001Good evening. Good evening everyone. I now declare the 2025 2026 reorganization meeting of the board of education of the enlarged city school district of Middletown, New York in session. This reorganization meeting of the board of education is called for the purpose of selecting board officers for the ensuing year, administering the oaths of office, designating bank depositories, and for such other business as may come before this meeting. Just so you know, this agenda was prepared in advance of tonight's meeting. The final agenda for the tonight's meeting is subject to change at the time of the meeting. Any changes will be noted at the time they are made and again after the meeting on the public board minutes where which are available on the district's website. Miss Romero, can you read it in Spanish, please? Thank you.
002We would like to remind everyone that translation and interpretation services are available during this meeting. If you need assistance, please let us know and we will be happy to accommodate you. Thank you. I now ask that you stand for the pledge of allegiance. Miss Tobias, can you please lead us 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. Thank you. You may be seated. I will now administer the oath of office. Dr. Patricia De Jesus, can you please step forward? [Applause] You're just going to repeat after me. Raise your right hand and repeat after me. I do so solemnly swear I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I
003will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of school board member the duties of the office of school board member according to the best of my ability. according to the best of my ability. Congratulations. [Applause] Mr. Tobias, can you please step forward? [Applause] I'm sorry. Dr. Hers, can you please sign? Can come over and sign. Yes, I was. And thank you. Mrs. Yeah. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I do solemnly swear I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the
004Constitution of the State of New York and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of school board member the duties of the office of school board member according to the best of my abilities. according to the best of my ability. Congratulations. [Applause] Yes, that's his gonna say right here. Okay. Pastor John Williams was unable to attend tonight's meeting. He has the third seat for the board. Um he will be sworn in later this week in the board office. Okay. At this time I will begin the roll call. Dr. De Jesus. Mr. Estrada here. Mr. Moore here. Mr. Parino. Mr. Rhett here. Miss Romero. Miss Tobias here. Mr. Freddy Williams. Pastor Williams. Thank you. May I have a
005motion to approve tonight's agenda? Second. Approved by Miss Tobias and seconded by Mr. Pino. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Okay. Nominations are now open for the position of president of the board of education for the 2025 2026 term. May I have a nomination? I'd like to nominate. Second on that. Third on that. Thank you. Okay, I'll do roll call. Uh, please state yes or no when I call your name for the nomination of president of the board for the 202526 school year. So, Dr. De Jesus, yes. Mr. Estrada, yes. Mr. Moore, yes. Mr. Parino, yes. Mr. Rhett, yes. Miss Romero, Miss Tobias, yes. Mr. Freddy Williams, and Pastor Williams is absent. Be it resolved that the board of education of the Enlarge City School District of Middletown hereby appoints Mr.
006Edwin Estrada as president of the board of education. [Applause] Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I do solemnly swear I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the school board president the duties of the school board president according to the best of my ability. Congratulations. [Applause] Thank you, sir. Okay. I need a nomination for the position of vice president of the board of education for the to nominate Denise Romero. Second on that. Okay. Any discussion? Hearing none, I'll I will do a roll call.
007Please state yes or no when I call your name. Dr. De Jesus. Yes. Mr. Estrada. Yes. Mr. Moore. Yes. Mr. Parino. Yes. Mr. Rhett. Yes. Miss Romero. Miss Tobias. Yes. Mr. Freddy Williams. And Pastor Williams is absent. Be it resolved that the board of education of the Enlarged City School District of Middle Middletown here, excuse me, hereby appoints Miss Denise Romero as the vice president of the board of education. Congratulations. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I do solemnly swear I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge and that I would faithfully
008discharge the duties of the school board vice president the duties of the school board vice president according to the best of my abilities. according to the best of my abilities. Congratulations. Thank you. [Applause] All good. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'll now turn the meeting over to the board president. Thank you, Fran. Good afternoon everyone. And I just want to before we get to the um district clerk's oath, I believe we just made history. I believe Denise will be the first ever Hispanic uh female in a leadership role in the history of our school district. And for the first time ever, two Hispanics will be part of board leadership as well. I didn't think about that until she was being sworn in. So, congratulations on making history. Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic live
009again close to each other. So now I'd like to uh do the oath of office for our district clerk. So please repeat after me. Raise your right hand. Good. Um, I, Crystal Monserie, I, Crystal Monserie, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge and I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of district clerk the duties of the office of district clerk according to the best of my ability. Congratulations again. Now you're stuck with me again. There you My pleasure. Okay. Can you hear that? Let's give our district clerk a great round
010of applause. She does an outstanding job each and every year. At this time, I'd like a motion uh that reads the following for our annual appointments. Resolve that the reading of the annual board appointments for the period of July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026 be waved and the appointments listed be approved. So moved by Miss Tobias and seconded by Miss Romero. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 8 Z. I need approval for financial memorandum 1A numbers 1 through five. So move by Mr. Moore. Second. Seconded by Miss Romero. Any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. 8 Z. I need a motion for approval to delegate the superintendent of schools the authorization to approve attendance at a conference is funded in the current year budget by any
011employee officer or board member of the district for the school year beginning July 1st, 2025. Moved by Mr. Rhett. Second. Seconded by Mr. Moore. Any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. 800. I need a motion for the approval to grant the superintendent authorization to make budget transfer in the amount up to $5,000. So move moved by Miss Romero, seconded by Mr. Freddy Williams. Any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. 80. I need approval for the election inspectors for the 2025 2026 school year. So moved by Mr. Parino. Seconded by Miss Romero. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 8 Z. I need approval of the superintendent to apply for grants in aids both local, state, and federal. So moved by Mr. Mayor, seconded by Mr.
012Parino. Any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. 80. I need approval of school board organization memberships 2025 through 2026. I believe it's NISSBA, Oxba, um, Mid Hudson School Study Council and Small Cities and the Caucus of Black School Board members. Correct. Okay. Need a motion? Moved by Miss Tobias and seconded by Dr. De Jesus. Any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. 8 Z. I need a motion to adjourn the reorganization meeting for the large city school plan. Moved by Mr. Bson. seconded by Mr. Moore. Any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. 8 Z. So, congratulations to all as we now move into our regularly scheduled schoolboard meeting. Um, we don't need to stop it. All right. Mr. Iraqi, go right through. Um, so we'd like to
013call the July 1st, 2025 regular school board meeting for the Large City School District of Middletown. our first for the fiscal school year. A reminder that this agenda was prepared in advance of tonight's meeting. The final agenda for tonight's meeting is subject to change at the time of the meeting. Any changes will be noted at the time they're made and again after the meeting on the public board minutes which are available on the district's website. And we'd also like to remind everyone that translation and interpretation services are available during this meeting. If you need assistance, please let us know and we'll be happy to accommodate you. And if everybody could please rise once again for our pledge of allegiance for our regular school board meeting led by Mr. Perino. And Mr. Pino, do we have
014moments of silence at all? Yes. And we'll have moments of silence. So, if you could stay standing. Thank you, President Estrada. The first moment of silence this evening is for Susan Basset. uh Susan Basset, the uh wife of Bill Basset, who uh was the former superintendent of Orange Deoseis and also uh superintendent of Pine Bush Schools. Uh Susan Basset was also a instructional member of the Twin Towers staff for a number of years. Uh I work with Sue, knew Sue, found her very professional. Uh she often used the media center for project-based instruction. Uh a very strong champion of reading as a in her uh personal life. She served the community as member of the St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church participating in charitable endeavors. leisure time. She'd like to travel and spending time with children
015and grandchildren. Very wonderful uh individual, very softspoken, but she got the job done. She served on a number of committees and she never looked at the clock. She made some very good points. Second moment of silence this evening. This is Susan Beth Feffer. Now, Susan was not a member of the district. However, she did support the district in a number of ways. Uh firstly, whenever you ask Susan to come to uh speak about reading, speak about her books, and by the way, she was a uh best uh listed on the New York uh Times bestseller list more than once. She would she would do it very gladly. Gave her time. I remember she would spend all day uh speaking with the kids, speaking with the faculty members. Um I can't say enough good things about
016her. For other districts outside the area, she used to get quite a stipen, but not uh not for us. A very again a very strong uh advocate of reading and a very giving individual. So please remember uh Mr. Basset and uh Miss Feffer in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Parino. And now for the mission of the Enlarge City School District of Middletown. Dr. De Jesus. We strive to provide fiscally sound educational opportunities in a safe environment that continuously support our diverse students population. We will enable all students to graduate to reach their full potential to become lifelong learners and to be competitive, productive members of society. Thank you, Dr. De Jesus. Uh, Miss Montry, roll call. Dr. De Jesus, here. Mr. Estrada, here. Mr. Moore, here. Mr. Parino here.
017Mr. Rat here. Miss Romero here. Miss Tobias here. Mr. Freddy Williams here. Pastor Williams. Thank you. Thank you. I need a motion to approve tonight's agenda. So moved. Moved by Mr. Rat. Second. Seconded by Mr. Moore. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 800. I need approval for the regular meeting minutes of June 18th, 2025. So moved. Moved by Mr. Romero, seconded by Mr. Perino. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 8 Z. I need approval for administrative personnel memorandum 1A number one. Moved by Mr. Tobias and seconded by Mr. Romero. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 800. I need a motion for instructional personnel memorandum 1B numbers 1 through 18. These are a lot of our summer appointments. Moved by Mr.
018Moore. Seconded by Dr. De Jesus. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 8 Z. I need approval for non-instructional personnel memorandum 1C numbers 1 through 10. So moved by Miss Romero, seconded by Mr. Parino. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 8 Z. I need approval for financial memorandum 2D numbers 1 through six. So move. Moved by Mr. Bison, seconded by Dr. De Jesus. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 80. I need approval for special services memorandum 1E numbers 1 through two. So move. Moved by Dr. De Jesus. Seconded by Mr. Freddy Williams. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 8. Um, no change orders, right, today? No. Okay. Uh, we'll move on to board member community rep
019community updates. Uh, we'll start off with Mr. Moore. Great. Uh, I just want to give a huge shout out to, uh, my lady's finest basketball team. We just wrapped up our long, very long and um great experience overall season of spring season. Uh the girls really really uh showed a great level of development um passion and courage to face some of the East Coast top talent that I must say. So I just want to give them a huge shout out um and definitely look forward to seeing them back in August when we restart again. And um and this gives me an opportunity to say I've officially completed my first year as a school board member and it's been a huge congratulations. Nice job. Huge uh huge huge benefit and also hopefully I've been a great
020asset to everyone here and I look forward to uh many more years to come. Thank you. There you go. Thank you, Mr. Moore, Mr. Parino. Thank you so much. Of course, we'll be celebrating the July 4th holiday soon. And please remember that we would not be celebrating this if it wasn't for all the men and women who many of them gave their lives so we could be independent. So we can can continue to be independent. Uh the second thing I'd like to speak about uh a number of our students received awards and recognition at the 43rd annual Orange County Youth and Adult uh event at Orange County Community College. Now, what this event does, it honors youth and adults who exemplify civic engagement, positive character, and a commitment to making a difference in the lives
021of others, whether it's school, community, service organizations, faith-based initiatives, or individual efforts. uh virtually uh can be nominated by the schools, can be nominated by members of the county, can be nominated by the city, the town and so on. Now, as I said, some of our uh students received the awards and I'm going to mention three of these. Uh Denziah uh received this award and Denziah is the son of um our new vice president, Denise Romero. uh Norma Norma AA received the award and Norma of course uh was our first uh student board member and the third person to receive the award Seth Montter and Seth is the son of Crystal Montterrey and I want to add that Seth will be uh working at Thraw Library in the reading program. Awesome. So, uh, very good.
022Congratulations to everybody received awards. Now, that segus me in into the time I have left to talk about reading for a minute. I've been speaking about reading for many, many years. It's it's reading. We used to have a program in the district, the RIFF program. Reading is fundamental, and so it is. And I'll speak more about that as uh time goes on, as the summer goes on. But um I want to just key on firstly a program in Thraw Library this year. Uh Thraw Library you see July 7th to August 8th. Uh registration begins the 16th. You can sign up online or you can call the library. the new uh new youth service uh librarian is uh a very uh affable uh lady uh Teresa uh Pesak. I hope I'm pronouncing her name right. uh
023uh but uh at any rate uh she has a a wonderful fiveweek program uh that she's designed with help from others and it not only involves reading, it involves crafts, it involves various contests. Uh it it's just a a a great opportunity for students to get involved and read during the summer. Extremely important that uh that they do that. It's a fundamental skill. It's a foundation skill. People often ask me when uh should students start preparing for graduation? Well, it starts in kindergarten. Actually, it's a long road, but it starts then. And one of the reasons you cannot do anything without being a you have to be literate. And I'm done. I don't go over my time. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Parino. Mr. Rat. Uh, good evening everyone. Um, I don't have the picture
024available, but I just wanted to um give a shout out to um my cast um members um with our play that we performed down in Westchester this Sunday, Child of God 2. It was really good, really special, and it um reflects a lot of um uh things regarding um addictions and so many different ways. So, um again, kudos to you guys and maybe I'll post a picture next time around. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rat. Mr. Bison, I just want to comment as many have uh the past week about our most successful graduation. Uh the weather cooperated, the students were phenomenal as well as all of the staff that was involved, including uh I believe both the town of Walkill and the city of Middletown police. I've heard some comment where parking and the traffic,
025but I think despite the fact that we had 589 593 students uh graduate uh it was just amazing and I I can't as I said I've been on the board for a while and I have to say this was the best graduation ceremony for everyone involved and I want to just acknowledge what a great job was done. Thank you, Miss Tobias and Dr. De Jesus. I'm going to echo some of what Rose said. Um I've been at several graduations as well and um I thought that this one moved very smoothly. I like the fact that there were graduates on both sides. When my kids graduated, they didn't have that. It was like a platform stand that you had to walk up and it took forever to get to Z. Um the the pictures that was
026phenomenal. Um to have that up there. Um to see um the students up there. Um a a lot of like I liked also was that their attire. It was pretty much everybody. There was consistency with what they was wearing. Um I thought that was really great to have that slideshow up there. Um it was awesome. And um for you, Mr. Stradda I've been again I've been to a lot of graduations and I like the fact that when you walk down there were so many positive comments from the students from the scholars um as you walk down and kind of like you made your triumph from entry that they like that. So it's it's kind of different. So it it shows that um we as a board can um relate to what they were doing. And
027so congratulations to all of the graduates of 2025. Thank you Dr. De Jesus. Mr. Freddy Williams. I like to echo the uh sentiments of my um uh my co-rustees. The graduation was awesome and you can never uh duplicate that energy um that the kids have, the smiles and just the excitement um and and living in this uh city my entire life knowing a lot of these kids and their parents, even their grandparents, and just seeing um you know, just like I said, the excitement and just the the uh the future in them and um the uh I forgot her name, but the the second um young lady that spoke with and she showed a lot of emotion and I've sat through probably because even the 2020 uh we had multiple graduations. So I think this
028was my eighth and she really got to me. I almost lost it right there and but the the the the uh the um the energy she spoke with and uh it was just amazing. like it was it was the best graduation that I've been a part of in Middletown for sure. And uh Mr. Estrada, your rockstar presence up there in this in the stands was uh definitely appreciated and and and noted. So that was awesome. Um I have two images um that I sent earlier. So this is our fourth annual It Takes a Village barbecue. It's going to take um it's going to be on September 6th at Davage Park, the back pavilions. Um, it's been awesome. It's grown every year um with uh multiple supporters including the Middletown Police Department, Middletown Parks and Wreck,
029the city of Middletown um school district. Um so many hands uh have made this a lighter lift through the years. I remember if I'm not mistaken the first year 2022 um maybe like 500 people and that was I was like blown away. I'm like, "Wait, this is great." And since, I mean, it's been thousands uh upon thousands of people. Um but the school district jumped in, superintendent greeting came greeting came in um with the food service and just so many materials and the police department doing all the cooking and then the fire department chimed in and parks and rec. So, it's become a really really big event. I want to say like the biggest event in the city of the year. Um so, look forward to that. Come out, bring your families. Everything is free.
030Um, it's just a great community event. We have a lot of Middletown city staff, uh, Middletown Police Department, the fire department, um, the district employees, staff. It's good to see the kids interact with the police and the fire department and the teachers and staff on a different level, you know, on a community level. So, that that's was the basis of this whole thing. We give out thousands of book bags and supplies. So, that's on um I'm I have to go over a little bit. Um that's on September 6th. And this one is the summer league that Middletown Youth Sports sponsors. This is our third annual. It's at Mhagen Middle School. Uh grades fifth, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th. Those are the divisions. Um all the information is on there. You can uh message us at
031middletownports atgmail.com. And uh our regular one is middletownports.com. Um there's information on there. Um anybody going through like a financial strain and your kid can't pay, we always like to chip in and we can grant your kid a sponsorship for this league. And this league starts next week uh next Wednesday. That date escapes me. But um yeah, it's all good things. Thank you. Thank you. What What time is it on the 14th that you start? We start um the vendors we do uh want there at 11:00. It's really one to four, but it's, you know, there's a lot of prep. So, and and we uh also want to give a shout out to Miss um the honor society and Mr. Jennifer Young's. She sends over, I mean, so many honor students. I think 25 to
03230 honor students and they always help us out any which way we need. Anybody wants to volunteer, you can reach out to us. We'll actually have a Facebook events page coming up by uh um by next week. Mrs. Mere always helps out with that. Her and her husband Stevenson are awesome. Um, that's another one. Middletown Cares Coalition is also another partnering with us. That's um just on the 14th or there it's every week. So, I was talking about the barbecue. The 14th you're talking about for the Yeah, for the sum summer basketball league. Yeah, the summer league is is going to be we're we're trying to see how many registers we have cuz we have um multiple days, but right now it'll just be um that date and every week after. Okay. Every Monday thereafter.
033Yep. Every Monday thereafter. Yep. Yep. We got a little off track there, but no problem. There's more information I had to get out. And if anybody wants to donate for the village um or participate in it takes a village day, any organizations or individuals, they should contact you. Yes, they can contact me. Also, the um the Facebook page that's coming up and then also Stevenson Merie is going to today we were just discussing it. He's going to have a um he's going to create a Google uh what's the word I'm looking for? Like a barcode. Yeah, a Google form. Oh. Um and people can go on there and and put their uh logo and then all their information and that'll be shared uh on the events page also. Thank you, Mr. Romero. The graduation was
034amazing and I want to congratulate all the graduates of the class of 2025. On behalf of Twin Towers, they would like to wish everyone a safe and a safe and healthy summer. Uh the new scholar orientation will be August 12th. Uh they also want you all to know that if you need anything, please do feel free to reach out over the summer and they're looking forward to the fall. Thank you, Miss Romero. And I do want to uh many thanks to what was really an amazing year um for us as a school board and as a school district despite the tragedies that we had um early on especially um during the school year. But everyone you talk about it takes a village. It took a village to put that graduation together. We needed Mother Nature
035to cooperate and she did. um our security staff um making sure that everybody stayed safe. We had about you know somewhere between 4,500 and 5,000 people there um at that graduation ceremony. Um I want to thank the superintendent um and everybody for making the call to start a half an hour late to allow everybody who was in line the opportunity to come in. We didn't want folks to miss um the event. Um, as well our support staff from food service for the barbecue afterwards to all of our faculty advisors and um the teachers who were there um coordinating um the logistics of the event throughout the afternoon and more importantly our parents and and guardians and friends and family. They were great um in the stands very respectful of everyone. um they waited till all
036the graduates were announced. Um so kudos to everybody who showed up as a spectator. Um because you know sometimes not every year it's gone as smooth as it did this year. Um but everyone was uh very respectful. I want to thank all the board members who part um parttook. Everybody had a hand in the graduation. And then obviously our students, our scholars who graduated 593 strong. We hope that number is going to grow beyond 600 when our August graduation rate is completed. The preliminary indication is that our June graduates were a little bit over 88% last year. At the same time, we were at 87. So, there's improvement there from year-over-year and we hope to get into well into the 90s by the time we get done with our August graduates. So, a lot to
037be proud of in the district. Um, and we hope to keep the momentum going um for this upcoming school year. So, thank you to everybody. Awesome job. Um, now we'll move on to our public participation. The board will designate a portion of its meeting agenda for public comment for a period of up to 40 minutes. Each speaker will be allowed up to four minutes. The public is not permitted to discuss topics and matters involving specific individuals and speakers must sign in prior to speaking. Speakers are not permitted to seat their time to other speakers. Miss Romero Thank you, Miss Romero. Would anybody like to partake in our public participation section? Nope. So, we'll move on. Any letters that we received? Nope. Thank you, Miss Marie. Superintendent update. Superintendent Creed. Great. Thank you. I just wanted
038to take a moment um to underscore much of what was shared um already this evening. Express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who played a role in making this year's graduation ceremony such a tremendous success. Um achieving as um President Estrada already said, achieving a graduation rate of 88.5% is an outstanding milestone. Um one that reflects dedication, resilience, and a collaboration of the entire school community. It's evidence that we are one Middletown. Um to the class of 2025 team, cohort 2021, your commitment to ensuring that every young person had access to every single resource that they needed to achieve their goals and walk across that stage was commendable. You have changed lives and I personally um share in the community's gratitude for all of your efforts. To our school board, your unwavering support, energy, and enthusiasm
039throughout the year made that graduation ceremony possible. Thank you for providing us with guidance, leadership, um and just a true joy in this work. Uh to our buildings and grounds team, thank you for your tireless work in setting up and breaking down for the ceremony. We did multiple runroughs and changed a bunch of stuff and they're um always uh with a win-win mindset. We appreciate that. Um, so many people, security staff, uh, your behind-the-scenes efforts to ensure that, um, the stadium was fully checked with walkthroughs, um, and the support of our community police agencies prior to anybody even arriving. Um, make us feel really safe. And the day of your activities to ensure that people got to, um, come enjoy the ceremony um, while maintaining our safe protocols was um, incredible. our musicians, our health
040services team, the technical support team. Oh my goodness, the communications team. Um, so much energy and enthusiasm behind making sure that there was appropriate communication leading to the ceremony, the day of the ceremony, and then immediately following the ceremony. They flooded our communication channels with thank yous, um, notes of appreciation and images from the event, which were really, really special. um to our food services team. Um they provide us with a ton of support leading up to the ceremony with all of the events that we put on to celebrate the graduates and then after the ceremony, they give us a nice opportunity to come together as a team and celebrate um over a meal. So that is really appreciated. Um there are just so many individuals because a ceremony like this does not take place
041without the energy and effort of um an entire team of people. It is really an epic event. um our community partners. There are so many of you, police, fire, medical services, the city, the town, the list goes really on and on. Um thank you for standing alongside us, being proud to celebrate our success with with sometimes more energy than us um but contributing really in meaningful ways um to our efforts. Your partnership is really valuable. Um and to our families, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for trusting us. Um, thank you for believing in us. Thank you for showing up for the ceremony and showing out in a really positive way. We appreciate your care, your patience, and um, we share in the joy of the milestone um, of your young person, and
042we will really miss the class of 2025. It was a special one. Um I think that the ceremony on Friday is a demonstration that when we work together towards a shared vision, joy um just is um in abundance. Um so thank you for all for being a part of our journey for the 24-25 school year. Um we can't wait to celebrate in August. We have a really dedicated group of young people that are pushing to make graduation um a reality and we have a tremendous amount of energy behind them this summer making sure that they reach their goals too. So stay tuned because we'll be back at the end of August with an update. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Created. And I do want to mention a couple things uh on that one. Um Mr.
043Pino, do you know which fire companies were there with the flag? microphone. The Excelsier. Okay. Well, I I do want to thank the fire department for that wonderful American flag display. Um I mentioned it in um when I was doing the speech and I I think it's awesome that they come out and support um each year graduate graduates as well. Um I do need to make a shout out to our tech crew. So, back in April when I first was trying to figure out, you know, what to say at graduation, um, I I I don't like talk. I like talking, but not at graduations typically because I think our scholars, it's about them. It's about their day and they don't want to hear have somebody come up to a podium and just, you know, talk
044and quote and all that other stuff. So, um, that's when I had an idea about putting a video together and, you know, I'm very well known that I come up with big ideas and then I step back and watch other people kind of put that together. and our tech crew. Victor's back there with uh our sound folks, Kevin Leonis, uh Paul Fox, um Brian Cbeck, uh uh Vesh, Vora, every you know, Justin Wy, Marcus Rodriguez, I can go on and on with with the names of of that crew. They're amazing. Every time we see videos up here of our community and our and our school district, they're the ones behind the scenes who help put it together and they go unsung typically. So, one day I think we need to bring them as a tech
045crew up here and hand out some certificates for them because you know they do yman's work um out there as well. And then I also did want to mention um with the utmost dignity and respect with which um the school district at graduation honored um our fallen comrades, our fallen scholars in Tofusi TC Reed and also Hannah Reio. Um their families were there. They were part of the graduation ceremony, a difficult day for them. Um, but we also wanted to make sure that we remembered them and I I think we did a a pretty good job of making sure we honored them and respected their memory on that very important day as well. So, I want to thank everybody for that. Um, moving on to our board member conferences or professional development shareouts. I don't
046think we have any unless anybody has any. I know there'll be more coming up as we get ready for our New York State School Boards. Do you have one, John? Yeah, I I'll hold it though. No, you could do it now. Is that all right? He's looking at Yeah, we're doing good time. It's 7:35. So, of course, I just gave ourselves a kiss of death, but very interesting. I I believe that we're going to hear more about charter schools in the next couple of years. And believe me, I'm not being political. When we present these, we're apolitical this board. I just research things and we all research things and I report to the best of my ability. So there was a Oklahoma case and the Oklahoma uh setup for charter schools is very similar to
047New York State. All right. the uh a charter school of course is a school quote chartered or you can say licensed by a state board and receives public money from the state. So what happened was the the Oklahoma State Board approved a charter application submitted by the Catholic Irish Dascese of Oklahoma to create an academy the Isidor of Seville Academy which would have been the first charter nation the nation's first charter religious charter school and they were very honest about this. We're religious charter school. We're going to incorporate religion into all of our uh subject matters. So, the state board uh had approved this, but the attorney general invalidated it saying public funds could not be used to operate a a religious school. So, the the it went on and on through the courts until
048we reached the Supreme Court. Now what happened was this. There were eight justices involved in this. Eight justices that had an opinion. I don't know why the or who the justice was that was not involved. Maybe on vacation or ill or so on. I don't know. But the court issued a oneline ruling a decision called a perurium decision which procurium means for the court. They issued this and they let the uh Oklahoma court's decision stand which invalidated the um the application of uh the Academy of Civil. Now, one thing about this is New York State has presently, I believe, 425 charter schools. The limit is 460. But what was interesting about this decision, because it was 4 to 4, it was a split decision, it is not considered preceded. In other words, this can very
049well come up again and the court may the court may depending on the uh justices they may find they may have a it may have a different outcome. So I I think we should all be aware of this and it seems to me what's happening in Washington is that uh money is going to be funneled to schools such as chartered school, private schools and non-public schools. So I don't know what ramifications this is going to have right now, but uh we'll have to see. depends if we get the money that uh we normally do or will be less. Very important concept here. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Pino. And I think you know a lot some of that's going to be driven with how successful we are as a public school system right in Middletown
050too. The more successful you are, the more folks want to come to our district and not form a charter school. Um but also um you know there was a moment in time when we had a couple that were when we were struggling right academically here. Uh we had several who um tried to set up charter schools here. Um and that's still going to be out there. The regulations allow for it. The courts are more favorable to it now. So definitely something to keep an eye on uh because it is um going to affect our taxes and and our folks here. Most definitely. Yep. Um does anybody have any anything else in regards to conferences or professional devel development shareouts? No. Well, uh committee reports the only thing because since this is our first meeting, we
051don't have any um committee reports. I had emailed the board and I think um Dr. De Jesus, I sent it to your personal email because I don't think you were yet on the school district email. So, everybody has with them the committee assignments from this past year. What I would ask is that over the next week if there's um folks that want specific uh ones um please let me know. I know just to give you a little bit of a share out. Um, uh, Pastor Williams has requested to be part of the diversity committee this year and also as a co-leazison to the city of Middletown. I know Mr. Bias would like to be the representative to the city of Middletown. It's a good opportunity for us to change some things. I know Mr. Um
052Freddy Williams is interested in being the um lia uh the um liaison to the high school this year. Um so we are going to make some let's look to make some changes. Everybody's been kind of in the same school buildings for a couple of years in a row now. So it's good to kind of um shake things up and get people a little taste of different schools. Um and also obviously um we need new representatives for um Carter Elementary as well since uh Mr. Mitchell Williams is no longer on the board. Um so please take a look at the committee assignments. Um probably Dr. De Jesus um policy would be an important one as a new board member to sit on in addition to other interests that you might have. So if you want to
053take a look at that and Mitch was on that one um as well. So that might be a good um addition to that. So today is um Thursday. Let's get uh today's Tuesday. So let's give each other a week. Is that fair to get me information on what and what you can do is take the um sheet that I emailed you and where it says 25 26 just put your name down and then we'll you know we'll go little by little. There's not going to be we're not in any hurry right now to do things. And same with the building assignments. if you guys have an open mind um and pick two schools so that way in case the first one we go in a different direction you're okay um with a different one and
054uh myself as board president I'll just whatever is left is what I'll take you know u for folks Mr. that. Yeah. Um I just wanted to give a policy update, something that we need to pay particular attention to. Um well, first and foremost, um uh our business manager Mike Tuttle Tuttle is reviewing the contract with NISPA. Um in all intents and purposes is a better more response time program than the one we have with Erie 1. Um and and for the most part, most other districts use this um NISPA program and you know um they're pretty comfortable with it as it pertains to policies. Um we have three policies that uh we need to really look at and address. Um one is policy 8113 extreme heat conditions. Uh the other one's 5695 student personnel electronic
055devices. And then um another one that's uh need to be amended as soon as possible, policy 531, use of district credit card needs. Um that needs to be amended. Um so I as I mentioned early to the policy members um I'm going to reach out to you um me and um um the clerk um Miss Montterrey to see what days you guys are available so we can um kind of look at these and just be able to um tweak them so that we can have them um on time for when we need to um move on them. So right now we have u Mr. Red is the chair of the policy committee. Um there won't be a co-chair for right now because Mr. that was Mr. Mitchell Williams, but Mr. Romero was already on the
056policy committee as was Mr. Moore. And now we're going to add Dr. De Jesus to that committee. Um and so those will be the folks that can meet with Curtis for this immediate need that we have to review certain policy before the end of the month. And then if there are any changes to the policy committee, we'll take that on later on. Sound good with everybody? Okay, thank you very much. You're welcome. Um, any other committee reports early on? No. So, we'll move on to round table to finish up our first meeting of the school year. We'll start off with Mr. Moore. Um, I actually did leave out the fact that I did actually truly truly enjoy the uh graduation. Um, it definitely was a a great one. And that's when you think about just
057the dynamics of the I believe it was the students from uh Carter with the with Oh, Mabel Hill Mabel Hill with the drums. It was just so much going on that provided a level of entertainment of excitement, joy, and um just a a huge drive towards like the legacy of the district. So, I just wanted to add my piece about that. It was definitely a good good um experience especially with the weather you know I think that was probably added to the experience especially coming from a year that was extreme heat and under those gowns could get extremely hot. So um other than that you know I'm just looking forward to this this school year. I think we have made tremendous strides towards you know a level of excellence and um I think it's just
058with the collaboration of all of us as a team and as you know trusted you know uh trustees uh to the district that we are adding a unique um approach that is definitely beneficial and a huge asset to the community. So thank you. Thank you Mr. Moore Mr. Parino. Thank you. You know, we have been handed out some in our workshop some great books and uh that appeal to students also that could be read and should be read by students. One of these for everyone, Jason uh Jason Reynolds who was a speaker at the high school. And I just want to read one passage on this. At 16, I thought I would have made it by now. At 18, I said 25 is when I'd make my first million. At 25, I moved back in
059with my mother. Bill collectors breathing me on, breathing on me like Brooklyn summer. And now at almost 28, I'm just Well, I'm almost 28 now. If this doesn't, this is simple but yet complicated and profound. If this doesn't call for a course or courses in financial literacy and planning, I don't know what does. So, we've talked about that before. I me I I've mentioned it. I know Denise Romero mentioned it. Uh Ed has mentioned around number of us. So, this should be incorporated somehow into the curriculum. And I do feel that when the new graduation requirements are come about that this will be at one component a course on financial literacy which is is very well is very much needed and Amy mentioned they do have start with courses in the middle school and financial
060literacy now good and I think we should even have it in the maybe in the mentary buildings. Very simple of course, but uh there used to be a program um that is no longer a part of Junior Achievement of the Hudson Valley used to come out and they used to do because I used to teach the course sometimes all the way to the elementary school level and we'd do they still do financial literacy there. So they're doing that too. Very necessary. Thank you, Mr. Parino. Mr. Rep. Uh yes. Um, I could build on what uh m what Mr. Parino was talking about. Jason Reynolds, an incredible writer. Um, um, he came here, of course, we talked about that, but um, I just got into reading a couple of his books and it's really engaging. I
061read the first one, Ghost, and now I'm on Batima. I mean, this guy is fantastic. Again, it was just awesome that we was able to um um spread his wings, his opportunities, just share what he does, you know, as far as writing and kids were really enjoyed that. Just wanted to piggy back on that. Um also, I want to talk about the graduation. I'd be remiss if I didn't say anything. I thought it was fantastic again and um weather held up. Um, we added some different components, you know, of of course with you doing your little special thing coming down out of out of the out of the crowd. Um, yeah, the zipline, but hold you to that. But, um, I thought it was really well and I really enjoyed the opportunity to be able
062to share some opening remarks. Um, and um, being a part of that also, I'm sure. And, you know, I got a lot of good feedback in the community and from parents that they really enjoyed it and it was just very serene. And it was just nice and smooth, you know, this year as compared to, you know, we had a couple kinks with the weather and just maybe one or two people not too happy. But I I thought we thumbs up. Kudos everybody. Thank you, Mr. Rat. Mr. Tobias. I have nothing to report. So for the good of the order, I'll move to the across the tables. Thank you, Mr. Bison. Dr. Deesh. Thank you. Um, so I want to say congratulations to you, Rose. Congratulations to you, Miss Romero. Congratulations to Mr. Williams in his
063absence. Um, the three roles that were there were um those are my family members. Um, so I'm grateful that they were here to come out and I want to thank those that um um supported me in this process and as I embark upon this new journey, this new endeavor. Um, I look forward to working with each and every one of you and tapping into your skill sets as well as um um letting you borrow a little bit of mine. Um, but I'm excited about this new journey and so I'm grateful, I'm honored, and I'm thankful and I look forward to these next three years and working with the team. Thank you, Dr. De Jesus. Miss Romero, I want to welcome you, Dr. De Jesus. I know you're going to be an asset to our team.
064so happy to have you here. Um, I also want to take the time to recognize, well, not recognize, but commend everyone who thought about the families of the students who are no longer here. I thought that was very powerful and it was very beautiful and um, heartfelt and I'm just looking forward to next year. That's it. Thank you. Great. Thank you. And so I I want to thank um, Mr. Iraqi because I sent him a text while everybody was talking because I know I forgot people on the tech side and stuff like that, but also our own Caroline Woodward who's over here and also Kevin Wit um our community liaison. Those are the wonderful pictures that everybody sees on the website over the last few days of all of our graduates and it's amazing. Um
065great feedback from the community on those. So, we want to uh make sure we thank both uh uh Caroline and Kevin as well. And then uh the other tech folks who helped out um Alana Zeladons, Suriel, Kevin Moore, Bev Rodriguez, Josh Beltran, um and the Gert crew, Anthony Richi, Carrie Moyet, um also Jim and Isaac from Thunder, which is an outside company that we had um come in and help us with the runthroughs. Awesome job by all of them. If I forgot any names now, you can blame Victor, not me about it. So, um, with that, I said, yeah, I did say Victor. He was the first name I mentioned earlier. So, I do want to thank all of them because they all deserve a shout out for for an amazing graduation. Um, and I'm
066going to end on a couple things. Um, first of all, I'm honored to be president of the board um for another year. Um, I thank you guys for having faith in me to help um lead the team um for this upcoming school year. Um, you know, anybody sitting at this table at these tables can do this job. Um, it just so happens that I have a lot of gray hair from years and years of experience. That kind of helps out a little bit. Plus, as Mr. Moore reminds us all, I have the time so far to be able to do it. So, I do want to thank everybody, but you guys make it a little bit easy for me. Uh, which is great. Um, also, you know, uh, we had other individuals who, you know,
067Mr. Rhett, Mr. Parino, who, uh, we talked about as far as nominations for vice president as well as Miss Romero, and it could have been anybody. You know, we have confidence in all the individuals. um you know regardless of who's sitting here and who's sitting there any of us can do this job and that's what's great about this particular board of education we work together as a team we do a lot of work in our committee assignments um we all have different strengths that we bring to the table and we all rely on those strengths we none of us here I think sit here thinking that we can do everything um we know we have weaknesses and we have strengths and we kind of uh build off of that so I do want to thank
068um Pastor Williams, Freddy Williams had to leave um but um everybody here for um coming together for another hopefully strong year and as we uh said to the public in the beginning of last year um there have been moments in time when this board of education will fail this year and so please don't be shy and coming out and letting us know about it or reaching out to individual schoolboard members. We do obviously have protocol here. So keep things uh uncotic. Um and and the best that we can follow that will mean that we'll get an answer as quick as possible for you. And if we need to improve um then that's what we'll do as a board of education. So the moment you think you know everything is the moment that you fail. Um
069with that being said, if um I can have Mrs. Montree for our next uh school board me meeting. Um beforehand if we can email out to um all the board members again what our board norms were as well as our um what our goals were last year and our board norms and we'll use that to begin a template discussion as we start to get into our work summer workshops and trying to see if we can improve in any way. Um before we adjourn, does anybody have anything else that they definitely forgot or want to say? We're all good. Thank you to the cabinet, Mr. Bartlett, Mrs. Adom, Mr. Tuttle, Mrs. Crawford for all your hard work as well. Mrs. Moralero, thank you for coming out and being our notary today. Um, as well, so motion
070to adjurnn. So by Mr. Bison, seconded by Mr. Red. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 800. Have a good night. We'll see you on July 17th. Actiononly meeting on July 17th.