001literally nothing on it uned states na um so this is by my wonderful team or our wonderful team that we had for tonight this is actually one of my favorite nights because it's an opportunity for us to share all the wonderful things that we're doing for our children and we're reflecting on this past year but we're always looking forward so I think an opportunity for the board to ask questions about programs um departments and also s May about how we're going to develop the budget so if there's a questions U please ask anybody that's here but also there's further information that you need to help us develop a better Bud pleas let us know um so if you look at our first thing our vision purpose um that we are involved making Learners committed personal
002grow and caring project so you'll hear this ongoing theme throughout um the night also our our vision more important than effort is that each individual Embraces today and navigates the possibilities of tomorrow um this may actually know a little bit more about c um ISS year than in the past but we really are also concerned about Federal funding right now as well so there's a lot of P go into the budget so as of today what we're we're thinking for next year we also as you know have a rer profile this is what we want our students to graduate with so you'll also hear this thing throughout apartments and the buildings talking about that we want these our students to not only have excellent academic skills but also develop these skills to provide in the
003future uh we redid our goal um up to 2027 so you you'll hear tonight about ccul development that are student centered very relevant um always looking at ways that we can create more rigorous relevant curriculum we're looking at creating structal practices that go back to that rer profile um we're always looking to en our technology that's future Focus we about that tonight we also are constantly looking to improve our communication to be timely respectful of our audience is an accessible and always looking multiple perspectives um as well so we're looking forward hearing toing for on our box as well we also have our Dei W so talking about being inclusive embracing diversity and creating a safe place where our students identities are burn and of course our mental health go that really talks about tonight
004we hear a lot about social emotional physical health um personal growth and so having the add of the word resiliency because we that comes up a lot with our students so tonight we going to go through and you're going to get a chance to hear from each of our department um again about reflecting on this past year to date and then looking forward to next year we're going to start with Bruce talking a little bit about what we know so far as as regards the budget and I don't want to miss the primary point so I'll say it first and then I'll say it repeatedly during uh this slide um right now very early on in the budget cycle uh it appears to be shaping up as a very routine budget GE um that does
005not mean the same thing as really really easing money everywhere but it seems to be shaping up to a very routine um budget year so often times this slide is a little bit scary uh the number down at the bottom for the structural deficit can be really really big it could be another million dollars bigger than what it's shaping up as this year um the structural deficit is just the result of the fact that the natural movement on the expenditure side wants to be in the vicinity of four or 5% every year um and the natural movement on the revenue side is going to be in the two or 3% range every year and that leaves us with a challenge to do everything we're doing in the current year again in the following year um
006but when taking into consideration what governor has said if you look at the um numerical column right before you get to the percentage columns you see that that structural deficit shapes up to about 3/4 of a million dollars um to me that's a manageable number that's something we look at that we we've solved problems way bigger than that so um things could change Janet mentioned the federal funding right now they're saying don't worry too much about that but it's something we're keeping an eye on um shaping up as as a routine budget year um over in the left hand column I did slide in the percentage of budget that each of those things uh represent so staing again right up there just a hair under 80% of what we do on the expenditure side everything
007else is a hair over 20 and then you can see in the revenue categories how we pay for things and we are % locally funded tax tax levy and related items um but one more time before I conclude as of uh February 12th uh with what we know we're shaping up for a relatively routine budget s question Kelly and I were able to go today and speak to Sarah out the tax pa um it's just not sustainable um if you look what to saying we have um be probably about 5% so as years go on we also deal with energy so we again went up there Advocate that sustainable way to fund but we' probably been doing really time now commissioner missioner they will not be raising tax um yeah there's there's no there's no
008evidence anywhere in sight that there is any thought of Chang that that I I will say that when uh at the meeting next week you'll see the tax calculation but uh the tax levy growth factor would be the 2% uh we do have a tax based growth factor that's above 2% a year so we' talked about that a couple of times in the last uh two years and this is actually the biggest uh tax based growth factor that we've seen so that will expend our ability to stay under the and raise uh the L more we can talk about that get us um no we we so you can see the number I have in there right now for tax related items is 35% I think um once the calculation is all done and we
009take into consideration exclusions in the light we might be bumping up near 4% and still be the tax St but that will not fully close the structural down we'll have to make we to make other Maneuvers along the way 5% and that like .9% in that Val um so as Janet mentioned most of our collective bargaining Agreements are settled in the mid to Upper fours right now and that's because that's been the market but also in that number um I didn't want to highlight negative here but one of the things that is a little out of range this year is health insurance we're looking at um the probability that the health insurance renewal will be around 8% uh we're also looking at the probability that we will not have a premium holiday this year um
010so uh Staffing is not just the cost of compensation in the form of paycheck but it's also um health insurance B Med trss um and health insurance is moving a little above norm and the PRS looks like it's going to move just a little bit above Norm as well I think [Music] yeah and and I will I will do that as we go forward I I'm trying to streamline and simplifi for high level on on tonight's out that last year many 0% DEC we actually had a deficit last year she saying 2% this year is better than 0% but when our expenditure budget %% Revenue so part of my job is to look for Revenue serviceses um sure Don's going to highlight some of our software platforms that introduced this year but one of them
011is op that streamline personel resources and the time that it takes to out some of these kind of an forms and things we hard to digitize a lot of that we did have to complete the ni Grand this year so as you know we were approved for up to six electric vehicles we purchased two of them part of that work receive that money with that and scraps buses um which was a much harder process we anticipated were able to we finalized those fing reive should receive those bu by May first year are windows be done here beautiful um the air High School there's some HB work that we've done here as well work we do have a couple last finishes that we have to tweet here and there one of the biggest things just making
012sure that the AC is fully functional at the high school we are unable to do that we have weatherend we're that on a hot day we're going to it up and make sure P off the entire building so we're excited about that he works hard on some athetic as you've seen in each of the buildings the hallway pain in the high school col designers col there we're hoping to expand that throughout the building to finish that work um I'll talk a little bit about col and things that we're doing in middle school we have some different projects there Library um getting rid of the old garage door to putting Windows pain like that mus here road so just looking at some of those you know first glimpses of buildings that people walk in which are
013really important we want to make sure that are outside inside all the great work we do programing we still have to develop this mon as you know the capital project proposition was defeated in October but our safety concerns and usage concerns for me so I will go into more detail about that next week and also the that we do have to decision one we have works this year to highlight the non or nonresident tradition program we double our Revenue this year from last year and students that we've welcomed we now the dedicated on our website we have a new video that we just finished so we're starting with the high school we're going to work our way down to m road but we wanted to share the video so being a raer is that carries
014a lot of dve cares a lot of there a lot wayone go here of community here I found many schools special like because there's so much opportunity for like no matter what you enjoy the dep that been offer in these areas through the I program especially um if you know that you're pretty interested in a certain subject you can really dive into it film we have a lot of I think film is super cool and very unique I expect the video production class ones which is probably one of the only C when you get about animation I the financial leers Club in t our shop working and auto mechanical class the best they're like cing a lot so having ability to take a compared sence class which really made my schol day a lot more
015interesting currently taking three help and that I get college credit college called the bar bridge program you toal College that's a really unique really superb um Educational Opportunity I'm a part of the full I I'm full I candidate so I think that being able to take such regress classes um would really set me up to success in terms of work ethic in my future career in in college I'm not sure how many places High School is actually offer High psychology or like higher psychology class like not entirely sure do in college I think just a really good looking one college level psychology class I'm also in ic right now and we're doing deep di into so many different forms of data from all around the world um different centuries it's really incredible but more than
016that with all the exra C there's the club sport that we offer there's really something for everyone I'm involved in the robotic team the robo Raider which I think is a very special element of the friend experience mainly on Musical and like play here which that's that's a wonderful Community like in itself I play soccer and play botball basketball or wrest R and like soccer there like playing from the r there nothing like playing field the the filing level teams which allows me kind to have more of St in my school life I'm also a member of the board of EV the student representative students have a lot of input we're inviting to attend um board meetings we can you know share online we can uh get advisory for any club who on the start
017is really a student forward school I think that the resources that AV students um has made my voice a lot interesting a lot made me to keep a lot more all the faculty are super kind everybody's Red Hook is so supported they have some many support teachers and since we have such diverse like colle of classes there will always be something for you very welc in community I a new person when I first came here my firstman year and I really did made some very good friends and met good people and I just really like sh is very inclusive and it's very creative there's a lot of different things you can do and there's a lot of freedom in what you choose to do whether that being film art ORS everything has a really good
018environment and it's seem like a whole Community other than just we the kids didn't great job completely unscripted which is great um check in video but as you can have so much to highlight our building um and I think that you know we really have to the reality that District we can program looking for and there are a lot of people that didn't here and breakast great for everybody our um we are St gym and for the cols have Road area PL and also for the lock button your face first we have some good news about actually all maintain the Integrity um we have to a decision about the BU as right now the Mandate is still in place so as in 2027 we are no longer allowed to we have gr approval for more
019buses we havec compos in May detail next week questions that we are going to continue building up fac presentation tonight but he is working on a 3 to fa facilities plan based on our building condition we in principles and things that we want to see upgraded things that we have to upgrade infrastructure wise in combination with project we're always looking for new grant opportunities Sarah today about Bill that she for for schools to apply for grants for geal which is really exciting and something that definitely advantage of next week I'm also going to talk about the efficiency study that we had done and one of the recommendations was geothermal at the middle school um but it's $4 million to put the system so having um we're expand the non-tuition or non-resident tuition paying program like
020I said we're also looking at different business and learning opportunities um in the village property which I know that Janet has mentioned before so um we are going to visit a school in Texas that does something similar with an off property I know um Kyle and Colleen and Stacey and Paul have some ideas about what we could use that space for so we toured it again last week to have more Service Learning maybe some kind of um Cafe retail space in there for the kids to actually learn how to run a business which would be really great to expand our classes into that space and we're looking at expanding Community relationships I do have some people that are interested in the community at um their they want to offer shadowing programs internship programs for our
021high school students so I think there's a lot of opportunity within the community for kids to span Beyond we partnered with new Vance last year so there's a lot of different medical shadowing programs that are happening for kids in the medical field but we want to go beyond that so we're lucky enough to have a lot of people interested and we are going to continue with the SRO program so we're lucky to have two dedicated SRO here every single day millroad and secondary so we've come a long way in that sense and they really are a huge asset I know that we all utilize them regularly we feel like they know the community very well they've gotten to know know the kids and so they're really a big resource so we're looking at transitioning next
022year into using them more proactively and not always reactively so having them more involved in our safety team meetings and and um looking at different things that we can do to just general safety upgrades all around happy to answer any questions I was tardy um are the brands similarly set up what the grants that you're considering for the next round of EV buses so there are no more grants there's another round of the EPA Grant but as you remember we were not awarded the first round we are not considered a district in need part of our conversation today was that doesn't make them affordable for districts just because we are not a district in need they're very cost prohibited they're just without the grant money as you know and I've said there three times the
023amount of so to ask the community to bond something like that is a big ask so right now like I said we have the um the four buses remaining so we it would cost um the credit is over 200,000 for each bus so it cuts it in half um and I'll talk about it a little bit next week and I'm sure anony is going to touch on this but part of what we have to consider for the next round of buses if we do decide to go that route is we have to find a way to sustain the heating on them so our options are either to use a diesel fuel heater or a larger battery which makes the bus more expensive does it look like there will be funding they talked about nerta money
024again today but it's we've we've exhausted what we can take right now I don't know if they'll end up opening more up I don't know if they talked about there's a lot of push within the legislature um to change the mandate to even push back the timeline because a lot of districts are having difficulty we have 40 buses in the fleet and in order to change them over by their M mandate in 2035 I had mentioned last year we would have to purchase four already behind because we two this so at some point if the Mandate continues it's going to catch up with us at large numbers having to purchase moving but there is there is some grant money available for Chargers which we've applied um but the infrastructure is something we also have to
025consider because beyond the six buses we have to build higher infrastructure at the bus garage or somewhere on campus be able to charge them the other thing that Still Remains is because we're one of the few schools that are getting the electric buses if for Tom to use them for excuse me athletic runs we have nowhere to charge them to go to another school don't have that ability so we would still have to use fuel buses for that so there are a lot of obstacles and challenges but um and we're also anxious to see how these run when we put thank you sum I have a Qui question on the buses sorry um do do you know where we are in comparison to like other schools in the region in terms of we may be
026like behind to to reach the Mandate um of four buses per year but are other schools in the same boat we're actually ahead of the game yeah I would say Dutchess County um hide park has one bus they just went down inton has won yeah so a lot of districts are just not moving at all I think the only District around that made a significant move was it onata know actually gave the money back they money back they can't it's their there it's too much too much area so they got a grant and they actually gave the money back and said it wouldn't prohibit Anora is 300 square miles Red Hook is 90 just to make a comp and a lot of their trips are up in the mountains and they just found that it
027wasn't feasible but they were getting funding to cover like a whole PL they were a pilot yeah and and they they had to give it back yeah and I think uh Dr sum you said Bethlehem School up in the off area Bethlehem has um EV buses and I don't know Anthony do you know about any other districts really not in the county I think there's a lot more questions we could ask but yeah a lot more question I don't want to keep a bunch but how many buses are you going to turn over this year potentially because I know you mentioned that part of it was getting rid of some buses are there buses that are on the Block right thank you um Dr Summers thank you so good evening everyone um so the work
028continues with curriculum instruction and staff development um as we look at our reflection on our goals um certainly we are looking at staff projections and planning I've certainly shared out to the board on a number of um presentations about our curriculum mapping our course development um Summer Academy and and this is all happening this year is our project problem based learning professional development the secondary level and certainly the work that Dr Linda Jordan does with us on future focused Innovation across the district she will be with us again on March 1th for our superintendent conference day and we have invited a lot of input from our staff administrative team to um help support that scheduling and what that should look like so planning for 2526 um these are all the state Ed initiatives that have
029been handed down under curriculum instruction and staff development so that's really what the focus of the curriculum office will be um so that looks like the graduation requirements shifting with the blue ribbon commission um standards and instruction shifting with that especially in the pre3 arena and under literacy um we are well ahead of the game in um a lot of these areas assessments are shifting um a we have a great committee working on that that has shifted um regionalization we did do the strength tool that was offered um through State Ed that was completed and we will get feedback on that by next November um we will continue with Staffing projects um planning with based on enrollment Summer Academy will continue this summer we will start to do a reflective review of curriculum mapping and
030we we will always continue to provide relevant professional development for our teaching staff our administrative staff um and also our support staff so we look forward to a very exciting year next year and very excited to be part of this team that's in front of us so thank you I think um Kitty should pass that that timeline around there are a lot of um she did it with very in ease but there are a lot of changes that are rapidly happening at the State education department and I do think I think we have great committees and people working on but it would be I think helpful to see there are a lot of things happening in the uh curriculum and instruction world and the state um level and I would reiterate that we are I
031think we knew it was coming and had had pre-planned for a lot of this work so anybody have any questions how is enrollment looking for the coming school year um where are we Brian Brian are you g to touch upon that like enrollment you have uh some numbers okay yeah I think we're similar to where we were this time last year as far as numbers of kids which is good and I think the prek class helped with the enrollment the added District you know there's other variables but you know regardless of the number of the kids you got to still do every you know you still have all these different things we still have to do so but it's good I think we're remaining constant where a lot of people are declining R pretty rapidly
032okay thank you Mr Costello good evening um so you know we're other than our grant we're pretty much status quo um for this year but we did Implement three new pieces from the recovs grant one being our clinical mental health programs at the middle school and high school which are going quite well um we doubled the number of hours we have with our behaviorist and she's primarily focusing on the elementary school um and her her services are in hot demand um but going very well and then um the other piece that hasn't started yet but will happen by the end of the year is um next month we have four of our staff being trained in team Mental Health First Aid um so that all of our ninth graders will receive that training during their
033uh freshman focus by the end of the year um so we're excited about that um in ter and this year we just continue to expand our special ed programs um for out of District students we're up to about nine students from other districts which um is probably included somewhere in Mr Martin's Revenue stream um and um we are looking at for next year continuing our grants um we'll be in year two of that of that Grant cycle um and prepping to um hopefully show the board next year the value of continuing that work even though it's not going to be under a grant um and we're looking at expanding um potentially expanding our uh Flex classes um I turned down quite a few um out of District um applicants um districts are sending to us
034asking us to consider their their students for our programs and we just don't have room so we are um you know have a potential for um expanding those programs if the district wanted to move in that direction and along with that the other piece that we'll be working on is really trying to figure out the mess that is preschool special education in the state of New York um state is not going to be helping us out and we are gonna have to figure out how to service our preschool students and so one of the things I'll be asking the district to consider is is adding some Staffing in related services so we can Service uh um and evaluate our preschool students when the county can't um right now it's taking about four months to get
035a preschool student evaluated um and right now I've been only able to tell parents no we don't have any providers for you even though your child qualifies um and it's becoming uh even from the beginning of the year now where're we just don't have enough providers from the C that are on the county approved list so those will be the big things I'll be working on um next year on uh the support as it related to preschool I assume as with a lot of things um early identification of issues or challenges is like really important and being able to so to the extent that these are kids that are going to be with us for 13 years plus um you know uh it helps us help them to you know and it's and it's exacerbated
036by the fact that early intervention is broken too they are so early intervention is telling parents to refer their children to us even before they're three um so I have kids that are just over two in the hopper to try to get them evaluated or or ppsc even though they're not age eligible yet because early intervention has no evaluators or providers either so it what's going to happen is it just Stacks up so when these kids don't get services at the earliest level where it could have the greatest impact we end up increasing the need coming into kindergarten to support those Services if if we become providers do we get the same reimbursement that the county would we do and it you know of course it's very low so it's not gonna you know we're
037not going to be making money um you know if we uh you know I figured it out if we actually um build for every single service that we could provide just to the district and not use anybody else um we would only be able to fund one of two positions I'd be looking to add with that reimbursement um but like you said if you don't we're gonna somehow at some point you're gonna well what's happening Statewide is is families are starting to sue their school districts and they're winning for not providing yeah I mean early intervention is uh yeah I mean you know it's also taking out now service that another agency was yeah so other than that um the Grant's going great it was you know it's really been life-changing for the kids involved
038so I don't think Jack's giving himself enough credit this the there the students that are in the that program have been able to stay in the schools and receive those services and um and every child deserves to be in their the school you know home school that they're in so they I think we've seen a lot of success and have learned and we will continue to reflect on it but um we appreciate that that effort because a lot of those students may not even come to school right any other questions I have a question um so after this second year of the grant what is the anticipated cost with the growth of the program what are you looking at and I know that that's a hard question um I'm confident in saying that if we
039don't continue the program those kids will end up being out of District or dropouts and we will pay way more than the cost of the program would cost us without the grant right and one of the the discussions that we have had too is if we do take maybe a couple out of District students the programs that could offset some of the costs too but we want to keep those slots so it's trying to figure out I have other districts asking us for their kids to come to the program but I've been saying no do we have the I'm sorry do we have the space if we were to become providers and um and expand what we're doing already make it more internally um self-sufficient then do we also have room in the district to
040be able to do that physically I would actually have to defer to my building colleagues because so you mean like space for speech and yeah I mean terms be really interesting to look provider we can absorb them into the space we have right now yeah yeah okay that was my question but also so in the high school we have um with the ESS program we have a classroom as well as an office and so there was talk for the second year possibly getting a classroom also the middle school we still on track to do that or we will be moving hopefully if if the board moves forward with our um uh potential Staffing at the next board meeting will be able to add teaching assistance support okay for the um ESS program which will help
041okay great yeah all right thanks Jack Mr cassad evening um so part of what we're working on right now which was one of my goals from last year is obviously we've had our our we're looking at our athletic fields and space uh Capital Improvement as Dr Hayes said we're we're kind of deep into the gymnasium project right now and it's it's been exciting because we're getting down to some of the detail things that uh will be different than the current structure um involving the staff in some of the you know the color schemes and the different lines that we're going to put on the on the um in there and um looking at how that's going to shape up hopefully for this summer so um that's been wonderful to be a part of and I'm
042I'm thankful to be part of that process um a few things I mean everybody's sick of hear me saying it but you know the disappointment obviously in some of the projects that didn't pass for for for different reasons um and uh future considerations of that for some of the fields that which we'll talk about in a minute um so we did expand some of the education curriculum for fed at the high school and middle school the high school unified PE and at Middle School two sections of Lifetime activities and uh personal Wellness which have gone over well um well attended by our students and and seem to be very positive so we're happy about that um it's off for those electives in in our our areas uh also continued merge athletic programs as you know
043we merge for uh our football program we have merges for boys lacrosse um so this year I'm proposing to add um we're adding modified girls across and Rybeck has an interest in in participating in that for this spring so um we're happy to do that I think it's a natural progression from what we've done with the other sports um they're coming here anyway so um they're very excited about that a lot of our kids play together in the youth league um which is one of the reasons why we brought in for the boys lacrosse um so those kids have the ability to play you know for a high school team it's been very successful several kids I'm play several kids from Ryback for lacrosse uh in Germantown we have several kids in the football program
044as well so um it's worked well for those sports that those schools cannot host so um we've been happy to have that positive relationship with are we looking at that uh as a way of uh supporting like say uh in sports where we have we don't have a JV team we have like a modified and a varsity team have a JV yeah so the model in Lacrosse right now is a varsity and a modified um it seems to be a lot of schools our size and schools in our league that's what they do um having enough to run three programs is is is is challenging uh especially on the girls side we offer a lot of girl Sports uh um so you're you're grabbing from a small pool yeah you know for me one of
045the worst things is you know we have to have Team Cuts but it also shows us that we have more kids um sometimes that's better than you know trying to beg kids to come out because we don't have enough so I think the two levels works out nicely uh last year on the boys it was the first year the boys modified we had roughly 30 and we had roughly 30 on the The Varsity so it was it was a good mix of you know having enough I think if we had three teams of 20 that's that's a little trick as far as the numbers so the girls would be on a similar similar stage like that without a JV team do you have ninth graders that kind of are too too you know too far
046along for modified but you know if they don't make varsity they we we we kind of just lose them model play for a year are they gonna come back right model when you have just the two programs is you're modified to play seventh eighth and Ninth now we've always talked about if some of your stronger ninth graders you know may come up to the varsity and boys and girls across very different the girls game is not as physical obviously as the boys so you may see some of the you know the ninth graders you know up on the varsity for the girls as a boys you might not they might need that extra year to get you know bigger and stronger so comes down to some of it being a safety Factor okay all right
047question uh just talking about programming um has there been any discussion about girls flag football uh there was a Super Bowl commercial there and I know a bun a number of uh local school districts are beginning to adopt that program so there has I've had a few girls uh approach me um some of my concerns is like we've talked about is just having enough girls to go around you know um so when you add another girl sport let's say in the spring you may steal five lacrosse girls and four softball girls and now I'm having trouble Fielding those two teams um some of the schools that have done it are are a lot of our larger schools like Ry BET's going through it now they they started girls Ross and it's really hurt their softball
048program they're struggling to feel the softball program so um I think some of that's driven by enrollment and just you know having enough girls to go around our track program is very successful so a lot of a lot of those girls you know they stick with track and you know trying to have enough for each team is is something that definitely concerns me well to the extent that we can you know do the merged approach uh you know as needed with other districts Ryme back or P planes so maybe we can go there and be on their flag for team so everybody wants to come here um so part of for the the planning of the gym you know one of the things that I'm looking at is the management of that new space the
049scheduling which would be very very similar to what we're doing now um the event management we were changing how we're having bleachers so that'll impact how we're running events um and the general care of the facility if you were at the boys basketball game last Tuesday night we had almost 700 people in that gym um so I hope to continue having large scale events like that but having a new layout will you know give us some advantages of where we can move things and how to move some of the crowd and things like that um it's wonderful have those large scale events and we're excited to have that you know with the new facility hopefully that we can get built this summer um future considerations and solutions for field one um nothing new there the
050problem has not gone away um I'm still in a situation where something needs to be done either immediately or a long-term fix so I'm ass I'm assuming we'll have a lot of more discussions going on with that this year um design and construction phase of the one grass field the West soccer field um hopefully summer of 2026 so hopefully we'll be looking at those designs for next year and and trying to make that happen and uh looking at how we're going to similar to the gym do we tweak things we make things different and add the details there of things that we want fixed with the current field to be put up for the new field so then the timing and design of the the the second gr grass field hopefully on the East soccer
051field one of the things that our facilities Community is looking at is the potential of the sewer program um for the town that would impact um that field especially if we use that the field all the way to the east because as you know that's where the septic system is so if we tie into the regular sewer and we can eliminate that septic system uh I think that would would be best if that doesn't happen we may look to that other field that's right next to it for that last field and I think delaying that is probably the the the best idea right now until we kind of figure how that all shakes out as well um so expansion of Unified sports so I I wish we still had the bowling alley in town um
052because unified bowling is is is an exceptional program that a lot of schools get to take advantage of uh so it's maybe my pitch for us to buy the bowling alley but um it it's it's great program we have unified basketball and it's tremendous um the issue with that my friend here Anthony is is transportation yeah there there's bowling alleys you know in Kingston High Park but getting the kids there for for the practice requirements and games it it's definitely you know a challenge so interestingly enough years ago we approached the bowling alley about starting a bowling team for the schools it was uh myself Rybeck and Pine Plains athletic directors and they really didn't have a whole lot of interest in you know a few years later you know the bowling alley is not
053there so it's a shame because it would have been a great great resource so um so many other things maybe expanding some of the physical education programs um offering more electives I think that's um that's great I think the kids like to see that choice so we're uh hopefully happy to promote that in the future as well thanks Sam Donna talk about technology and communication how about now that's better all right so um I'll just take it a few minutes to talk about um our current school year goals so we continued the buildout of class link class link is a single sign on platform that allows um teachers and students to more easily use all of the instructional tools that we've made available to them because you sign into class link and then from class
054Link's Launchpad you now have access to all of the software tools um from there so students aren't having to remember you know two dozen passwords um and it's it's really a great platform We are continuing we are in year three of our one:1 device program uh year one as you may recall was funded by the smart schools Bond monies um and as part of that Award of those funds to the district the districts uh any District that participates in the use use of smart schools monies you have to make a commitment that you're going to continue that initiative forward so this year is year three of that um we deployed brand new devices MacBooks uh for all of our ninth graders we buy those we purchase those MacBooks with four-year Apple Care which is a
055coverage that's made available to school districts uh and I will tell you we make good use of that Apple Care coverage um we repurposed our exiting 12th and eighth graders devices again those were purchased with four years of coverage and because we started 3 years ago go uh those devices had not come to the end of their um useful life or their coverage so um some of those devices went to our sixth graders um we held back basically almost um a duplicate set of them because during the time that those sixth graders will have those devices at the middle school they will run out of Apple Care coverage um so we're hedging our bets by sort of mothballing um some replacements for that and we also had an opportunity to bring our onetoone down to
056the fifth grade um so every fifth grader is assigned a Macbook they stay in school um and they are stored in their classrooms in carts that we had um available from prior initiatives um we implemented um several new new instructional software applications again harnessing the power of that class link single sign on um typing.com for our friends in the elementary building conmigo at the high school Lexia uh Brain Pop happy numbers I EXL etc etc um it's kind of um fun it's like the that children's book If You Give a moose a muffin he's then going to ask for um and that's what we see in sort of the natural progression of this buildout of the onetoone initiative when students and teachers have devices available for their use they start to come up with new
057um and meaningful ways for those to be used uh in the classroom we rolled out opero um oper is an electronic document management platform um this was a need that was um brought to the it Department's uh attention repeatedly through various conversations with oh my gosh we get this stack of paper every year at the start of the school year and we got a fill out yeah it's all about you we have to fill out these forms can we do something a little bit more current with that process and so opero uh was what we chose to use to to do that and then again that platform continues to be built out um for personnel functions for um permission slips at the high school so again it's it's in its um toddlerhood if you will
058and I'm sure that as it matures as a platform and we become more experienced in using it we'll find all kinds of different ways to use it um we also continued a commitment uh under the cyber security um responsibilities that the department has to uh roll out multiactor authentication um and so all of our staff login accounts for Microsoft 365 for Envision and uh most recently echool data are protected with MFA that was a big project um and continues to require a fair amount of it support so looking ahead to 2526 six um I have a request uh to look at right sizing the Staffing for the IT department the last time we added any staffing uh to the department was 10 years ago um and we have uh our responsibilities have continued to grow
059as the use of technology and the interconnections between um other departments and their functions instructional needs has also grown um we're looking this summer to partner with our technology assistance coaches these are a stipended faculty member in each building who is Frontline support uh for uh their colleagues we're going to partner with them and some other faculty to offer a series of Summer PD workshops focused around technology use um we had hoped to pull this off last summer but the uh the chaos of the construction districtwide made being able to book space and know it was going to be available and that people could actually get down the hallway to it uh really challenging so we're we're coming back at that um this summer um we continue to work on our cyber security awareness documentation
060training preparation there are I don't have a beautiful chart like Dr Summers did but if you look at the yes thank you Larry um but if you look at the expectations the mandates the thou shalts coming down from the state Ed Department around data privacy around cyber security in schools it is significant um we're uh obviously going to continue to build out um tools that we have it to uh have available to us to use so for class link we're going to be adding softare we're costing functionality to that and usage tracking so that we can go at U purchasing decisions and renewals of tools with data behind it um and we're going to be continuing our lease replacement cycles for the student onetoone devices going forward in 2526 so that's my technology presentation are
061there any questions before I move on to I do have a question um so with the talk that the governor is considering Banning cell phones um do you see something like the Yonder pouches being an addition to your budget so that would be a question that I would defer to the building principles I think we're still waiting to definitely see the complete um mandate at this point too so I I don't believe that we would have a there will be answer flexibility how we that um we have voice that we felt like it was something that the high school and middle school have already dealt with um so we haveo the local control but it has a ton of support in the legislative Comm so uh what restrictions I think I know the answer to
062this uh do we have on uh let's say there's a cell phone you know ban um or they have to put them in pouches um at the high school middle school um uh what what controls do we have on the laptops that they all have as far as you know we turn a lot of things off the middle so we have filtering that runs uh on the network um we frequently respond to requests from our colleagues to turn off sites um so they can't like they you know from their laptop they can't access messaging sites they don't have their phone why just hop on the laptop so I will tell you Russ um we have a lot of very talented creative students who find ways to do all kinds of things and so when they
063find those and that becomes an issue then we come behind and turn them off we add additional controls uh to the laptop so that we're addressing that to the best of our ability and does that really work it works until they find the next new thing it it really is just it's a constant game of sort of leap frogging yeah um do do teachers have a role in like overseeing online activity in terms of like a a software that allows them to see what students are doing in their classrooms in real time so yes and um so as an apple District um we have apple classroom enabled um there are some workarounds that students can do with that so we have been working um diligently but not as quickly as perhaps uh everyone would like
064to roll out a different platform um that is not browser specific so that students don't necessarily have to be signed in with their Apple ID on their schol School MacBook in order for teachers to be able to view that so we're going to um be piloting that in one of our science classrooms next week um and if that goes well all of the data integration work has been done on the back end of that um we will be in a good position to just push that out or sorry not to belabor this uh can students uh download um uh and install applications no no okay trying to keep all This Confidential yeah I'm just how um as it comes in the 25 26 years how these things might go together working with um Dr summers
065in curriculum and seeing how these things kind of connect so we're not maybe missing opportunities to enhance the classroom I'm sure you've thought about these things but I'm just wondering um how that turns out in terms of the Innovation side of moving our tech department with the curriculum yeah I would say that that currently happens I think that the the teachers or the administrators see a need in a certain curricular area more personalized learning I know that that seen many classrooms recently where the teachers are using some of that personalized learning to help edit written work while they can now conference longer with te with um students so a lot of this is going to create that more personalized free up teachers to really have time to work with students instead of like putting out
066fires with like 20 students now I can go online and a student can look up what's another word for what does this mean and they don't perhaps need the te they won't raise their hand as much because they're going to have that instant feedback um not only for writing but for math I mean you can just press that and they'll show you an example before that you'd wait for the teacher to come over and provide that example for you so I see that connection occurring you know now and I'll also share that um Donna and I meet weekly every week since since the beginning of time because we have um we went from a district that did not really have technology at the Forefront to where it is embedded across the district as a fundamental
067tool that is utilized both by students and teachers and administrators so with that comes the tech training um and keeping relevant professional development current so we have a lot of conversations and so we're really interwoven in our discussions about how technology supports teaching and learning but also how teaching and learning supports technology I think that personalization of learning is going to like revolutionize things for teachers like the freeing up of your time to focus and also just the the curriculum and lesson plan that you can get I mean anybody who started teaching when I started teaching we would go to the parent teacher store and that was where we found our curriculum um now I can just go on and I can get lesson plans in 10 seconds so my just time the teachers are
068spending with that technology and the way that you could personalize for students is is amazing and even in the past couple years just seeing Ai and what it can what it can do for students so it's it's every day there's it's every day um so just one reflection several years ago uh the district was invited to participate in computer-based testing trials um at the elementary building at the time we had a fixed computer lab uh on the first floor of of milroad intermediate it was painful to watch students try to interact with a keyboard while they were doing this trial field testing I guess they called it fast forward to a couple of weeks ago um the fourth graders um so computer based testing is again one of those areas where the IT department never
069really had a role in state assessment testing and now we are in it we are managing the the um system that the state uses to ceue up who's going to take what test we are sitting in the hallway while um the um the the word is escape me the trial testing that we were doing simulation testing thank you is going on just to be there as an additional support but watching those fourth graders and their teachers go through that simulation they were on it and just working through it um and that's in the span of a few years it's amazing I just have a quick question um for the the devices when the fouryear Apple Care expires what happens to them so if there's any life left to them um we keep them and we
070keep them as spares um because we invariably uh have students show up to school either with a device not with them cuz they left it at home or it's not charged so we do keep a supply of spares that they can use we also um will hold on to sets of them just in case and then we use a um company called Second Life Mac that gives us um money on devices that we uh recycle with them um and I think last year we got um Mr Martin do you remember what the check from Second Life Mac was this year at least yeah I think it was closer to 34,000 or so because of a device that while we may say all right it's not covered under Apple care anymore it's it's a liability to
071us because the most frequent damage to these student use devices is broken screens a screen repair cost is $350 um but they have use and second life resells them and just keeps them out of the waste stream recycles them appropriately so it's it's a real win-win okay moving on to communication um that was perfectly timed so um in the current school year um we are working with with Mike benich he is our Bose's uh shared public information officer um Mike had been with us um for one and a half days and we moved him up to two days per week and he is a busy guy those two days he's in District every Tuesday and Thursday um he's been with us long enough now that folks are familiar with him and reaching out to him
072and um whether you look at our website our social media um a lot of that work is Mike's and he's doing a great job um we implemented parents Square so in addition to rolling out opero which was a heavy lift um my team said let's also roll out something else because again there was a continual request stated need for a unified communication platform that checked off a lot of boxes and parent square is that um so uh we rolled that out the beginning of August um and it's been fantastic absolutely fantastic um and we finished relocating our website content from Blackboard to final site um so looking forward to 2526 we're going to continue that buildout of parent Square um we may actually consider moving our website off of final site to parents squares smart
073site tool um we're going to be opening up student Square which is a uh function within parents Square that's focused to um students um right now at the high school we invited parents who wanted their students to have their student cell phone available for communications to um fill out a form and let us know that they were on board with that so we're going to be rolling out that student Square functionality in the next month um we also uh lit up Community Square which is an opportunity for community members to self enroll in receiving content from the district now obviously not all the content that is created for the district audience goes out to that Community Square audience but it is another way for us to continue um bridging that communication uh out to our
074constituencies um and the other goal for 2526 would be to keep Mike around for two days a week make it all look so easy thank you you've done it's been a tremendous uh half year hey Scott uh good evening good evening um reflecting on the current year so far um on bullet number one evaluate and enhance the district security um some some highlights there um continue Harding of the doors as well as adding a lot of cameras servers uh new equipment multi- head cameras and improving outside uh sight lighting uh that's a really big one uh bolt number two keeping Communications with the contractors and managers of District um that was really important um with the construction that we had um all the projects moved along smoothly ahead of schedule and under budget um really
075happy about that and there was no loss of class space so in September we walked in our classrooms which was really a fantastic thing um scheduling new preventive maintenance to avoid um downtime and service disruption um a real good emphasis on what equipment we have uh there's lots of new equipment here um staying on top of it opening them up make sure they're they're maintained oiled greased um some equipment gets much more work than others so um as you can see with our heating systems and stuff like that it's not just plug and play there's lots of technology in there so um that's that's constantly moving uh number four developing um the the facilities planning and projects uh we have a team and this is kind of exciting that involves the administrators as well as
076as our facilities team we meet monthly and going over to current conditions of our schools upgrades wants and wishes and what's really unique about that is that everybody has an equal seat at the table it isn't just we work for them the principles and administrators and and and the facilities people are all at the same level understanding what they're going through and it I I think it's been really good I mean that's also going to be feed feeding Into The Five-Year Plan which is for next year 2526 um under planning for the 2526 uh bull number one ensure environment that will adapt and exceed the needs of the district um we're going to make sure we have uh stateof thee yard equipment um and we're constantly evaluating the spaces and the use to make sure
077it that it is it meets what our programs are uh the the the the next one and creating the the fiveyear plan um that's something that's really neat because it's going to be a live it's breathing it's always moving um it's going to help us budget uh so as as this goes on it isn't just going to be one and done type of thing it's going to be um after year one to year number six so it's not going to be a one thing and it's also going to make budgeting um Staffing so that's really neat and we haven't had that so kind of excited about that um the next one to continue promote higher education ation and all mandatory trainings as you like I said once again real lot of new technology equipment in
078there um and also um let having our staff take the time to get educated and trained on equipment so it isn't like only this person can run this a good example is be are some of our heavy equipment um scissors lifts um it makes life a lot better it also gives people um a little more desire to to want to move forward in their current positions um the next one uh number eight uh the modifying upgrade in the use of um energy the big focus of that is going to be at our middle school as you know um there's going to be a lot of upgrades with uh the lighting uh in in this school as well as the high school that kind of leaves the middle school out there now along the way we've
079been doing slight pieces here and there um but with this new capital project the focus is going to be at the middle school um a great example of this um the most current one is the is the the movement away from Mercury based lighting um energy efficient and not efficient lighting and we've been inhouse converting stuff over to LEDs uh the most recent one that was done maybe two weeks ago would be the cafetorium uh there was 250 watt metal Hy lights inside there that contain mercury that cost money to to get to get rid of um they're the ones that don't come on when you flip the switch so now we have new LED good for many many years um so you're going to see more and more of that in that school uh
080number nine evaluate all positions make sure services are consistent with the the future needs of the district if you look around the school district the classrooms don't look what they looked like years ago there's soft Furniture inside there's there's Cafe seating there's hard furniture that that doesn't look like the old fiberglass in your traditional classroom so making sure that we have the right Staffing to meet the Topography of the schools I mean it's it's it's always changing it isn't business it isn't like time to make the donuts we do the same thing every day it's always going to be changing um and that's that's a really big project believe it or not um as you u a good example that would be say the middle school over there where you are uh Stacy there's um
081a library becomes an art room um and then a tech room becomes something else so we got to make sure that we move the staff around and make sure that the square footage is adequate for the the cleaning needs and everything goes so that's a work um and my last one create maintain open dialogue um and one-on ones um that's easier said than done we all all have in a really busy world and communication is important so it's it's it's forcing not only myself as well as everybody to make sure that you're communicating well um and and working as efficiently as we can so that's that's what I have question I have a question about going into 25 26 looking at um Staffing you mentioned to make sure it fits the needs of the building
082I imagine that that changes as you mentioned in the roles of the buildings but also um as they grow and we're talking about enrollment and things too as well as our outdoor spaces are growing so when you're looking at adding those positions I'm assuming it's to address the need of the size of the district is that where you're coming with that information it it's everywhere um a real good example would be say the fields um we're not going to be getting a turf field which is something that's not alive versus we're going to be maintaining grass field much more care different equipment um Sprinklers and and watering and and painting lines on there all that stuff is additional versus like say if we had a turf field that's already lined I don't need somebody to
083paint that grass all the time so yeah you're constantly evaluating and see making sure that that everything is getting done um and one of the other things we we tend to look at too is when we pay outside contractors to come in um so like electricians painters things of that nature and constantly looking at how much we're spending on them is it more coste efficient to try to have that position inous um it's one of those things that you yes but then when you talk about benefits and things of that so I think that's also what he's talking about as we evolve it's so much better when you can employ those people directly because then you have them on hand so I think he's also talking about promoting higher education getting more of our own
084staff to have more ability to do some electrical work and things you know carpentry and things of that nature so we're we're still kind of looking at how much we're paying outside contractors versus whether or not we can sustain a position like that the district a perfect example of that would be right now if you can see the new energy efficient HVAC and vhbc units that are at the high school it's no longer just flip a switch turn on a breaker there's technology inside there there's all type of microprocessors that are the monitoring the air flows pressure sensors in the room having the ability to have somebody that actually put a meter on that in-house versus me calling somebody out of ALB and come and do that two days later I get it running so
085yes you could have an in-house internship program okay on on some of the capital projects that we do um construction related work um are we um is there any uh oversight from the village or the town is it relates to zoning or inspection or anything um as it relates to our capital projects or work or is that um somehow separately from from the state every everything we do goes through S and it's also engineered okay all right thanks and that's my knowledge have I ever seen Village or the Town come in and look at our in the sewer maybe yeah gonna say the only thing that we would have cross um you know review on is yeah right okay all right thanks thank you Mr Kio by the way we have a four o'clock um
086phone call tomorrow on that like yeah 45 yeah by the way we to talk about snow awake by way you want me to say it now is that what you're all saying yeah have actually have [Laughter] snow snow turns sorry I had to break so my my biggest reflection I think is securing this nerta Grant and a lot of people worked hard on that Dr Hayes worked hard on it Mr Martin worked hard on it as so did myself and I think that's one of our biggest biggest accompl accomplishments is getting that Grant um the others are we we decreased at a district runs uh Mr costell helped with that by bringing some of student back into Red Hook and that was a tremendous help as well um we we did hired three new uh
087bus drivers for the district that are qualified bus drivers they came in with their qualifications we didn't install the charging systems yet but we hardwired we have three three garage bays at transportation that are hardwired for the electric Chargers and then there's one over at down at durings Barn over at the high school that's hardwired so once we buy the Chargers or purchase the Chargers they're ready to go the the infrastructure is there for them and then uh we we were also able to get an assistant dispatcher in transportation which kind of lightened my load a little bit where I don't have to be in the office I could be outside supervising so that that was a major major help to get an additional person on our staff and it it puts me out on
088the road and seeing what's actually happening on the road um as far as going forward I want to continue with the EV purchasing and uh see if we could secure some more EV buses I would also like to move forward with up upgrading Transportation um I'd like to I have a vision where we have our own training room and a room where we could do training for our drivers where we don't have to go and change the whole uh library at the high school I have to move tables there move seating there just just to get our our drivers and to have a a meeting or additional yearly trainings um I I would love to have that in the garage but before they did it at at Transportation they would actually pull all the buses
089out of the garage the mechanics wouldn't be able to work and they would set chairs and tables up in the Bays where they they repaired the buses um I I would love to get a a training room somewhere in the transportation complex and and again we're still looking for qualified drivers I have two drivers that are talking about retirement right now and I have one driver that's out on medical so basically those three drivers that we secured they they're all working already and you know if people retire it takes time to train these drivers and for those new drivers to learn the district so we're always looking and I I think it's very important to keep the new drivers coming in and as Tom alluded to before with the sports trips the more teams he
090creates the more trips we have to put out so it it definitely puts a strain on on transportation and you know the the more qualified people we could bring in the uh the easier Transportation runs also back with with training um when these electric buses come in it it's a whole whole another training for the drivers that are going to be driving them plus the mechanics that are going to be repairing them the the bus is still the bus the brakes are the same the tires are the same but there's no oil changes so New York Bus Sales is willing to come in once we receive our buses and uh do these trainings for us um the charging stations we're uh we're starting to work on grants for that we weren't able to start the
091grants until we received the grant for the buses now that the the buses are secure we could uh start working on the charging stations and uh get that secured also the uh dispatchers are moving forward uh um with the routing and we're trying to make the routing more efficient that's a a constant thing with kids coming into the district and kids leaving the district as Dr hay said uh the district is so we have to think about the efficiency but how long do we want to keep the children on the bus we want to keep them on the bus you know less than 50 minutes so it it's a constant battle Yeah so I think one of the changes is that we've talked about this there's some buses that have barely any students and then
092there's buses that are um actually packed with students and from what I'm hearing about the new state guidelines is that we could perhaps move to ridership instead of um keeping a seat for every kid correct um but you still have to cover all this area so I think we're trying to look at that now so I know the public often says that to us like there's so many buses and there's nobody on it so they're really trying to figure out is there a way to do that and not have students on the bus for a long periods of time so they're constantly looking to do that another thing I think the board has to um and we all have to continue to advocate for is that we have bus drivers who are in retirement and
093they can't they right now you can make more than $30,000 in retirement if they change that back we will lose employees um so if you're ready collecting an ERS for example you used to never be able to make more than $30,000 a year right now you can make as much as you want because there's such a shortage um for drivers for other positions that's only going to stay in play till June that that will significantly we have retired uh correction officers we also have SRO that are in that position so I think it's something that people are not really talking about but I don't know how School I mean it's going to definitely hurt drivers absolutely um a lot of the drivers are retired law enforcement correction so a lot of them are are correct
094uh collecting their pensions and this is a win-win it's a easy job where they have the middays open it's very convenient for them to keep busy so if they change that guideline then it it's definitely going to hurt us as well when would we know about that it as of right now it expires June 30th 2025 but there's a lot of AD advocacy to keep it because there is a Statewide bus driver shortage schools are really struggling to fill those positions understand who that benefits to to change that I have a lot to do with Retirement Systems um I don't know it's just one of those points that um we don't want to happen um because these are really hard to fill I mean we've been we're lucky I know you're driving sometimes Sean driving
095I mean they have to go out of their way to fill all these runs but at the same time if we lose those drivers I don't I don't really know what we're going to do so I think that could be something that when you're speaking you know in the advocacy point of view from a board I think that's one of the things that people there's so much going on right now in the state but those are that's one of the priorities I know from the superintendent group in the state if they get rid of that we're going to be in really significant problems and some people are doing it with teachers some schools districts are doing it with administrators so we we we haven't been able to we don't have to do that but there
096are all over the state people employed that are retired and came back and are going over the $30,000 cap and then my my last ad would be to try to help retain some of these new drivers when when the new drivers come in it it takes them a good year to learn the district um our our routing program also offers a tablet that would go in the bus and I think that tablet would help the new drivers and make their jobs a little bit easier because then it would have stepbystep directions to each stop and it it's updated uh daily so when when we hand out a run instead of handing out a a paper with you know written directions they they could just listen to this tablet and see where their next stops are
097and I I I think that would help a lot and it would be easier to retain some of these new drivers as well anything about bus Patrol your camera system um a bus Patrol pretty much maintains itself they they they they know before I know if a camera is out of service and they'll they'll send a tech out um I bus patrols really work out well I believe I have a quick question so I know like postco you know ridership has significantly decreased um and then hearing about new state guidelines do we have the option to think differently rather than purchasing full-size buses you know to smaller buses or bands multi-purpose using some of those for sports runs so before before the EV mandate day came to play I Was purchasing 30 passenger van buses
098and that was working out well some of the the uh smaller teams like tennis and swimming we we would put them on the bands and and utilize a van but now with the EV mandate a a van of 30 passenger capacity Plus just as much as a full-size bus so the the savings is is kind of loss with purchasing a smaller bus what's the timeline again on the six I know we we've used two and there's four left what's the end is it expired yeah 2026 so we have to use it by next year yep and we also had to identify the specific type of bus that we would purchase so we aren't able to change that at this point can you get those numbers to us next week we'll have a full presentation yep
099great thank you Mr Anthony we got our little uh sampling right here yes uh good evening everybody thank you for having us here tonight um so um I'll get right to the sample I guess if that's uh that's got everybody's pequ their interests um it's a New York bean salad uh but what also what's in it and it's part of my talking points here is um the ingredient that's there's a um dehydrated powder it's it's 80% broccoli 20% radish so a so there's a half a teaspoon in everyone's serving there which um is equivalent to half a cup of raw organic broccoli and its nutrient value so it's it's just a nutrient dents I've worked with this stuff in the past it's come back around again so um it's pequ my interest and that's it's
100more of a showand tell type of thing I'm not selling it um as we're but it's but in a sense that um this this could play a good role in our nutritional value for our students in the sense that um we can't cook it it has to go into like a salad dressing or yogurt smoothies uh those type of things um or we can sprinkle it on food after it's been cooked in taco meat and things like that so it would be a half a teaspoon per serving which would be the equivalent of of a half a cup of broccoli so during the course of the week right so when you add that up that's that's a significant amount of nutrients for for the students and they don't even know that they're getting it and
101um and there's a couple cut sheets on this this is coming out of the city of pyy there's an organic um actually here you can start passing this around you take a peek it's the same thing as um here you go Jack you can hang to the left but um it's it's an organic uh indoor organic micro Green Garden in the city of pyy so so really um so that's what you're eating in front of you so you got a half a cup of beans and a half a cup of raw organic broccoli in front of you so um you've got your nutrients value probably for the average person for like five days because if if if most people eating processed foods they're getting the next to nothing right so but um but we'll get
102back to that so the the reflections on our 30% initiative um it's going like Gang Busters so I'm really impressed with the um with the progress we've made and it's only in in the event that a lot of vendors it's created a lot of enthusiasm with our local vendors and our local farmers so so there's once they see you know us doing this and then you know Ry Beck and Pine Plains and then our other uh colleagues my colleague in Pauling School District the four of us make up uh 30% of Duchess County which is which is um 30% of Duchess County is doing the 30% initiative which is which is no one's doing that in the state so which is a great achievement so um with that being said um that's that's growing by
103Leaps and Bounds so we're super proud with that and which also spills over into our menus I'm doing a meatless March menu I did it last year uh and it was it came across it got picked up it was a lot of enthusiasm on both sides of the aisle right so which which I like to see anyway because I like to see who's paying attention out there but um and and that was only 15 serving days on that menu because we had spring break so I'm doing again this March whereas I believe there's 20 serving days so I have to ramp up and increase my game you know because there's I got to fill five more days and then um because that wasn't enough I wanted to do a gluten-free April menu right so but
104the good the the benefit to that one is there's only 15 serving days in April so um I'm able to well I'm I'm getting close to sourcing enough grains and that's what it boils down to because with our 30% initiative with our with our natural products from these Farmers you know the lettuce and the chicken the raw beef that we're getting naturally gluten-free and our fruits veg and milk are gluten-free so really it's the grain component so it's not uh it's not as uh hard I would say to achieve it because I have to five five grains but it's then it's being creative and how I can keep reproducing them week after week which is three weeks 15 serving days I think we can do it I'm going to go for it and I am
105I'm this close so um and then part of that initiative with sourcing local uh minimum processing you know that again the the the product lines have been expanding with the vendors thirston Ginsburg um acendo and then um unfortunately feather Ridge Farm went out of business they closed up in and up here in um I can't remember the elizaville but uh we have um Hudson Valley egg on the hook right now and Hill and Hollow Farms out on 199 going out towards mil so uh we we're talking with them though um I'm not too enthusiastic at buy an eggs at $5 a dozen but um at least we'll have them anyway for at at a minimum because also part of the 30% initiative we utilized a grant that we that we had gotten for that local
106food Grant of of $122,000 so that helped offset a lot of this and New York state is putting out another 27 million for Grants uh for for another round of um of money for local food so we're definitely going to be in line for that the high school had new serving lines installed we added another panini press uh because that's wildly popular so those three Panini presses are like an 1850 locomotive crossing the desert Plains you know because the kids are just um going head over head over heels for those uh Panini so so we're super excited about those and and that this the deli line will be open during meatless March so so so don't don't let your heart be worried all right so um let's see we're continuing our strengthening um um community
107outreach right uh Nick a Enzo a fantastic Community uh uh member uh we worked with him or you know our department you know I go we go in as um he does uh what's that called Donna the um lowcost Market I know you don't know I'm just because you're smiling face next to me um the no cost Market he does that over uh Veterans Day weekend so um so we go there when I say we myself and there's other students and other staff members here in the school so it's a community of actually we went to he he gave us a little uh thank you party at um Elmendorf in right yeah so that was so we yeah so what we do there um he he brings in all kinds of food from all over
108uh the county here um it's like a chopped episode I go through there and create a bunch of recipes and do taste testings and the folks from the community come in and um you know and they and they get to come in enjoy the food that that he's doing there so uh the the the the Mill Road Garden is still going strong with us with Doug um so that that's uh that's always a program that we like to help out and then um the lawmakers for uh we petitioned I went up to Albany about a week and a half ago and we were lobbying for Universal free meals and to expand the 30% initiative because the 30% initiative right now is only for lunch so we wanted to include breakfast so um so that's what
109we did that and the um up in Albany about a week and a half ago so that was exciting to um to to Strongarm some of these guys to show them how important it is how um you know we're feeding kids um everyone does a great job here taking care of them so it's only right that we do you know provide them a meal so again all this is like for planning for 25 um I just just mentioned including the breakfast for the 30% initiative um doing the um you know conscious products purchasing um we're I'm looking more at more plant-based um serving utensils and things like that so I've got three more food shows to go to between now and um the middle of May so I'm I'm putting a a strong emphasis on
110that as I um see the vendors there and then just procuring more minimally processed Foods um because there is a transition going through here and it's not as fast as I want it to go but it is it is moving uh because as each passing year because uh particularly right now as as we speak um I'm proc I'm looking at foods for next year from the USDA I have to have that secured by March 7th for next year already so there's a transition because I put money towards produce through the USDA and then I can process some chicken and you I can send it to Tyson Rich chicks uh Pilgrims Pride there's there's places to send it but um because I'm you know transitioning and doing more local products um I still have to use
111government money I we get about 40 something thousand a year for government money so I I I and that's the challenge and where do I put it so the the the direction of putting it in minimally processed foods is is very narrow but um but there are a couple narrow spots where I'm going and it it is more costly but that's okay because we getting grants from The Local Foods we're getting uh 19 cents for every lunch extra for for our initiative so it does balance out in the end and then um that again another thing that that next bullet point says expand our menus for more clean food items eliminate artificial food dyes and that's I'm already in the process of doing that okay I'm weaning I'm thinning all that stuff out and our
112breakfast cereals all the the D the number 40s the the the yellow five and the blue one and the any other crazy um ingredient like that that's say goodbye to that folks unless uh unless you can give me a good argument on why we should have it but um but right now there's a handful in our breakfast cereals which we're replacing it with other items so it's not costing us any more or any less it's just swapping things out that's all I got a long list of of approved cereals that have no dyes in them so so those are on way out and then um and then in some and a handful of our snack items those are all going to go goodbye and we'll just get other things in its place so so no
113more so if anybody wants to make a collective wave goodbye to the food dies okay I'm I'm in for it so so we'll get rid of those and we're sizing up Lynden Avenue Middle School for a new serving line okay so I've had a couple of folks in there um sizing making measurements and give me rendering so so we're so we're looking for forward to that and we're still participating with the feed HV program uh they it's a food pantry here in Hudson Valley and anytime we come up to the long weekends and holidays uh they get the produce any milks outdated and things like that so that gets filtered out to the food pantries and and places like that and uh the composting is still going on and that can only grow from here
114so we're just keeping our feet to the fire on that and then um by the looks of things after bobbing up in Albany it's in the governor's budget this year is for Universal free meals right so that looks like um that well we got our fingers crossed right we won't know till it's official but that's the the sense that we're getting so and I anticipate an increase in participation um we saw the the breakfast went threefold with the Nick a Enzo Foundation helping us out with breakfast so based on that even if we did half of that for lunch that's still going to be a screaming increase in our lunch Pro uh program so um um so that's uh that's it in a nutshell um anybody have any questions would the universal free meals just
115be limited to lunch would that include breakfast that will include breakfast as well yep so the first one's on on the state the state has to pick it up the Federal government's still not involved there's nine states right now in the United States that the states had picked up the universal free meals so New York is going to add to that but it is it's one meal and then if anybody wants anything else it'd be um they have to pay for it an extra entree or an extra vegetable or fruit they have to pay so have to have money on Panini the second Panini yeah you'd have to pay for the second Panini yes how does that affect like the food production on your end um are you needing to make sure that you have
116enough for every student who might ask for one how does that yes yeah so correct yeah we always have plenty of food I mean that's that's never an issue but um right it's just going to be transitioning instead of preparing 175 180 lunches at the high school that's pretty close number of what we're doing now um we'll prepare for 290 you know 300 and if uh if I had it my way it would be all 500 students in that building but we we'll get there and that's the goal feed everybody everybody eats and then the food that isn't consumed would that also go to feed HV or yeah typically those those items are that we donate to the feed HV go are the for the long weekends and the spring breaks and things like that
117but the the The daytoday Leftovers typically um you know we cool them down and then we can utilize them and make them you know utilize them in another dish for the following day or make a special out of it something like that so so that keeps them the waste to a minimum too that's that's a a typical food cost strategy is to to to utilize it as another type of thing yeah anything else we're good everybody's Happy Mrs I took a picture I took a picture of that so I could order some so that I can get my daily count in yes yeah and it's I don't know I like it it's it's good um actually too we have a um superintendent's conference day we're having a training we got these feed um Farm to
118school trainers we've got the the guy who's in who's been putting this together his name is BR he's got a doctor Dr Robert Graham uh food for medicine fresh medicine is the name it so it's it's his focus is you know non big Pharma it's all about um nutrition as medicine so we're gonna I'm having it over at Pine Plains this is the first time my whole history here that all three districts has super conference day on the same day so we're collaborating out in Pine Plains with the with the folks there cooking classes and the and the doctors going to go to to you know to give our staff the importance of of of nutrition as opposed to you know I mean it's going to be part of the cooking class but um but
119we have that going on too real quick so okay thanks all right thanks all right so we um are going to be going through the high school information I'm going to go through relatively quickly but I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have as always the first thing I want to highlight is the bottom bullet point point on the left side um in the course of a year our graduation rate jumped eight points um which is a pretty seismic shift it puts us at the top of the county maybe behind one other District by like one percentage Point um so it's a great thing we're very excited and I do want to give a shout out to Miss Lynch who I believe um owns a lot of this she chairs our mtss committee
120where they really Target those atrisk students whether it's social emotional academic attendance and they say what supports can we put in place so I I think that's paying off in Spades as is apparent in the numbers so I just want to thank her for her leadership on that committee um going through everything else really last year's goals and this year's goals there's different bullet points but it's it's all the same in a way because we focus on really two things expanding opportunities and deepening our instruction and no matter what it is that's always the lens that we look at it with um you know certainly the aesthetic improvements that we're really excited about and are thankful for the district support and Dr for all your support on this um by growing the aesthetic it sets
121the tone makes it a home for our students so that's really crucial but the a academic nuances and changes are just so exciting and it's all going to continue to build so this past year we brought in IB for all and the new um English electives we've talked about that so I'm not going to get too much into the Weeds on that um but we continue to build um other new courses this past year mindbody Wellness freshman focus and spending a lot of lot of time looking at that deep in deep learning um talking about the shifts from Blue Ribbon talking about the Raider profile how to connect that to our instruction you know to really do meaningful work on that it's not a one-year goal it's a a three to five to 10e progression
122and I think we're well on our way in a lot of ways so we're excited um coming into this coming year we're really focusing on taking that and going further so IB English for all is going from 11th grade to adding in 12th grade as well so half the student body is going to be in IB class starting next year which is pretty awesome and we've already seen some exciting data on that we are looking to continue to grow our technology offerings and our computer science offerings um one class I'll highlight that we um haven't even made it official yet because we're gauging student interest but we're looking to bring in a new discovering computer science class which right now we have two AP level computer science classes which are awesome but that's intimidating if
123you're a student that maybe hasn't dabbled in computer science other than you know just basic utilization of a Macbook you might not want to jump into a class that starts with ap so this is a class that anyone regardless of any ability you know the caveman from the Geico commercial um could be in this class and be successful so we're hoping that we'll have a lot of eighth graders into ninth graders take that and eventually we want to build a fouryear real true pathway for computer science but that's the first step building those numbers to justify that as it grows um there'll be other new classes in family consumer science Ela and Technology this year um we're looking at expanding our seals that we offer with the Seal of biliteracy and the Seal of Civic
124Readiness um definitely supporting our English language Learners is always the what's such an important name of the game right now and that's from an academic and a social emotional standpoint of course um we want to continue to grow our IB diploma program this past year we broke all our records with 35 Juniors that are going full diploma um I'm hoping we'll exceed that next year we might we might not we'll see but either way it's still moving in a really great Direction um and we want to you know just continue to grow that programming so we're looking at potentially adding a technology position um and increasing a science position from 8.6 to a 1.0 um based on all the students that take four years of Science in the high school which is in unique in
125a lot of ways so that's that I'm happy to answer any questions or to turn over to my colleagues thank you what does uh move Point science6 Science teaching position to 1.0 I don't understand so we have a staff member now that is only a point six so they teach like two and a half classes they're like half time and right to make it so they can offer more in the course of a day and I think one of the challenges of adding a technology teacher is actually finding one um we're really lucky at the high school right now to have a tech teacher that can do industrial Arts um so the welding the program the you know building all like Automotive um but that's not something that the new technology ology programs are also
126encouraging so a lot of the teachers that come out now with that degree are more looking at like computer science or project um what do you call it um engineering engineering yeah Project Lead the Way those types of um so even if we want to do it it's going to be very hard I think the school that graduates students they graduate like what three a year or something and for the whole New York state so you're in competition with basically every District in New York state for those teachers so it's a huge shortage but we feel like we're gonna get it's really no competition it's yeah just about someone that wants to live in the area like within a radius yes I know they want to come here any other questions good evening everybody all
127right so for Linden a our 2425 goals we are entering year four of our block scheduling uh this has allowed us to maximize our time in core subjects it allows for student Choice with electives they're getting more Choice uh effectively and we have centralized in intervention block um we've added new courses when what I need instead of a study hall it's more focused learning environment for the students um taking a page of the high school's Playbook we did Middle School SU success skills for sixth graders to really transition to middle school we have brain body and wellness AIS skills executive functioning skills mural design which I believe they did the science room right if you walk to our science room they did a beautiful uh under SE Under the Sea mural for them uh lifetime
128personal Wellness uh we're continuing to improve our learning spaces with classroom furniture and flexible Furniture throughout the building so we're continuous adding those to our classrooms um we're working with our science and math departments to make those instructional shifts uh to align more with our next gen learning standard standards uh our library we have added new furniture to our library and we have Beed out many of our books that are not checked out frequently or at of date or um things of that nature so we have done that uh we have have a new innovation lab in um upstairs in Lambs which we are looking to add a couple more screens and workstations for student groups to have different workstations across the classroom um and for classes to use that um classroom libraries in English
1296 to8 uh we have a we're going to have a piano lab we're waiting for the great rant for our piano lab with Mr Po Miller which will be exciting opportunity for our students uh and then finally for our 2425 goals um I'd like to say we but it was really Mrs Smith who's worked with the high school wood shop class in creating a new shed um so M Mrs Smith worked with the class to create and design a shed for our playground equipment that was really right now we have a little cart that gets uh pushed out but we have all this great new um uh playground equipment so we wanted something to go with that but include our high school students so they created and built and designed a really cool red and
130white shed for us that we plan on you know we could always throw a staff member in charge of that but we're looking to maybe have a student every lunch period be in charge of that create some ownership over their own um recess practices so those are our goals for 242 okay thank you Mr Brown uh and just to add to our the new shed that's happening uh we want to thank Mr hutman at the high school his uh residential construction class came over and um our principal Council students one of the items that keeps coming up is more equipment for recess more options For Recess um and so this shed will help us um be able to make those things available so it was really a collaboration of our students and the high school
131students um and we're just we're excited with now the next big obstacle is how are we getting it from the high school to Lambs so as as Paul mentioned we are um in year four of our block schedule and our block schedule at Lambs is unique because it's a 40 60 block which we feel is more developmentally appropriate for early adolescence as opposed to an 80 minute block so it allows for that Project based time um and extra time with teachers um in order to make those social con social emotional connections um but doesn't um keep them in one place too long um so it does seem to be really um it really has been successful with students and also um preferred with our with our teaching staff um and we're especially feeling great about
132our academic side of our planning um and this year we're taking a a little closer look at how we're planning for Creative Arts and World Language because as we continue to hone it we do see some areas where that could um be improved slightly so we've invited our cre creative arts teachers and our world language um teachers to be part of our scheduling team we're also looking at adding for next year um some materials that will support some of our new courses um that Paul mentioned um and we've also shifted some of our spaces that was mentioned earlier so um looking at some of those materials that will support our new programming um and our shifted spaces um we will continue this year to support our elll um our English link language Learners um both
133from a social emotional perspective and academically and that looks like helping our teachers understand how to meet their needs best and whether that is having a cultural awareness of where that student is coming from but also how to um make sure that we're meeting their needs from an academic standpoint so trying to increase their toolbox there we're going to continue our work um on the library as Aon and Scott have mentioned as well so we are really complete with phase one and now we're looking forward to phase two and the goal is to transform that space into a Learning Hub so it was a big deal to move the library from the upstairs and to where it was kind of off um on its own a little down to the central part of the building
134um it's now a place that students are in and out of during lunchtime before school after school and that's what we want we want it to be a landing place so we've improved it with furniture and we are now looking at how to really do um open up that space a little bit more and make some of the um structural Improvement we are looking at uh year three of adding some of our new classroom furniture and creating flexible um spaces throughout the building as well as looking at adding another piece of recess equipment we did add a um B pit thank you lost that word uh this year which has been a great success and you know it was uh a little different for us to take on a playground at the middle school there
135there aren't a lot of middle schools that have playgrounds and students said that they wanted it and we added it and it has been a huge success with kids they are on that equipment um every day that they're out on the field and we want to continue to add um more pieces in the future so that piece that bullet and the bullet above it with the furniture spaces those are things that we're looking at with students because we want their input as we look to continue to improve those places because they're for them so um and and what we're finding with a lot of our work with um the principal Council students or student council students is that they have great ideas and they really are thoughtful about how we can improve our school next
136thing is an an exterior sign so this came up at the end of last year um with our BLT it's our building level team and it's something that we are looking for um we are looking at adding on the uh West Market side of the building there is there are two signs there now so we're working with um a company that is looking at the par ERS from the town perspective um we want to make sure that it's aesthetically pleasing we want to make sure that it's meets all of the um the our our coding for the for the town um and if we're able to do that um I think it could be a great place for us to be able to communicate with the community also talked with Kyle about you know even
137sharing that what we put out um or in EMB Bri as well but being able because of our central location in town um that sign could be a place where we're able to share information about the district we're also looking at um our SC as we have transitioned to the next gen standards in science um and the new lab requirements we have noticed uh a real need for science supplies um so that is one of the asks for this year is to support those um new requirements from New York State and last I have a wireless microphone system for our cafeteria years ago a system was put in um that is not it has not really worked U well even over many years so um we want to look at that again uh because that
138is not only a space that we use for meetings and workshops and and whatnot but it's also a performance space for students and it not having that or being Tethered to the wall um is sometimes uh prohibitive for us thank you um any questions uh the block scheduling uh remind me how block scheduling is structured at the middle school sure and put some of the um uh a little bit improvements so our block schedules eight we have eight periods four are 40 minutes and four are 60 Minutes academic classes so the four core subjects alternate daily 40 minutes and 60 minutes and so with our academic classes New York State requires us to teach 72 minutes 7200 minutes per seat time our block schedule is 9,000 so we are exceeding what is required from New
139York state in the core area this schedule also improved what we can offer for creative arts by changing our period for Creative Arts to exclusively an hour we're able to cover all of our seat time for Creative Arts by the end of seventh grade and that allows eighth graders to have some Choice which was never present at all um in the Middle School Prior so if you have student that's really um into art they can they can select some art classes instead of being put into um you know a class that is maybe not suing their interest and I and I think overall that does help us support programming at the high school as well um and the other thing that we have that is part of our block schedule is adding the win period
140so what I need is the intervention Block it's a structured study hall versus a traditional study hall if you're in seventh if you're any of the grades but if you're in seventh grade for example all of your teachers and all seventh grade students have the same win period so if you need to catch up with a teacher have something retaught you missed a test everyone is available at the same time that makes L sense so so this that schedule is very hard to schedule it really is very difficult to schedule but what just like budgeting it's kind of that behind thescene work that allows for so much else to happen so it's it's well worth um the extra work it takes to make that schedule um know actually flourish within the building and and it's
141it's helped us add a lot of other and I think one of the most Innovative things a principal can do is create a schedule um it's one of the biggest things that can change instructions so I I don't think she's downplaying this no other school district is doing a schedule quite like this because even when you try to work with the online people to to handle the schedule they're like what are you talking about so this is really something that Stacy has really thought about how do I create this level kids need choice and that we know we start losing kids and younger and younger they're not engaged so creating that choice but also that Universal intervention time too so every student at some Point's going to need to be enriched or remediated so I
142think creating that block so it's been incredibly um I think helpful for students and really the focus it's it's very difficult to make it because I see the challenges all over the wall and there's many meetings but they're constantly looking to improve so I think there's a lot of credit to not doing what standard you know because the state says do this we go and have these 40-minute classes that does not work for students so it's great to continue to do that I just wanted to say it's great to see this emphasis on classroom libraries and still the attention to keeping libraries current and relevant because as we know students are reading full books much less than they used to and I think it's affecting you know curriculums and how teachers are approaching what they're
143doing in their classrooms and I just like to see this um you know that books are still being presented to students it's very important absolutely uh quick question the exterior sign uh that's being discussed does that is that uh suggested as like a replacement of what's currently there or are there like digital LED considerations happening it would be a replacement of what's already there and so working with a company uh we do know that to replace it we have you they they have contacted the town we know that we'll have to take down what's there and and replace what's there and yes we would look at digital but we want to also be mindful of neighbors and and our life solution um so we're we want it to be aesthetically pleasing but and also match
144the character of the building which is a beautiful historic building so looking at the design carefully and thoughtfully cool that that's really great to hear um I think at some point the idea of having like a digital LED sign came up in either Community engagement um committee but we didn't really like harp on it too much um and I was going to actually ask just generally like what what's the best place to have that conversation whether it's with facilities but it sounds like you guys are on it so thank you thank you thank you and um before these two stars start I would also think um commend both of them for the transition to milroad and um I think there's been a lot of benefits to that as well so turn it over to the
145Stars thank you very much um yeah I think we're going to talk about that in a second here so I because we're the last in line um make you first well thank thank you I appreciate that you just want to make sure I stayed the whole time you so I we're we always walk away really impressed listening to everybody um that has shared and presented and this night was uh a lot of the same we you know I'm listening to everything that's going on and I think both Chris and I feel like we're really connected with the other buildings and departments and um hearing everything that was going on if you if you listen carefully you saw that thread that was woven in because when Donna spoke she mentioned five or six other people and
146so on and so forth I would also be remiss if I didn't say I cannot imagine a budget presentation next year without Larry Anthony here because you are like the Highlight every year Larry thank you um as we reflect on last year's budget and instructional goals um Mr strothman and I really feel great about the work combining prek 2 and 35 we focused our energy on building and putting together systems in place um a new mtss model a prek-5 testing calendar a system for recognizing uh the Raider attributes and successes of our students building internal leadership capacity so amongst the staff prek-5 we have a lot of expertise and a lot of people that want to share their ideas and Professional Knowledge and all that so it's it's been a it's been a crazy year
147in some way it's been an amazing year in terms of growth and where we are right now in Mela feel really really good about that work uh future focused learning we've expanded Steam and project-based learning opportunities our Young Scholars Program is up to 82 students and gaining momentum every week uh what we've done with literacy development and transforming spaces I think is something to be really proud of so as we look forward um to the goals for next year the bullets on the right hand of the slide I I feel like we are in a in a terrific spot and ready to work towards 25 26 one of the things that we're really looking forward to continuing and growing is the Buddies program we started so we've done a lot of events this year um
148to bring all 600 can you just speak into the microphone thank you to bring all 650 is students together at the same time in the same place so our vet Day celebration um our Raider parade and uh the the football game following that which you know I only took out one student it was an accident might be a little bit more than Dr it was an accident um so that has been really fun and the half days we have spent planning for our buddy classes so we brought we paired teachers from the elementary side with the primary side and encouraged them to meet on their own for various activities throughout the year but we also worked with our BLT to plan specific activities for all of our half days throughout the year um and it
149has gone I think it's exceeded our expectations um our elementary level students have stepped up to the plate they have become mentors we've seen some of our tricky students who maybe struggle sometimes in school really lean into the Buddies so that's been awesome we're looking forward to expanding that developing it um we also one of our asks for next year is looking at our 4-Hour Aid positions and switching all of those over to seven-hour Aid positions um reason being that we're finding that there are holes in support during the day in our classrooms that have our 4-Hour AIDS um and they're very hard positions to fill um I just today offered a position I didn't even tell you yet offered a position to one of our open forour Aid positions you know we interviewed did
150her references and she declined because she needs more hours so it's been a struggle to find Qualified people who are good fit for those four-hour positions um yeah yeah so let's talk a little bit of about planning for prek as you know last year about this time we had planned to have two classes we were able to expand to a third class over the summer which made for um you know a wild summer in terms of like getting hold of the logistics and everything else um we're in a place right now where we have sped everything up I think um our goal after after seeing it play out last spring one of our P um primary objectives was to speed the process up so that we could get word out everybody knew what we were
151offering um our focus is to offer as many seats as possible so the idea of even uh considering a fourth prek class is up in the air right now for us and we are looking at all those things while remaining flat with faculty so we are looking to expand some support staff uh in terms of like full-time aids for prek and K classes but we're going to look really hard and close at the numbers so we have an interest survey that's out that deadline is February 28th we're hoping that at that point so first week of March we'll have a good understanding of how many people are interested we're going to provide a tremendous amount of information for them so they know what they're committing to and then we want to be able to say
152to people you have a seat if you commit to it right now knowing what's what's available so instead of you know playing this out in May June and July which no one wants we want to be having these conversations and have all this information ready to go in March and I think we're in a great spot with that we've done a lot of advertising and we've already seen an uptick in the amount of uh families that are interested in our prek program for next year how many uh kids can we offer through how many seats are there in per class right in the three that we have and then H right so we have three classes right now and we have 14 students in each of those classes we could go up um to 18
153per class without another adult in the room if you go beyond 18 you would need another par professional at least in the room uh based on the ratio um so if we're thinking about four classes if we had 60 65 students we would be in great shape with with four classes yeah we got mean we could do up to 54 with three classes so if we get up into the 60s yeah yep you have the space for that uh yeah I mean there'd be some wiggling you know we'd have to we'd have to figure out so we'd be looking at where are sections in the other places um you know simultaneously we're doing kindergarten registration so the be the beautiful thing about having three prek classes is we know 43 students 44 students really well
154because we have them here every day already and those will be kindergarteners next year and then we have a group of uh students that will be coming in so even that number the exact number of kindergarten students we don't know quite yet we have a sense of what that number is going to be probably very similar to this year about 90 students but time will tell what would be the Tipping Point for the fourth class how many I mean you could say you can go to 18 is 18 in a prek class ideal no so I think the Tipping Point for a fourth class would be in that 50ish range for sure one of the other things that we're looking at I'll just finish this last bullet with um we've been working with facilities Scott
155mentioned that before we do our monthly building enhancement meetings we're looking at expanding opportunities for our prek and kindergarten classes so if you go outside you know there's some elements out there that are geared towards two to five year olds so we're trying to do uh some different things with natural elements and some really fun and engaging stuff and working with the prek teachers um Scott hasn't said no to everything he said no to a bunch of things that I tried to get already but we're working on it right um in terms terms of uh elll and multilanguage learner support um we started our language explorers program this year uh that's with our one of our ESL teachers the school librarian on the 35 side our social worker and the library clerk it has been
156a tremendous success academically speaking we've seen great growth as readers foundational literacy skills like like out of this world but the connections that students are making in this program twice a week for 35 minutes has been like that was in all the testimonials so when we asked our teachers what the best parts of the program were they talked about all the personal connections and when you have those conversations with students you learn so much more about them as human beings and as students it's always it's a buzz when you walk in there's there's just a sense that there's there's a comfort there they're talking to each other they're talking to the adults in the room there's there's obviously a level of comfort and uh it's it's a nice space to walk into so so one
157of the other things um we will continue to work on is our literacy and math instruction uh Dr Summers and I recently attended the niid um literacy brief and mandates uh conference and it was really nice to hear that we're ahead of the curve we're doing a lot of what they're saying we have to do in the future um really thinking about science of reading what programming we're using how we're using our Consultants to build a really solid curriculum that is tailored um and includes a lot of elements that are meeting the needs of the kids so that's really exciting um and same with math we have our math Consultants helping our teachers to look at a broader scope what's happening in the grade levels before you what's happening in the grade levels after you
158what language are we using and how does that travel through to help the kids continue to develop their skills in math so that's really exciting work too and really the last bullet is our future focused work um you know what we're trying to do with Project based learning and expanding opportunities in our steam lab or the imagination station bringing outside experts um we make sure we make time for Shakespeare workshops garden with Doug and a whole host of other things so um as we started this this conversation tonight we feel great about where we're at and I think we we have a really strong plan moving forward um in in some of the uh the steam projects or um you know you know you know uh technology learning thinking about you know what they're doing
159in the high school and you know shift more towards computer science is there any exposure to like even very rudimentary uh yeah yeah so I think both of our um libraries right now do that work um our steam our steam center has uh several uh 3D printers as well and so actually tapping into the expertise like one of our pts is like an expert with 3D not that that's his job but he's doing a lot of work with our students around that technology as well um we met with the uh several of the robo Raiders so having the robotics Club come down uh for our students as well so they can see it firsthand uh with our high school students um we have a plan for them to come in a week or two uh
160to visit with our fifth graders and do some work as well so we're trying to connect with different experts across the district so we have had a few teachers work on during PD Focus um building a library for teachers when they go into the steam center quick easily accessible steam activities that they can use you know the equipment that's in the room and not have to do so much digging that it's already there and it's you know um kind of like benefits of of what's to come but exposure right and also the middle school has Pathways to that Stacy I know that the robotics program is on hold in the middle school is there any talk of Reviving that to keep the bridge from elementary to high school I know it's a big commitment oh
161no it is working I would love to bring the the robotics Club back to lynon Avenue we are are actively looking for an advisor um who could take that on it is a big ask it's a it's a lot of um time and a big commitment and also takes an applicant who has that area of expertise so we've also reached out to some of the students too um in Robo Raiders at the high school looking for maybe a way to pair up with an an adviser that's maybe doesn't have that area of expertise as a starting point but um still we're we're at of stop right now but I you know anybody we would absolutely love to get that up at going again we we certainly have uh some interest from students I just wanted
162to comment on the Buddy activities and the connecting of the school I think that that's so important you I know you're connecting the the prek and 5 but it's also important for Mental Health and Social connection um and I know it's the Highlight for young kids that have a you know um and it kind of moves in through the buildings because I know there's other sort of mentorship programs so I like that it's starting early I think that that's really great I also wanted to make a comment on the Outdoor Learning um spaces because there is a multitude of space I feel like for that here so I think that's great that that's getting tapped into and um the welcoming of the prek groups I think helps our enrollment and I think a lot of
163parents are looking at that right now with young families where to land um and when districts are saying like you have a seat here I think it means a lot um for the future I am going to continue to dream about adding a second like you knew what I was going to say I'm just going to keep fantasizing about that now that milroad is is one school together maybe pooling resources and a teacher who can kind of float around even between classes I don't know I'm not the one to design it for you but I'll still comp be dreaming about that and hoping that someday we can get there so would you like us to add because it's probably going to be about uh be $100,000 or for new a teacher of that well if
164we just started with one um it's just the sustainability of it that's my concern just as as we go on but if that's something that the board would like to add to the budget we would do some work and figure out I mean it would be very sporadic if you had one for the whole elementary school but if it was Focus if that's what the board wants us to add I think we should take the direction of uh the the principal Administration on determining where they think hiring needs in programs uh should be um is there a language teacher at the primary Side of Me no okay and also to find a teacher we had trouble filling secondary language um certainly if that's something that you want us to cost out I think you guys
165uh like I said I think uh you guys work the uh uh the budget from uh a Bottoms Up build on where you think Staffing and hiring needs to be so um I would I would caution the board to um we start to decide we want to add a higher here um we could come up with all sorts of places we want to add um so um I think it's you know it's it's a good idea there's a lot of um potentially good ideas of things we could expand across the district and out different buildings so I think um I I'm not opposed to it um but I'm um cautious on as a board where we should start weighing in on deciding where we want to add highes it's my philosophical response to that and
166other board members are welcome to weigh in I I would just um I would be curious as to what that would more concretely look like um if similar programs exist um what you know what what need are we fulfilling with that before we cost out you know what it would take to hire someone um I'm I would definitely be interested in continue that conversation I think it's intriguing and it could add a lot of value and kind of a unique uh element to to the primary school um okay um other items that are going to be on the ballot um for the budget so we we'll talk next week um for a possible vehicle proposition um and a possible Capital project proposition as well the facilities committee is going to meet next week but also
167the board will have to finalize their decision on those two items and there's two board vacancies and next slide and just to kind of continue with our budget development tonight we have our uh budget Workshop um March 6 we have Community conversations budget adoption will be April 10th we have our Expo and public hearing on May 8th we did talk a little bit about how maybe we'll have the Expo first then the budget hearing because I think some people attended the hearing and maybe didn't go to the Expo so how we can continue to increase uh participation in that and then our budget vote is on May 20th and that is it so I don't know if there's any additional questions on the process or um any other information um you know I I asked
168that about the cost out because if there anything else you want us to bring to the next board meeting so as we're developing the budget we have that information prior um to coming like we'll have the cost out for the EV buses the different propositions but if there's other things you'd like us to bring please you know either now or you can send me an email uh can you back up to the timeline just for a second might be worth just just for the board um uh just kind of reviewing this the so the budget Workshop is tonight Community conversations we know what that is budget adoption that's where we act that's the board meeting where we actually have to vote and approve the budget that's going to go up for vote the budget Expo
169is um is that like the event we had last year where it's in the correct the gym and there's lots of booths and I thought that was a great event I think um uh we need to make sure we publicize that and get attendance I um but I thought I thought the event and the the the booth and everything was fantastic it was it was great I think we just need to make sure we get you know a lot more people there um so we got to talk that up yeah and I think we talked about the the hearing beforehand lasted a little bit longer than we wanted it to so then some people didn't go to the Expo so we're thinking maybe about flipping because we were required to have the budget hearing legally
170so maybe if we have the Expo and then at a certain time we say we're going to start the hearing if people are interested yeah so that that we think might that's a good idea yeah yeah have that a little bit earlier as a possibility yeah okay and votes the vot so all right all right well I want to thank every my everybody on my team here I think it's amazing all the wonderful work that you're doing I know a lot of you have to get up early [Music] tomorrow just whyi if there is a delay milro does not have school if there's a delay tomorrow just to put that out there excuse me please turn off the mics on the this side of the so all right uh do we have any more questions
171um I think we had on the uh um not to belabor it but we did have an agenda item of board comment so if there's any topics member would like to raise now is your chance going going gone okay all right then uh we have one final item which is I need a motion to [Music] adjourn all in favor all thank you