001Okay, good evening everybody and welcome. Uh, tonight is March 10th, 2026 and we are at meeting number two for our budget advisory committee. So, welcome all. So, tonight's agenda, we're going to talk about a number of things. Um, I promise I'm not going to keep you here forever. Um but there's a lot of important things we need to talk about. Uh our timeline, our budget, both the revenue side and the expenditure side. Um we'll talk about the property tax calculation. Mrs. Caparusa will provide some curriculum highlights and additions to the budget for next year. Uh and of course we'll talk about our proposed capital projects and give you an update on what we proposed last year and where we are with that and then some important upcoming dates to keep on your calendar. So tonight's
002presentation and prior presentations we post to our budget information website. It shows you here how to get to that. This presentation will be posted tomorrow morning. We also post the recording of this meeting on that site. So if you want to watch anything back, you missed something, uh you can go back and watch that. We have three years, you know, this year's budget, which is, you know, a work in progress. And we have two prior years of information out there, so you can look back if you want to. So the expenditure budget, this is the part of the budget that everybody talks about each year. This is what we go to the polls to vote for the third uh Tuesday in each May. Um the budget explains how we plan to spend our money during
003the upcoming fiscal year. It details the categories we're spending to operate schools, support our students, maintain our facilities, and comply with all our educational requirements. So, I put this up here, this these two figures on the same side because this is what you're going to see coming up for our district and all the other districts on Long Island in, you know, all the newspapers coming up. These are the two key things that folks look at when they're looking at budget time. Our taxpayers are coming to vote on the budget, which is the top line shows you the last year, this year, the change 3.86%. The tax levy is what we raise to support that budget and the 2.53% that you see there is compliant with the tax cap uh formula. So we are not piercing
004the cap. Um in order to do that you would have to have a 60% majority. We do not need to do that at this time. It's also important to note with the tax levy, we send this number that's, you know, this year the 26,894, we send that to the county and we tell the county this is what we need to run our school district next year. We don't have any say in how they aortion that to our homeowners. Um sometimes homeowners tax um assessments are, you know, affected if their neighbors grieving their assessment and you and this person isn't. person B might see an increase in their taxes because person A got a little bit of a break because they grieved. That is completely out of our control. And of course, as I always mentioned,
005um the bills for the the receiver of taxes have our phone number on them. So people call here for help and we try our best to help them. Sometimes we do have to refer them back um because they're things, you know, that are not within our control that we have to, you know, refer them back to the uh receiver of taxes. Um but we do try to help them out when we can. So these are some of the big budget drivers that we save every year and I like to present this information so people see what we deal with and these are things some of them that are out of our control. So I put up here the ERS and TRS. These are the two retirement systems that we deal with here in schools. The
006employer's retirement system um and the teachers retirement system. So they I put several years of rates just so you can see where they go. Sometimes they go up, sometimes they go down. You see for the last several years the ERS rates are continuing to climb steadily. Um whereas the TRS they go back and forth. Um so this is the portion of our employees salaries that we have to pay to these retirement systems. All full-time employees are required to join the retirement system whichever one they belong to. Um part-time employees are allowed to join. they're not required to u but some do because they want a pension when they retire. Um, it's important to note that our tax levy limit, which is the tax cap formula, sometimes will, it actually only has happened one time in
007my time in schools, provide us an exemption if that number goes up more than two percentage points in a school year because they recognize we shouldn't have to cut our budget, you know, cut out programs or services to our students because they raised the limit, you know, for the the percent increase for the upcoming year. Uh, so it's only happened one time in my entire time seeing in schools. Um, but it's something that's out there in, you know, in case they do increase it more than 2%. >> Does that happen with anything else or just the RSPR? Like they wouldn't do it for healthcare in my bed. >> No, I I would love to see that, but you know, because that is another big one and you kind of helped me segue into my next
008screen and I promise um it's scary, so hold on to your hats. These are the insurance uh rates for the last several years. Um NICHIP is the health insurance uh company that we deal with, which most of New York State employees deal with. Um these are the increases um for the upcoming year. You can see they've jumped. Um other than like that midyear decrease in 2023, we don't really see any decreases in the health insurance. Um sometimes like in the last couple years, we've had singledigit increases. Um last year we were happy to see a very small increase. Um but this year we're back up in the 8% range, eight to nine percent range both on the uh family and the individual coverages. Um >> this is for the Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield plans.
009>> Yes. >> And we're not allowed to shop around to to do any other health plans. >> It's something we would need to negotiate with our bargaining units. Um I don't see many districts that steer out of it that down on Long Island here. Some of the upstate districts do. >> That's not in the constitution. New York state that we have to give them have fire. >> It's it's usually in the employment agreements that we have with our >> staff or whatever whatever the ER. >> Yes. So we would need to negotiate that out of all of the unit contracts. >> So that is I mean it's a possibility. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> So this is something new I'm presenting. I didn't present this last year but it's something I like to present. I've
010done this before in my prior district debt service. So, back in May of 2015, our taxpayers approved a bond. Um, and now for the from that time until uh the 23 20 33 34 school year. Sounds so weird to say that. Um, we were we are paying this bond off. So, this is what we pay each year. We pay a principal payment, interest payment. So, you see the total there. It's broken up. Um, usually the interest in one part of the year, the principal later in the year or vice versa. Um this is important too for many reasons. One, this is part of our um exemptions and our tax cap formula. Again, the state recognizes we need to do things to improve and maintain our buildings. They don't want us to cut other things if
011we're going to put this on the table. So, they allow us an exemption. So, debt service is part of that exemption that we're allowed. um we haven't done any significant work um since May of 2015 is when we voted on that that bond. It was 14,650,000. Uh so at some point, I'm not saying today, but at some point we're going to need to consider doing another borrowing uh because we're going to want to line up a borrowing with the end of this borrowing or maybe even before that because if we wait till the end of this schedule, it'll be almost 20 years since we've done any significant work on our buildings. Um, so it's just something to think about. Again, not today, but while we're doing our tours in the fall, the buildings, looking around,
012Mr. Carter and I constantly talk about things. We talk about things with our building and and district level administrators as we see things going on. So, just something to consider down the road, >> but the roof roofs are significant. We're talking about that. >> Yeah. So, we're we're doing the the roof project um that camp roof that we took from the Capital Reserve. The voters approved that in May. Um, thankfully that came in under budget, so we'll be able to put a little bit of that money back into the reserve and start saving for the next roof, but we're saving by, you know, having some fund balance at the end of the year and being able to put that into our capital reserve. So, it's not going to be something that necessarily happens overnight. Um,
013and and with the way things are in the world right now, um, I'm sure costs are increasing. So, just things to keep in mind. It's some It's a way we could do projects without borrowing, but it's also going to take a longer time to save up that money and then get that work done. And the price of the project at the beginning of like when we're thinking about now, say the roof on this building, we haven't even thought about yet. What it costs today versus the cost of what it will be when we're able to actually pay for it out of our capital reserve are probably going to be wildly different. I wish it wasn't, but okay. So, Mr. Dell, this one's for you. This is the slide that shows, and the colors aren't great
014here, um, but I'll share with you. Um, the equipment is so small, it shows up as a zero here, but really it's 0.2%. Um, we look at equipment each year. So, last year, I'll give you an example. Our equipment uh was 0.25. This year, we reduced it because sometimes we put things into the budget that are one one year items. you know, we just need to replace something um this year and then it comes out next year because we're not going to buy it again next year. Um so this just kind of gives you an idea of all of our our costs and how they are, what portion of the budget they are for this coming year. Of course, always salaries and benefits are our largest, which is where uh the bulk of our money
015is going. And then we have on there the Boseies and we are increasing our Boseies services because we recognize um purchasing from Boseies not only gives us compliance with our purchasing policies and whatnot but we also get aid next year for whatever we purchase this year. So it also helps when we get our state aid run for the the following year if we're buying from Boseies this year because it's going to also then help us to reduce what we're taxing our taxpayers because we're going to get more aid on the Boseies lines. And I will say the Boseis folks are really great to work with and they really have a level of knowledge that we're kind of buying into when we we use their services. Um contracted services and supplies. I mean I can tell
016you everything's going up. You know, electric um textbooks, anything you could buy is going up and we're not seeing anybody say, "Oh, we're cutting prices this year." Everything goes up. So as things go up, um those codes are going to go up as well. >> So the debt service, we don't have any ability to cut that. That's always going to be the same. >> No, we have to follow that schedule right here. >> So that for the 26 27 school year is that that little yellow piece of the pie, if you will. >> So 80% of the budget is already accounted for every year. >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> Well, 3% for debt. >> Yeah. >> Debt. >> Yeah. >> So that's three. So 80%. Is that low? Was that average? I think it's always
017been a little higher though, >> hasn't it, in years past? I thought it was always in the low 80s, like 825. Salary and benefits last year was a little bit 78% of the budget and the transfer uh I'm sorry the debt service was 2.89%. So it kind of >> always been around 80%. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> The Bosei service is going up to 6%. What were we last year? >> Last year we were at 5.48%. >> 5.48. And then because we're going up to 6% is that why the Bosey's administrative costs are going up 7%. >> Well, the Bosey's administrative costs are are part of that 6% increase, but the Bosey's administrative costs are set by Boseies each year. It includes um the fees that are involved in us being part of their consortium. Um
018the administrative fees that they have, you know, for their building rentals and whatnot, we as a component district pay part of that. Those fees are set directly from Boseies. Each year they provide us um like mid early to midFebruary a listing of what those fees are. So that's also something we don't have a control of and we pay as a component district of NASA Boseies >> unless we use Boseies less. >> No no anybody that uses Boseies pays those fees. So it's that number isn't dependent on how much we use Boseies. It's just because we are a component district at Boseies that we pay our share of that. >> So it's divided by the number of districts. >> Yeah. divided by the 56 districts of Nassau County. >> But the 56 districts don't actually get
019the nitty-gritty of their decisions for how much they're raising prices. >> Oh, no, no, no. Those >> they have their own board. >> Yeah. The Boseies boards are >> so those are people that probably doing their budget. >> Yeah. And what's a challenge for us with Boseies too and with with all of our vendors really, some of them know what their pricing is going to be for next year. So, we've gotten some of our software prices in. Um, we know some of the tuition rates are going up four and 5%. We don't know um for sure what transportation services are going to be through Boseies next year. I've been told probably around 5%, but they haven't set the rates yet. Um, some of the other services will come out, you know, a little bit later
020on. So, so when we budget for Boseies, it's kind of, you know, a little bit flying blind because they don't have all their fee structures in place for next year. And if they don't know, we don't know. Uh so for us it's kind of a look back see what we spent see what the increase was and kind of try to project that. Uh so that's uh where BOSS comes in. >> Could the could all all the districts that pay into the Boseies fund could we make some request to get those prices earlier? So it's good. >> Oh we do. We do. I mean and and we've been told for the most part like we do an electronic letter of intent this year which is signing up for all of our services through Boseies. That's going
021to be coming out in the beginning of April. So, it seems like far, but um it's it's already halfway through the March uh month already. So, we'll be getting that soon. And at that point in time, a lot more of their pricing will be available because that they do include it in the letter of intent. It's just a timing thing for us as far as budget because we're going to look to adopt our budget on April 14th. We're not going to get those prices until April 1st or or sometimes thereafter. Like another thing that's going to be, you know, impacting our budget but not known to us when we adopt is CPI. So, our transportation contracts for next year will go up by CPI and they don't tell us what that is until June. So,
022again, I look at the last couple years, where have we gone? Where does the CPI for the year up till this certain date, you know, to kind of try and guesstimate where we'll be for next year. But again, it's all estimates. So, that's part of the fun, I guess, of the budget process. But, um, you know, it's it's just there's there's a lot of unknowns when we're doing the budget. So, as I spoke about the expenditure budget, which is the the budget that we're all voting on, we need a revenue budget because as I talked to you last month and I showed you the balance, if you have an expenditure budget of this amount, you have to have a revenue budget to support that amount so that net net you're zero. So, whatever you're going
023to spend, you have to bring in to pay for. So, just real quick, we've talked about the slide. I like to put it in when we're talking revenue, these are the sources of revenue that we talked about. So, when we compare the left column, the budgeted last year is what I showed you last year at this time um when we were talking about it's the the first uh aid run that we got from uh the state, our appropriations from reserves, our property taxes. So you can see everything adds up to the budget number on the bottom there. Our proposed for the upcoming year and you'll see we've eliminated the fund balance appropriation. Um that is something that our auditors commended us for when we met with them in October. Um when you appropriate fund balance,
024you're taking money from this current budget that we're living in and putting it forward toward the next year's budget. And it can be, you know, a good thing for oneshot deals. Um but to rely on that every year becomes very taxing you know on a school district. So we were able to eliminate that. My predecessor started that process and we finished it last year. Uh we do appropriate from reserves and the controller likes to see us do that. Uh you know we have in the the appropriation from reserves are appropriation from ERS which is the employee retirement system, the TRS, teachers retirement system and unemployment. And what that means is we can take out only up to what those expenses are in the in the year. So for example, I'll use a small one. Unemployment,
025I have $2,000 that is funded by the unemployment reserve. If we have 2500 in unemployment expenses, I'm still only taking out 2,000 because that's what we've been authorized to do. But if we have only 1,500, I'm only taking 1,500 because I cannot take any more than the expenditure level. And that goes across the board for the ERS and the TRS. We do like to replenish when we can because again, we don't want to fall short later on in in years to come. We don't know what things are going to look like. So, we try to use the reserves a little bit to show that we're using them. We're not just stockpiling money because districts have gotten smacked on the hand for doing that and we don't want to be in that position. Um, but, you
026know, we we try to mediate it. I also this year did not take the full amount. I I have budgeted uh I think it was $725,000 in the ERS which is less than um what I have in the budget for it. So I I'm trying to trim that number down a little bit, not use as much of the reserves and budget more into the general fund budget >> is that 13,900. So the the state aid that's we're getting that definitely >> they haven't done their budget yet, have they? >> So that's the first run that they gave us back in January. They're going to give us another one um either at the end of this month or early April which will be the final final number. And usually hopefully again this year the second run
027is a little bit more than the first run. So it might be a little bit more than that. Um it could be less but it's it depends on what the legislature is talking about and what their priorities are and what they're going to approve based on what the governor has proposed. Uh so I guess I will be more to follow as that comes out. We'll certainly let the board and the committee know so that you know what uh what we get. But usually when that comes out, it's all over News Day and everybody knows about it. >> Oh yeah. >> Yeah. It's a very popular day. The New York State budgets in the >> Yeah. >> Question about our pilots. So they they come from LIPA. >> We only have LIPA here thankfully. Yeah. Um
028other districts have them with different organ like um in my prior district we had it with the Bristol and the Atria. uh it's the agreement that they make with the the IDA so that they're not paying what they would pay on their normal tax schedule. They get a certain fixed amount each year. Um which is helpful for them because they're coming into the community. They have a usually a lower rate of pay as far as their taxing, you know, that they're getting taxed for. Um what's tough for the districts is they're not getting taxed at their full valuation. So we're not getting all the money from them that we could get from them. Um so it's kind of a a standstill. you know, we're we're getting something, but we're not getting what we would normally
029get. And the agreements last, I'd say, between 10 15 years. Sometimes they renew them. Um, thankfully, we only have the LIPO pilot. And, um, you know, hopefully that'll be it. But >> yeah, no, pilots aren't that big. >> Yeah. And that's that's only a portion because we share the pilot with the high school district and with the library. So, that's just our portion of the pilot. >> And they've been pretty steady. I know some districts it can be a big deal. Yeah. Pilots's being negotiated. Absolutely. >> We're pretty steady with that. >> Yep. >> Okay. So, um I like to show this because it really just kind of hits home as far as showing how we calculate our tax levy. So, we take that proposed expenditure budget of $44 million and then we add up
030all of our sources of revenue and we know where we're getting money from everywhere else. You know, we're predicting where we're going to get money everywhere else. and then the balance due is the tax levy. So, it's just kind of a simplistic way to show it, but I like to show that because I like to show the the formula in its entirety. And at this point, I'm going to turn the presentation over to my colleague, Mrs. Caparuso, who's going to tell you about curriculum highlights and additions to our instructional programs and probably far more interesting than I've been so far. >> Your numbers are so interesting, Donnelly. Thank you so much. Um I'm proud and honored to be here this evening to share with you what we've done in the areas of curriculum and instruction
031so far during the 2526 school year and what we have planned for the 2627 school year. So in ELA we continue to expand our resources and programs that further our commitment to the explicit instruction of foundational literacy skills in our classrooms. We continue to support our implementation of the Hagerty phenemic awareness program in all K2 classrooms as well as foundations in all K to3 classrooms. Both programs are researchbased and provide explicit instruction on phonics and phmic awareness. New this year, we extended our supportive foundations by purchasing fun and focus kits to support our tier 2 students in AIS reading. And also new this year, we added grammar books districtwide in grades 2 to six to support the direct and explicit instruction of foundational grammar skills. These programs and resources directly support the New York State
032prek to grade three literacy initiative. This year, our literacy committee has focused on an examination of all of our current practices. When we looked to develop a deeper shared understanding of the science of reading, we did that to help us make informed recommendations regarding additional future shifts in our literacy programs. This year's work will culminate in the committee recommending literacy programs with a focus on the science of reading to pilot during the 2627 school year for a planned adoption in 2728. Mathematics, a little math. Uh this year the focus of CAC was the numerousy briefs which were released last spring by NYED. The briefs emphasize developing a conceptual understanding of numbers and operations in grades K to six. They support instructional practices such as mathematical discussion, multiple strategies for solving problems, and the use of
033visual models to help students explain their thinking. Like the literacy briefs, the numeracy briefs place an emphasis on vertical articulation and a recommmitment to skills. In this case, mathematical skills in the primary grades, which are critical for success with more meth with more advanced mathematics in later grades. We'll follow a similar process as we did with literacy. This year in year one, we're starting the conversations based on the information that the state has released and we will continue these discussions and evaluate how our current curriculum, the Envision program through SAVIS supports these instructional practices and what, if any, additional supports are needed. Social studies, you may recall that last year we were piloting several social studies programs. This year we work to support the adoption of the resources that were selected to support social studies
034instruction. Kindergarten adopted Mcgra Hill. Grades one and two adopted Savas My World. And grades three to five are using the Nassau Boseis materials. The decision to bury resources was both strategic and teacherdriven. Nassau Boseis only released resources in grades three to five. Teachers who participated in the pilots gave valuable feedback. While Savas K to3 may seem like a more natural choice, teachers felt that McGraill was more developmentally appropriate for kindergarten than the Savas was, which is why we have the changes across grade levels. Regardless, all programs are aligned with the New York State Social Studies framework and therefore support the vertical articulation of the required skills. You'll also notice that we have not adopted for grade six yet. After piloting several publishers last year, grade six is still looking for the right fit. Right now,
035they are working with Discovery Education's online textbook. This is a nice compliment because grades seven and eight at the Central High School District also have this resource. We're also closely monitoring the anticipated release of grade six resources from NASA Boseis so that whatever the final choice is it both resources fit in our vertical articulation plans. Science several years back after a similar process that was followed with the social studies the district adopted National Geographic as the science program. It was chosen because it includes interactive science practices aligned to the New York State Next Generation standards. Teachers continue to work together through summer curriculum writing projects as well as through the teacher center to enhance unit plans and lesson plans that embed National Geographic as well as generation genius and mystery science. The curriculum supports the
036shifts in instruction and teaching by incorporating practical handson experiences. We're so appreciative of our partnership with the teacher center which is supporting the district rollout of NYSE initiatives and frameworks. I've been in discussions with Carrie Levit who leads the teacher center about creating collegial circles and the possibility of providing inservice courses connected to the science of reading and the numeracy briefs to continue to support the teachers continued professional development and success. All right, thanks. Additions to instruction. So during this school year, we brought flesh to the North Marrick School District. um for flesh stands for foreign language in the elementary school. Although data at the secondary level showed that our students did well without foreign language in the elementary school, re research indicates that early language study boosts brain development, improves performance in core subjects
037like math and reading and fosters empathy by increasing cultural awareness. For those reasons, we were happy to be able to bring flesh and add it to our offerings for students this year. And to make learning another language even more engaging, classes were held in the library where our Spanish certified teacher connected language learning with cultural exploration and activities as well as research. As we continue to examine our instructional offerings, we are very excited to announce the addition of a dedicated technology teacher in grades K to6 for the 2627 school year. The technology teacher will provide sequential age appropriate instruction in coding, computational thinking, and robotics. To incorporate this instruction, we will utilize a collaborative push-in model where the technology teacher will work alongside the classroom teacher to reinforce skills and build staff capacity. instruction will
038have a standardsbased focus and will directly align with the ISTY standards, International Society for Technology and the New York State Computer Science and Digital Fluency Learning Standards on a developmentally appropriate scale. With the new portrait of a graduate framework from NYSED, we are backloading off the pathways students will have at the secondary level and outcomes for high school graduation and placing an emphasis on critical thinking, communication, and civic responsibility while preparing students for multiple pathways as well as the new AI literacy framework from the Department of Labor. It is the right time to explicitly incorporate instruction in the area of technology into our students education. This supports the work already being done in the library in terms of coding and steam and will expose all of our students to more hands-on experiential learning that focuses
039on collaboration and problem solving. We are excited to continue to support the growth and great work that our students and teachers are doing here in North Merrick. and Miss Donnelly, thank you so much. I give the mic back to you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Caparuso. So, in summary, uh our proposed budget, our budget to budget increase, and our proposed tax levy increase just to throw all the numbers onto one slide in summary. And now, let's talk about capital projects. So, as you know, each year we budget an amount into our general fund budget called the transfer to capital. Um, this year we're proposing to budget $280,000 into that line, which is $15,000 more than last year. And we're looking at these projects that you see before you. Um, it's important to know that each uh
040five years the state education department does require us to do a building condition survey and we are up for that in 2027. And what that means is our architect will come, walk our buildings, look at everything, provide us a report of recommendations of things um both cosmetic in nature but also health and safety recommendations that he you know believes that we should do to our buildings improvements. Um the building condition survey provides districts with detailed information to properly maintain safe and healthy school environ environments and we're required to file that building condition survey with the state. That's usually what we pick our projects off of. Um and just to piggyback on the debt service conversation, $280,000 is is a band-aid. Um we we try to and as I told the board earlier, we do a
041lot with a little here. We try to do as much as we can. I've tried to increase this a little bit each year to not only account for rising costs, but to kind of let us do a little bit more. And we try to spread the work amongst all of our buildings. So, we're trying to do thing hit something at each building uh sometimes multiple things at each building uh to continue to improve our buildings and also maintain health and safety. Just to give you an update, these are the projects that we had on last year's roster. Uh we have both the transfer to capital projects that are listed here and our capital reserve project. Um at the time I present I I put this presentation together um we hadn't yet um talked to we
042talked to the roof folks um but we don't have a final decision yet. Um because when we talked to them there was snow on the roof um so we can't really decide when we can start this uh until the snow is gone. So Mr. Carter and I do have a phone call with the architect and the roofing vendor uh toward the end of this month. Hopefully, Mr. Snow is going to go away for the season and we'll be able to kind of really plan uh when that roof's going to be done. Um we also did talk with our friends at Nassabosis. They're going to be helping us with the phone system upgrades. Um Dr. Canalopoulos and Mr. Carter and I had a brief meeting with them yesterday. Um we're going to look to do that
043in the fall. And why in the fall? uh because we want to do that when people are here to test the phones out. We don't want the phones to be put in in the summer when nobody's here except you know the skeleton staff that's here in the summer and then have them not work when folks come back. Uh so we would look to probably get the equipment ordered um and inhouse for the summer um and then the Boseies techs will come out during the fall to help us uh put that phone system in place. We're looking forward to that. Um security enhancements we put in every year. I can't tell you publicly what they are because we don't want the bad guys to know. But we do each year try to do something with security
044because we want to make sure we're doing all the things we're supposed to do. And as you know, something always comes up every year that somebody didn't think of. Um so we try to make sure that we're keeping that in mind and putting a little money aside to make those changes in our buildings. Um everything else is in progress or or completed. The the fuel tank monitoring and system repairs and replacement is completed, but everything else is in progress. Um, so we'll continue to update you on those. >> Sam, wasn't the the hot water heater replaced when we did the bond? >> Uh, not this one. Yes, there were several replaced, but this one wasn't. >> Okay. >> So, mark your calendars. We have some more important dates coming up. Um, April 14th, um, I
045will do another brief presentation to the board. uh with our 26 27 proposed budget, we are also required to pre provote uh present to the public and the uh the board the contingency budget and the property tax report card for your approval. Um it's anticipated the board will adopt the budget that evening and then that's when I file all the paperwork with New York State to let them know the property tax report card. Um we have a bunch of other forms that I have to file with the state and then May 5th is our budget hearing. I'm sorry it's Cinco de Mayo, but we we bumped it back this year because we want to make sure we get our our six day notice out in time for our residents to receive it and we felt
046like last last year um with only a week before it was kind of tight. Uh so that's why we moved the meeting back uh this year so that we have that time to get that information out to our community. And that's all I have. I will answer any questions you may have. >> I actually have a curriculum question. I'll turn that to Mrs. Kuso. Then >> in terms of uh ELA and science reading, do you know how many of our reading teachers are Orton Gillingham certified? Does anyone know the answer to that question in this in the building? I would have to pull them. I'm not sure how many are Orton and how many um Wilson. just from I I just I think in all of our schools we need to teach kids how to
047attack words. >> Um so and I know or I it's a very strong program in terms of doing that. It's one of the ways to do it. So I just I didn't know if that came up in the literacy if that ever came up when you guys were doing the looking at ELA the science of reading. So >> certainly all that that phonics, the phmic awareness, any new program that we're going to look at is going to focus on those six pillars um of the science of reading and see how they attack that in a very systematic and direct way at each grade level. So that classroom instruction will look a little different. Um focusing more on those skills. Uh the training for the reading teachers happened before I got here. So I would need
048to go back and take a look. >> I mean you can look into future training if someone doesn't have it. Maybe >> you know the beauty of the science of reading. I don't know how many people really say that but the beauty of it is that it's not about an intervention. It's about whole group instruction and doing things such as attacking the words and the phonics piece. Whereas before it was more or less well this child needs that intervention. So, that's where we're at in this five-year plan, which Miss Caparuso spoke about, is when we do adopt, it's a full package so that all students will get that, but we will certainly get that number for you. >> All right. Thank you everybody. I appreciate your time and attention. >> Right on time. It's like
049your budget. No, the teachers are in the hallway begging to come in. >> We can't wait. Everybody wants to come in. >> Okay. So, you want to open up? >> I will open the door. >> Let everyone come in. >> Good. Okay. Uh good good evening everyone. We're going welcome to our March board meeting. Uh thank you for attending. If we could rise for the attend uh pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Uh thank you for everyone that attended and participated in our budget uh committee hearing um committee meeting uh right before this meeting. A special uh thanks to Dr. Cineiac, uh Miss Donnelly, and uh Miss Capuso
050for uh presenting and doing a great job and our committee members. We're going to turn it over to Dr. Cineiac for her comments. >> Thank you, Mrs. Ryan. Welcome to our March Board of Education meeting. It's so nice to see so many people. Um couple of highlights. So, let's talk about snow. Uh big shout out to Mr. Carter and his team uh who spent hours tirelessly clearing the property of all our schools. The properties of North Merrick look better than any house I've ever seen, especially my own. Um so big shout out. I know it was difficult to get here on Wednesday, but boy, when you got here, it was like it never snowed. So thank you to your team and the time and the effort they left their own families to come here and
051make sure that we were safe when we got here. So big thank you. Uh it is March. It is theater arts month. Alice in Wonderland. Uh March 27th and 28th. The tickets are for are up for sale on our website uh over at Brookside 700 p.m. both nights. Really looking forward to going down that rabbit hole. Number three, summer postings tomorrow. Go out. Miss Caparuso will be posting our scope program registration for parents. Our JCC afternoon wreck program over at Oldm Mill. Also for those parents that'd like to send their children for the whole day, they could do scope in the morning and JCC in the afternoon. We also have theater arts over here at FET. We have our music program. So we have a lot going on in the summer. North America never sleeps.
052Uh calendar. So, our 2026 27 onepage calendar has been approved at our last board of education meeting. It is up on the website. Big question everyone's wondering is what about that Friday before Memorial Day. Uh let's get through March and then I will send something out in the beginning of April. But, uh we did get forgiveness for one day. So, it's looking good folks. Just give you a little insight. Don't make any reservations though, okay? You just never know if it's going to snow again. So, we need to be careful. Uh, fourth grade concert. If you look at the calendar, we made a switch. We were having our fourth grade concert at Old Mill Road, but we have so many fourth graders who are participating in our amazing music program, which is great. So, we
053can't fit everyone at Oldm Mill. And the Central High School District was kind enough to work with us to give us Brookside for our fourth grade concert. So, there is a switch from June 3rd to June 2nd for our fourth grade concert. It'll be held at Brookside at 6 PM. And SEPTA was kind enough to be flexible with the ice cream social and that will now be on June 3rd. Look, I can't believe we're talking about June, but take a look at that switch. Uh, parent teacher conferences this week. Looking forward to those. our students are off uh and we have conferences from noon till 7:00 p.m. always such a a big event here. The partnership with parents, we take so much pride and we thank the parents for those partnerships. We also have our
054UPK lottery this Friday the 13th. It's not unlucky by any means. 9:00 a.m. our district clerk, Miss Joanne Long, she's the superstar. She does that bingo wheel and she live streams. We have 138 families that signed up. So, we will be giving those numbers out on Friday. Uh we are closed next Friday, March 20th for Eid. Uh so, make sure you mark your calendars and then we follow that up with spring recess from April 2nd through April 10th. We return on April 13th and our board of ed April meeting is on April 14th. So, mark your calendars. a lot going on and looking forward to the sunny spring weather. >> Great. Thank you so much, Dr. Sia, and thank you uh also for your uh planning during the uh two snowstorms. Uh a lot goes
055on behind the scenes and uh Dr. Siac was uh on the phone the whole weekend uh before the storm, during the storm, after the storm, making sure that uh everybody was where they were supposed to be and to make sure that uh you had the support you needed and uh everything was cleared to maybe our students dismay. But uh it was a great job and uh thank you for everyone uh for getting everyone to school safely. Um if I can have a motion to approve 3A through 3C uh as listed on the agenda, a motion to approve by Steve, second by Mary. All in favor? Hi. And our first public comments of the night, agenda items only. If we have anyone with uh public comments, agenda items only. Okay, there are none. So, we're going
056to move on to a motion uh to approve 5A through 5F. 5A by Mary, second by Kathy. All in favor? I. Motion carries. >> Uh we're moving along. I need a motion to approve our personal personnel actions report 6A by Mary, second by Will. All in favor? I motion passes and a motion to approve our special services 7A through 7B as listed on the agenda. Motion by Will, second by Mary. All in favor? I motion passes unanimously. We're now on to our report of the committees. Uh Mr. Corona, our high school report. >> Yes. Okay. To our March uh 4th Central High School District Board of Education meeting with us kind of on the short side. Uh the superintendent's report included information about the complications from the snowstorm. We actually had students who were stranded
057in while on trips in Florida, the Galapagos Islands, and in Ecuador. But they all got back safely. Everything's great. We were told that the high school uh custodial staff actually slept over at the central office for the weekend. >> So did we. >> There we go. >> You got to hear that in our report. Uh we also uh heard information that our district hockey team won the New York State Championship and they received a police escort home from the LIE all the way back to uh Calhoun High School. >> The board recognized Austin Bird who's a student at MAMS for his presentation to the entire school on wheelchair basketball. Austin is a student there who's been using a wheelchair since he was six years old. Uh we also had a representative from NISPA come to
058our meeting to recognize our steam career fair as a champion of change award winner. And lastly, the board was given a presentation of the district champ program. That's the culinary hospitality applied management program. So those who don't know it, we have students who go to Kennedy High School, have a program there where they do different things and pretty much big part of it is uh make food and they brought food for us to eat at the board meeting and it was excellent. So good to know. Also, the high school announced their budget to budget is 3.12% and of course their levy increase is 2.35%. That's it. >> Thank you, Mr. Corona. our Miss Keen with our school community relations PTA report. >> PTAs continue to be awesome. We'll start with Camp Avenue. Earth Dome for
059fifth grade will take place tomorrow, March 11th. The plan sale is open until April 1st. Um there's it also says plant sales on May 8. So there's some confusion here. I think the plan sale is open from April 1st to May 8th. I'm not a little bit of confusion here, but >> uh the plan sale in school at Camp Avenue is May 8th. Upcoming events include sports nights for second and third grades on March 26. The readathon fundraiser raised over $17,000. It's the first time Camp Avenue did it and they're thrilled that they did. Other fundraisers include the Islanders versus Panthers on March 28th. Spiritware will be opening soon. The JetBlue raffle is open and the Chipotle fundraiser for sixth grade will be held on March 16th. Uh at FED, judging for the science fair
060will be done in school on March 17th. Students in grades three through six are eligible to participate. Participants will be recognized for their hard work and winners will be announced during the PTA meeting in uh on March 18th. On March 19th, we will be celebrating International Day of Happiness. A meteorologist from News12 will be at the school. Ready Set Go, uh, which is kindergarten orientation is set for April 23rd. Oldmill road jester gym will be visiting OMR for an assembly on March 19th to celebrate International Day of Happiness. Um, also there are a couple of assemblies coming up. Mission Impossible, Acts of Kindness, Kindness Missions. The science fair will be held on March 16th. The PTA will give gift cards to first and second place participants in grades 3 through 6. Variety show rehearsals will
061be held on April 23rd. Family sports night will be on April 6th. April 17th. Hold on, I'm sorry about that. Family sports night will be on April 6th. April 17th may have Pioneer >> Pioneer Sports. Okay. Um the very first I was at this meeting so >> I know my secretary was away so I apologize. >> Um the very first tacos and trivia will be held on March 31st. So very excited about that. and Old Mill Road will be ordering from Gallery of Pizza for parent teacher conferences on March 12th. And for SEPTA, SEPTA did a fundraiser uh at the Long Island Children's Museum on Friday night. Uh the activities discussed were raffles, dinner, and museum access. The committee will also be working on assembling a new board for the 20 uh 2026 2027 school
062year. So, PTA's continue to be awesome. Thank you. A lot of things going on. Mr. Carter, buildings and grounds. >> Good evening everyone. Good to see you all. Um, I'm not even going to me mention the sword. I'm done with it. It's behind us. 70 degrees today. So, we're we're already looking at grass seed and airating and stuff like that. >> So, positive thoughts >> with you. >> Um, as Dr. Sania said we are actually talking about summer projects and summer work and summer programs and all that good stuff and uh it's you know still have piles of snow out there so it's always planning. Um we did a ton of work over the February break was very productive and one of the greatest things we did over the February break was uh our entire
063staff and and also Joe I wanted to add from technology was trained in CPR and AED which I think is great. you know, the more people who know it. I my guys know where everything is, how to use it now, and uh hopefully we don't need it. Um >> uh the hot water heater is going to be done over the April break at Camp Avenue. We're waiting for the arrival of that any day now. And uh we've been doing more painting on the second floor of Camp Avenue, just keeping going so we can eventually get that done because it looks great. So we want to keep that moving along. And uh we're continuing with an emergency lighting plan over at uh Old Mill. We're almost done there and we're going to start up over here.
064Just adding more e emergency lighting where we feel that we could use a little bit more in the event of another blackout like we had. Sorry, >> I'm not calling you. >> That's that's got to be one of my kids because it's only it's on emergency pass. >> So, >> you're excused. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Good job. Uh, Miss Long, any communications? >> None. None received. >> All right. Any unfinished business? Any new business? Okay, on that note, I a motion to adjurnn. I'm sorry, no public comments. I almost How did I forget that? Any public commenters? On that note, I will say a motion to adjurnn uh by Miss Keane, second by Kathy. All in favor? I. Thank you everyone. Have a great uh happy holidays
065and enjoy the uh the next spring recess. I know.