understands that, right? So, um I think Dr. P, we didn't get an answer on the population getting the backpack survey. Um obviously incoming kindergarteners, you can't send it to them. How will that be done? That's a question we have. And then also, um I hope sixth graders aren't being backpacked who don't have um siblings in um in Muny Park. Is
063that is that correct? Because a sixth grader parent is shouldn't be surveyed. >> Yeah. I will I will get that information from the state and disseminate that out to the to uh I can actually give you a call. >> Okay, perfect. And then I just want to clarify you said one question the survey will just have one question because a little bit of our issue in the past was the preamble and the paragraphs which made which was very discouraging language to uh the parents to to vote yes for um for the breakfast. So will it just be one question there? There'll be uh there's a bit of an intro to explain what we're doing, of course, >> and of course on on the second page will be or the back of that page will just
064be the uh are you do you wish to partake? Yes or no. >> Okay. Um I know the state gives guidance, but you know, it's really the way that's written. Um we really uh you know, hopefully it's different this year. I I I would really appreciate that. Um and so can you clarify? You said May 5th and or May 8th. >> I believe it's Nicole the 8th. >> Okay, May 8th. >> It will it will be written in the in the letter if I may speak, but I I that's checked with Nicole. It's it's the ETH. >> And then um so that's when it's due back. When will it be calculated, tabulated, and and put out to the public? >> We do that immediately. So it'll take a little bit of time obviously to to
065collect it from both schools and do the calculation and whatnot, but it's not something that I think maybe Historically, again, this my it will be my first reorg meeting this year. Potentially, it's at the reorg meeting where this happens. So, that would be early July. >> July. Okay. That's when it happened last year. Okay. Um, we just, you know, obviously if we lose and the breakfast program isn't installed, we want to have, you know, leadup time for planning. And then the last thing I want to understand uh regarding the RFP is that um did anyone talk to Airark about this >> in regards to to to what I'm sorry >> to adding a to adding a breakfast program because you guys were in non-compliance right so I don't understand how a mandate from the state
066from your governor from our governor right you know tr would get trumped by we have an existing RFP P maybe you can explain it to me. >> Yeah, I would have to do more with uh with New York State in regards to that and I can get you again more information. >> Right. Right. >> Yeah. I I don't >> Yeah, we we don't we we it's a So, thank you for all the questions and we'll certainly Dr. Pelitary will answer those. Um but you know, logistically there's a lot of steps towards offering a breakfast program obviously. So if it's not in the services that we currently get from a service provider, it has to be put in. So it's just not as simple as like taking a vote and saying we're going to order breakfast.
067That's kind of how I think about it. But >> okay. >> All right. >> I mean I mean the board's saying you'd rather be in non-compliance with the state than try to make efforts to be in compliance by talking to Aramark or doing whatever you need to do for the RFP. I I I don't follow on the non-compliance. I I don't. So So we've already explained it. >> You agreed Dr. P agreed >> in the beginning that you did you didn't do what you were supposed to last year. >> Can we can we put that on record? >> Yeah, we've said it already. We already said it three times. So thank you. All right. >> May I put um my wife's letter from January 27th into the minutes? >> I think Yeah. >> Is that
068the same letter or new? letter, but it's not in the minutes. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. >> No, it's at your discretion. I I've looked at it. So, if you guys don't want to do it, that's fine. >> We will f actually the for >> I have to look at the board policy, right? >> Is is not even like this is a board meeting and you're here to offer your public comments and the fact that we're even engaging in a back and forth is actually outside of the scope of a public board meeting. This is a board public meeting and we we're working amicably to >> okay >> uh provide this feedback and Dr. Pelletaria spent a lot of time outside of this on phone calls with Aramac and with council and with yourself and
069with your wife. Um so we're a team and we're working amicably and >> it doesn't feel like we're a team. >> This back and forth is um outside of the scope of a public board meeting. >> Okay. Thank you for your time. I appreciate Thank you. All right. On to the next here. Um so this is something um Gerard just spoke about. This is capital reserve expenditure proposition resolution. So, um I don't think I'll read this entire resolution and proposition, but um just just to summarize, this is something that we are proposing goes to we're resolving to send to the voters for their approval in May. And this is what Gerard explained um in his presentation. So, we're we're effectively looking at this reserve that we have and we're putting it it's the taxpayers's money
070and taxpayers can choose whether they want to spend that $1.7 million to um affect um you know improvements in our in our physical plant and and it's it's all listed here. But I mean these are things when we walk the schools I I think these things should be done right and obviously it's it's we we have um a phenomenal campus here but it's old and we need to do all of the things listed here and this is from everything from bathroom and classroom renovation to the gymnasium uh v ventilator replacements security system upgrades um you know the related demolition that needs to go with it furnishing. So, so all of these things we're we're trying to improve our facilities and and we think um certainly let's let's take a a portion of this money that
071we have uh saved for uh these types of uh situations and and ask the taxpayer if they agree. So, it's it's really um I think a sensible use of our reserves at at this time. So, um anyone else any comment or thoughts here on that? No, just a quick question because I know that it'll it'll require a vote, correct? But then at the end, we do say this resolution shall take effect immediately. Does it mean take effect immediately after the vote? >> Okay. Just wanted to make sure. >> And just a clarification, it's 51% just like passing the budget or is it um higher? >> All right. So, Nicole, do you know do we need to vote on approving this resolution? I think we did. Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, I I don't think we
072have to read, you know, because it's obviously posted online. We have it um here. So, so if if no other discussion Oh, yes. Do you have a a comment? Okay. So, Maria motion second. Allison, all in favor? All right. 50. So, great. That's exciting. And we will get that on the ballot in May for uh voters and we'll appreciate everyone's support of of that uh initiative. All right. Next item is uh gifts to the district. So, this is uh Gerard. Was this your explain. >> Yes. So, please explain. >> Um, I know that NISER gives a donation every year. You just need to know to ask for it. So, when I came here, I said, you know, want to make sure that we're getting our nicer donation. And it's what nicer donation? So, I made
073sure I went to nicer and said, give us our $1,000 donation so that way we could do something with it. and Dr. Chelsea is going to what are we going to biomed supplies? So, I made sure that we got our fair share. >> All right. Well done and thank you for your expertise and experience. So, the board of education of the Manhasset Union. Oh. Oh, there's a second one. I'm sorry. >> Oh, okay. So, that's uh $1,000 from Nicer. So, we gratefully acknowledge Nicer and and thank you for the gift which we accept. And then uh we have another gift from the SCA in the amount of $1,500 to be used for partial funding for the AI speaker Jeff Riley. So, thank you to the SCA. >> Yes, please, Dr. Chowski. >> So, we want
074to Yes. Thank you so much for the SCA for co co-sponsoring this with us. Um we're really excited. It's going to be on April 22nd. We're having Jeff Riley who is the former Massachusetts Commissioner of Education and he's one of the directors of the MIT Day of AI who's coming to speak to parents about how um this whole vision how we're working in partnership and uh he's a a wonderful speaker and a tremendously smart man and he is absolutely aligned to our Manhasset values. So, I hope that you'll come. That'll be in the high school auditorium. And thank you again to our partners in the SCA. >> All right. Great. So, all uh I'll just do all in favor of accepting these gifts. >> All right. 50. All right. Thank you everyone. Now, we'll go
075to the policy review. >> Yes. So, a couple of policies. Um let's see. Let's take it one by one. So, first and final reading. Um we did discuss this at the last meeting with respect to um increasing which was not a huge amount the amount paid for reimbured for meal expenses. So breakfast went up from $10 to $15. Lunch went from 15 to 20 and dinner was 25 to30. Um you'll see that on form first and final form 6830e-1. Um, do I have a motion to approve? Have a second. All in favor? Okay. So, that is first and final reading for 68301. Um, reaffirmation of our academic integrity policy. So, this was with respect to when we looked at um some of the language around AI. So, I'll call your attention to um since 4525
076uh was updated, the pledge was also reviewed um but no necessary changes were recommended to the actual pledge. So, you'll see a copy in front of you. Um there's no changes on that. It's more of a reaffirmation, but do we also vote? >> Any questions though? Okay. So, we'll hold off on that one. Um, first and final reading for contracting for professional services. Uh, yes, sorry about that. First reading, um, this has come up before. We took a look at contracting for professional services 6741. One thing that came to our attention that we wanted to bring to the board is when you're looking at the actual criteria for sending out RFPs, the list currently that's there, it's not in any hierarchical order. So in order in order to make that clear that this is in
077no r it's random order or if there's any suggestions from the board that we want to prioritize oftentimes based on we just had a presentation from Gerard cost is a key consideration we could reorder um the criteria to have it in a hierarchical order but at the moment it's not so it might be mispersceived in a ranking of one to six that number one for example is more of a priority than say cost but that's not that's not the intent. So the recommendation is to actually just qualify you'll see in red font in random order or we can say no particular you know order of priority. Okay. Uh if there aren't any questions that will stay on because that's a first reading. Um the next one is related to uh second and final reading for
078academic integrity. This is what I was referring to when we had discussed some of the changes that we implemented to allow AI. So, I'll call your attention to um the section where we did provide a update um oh actually I take that back. No additional changes have been made since the prior reading um had our modifications already in intact. Um so for academic integrity, this is actually a second and final reading. There were no changes that were implemented. Um we'll vote at the end. uh policy 4531, field trips and excursions. No additional changes were made since the prior reading or modifications, but I just wanted to pause and see if the board had any um questions related to the prior um red lines that were in there. So, for example, um the overnight timing, uh
079there was a slight change there just to kind of call your attention as a reminder to some of the things that were highlighted from the last reading. Any questions from the board? Okay. Um policy 5405 on student wellness. Um this one just to anchor a reminder on what this was in regard this was regarding um food allergies. And one of the things that we had um changed in the last um reading was with respect to um having parents sign a disclosure information allowing for um their child to have um the snack provided. Um so that language was edited. It will still require um the distribution of ingredients um during the required time frame, but we shorten the time frame. What was the time frame that we shortened it? Was it seven now four? Um but
080it actually will allow for parents to provide that consent um for them to be able to have that which is which is a difference because I know that that has caused a little bit of back and forth. It also um put the um teacher or staff um in a in a difficult you know position. So any any questions or comments? >> Want to thank Laura for her work on that and the wellness committee and the nurses that all looked at it like a lot of eyes got on this and rightly so. >> Thank you. And and there was one point uh about um if the teacher still believes there is an ingredient in there that could cause harm, the teacher can still withhold it. Now, I I want to call that out because sometimes if
081there is not the snack that was maybe pre-approved and there was a change last minute on the change in snack, I think it's still a good safeguard because the teacher will be well aware of, you know, what's going on. So, that that actually I just wanted to highlight um was a language change as well in the the prior version. But again, this is a um the recommendation is that this is a second and final um but there was a pretty pretty good due diligence on those red lines. So if there are any other questions on the student wellness, um the next one is with regard to uh policy 1500 um public use of facilities and this would be a second reading. there were um slight modifications to make it clear that when we speak about
082the welfare of the school, it's the school community. Um in regard to who's using the facilities, um there was some red lines uh with respect to some additional forms that we're no longer requiring. Um so that is you'll have a copy of 1500 and those are posted online and this is a second reading with respect to facilities use and 1500R. Um similarly there were some grammatical word changes to be clear. Uh the one area I would call your attention to just to ensure that the board is aligned is when you look at permit terms and conditions that no use um whether for profit or non-forprofit shall be made of school facilities unless at least 80% of the participants or residents of the Manhasset school district unless the board determines that such use is a valid
083school district purpose or provides a substantial benefit to the Manhasset community. So we did actually make a recommendation to increase it to 80% so that it's you know absolutely clear that the majority is um up upwards of that threshold. So any comments with respect to the second reading on use of facility services and some of the the red lines that were recommended um to really keep it more current um based on the current activity. I'll give you >> Yeah, I think that that's that makes sense. I mean, that's a good step and I want to make sure that, you know, our community has first and foremost access to our facilities when they need it and aren't crowded out by, you know, potentially other things. Um, so I I think it it definitely makes sense. >>
084Yeah, we we did take a lot of thought and consideration and care so that when we are looking at, you know, there's a lot going on at the school. Um it it's actually very nice that it's a very busy active community with using it for sports, afterchool activities, um clubs. So those were all things that were taken into consideration and what we put forth in terms of the slight language modifications. And then with respect to um actual receipts and expenses and projected receipts and expenses, we are um recommending deleting those. Um the forms are a bit pedantic. um and quite honestly are not utilized. And so the recommendation is to omit and delete those um forms which would also be omitted from referring to them in the policy. And those are the last two attachments
085um to your packet. Any questions, comments? Okay. If not, can I have a motion to approve uh the policies reviewed? Maria Allison second. All in favor? Thank you. >> All right, thank you very much for our policy review. Uh moving right along to our committee reports. Uh, so we'll start with the audit committee which unfortunately I was not able to attend. Um, I don't know if Allison or Gerard want to help out. >> We actually had a great meeting just earlier this week on Monday. I think we have one more left for the year and um it was a really productive meeting. Gerard um we had two reports to the committee, one from our claims auditor and one from our internal auditors and they came in and they versed the committee in and out of
086all the details of how those two processes work and um the committee asked really um informed thoughtful questions and they're all seasoned auditors and expertise in their careers and their fields and they knew the right questions to ask and how um we are improving our processes is improving our systems so that going forward it'll be an even tighter process um with all the financials. So I thought it was a very productive meeting. Gerard, thank you for bringing them both in. Um and then we have one more meeting uh for the rest of the year. Did I miss miss anything? How did you >> All right. Smart brevity. All right. Uh let's go to the finance committee. We haven't had a meeting, right? So we have nothing new. What do I mean? >> Oh, it was
087a snowstorm. Yeah, it was snowstorm. So, so obviously transportation continues to sort of dominate our uh our mindset, but um more to come on on our transportation contracts and and bids. Uh athletics have a great season underway here. So, anything from Mac? >> Um we didn't have any meeting. We postponed a few of them. So, we have the next one coming up uh next week at um on March 24th. >> Okay. Uh SCA >> SCA we have our fair around the corner. So, everyone please consider putting a a journal ad for us as well. We need some volunteers. We need people to um fund some of the dunk tank and the bakery tent. I mean, there's so many things. So, please reach out to the SCA. They're looking for anybody and everyone to help out.
088Great. Always a highlight. Uh Tower Foundation, we're coming off uh our our big event which was a success, I'm told. >> Yes. Actually, um huge kudos to um the board at Tower for putting together a really nice event. It was a visa after dark and thank you to many of the staff and administration who were there. Um I think everybody enjoyed themselves. It was very well attended and um the Tower Foundation is in discussions with the school that the funds that were raised as a reminder it wasn't just to have a really nice event, spend time together, but the funds are going to be used towards the business career room. So, thank you again to Tower. Thank you to everybody who attended. There were tons of baskets um and things to bid on and all
089those things were donated from the community. Um so, it does take a big undertaking in a village. Um, so thank you to everybody who is involved. >> Well said. And and you know, in times when when budgets are tight, all of those types of events are important. And uh, yeah, we should continue to remind the community what we're what we're doing and how how grateful and all how grateful we are and then all of the things that all the positive things that come out of that. So so well done to to Tower. All right. Next is Pace and Special Education. Pace recently had the polar plunge. Yeah, Dr. Pitera, you had shared some information on success of that event. >> They continue to amaze us. They continue to outpace other communities in terms of their
090fundraising and participation and uh I did not promise I'd be there next year, but said I would consider it. Uh it looks like a lot of fun. They did a great job >> and thank you to our staff and our students that were involved. Uh and recently uh Mr. Stuart Gilski held um a session for peace and parents for understanding resource room and that was this past Tuesday at the district office. >> Okay. Uh next is Casa. >> I got some news from CASA. >> Okay. Um they fit they were very uh happy. They had a very successful health and wellness week at the elementary schools a few weeks ago. There were activities in school and after school. There was like a a fair that happened in one of the nights. Um there were two
091student assemblies the day before the February break uh that were very successful at the middle school and the high school and they were basically focused on you know what to do, how to get help if you're struggling and how to avoid the substances that are are not good, very dangerous for us. Um there was a Zoom parenting program event on March 3rd uh in the evening raising resilient children and I joined and it's wonderful just to get some tips and hear about you know the challenges of parenting. It's not easy, but it's good to connect. Um, KAS is hosting a poster contest soon and the winners will be announced at the next board meeting on um, uh, April 16th. Um, and the submission process, I think, is going to be announced in the schools. Um,
092uh, Kasa put an article in the April Manhasset Living for you guys to check out. It's called Invisible But Addictive: The Youth Nicotine Threat Parents Aren't Seeing. So, keep an eye out for that. um in Manhasset Living. And then lastly, well, there's two more things. Um in an April guidance update, April is alcohol awareness month and you're going to hear some news about that from the guidance departments. And then other upcoming events coming up, uh April 25th is shed the meds and the 16th of May is the mental health march that takes place down Plandum Road and ends with a really nice event u by the gazebo. And there'll be one more parenting program in June, June 2nd, bringing back childhood. And then towards in the middle of June, as we're wrapping up the school
093year for the seniors, CASA hosts a wonderful event to help the college um the seniors get ready for college. Um and that's Kasa. >> Yeah. >> Great. Thank you, Alison. And then, uh last is EOCC. >> EOC. You okay if I hold it or you want to do it? Okay. Um, so as we talked about, EOCCO helped sponsor a wonderful event for the seventh grade social studies classes a couple weeks ago, rememberless. Um, they'll be sponsoring a special ed workshop on Wednesday, April 1st, 7 to 8:30 at the Manhasset EOC. It's entitled Speak Up for Your Child Advocacy, IEP Rights, and School Accountability. So definitely come to that. They're hosting that. And then finally, they're hopeo hosting their spring gala Thursday, April 30th, 6 pm at Leonard's. And we have a they have a wonderful
094um roster of honores, including Dr. Rebecca Chowski is honored, Ann Sano, Lorie Petrofessa, the Manhasset SCA, and CASA. They're going to celebrate. So there's all information about how to sign up and they're going to get we'll get that out to you. So attend uh the gala on the 30th. >> Oh, sure. Yes. So, one more actually I'd like to just highlight uh Chamber of Commerce um April 22nd they are having their Earth Day or they're and they're preparing to support um that is a reminder it's a community cleanup and they're actually coordinating with um the school and with Richtor to see how we could get student volunteers and get volunteer hours. So, I thought it was a really um they do it every year um and students will get volunteer hours. So, mark your calendars.
095April 22nd for the Chamber of Commerce annual um Earth Day event. >> Awesome. All right. Anything else on the committees? All right. Great. All right. Moving right along to uh personnel. So, the first uh item is our approval of the personnel schedule. Anything Dena or Chris to note here? >> Just um something real quick. Um I would like to honor Sam Vasquez. He is a cleaner at Shelter Rock. So, if you're ever in Shelter Rock during the day, he is just this amazing gentleman that greets you with the biggest smile every single um day. Um we are going to miss him, but we're so happy for him um that he's retiring at the end of the school year. So, if you see him, please congratulate him. He has that big smile when you say something
096to him. Um but just just a beautiful man. I love seeing him. So, >> all right. Well said. Um All right. So, can I have a motion to approve the personnel schedule? A second, Nadia. And all in favor? All right, that's 50. Uh, importantly, we have a resolution to approve a memorandum of agreement with the Manhasset Education Association, MEA, regarding a one-time retirement incentive. So, I'll just read this. be it resolved that the board of education of Manhasset uh you uh Union Free School District hereby approves the terms of a memorandum of agreement dated March 19th, 2026 between the district and the MEA regarding a one-time retirement incentive for qualified unit members um and be it further resolved the superintendent of schools is authorized to sign said memorandum u of agreement on behalf of the
097district. So um any other comment there? Okay. >> And this might just be my memory but this is an annual this is a standard or is meaning >> this is the one time this is a one time. Um so our contract states you need to give us notice in December. This is an incentive saying that it's although it's after the December due date we're still going to honor that incentive. Got it. Okay. I just didn't remember doing this last year. >> No we did not. >> Okay. Okay. Uh, can I have a motion? Maria, you're the best. Uh, second, Allison. All in favor? All right. 50. And I think that is a sensible uh, incentive program we're we're offering. All right. Number three is resolution to approve a side letter with Manassid Education Association regarding
098the addition of Junior Booster Club. So, uh, yeah. So, we've had the both of these clubs. They were just paid by outside sources. Um, we're just taking it on so that we can continue the clubs. >> Okay. All right. Motion. Second. All in favor? 5. Resolution to approve side with MEA regarding addition of unified sports club. Always a uh phenomenal and a phenomenal organization. So, um we're gonna do the same thing effectively here, right? Okay. Great. So, uh, motion, second. All in favor? That's 50 for, uh, Unified Sports Club. All right. So, now we're on to the consent agenda. Uh this looks like our normal and business as usual spe special education contracts, private school instructional services agreement, um ratification of conference requests for our our staff and leadership. Uh we're excising a commercial shredder.
099um legal notice for our annual meeting and elections which will be coming up in May. Uh approval of substantial equivalency of instruction guidelines for Manhasset nonpublic schools. >> And actually the next one number 10 approval of agreement with Moody's investor services. Um maybe Gerard, can you tell us a little bit about that because there was quite a there were quite a few documents in there and there were a lot of numbers. Moody's they they give us a rating and um so when we went out for the bond in August uh they did a rating for us but we did not have uh I guess the the agreement in place. So this is just to approve the agreement that should have been in place and I guess it just slipped through the cracks because you know
100we just we just came on. So um this is just to approve the the payment for um that rating that they did for us. So, that's something that really should go on every it if we're going to continue doing bond work or or continue getting bonds, we need to have that um approval in place. >> Thank you. Can I go back one um to the non-public schools? Um we list a bunch of the schools in our community, but I think the document only referenced Our Lady of Grace. I don't know if that's a mistake or not. >> No, not at all. um what we're required to do under the substantial equivalency for the state regulations on there. The only one that we have to reference with the attachment is our lady of grace. The other
101ones fall under um regulation and there is no need they're approved. >> Okay. Thank you for the clarification. And yeah, I agree. We have to have the bond rating service uh taken care of to make sure people buy our debt. So that's that's good. Um BOSI summer school agreement. Approval of cross contract with Eastern SuffK Boseies for classroom furniture and related items. So maybe that's uh a bulk buying. So that's good. Uh approval of of change orders. Number 13. Um, see, sorry, I'm going to keep going here. Oh, we have a number of change orders here. This is right. Um, for capital improvement programs. Um, and then we have our traditional uh approval of central treasures as signitories. Uh we so hereby approve Jared uh Barry Dolores Mazili as central treasurers as authorized signitories for
102the remainder of the school year for all extra classroom transactions. So we will make uh those people authorized signitories and then uh we have our claims report for February 2026. And then finally our um our standard treasurer financial reports, our bank balances uh and the like. So any any uh any questions or any additional questions there from the board? Any other? >> Good. Okay. All right. Can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Maria, Nadia, all in favor? That's 50. um upcoming item of interest. We'll obviously be back talking about the budget next week and uh now we are at the end so we can open up to public discussion if there's any comment or discussion from uh the community. No. Okay. Uh thank you very much everyone. Have a great rest of
103the week and Oh, is there someone who wants to speak? Oh. Oh. Oh, sure. Just if you don't mind, just come up and introduce yourself uh at the podium. >> Small audience although I know there are a few watching on YouTube. Also, uh I'm a parent of a soon to be kindergarten student and very excited to be starting the process or registered >> and just state your name. Just sorry for that. Yeah, >> I'm Christina Professes. um and has residents since 2022. Uh I'm aware of the onetoone device. I don't know if it's a policy, but um at the school district, including in kindergarten, so I'm looking forward to learning more about that, but I don't know if I'm interested in learning more about how the policy came to be and um whether there are
104opt out options. I'm continuing to learn about it, but it would be where I I would welcome hearing and if there's, you know, a a better place to discuss it. >> So, I'd be very happy to have a conversation with you. Um I think I think that you'll be happy with our answer. Okay. >> Um but but please we'll exchange information. >> Thank you. I appreciate that very much. Sorry again if this is not the time and place. >> All right. Thanks for your interest. All right. Anything else? Quinn, any words of wisdom? No. Okay. You're like, "All right." Oh, wow. They almost did. >> They They almost did. >> They almost did. All right. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? Maria second. Allison. All in favor? R8.8.