Middletown City School Board Meeting 04-08-2021

001good evening everybody we'd like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the april 8 2021 regular meeting of the enlarged city school district of middletown call that meeting to order at this time and we're going to ask our mr gomez if he would lead us in the pledge of allegiance tonight let us rise to pledge allegiance to our flag [Music] salute pledge i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america to a republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you mr we're gomez move on mr crocenzo could you please read the mission statement of the enlarged city school district of middletown yes i can we strive to provide fiscally sound educational opportunities in a safe environment that continuously supports our diverse

002student population we'll also we will we will enable all students to graduate reach their full potential and become lifelong learners and to be competitive productive members of society thank you mr c um um moving on um roll call mrs clark mrs blumenow here mr crocenzo here mr gomez mrs houston here mr lassener mr perino yeah miss tobiason mr williams here pastor williams here thank you thank you uh mrs clark thank you very much uh moving on i'd like to entertain a motion for the approval of our agenda tonight so please second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye aye opposed it so passes thank you uh moving on i'd like to entertain a motion for the approval of our regular uh minutes uh regular uh minutes from our march 18 2021 meeting please

003so move second mood and secondary any discussion all in favor aye aye opposed so passes i'd like to now entertain a motion for the approval of our special meeting minutes from april 7th moved is there a second second second thank you i moved in second did uh any discussion all in favor say aye opposed it so passes thank you everybody uh before we move on i'd like to take uh a moment to um to make a statement um uh uh uh tonight as we're preparing to move forward uh tonight uh most of you know we are here we are here we are preparing now um to tonight to receive the uh where we are as far as our budget is concerned moving into the next school year at our next meeting we'll have to uh

004vote or adopt our budget adopt our budget at our next board meeting but the administration tonight will be presenting uh the budget uh uh where we are at this particular moment in this particular stage now that we have received um all of the final runs out of albany it has been without question an up and down year um in respects to this and so many other things and i think that the anxiety level for everybody has been very high uh with that being said uh my anxiety level as it relates to the budget why that was high uh the anxiety level did not supersede so many of the things that attacked us as people and as as humans in this past year uh is without question that uh the experiences of covet have been horrific

005in this in this past year it was just a few weeks prior to to this meeting or a year ago prior to this time a year ago that we ended up having to shut down hoping that it was only going to be for a short time but as it turned out it was much longer we've experienced in in this past year so many horrific things as it relates to the death of george floyd uh even as we begin to see now the the trial and and the things that are going on a year later uh which does without question um bring up so many of the memories of that of that season and that time uh which has not left us and we talk about being trauma sensitive and i think that everybody has been

006affected uh traumatically by this experience uh we're in a time when we are seeing so much confusion and chaos when it seems as though brother has turned against brother and sister has turned against sister and and and to be honest it is a time that i i completely grieve uh with with uh the things that are transpiring in our society and in our communities uh but even with that being said uh you know this it was this day a year ago that and i shared this just very personally this day a year ago that my uh loss of one of my cousins uh which started a windfall of losses many of you know started the windfall of losses almost every other day um for my family of family members and of dear friends not acquaintances

007but dear friends to where we've come to this year of for my family loss of 50 plus people many of us that are here tonight many of us that are watching tonight have experienced loss and it doesn't matter how it happened it doesn't matter it doesn't matter what anybody thinks as far as the virus is concerned as far as the the pain is still the pain and uh and so many people are hurting many people are going through uh adults are hurting our students are hurting and and so i i wanted to i wanted to make a statement tonight in this respect is that we we must strive with everything that's within us and i do not lose use this term loosely but to be more empathetic uh in this time to each other to

008care about one another the question has arisen am i my brother's keeper and and the reality is yes we are we are our brother's keeper um it's our responsibility as human beings to to to care for one another uh most and most importantly the thing that we have been charged with is the caring of those who do not have the necessary ability to be able to completely care for themselves and so um i i take that charge uh very seriously as i as i'm sure all of you do that are here sitting at this table today this virtual table i also do want to make one last uh one statement uh before we move on uh as as we say what we have also experienced is a rise uh in in uh hate crimes against

009the asian community and so uh i want to personally i want to personally state uh how much that we condemn that as we condemn all of the hate crimes all of the wrong that is being done toward any person and any any uh individual i i think that it is it is time for us again i talk about empathy i talk about uh recognizing those things and uh so i just wanted to make that statement and hopefully hopefully to bring some solidarity we will find i'm hoping that what we will find as we move forward and as we move hopefully out of this season of covet that we will get back to finding the the common ground where we all stand as opposed to the things that we are opposed on uh we will find

010out that uh my blood bleeds red just like anybody else's blood and it does not matter what the color of your skin is we all bleed the same colored blood and so uh when we recognize that when we recognize that it will cause us to be empathetic and especially to those who are less fortunate those that are those that are disenfranchised those uh that are hurt those that are those of different ethnic ethnicities uh it's incumbent on each and every one of us in this society to to to reflect on this past year and to take the time to find out how we can move forward and be better not saying that there's not effort i'm not saying that that there's not that but i think that every last one of us can find a

011place to be better not just do better but to be better and so i wanted to make that statement um on this day for our for our community and for our society those that those that are watching those that are sitting here at the table uh uh because these are are terrible times these are terrible times but i am i'm hopeful uh that despite the despite the times that we're facing despite the things that we you've experienced i am hopeful i am hopeful that better days are coming and it just takes diligence and it takes continuing to walk and when we trip and we fall down don't stay down get back up and walk again um thank you i needed to make that statement uh so we moved forward uh and now we can handle

012the business of the night thank you so much everybody where am i uh uh board recognition announcements and community reports if we can be as brief as possible um but uh for anybody that has board announcements i know uh mr carino mr perrino uh mr middletown has some has has something so why don't we why don't we start with mr purino tonight uh if you have something thank you can you hear me yes sir okay thank you uh i'd like to uh firstly uh compliment and give a shout out to one of the members of our board mrs tobiason uh for raising money for the chief of lewis hoggman scholarship mrs tobiason went at that task like an old bulldog and she raised almost 3 500 thus far for the scholarship and she has appointed

013a scholarship committee who will be working very diligently to make the award uh very briefly i'm going on to the other items very briefly then i'll come back at another meeting i want to also give a shout out to the district our district library media staff uh under the direction of emily young laundering the media specialist at the high school they did a tremendous job uh spotlighting women's history month all the media centers had various displays they worked with various databases and so on um example william carter the media specialist there [Music] sherry gluckman they use databases to spotlight many of the women in uh american history and many of the uh uh many of the founders of various societies and on on and on and i'll talk uh more about that uh at a

014later at a later meeting additionally interestingly enough i spoke to alderman jerry kleiner who's also a officer in the middletown historical society and he's uh i said jerry uh who are some of the famous uh women in middletown history and you know one of the uh women among others lydia sayre hasbro she was the first of women elected to office in new york state and the position was a member of the middletown school board and i think that was in the 18 1880s so uh on on and on other women uh uh donated money for um through a hospital which was an early hospital in town through all park and uh so on you could go on and on but i'm not going to spend time on that because i know it's at a premium

015one thing i'd like to do before i i finish i want to give a shout out to members of our olympics i'm sorry our odyssey of the mind team uh we fielded one team this year the high school team because of the covert restrictions and so on and one of our eminent district parents justine schwab she worked very very hard with that team to uh sort of quote get the get them in shape and she took videos and so on so i'm going to mention the members of this team of in the grade level logan eisenberg grade nine alison gonzalez grade 11. jessila ocasio-grade 11 parker schwab grade 10 jumanja vincente grade 11 tyler washington grade 10 and stephen upon grade 10 and i think on behalf of the board we often say thank you

016so much for your very very hard work it takes a lot of effort to uh become involved in this odyssey of the mind and hopefully next year we'll be back where it normally is at the bose center on gibson road so i'm abbreviated uh recognitions and announcements but i'm um i'm done thank you thank you mr perino thank you mr purino uh is there anybody else with a community report announcing tonight mr gomez yes thank you mr president first let me begin by saying i hope uh all our observant members of the community had a wonderful passover easter a restful spring recess and this is uh to just follow the words of president williams this is a time of renewal of beginning in you and my family like his went through a valley of tears

017last year but uh and so it's very fitting to see that april 12th our children will be able to resume full-time class instruction i thank my board fellow board members who were advocate on working advocated and i'm working on this in our administration that carefully uh put forward a plan to do this not only that but i understand that we're also going to be working to bridge the gap for those children that have suffered academic loss during the pandemic very important so it's a new beginning we look forward to it and a couple of weeks ago uh state our new state senator mike martucci came up to me very excited saying that he was going to have that fun ballot uh the having fun balance restored the good news coming to the middletown district and

018i believe today uh uh uh mr del morro and along with mr turtle we'll be sharing the the details of the good news when we talk about the budget so uh i think they are promising times for our district and with wisdom and proved imprudence on behalf of our children as we say in family court the best interest of the child let us continue to move forward thank you sir anybody else with community announcement tonight um um mrs houston thank you pastor um first of all i'd like to give a as mr perrino said a shout out um to ms alexandra hansen at maple hill who held a um national elementary honor society induction at maple hill last evening it was a virtual and i want to congratulate all of our young scholars and all

019of our honor students across the district who have been working hard especially in light of these challenges that they're facing this year and speaking of challenges on this day in history um i thought i would mention something very positive um hank aaron broke babe ruth's all-time record his home run record understand history on april 8th 1974 i was just four years old at the time um he was uh working with the atlanta braves at the time uh and uh he hit his 715th career home run and um it was a huge huge huge success and um sadly we lost hank aaron this year shortly after it not not due to but shortly after he received his cove vaccine he passed away in his sleep at his home um but uh i wanted to mention his

020life rather than focus on his passing um his early life and career um he was born henry lewis aaron on february 5th of 1934 grew up in poverty and as the child had had to fashion homemade bats and baseballs to practice the sport after excelling in the negro leagues and minor league baseball aaron made it to the majors with the 1954 milwaukee braves though he had a respectable rookie season it was in the following year that he began to hit his stride battling uh .314 with 27 home runs at 106 rbis in 1957 he led the braves to a world series win against the new york yankees sorry mr del morro and was voted the national league's mvp he hit 44 home runs in 57 a total he matched again in 1963 in 1966 the

021year the team relocated to atlanta georgia um and uh although he he was already a hall of fame hall of fame shoeing after joining the 3 000 hit club in 1970 aaron ended the 1973 season with 713 home runs just one behind gabe ruth's long-standing record which eventually was beat on this day in history um despite enduring racist hate mail death threats throughout the off seasons um even though it was all balanced with an outpouring of support with his from his fans uh he tied ruth's record with his first swing of the 1974 season and i could go on and on about his his amazing uh career and the part i wanted to focus on though was overcoming obstacles it's a an amazing um i'm trying to think of the right words um well let

022me just use the words i was thinking of at the time i i was thinking of hank aaron he had a burning desire he had perseverance he never stopped he had strength strength he had no limits his continuous effort to overcome struggle led to his glorious triumph and he let nothing stop him so for that i just wanted to uh remember him and um take note of that that it was on this day in history he had such a great um record thank you thank you mr houston uh anybody else if not we're going to go ahead and move on uh thank you everybody uh moving on to our opportunity to address the board uh we we don't have anybody that that is is calling in tonight but we do have two letters uh to

023be read i'm gonna turn you into the hands of mrs clark our district clerk and she'll be reading those those letters mrs clark thank you um the first one is from care community action revolutionizing education to the board of education we at care are confused as to why it seems we are on opposite teams according to your bylaws the board of education's job is to keep the superintendent of the school district accountable for what is happening in the school district in other words the board of education is the superintendent's boss we don't see anywhere in the bylaws that the board of education members are elected by the community to defend and cover up what the superintendent is allowing to happen in this district as case after case of students clearly being treated with disrespect by

024administrators in this district come to your attention how do you feel do you wake up in the middle of the night worried about the students parents and educators in this district like the members of carido do you wonder why you have only been told and shown the positive stories of what is being done in this district by the superintendent when letter after letter after community member speaks up about the horrifying things happening will you as volunteers elected by this community be proud of the work you have done to speak up for students and parents who do not have a voice in this district as volunteers for care we have many concerns for the students and parents in this district and are puzzled as to why the board of education seems to be in opposition to

025us we at care have discovered documentation for this lack of concern in 2014 2015 the enlarged city school district of middletown was cited for disproportionately suspending special needs students of color in 2016 2017 the new york state education department technical assistance center on disproportionality studied and surveyed 137 out of 680 staff members provided training and a walk-through evaluation of the entire school district cara requested the root cause report from the new york state department of education and learned the enlarged city school district of middletown's readiness to address the disproportionality on a scale from one to four with one no awareness two denial three vague awareness for awareness and ready to take action the enlarged city school district of middletown received the lowest score of one no awareness have you as board of education members seen

026this report wouldn't this be good information for you to all have access to we have emailed this report for the board of education members to review the new york state education department tac d team suggested continuing training and discussions which the school district denied this is why the last 10 pages of this report are empty empty pages where educators could have been trained to acknowledge their biases to learn how their beliefs affect students of color in their classrooms where students could have had the opportunity to learn in classrooms free from discrimination so they could be empowered to be their best selves how much longer is the board of education going to allow the superintendent to deny there is a problem with systemic racism in this district how much longer will students parents and educators suffer

027under these traumatic care asks the board of education to review this report and to take the steps necessary to hold superintendent del morro accountable for the systemic racism he allows in this district we ask that a climate survey be administered district-wide to students parents and educators care asks for a response to the root cause report including detailed action steps with timeliness how can this board of education help families feel confident that they will be safe speaking up for their children are you ready to listen now that we have more facts more stories more confirmation of what needs to be addressed or will you continue to pretend all is well while sharing only the happy stories which occur in the district only when problems are faced and addressed with integrity will will we be students be

028empowered to reach their full potential cara's vision is developing the enlarged city school district of middletown into a model of holistic education through the empowerment of its people to produce a safe and productive educational environment the mission of care is to provide a direct voice to the administration of the middletown central school district care will advocate and assist in the development of the multilingual multicultural education and awareness of the necessity of equality for all the second letter is from sam mcelroy who is a middletown high school sophomore the divide the past month has been wrought with pain and grief stemming from the tragedies we witnessed as a nation on march 16th in atlanta georgia and march 22nd in boulder colorado just six days apart combined 18 people have died 17 civilians and one police officer

029officer eric talley of boulder killed by an ar-15 a weapon of mass destruction and death the past decade in this country has been unbelievable in just 2021 alone there have been over 100 mass shootings thousands of these horrific events take place annually i remember when stoneman douglas high school in parkland florida was on the news because 17 people were shot and killed i remember when 60 people were shot and killed at a concert in las vegas nevada i remember when 23 people were killed in el paso texas and nine people were killed in dayton ohio just days apart i remember when 50 people were murdered at the pulse nightclub in orlando florida i remember when the tree of life synagogue was desecrated as 11 people were killed i remember each of these acts of violence

030as days of mass loss of life days that we mourned as a unified country days that we are able to see right from wrong and then the days following when the stories fade away we say our prayers send our thoughts and then we move on we get to go to sleep and carry on we have been numb to this pain to the loss we're the only country in the world that has to deal with this and we've become desensitized our response is automatic yet mechanical it's like we are reading from a script and we just can't seem to care anymore because caring is too difficult too painful it is easier to just say we mourn and that we are praying three weeks ago six asian women were killed in atlanta georgia along with two other

031people one of which was a woman the atlanta shooting was a hate crime on two counts race and gender a week later 10 people were killed in boulder colorado it is unclear what the motive of the shooter was but one thing is clear they were trying to shake our foundations the intent of every shooting is to gain attention and cause a panic the truth is it's working though it may seem like we are coming together after every tragedy we are splitting at the seams one of the contributors to this is the belief that silence is better we need to be able to talk about what is going on in our daily lives partly to avoid a repeat in the future and partly to have an open and honest discussion about the pain we experienced conversing

032about events like this is imperative to the reconciliation and healing processes in middletown the majority of the student population is black and hispanic following devastation like what we have seen over the last week the responsibility to address and react falls on the shoulders of our administrators in the district at large should it be this way no because in a perfect world you would not need to send out messages of hope and unity after such horrible travesties but it is this is the reality of our current climate and students and their families need to know that the district they live in and send their kids to school in will support them should their community face hardship knowing that there are people who care about their education and well-being starts by knowing that they see the wrongs

033of the world and the nightmares that have affected each and every one of us can this district acknowledge a hate crime when it sees it will there be allowances to talk about what we see happen political or no in a place where at a time when we feel safe and supported there is a lot of frustration and anger brewing as a result of the accumulation of blows shootings riots murders abuse discrimination and hate all fuel the divide our prolonged denial of this only adds oxygen to the fire we must quell the flames of hate when we see it when we hear it when we feel it and when we are told about it to continue to brush off and deny this unfortunate and sad reality is to deny truth and it is a great disservice

034to every student and every member of this society's marginalized people i have been living in this country and on this earth for 15 years in those 15 years i have seen no functional or rational solutions to the ongoing crisis of gun violence what i have seen is thoughts and prayers either that or silence silence is unacceptable i understand wanting to allow for a few days to honor and respect the victims but refusing to acknowledge when tragedies like this take place for months and even years is wrong crafting the perfect response is impossible if you make sure every word is right you end up taking too long saying something wrong is better than saying nothing at all what i am asking for with this letter is a better response and support system for when the breaking

035news story is one of hurt and loss thank you sam mcelroy [Music] thank you mrs clark uh and uh thank you for those that sent in the letter i do we take we take every last one of these letters that are sent in we take the things that are said very seriously uh i speak from i speak for myself when i say when i say uh that and i think i said a little bit earlier uh i'm i'm grieving i'm grieving i'm grieving these times and and it is incumbent on all of us and all of us to not just do better but to be better and uh and so we'll we will address we will address uh the requests in the in each of those letters we'll address the requesting those each of those

036letters uh in a timely timely manner in order to make sure that everyone gets their answers thank you president williams i know we're not supposed to respond but i just can't let this go um [Music] the care people talked about bylaws the board of education and there was a section in there that said that it's in effect that the superintendent is subordinate to the board of education we've got nine people sit or eight people sitting here can any of you produce these bylaws that care people are talking about and if you can please point out this section that says that we are the boss of the superintendent because that doesn't exist so my challenge is care people please send me a copy of that and i'll read it out loud during a board meeting because

037it doesn't exist thank you thank you sir thank you sir um let's let's let's move on because i think we're going to address a couple of things we're going to address a couple of things during the um superintendent's report as well uh let's let's see where where am i at uh uh let's let's get our personal action items out the way um if there's no objection i'd like to uh like for an approval and i'll put them together uh personnel memorandum 23a instructional and personnel memorandum 23b non-instructional uh if we can put them together may i have a motion for that please is there a second second thank you thank you it's been moved in second discussion all in favor aye opposed it so passes thank you so much we're going to move into our

038superintendent's report uh turn you into the hands of the superintendent our superintendent uh mr richard del maro uh it's in your hand sir richard you're on mute yeah i want to thank president uh williams for that introduction as well as mrs tobiason the vice president board of education uh and of course our community at large thank you very much for tuning in tonight and if you're unable to tune in tonight so to speak uh then we'll be able to post all of this information for you review at your convenience on our district website tonight's a very important night as we historically have done in the past is present to the board the administration's proposed budget for the 21 22 school year now over the last several board of education meetings this past winter mr tuttle

039our assistant superintendent of administration has been presenting in detail each line item of the three major components to a school district budget you know the administration part of the budget the instructional or program part of the budget and then of course the capital budget he's also broken down the expenditures of benefits as another component where of course we know that they are sprinkled in each one of these components and now for your review this is a slide that he had went over in detail indicated on the left hand column as you see facing uh the screen is the adopted budget from this current school year 2021 school year with a total of 199 million dollars almost 200 million dollars the next column over is the proposed budget which we'll be talking about tonight and then

040of course on the third column over is the increase to the difference between the adopted budget and the proposed budget and what the percentage of change is and i'll briefly talk about some of the reasons of those changes in each one of those components of the budget but the budget here administratively here you can see is 15 million administrative 124 million so on and so forth with a proposed total budget in each of these components of 210 million dollars thousand dollars 201 dollars that's about a 10 million dollar increase over the current budget or a 5.11 percent increase now one may ask of looking at the administrative budget you know why is there a two and a half almost 2.6 increase and primarily in the program and of a five percent increase or so in

041the administrative primarily do contractual obligations we have several different labor association units in our school district each of them um dictated by a collective bargaining agreement that the unit as well as the district has signed off and agreed to we must adhere to those agreements that are usually more than one year at a time and therefore those percentages are required percentages to our budget because of that agreement in the capital budget you see about 5.57 increase and that is a significant increase over the amount of expenditures we had to relocate to address the covert 19 of the pandemic expenses that were incurred by our school district it was approximately and still increasing 2.5 million dollars of expenses paid to address the covert issues disinfecting masks barriers that i'll be talking about shortly all of the

042requirements temperature readings extra thermometers and of course the cost of additional personnel when people had to be quarantined and we had to maintain structural programming you know various expenses such as these hiring additional staff to make sure that our environments were safe and healthy for our staff as well as our students and all adults coming in to visit our buildings and of course the benefits what's benefits primarily is health benefits benefits that are part of the collective bargaining agreements and of course each one of these programs in capital program administrative have employees and therefore the benefits are attached to them so here we have a proposed budget and this is a number that i'm going to refer to um over and over again of a 210 million dollar budget 200 attendance so that's what would

043be our proposed expenditure or five per cent 0.11 increase okay next slide please okay so over the last several months as well we've been reminding our community at large our entire school community that the amount allocated that was indicated coming from albany was about 77 million dollars which was the same amount of foundation a a coming into our district as the previous school year which was alarming to us because as i just mentioned each year there are expenses that we have no choices in each year certainly we've agreed to those but as a signage to a collective bargain agreement ensures that particular employee that they will receive those particular funds or those particular benefits where all costs incurred right so we were talking about the possibility that we would have to be thinking very very

044seriously about reducing our program to meet the expenditure amount to our revenue amount and of course the governor's office and several presentations by our governor indicated that due to covet in the state this is where it closed down and therefore taxes were not coming in and various forms of tax revenues were reduced significantly because they had to relocate money as well as the fact that really our economy really was negatively affected and of course we all know that taxes in uh you know fund all of these school districts as well as municipalities infrastructure and so on and so forth however we just received information that our legislature just this past week passed the new york state budget which allocated a great deal of increase in money coming to each of the school districts in our

045state and we are very fortunate to receive an additional 13.6 million dollars more than we were told we were going to receive or a 17 increase so now our foundation aid has increased from approximately 77 million dollars to 90 million dollars almost 91 million dollars so what is that impact on our school budget next slide please our district is whole our budget cycle in other words we don't have to reduce our programming we will not have to take money from our fund balance that is a reserve account for emergency purposes and every year for the last several several budget cycles we took money from that account to offset the difference between revenue and expenditures to modify and modulate the tax levy to our taxpayers there's never a day that goes by that we are not

046concerned about the expenses that we incur because who is paying for that the taxpayer you the taxpayer and we're very very careful about each and every one of those dollars spent the current level of programs stays in pack we do not have to reduce our program as a matter of fact in some needed areas we'll be able to enhance our programs so this additional money of 13.6 million dollars will have a significant positive impact on the budget excuse me moving into the 21 22 school year okay next slide please so how do we get to that column that i talked about in terms of expenditures of 210 million dollars in this proposed budget well from various revenue sources pilot programs things of that nature um interest on accounts we're able to garnish about eight million

047dollars the tax labor will remain the same i'll say that very slowly the tax levy of 77 million dollars 404 thousand dollars will remain the same for the 21 22 school year as it was in the current school year state aid is increased as i talked about to a total of all of the line items in addition to the foundation aid there are other line items in the budget that has been increased of 124 million dollars and therefore we have the revenue to match of 210 million dollars or so with the expenditures so with all of those numbers how does that impact each and every taxpayer in this community this year we are proposing because of that a zero tax increase on the tax levy zero percent same as last year no increase now please

048understand and i'm going to say this considerable amount of times we are very appreciative of what has come from our legislators and the government from new york state remember this is all coming from our new york state legislators and passing this very robust financial package to each of the school districts however we're able to do this because of this additional amount of money if we did not receive this money we would not be talking with a zero percent increase it would be virtually impossible to think that each year we'll be able to be at zero percent increase on the tax levy because some of the issues that i just was referring to previously and that is of contractual obligations that increase the budget from year to year not only contractual obligations but we all know

049of whether our rent may go up each year whether our taxes of local taxes town taxes state taxes recall our electricity bill we all know that over the last several weeks the cost of gasoline has increased well we have vehicles that have to provide services in our school district so each year there are expenses that increase that we have no control over so to think that every year we'll be able to have a zero percent tax levy increase would be really unlikely to occur given the projection of what will happen in the future we don't know that but we are very very pleased to say for this coming year we're able to offer that and each year is going to be different because of all of the factors that cause us to have a zero

050percent may not and probably will not be the same in pre you know in ensuing school years so as much as i am very very pleased for each and every taxpayer in our school district that there'll be no increase in your levy due to school taxes we have as we've always talked about no control over the municipal equalization rates that affect taxes as well when i am talking about that there'll be no increase in school tax in the levy so if equalizations change that might be even a little less next year in some households i cannot predict that but that could be possible but as far as the tax levy there'll be no increase that we are proposing at this time so it'll be the same amount of money as a levy of 77 million

051dollars okay next slide please all right one of the projects we are able to provide uh by having a capital reserve account of a hundred thousand dollars is that our twin towers uh windows on one side of the building uh is in need of masonry repair and we have to do that in order to maintain a safe environment and to keep our uh building tight as they say uh there is some leakage moisture absorption in some of the the mortar uh in areas up up on that building as you know that's our oldest building in the district but it's a beautiful building and we want to maintain it but we also want to make sure that it's a safe environment for our students as well as our staff in there so we are going to

052um correct the problem that's there here uh outlined for you during this project that we wanted to let you know you'll be voting on this not as a certain propos a separate proposition but it'll be part of the the budget installed in our effort to maintain transparency for all all right so we are talking about um on in our next slide that you'll see the fact of that um we also will have a proposition number two proposition number one on super tuesday is the school budget proposition 2 is is talking about creating a capital reserve account now we do have a capital reserve account previously approved by the voter but we have used that money very very wisely and for those specific purposes that you put this money away so we could put 20 million

053dollars over uh 20 years into this account to use for future capital projects need to the board and voter approval for it but what do we use this money for well the very fact of um having to pay for um capital projects that we're unaware of that we cannot anticipate if a boiler goes or if there is a breakdown in an alarm system that we are repairing over at truman moon things of that nature that there's no way of anticipating some of the money was used to offset as we talked about in our building projects for example the uh current cafe at the cafeteria and the building of our new high school media center there we were able to bring that to the public with no increase in taxes because of reserve accounts like this

054so that these things are very important and we hope that you understand the purpose of these as i explained for um really unanticipated needs emergencies so so to speak you know at home let's see how water heater goes we didn't anticipate that a month ago but where do we find the capital the money to pay for it so that's what these are uh these funds are used for and we hope that we have a positive result in our super tuesday vote on this as well okay so again i think it's important as i was always asked when we were doing a one percent increase in previous three years that i've been superintendent that we are going with a tax levy increase of zero because uh the direct impact in terms of these 13 almost 14

055of increase in state aid and foundation going from 77 million dollars of foundation aid to over 90 million dollars almost 91 million dollars that has helped us not take money out of the unappropriated fund to close to keep our tax levy down it was able to close our some of our gaps and therefore have a budget proposal of zero tax levy increase of a 210 million plus budget meeting the uh proposed budget expenditures and the revenues to meet that 210 without increasing taxes and again only because of the increased aid now we've been hearing so much about the stimulus aid well officially called the american rescue plan act right the stimulus account this is a separate funding amount of money from the school budget we uh have been informed that we are to think about

056this as a grant which means that you have money for specific purposes to spend on obviously the federal government will monitor this very very closely to ensure that we are in compliance with each of the expenditures and that it will not be coming forth forever and ever that this grant is to be used over a two-year period i did speak about this briefly with congressman maloney a couple of weeks ago with some of my fellow colleagues superintendents talking about uh that although we will be receiving the money um in in appropriated amounts uh it'll be over a two year period the funding for this is almost 27 million dollars 26 million 930 900 000 whereby we are [Music] dictated to spend and earmark some of this unset aside money in certain amounts of areas what

057are the areas that the federal government is looking for us to spend on summer school enrichment after school in programming and primarily the bulk of it for instructional loss now at the board of education level we've been discussing what are we doing proactively to address instructional laws as our community knows now we've anticipated the instructional loss due to the result of the pandemic and the crisis in terms of remote instruction hybrid instruction coming not five days a week but two days a week pauses where everything was remote and so on and so forth right so we know that we have professed over and over again that there is no substitute for in-person learning where there is a direct relationship between teacher and student student and teacher and equally important student to student and student to

058teacher in the socialization great deal of losses in that trauma sensitive classrooms or social emotional learning the anxiety that children have the anxiety that parents have because of all of the negative impact of this crisis in terms of loss of employment the anxiety that puts pressure on households to that and the children bring that into the classroom as they see their parent or parents or guardians struggle done a great deal in providing nourishing meals for our community and our food service again and again has to be applauded for their herculean effort and all of the support of building a ground staff to support that our clerical staff and on and on administrators our teachers our board members going on the disbursements of food almost like the mantra for you know the post service people whether

059it's wind rain or snow whatever the weather [Music] we deliver food and continue over a million meals but again the stimulus is is going to be very well received it might very much need it in our school district so that i am very pleased that we're going to receive all this we have not received yet all of the guidelines we've just seen very general information so far and as we move forward in the ensuing months we will get more information i'm sure coming from the federal government how we have to specifically spend this and manage this money but i don't look with concern because we have experience as we have just come recently finishing our our race to the top grant i think we've done a very very stupendous job in managing that money and

060providing the technology here again we'll be in inside of this program too technology for our students for our families we will be able to ensure as we continue to do uh connectivity uh in all of our households in the event we ever have to pivot back into a remote whether temporary or a long term or just another enhancement uh for learning if you're sick and so on and so forth there are many reasons why that being coming to the fact of being savvy in a remote environment is beneficial we're not saying that we prefer it over in person learning certainly not but i want to ensure everyone that we will use this money as prescribed for our children and spend time revising our curricular uh so that we are addressing the uh the loss of

061learning time and gaps that have been sealed because of that i think we have to be very clear that this money isn't in the other side of our uh budget in terms of funding money from here into uh offsetting some of the budget we're not permitted to do that nor will we we have a specific so far amounts set asides that we have to spend as i mentioned summer school after school programs and the various social emotional learning programs intervention programs enhancing technology and so on and so forth so uh we look forward to um to really being a very very targeted prescriptive with this large amount of money uh but it's a large need and i am very grateful on behalf of all of the school community that we're going to use this money

062wisely okay i just think it's important to review as we have every year to talk about the budget vote uh the super tuesday as i mentioned it uh it's going to be excuse me tuesday may 18th this year is usually the second uh tuesday in may um and the fact that um we all know about the budget cap but with a zero percent tax levy increase we are well below the tax levy um increase of two percent uh which is a cap and of course there's a very complicated form into that but notwithstanding we are not concerned about it this year we are zero percent tax levy increase right so in order for the budget to be approved we have to have 50 plus one of the voters who are eligible to vote on the

063budget to pass the budget 50 saying affirmative plus one if if a district wanted to exceed the cap or if they needed to feel that they see the cap then you need 60 plus one to pass that budget but i'm just giving that as informational purposes we're not concerned about that we're at zero we're well below the two percent cap we're at zero and there'll be no tax levy increase so if the first budget fails then we would have the same tax levy that we had in the one school year which would mean the same amount that a zero increase it would mean that our levy can go to take in 77 million dollars no additional budget requests can be honored so the the protocols for a contingency budget is that all but requests are

064will be not honored we can only purchase things that are related to safety and health as you can see and that we would have to charge all of our facility use uh for anyone that use wants to use our facilities now excuse me there are some organizations that we do not charge like boy scouts girl scouts the girls cheerleader all these different groups we do not um we did not charge any facilities but under a contingency budget that we would have to do that no field trips so on and so forth there are some negative things that occur in a contingency budget all right so the budget calendar as the uh what adopts the budget as they see fit on our next meeting on april 22nd the budget hearing always follows that on the may

0656 as people come and talk to the board of education regarding the budget and then of course again as i mentioned may 18 tuesday is super tuesday the community votes on the school budget i will then now entertain any questions from the board of education regarding the school budget mr gomez yes i i just wanted to say that uh it's more directed towards albany uh my as a resident of this community and trustee my appreciation for the state legislature for restoring its checks and balances a couple of months ago a couple weeks ago we were talking about uh almost of a doomsday budget scenario when the governor still had his or his almost dictatorial power so practically but now the legislature decided to once again exercise states uh checks and balances to hold hearings and

066allow the individual assembly and state senators to address the concerns of their constituents and even though i might not agree with all the decisions coming down albany i do appreciate that our state senate senate leaders said the majority of the army steward cousins republican leader robert orr assembly speaker hasties and republican assembly leader uh barclay uh took the initiative of working in restoring checks and balances and i think that has helped us get here especially when it comes to foundation aid and again i want to commend our district for presenting a i think a common sense budget that realizes that i think what we need in our district is not higher taxes but more taxpayers a greater and more growth of a community and by keeping getting the taxes low and fiscally responsible budget while

067meeting our needs we will continue to make our school district be what it has been one that's attractive attractive to families coming here in search of their american dream and will continue to deliver the best for our children and i also of course always encourage that as we have a reserve fund for the now in the years when we have plenty that we we also plan carefully for future years um there might not be plenty and we have to use more our resources so again i do come in the district for this budget no new taxes uh zero taxes and uh zero sorry zero increase in school property taxes as you pointed out and for meeting the needs of our community and again thank you to our state legislators our orange county delegation i know

068some of their members work tirelessly to restore those checks and balances and and i think the worst should be clear no matter what tragedy what situation whether it be war pandemic no branch of government should ever make yourself subservient to the other government by the people for the people checks and passes must always be the way thank you any other questions uh this is houston and then mr purino thank you pastor um i want to um just add to what mr gomez said i'm thanking all of our lawmakers especially their spirit of reaching across the aisle no matter what political party they belong to um mr gomez and i met with some of those leaders a couple months ago and um i was really pleased with the spirit of working together and that's what our

069state needs um i also want to give a shout out to mr gomez for his hard work on the fair funding committee to help promote the needs of our district fiscally i do have a comment um as well not so much any questions but it has to do with what i stated at the last board meeting and it has nothing to do with this budget specifically but just that um to clarify something um at the march meeting i proposed an idea of zero-based budgeting after a valuable discussion with one of our constituents i really went out and did my homework on that and i believe it will be a successful tool if implemented by our district in the future not now we have a great budget here and it's really wonderful uh but i wanted

070to mention that um to just add to what i said last time a zero-based budget helps make the best use of money especially during uncertain times and we're very fortunate that our state and federal governments have come through for us but we don't know what the future holds as far as um what will be in the next couple of years with all of the impact that the pandemic has had on our fiscal circumstances so when there are budgetary shortfalls at the state and federal levels which i hope does not happen it's um just a testament that justifying the value of each line item we spend on our district with our district's money um is the key to the methodology transparency and accountability demonstrate to our stakeholders the value of each expenditure and the method builds

071upon trust and strengthens community relationships and as an elected member of the board of education a member of the fair funding committee one of my key responsibilities as is all of ours um is the budget and accounting for each and every dollar spent in the future years um on a line by line item that is anticipated on being spent allows us to do our best for our students and their families while placing the least amount of burden upon our taxpayers many of whom have children and grandchildren in the district and face the same budgetary challenges within their own households the return on the investment of um of our children pays dividends for life and this method is not just about cutting the fat it's about bringing the most value back to the infrastructure of our

072school buildings classrooms events and programs it is about evaluating the utilization of money by measuring the value it gives back to our students contractual agreements of course with regard as mr del mora was saying with regard to yearly salary salaried employees would not be affected and this would be one of the exceptions in a school zero school district zero based budget as opposed to maybe one in a corporation so to paraphrase the information um i read on ecapitaladvisors.com zero based budgeting is a great way to minimize spending and make accurate books in educational institutions this approach is dependent on a consistent dedication of time and energy from each of the different levels of our administrations and administration and when committed to fully this process works it can be scary at first as it is a

073little more labor intensive but i feel it is worth the effort to do our best for all of our stakeholders especially our price scholars and um there is more information that is posted on my facebook page which is public on the holmeseducationpost.com and um i wanted to just mention that there were some quotes that came up came to my mind um with regard to this and uh mark twain once said when whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority it may be time to reform pause or reflect an ancient philosopher lao zoo also said the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step so um finally our successful american creative advertising director william bernbach who is known for many things in the advertising industry said once that familiarity or comfortability can breed

074apathy's apathy so those were thoughts that came to my mind i just wanted to share them in a comment form and um thank you for your time and for listening are there any other questions no if not uh mrs demaro you have any oh john i'm sorry i'm so sorry john what thank you you know i just wanted to uh express my appreciation and i'm sure the rest of the board for all the hard work that our administrative staff did on this budget it really is a remarkable budget and as as uh mr susan said i'd like to thank our fair funding committee uh kevin gomez the chair of that committee because he's been pressing uh our legislators meeting with our legislators as the administrative staff you know it's been my experience that for many

075many decades on staff in the district you start basically perhaps in october with uh meetings between the instructors and the department staff the and then it goes uh on and on from there so there's a lot of work on the budget it's not a uh it's not a one or two week thing here it starts very early and it's extremely intensive on all parties beginning with our instructional and administrative staff so thank you again great uh great work thank you anybody else no anything else uh yes i do have yes i do have um in terms of additional information on the superintendent's report we do have a few items i will try to be as brief as possible regarding the the time and understanding people's other needs at this point of the evening we are

076so very very pleased and excited with great anticipation for monday april the 12th april the 12th is the day in which we will have students in our buildings five days per week for all of those families that wanted to have that happen and so um i am very very pleased and excited to welcome each and every precious precious child in this school community from kindergarten all the way to grade 12. and that uh we are excited we're prepared uh teachers have been talking about administrators are very very pleased to have the students returning we have approximately uh 50 percent of our students uh total student body returning into in-person money five days a week and at the same time we'll have about 50 percent of our students in still in the remote virtual environment uh

077in a total learning environment uh in a digital format so uh given the fact that our teachers are still working in those two environments simultaneously we have to you know tip our hats to them for their willingness and their dedication doing that uh because it is difficult to do there's no question about that partner i apologize sorry mr delmoro that's fine that's right um and i thought a question but the fact is that um our teachers have worked very very hard to maintain as best as possible under these very challenging environments uh to provide instruction please understand that we're able to do this because of several factors one of which uh primarily but not exclusively is the relaxation of these uh physical distancing uh more formally known or equally known as social distancing no one

078to be closer than six feet it's really reduced as long as we have barriers so the students that are entering the classrooms that we mentioned will have a plastic barrier on each desk right students will still be able to um have masks on you'll be a required universal mask wearing we still be disinfecting the hallways the classrooms the doorknobs their handrails etc tabletops desktops and the shields daily to maintain safety and disinfected environments for all of the inhabitants adult and student alike so the fact that we must keep in mind that we will uh minimize wherever possible movement in the in the classrooms uh and also move within the hallways uh as best as possible in the k5 environments of course we know that in secondary you'll be moving every class period the fact also

079is important to realize that we will have these barriers in the cafeteria so that in the distances that we believe to provide different lunch periods in a safe environment will prevail again while you're eating obviously will not have to wear the mask mask will be required to be on our buses too we'll be able to provide transportation services and safe environment we have a reduced capacity in each of the buses due to the fact that we have approximately 50 percent of the students uh will be riding the buses that are eligible for those services and the fact that we have 50 of our students still in a remote environment so we must keep in mind that with the reduction of infections that are taking place in our community vaccines are becoming more available and people

080are accessing the vaccines all of these effectives are reasons why the departments of health the cdc have relaxed and revised some of their prior requirements we do have a very important game coming up next friday april the 16th we do have the bell game with port jervis and obviously as much as we are welcoming our families and our from our community as well as families there will still be a restriction on the number of people permitted because of those requirements inside our state for outdoor participation and these type of events but we've been working very closely with the administration the athletic department of court jervis and of course mr case uh because our athletic director with making sure that we're going to have a a wonderful safe game uh go middies we know who's going

081to win and retain the bell where we have but i do think it's important that um i will uh inform everyone that it's not going to be open to everyone there's only be a certain amount of people from both sides but be mindful of fact the game will be streamed lively one of our former board members his second life is a professional announcer we have mr edwin estrada we'll be announcing the game it'll be just like watching espn probably better although he's went to school with mr chirico over there so um i think that's important to let everyone know that we'll begin on monday we're very excited about that and look forward to the returning somewhat normalcy to our school district and hopefully we will continue doing that as we march forward to next school

082year question this is tobias before i move on to another topic not a question sir i just want to remind everybody that that friday is going to be paint the city blue that the town of walk hill and the city of middletown are cooperating to make sure that we all wear blue and we do everything we can to decorate our homes etc and our streets with midi blue okay well um just as i move up before i move on to another topic i want to just thank all the parents and guardians for their cooperation and participation and all of the changes that have taken place over this hybrid i know it's been very unsettling i have spoken to several parents over these past several months i received either emails or phone calls i understand and

083i really and sincerely appreciate your sincerity regarding your understanding and some of these things that were hard on families uh hopefully by bringing back all those who wanted to have in-person learning we can address some of those concerns and again we're still considering those in a remote environment our students you are you'll never be not considered that and i'm looking forward to having a successful productive end of school year as we prepare for graduation and the plans are being really made at this time the next thing i wanted to announce is that unfortunately the u.s department of education did not accept the waiver request of state assessments in grades three through eight ela and math uh and the four and eighth grade science tests as well as regents that the new york state department of

084education requested along with other states but um the local administration felt that they wanted to have some type of assessments to to gauge student learning or unfortunately the gaps that have occurred uh by the fact of this endemic crisis so um there will be 328 ela testing uh in math as well in science and that we will be distributing those information out by the buildings uh in my march 24th letter to the public's post it up on the web on our website it lists all of some of the requirements and the details regarding that testing right so um i'm not going to go into it at this point in time because the difference of mine all that information can be had at the building levels website but also a quick review it's rather lengthy letter

085from the march 24th up on the website talks about each one of those levels and what is necessary what are options for parents right all right the next area i want to talk about is our continuing work in our dei our diversity equity and inclusion as you know we've been working very very diligently in this arena uh for the last couple of years we've heard a parent's letter or groups letter cares group letter indicating that we haven't done enough well i can say that we have been working very diligently in this it is not a matter of not doing anything each of the past board meetings we have listed activities that we've been doing quite frankly like tomorrow tomorrow is a professional learning day for all of our community all of the students will be

086learning asynchronously work will be posted on their google classrooms for them to work on and while we do continue work in our culturally responsive framework sustaining that framework that's required by new york state we've been doing this all year in terms of being responsive to the racism intolerance all of these issues that do exist we never moved away from the fact that schools are microcosms of society and we know all the society ills and what best way through education to address these issues the ability to in the second letter will students have opportunities to talk about hate and violence yes absolutely we have social emotional learning classes in grades k-12 opportunities for that opportunities in our particular content areas and also teachers who feel comfortable about talking about these that students want to get their

087feelings heard discussed questions answered why not that's what it's all about that's what's learning and growth about what we've been doing helping our teachers become more sensitive to understand they may have hidden biases as you take these surveys we've taken these surveys we've have our equity team done our work so we get ready for the hiring cycle that's going to come forth shortly and now that as you i mentioned earlier in the report we will have additional funds to hire some of the positions that we were reluctant to do in terms of our questions budget uh work that we did not want to spend money that we didn't have or how we may have to use in another arena so that we provide our classrooms with the proper training of our instructional leaders inside those

088classrooms and i say instructional leader i'm talking about the classroom practitioner the most important person in the school district and certainly we have a great deal of work to do we by no means of all the work we've done this year is just scratching the surface we have opportunities two times a week for our staff to get together to talk about these very important topics of racism of hate crimes of violence because we have to understand all of this what's inside ourselves and how do we portray and impart that knowledge as we grow together we've had professional development opportunities for our administrators we have purchased over hundreds of thousands of dollars in new literature to have the books reflect the demographics so students can look and see the identity of who they are what they're

089reading about we want to have children feel comfortable regardless of their orientation the identity that they uh identify with the gender et cetera et cetera all are very important people in our school district all important uh students everyone who whatever ethnicity group and we've been working very very diligently throughout the year and tomorrow we're culminating that activity with very robust we'll be reading the birmingham's letter by dr king again because the message there is timeless and very relevant in today's time among other issues from other topics that made us feel uncomfortable but that's all part of training growth learning so we are doing that we're doing more of that we will continue doing that next year because it's needed the other thing i wanted to talk about all right is um as we move forward

090in looking at programming for our students right at the high school level right uh next board meeting i will presenting uh mr screen representing mrs sorrentino will be presenting high school administrators will be presenting teachers have worked on more programming for different needs of different interests of students and more college presence we have a great articulation with syracuse university and other universities rochester university stevenson university in our current college offerings we're now expanding that program we're building upon those opportunities with siena college you know we will be addressing new academies we're going to have a law academy we're going to have a performing arts academy college courses in art for those students who have that artistic creative talent in those arenas we're very fortunate to have this new partnership to end with our current partnership

091to have a high school program that rivals very few in our state not our country as well so i'm very very proud of what's going on at the high school we'll know more about that as we bring all of the new course inscriptions to the board of education for your approval hopefully questions you'll get that in transmittal uh you'll be able to read them all and certainly have an opportunity to ask questions to the team so next tuesday at six o'clock there'll be a virtual town hall uh conducted by the high school administration mr sorrentino and her team i have a virtual environment the web link will be on their uh school website uh so that you can all um really dial in if you will uh and learn more about what's going to come

092in the 2122 school year and that wraps up our presentation from the superintendent's report this evening i will ask answer any questions and um that the board may have regarding either the budget if you're thinking about something you thought about or any of the items that i brought following the budget presentation any questions from anybody tonight okay well no thank you sir thank you thank you for your superintendent's report and presentation we greatly appreciate it uh let's move on if we can to action items action items uh i need an approval a motion for the approval of financial memorandum number 22 please is there a second second moved and seconded discussion yes i just would like to comment on item three which is the lou ogden scholarship yes i'm very pleased with the results we

093can give two 500 scholarships for a student who will be pursuing a career in criminal justice this year and right now we probably will be able to fund it for at least four years and that would be two 500 scholarships for the next four years thank you what a outstanding job yes outstanding job well done rose thank you uh so we've had the discussion all in favor aye aye aye opposed so passes uh i i like a motion for the approval of special service memorandum number 19 please show move second moved and seconded any discussion all in favor aye opposed it so passes entertain a motion for the approval of our change orders tonight so move second move this second did uh mr perrino do you have uh change order committee do they have something

094on on that i do thank you thank you so much uh bishop williams the first change order it provided cut outs in the control room table tops and drop softest soffits in ceiling connectors uh the reason for that is the cutouts added to the control room tabletops accommodate the latest av equipment and this and the associated wiring the ceiling soffits added to divide the above ceiling returns to the air plenum as required by scd so that's a requirement by the state head department the second major change order provide labor materials to modify the video wall and associated soffit in the library to accommodate a larger video board and the soffits will range from the original height of the 8 foot to 11 feet to 11 feet to provide additional wall surfaces necessarily accommodate again a

095larger video board and to enclose the redesigned network and finally the provide ductwork changes around the perimeter of the library fabricate install rerouted deck work to accommodate revised software design that was that was done to increase the capacity necessary to do away with spiral ducts suspended from the uh roof girders in other words uh to uh make that facility as as aesthetically pleasing as necessary so that includes the change orders for the evening thank you thank you mr purino uh we've had the discussion all in favor aye opposed so passes um entertain motion for the approval of a ward of bid don't move second moved his second day uh any discussion does mike want to explain i'll explain that mike ah sure um so this is um an award of bed for uh phase two

096of the air conditioning um capital project that we had approved a few years ago um this this work will involve a couple different buildings one is the high school uh the hvac upgrade in the nursery suite um over at truman moon uh finishing the second um floor if you will or the upper level with ventilators the first round only did the bottom floor the main floor and then the third project is over at maple hill when they did the new roof over there a lot of the acoustic uh in the above the music rooms was removed uh so we need to add that back because when they play the music in there it spreads throughout the building and is very uh disruptive to the other classes um so this is still money in the capital

097project that we were looking to use and with this bid award um it's just allowing us to use a specific contractor under a um payback award uh for contracting so thank you mike thank you mike uh we've had the discussion uh this is a roll call oh this is a roll call all right uh we're going to a roll call uh mrs clark could you please do the roll call mrs blumenow aye mr cresenza aye mr gomez aye mrs houston yes mr purino hi miss tobiason aye mr williams hi pastor williams hi thank you thank you so much it passes um uh action item e uh approval of our election workers may have a motion please so move second moved and seconded all in um any discussion all in favor aye aye aye aye opposed

098it so passes thank you everybody bles bles bless you uh mrs blumenow uh uh uh committee reports committee committee reports and i'm coming right to you you want me you want me to pause for a second okay no you're all right all right uh committee reports as soon as mrs blumenthal is ready we're going to go to uh policy committee and uh as our chairman of the policy committee uh chairperson of the policy committee uh we'll turn it into uh mrs blumenau's hands at this point thank you thank you president i'm so sorry about that i just got got a tickle just as i knew uh our policy was coming up um so we are uh the policy committee has received the um recommendations for a revised policy that is um we have all reviewed

099and this is um eerie one recommends um that we uh re that we adopt policy 7551 with in relation to sexual harassment of students and we've all received that policy and um we just need to vote on that now do i have a motion so moved check it any discussion yeah i just want to say one thing briefly uh i do want to thank my colleagues i believe that it does include some language that that i had proposed that in in our sexual harassment policy we also have safeguards for scenarios that we've seen happen in different scenario parts of the country where a student or somebody else has sent a picture particularly on a cell phone of another person or another student in a improper position or naked and that has led to that other

100person even committing suicide i think it's important that uh you know that that we are the models for our kids and that we there are certain things that are right and wrong and that's certainly something wrong that's not done and i do think that we included language there to direct that that is the form of harassment uh unacceptable if you appreciate somebody or love somebody or appreciate it a little bit before you don't put that you don't do anything to shame person and that's and i commend the policy committee and our chairwoman for help and i'll put this together thank you thank you and and thank you mr gomez for your input and all of our committee members to review these policies as they come to us we've done large policy reviews we've done small

101policy reviews but every policy is important in how we uh how we act and conduct business in our school district so thank you all right so any other bishop let me let me just say let me say let me say that again thank you for your work on this policy i think i just wanted to say that uh in this particular climate at this particular moment i think that this policy is a very important policy for our district to our district to adopt many of these things that happen and trans that happen as far as policies are concerned sometimes um go under the radar they sometimes go under the radar um and and sometimes unfortunately much of the public doesn't understand uh much of this uh much of this not all everybody of course is

102i think that's a very general statement and i don't want i definitely do not want to minimize minimize the public's understanding but i do i do sincerely believe that at this particular moment in time that policies like this are extremely important uh to this to the district and and to our to our our faculty and faculty staff and more most importantly our students at this particular time and to provide to provide um those extra layers of of of protection uh for all of them so i i am grateful that we are adopting this policy so thank you thank you pastor williams any other comments or questions or discussion all right seeing none all in favor hi any opposed any abstentions and the policy is adopted thank you thank you mrs blumenow um moving on any

103other committee reports i'm sorry i didn't raise my hand but for the record my vote was an eye thank you thank you thank you any other committee reports tonight fair funding uh mr gomez fair funding yes uh the fair funding committee uh uh has presented to the uh the board a letter where we uh addressed two of our legislative representatives or are we addressing uh or asking the legislature to move forward with fund education and funding for the future again uh we've speculated in the future there will be uh uh there may be more tougher times ahead uh and i think it's important that long term we have established education policies that equitable especially for our upstate small city school districts at the same time that there be a comprehensive uh bipartisan effort to uh

104address the issue of uh unfunded mandate and the different ways to do that i think that could be more the more armed with in hindsight more accomplishable uh before the the district adopts it i would like uh the board members of course to take a look at it and give their input because i do want it to be something that is a letter of consensus and all of our board members all nine of us perspectives are taken into consideration so i would ask um our distinguished clerk ms clark that he shares it uh with all the all my colleagues and that so that we could address it uh hopefully at the next board meeting if we're ready thank you thank you mr gomez uh any other committee reports at this time um if not uh

105is there anything new and compelling for round table i just wanted to make one comment sir yes yes ma'am um i know that some of you have seen me bopping in and out i went running to try to find out the school law that is put out by the new york state school board association and i looked up to see what a school board is which is 5.1 and what the powers and duties 5.16 are of a school board and i've yet to find any mention of any bylaws so i don't know as vince has stated previously i don't know where these bylaws are that are being referred to you won't find them anywhere thank you thank you and and it is it is mrs bloomer now on another topic i just wanted to acknowledge

106yom hashoa which is holocaust remembrance we've been um started last night um through today and of course we should remember every day an ongoing uh that six million jews and so many more passed away died were killed were murdered at the hands of nazi germany and we should always remember and never forget and as hard as it is i run a program that supports holocaust survivors and as hard as hard it as it is sometimes to see the images and to hear the stories it is important that we take the time during the whenever you can if not yesterday and today to take the time and read and knowledge and really understand uh the loss and what its um lasting effect has been on the jewish community and for so many thank you thank you

107mrs blumenau anybody else for roundtable well if not i i want to thank each and every one of you um for your diligence uh and and for this meeting tonight i want to congratulate the administration on drafting uh a a very comprehensive budget of course we'll have the next two weeks to be able to uh uh go through everything go through everything and which time we will we will um either adopt or not adopt i think we must adopt uh but we'll be able to make if there are any changes we'll be able to make those necessary changes in these next couple of weeks as which is our which is our uh charge uh but i do i do believe that the district has done due diligence in making sure that we're coming in at

108a zero tax levy on this i don't think you can get any better than that and um and and so i i not only do i want to congratulate them but um i will congratulate ahead of time the community on this um because this win-win for the community um especially in these um financially uh financially hard times so thank you everybody thank you everybody for your diligence our next board meeting will be on uh april the 22nd if i'm not mistaken april the 22nd thursday april the 22nd we do look forward to um having everybody there we will we will let you know uh as we are moving forward uh how that meeting how that meeting uh will be held and where it will be held um but uh we do think we do thank

109each and every one of you again can you repeat the date for paint the city blue for the listeners who are out there april april 16th thank you next friday next friday yes and that was going to be my reminder before i did my motion to adjourn just to remind everybody i see john's already wearing his blue right um you know paint the town blue next friday mister all day all day mr mr crescenzo rose motion to adjourn i did you did you need a second second okay it's been moved his second day all in favor all right opposed nobody all right good night everybody hi everyone thank you you