Middletown City School Board Meeting 5-8-2025

0018, 2025 school district of Middletown. down. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the May 8th, 2025 meeting of the Enlarge City School District of Middletown. 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 are made and again after the meeting on the public board minutes which are available on the district's website. Miss in Spanish. Moment. Thank you. We'd also like to remind everyone that translation and interpretation services are available during the meeting. If you need assistance, please let us know and we'll be happy to accommodate you. Next on the agenda is our public hearing for the proposed 2025 2026 annual budget for the Enlarge City School

002District of Middletown. At this time for our public meeting, if you could please rise and remove your hats and face the flag for our pledge of allegiance by Mr. Pino. To the flag of the United States of America and to the stand with liberty and justice for all. Roll call. Mrs. Monerie. Mr. Estrada here. Mr. Moore. Mr. Parino. Mr. Rhett. Miss Romero. Miss Tobias here. Mr. Freddy Williams, Pastor Williams, Mr. Mitchell Williams. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to hand it off to Superintendent Creed and our assistant superintendent for business, Mr. Tuttle, for our budget presentation. Hi, good evening uh members of the board, President Estrada, um public uh tonight is we present one of the last the last presentation of the year for our um 2025-26 budget. We uh by law we must have

003a public hearing um developed in 1997 and that requires us to have three components uh to our budget. one is administration, two is program which is our instruction and uh third is capital and as you can see we presented those two on March 6th and one on March 20th. Um this year's budget um is $276 million uh 5.23% increase over last year's spending um budget. Um, so it's an increase of uh almost $14 million, $13.7 million in uh the net change. So this year, our board has adopted the tax levy um at 1.99% that remains under the 2% tax cap. Um so we're looking at a tax levy of $ 1.4 million this year. Historically, if you look at the previous four years, u we've been pretty consistent and pretty low um going to the

004tax uh community. uh we had a 1% zero. We actually decreased by 5 million and then a 0%. So we feel that the 1.99 is right in par for what we're going to be doing in the future. Uh just a recap of the whole budget overview of the adopted board overview. So the total proposed budget is 276417,4 uh that has increased 13.7 million and the budget increase percentage is 5.23 over last year. And the tax levy increase is 1.4 million. And again, the tax levy increase is 1.99. Now, we have a star on there because the local tax before the legalization rates is 1.99. Each person might not get 1.99. It may vary depending on your location and your municipality. Um the contingent rules, um if the vote passes on the first time, we need

00550 plus one because we are below the 2% tax cap or the 1.99. If we go to contingent, that means the budget fails less than 50% plus one. We need to go to last year's um contingent budget which or levy was 73 million. The downside of all that is there's no additional budget requests can be honored. No equipment equipment purchases except for health and safety. And the one that's going to really affect us is the applicable facilities charges uh that will be charged to all the groups and um community events that happen inside the district. So for this year, uh the board has adopted three propositions uh that will be at the ballot at the voting machines. Proposition one is the budget and then there's three vacant board seats available this year. Proposition two is

006the 20 million the 20 year $20 million 25 2025 capital reserve. And then proposition three is the $45 million districtwide health, safety, and well-being renovations and alterations. Now, all three propositions have been adopted by the board and we've reviewed those um extensively over several weeks of budget presentations. So, again, the vote is on May 20th. Um if you have any questions, you can reach us at budget ecsdm.org. Now, it's open for public comment. So, uh, before we get to the public comment portion, can, um, board members during the public meeting ask questions beforehand? Okay. So, we'll go around the table, then we'll provide an opportunity for the public, um, to come up and either ask questions or make comment on the school budgets that are proposed. Mr. Moore, um, let's go a one quick question

007because I'm pretty sure many of our, um, public will want to know. Can you just explain a little bit about the 50% plus one so they could get a clear understanding of what that actually means? Yeah. Okay. Good question. Um, so a budget normally has to pass um with by 50% uh of the votes need to have a winning but plus you need 50% plus one. So you can't have a tie. You can't have the same number equal, right? So you can't have 100. You would have to have 101 and 99 to have the 55 plus one. And if we were above the tax cap, we would need 60% plus one to get the voting through that answer. Did that help? Okay, good question, Mr. Pino. Thank you, President Estrada. Actually, one point. Uh myself,

008uh President Estrada and Mrs. Mr. Bison were at a meeting last evening and uh speaking to one of the superintendents there along with John Williams was there and uh he was very happy that his tax levy was 2.96 a local superintendent so very happy about he said well it's it's below three I don't know if you were involved in that conversation about it I don't want to mention the district it's a local district though so That's my comment. I think this is an excellent budget. Uh, everything goes up. Uh, contracts go up, the price of supplies go up when Bill Barnett buys a truck, even though on state bid that goes up and so on. Unfortunately, very little if anything comes down today. And I don't like it, but that's the way it is. Thank

009you. Uh, thank you, Mr. Parino. And I just wanted to add to that his comments that so when you see us at 1.99 which means we're below the 2% tax cap the tax cap for our school district technically is much higher which is yeah it's a little over yeah about 4.2%. So technically we could have provided a budget that went up to just under 4%. and still have been considered underneath our tax cap with a vote of 50 plus one. But as Mr. Parino has admirably done over the years is we make a concerted effort to get as minimal of a of a tax increase as possible while still maintaining our programs. The good news for all of our students who are sitting in the audience today, no cut to programs, no cut to staff.

010Um, and we were still able to maintain it at the 1.99. And you can see the track record on this slide of what's happened over the last few years. So in 202122 0%. We actually had a decrease in 22 23 0% again in 23 24 and 1%. Now all of you know inflation over the last year and a half to two years is running at three four and has been higher than that over the last few years. So remembering that we still have contractual obligations for all of our um unions um as well as just the regular costs of doing business from an inflationary standpoint and we're still able to do that. So good job to uh Mr. Tuttle and Miss Ceden uh for being able to do that. Mr. Rhett, good evening. No. Um

011we have had several discussions about um this um tax levy and um we're pretty comfortable with it and we're very pleased with where it's going. So, at this point, no questions. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Bison. I just want to thank Mr. Tuttle for the wonderful job he did because, uh, I was a little fearful when Mr. Smith was here, Jess Smith, um, back in mid winter there. So, um, we worked, not we as a, but you certainly worked, um, hard, I'm going to say, to get that to a 1 99 increase. So my sincere appreciations and to our superintendent also and as someone else mentioned um the contractual obligations also play a role in the budget narrative. So thank you. Thank you Mr. Bison. Do not lose that fear because moving forward each

012and every year this is a moving target and as we all know with the abolishment of the um US state uh uh department of education who knows where uh what aids we'll be able to get from the federal government moving forward and how the state applies that to each of the local districts. So we should still be fearful. We're thankful for this year but still fearful for future years. That's um I I just like to add one thing. So with this year's budget, uh we were able to once again not use any reserves or any of the unappropriated fund balance which will be probably necessary in the future budgets. Just to keep that in mind. Yeah. Yes. Miss Aila. No, no questions. Sorry. I didn't forget you this time. Right, Pastor Williams? Um, so, uh,

013I'm going push back a little bit. Um, I don't think we I don't think we should be fearful. I think we should be concerned. Um, the connotations of those two words sometimes can go go, um, little different ways. I don't think we have anything to be afraid of only because we are um, Mr. Tuttle and this administration had done very well over the over the years uh at uh drafting this budget and making sure that we as a district are in a a fiscally sound position. So I'm concerned but not afraid. Um I'll say this as well. Um Mr. um Mr. Parino was talking about neighboring district. one of our neighboring districts has their uh their tax levy at 4%. And so, uh I think we're in a good place. Uh, also just as a

014rebuttal to something that was said after Monday night's meet the candidates night in concern in connection to um a statement about zerobased budgeting uh in no way, shape or form as this as this budget is being put together or other budgets that every line item is not being looked at and examined. And I think that that's important to put that out there. I think some people think that zerobased budgeting uh means that you're you're you're starting from you're you're looking at a different uh you know looking at each line item and that's in any budget. You look at every line item. What zerobased budgeting does is it makes you have to allocate every dollar for every place. So it gives you no ability to be able to deal with um unforeseen circumstances. And so uh

015this budget as as I'm sure Mr. Tuttle has always done um has been looked at very very closely and we get the opportunity to look at it as closely um as we want to. This is not just a trust factor. trust them. But um I think that the majority of us here do our due diligence and taking time to look through it and and making sure that we understand what's going on. And and so for the public, you have every opportunity to be able to come if there's something that you don't understand about the budget, something you don't understand about how it's drafted, something you don't understand in the numbers, you have every opportunity uh to be able to ask those questions. And uh again, Mr. Tuttle put up um the email that you can

016reach out to, but there's been sessions and different nights um to be able to come and look at that. There you go. If you got questions, you know, budget at ecsdm.org. Uh so, uh thank you. Thank you. I think we're I think we're um moving in the right direction and this right direction will help us to be able to face whatever challenges we have to uh to deal with in the coming years. And to show you a little bit about the work that they did was when the original budgets came out a couple months ago, we were looking at about a 2.49 if I remember correctly. So they cut another 700,000 about $700,000 from the budget to get it to the 1.99. So, uh, Mr. Romero, I think this is a very reasonable tax levy.

017Um, Mr. Tuttle, great job. No questions. Thank you, Mr. Freddy Williams. Uh, more of a comment, speaking as a parent and a taxpayer district. Um, I appreciate the accessibility and the energy and the transparency you guys move with with this budget. um like uh Pastor John said that um you know you guys are super accessible with information and m uh President Estrada made a great point that no programs are being cut which is vital in this situation. So you guys are doing an amazing job and I appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Freddy Williams. Now, we'll move on to our public comment um period of our public hearing. And this allows the public to ask any questions, make any comments regarding the budget. Um and this is a a legal responsibility. We are required

018by state law to provide a public hearing on the school district budget. So, if anybody at this time would like to come up and ask any questions or any comments regarding the budget for this year, no takers. Okay, we'll move on. A motion to adjourn our public hearing and move into our regular meeting. Moved by Mr. Bias and seconded by Mr. Rhett. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 8 Z. And now we'll move in and call to order our regularly scheduled meeting. Um, and since we closed one meeting and opened another one, uh, we are required to redo the opening. So, at this time, if we could rise once again for our pledge of allegiance and this time, Mrs. Romero of America and to the stands one nation under God,

019indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Any moments of silence, Mr. And now for the mission of the enlarged city school district of Middletown. Mr. Moore, thank you. We strive to provide a fiscally sound educational opportunities in a safe environment that continuously supports our diver diverse student population. We will enable all students to graduate to reach their full potential and become lifelong learners and to be competitive, productive members of society. Thank you, Mr. Moore. Roll call. Mrs. Boner. Mr. Estrada. Here. Mr. Moore. Mr. Parino. Mr. Rat. Miss Romero. Miss Tobias. Mr. Freddy Williams. Pastor Williams here. Mr. Mitchell Williams. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Monerie. I need approval for tonight's agenda. So move. Moved by Pastor Williams, seconded by Mr. Freddy Williams. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 8 Z.

020I need approval for the minutes of the regular meeting from April 24th, 2025. So moved. Moved by Mr. Rhett, seconded by Pastor Williams. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 8 Z. Now moving on to our action items. Our administrative approval of personnel memorandum 21A numbers one and two. So moved. Moved by Pastor Williams, seconded by Mr. Moore. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 8 Z. I need approval for instructional personnel memorandum 21B numbers 1 through 10. So moved by Miss Tobias and seconded by Miss Pastor Williams. Yeah. Uh any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 8 Z. I need approval for financial memorandum 21D numbers 1 through three. Moved by Mr. Rat. Second. Seconded by Miss Tobias. All those Any discussion?

021All right. So, we'll finish this one. We'll go back. Um, any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries 8-0. My apologies. Thank you, Mrs. Monerie, for reminding me. We need a motion to approve non-instructional personnel memorandum 21C numbers 1 through 7. So moved. Moved by Pastor Williams. Seconded by Mr. Red. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 80. I need approval for special services memorandum 20E numbers one and two. Moved by Mrs. Mr. Tobyson. Need a second by Mr. Moore. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 8 Z. I need approval of change orders 15F numbers one and two. So move on. Moved by Mr. Parino, seconded by Pastor Williams. Any discussion? Uh, yes. Are there any up changes in um those um um

022in in uh the change orders? Excuse me. Bill, would you like to give us an update on them? Yes. Uh, good evening. We have two change orders tonight. The first is to pro to provide technology infrastructure upgrades to the existing building in area A and the second is a credit for kitchen equipment deleted from the scope. Thank you, Bill. Any other discussion? So essentially essentially um the kitchen equipment deleted from the scope is bringing money back. Correct. Okay. Just I'm just making that clear for the public. Thank you. Uh all those in favor I any opposed? Motion carries. 80. I need approval of resolution for employee number 08668. Moved by Mr. Bison. Seconded by Mr. Rhett. Um, some of these items would have been discussed in executive session, so the board's aware of them. Uh,

023any further discussion that's not executive session material. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 8 Z. I need approval for resolution of employee number 08235. So moved. Moved by Pastor Williams. Second on that. Seconded by Mr. Parino. Any discussion? Non-executive material. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 8 0. Uh there was an addition to our agenda letter I. A motion to approve confidential settlement agreement. I need a motion. So moved. Moved by Pastor Williams. Seconded by Mr. Moore. This was discussed in executive session. Any further discussion? That's not executive session material. Sir. All those in favor? amend the agenda for that. No, because it was included before we went into But good question. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 8 Z. All right. That

024concludes our action items for our business meeting and we move on now to our board member recognitions and our community updates. And I'm going to hand it off to Mr. Cumin. Great. Thank you so much. Um thank you uh board of trustees and school community for giving me an opportunity um tonight to share a little bit about um what happened last night which is wonderful celebration for our um board of trustees and school community. Um and I think there's some pictures that accompany um the event last night. So um the Mid Hudson School Study Council um provides an opportunity for school districts to nominate individuals for um awards representing their service uh to a school community. The Golden Apple Award is a prestigious recognition presented by the Mid Hudson School Study Council to honor exceptional

025educators, board members, and community members who have dedicated 50 years or more to the field of education. This accolade celebrates individuals whose enduring commitment and outstanding contributions have significantly enriched the educational landscape in the Hudson Valley and more specifically for us here in Middletown. Mr. Perino um is a distinguished and unwavering um dedicated servant to public education. His dedication spans nearly six decades and it is with great pride that we nominated him for um this prestigious recognition which he received um last night. Mr. Pino has been an integral part of the public education landscape in our community since 1966. Over the years, he's held key roles as an educator and administrator, 35 years dedicated to the Enlarge City School District of Middletown, and for over 25 years, a trustee on the school board. He retired

026from the profession, and the same year is when he began his volunteer service to the school community. For 59 years, he has dedicated his life to improving outcomes for young people. Throughout this time, he has dedicated uh demonstrated an unparalleled commitment to fostering of love learning. Um focusing on a passion of literacy um and putting books into the hands of our young people. Um his tireless advocacy for school libraries, reading programs, and educational excellence has left an indelible mark on the landscape of this region and Middletown. He has been instrumental in ensuring that our scholars have access to resources and the support they need to be lifelong learners. And it was an honor to have Mr. Perino win the Golden Apple Award on behalf of the school district. [Applause] And you know we have a

027lot of students in the audience. How many of students out there went to Presidential Park as their elementary? Look at that. Mhm. So all of you know that the library at Presidential Park is called the Perino Family Library. So in addition to the years of service that Mr. Pino um has given to the school district as an educator and as a board member, his mom was an integral part of education and his father here at Middletown. So their legacy, that family's legacy in Middletown goes back more than 100 years. And that's the reason why we named the library at Presidential Park after his family. So I think people should know that we were lucky to um collaborate with Arolsteries um on a nomination for an additional award that the Mid Hudson School Study Council presented

028for excellence in schoolboard service. Um this award is presented annually to recognize outstanding contributions by school board members um in the Hudson Valley. It honors individuals who have worked tirelessly over multiple years to demonstrate exceptional leadership, volunteerism, dedication, and generally service to public education. Ed Estrada had the honor of winning this award last evening, and we were proud um for him to in part represent the Enlarge City School District of Middletown. Um Ed, the voice of Middletown, is truly an exceptional individual who selflessly serves. Um he is a strong leader uh with an unwavering commitment to educational advancement and the um support that he's provided to this district and the boards that he serves on across our um county uh have left a long lasting impact on many school communities, not just middle towns. Ed's

029dedication to improving the lives of young people and his continuous support for the communities that surround us is nothing short of inspiring. as board president of Middletown City School District's board of trustees and a board member of the Orange Olter Bose Bosey's board of education, a board member of the Cornell Cooperative Extension and a board member of Inspire. I think I got all of them. Ed has devoted countless countless countless hours um away from his family um to make a difference for young people everywhere and school communities. His leadership across these organizations shows his diverse skills and his deep commitment and the betterment of both education and raising a community up. What sets Ed apart is not only his dedication to improving educational outcomes, but also the ethical standards and the moral compass with which

030he does each and every component of his work. He approaches every role with integrity, humility, and a collaborative mindset. His ability to unite people around a common cause and inspire others to take action is a testament to his trustworthiness and the influence that he has on many. He's earned the respect of his colleagues and his peers as well as of the entire school community and the communities that he serves. Thank you very much, Ed. Congratulations. [Applause] Thank you everybody. It was an honor to uh to stand on that stage with Mr. Parino. That's for sure. So, we'll move on to our next. So, we want to do the spring awards after public participation. Oh, that was that. Okay. So, uh so we'll do our board member community up. Yeah. I I think um so what

031we'd like to do is knowing that they have valuable time and they have school tomorrow that maybe we'll just um I'd like a motion to amend the agenda to move items under 12 A B C and D to this point of our meeting and then we'll do public participation right after that and carry it. So, I'll need a motion to amend the agenda. Moved by Pastor Williams, seconded by Mr. Red. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? So, we'll move on to our student recognition. Great. Thank you very much. Well, we are excited to have um the music um department here this evening um to remind our school community that excellence lives inside all of our programs. And so, we are celebrating the power of music in our schools with some wonderful performances

032tonight. So, we'll give our young people um I'm going to ask board members if they can trustees and cabinet members if they can sit out there and we'll allow our young people to get set up and get started. Okay. and then I'll angle this towards her. Hey, go ahead. Good evening. My name's Amanda Mida. I am lucky enough to be the K12 music department chair here at Middletown. I teach over at Twin Towers and in my spare time, I travel around and I visit all the different schools and get to meet all our wonderful musicians all over. So, we're going to start tonight with Wait, I practiced Oiang close. Yes, I'm looking for approval from her family. Um, she attends Maple Hill Elementary School. She's a fifth grader. She plays the violin and she's going

033to play gavat from minion for us. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] My gosh. Sorry, I I just learned a fun fact about Alma. Alma, she also just performed two weeks ago in all county chorus. So she was one of the few musicians selected from around the county to perform uh out in Warwick and then she's also in chorus and she was an all district orchestra. So she doesn't just play the violin. Next I'm going to invite up Christopher Alvarez, Jackson Howell, and Carter Yanni from Twin Towers Middle School. They're all in seventh grade. They are all they're going to play a baritone saxs trio for us which is a rare treat. I don't know if I've ever seen a baritone sax trio performed. So this is exciting. Um between them they also participate in midi mariachi ensemble

034jazz band chorus and modern band. Come on up. [Applause] [Music] Boo. Boom. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey, down. [Music] [Applause] [Music] D. Hey. Hey. [Music] D. Hey. [Music] Hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Okay. Um, next I'd like to invite Zachary Pierre up to perform. He is a senior, much to my disappointment, um, at here at the high school. Zachary was also one of our two students who performed at in the all state ensembles this year. So, him along with Venenza Ellia went up and they performed in Rochester in December. In order to earn that honor, they uh, have to perform a level six allstate nisma solo the previous year. So, and then we al had an alternate selected uh Jay Royas, which just means there wasn't room for him on the stage. Um, Zachary will be

035performing a movement from one of the Bach cello suites on the viola tonight. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] So, I should also mention that Zachary was also selected to perform in the All-State Chorus, but chose to perform in the orchestra, and he'll be attending uh Ithaca College of Music. I don't know. They just changed their name. Um, so IA College, they changed their name of the music school. He'll be studying viola performance and math. Yeah. Cool. And so for our final performance tonight, I'd like to invite the chamber orchestra on stage under the direction of Mrs. Googliata. Between them, not only do they just perform in chamber orchestra, they are also members of jazz band Pipers. Many of them were in the musical last week in the pit orchestra, mariachi ensemble, chorus and band. So they're very

036busy. I moved. So move. on the alarm. There might be a scream. Hi, good evening. [Music] You know what I got I got to say? Uh, guys, I'm I'm kind of I'm kind of tired. It's like it's really a crazy time of year and uh you know I mean it is teacher appreciation week and all. I I kind of want to just take the night off. Zack uh here. Yeah. Come on up. Come on up. [Applause] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You do it. You do it. I owe you one. Okay. All right. Comfy chair. All right. All right. [Music] Mama mia mia mia [Music] mia mia mia papia. We are [Music] Hey la. Mia, Mia [Music] Miach. [Music] [Applause] Uh 15. Not not in this group but in in the whole program. Yeah. 15. I just

037was going to give a plug. Our concert is May 20th. So, everybody can come cast their vote for the budget and catch an orchestra concert. It's at 6 PM here in the theater. [Applause] I just want to thank you all for our time. I brag about our music department all the time. I'm extremely proud of the musicians who performed for you today. And I I should have a number, but it is so hard to quantify how many K through 12th grade musicians we have in our ensembles, in our extracurricular programs up on stage. Um, it is our spring concert series right now. So, there's a concert. Um, I almost every night, almost every night, Mr. Parino knows the schedule as well as I do. Um, but almost every night there's a concert. You can find

038live music here in Middletown and it's so nice to have it back and have it so well supported by such a wonderful community. Like music is alive and well here in Middletown. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, that was an actual I thought it sounded like program. Yeah, I agree. That was good, wasn't it? So, next up we'll go to item B, which is our youth in government, Miss Coots, Miss Kenny, and Miss Lynch. [Applause] Good evening, Miss Ceden, President Estrada, members of the board of education and Middletown school community. Thank you for welcoming welcoming us here tonight. I am going to turn it over to our adviserss of our youth in government and youth and government to share a little bit about the amazing accomplishments and really incredible experiences that our

039scholars have had this year with the uh club program. So without further ado, I'll turn it over to Miss Tierney Lynch and Miss Jen Kenny. Beautiful. Um, so before we, you know, so there's a the you local youth in government. I'm Jen Kenny. Also, thank you. Sorry, this Miss Lynch who's just came from her game. Um, uh, youth in government is our local uh, youth uh, youth government program. Those students work with students that are also part of the uh, Orange Olter Boseies. So, those school districts that participate in that. Um and then youth and government is a partnership with our local Y. Um so we spend our fall doing youth in government and then our winter and spring doing youth and government. Um back in the fall uh we got ready for two uh

040two different conventions, the platform convention and the steering convention. Uh at the platform convention we had two of our planks pass. So Gabby Sodto and Carol Kuuchi had their plank pass as well as Anthony Baron and Antonio Contreras. Then in November, we attended the steering convention at NFA in which we had four of our delegates serve as chair and secretary of the two separate parties. Um so it's almost as if it's the two separate chambers of Congress. Um and then we had uh Sophia Bon a firstear member uh when Congressperson B, right? So she uh presented her bill speech um and she was elected Congressperson. Those five members will be attending a special trip to Albany on May 20th where they get a tour of the Capitol building and the New York State Museum. So

041we're very excited to participate in that. That's also if you guys turn in your permission slips. Um, and then we took the youth and government delegation to the New York State conference in Albany. Uh, this year has been very much a year of growth and learning. Uh, so last year I think Miss Lynch and the former adviser took 12 delegates. This year we took 23. Um, so it was a a large undertaking and not only did we take a sizable delegation, but we also did an awesome job at the conference. Yeah. So it was the largest conference that the uh YMCA has had in a very long time. We had the entire hotel to just the uh YMCA youth and government program. Um so there was about 800 other stu or there was 800 students

042from all over New York State participating in this conference. Um and with that we had three of our bills passed and signed by the youth governor. Um, we also won outstanding bill um for uh the distribution of EpiPens and it was a very like awesome moment to see our delegates go and um present their bills on the se on the floor of the capital building. It was it was awesome. It was very exciting for us, very exciting for them. Uh we also had a one our first year attorney Reese Quinnland um won her appeal for her K for her client. Uh we had students participate as the committee uh chairperson and the deputy prompor um of the senate. We also have one of our delegates who was our outstanding delegate for our delegation. So it

043was very exciting uh big deal for us and for the uh delegation as a whole. Um in April as part of the youth in government uh we also were able to take seven of our scholars to the to county service day where they have the opportunity to shadow different members of our county government. So we had two students go to the Supreme Court. Uh we had a student shadow emergency services, legislative, uh the mental health department, community development, and public work. So they all go out, they all do the things, um and then come back and they all tell us about what they did that day. And it was exciting. It was learning for us, learning for them. Uh and they all were also afforded an opportunity to apply for a internship through the Orange

044County Youth Bureau. Um, looking ahead, right, what's next for these guys? We are graduating some of our members. So, we wish them all well uh on their future endeavors, but some of our returning members are going to be participating in some big things. So, Anthony Baron and Antonio Contreres were both accepted to Kona, the YMCA's conference on national affairs this summer. Um, that is in uh North Carolina, right? Right. So they will be traveling first from the changemaker summit that's also through the YMCA and this changemaker summit is uh through their service learning project. So they were awarded the servant learn servant learning pin at the conference for doing 15 hours of community service and two hours of educational learning programs. Um so that had that they put their project through to the YMCA. um

045and they are going to be representing all of New York State at the Changemaker Summit. Uh so their project is the New York State Project. So it's it's a big deal. Um that program is national and they'll be going to Orlando, Florida. Um and then the Kona conference is regional. So that's all of the East Coast that participates in Kona. So a big deal for those two. Um, yeah, I'm wrong. Okay, I haven't flipped. Okay, no, they're both national. Oh, they're both national. So, even bigger. Um, and then Antonio will be serving as youth lieutenant governor next year. So, he will be the one signing bills that pass uh at the state conference. So, we're very excited for him. [Applause] All right. So, um, and is it is it a secret or what? Is there

046a service learning project? Do you guys want to come up and talk about your service learning project? All right. As as long as you're not giving out any trade secrets to the other states. Uh, so basically the idea of the changemakers program is uh from each state two delegates go and they present in Orlando their um service learning project. Well, sort sort of. And um if you win, you get a $5,000 grant for the project to make for the project. And I'm sure Antonio would love to explain. Um our specific project was um many youth in government delegates or just people who go to the YMCA in general are able to apply to this changemakers project by submitting their sort of like ideal and planned out project proposition for their local community. it's not for

047like the whole entire state, but just an an issue that's been impacting their local community. So, we chose impaired driving because that's been an issue that's been happening in Orange County, and we thought that we could address some things that would maybe lower the accidents that are caused because of this imparent driving. So, we're still working out a presentation that we have to present to quite a few people in Orlando, Florida, but we really hope everything goes well and we're going to try to make a difference in this driving issue that we're now facing. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. So, what we're going to do now is we just want to uh recognize our delegation um those members that are here with certificates from youth in government as well as a certificate from youth and

048government. Um so, uh I'm going to hand out cords and Miss Lynch is going to hand out your certificates. And the cords were given by the YMCA conference to give to our graduating seniors during graduation. Okay. So, Anthony Veron, Sophia [Applause] Baron, XR Beltran, Medina, who is one of our seniors. Carol Kartuchi, another senior Antonio [Applause] Contreras Ephren Danielo Jr. Paloma Drosier, Alan Gua [Applause] Hernandez, Lawrence [Applause] Hendrickson, Emily McKay, who was also just in the orchestra, Matthew McKay also in the orchestra. Trinity Pilo. Reese Quinland, Ethan Sartillo, and Gabrielle Sto. Uh we just wanted to thank the board, our uh administration here at the high school and at central office for helping us get through this year. Like I said, learning year, growing year. There's been a lot of different hiccups and we appreciate

049all the help that we've received. Um, the only thing that's not in here, and I'm going to do a shameless plug, we are doing a fundraiser at Buffalo Wild Wings on Tuesday. Um, Texas Roadhouse. We did one at Buffalo Wild. It's been a long again. It's teacher appreciation. Have a little But, uh, Texas Roadhouse Tuesday from 3 to 10. We get 10% of your check. So, please go out, help us, and uh help grow this program even more. Thank you. Thank you. How many of of of the students, the seniors are are interested in taking uh government courses if or doing something with what you just learned through youth and government moving forward? All right, good to know. Don't forget us. some law. I think we have some future lawyers in the house, some future

050attorneys. All right. Thank you. We're going to need you guys now that what's going on in Washington, we could use you guys down there. So, give us a couple years. I think I'm up all night. So, thank you. And next up, I think we're just going to transition right into the school field trip experience, right? Yeah. All night. I'm I think I'm your entertainment the rest of the evening. Uh we're really excited. Um I just want to introduce for those of you that don't know, this is uh Emily Laan. She is our uh media library specialist here at Middletown High School and the department chairperson. Uh we're really excited because we're going to share uh some highlights from a recent author visit that had a really profound impact on our scholars and our school community.

051Uh Mr. Jason Reynolds. He's a celebrated author known for his ability to engage young readers. And for those who are unfamiliar with Jason Reynolds, he's a National Book Award finalist and the author of several best-selling titles such as A Party for Langston and For everyone. Uh his work often addresses themes of identity, race, and the power of storytelling. Uh the communications team who supported us in so many ways leading up to, during, and after the visit from author Jason Reynolds put together a beautiful highlight reel that we'd like to share tonight, debut it uh for the school community. [Music] At the end of March to close out our month-long celebration of Mitty's Love to Read, we had New York Times bestselling author uh Jason Reynolds come in. We were very lucky to receive a generous

052donation from a community member and Mrs. Laundrean came to me with this big idea. I want to get Jason Reynolds to come here. And I think she thought I was joking. I thought she was a little crazy. Jason Reynolds is really famous. didn't know that we could pull it off, but like we do in Middletown, we dream big. She looked at me and said, "Whatever you need from me to make it happen." My name is Jason Reynolds. I'm an an author uh specifically of All American Boys. Go Spider-Man. My dream has been to have Jason Reynolds come speak to Middletown students. Two different assemblies happened during the day. About a thousand scholars were able to see Jason Reynolds live speak. I spoke to an auditorium full of young people just talking about my story, my

053life, my ideas, uh creativity. Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop says that books should be mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors, meaning that people who are reading should be able to see themselves in books, should be able to step into other um cultures and worlds. Uh and Jason exemplifies that. It's really important that uh scholars see authors who are very diverse. Scholars were so excited. It was you could feel it in the air. Scholars really seemed to enjoy the entire day. Uh we had lots of books in hands with lots of smiles on faces. Um afterwards for days scholars were talking about how wonderful it was. They kept telling me Jason Reynolds is the goat. A lot of times we hear that an athlete is the goat. Um, it was fun that this time they were talking

054about somebody who writes books for a living. I think I think the kids leaving the auditorium today, I hope they left feeling like giants. You know, after Jason visited, I cannot keep his books on the shelves. If you're a young writer out there, just tell your story, right? Start exactly where you are. You are enough already. You begin there, you'll get to where you're going. Um, in Middletown, we dream big and so I shoot for the stars and luckily my dream was able to come true. [Applause] Uh this was an incredible day and we definitely couldn't have done it alone. Uh the Middletown High School English teachers, the librarians from across the district, the elementary and middle school humanities instructional leaders, the MHS security staff, our entire admin team, so many others. It was truly

055a team effort. Uh we would like to um send a special thank you to the special services administrative team who not only supported us on the day of but they purchased books for all of the scholars to keep during the presentations. Uh titles that they purchased include long way down for everyone and ghost and the purchasing of these books respsparked the excitement of reading and writing throughout the hallways of Middletown High School proving that midies definitely love to read. And the feedback from scholars and educators has really been overwhelmingly positive. Students are still talking about it. Uh we showed a few examples of some of the feedback from um our scholars. Uh we cannot thank the board and our central administration team enough for making this experience happen for our scholars. As a thank you,

056you all have signed copies of Jason Reynolds books. Um, and we also have large signed posters of two books. Uh, one for here at Middletown High School and one for the board of education office as well. So, here's to continue to shoot for the stars. So, thank you. Can I can I say something real quick? So, uh, I had the profound privilege along with a few others. Um, Mr. Rhett was there as well. Um it was an absolute um amazing time and and um I think that one of the one of the best moments and you know and and and so you guys know that I developed a a special connection with Jason while we were there and so he and I have remained in touch ever since he's been here and so when I'm

057in Baltimore we're hooking up. Um but uh one of the best parts of that time and this is what he enjoyed the most was when we were in that back room with the small group and he was able to have an intimate conversation with them because he said one of the things he said and you guys know this you know being out in front of the in front of the crowd was out of his comfort zone. Being out in the front he did well. You never know. Uh but that those intimate conversations and answering questions with the young with our scholars in the back room um was absolutely amazing. And so I I want to applaud you guys um for uh bringing him here, allowing our scholars to have this um opportunity to connect with

058somebody who's relevant um for what they for for what they read. and and you know if if you don't know any of his books and and I knew his books you know a while before but if you don't know any of his books everybody knows Spider-Man Miles Morales. So um that in of itself was was huge. So um congratulations. Congratulations. I can't wait to the next the next uh the big author you bring in. And the scholars in that room won a contest and all of the work that they submitted to win that contest is actually hanging right behind us. So, if you want to check it out, the write with purpose, create art, and take action is what won them that opportunity. It was huge. It's huge. I I'll when I when I when

059I go to lunch with him, I'll send you guys some pictures. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Pastor Williams. Mr. Rat, yes. I want to um piggyback on what um Pastor John said. It was a great opportunity to be here to um just look at the students, you know, they were so excited about just someone that they can identify with and um you know, he was very passionate and and I got to tell um Emily Emily did an incredible job of just um interviewing and just you know, h asking them specific questions that all the all the students probably were interested in getting answers to. But um um in my years in my many years of education um this was one of those crowning moments. I it was just looking at the students and their

060interest in in reading about his books. Um I read Ghost and um I was so excited about I was sharing um with a couple people that um just when I got to the end I was wanting to see what's going to happen. And so now I got to get Fatima and I got to get the rest of the story. But um again, great job you guys. Really great job. And so Emily and Emily and Frodo have another um career after they're done here as interviewers. Agreed. As interviewers, they they you guys both you and Fra did an excellent job in facilitating those conversations. Thank you, Mr. R. Miss Aila. Great job, Rachel. Um, I I wasn't able to see Jason Reynolds, but I love like the feedback hearing from everybody in the school because it's

061like giving a light to kids saying like just write or just do something cuz you don't know what could come out of it. As it is with art how we had the last meeting a couple meetings ago and like with writing as well. It gives students to see that opportunity that the little things that they like to do there is something you could become big at it and you just never know cuz students I like also seeing somebody who is like looks like an everyday person you're not going to like if he he would just walk past if you didn't like Google him you would be like that's just another person but deep down like if you studying him and all that you would see that he has influential is all around and then especially

062his books being the main books now like selling out all the time that are always checked out. That's like showing something to students that you know school sometimes always has like a little fun part cuz I think like when we're so deep in with like um homework and all the works that we have to do and you have like a little achievement a little reward of seeing somebody famous and all it brings out more creativity to the students and not just only trying to be good academically. if they can have like you know having that academic and then seeing that there's a reward with seeing somebody famous it's like very helpful for students. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Sea. Any other comments or questions more? I have a quick one. Um I see that you're

063a big believer in um having a dream, right? And having that dream come to fruition. So what will be your next dream? What will be your next author that you want us to uh be able to embark on? We're gonna let Rachel take this one. Okay. We've spent a lot of time researching this and thinking about it. Um, you know, if we could I mean, do we drop names or Sure. We would love Nick Stone to come. Um, yeah, this is our dream. Our second dream. We have a lot of dreams. We have like a actually a Google doc that we share. We have a doc. Now that you got Mr. Reynolds. Maybe he can help out now. You know, got the goat. He's part of a he's part of a a writer's group probably.

064So maybe we bring him back. We already got our connection from Williams. We we were very lucky that that this was made possible because of an anonymous don donation from someone in the community. Um and we feel like, you know, we wanted to make sure that we honor we don't know who the individual is. Um but if their family is out there, we hope they feel honored that their gift um led to really an inspiration to read and write in Middletown High School. We feel it was funds well spent. So that was an anonymous donation. We don't know. Anonymous to us, but I think Mr. Tuttle has, you know, the tea, but thank you very much. I have something real quick. Uh Mr. Williams and then Miss Ceden. Yep. So, um, this is an I

065mean, I missed it, but it seems like this was an awesome awesome event. Um, and reading and writing creates uh a whole different atmosphere for some kids, right? I'm I'm a coach, so, you know, I've coached flag football, basketball, uh, many many sports, but not everybody's going to do a sport. And so the reading and writing um is so essential to life in general, right? It's uh if you don't have practice, you can go and pick up a book and it'll take you to a whole new world, right? Or you can get your thoughts out on paper. And I just think this is awesome. This is awesome. Awesome. I definitely want to tap in and tune in to the next one. Um I'm sorry I missed this one, but um that that's awesome. I I

066he's he's he's a super super intelligent uh guy that I've I know a little about a little bit about within like the last couple months. It's funny cuz I just started researching him. One of my employees at my uh at my shop is a super Marvel and DC. So, he was bringing up him up in the conversation. So, when I tell him tomorrow, he's going to lose his mind. So, he's going to try to find his way wiggle his way into the uh into the event. But, this is awesome. um reading and writing is so vital to our uh our future and generations. So, I just want to thank you guys for this. Thank you. Good point, Mr. Williams. Thank you, Miss Created. Um I just wanted to acknowledge um all the hard work that

067goes into experiences like these and make sure that our entire school community recognizes that we hear their voices and their feedback matters. Um, you know, we set out in our strategic plan to acknowledge that our family said we wanted more field trips, more experiences. And what we did was say that we feel like the best way that we could honor that feedback and provide experiences not just for small groups of kids, but for entire schools was to bring um, rich um, you know, experiences into our schools and make the field trips happen inside our buildings. And um the teams worked really really hard um on the instructional side um with folks like Mrs. Longeran and Mrs. Coun and the rest of the instructional team and Mrs. Adomma to continue to bring these um forth so

068that uh we don't only have to go outside the walls of these schools to experience things. There are certainly times and places for those and those are great. But with this type of experience, the entire school community got to participate in a field trip which was something very unusual. So I want to thank them for all their hard work. It was a really wonderful um day that was enjoyed not just by our young people here but by the adults um you know as well. So thank you. Yeah. I also feel I speak for um the board members that um you guys keep dreaming because um whatever ideals you have um don't hesitate to run them by us. You know we'll see what we can do to um bring those dreams forth for you. Thank you.

069Thank you. We'll share a whole Google doc with you. It's get ready. Thank you Mr. Mr. Tobias. Thank you very much. I'm going to put on an old hat. Um, when I was school library system director for Arjusties, uh, I brought in a coser for authors. I'm not sure what happened. I think, um, it went to Sullivan County, but also provided for Orange County schools. If that coser is still in existence, um I'm going to recommend you look into it because it becomes aidable, you bring an author in and you get aid. Um so I'm the council chair for the school library system and we just brought it back. So we will work on it for next year. Okay, great. Great. Got you. Um it um Middletown did um belong back. Uh I don't want

070to say the year a lot of water's gone over that dam but um they did participate and there was some wonderful wonderful experiences so I urge you. Yes. Thank you. Mr. Debas and Mr. Parino did you have anything? Are you good? helps out with uh programs on the special months and she gets her staff to uh uh bulletin boards and uh set up reading materials and the whole bit. So, both of you, Rachel and Emily, you do really a great job in the district. Thank you. Don't you have an event tomorrow? Well, we'll experience our program. Yes, we do. We all have an event tomorrow. Thank you, Mr. R and Mr. Parino. Mr. Romero, did you want to add anything? Um, amazing job. Thank you. And I'm just going to piggyback a little bit on

071what Mr. Freddy Williams brought up because I think it's a very important uh point about um, you know, the time to catch our scholars is young. You know, so, and it's easier said than done for many of our parents. Um, you know, it's easy to say, you know, make sure that you try to read with your child or with your um with your scholar at a very young age, very early on before they go to bed, what have you. But that's not easy sometimes for many of our parents, you know, who work at night. Um, some are some of our parents have language barriers, you know, so the the child speaks English, can read English, but the parent doesn't. But what we can do is find creative ways to still do the same thing but

072in different ways. So, you know, if you're a Spanish parent out there who or we have parents who, let's face it, they can't read or write. Um, and that's not an embarrassment. That happens. That's part of life. But I think there's ways to be creative and maybe say to your to your child, okay, you read the book and you tell me about it. that's how I learned about it. Um, or if there's a language barrier, you can read it in English and tell me in Spanish or any other language what it was about. So, there's ways of being creative. So, if parents out there are struggling to find time um to be able to have um their their child be able to to read at night or any call us up. We'll find a way

073to make it happen. I I would actually encourage parents to come tomorrow to the library during experience our programs because our K12 librarians have put together a really fun interactive activity where they'll get to taste many different books and they can leave with a postcard with a QR code right to um Aora which is our uh digital book platform. So the books that they are tasting are all available online with their you know MIDI ID and as well as in the district libraries in multiple languages. That's perfect. So, I mean, even putting a presentation on our website for future use where it's just a tab that says ways to read at home, you know, and and knowing that some parents are working at night, so they're not going to be there. Some parents have the

074language issue, but food for thought. Thank you very much. Thank you. We're going to stay up because we have another presentation. Our seal of civic readiness, all yours. I should be over there. You should be over here. We have one more. We're going to ask Miss Miss Carrie Luba to join um Miss Lrean and I um up at the stage as well as two of our scholars. Yeah, this is it. All right. So, we'll talk a little bit about the seal of civic readiness. Uh so at Middletown High School, civic education is an essential component of every scholar's academic program. Uh teaching the importance of engaging in a democratic process is necessary to build a more engaged, active future citizen and informed voter. Uh we are in our third year of implementation uh of the

075seal of civic readiness program at Middletown High School. And under the leadership of Emily Laan and Carrie Luba, our program continues to grow and impact our school and community in positive ways. Tonight you'll hear a little bit about from us about the program, but more importantly, you'll hear from our scholars about the direct impact they have made. Uh the seal of civic readiness is a formal recognition from New York State that shows colleges, admissions departments, scholarship committees, and employers that recipients are engaged citizens who appreciate and celebrate the diversity of our communities working together to solve social problems. SEAL recipients are empowered to identify issues and take action and be agents of positive change. We are so proud of all of our scholars and the many different ways they sought change this year. In our

076pilot year in 2023, 14 graduates from Middletown High School earned the seal of civic readiness. Last year, 47 scholars earned the seal. And this year, we still have some presentations that have to go before the committee, but we project over 70 graduates will earn the seal of civic readiness. And something that we're especially proud of is that approximately 25% of the graduates this year are scholars who are in special education programs or are English language learners. Awesome. Wow. The seal of civic readiness requires scholars to earn six points demonstrating their civic knowledge and civic engagement. There are numerous ways in which a scholar can earn the seal of civic readiness. The capstone project is the most intense, requiring scholars to identify and research an issue impacting their community, an issue in which they are passionate

077about, brainstorming and developing solutions and actually implementing those solutions to create change. We often end up calling these passion projects because that's what they become for our scholars. New York State and our team uh also recognizes that every scholar will have a different pathway based on their passions. Because of this, there are also independent pathways to earning the seal of civic readiness. Scholars can earn points through experiences in elective courses, extracurriculars, and work study. An example might be a scholar who's passionate about an issue in their community and completes volunteer hours. they may be able to use that service learning experience to earn one of the six points towards the seal of civic readiness. Because the pathways to the seal are so individualized, we encourage scholars to check in with the team, which they do,

078uh to determine the best fit and we work with those scholars to figure out the best way for them to earn those six points. We are also very very fortunate and we thank you guys especially to offer EDI to aid scholars after school as they work towards this incredible seal. micro. Uh so tonight we're going to highlight some of the projects from this school year and we're going to have some scholars uh talk to you as well. Um hi, my name is Gabrielle Sto. Um, hi. I'm Juliana Wilbur and our other two members, Briana Clearary and Yier Martinez, going to be here tonight, but we're the hygiene heroes and our project was a hygiene drive. One of the issues facing not only our school community, but the Middletown community at large is homelessness. Almost 1500

079people in the Hudson Valley last year identified as homeless. Our solution to this issue was to do a hygiene drive to benefit Recap Shelter local to Middletown. Through our drive, we were able to sorry, collect a surplus of products that will benefit the lives of people not only living in recap shelters, but also anyone in need who visits recap shelters that are looking for resources. Through our project, we learned that it doesn't take much to make a difference. Our project brought us closer to our community and helped us tap into our creativity. We also learned how to better work with a group and grow our teamwork abilities to compose a good environment where ideas are able to flow and build creativity. [Applause] Hi, my name is Danielle Jones Jackson and I'm the creator of Fizzy

080Bags, which is that Bag Oh, just um busy bags were a way for parents to focus on parent teacher conferences while also keeping any uh kids that they had to bring with them to the conferences busy. They are bags filled with books and coloring sheets with crayons and stickers. Um all of the bags were donated by Mitties Love to Read and the busy bags were also added to all of our cohort offices in the high school so that any PTC PTC's that happen throughout the year, we have busy bags available. It really is busy. Another one of our projects this year were buttons for lanyards and signage for our doors uh that were created in both English and any language other than English that our staff members speak. Um so that scholars who speak another

081language know who they can go to to speak to in their native language. And if anybody wants a pin for their lanyard, please let me know and we will have it made for you. uh we've formed a lot of partnerships uh throughout the development of this course. Uh this uh fall we had a group that was very passionate about bringing um knowledge and awareness about drug use amongst teens. So they partnered uh with our SRO's and MPD and conducted a series of interviews and ultimately implemented an awareness campaign for scholars to take a pledge uh during lunch periods and to learn. They shared valuable statistics uh with our scholars regarding the dangers of drug abuse. Uh one currently in action, one of our most successful projects so far this semester is bags of hope. Our

082scholars designed a project a project in partnership with um the Orange County Department of Social Services to build and design bags of travel hygiene products for children in foster care, an issue which is very near and dear to their hearts. The scholars worked very closely with Miss Still Pineda um at the Department of Social Services to make sure that these bags of hope get directly into the hands of foster children in our community. This project um really took off. It was uh not only a high school effort, it became an entire district campaign. Uh educators and staff members across the entire Middletown school district donated items and bags for this project. It was so incredible to see all of the things, the emails that we kept getting asking, "Are you guys still collecting?" and the

083amount of boxes that we walked into the mail room with our names on them. Uh we cannot express our gratitude to our Middletown family for showing up. Um and if anyone would like to contribute, uh the girls as they continue put it together are in uh need of travel size shampoo and uh travel size conditioners. That's like where they're falling a little short right now as they finish up their bags. So, okay. Thanks, Some of our other community-based capstone projects this year uh included a Thanksgiving food drive that we did in the fall where our scholar collected enough food and turkeys to provide over 50 families with a full Thanksgiving meal. Um and we had be be the reason somebody smiles which is happening currently and they are collecting donations which is kind of a

084remix of the hygiene hero heroes except these donations are going to honor specifically focusing on women and children in needs of goods. Carrie and I like props as you will see. Um so thank you so much for your ongoing supports of our scholar and the ever evolving capstone projects. And as a token of our appreciation, uh we have named you all honorary capstonians, uh we would like to thank you and we want to give each of you uh a capstonian cup and in each cup there are little snippets of some of our projects. Uh, we have above the influence stickers, Mitties Love to Read bookmarks, a sample of a recipe from our upcoming Midi cookbook. A sample of the coloring books from Danielle's Busy Bags, and Legacy Makers and all language stickers. Thanks so much,

085Carrie. Nice, Jess. Awesome. Okay. Oh, nice. So, thank you so much for your support. Um, we have several other capstone projects that are featured tomorrow night at Experience Our Programs as well. So, if you want to come on in, we'll be in here. Thank you guys. Awesome job. Uh, Mr. Ostrada, they mentioned PR, you know, some of your projects. Could you inform the board perhaps like I know I have cosmetic bags, brand new ones, things like that that we could donate, but ahead of time for some of these projects that if we did want to donate, we could donate and we'd know where to bring them. Yes, we would appreciate any support. Thank you. And if you know and if you know Miss Tobias's travel arrangements each year, you know she's got a lot of

086nice bags and ones though. They're not used, you know. I was gonna I was gonna I was going to say, I got you. I got you. Give um uh give me one week. I'm put my ministry team on it first thing in the morning. Give me one week and uh we got we got we got some stuff for you. Thank you so much. Awesome. Thank you very much. Appreciate it all very much. Thank you. So, now we'll move on to our next portion of our agenda. And I I want to apologize to members of the public who had anticipated to speak to the board earlier. Um but I do thank you for your patience. Whenever we have student presentations, we do like to move them up in the agenda knowing that they have to go

087to school early the next day and might have homework or tests to get ready for. So at this m moment, the board will designate a portion of the meeting agenda for public comment for a period of up to 40 minutes. Each speaker will be allowed up to four four minutes. The public is not permitted to discuss topics under matters involving specific individuals. Speakers must sign in prior to speaking and speakers are not permitted to seed their time to other speakers. And Miss Aila personas. Thank you. Do we have any takers from the public who'd like to address the board at this time? No. Thank you very much. Uh any letters? None received by the board. Okay. So, we'll move out of here early. Don't count on it. Next up, our student board member report. Miss

088Aila, it's all yours. Um, as much as the school, uh, a lot of the sports have been having a nice season. Um, not to like, you know, like a little tap on the shoulder, but the flag football team right now is undefeated. You know, a 10 and Oh, when's your next game? Tomorrow is senior night at believe six o'clock or 5:30. No, six o'clock. Six o'clock. Six o'clock. And so it's after experience, our program night. So, a lot of our um teammates are going to be a little tired, but we're going to still put in that energy that we have to put in. It's going to be against Newberg. They're really tough guys. Let's go. Let's go. Yes. Um and that uh just uh there's there's been a lot, you know, I've been like trying

089to um do some things with Miss uh Shei and Mr. Donahghue. of like having probably like little like outdoor lunches like I said previous but you know there's like protocols that we have to go through cuz we want like kids to feel like special cuz you know not everybody is like the top 10% that's able to go on senior enrichments but like you know getting a fresh breather of air that's something I feel like a lot of people enjoy but obviously it would have to be passed by the board and from that there hasn't been as much from the um from kids that have complained or whatever but yeah it's been It's been settled these couple of weeks. Thank you. Oh, yes. So, on June 4th, uh, I'm going to the American Dairy Association, which

090is me talking about how if kids love the school lunch, I don't know. No, I'm joking. I I be munching on I'd be munching a little bit, a little bit, a little bit. If my friends would like if we had phones out, there was be a picture of me every single day eating that school food. But that's me though. That's me. That's me. You gotta You gotta take what's free. Huh. But yeah. Thank yous. Thank you very much. Um I do want to make sure that um if we can begin the implementation of um the process for because I know Mr. Domo was part of it. Uh Mr. Domo was part of it. um the process to start for our student rep for next year because we do want Miss Aila to have some input

091uh in regards to that as well. So, all right, cool. Um we're going to go on to our um because we it was part of the part that we skipped to uh do our student presentations. We're going to do our uh board member community updates at this time. So, we'll go out to Mr. Moore to start us off. Thank you. Uh, I'll be relatively quick with this one, but I just want to let everyone know, um, I had a very good conversation with Mr. Williams. He's a current, um, volunteer firefighter here at Middletown, and they're in dire need for youth, um, fire department, uh, volunteers. Um, all prospective volunteers must be, uh, Middletown resident, uh, 16 and 17 years old. They must have their parent signature for approval. uh teens will go through a background

092check. Um and the the junior volunteers must maintain a a um strong grades uh to keep volunteering. Uh there's some great incentives as well. Uh the first being that some of the students have an opportunity to gain valuable experience. Uh further they to gain some great skills towards their career as a firefighter if they choose. And they even have retirement benefits and tax benefits as well and retail um discounts that are provided uh to those who are volunteering. Uh there's a long legacy here over 165 years and they're looking to have to continue that, but they definitely need the youth to take part and hopefully we can possibly make that happen by making this more aware. Thank you. Thank you. And I I'm sure that tugs right into Mr. Parino's heart. Mr. Parino's been a

093long advocate and uh I believe you belong to one of the firehouses, right? Which one? Excelsier. Excelsier. though. Thank you, Mr. Moore. Mr. Parino, it's all yours. As as Mr. Moore stated, there is a great need for volunteers. I remember when I started way back in uh the 60s, uh there was a waiting list to get in. Now, it's difficult to get people. I don't know all the reasons for it. No one does, but it's hard. But anyway, continuing on here, I'm sure, and I don't speak for the board, but I know we wish all mothers a happy Mother's Day this uh particular this Sunday. And what better way to celebrate Mother's Day, a couple things. Number one, there's a pancake breakfast at the Elks Lodge from 8 to 12. So, bring mom out, buy

094her breakfast, and then uh uh go from there. Now, there's also raffles and a bake sale. Another way to celebrate Mother's Day, tomorrow we're going to have a plant sale at the high school and it supports the track team. Uh this morning uh when I say we Dan Higgby graciously donated his time and bus myself, Linda Nap and Mrs. Dro we went down to Pine Island and pick pick up the plants and believe me the this we've always had nice selections but this is really the best selection. the uh person Ricky Polarek who used to work for the district does a nice job and he treats the district very very special with good prices and good plans. As a matter of fact, he had to go to New York today to pick up uh some

095items. Uh but he waited until he supervised the selection of the plants. They grow all their own plants on the pluric farm. Continuing on here, I want to salute one of our uh members, the the son of one of our members, Aaron Williams, Dominican College. And uh I know Bishop Williams picked him up last night, but done for the season year. But the big thing is he broke all records, track records in Dominican College. the the 100, the 200, 300, four, what is it? Four times one, John. But uh uh as a freshman now, and he ran against seniors from many, many schools and so uh I I know as he goes on, he's going to set all kinds of records and uh he's also doing very well in school. So, congratulations to Bishop Williams

096and Shironda Williams and Aaron Williams. Part of it all is good parenting and which uh John and Shran always do with their children. So, thank you John. Good deal there. Um this week, teacher appreciation day, nurses appreciation uh week, uh teacher appreciation week, and I know we salute all our staff. We saw some excellent people here. And I just want to comment the last thing. I I'm going to deviate a little here. I I want to comment on the musicians tonight, especially the strings program. People on the board at the time when we started this, John, uh Ed, uh Rose, and myself, we had a hard time getting this through because there were people who said, "Well, Middletown, they're not going to do that. The kids aren't going to be interested. Parents aren't going to

097be interested." Uh Megan Googalatada, who was here tonight, started with 25 today. There's 270 particip or more participating in the uh strings program. So we we saw the results of it tonight. Some of the results just very great. And I'm done. I don't like to go over it. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Parino. And we'll have more time during round table. It's early enough night we'll be able to do some round table today. Mr. R. Uh good evening once again. Um I wanted to just call reference to the multicultural celebration we had um last week. It was incredible. Um the turnout keeps getting larger and larger. Uh we had so many people from the community um different cultures, you know, entertaining and dancing. We had musicians from the school. It was just a really wonderful

098um as our buddy um Mitch Williams always referenced to um it takes a community, it takes a village. It it was just very festive. It was just wonderful. And um we want to give a shout out to um the comm community uh the committee um me um team member leader is um Shadra St. Louis. So we want to acknowledge him u for the efforts that him and his team are doing to continue to make that grow. It's really spe it was really special. Um I also want to just call reference to um he was talking about the firefighters and um the need. I believe the gentleman is Leighton Leighton Williams. Yeah. So um I I believe me and Miss got some information to you about his name. So and so I think you know we'll

099talk about reaching out to him. I I'll get that number back to you. Oh, there you go. See, you see how this thing works here? Everybody working together. Teamwork makes the dream work. Uh, anything else? What do we got? Um, I just want to acknowledge um this um civic readiness thing. This is just once again wonderful things. the thinking outside of the box, giving kids other options to um you know as as it pertains to extracurricular activities outside the academic setting. You know, it gives them you know more energy to um put into things that interest them and and getting a better sense of um how they can improve and help out in their communities. U one of them that was very dear to me and I like the idea is that um hygiene something

100what did they call it? What was it? Yeah. Yeah. Hygiene heroes. I mean, you'd be amazed at how some kids and some students, they just don't have the um the means to get those hygiene. And um so just that type of thinking outside the box is wonderful. Uh let's keep up the good work. Way to go, Mises. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. R. Mr. Tobias. Thank you, President Estrada. I'll make mine very short. Um, it was really an honor and a privilege to attend last night's Mid Hudson's uh, school study council where we had two of our board members represented and that was for um, um, Orange Sullivan Olter and Duchess County. So, I did appreciate that. And last but not least, on Tuesday night at the common council, our superintendent and our assistant superintendent,

101Mr. Tuttle, uh, presented the budget. um at the common council meeting. Um I think what was very rewarding was to hear the comments from our mayor about the cooperation between the school district and the city of Middletown. Um I appreciated it and I'm sure that others there did. So uh good job Mike, good job Amy. Um, and I hope you don't mind I use their first name instead of saying Mr. But it was a very worthwhile evening. And I think that, you know, I'd like to be able to attend a couple more of the common council meetings just to report back um what activities are going on or if there's a special event or something like the community yard sale. You are you already volunteering to be the liaison to the city next year? Hopefully.

102We'll have to see. Thank you, Mason. Uh Mr. Freddy Williams. Thank you. Um I have a couple images. Did you want to go last? I I just Yeah, you threw me off. I was I'm ready. I'm ready to go. Okay, go ahead. Uh I have a couple images that should be up or coming up. So this is one image from this past Saturday. Uh May 3rd, we had Parks and Wreck and Middle uh conjoined with Middletown uh school district. We had the Kids First Cops um second annual basketball game. Um yeah, Mitch So uh Vice President Mitchell Williams jumped in. He hopped in and he, you know, he works with parks and recck also with the boxing program, so he volunteered the referee. He was making some really good calls. Couple couple bad ones, but

103mostly good. Um, so it was an excellent time. The modified team um was composed of seventh and eighth graders. There was eight of them. Some from Mount Hagen, some from Twin Towers. Um, and that's coach uh Kevin Dales from the YMCA. He volunteered his time to DJ uh which he did an excellent job. So, the modified game, the modified team ended up winning 56 to 55 over the police department. Yeah, it was a excellent game. Um, came down to the wire. Uh, modified was winning most of the time. MPD made a run, came back, took the lead with about a minute left and then Modified had a steal layup and they ended up winning the game. So, excellent game. And then moving forward to the JV varsity level, they um also caught a win um

10460- 52 I believe. So Middletown went 2 and 0 versus uh MPD. So um and they were working, let me tell you. Next year I think they're going to come with a little more uh firepower. Uh Stevenson was out there, Mrs. uh Montree doing his thing. I was surprised to see him. Um but listen, it was a great event. So much support. I think with I think with Mr. Moore and Pastor Williams, we should have a board team. It's It's looking like that can that can happen, right? And I'm glad you brought up Mr. Moore because as I'm watching it, um MPD had one female cop and I'm thinking and uh we have practices where we transition together and I'm watching Mr. Moore walk in with his team, um the young females, and I said,

105"You know what? I'm going to sit with Drew." So, next year we got to do something for the females cuz female basketball is on a whole another level right now, too. And I know that one female cop was like, "Okay, you know, these kids were like, you know, so we're going to sit and talk, Drew. I definitely want to talk to you about that and get that rolling because I think that's a nice element to add, right?" And it makes sense. Um, so yeah, that was a great time. Um, Middletown 2 and 0 and the MPD got something to work on. We were kind of teasing them a little bit, but uh, you know, might get a ticket or two, but um, it was a good time. Excellent. Had great energy um, afterwards with the

106pitchers and and side conversations. It was just an excellent time. So, thank you Middletown School District. Thank you, Middletown Parks and Rec, Ray Lynn, Nikki, uh, Selenez, and I'm going to miss a couple people, but thank you all um, for your support and another great event. So, we're looking forward to the one next year, and I think I have uh, a couple more images, I believe. Freddy, they did mention that at Common Council on Oh, they did. Yes. Nice. Did they get the right score? Cuz I don't know. the police department. Okay, good. Just want to make sure that happened. Was there any more images? I think that was it. No, that's it. Oh. Um, looking for the barberhop images cuz I know that was a lot. I sent a lot of uh basketball ones

107and if they're not, it's fine. Um, so I just like to, you know, I'm happy to, uh, announce that two Middletown seniors, currently, current seniors are, um, employed with me at my barberh shop. Um, I want to get his name right. Nasir Nasir and help me up. Andrades. Andrades. I don't want I wanted to make sure I got it right. Nasia Anares and Isaiah uh Karthy are two current Middletown seniors and I had some images of them but you know I I'll probably throw them up next time but um they're officially statelicicensed as apprentice barbers and they're doing an excellent job and they're putting excellent time in um you know so I'm enthusiastic about you know people that own businesses in the city of Middletown and beyond you know to pour into our kids you

108know if they have the opportunity if you have an open space for employment or or you know, anything that can help them build their future or any kind of certification um then you know we should we should kind of pour in. Um and I just want to shout out um Mr. Mitchell Williams, me and him, this was kind of our project that we put together and these these guys are thriving. Also um Brian Cruz, Sean Castillo, and Mr. Evan uh Everton Brown also poured in and helped with the certification and the financial aspect uh to get these guys right. So, I just wanted to mention that. Um, and I'll have something more in round table. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you, Mr. Freddy Williams. Miss Romero, I want to talk about Twin Towers, our diamond and

109our pearl, too. No, not yet. Later. Um, I have some pictures to share for Twin Towers College and Career Day. Uh Twin Towers hosted an annual career fair uh headlined by Siobhan Lloyd Y uh Twin Tower Middle School graduate and proud legacy maker. After listening to the keynote speaker, the eighth grade scholars had the opportunity to hear from a range of local community members about a variety of exciting career paths. A big shout out to Lorraine Anderson, that's Twin Tower Middle School student support counselor for organizing the meaningful event. Recently, um Twin Tower, the Twin Towers Lighthouse team had the opportunity to meet with their leader in me coach to reflect on the action items they've been working on throughout the year. This team made up of both educators and scholars continues to do incredible

110work together and there's a lot of excitement to see the impact of their efforts. This week, Twin Towers Middle School held their spring concert and it was a wonderful event. My son participated as a member of the chorus and it was truly humbling to witness the incredible talents of our scholars. I'm proud and grateful to be part of such an inspiring district. So, Look at you. You're up there. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. That was awesome. Thank you very much, Pastor Williams. So, I'm I'm Before I get my image up, I I I want to piggyback real quick on Miss Romero and um Siobhan Lloyd. Um those of us that have been around for a while know Siobhan. Uh he was an amazing amazing student here at Middletown. Uh and and the reason that excites

111me even even tonight with the young with our young scholars that came and performed tonight music many many Jews don't know that uh that uh I studied music in college that was that was my my area of studies and uh and so anything musically it just excites me. Um but Siobhan u amazing young man and just in the way of a a quick passing story, my wife and I were flying back from Atlanta uh uh the in uh in April we were down at the National School Board um association convention and we were flying back and we happened to sit down next to uh Siobhan's uh uh professor from Giuliard. And so we had we had an amazing conversation with with Siobhan's um professor. He he started uh when we said that we were from

112Middletown, he began to talk about and so we just sat there the whole time and just had an amazing conversation. So uh he's making impact. And so that's some of the legacy that we have. Um, and so writing on to that, if you could put up the image for me, uh, last, um, I believe it was last, uh, Friday or Friday before last, uh, we, our high school had an amazing, um, performance uh, of of uh, and this is the cast picture uh, of some amazing young people who performed the 25th annual, the musical, the 25th annual putt them county spelling bee. Uh and and the only reason that we have to put we can only put up the cast pictures is because of copyright laws and copyright uh you know situations that we can't

113put up any of their performances. We miss out sometimes on some of the amazing performances of these young people. I have to say uh I have to say that the quality of this musical was absolutely amazing. The harmonies, the strength, the um the acting, uh the performances overall was absolutely amazing. And I would encourage any anytime that um any of our schools have performances like this, try to make your way and be in the crowd to be there because we can't show we can't show their performances because of copyright laws. Uh we can't show their performances. We can't record them. We can't even really put pictures up. We can only do something like this, the cast picture. Um, but I want to I want to um congratulate them on such an amazing performance uh on

114on uh on last week. It was Friday and on Saturday. And so uh uh again, I encourage you, we got so many wonderful, talented, and gifted young people in this in this district. And so um let's continue to support them. Let's continue to push them. uh they're going they're going on to do great things. Many of them should be professionals. In fact, some of the choreography was done by one of our very own scholars. So, um outside of that, I got some other stuff. Maybe if I'm if I'm still able to be here for round table, I have something something else I'll share. Um but, uh I just needed to I needed to put that out especially on a night when we were celebrating the music programs. Um, I don't I don't want us to

115forget that we've got so much going on in the area of performance, the arts and per arts and and performance. All those things are big right now. So, thank you. Thank you, Pastor Williams. Um, I'm going to end mine with a with a video. Um, but first, I do want to acknowledge all of our uh teaching staff for uh teachers appreciation week. Um, you guys mean a lot to us. We could not obviously do any of this without um all of our um our teachers out there. Um Miss Cedan wanted me to remind everybody that the district is tomorrow for teachers appreciation day going to buy um ice cream novelties which I'm told are ice cream bars, both dairy and non-dairy um for all employees in appreciation of all their hard work. Um and we'll

116be celebrating that tomorrow at each of the home schools. Um, did want to not forget that we have some birthdays around the table. Mr. Freddy Williams, happy birthday today. Um, couple of belated birthdays, both Norma and Mr. Rhett as well. Whoa, my friend. May seems to be a very big month. It's my mother-in-law's birthday today, too, so I can't forget that as well. Um, so, you know, happy birthday to everybody. Um, as well before I get to the final part, I do want to remind everybody because our next meeting will be hopefully to ratify our school budget vote, which is uh May 21st. So, I'd be remiss not to remind everyone about our school budget vote, which is on Tuesday, May 20th. Um, the vote is open from 7:00 a.m. to 900 pm. Um, you

117can vote at either the board of education office, Truman Moon, the annex at Truman Moon, or Presidential Park Elementary. But remember, you can't just show up at any one of the three buildings. You have based on your address, need to go to one of those three sites. If you're not sure which of the three sites um you can go to um we have a link on our website that you can hit um input your address probably and then it'll show you where where it says where do you where do I vote under the board of education tab um you can also contact our district clerk uh Mrs. Monery at 8453261196. Um if we don't hear your voice, sometimes it gets drowned out by um others. So um we really need you to come out and

118vote on Tuesday, May 20th. Um in regards to our school budget, we also have um three board member seats available. There are four candidates for three um seats this year as well. So I'm going to move on and give uh kudos. As you know, uh, the seat to my left, um, your right, if you're watching on on live stream, has been empty today for our colleague, our vice president, Mr. Mitch Williams, who had a really special day today. For those of you who don't know, um, Mitch has been an integral part lately of trying to build up a boxing program um, within the city of Middletown for many of our, um, scholars and our students, whether they be male, female, and even now the adults as well. um and he's been uh now hired and

119teaming up with the Middletown Parks and Recreck Department um to make that come to a fruition. Today was an open house, which is why he's not here today um at the location which was 393 County Route 78, the parks and recck building out across from Maple Hill Park. So, I wanted to run a video that's about three and a half minutes long, I believe. Um, and then a short video after that about what we saw today. You're gonna see some amazing kids. I can't believe um how young they are and how fast they can box. So, if we can roll the video, that'd be great. [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] And then I wanted to

120show you the little clip of about like 30 seconds from what happened today during the opening. I was just amazed at watching some of these young kids. I mean, real young kids, but how talented they looked in the ring training a little bit. So, if we can run that 30 second clip and I apologize, the video is me so doing it. [Music] And those are our our kids, you know. So, that that's what it's all about. We want to thank uh Middletown Parks and Wreck and Ray Berthof and Nicole Sarakus. Um so, I encourage all of you out there that if you're interested, no better way to get your cardio going than um I'm going to They even at one time had couples boxing and my wife said, "Why don't we go? I don't know

121how to take that, but nevertheless, maybe we'll maybe we'll be doing that. So, thank you guys for letting me the extra couple of seconds over there. So, we'll move on to our um board member conferences or professional any shareouts. Do we have public participation? I noticed that we did. We did. Okay. Yeah, we did. No, I noticed her. I know. I was I was waiting in case you wanted to come up, but yeah. Okay. So, um, did you want to, uh, say anything? Are you good with the report that you gave? You're good. All right. Good luck tomorrow, by the way. So, um, any other anything about conferences first before we get into our, um, any other updates at the end? Okay. So, move on to um any committee reports, construction updates. Do we have

122anything? Safety. Okay. Absolutely. I think Ed this is a part of the presentation. We had a facilities committee report and Bill presented this and uh it was very good. So I asked Bill to present this at the uh board meeting. structed. So, we have a blank screen. There we go. And this is another This is the aerial view of it. The uh three boxes in red are the new addition parts to the existing building. The one that's at the top of the screen is a section you'll see later in the presentation with the steel structure going up. Once that section's completed, the lower one in the righthand side will be next. Um I would anticipate that to begin within the next two to three weeks and then the final little there's a a physical fitness

123spot the lower leftand corner there that little the smaller section there will be the final u final part of this construction project. This is just a view of some of the existing building where it's been um renovated. They're getting to this point. As you can see, the sheetrock's going up, the duct work, the electrical. So, it's getting to the point where it's getting all the things that are behind the wall and above the ceiling are being completed and they're beginning to put the sheetrock in and um so it's coming right along another larger section of that. Um, of course, when you start these projects, there's a lot of work and you got to get out of the ground to start with. And this project, we're um putting a whole new electrical service entrance into this

124building. And this just represents all the wires, all the piping, all the conduit coming into this building. It's really quite an undertaking. At some point in the future, once this is up and uh all constructed and put together, we'll actually cut over the building from the existing service entrance to this new entrance. So, um just interesting to see those things. Um this here is you've probably seen this driving by. This is the foundation and the weather proofing that's going on. This is a picture of our mechanical room. So, we had those 185 geo wells that were installed a couple of summers ago. And this is the equipment that it'll take to run that and to use that that uh geosourced heat throughout our building. So, this is just a picture of that. It's really quite

125impressive. I think on the 29th we have a a walkthrough scheduled for you guys. You're going to want to see that because in person is is really quite remarkable. A little more to do with that. Some electrical, you know, the controls that go along with it as well. You've I'm hope you've seen this driving by. It's pretty exciting when you start to finally get out of the ground. We get some steel going up. And uh that started on I think it was Monday, April 7th. Uh they made a lot of progress in a hurry. They got the first couple of floors together. Then they had to square it all up, weld things solid, put the decking on, and then they put the second level on. Uh they've been doing that this past week. So we're

126at this point. You're literally four floors up at that point. That's your top um level. That'll be the roof in a few months. So, it's just pretty exciting to see. If you haven't had the chance, this is what our courtyard looks like today. I was mentioning this picture almost looks like a rendering, but that's exactly it. That's the courtyard now. We have a little M in there for our own branding. And um once we get uh on in and the rest of this building's been retrofit out, it'll be an opportunity and a space that can be used. But it's exciting to see some of these things as they go along. And this is just a rendering of the side. If you're staying in the field, you're looking at the cafeteria in this picture. And over

127to your left is the physical education uh portion that's yet to be built. These two locations are are um the next two phases. But and of course, if there's any questions or whatever, you're always welcome to reach out to us through this um spot on our website. We've got other things going on. You may have noticed the food service storage building has started. They prepped the site for that. We took down some trees and removed the garage and we're getting things set up for that. And um we even had a meeting this past Tuesday with the town of Walkill just to go over some future projects that we have in in the works. And um so there's a lot going on. It's exciting. It's a great place to work. We really enjoy it. Any questions?

128Awesome. Any questions? I remember that we'll have a chance to visit the site at the end of the month. That would be a good idea, Mr. Parina. I I 6:30 on May 20. I'm sorry. So 5:15 to 6:30 on May 29th is what we'll have though. I was going to me I was going to mention that that date. So no, it's a a good idea. And I just want to say just a couple things about this whole project. Uh John and I uh Bishop Williams and I were on the uh committee and we kind of uh insisted that the staff get what they want in this building and and pretty much that has uh uh that has happened because I've been involved in too many construction projects throughout the years and for the district where

129uh the staff wasn't really consulted that much which uh didn't turn out too well. So, this is a this is good. The second thing um construction's not easy on staff for students. That's for certain. But the company has done everything possible to minimize the uh minimize the I I'm going to call it the trauma of construction because it's it it's pretty tough. Uh I haven't heard I I talked to the the com the last concert I went to there I talked to some of the administrators and really the staff I want to compliment them. They're bear bearing up very well through this whole construction process and uh again thanks to uh uh Bill and I know Kevin Wit is publicizing what's going on and taking photos and so on. So, uh, good enough. Thank you.

130Thank you, Mr. Bino. I know last year there was some impact towards the end of the school year last year, right? But there will there will not be this year. So, that's a good thing. All right. Thank you very much, Bill. Appreciate it. Um, any other board of education committee? Now, the audit committee is meeting Wednesday, June 4th, correct? at uh 5:30 at the 5:00. Correction, which is the day before. The audit committee is meeting Wednesday, June 4th at 5:00 at the board office, which is the day before our school board meeting, right? June 5th is Okay. Thank you, Mr. Basino. Oh, Mr. R. Policy committee meeting is uh May 15th, that's a Thursday at 5:30. Thank you, Mr. Rat. Mr. Parino. Yeah, just in relation to the facilities committee, I I think the we

131all have to understand and the make the public aware, the taxpayers aware that you know what we do in Middletown is try to in fact we succeed in keeping the buildings in excellent condition. There's a lot of preventative maintenance that goes into these buildings uh when the student is uh when on vacations and and after school and so on. And Mr. Bartlett outlined uh outlined all those uh uh what's happening uh whether it be the floors being uh uh brazed or the uh uh filters and the HVAC systems being changed on and on. And you know, the one of the head custodians at Presidential Park, uh, Joe Smith, uh, said, you know, I tell the the people who work with me, we want to keep the buildings as new as possible. In other words, just

132uh when we the students moved in, keep them as spotless as possible. And the guys do a great job with us, too. Uh that's uh one thing. The other item is we had a safety and security meeting and uh Bishop Williams was uh uh president at that meeting. One of the big things, two of the things that came out of this uh meeting. Number one, uh Lenny, uh Zapka, the director of securities, is working on a digital floor plan with all the other districts. So, uh, everything the, god forbid there's some type of an emergency, the, um, the emergency responders would have a floor plan of not only our, uh, our district, but the, uh, the other districts are working in concert on this. And a company CRG is doing this. The other thing, this

133is a kind of a biggie, too. Um there's a and and I I think Mr. uh Mike Tuttle was involved in this. I know he was. The visit to Skenctity Schools to see a new program uh a new program to facilitate entering the building in a uh in a quicker manner so to speak. Uh they they have an advanced metal detector and bag X-ray machine and I I believe members of the district are going up to see that on uh when is the date? May 15th 16th sticks in my mind. So uh very good on that. I'm sure we'll get a report on on that uh when they return. So, it's kind of a it is a very new system and uh we'll see the cost and uh so on as we go on here.

134That's that's the committee reports. If I can add to Mr. committee report real quick um to add to the committee report in in respects to uh what Mr. Pino talked about too is as it relates to our construction to our construction, you know, um just to dispel some of the the misinformation sometimes that gets out. Um you know, many of the projects that we have done have been at minimal to to no um impact to the tax base. And and so uh most of many of our projects I I I how how how what's the percentage of aidable that the aid that we receive? 89.9 89.9 89.9%. I mean that's huge for us to be able to do a project of this magnitude especially at uh Twin Towers which which is highly needed to make

135sure that that that building is uh able to to keep us in a place where we are relevant to the times and to the uh to the you know the growing the growing uh you know student population and community population that we have I think is is huge. And so, you know, I just want to I want to dispel sometimes some of the the negative negative statements that are put out there and and and know that it's very a very small number. Uh but again, as I said earlier, this district goes above and beyond to make sure that we are fiscally sound in the things that we do because at the end of the day, it's all about our scholars and our families and our stakeholders. And so, uh I'm excited about watching the school

136that I went to, you know, as as a middle schooler. It was a junior high school then. I'm excited about watching it, watching the the the construction and watching I'm most of you know I I live right there and so uh to to watch the steel go up is just exciting to me and to and to to be able to have a glimpse into what the into what it's going to look like when it's completed. Um I can't wait. I can't wait. So, uh, I I know if you got questions, if you got questions, if you got things that you don't understand, things that you that that you know, all of us are not professionals in construction, ask the questions. Don't don't put out rhetoric or misinformation. Ask the questions. go to the horse's mouth

137and ask the questions, you know, and and and and I promise you, you'll get the information that you want and the information that you need. So, thank you, Pastor Williams. Well, just as a reminder for anybody who out there who's who's wants to question it, the public voted for it. So, uh the public voted for those capital improvements. Any other committee reports before we move on? Yep. Mr. Romero? Um, I have pictures I want to share. It's for Diamonds and Pearls. We hosted our last our final ladies night out event of the 2024 2025 school year. And as always, it was a wonderful time spent with incred with an incredible group of ladies. One of the highlights for me, aside from the delicious food, was creating uh vision boards together. I hope all of our

138attendees enjoyed the event as much as we enjoyed hosting it. And um we're all just wishing all these young women with purpose and power a great summer until we meet again next school year. We didn't have any male crashers. No, thank God. Yeah. Kurt and I were banned, right? We were banned. Me and me and John were banned by uh Miss uh Romero there. Yeah. Thank you. Any committee reports, Andrew or Freddy? No. We'll move on to a board member roundt and we'll start in the opposite direction tonight. Mr. Freddy Williams, you can start us off. That works. Thank you. Um, I'm going to um start with um a salute and shout out to um uh Mrs. Camille Adom and um uh Tiffany Hall with the CK LA uh program that we've supported. So, I'm

139super happy that about this program and um they've done multiple presentations. It's just so important to catch the kids. So, you know, at that level and that program is going to be awesome for us that's going to be starting this upcoming school year, right, Camille? Yes. Yeah. Yes. So, that is that is awesome. I'm so happy to hear that and it just adds on to everything else. Middletown checks so many boxes on so many levels. So, I'm happy about that. Um, I wanted to circle back about the uh basketball event because I left some people out. Um, the Middletown athletic department. Um, Mr. Mr. Dave Coats uh and Mr. Kevin Gleon was on site and uh he did an amazing job. I think that day there was the Middletown B kids versus cops and then

140there was a lacrosse game and then I think there was an a softball game also. Um so it's just seeing the facility so busy and everything was just on point. So a shout out to the athletic department, shout out to the coaches that coached that day. Um coach, he's a JV coach Daniel Grant. He's also in security aid for us at Twin Towers. awesome guy. Um, also he was uh took Middletown to the state championship 2015 Ed, I think, right? Something like that. Yeah, I think to the like the state championship. Yep. As point guard. He was the best point guard in the state that year and he, you know, he returned back to Middletown. He's pouring into the kids. I say that we won the public school. Yeah, exactly. We won the public school.

141We were the best public school in New York State, which which says a lot. Um so him and then also coach uh Dit Doulson. He's also with our uh ma um custodial staff at uh Maple I believe and he was also an assistant uh modified coach this year. So these guys stepped in for uh Coach Harrison uh who's a varsity coach, Coach Rose, uh Coach Hamilton who's um a freshman coach, and Coach Marcus Rhett, my man. He's awesome guy. while they were on um a coaches retreat kind of forum uh at Iona College. So, it's always next man up and that's what I love about the district is there's a lot of moving pieces, but there's also also people ready to step up and um and lead. So, that was uh I wanted to give

142them um a special shout and I think there was something else but it's been a long day and uh I'll write it down and get to it next time. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Freddy Williams. Mrs. Romero, I don't have anything. Thank you, thank you, Pastor Williams. Uh, so I just wanted to jump in because I I talked about the music, but I just wanted to jump back in and just kind of piggy back again back up on um two things that were mentioned tonight. Um with the uh the fire department and uh and then with the the police game, the police uh and the the students the students the basketball game. Uh but for for those who who don't know, I also do some chapency. Um uh I train chaplain. I train chaplain. We

143have a um fully accredited fully accredited state um state u state authorized um uh uh chapency school where we train chaplain um in the areas of um law enforcement, chapency, all kinds of different areas. But I do some chapency with both the fire department um at times and and with um various police departments in the region. And so um it's you know it's exciting uh to hear certain things that are happening in the community. I encourage I want to I want to double down on um on Mr. Moore Mr. Moore's uh announcement to double down uh because it's much needed. It's much needed. um volunteers uh in the in the in the fire department. And then uh as far as the basketball game is concerned, um I'm I I get in trouble sometimes because the

144police department tries to recruit me to play with them. Uh but the real the reality is um that I I refuse because I'm I bleed Middletown Middletown. So, uh I can't play with them. But maybe maybe Mr. Moore Mr. Moore and I will do something do something next year. Next year. And uh maybe we get Mr. uh Mr. Freddy Williams back out in the court to He used to have a He used to have a pretty decent jump shot. I just trained I just trained now. That's it. I trained my son in these kids. Shooting. Shooting is like riding the bike, bro. Yeah, my my insurance is uh shooting is like riding the bike. Joe, but you can do that. But uh there's big things going on and um a lot of good things. We're

145coming down to the end of the school year and and this is a very much a celebratory time. Uh but I I don't want anybody to think that our eyes are not um are not on uh the prize and the things that things that's going on. There's always work to do. I made a statement the other night and um I wanted to quantify my statement. And I I said I said something about it was not it it it was it's not necessarily bad that we that we um are identified in certain things and and and that doesn't mean that it's okay. It just means that we have to always recognize that we've got to remain sober and vigilant and diligent in the fact that there is always work to do. No matter what we do,

146there will always be work to do because we're living in changing times. And so I want to say thank you to the board. Um, thank you to our teachers on this teacher appreciation week. Thank you to all of our all of our uh instruction staff, administrators, all of those that play a part in in um in teaching and nurturing our young people. This is your time and we celebrate you. Um, our young people are not our not just our future, they are our now. And so, um, we've got to stay, we've got to stay, um, on the wall, continue to work, continue to push, continue to do what's best for our children and for our community. They are our our children are our most precious commodity, our most precious commodity. And so, we have to

147continue to pour into them. So, thank you. Thank you, Pastor President Estrada. Can you circle back because I um Yep. Denise said that the images were up for the barbers. I just wanted to kind of give them just a look. Yes. If I could just for two seconds. Um are they can we if we can get the images back up? Yep. So, we have um Nasier and Andrade. And I'm getting I'm getting rolla Yeah. Yeah. I gotta roll it. I gotta get my roller out. Um and uh Mitchell William, he was actually cutting um Mr. Mitchell Williams at the time and Isaiah McCarthy. So that's in the that's 6 West Barber Shop. That's where they're currently employed. I'm just so proud of these guys. I've seen the growth since last year when they started us

148till now. So thanks for finding the pictures tech. And uh that's it. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Aila. uh to like feed in what uh pastor William said uh us kids you know as much as like we love academics you know just like appreciating the teachers as well because they I don't know how they do it I always like thank them and like smile at them at least make their day because uh having like four to five classes every each student has a different personality it's just very hard and then as well as like I just want to like have like students like as reminders. So, like, you know, as much as your day is stressful, their day is stressful, staff's days are stressful because like like almost like 2,000 personalities in 3,000 personalities in

149one school and then it's just a lot. And even so, um, as a student um, oh, this is like how I like said in the beginning about like my path on like finding ways to like give like those recognition. If you guys have like ideas that are like obviously free because not everybody got that type of money, but free to have like recognitions for those other kids that are doing well academically, but not just in that just being good students in general. I would love to take that idea so I can like further on because you know everybody deserves some type of appreciation if it's not academically because not everyone could do that and also athletically because there's always some situation. Um and yeah oh I hopefully you guys got the me email but the

150rhetoric class is having their symposium. I'm in that rhetoric class. I don't know if you guys want to be there, but you know, those are other ideas that you will get that can also help like the community and the school as well. When is that? I believe May 22nd. Okay. I'll I'll I'll send that you're going to see the Google invite. Don't worry. Thank you, Miss Aila. Mr. Bison, thank you, President Estrada. Uh this book of poems uh for everyone by Jason Reynolds is one of the most powerful because I've been looking through it as I read and I know that other board members have mentioned teacher appreciation. Um I just wanted to share something. I did not write this but I think it recognizes our teachers in a very uh good way. says, "Rarely

151does someone get to influence a person's life in a positive way for a lifetime as a teacher can. Fostering optimism and confidence, providing knowledge that leads to success and being a good role model as teachers have and as teachers you are and teachers you will be forever." And I think the board has emphasized our thanks to our teachers during teacher appreciation week. Those are my thoughts. Thank you, Miss Device and Mr. Rat. Shout out to all the teachers teacher appreciation week. And um also um good luck to all the candidates that are running for the next election. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Parino. You know, this has been a wonderful meeting. We now have three new candidates for the Middletown Fire Department. I'm going to put applications for Bishop Williams, Kurt Rat, and Drew

152Moore. Since you spoke about the All right. The fire department in the need. Just make sure if my house is on fire that those aren't the three that are and that's And I I want to thank uh uh our district clerk Crystal Marie for uh helping to uh publicize getting in contact uh with Kevin Whit and Kevin Whit for getting the plant sale on the uh on the uh video boards. Uh it happened uh very quickly. Unfortunately, I was picking up the plant. So, I Kevin and I sort of missed each other. So, I shouted out to Crystal, "Hey, can you help here?" And she really did it. And I can't say enough about Crystal's work. She's doing an excellent uh job in so many in so many respects. And uh this person has really

153grown with a job and she's become an accomplished uh district clerk at this point. So, So, thank you for your service and what you do for the district. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Pino. Mr. Moore, thank you. Uh, I'll be pretty quick. Um, but just something I wanted just to bring up and echo, you know, my fellow colleagues about teacher appreciation week this week. Um I had an opportunity to speak to several um teachers over the last couple of weeks and um their stress level has been extremely high. Um and just the ability to have to reset every day and to come into the building and um just to be able to still continue to you know have that passion. So I just want to give them opportunity to say listen we do appreciate you and

154uh continue the good work as we close out the next five weeks I believe. Right? Five weeks. And this also leads into uh something that I've been noticing um especially coaching, but I'm also noticing it around just a lot of the the young um young adults that we see lately and the importance of uh positive body language. Um it's something that is extremely lacking um amongst the community and this and this in probably nationwide that a lot of the kids are experiencing a lot of trauma and they're not able to effectively communicate but they don't realize that their body language is another form of communication and it's um it shows not only a lack of confidence but also uh creates a barrier that creates a you know uncooperative behavior that they may not be noticing.

155So, it's just something I wanted to bring up, especially to the parents. Um, you know, although they may not tell you everything, but their body language does do does say a lot. So, try to pay attention to it and try to encourage them uh to have, you know, a positive body language and attitude, especially outside and definitely on the courts and on the fields. there things that I've been noticing um that I definitely wanted to speak up on and just hopefully if we can all collectively come together and be able to have that conversations with the young adults and they could be able to create a more positive learning and um language that they can actually see going forward. So that's pretty much it. So thank you. Thank you Mr. Moore. And I'll finish it

156up. There were two birthdays I did forget. Stephvenson Moner has a a belated birthday I believe. Right. And Mr. Lenny, Lenny, our security head, right, was yesterday, I believe. So, happy birthday to them as well. I do want to thank uh Mrs. Ceden for the flowers for Mr. Parino and me um for our event from yesterday. Um I'm assuming, John, that yours is going to go to Alice and this will go to Lisa because they're the ones who kind of steer the ship while we're out here doing this. So, um, thank you. It's it's very much appreciated. Um, let's not forget, we really didn't mention it a lot today, but experience our programs is tomorrow. It is probably the largest event of the school year and showcasing our K through 12 programs right here at

157the high school from 4 to 7. It will be a packed house, I'm assuming, like it usually is, though we're experience I think it's supposed to be heavy rain tomorrow, right? Um, throughout the day. So regardless of that, come on out, support your students um and their programs. And I'm going to finish it off just with vote, vote, vote. May 20th, it is a week from Tuesday. Um come on out. Um I can't tell you to vote for the budget or against the budget. Um but please know that sooner or later, we all pay the piper. And if we don't invest in our children now, we will unfortunately have to invest them on the backside. So, um let's do it the right way. Um good luck to all those candidates who are running um as

158well. And uh I was reminded uh Miss Aila in her birthday this week was 18 years old. So, she will be voting for the first time. And I encourage all of our scholars who um have turned 18, encourage them to vote as well. Um and again, contact our district clerk's office or our website for locations on where you can vote on Tuesday again from 7:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. God bless everybody. I'll need a motion to adjourn. Our next board meeting will be on Wednesday, May 21st. Motion by Mr. Bison, seconded by Mr. Rep. Any further discussion? All those in favor? I I Any opposed? Carries. Have a wonderful evening everybody. YouTube.