001All right, we're ready to get started. If uh everyone could join me for the pledge to the flag. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And we will begin this evening with our presentation of our tenure rece recipients. Good evening. One of the most important responsibilities entrusted to board of education is the granting of tenure. Tonight's vote represents far more than the completion of a probationary period. It is a statement of confidence, a recognition that these educators have developed have de demonstrated the skill, dedication, character, and commitment that our community expects for the students of Rye. Tenure is often misunderstood. It is not simply an award for years of service.
002Rather, it is earned through years of demonst demonstrated excellence, growth, reflection, and impact. It reflects the board's belief that these educators have consistently shown the ability to inspire learning, build meaningful relationships, and contribute positively to our schools. In Ry tenure carries a special significance. It signifies membership and professional community that place the students at the center of every decision, values continuous learning and innovation, and embraces the responsibility of helping every child reach their fullest potential. A tenure teacher in Ry is not only an excellent educator but also a leader, collaborator, advocate and role and role model for students and colleagues alike. Tonight we celebrate educators who have earned the trust of their students, colleagues, educators, sorry, administrators and this board. We thank them for the difference they make each day and for the commitment they
003have shown to the values and aspirations of our school community. At this time I would like to invite uh Angela Garcia up. She's going to speak about her three tenure candidates. Good evening. It's an absolute honor tonight to stand before you to celebrate the dedication of three Osborne school educators. First, I'd like to invite up Jula Marano. Yeah. Okay. >> It's my distinct privilege to speak about Jalissa tonight as she's recommended for tenure in the area of school psychologist at Osborne School. Jalissa joined our Osborne family in September of 2022. And over the past four years, she's proven herself to be an invaluable pillar of support for our students, our staff, and our families. The role of a school psychologist is multifaceted, requiring a unique blend of sharp clinical expertise and deep empathy, which Delissa
004possesses both in abundance. Whether she's leading as a chairperson on our cse teams, guiding 504 committees, or designing academic and behavioral frameworks within our multi-tered system of supports, Jalissa anchors every single decision in her expertise and what is best for the child. She expertly translates complex evaluation data into practical real world strategies. Her work with FBAs and BIPs ensures our students receive tailored, consistent care that fosters self-regulation and independence. Navigating a child's social, emotional, and academic needs can feel challenging. Jalissa has an extraordinary ability to step into those spaces and build immediate bridges of trust. She can always be called on to help with children who express a need, no matter how big or small. She listens closely, validates concerns and partners with parents and teachers to ensure that our children feel safe, seen, and
005supported both at school and at home. Jalissa, your dedication, professionalism, and profound kindness have a lasting impact on Osborne School. to your family and friends who are here to celebrate with you tonight. Thank you for sharing her with us. Congratulations, Jalissa. Next, I'd like to invite up Cara Morasco. you know, you're shaking it in this hand. It's my absolute pleasure to speak about Carara Morasco tonight as she is recommended for tenure in the area of special education teacher. Carara's journey with the Ry City School District actually began in late 2022 where she served as our served our district as a substitute and leave replacement teacher at Milton Elementary School and Ry Middle School. When she officially joined our faculty permanently at Osborne School in September of 2023, we knew we found someone truly special. She
006brought with her an outstanding foundation from her years teaching in New York City, and she immediately made Osborne her home. Carara is an extremely versatile teacher. She has successfully transitioned across multiple grade levels and programs. She has supported our students in grade three ICT classrooms, move seamlessly to grade 1 ICT, and skillfully managed resource room, specialized reading, and consultant teacher services. She meets the unique demands of every single setting with a positive, kind, and flexible spirit. A true hallmark of Carara's teaching is her ability to bridge the gap between high expectations and individualized student needs. She thinks deeply about how to differentiate her instruction, ensuring that her students are meaningfully engaged in the rigorous grade level curriculum while simultaneously making progress towards their specific IEP goals. Her dedication to her craft isn't just felt in
007the classroom. It is proven. Carara has consistently delivered strong instruction throughout her time with us. A testament to her sophisticated understanding of special education and literacy and math instruction. Cara is an educator who embodies true partnership. She understands that a child's success relies on collaboration and communication. She's a steady, supportive partner to her families, general education co-teers, related service providers, and support staff. She builds immediately immediate spaces of trust, transparency, and collaboration, ensuring families always feel informed and valued in their child's educational journey. Cara, your unwavering commitment, compassion, and skilled leadership have made a vital impact on our school community. to your family and friends who have who are sharing this proud milestone with you. Thank you for supporting Cara as she gives 100% to her students. Congratulations, CARA. FINALLY, I'd like to call Ashley
008Merritt up to the podium. It is my great privilege to speak about Ashley Merritt tonight as she is recommended for tenure in the area of elementary teacher. Ashley has spent the last four years building strong relationships at Osborne School, teaching first grade for three years before seamlessly transitioning to third grade this past year. across both grade levels. She has proven to be an exceptional educator who embodies the highest standards of our profession. She is a dedicated student- centered and deeply reflective pract practitioner who enriches our entire school culture. In the classroom, Ashley is a true master of her craft, consistently delivering strong lessons. What truly sets her apart in her professional is her professional maturity. She seeks feedback not as a score to achieve, but as a vehicle for growth in her craft and better
009learning for her students. Bringing a sophisticated foundation in literacy instruction and extensive training in the responsive classroom model, Ashley has a masterful command of teacher language. By choosing her words with deliberate intention and kindness, she has cultivated a classroom community rooted in deep mutual respect. Perhaps Ashley's most impressive attribute is her approach to student self-regulation. She views every behavioral challenge through a lens of care and empathy, always asking how she can adapt her approach or environment to help a child succeed. This student first philosophy ensures that every single student in her care feels safe, supported, and completely understood. But her dedication to the Ride community doesn't stop at the end of her school day. You can find her on the courts as a coach, giving her time and heart as the assistant coach for unified
010basketball and the JV assistant coach for girls basketball and cheering on her elementary students on the field as well as a spectator both at athletic events and performances for her elementary students. Whether she's teaching reading, coaching a team, or celebrating with her students, Ashley is a steady, positive role model for children and adults alike. Exceptional educators are built on a foundation of family support. To Ashley's family, thank you for always championing her. The encouragement you pour into her behind the scenes is what allows her to show up every day as a consmate professional and trusted partner our children deserve. Your support has directly enriched our entire school community and we're profoundly grateful to you for sharing her with Osborne. Congratulations, Ashley. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. AND NEXT, I'D LIKE TO invite up
011middle school principal Nick Claire. And I'd like to invite up our tenure recipient from the middle school, Meg Wilson. It's my pleasure tonight to celebrate the accomplishments and dedication of Meg Wilson. Since joining Ry Middle School in September of 2022, Miss Wilson has become an integral part of our community and the driving force behind our literacy instruction. Reading is the foundation of everything we do and Meg works every day to ensure our our students have the realworld literacy skills to thrive beyond our hallways. Meg came to Ry with an incredible pedigree. She has an extensive experience as a literary specialist, leadership roles at Winston Preparatory School, advanced certifications and a master's degree from Teachers College, Columbia University. We happened to come from the same district when we moved to Ry. We came in at the
012same year. So, it's an extra special time for me seeing me receive tenure. Um, and she always puts that expertise to work immediately. She helped build a comprehensive AIS reading program to support our students across all three grades. At Ry Middle School, we often tell our students and staff to shine bright. Me embodies that spirit every day. She shines through her dedication to her students, her generosity towards her colleagues, and her fierce belief in what young people can achieve. Whether she's working in a small group or co-eing a class, partnering with staff, Me approaches every challenge with the belief that all students can grow. And her influence reaches beyond the students on her roster. She stepped up to strengthen literacy practices in ELA, social studies, math, special education, reminding us all that reading is a
013team sport, not just one department's responsibility. In Meg's classroom, students feel safe taking risks, making mistakes, and tackling texts they once thought were impossible. Through thoughtful instruction and use of data, she can always find a way for our students to make reading gains. But more importantly, she builds their confidence. She's also an extraordinary colleague. Meg is a trusted resource who generously shares her expertise, whether she's leading professional development on vocabulary or helping teachers understand decoding strategies. She's also a pretty vital part of our RMS Sunshine committee and a legendary baker. I know I'm not alone when I say I always look forward to our sunshine breakfast just a little bit more when Meg brings in a treat. Even with all her success, Meg never stops learning. She continues to pursue advanced training, including her Wilson
014reading certification. Always seeking out evidence-based practices to best support students with dyslexia. She's reflective, curious, and constantly pushing herself to be better. Throughout her time with us, she's earned the profound respect of her colleagues, the trust of our families, and the deep appreciation of the students she serves. Meg, thank you for making RMS shine bright. And congratulations. Okay. And now I'd like to invite up Dr. Aaron Freedenberg, our assistant superintendent for PPS and special education. Thank you. Uh it's my pleasure and honor to welcome up um my administrative colleague, Linda Flanigan. Miss Flanigan joined the Rise City School District in March of 2022 as the supervisor of elementary special education. She brings extensive experience in special education leadership and holds New York State professional certification as both a school building leader and school district leader
015as well as certification in speech and language disabilities. During her time in Ry, Miss Flanigan has consistently demonstrated exceptional leadership, deep knowledge of special education regulations, and a commitment to students, families, and staff. As the CPSE, CSE, and 504 chairperson, she has ensured that students receive appropriate supports while fostering strong collaborative relationships with families and school teams. Linda is a leader who takes the time to get to know the students and families she serves. She is an active member of the IST, MTSS, and DBI teams across all three elementary schools. Through her leadership, she has provided meaningful professional development for teaching assistance and aids as part of the professional development team and has successfully implemented database individualization practices that have strengthened interventions for students with the most intensive needs. She has also played a key
016role in the development and implementation of the building bridges program at the elementary level. Her organization, attention to detail, and collaborative approach have helped ensure the program's success and sustainability. Beyond her many responsibilities, Linda is known for her professionalism, compassion, and dedication. She consistently goes above and beyond to support teachers, guide families, and advocate for students. Her work reflects the ride commitment and to meeting the needs of each and every learner. Based on your ex outstanding performance, leadership and contributions to the Rice City School District, I am pleased to recommend not only my colleague but friend Linda Flanigan for tenure. CONGRATULATIONS. OKAY, don't go anywhere. We have a vote to do. So, give us one second. >> Now, the exciting exciting part. After all those lovely kind words, we will now do some official business
017that you all will have special interest in, I'm sure. So, at this time, I would like to move an item off of the consent agenda and move it forward in our uh board meeting. Can I please have a motion? Oh, Miss Bole. Yes, your motion to move >> I would like to I would like to motion to move 12.01 01 >> 001 um from the consent agenda to be discussed now. >> All right. Excellent. Is there a second? Miss Coffer. All those in favor? That is five to nothing. And so with that, it is 12.01, which is our professional appointment of tenure recommendations for our wonderful new teachers, administrators, and colleagues. And so with that, can we please have a mot a vote? Oh, a motion Sean to approve Jen. Second to approve. All those
018in favor that is five to nothing. Congratulations. 10ear recip. Okay. And with that we will have other business that we will take care of. You are certainly more than welcome to stay and participate and watch our meeting. But if you have other things in which you need to take care of, we understand that as well. But we would certainly encourage you perhaps to take a snack for the road on your way. Thank you all so very much. Please. And we're back just like that. All right. So with that, we will now move on to the report of the superintendent, Dr. Murray. Thank you. Good evening again. I'd like to start by congratulating once more our colleagues who received tenure this evening. It's always a wonderful celebration tonight. Uh I'd also like to uh take a
019moment to celebrate our student athletes. Congratulations to the RIVY RC baseball team who are section one champions. They defeated Mayapac on Sunday evening by a score of 5 to2. They will now play in the regional finals this Saturday at 1 p.m. against Cornwall in so our varsity girls lacrosse team is playing in the section finals as we speak against Pelum. And our boys varsity lacrosse team will play in the section one finals tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. against Srmers. We're also proud to recognize three members of our boys golf team, Graham Ericson, Tyler Kavorian, and Garrick B and Derek Bashia, who have qualified for the state tournament, which will take place on June 7th and 8th. Best of luck to all of our student athletes. We are so proud of the way they represent Rye. Finally,
020I want to highlight the arts across our district. The Rye High School art show reception and opening is taking place this evening, and the show will be housed at the Rye Art Center through June 12th. I we stopped by it tonight. It's definitely worth your time. It's fantastic, fantastic work from our students. So, please go see it. In addition, our K to2 art show will take place on June 11th from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. at our central administration building. We look forward to celebrating and highlighting the creativity, talent, and hard work of our student artists across the district. Thank you. Okay, great. So with that, we will now move on to presentation and discussion and the national school lunch program. >> Don't be sorry. We had a chocolate fountain. I'll give a little intro while
021we're waiting. Okay, no problem. U so tonight we're going to be discussing our food service program um and and how it it it relates to the national school lunch program. We've had a lot of inquiries from um community members this year about uh the universal free lunch that's provided by New York State and our participation in it. And um Stacy Falcone is our director of food service um and Gabby Pericio, our assistant soup for business operations have been doing some research um on this program, the National School program, and how it would impact our program here in Rye um if we were to participate. And so we're looking forward to this discussion tonight because they've learned a lot that they want to share with us. So I'll hand over to you. >> Okay. Uh good
022evening members of the board, administration, and community members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. Um this evening I will explain to you what rice schools would look like on the national school lunch program. Even the ry commitment plays a role in food service to our students, our staff and administration. We are here to listen and respond to your wants and your needs. To our community, we hear you and your feedback plays a critical role in shaping our program and how we nourish our students through collaboration, communication, and continued improvement. We strive to provide a food service program that reflects the values and the and the expectations of the Ry community. Okay. So, what does all that mean? What is the National School Lunch Program? What it is, it's a federally funded
023program administr administered by the USDA that provides financial reimbursement to school districts and supports the cost of offering free and reduced meals to students. So what would be the structure of what school meals would look like? So our current program right now families pay for all their food, alle cart items, beverages. We are a self- sustaining program funded by all the meal purchases which this also allows us to pay for those students who do qualify for the free and reduced meal program. If they qualify, we do feed them breakfast and lunch. We are flexible. We are studentdriven by our meals and the district determined elementary, middle school, and monthly menu uh cycle menus. So that's our current program. If we are to switch on to the national school lunch program, what does that mean for
024Rye? Well, each person would receive one reimburseable meal. Additional meals would have a charge. So they can purchase a breakfast. If they decide to purchase a second one, they would be charged. And the same goes for lunch. Um the district would provide free breakfast and free lunch. Free breakfast would continue at the high school level. Right now, we do not offer breakfast in our elementary schools, but that could be of of conversation. Uh we would follow strict USDA state rules on portion sizes and ingredients. And most importantly, students must select three out of the five meal components that constitute a meal. And one of those meal components has to be a fruit and or a vegetable. exchange twoe cycle menu would be dictated by commodity food availability and district may incur additional costs and we
025can go over that a little bit later in some of the other slides. So under our current program offerings what do we have? We have the student choice on a number of uh items that they could select which means they can select anything they they could select anything and it doesn't have to meet a um it doesn't have to meet it doesn't have to be a reimbured meal. If they decide not to take three out of the five meal components that's fine for right now. Uh we offer a ride a wide variety of offerings including fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. uh our opportunity to expand outside of the USDA uh recommended guidelines. So, we're able to distinguish our own portion sizes and ingredients. And currently, we do a lot of scratch cooking basically in
026our high school and middle school. Under the National School Lunch Program requires fruits and vegetables, grains are protein and meat and and milk. They must select three out of those five components. 80% of all grains that are going to be served in the district has to be whole grain. Portion sizes are limited by age, which would go from a K through 12, a 6 through 8, and 9 through 12. Um, and reduction of the sodium content and fat content. So when we are looking at this, we want to talk about what items would be discontinued if we participated in this program. Um the most importantly I think would be the outside vendor pizza and I'm going to go into more detail on that on another slide. um sushi offerings due to the nutrition uh the
027nutritional ingredients and cost. It really doesn't constitute as any of the five um uh uh it doesn't contain it doesn't contain any of the components of the five meals of the five meal offerings. Uh homemade hollow bread which we make for our brunch for lunch that would discontinue. We cannot get that in a whole grain. Uh homemade chicken noodle soup. um fresh cut up fruit, bento boxes, um these things would be discontinued and it would be either due to cost or operations in the high school and the middle school. What would be discontinued? Uh one of their favorites would be a chicken cutlet Friday, our crepe station, uh homemade fresh mutzadel, our carving station, which is really nice. will do uh a pork loin or a pit ham, roasted turkey, uh homemade tuna, chicken, avocado
028salads. It's due just because of the overall the time, cost and and oper in operation. >> But what a question I have. So when you say cost and time, >> so how I'm going to go into another slide when it when we're talking about cost of what the meal rate is going to be for the national school lunch program. >> So then perhaps talk about the time element. >> So it it's it's time consuming to do a lot of sc of the scratch cooking. if we go on to the program. Don't know if we would have that kind of time to dedicate to all the to to all scratch cooking. I fe I don't know how many students would be coming in. Are we feeding everybody for breakfast? What does that look like? Not sure
029100% what that's going to look like, but some of those have to change. A lot of it is also due to, and I can get into that later, about the government donated foods that we're going to get. Okay. or that we would be entitled to um what is the impact of the menu items that we're serving? So, at the high school, middle school, and the elementary school, ramen noodles would now go from our regular yakos sobo noodles to a whole grain noodle. uh we would have to offer like low sodium whether it would be low sodium soy sauce or low sodium teriyak we would have to follow those uh low low sodium items that meets with the program um baked goods all baked goods would now have to be whole grain uh pasta offerings would
030have to be whole grain uh currently we sell uh individual yogurt the portion size uh I believe would go down from a 5.3 to a 4 ounce Um, our 100% fruit juice would be a reduced portion as well and our milk offerings would be all low fat. What does that what does this look like at the high school and the middle school? Well, it would be like French fries availability. It's such a big thing. The high school students love the French fries. It's a it's a big hit. Um, but that would be impacted. Uh we usually have a hot oatmeal bar and it's everybody can just help themselves. It we don't watch how much they're taking, what kind of toppings they're doing. It's just self- serve and they can help themselves. When we're going on
031this program, we have to watch what portion sizes are and we have to make sure that that meal constitutes what is a reimbured lunch or sorry, a reimbured breakfast. Uh so the high school breakfast would be reduced from what we're currently doing right now to lesser items so that we can do you know so that we can prepare those foods in time for those students. Okay. So um a question is uh that I have is right now we have a meal offering right so you go to the cafeteria you say okay what's the hot meal today it's pasta and then we have alle cart items. So it it please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm I'm gathering from what you're saying is that we would no longer be able to offer any alle cart
032items that it would solely be a one meal offer. We can offer allocart items, but those items would be like your bottled waters. It could be it could be snacks. Um it can be the ice cream that meets like smart snacks. We can still sell allocart items. >> Okay. But but it can't be a different meal option. Is that what you're saying, Stacey? >> Yeah. Right. Like we can't say we're going to offer this is a free meal and then we're going to charge like $7 for like another free meal. I'm I'm just saying. I'm just throwing something out there like, oh, you can get this meal for $6.75 or you can get this meal for $450. We want to make it that everything is free. >> But is that a requirement? >> Yeah. Everything.
033Yes. Everything. All the meals have to be free. You can't have like a competitive meal. Correct. >> You can't have competing options. So, you can't have a serving a servery line of these are the free meals on the left side and then there's competing >> cost options on the right. Right? So, you would have to engineer all of your meals to fit within the reimburseable package bundle there. You you can't offer both, but you could have standalone items that would become your alle cart items, but not a meal. Okay? >> So, you could have a bag of chips in addition to a free meal bundle, but you couldn't have a um BLT on the alle cart side, but the ham and cheese sandwich on the free meal. I see. >> Does Does that make sense?
034>> Yes. Yes. >> Okay. >> And also what would be modified? I don't want to say that our breakfast program at the high school um is completely discontinued. We we still have a grill. We could still find a way to do a whole grain product. But what we would do is probably only offer one item at a time. So on one day it would be maybe all whole grain pancakes or it may be all whole grain waffles that we're doing. But to but to offer everything that we're offering it's it would be too demanding on the person on that grill to adhere to all the different stuff. So we would keep it simple to to one item. >> But it sounds like we couldn't do that anyway cuz wouldn't that be a competing? you would
035create. So for breakfast, we would create that breakfast bundle for the meal. So every offering at breakfast would have to meet those requirements, right? And then an individual would have the ability to choose from a variety of meal choices that all fit within that requirement. Okay. >> Right now, sky's the limit at the high school for breakfast, right? It's just from an operational standpoint, we wouldn't be able to maintain that level of choice for each of those meal options and still be able to function enough to be able to then prepare for presumably an entire population of free lunch. So we would have to scale down the offerings to ensure operationally we could meet the demands at every meal time. >> Okay. So, so essentially what you're what you're when you're saying um about trying
036to do the uh the bundles for the you're you're thinking ahead to say okay well if we did this >> then we know where the um variety is right now and we're we're thinking about this in sort of um with the idea that there will be the want of more variety than just a one offering for breakfast and a one offering. But that but so I just want to make sure I understand that's just part of like the the forward thinking that you're trying to do is to say we think there's going to want there's going to be a demand for more variety. So these are the things that we might be able to do that could help with that if we were to switch to the National School of Lunch Program. >> So I'm
037just going to skip ahead. Stacy, you give me a minute. So if you look here, this is our high school our current >> offering of high school breakfast. Um any everything on the left is what we offer on a daily basis. Especially at the secondary level when you go into that high school cafeteria it's very much an alle cart imagine what you want and somewhere in that cafeteria you'll be able to put it together again and I stress operationally this is not going to be possible to maintain if we are serving free breakfast for every person that comes through the door and then prepare for community lunch knowing that we open at 6:00 in the morning. Um we start serving breakfast when kids walk in. Right? So what know thinking that the volume is going
038to increase for demand, right? you would then limit what you can offer at breakfast time and we were thinking of how to provide that but still maintain what would be required to get those meal reimbursements. So you may get on a given day we're not going to focus on eggs and waffles. It would be one hot offering and then we would backfill with a bunch of pre-made um ready to go other offerings for breakfast which is an example on the right hand side. The other thing you have to take into consideration and I think Stacy touched on this a little bit is the cost associated with some of the items that we are currently providing. The way the National School Lunch Program works, for every meal that's purchased, provided it meets the requirement, we get
039$4.60 reimbursed to the district for every free meal that is sold. That becomes your revenue stream. So all of our labor, food, materials, cost to produce those meals have to fit within that 460 per meal price point. So some of the current items that we offer, we sell at a higher price point would not fit within that equation, which puts the district in a place where you could potentially be operating in the negative. So that's also where some difficult decisions need to be made around offerings that we would have. So, an example would be our bagel bar where we offer locks and cream cheese. We wouldn't be able to continue the offering of locks because if that bagel with cream cheese were to be bundled and locks would be part of that component, it would
040not live within the 460 price point. So it sounds like the takeaway is that um one of one of the changes that would occur if we were to switch to this is that there would be fewer offerings, fewer fewer variety um offerings with breakfast and lunch correct for students to choose from and you know aside from some of the other things that you were already talking about but that's sort of the takeaway I'm getting from what the global takeaway correct >> if we didn't if we didn't try to you know change something to offer more variety or whatever, we we'd say we're going to go with what if we were going to go with what we're hearing from the National School Edge program is acceptable, then there would be fewer offerings available for students when
041they come in. >> Correct. >> Okay. The other piece of how the National School Lunch Program operates, and I explained the whole fitting into the equation of $4.60. Um the other way that the program supports school districts um food programs is offering what's called commodity food. So it's um specified food on a list that's provided to every district that participates that is sold at a discounted rate. Um and the district gets credit towards buying those items on those lists. And the reason behind that is mathematically when you're purchasing those items at a discounted rate, you are spending less of your 460 per meal reimbursement, right? Like it you go to the sale item first. So the way to operate successfully within the national school lunch program is to maximize the use of the commodity food.
042By doing that, that also dis decreases the amount of choice and availability because you're beholdened to the list that they provide you of what ingredients are available. So, your meals are very much dependent on what's available in terms of the commodity food that's provided to you. You would be foolish not to take advantage of those, right? because that too helps financially support the program. >> We don't know what that dollar value is. It's determined by New York State. So, when we're talking about um commodity foods, we don't know what that dollar value is. However, when we have just say if we have $50,000, I'm just throwing out a number. We want to allocate that to processing of pork, processing of chicken, processing of turkey. We want to use it for fresh fruits and vegetables. And
043that when we um divert our dollars into um into food, that will help offset the cost of the meal. And if I could just say the the breakfast reimburse rate is at $2.56. So our breakfast meal cannot exceed like we don't want our breakfast meal to exceed 256. So we kind of bounced around slides. >> I think we're at the sample menu >> one. >> Yep. >> Okay. So we broke it down into the elementary school, the middle school, and the high school. So, we took a very popular um menu item from the elementary school, which of course is brunch for lunch. Um, right now when we are making our uh when it's menued, it's a homemade fresh hala bread, French toast. We're using our pork sausage link, uh, potato tots. We have any kind
044of fresh fruit, uh, 100% fruit juice, and milk that's available in all varieties. So what does that look like on the national school lunch program? That particular meal, we would probably end up going with a packaged French toast that is CN labeled, child nutrition labeled that meets the whole grain requirement for the French toast. Uh looking at a chicken sausage link, same thing though. Potato the potato tots remain the same. Fresh fruit does remain the same. Uh the 100% fruit juice would go from a 6 oz to a 4 oz. And we would just limit the amount of milk to all uh reduced fat, which would be a skim um a chocolate skim and 1%. If we go on to the next slide, it gives you an idea of what the middle school like a
045very popular item at the middle school. So, we chose the pasta. So, currently we would do a rotini with either a beef meatball, a marinara sauce, or offer it plain with butter, uh toasted garlic bread, um yellow uh zucchini and yellow squash, a fresh fruit, juice, and milk. The major thing that's going to change with this particular menu is the whole grain pasta. Yeah, I think that's a big one right there. the uh the grain will have to be our whole grain roll and not our regular uh garlic bread that we've been doing. However, the zucchini still stays the same. The fresh fruit stays the same. Um a smaller portion of fruit juice and milk. >> It's a sample of the middle school. >> Stacy, I just want you to just point go back to
046so and you explained this to me and I think we've all experienced it with kids. um those kids who love that plain pasta, right? So, in order for that meal to qualify as the free meal of the day, so if I'm I'm the kind of kid who wants the buttered pasta and nothing else, we would require them to have to take the vegetable in order for that meal to qualify for the free and reduced. Um, and I keep saying reduced, but it's just free. Um, so those are things that we would have to change our practice because currently right now we do not force kids to take any part of the meal components. If kids don't want the squash or the zucchini, they don't have to have it. But in order for their account not
047to be charged in this example, they would have to take the zucchini or and the squash to make that free meal component. Right? It would have to be some sort of a fruit or vegetable and another component because now at lunch you have to have three. So, and if they chose not to ch have the meatball, so we're lacking a protein. We have to find something else. Whether it would be a cheesestick, we would have to make those children take something, three items to make that a reimbured meal in order for it to qualify as free. If they came up and the student said, "I don't want anything. I just want plain pasta. I want nothing else on my plate. They will be charged for the meal. Okay. All right. So, then we'll go over
048to the high school menu and we chose a top. >> Just just a question. Sorry. So, in terms of being charged for the meal, then they get charged our reimburseable rate or what how do we determine what that cost? >> I think that is something that we would probably end up having a conversation about. Okay. So for the high school, um I took the taco bowl. It's pretty popular. Um we use seasoned fresh ground beef. So we use a raw beef product. We get the beef in. It's a um it's I believe it's an 8020 or 85 uh no 8020. Uh we thaw it out. We cook it from scratch. We add our own ingredients in it to make it t to make a ground beef taco. We do not get a frozen product in.
049We make a fresh rice. We offer every condiment that you can think of that a child would want on top of their taco. So, we offer the pico, the sour cream, the cheddar, the guacamole, lettuce, tomato, uh fresh cilantro. There's always some sort of an herb that's on there for garnish. Again, they would still have their choice of a fresh fruit. They would still have their choice of juice and milk. So now what does that mean for the national school lunch program? So what we would end up doing is probably having a processed beef or turkey where we're allocating our dollar values to have meat processed. We would probably end up using one of those and it can be beef and it can be turkey, it could be chicken, it could be whatever we decide
050to have that processed. Um the rice would now be enriched white or brown rice. Uh we would switch to like a just a vegetable salsa, um a sour cream, cheddar, lettuce, tomato. Still the same options that they would be looking for. Fresh whole fruit, juice, and milk. More importantly, we're serving this at the high school in like a nice 32 oz bowl. And they there's really no limit to what they want. If they want, can I get extra tomatoes? Sure. Can I get extra lettuce? We can I get extra rice? whatever they want. We basically are just giving them uh for the National School Lunch Program, we would have to offer like a whole grain like a tortilla. Um I don't think we would we would not be able to offer um the bowl in
051that size with the amounts. It wouldn't it wouldn't meet. And so if we offer like the two like soft uh soft shell tortilla, I mean they do they do like it. Try it out. be different. So this I think is the more important thing tonight is about the outside pizza. So that that would come to a halt. There's wouldn't be able to um serve the pizza. It does not meet the whole grain, sodium, andor fat requirements. Uh at the elementary level, the pizza is a meal. It's offered with the salad, fresh fruit, milk, and juice. students can take it on the secondary level. The pizza is sold by the slice, meaning it if they can buy it all a cart and that's fine. It does it's not bundled as a meal and students can choose
052what meal components they want to take. If they just want a slice of pizza and a bottled water, that's fine. Um we allow them to take whatever whatever they want. It doesn't necessarily it it's it's allocart. When we're part of the National School Lunch Program, we're talking about the crust, the cheese sauce, the toppings, all must comply with whole grain rich sodium, saturated fat, and calorie limits. The meal must follow the USDA meal pattern and the portion requirements. And students must select required meal components, including the fruit and or vegetable for the meal to qualify as a reimbured lunch. the second slice. So if a if the second slice of pizza would not qualify as part of the reimburseable free meal, it would be charged separately to the students account. Okay. So >> understand help
053me understand. So I thought we said we couldn't have. So because it's the same offering then you can choose and be charged to get like a second like I want doubles. That's what my kids always used to say. I want doubles for pizza today. And so you'd get two meals. One would be free and then one is charged. Correct. Okay. So when we talked previously about portion size, right? So, go back to the taco meal. >> A student could say, "I want doubles of the taco meal." They're just going to be charged for one. >> Correct. >> We would provide them two separate. >> Correct. Correct. But it's so the portion is being reduced from what we offer as a standalone, but it doesn't prohibit the ability of somebody to say, somebody who's bulking, right?
054I got to make weight this week, so I need six tacos. And they could still get the six tacos. They're just going to pay for four instead of six. Correct. Okay. Thank you. But we couldn't bring in outside pizza on the left side of the cafeteria and serve the National School Lunch approved pizza on the other. >> Everybody gets Elios, >> which for the Ilios people who are listening who are going to send me hate mail, I think it's delicious. But I also like our local vendor pizzas as well. I eat a lot of pizza. So, we kind of talked about the school lunch, the high school breakfast. We touched on this already. Um, but does anybody have any questions regarding this particular slide? We, you know, I I would one of my favorite things
055is the the Ry Garnet bar. So, I just I love that. I think it's awesome. We don't offer any kind of neutrorain bar or granola bars. We make our own and everything is from scratch. We probably sell close to about 200 of those bars a day. All natural ingredients. There's nine ingredients. And I believe Gabby when we were looking at ingredients for neutra uh neutrorain bars. >> Yeah. >> How many lines? >> It was seven lines of ingredients. >> Ingredients. And the neutrorain bar is one of the approved foods on that, you know, they point to with a bag of sliced apples as an appropriate example of a national school lunch program approved breakfast. >> Yeah. >> Along with like the whole grain pop-tarts, whole grain cereal bars. It was a lot. Um I'm trying
056to see our bagels. We even started out this year making our own bagels from scratch. It's awesome. Uh wasn't too popular. They were a little bit dense, but it gives us the opportunity to at least try different things and to try to offer more scratch items. We thought that we could do this whole bagel thing. It was a lot, but you know what? It was it was great and it was really good to to have these kind of items offered. Who offers that? Um the hot oatmeal bar is again unlimited. You can have whatever you want, how much you want. And you could top that with your flax seed, your your fruits, uh what whatever you like. We never really say no to the kids if they're looking for something. And we don't say, "Oh,
057that looks like a really big portion. We're going to charge you double." It's just that's what it is. If they decide to fill up their 12 oz bowl with like one scoop and make it eight ounces, fine. If they decide to fill it up to the hilt and top it as much as they can, fine. Same price. Um the protein bento boxes, that was a great one. That was actually um recommended by the board that we do and that is actually a very popular item. Um but you know, there's two eggs, there's a chicken breast, there's about 4 ounces of cheese in there. it just wouldn't qualify, wouldn't meet and expense. Um, we do fresh homemade smoothies all every day at our elementary schools, at our high school and middle school. Um, we were getting
058them in where you can buy them and we said, "Why are we going to buy these and offer them? Let's just make our own. We make our own fresh smoothies for the students every day." So, what would it look like on the program? Again, it would be all whole grain. It's whole grain cereals. Um, it would be neutral grain bar, whole grain pancakes, waffles, French toast, which would probably be rotated on a weekly or daily um basis. Whole grain bagels. Um, whole grain muffins. That changes because we actually make our own muffins. have like a muffin of the month that we do. Uh we can look at a whole grain ingredient, a whole grain flour. I don't know what that's going to look like. And these are huge changes for the students in the high
059school and middle school. Yogurt parfait cups. This is a good one. Uh we sell a 12 oz one. We would possibly be able to do that on the program, but again, it would have to meet like a half a cup of a half a cup of fruit. It would be two ounces of granola. It would be, you know, a half a cup of yogurt. It would have to meet what the program deems as a reimburseed breakfast. >> I'm going to hit the next one. >> I just have one question. Um, in regards to this, the portion size, like just thinking at the elementary level where the portion sizes are probably smaller than, you know, what the high schoolers are putting on their plates. Is there um a way to kind of put that into perspective?
060Like is it like 2/3 2/3 of what they're seeing now or, you know, will it is it dependent on the specific meal that's being served that day? I believe it would be the the meal that's served that day. There are different requirements for the elementary school level, middle school, and high school. So, it it it is a little bit larger and the portion sizes are a little bit bigger at the high school and middle school level. It's not all that much, but there is a difference. >> Okay. Thank you. So, we kind of touched on the financial impact in terms of the equation of, you know, living within that 460 meal and reimbursement amount. Um, maximizing the use of the commodity food cuz that helps obviously keep the program healthy. Um however, in the event
061that we do exceed that 460 meal reimbursement on the revenue side, um the way to combat that again, and we touched on it a little bit, is altering menus, um portion sizes, and ingredients. So something like an acai bowl because that is a high price point item that we currently offer, we would have to reconsider being able to offer that going forward just because it's simply too expensive to live within that 460 um equation, right? Um or we would have to reduce the portion of an acai bowl because the last thing I would also want to do is reduce portions to the point where then kids are coming up for a second and a third that they would have to pay for because that feels dishonest to me as well um for the want of
062a free meal but then you're you're paying for two more portions. I I don't I don't necessarily know that that's proper operating either. Um the other option would be having to subsidize the program using our operating fund. Right? So accepting the fact that we want to offer the free meal option to our community, but right now it's a choice for our students and their families that they decide that they want their kids to use our cafeteria as a resource for lunch. By having to subsidize the program because we're committed to the free meal concept, we are then going to by way of that mandate that the school budget support the effort of a free meal program because you'd have to make up the gap. Does that make sense? It does make sense. I the question
063I have um and you may not have this answer right now but would be you know I I look up and I say okay well the participation is supposed to include labor and operating expenses right we know labor here is not inexpensive just by virtue of where we live >> correct >> um so what what is the anticip anticipation that we have for okay 460 is this year's cost. I'm going to guess it's not going to go up a tremendous amount for next year. So, let's just call it 475. Do we have any sense about what other districts who have participated in this this year are are are actualizing what their real meal costs are. So, we could, you know, we know like going in we're probably 25 cents off already. >> I I can't
064answer that question at the moment. I would say um of the districts that we visited um they were and we everyone should be proud of of the program that they're running, right? Um and happy to say that they were in the black being able to operate on this program. I would say that you could see a significant difference in the portion sizes that were being offered. Um, and when we compared notes in terms of where they were operating in the black versus where we are accustomed to operate in the black, there was a significant difference >> for the um for those schools that you guys talked to. Was there any sense of how many kids were buying above what the um the singular free portion is? So like what the the extra costs might be
065for families on top of if they wanted a a bigger portion or or adding something in. I think you saw more activity at the upper levels, which I would expect. >> Um, which is kind of where we are even off the program, but I would have to do some more digging to be able to answer that question. >> Does everybody have to participate? So, if we were to say we wanted to participate, is it K to 12? >> No. >> Or could you say our elementary kids could be >> correct? >> Okay. >> You can make those strategic decisions. And then the high school, middle school would still be able to have ramen, sushi, acai. Correct. Chipotle of the third floor, second floor, which what sounds like. So I don't know why my kids going
066to Chipotle. That's a conversation we'll be having tonight. But >> feel free. Believe me, I plan on it cuz we're always we're always looking for doubles at my house. >> Got it. >> Yeah. I guess I just I wanted to start out by saying thank you for you know accommodating all the children you know you have a huge range and obviously you know the seniors are enjoying their aie bowls and the the uh the kindergarters are complaining that that doesn't have enough pasta with butter or whatever but um and I guess it's more as a parent but you know I have two kids in the elementary school as I as I look at the you know whole grain vegetables are you know mandated and I look at you know and I look at the experience
067of the what my kids eat each day. Um, I mean, it looks like an upgrade. um and you know to try to encourage them to eat more healthy foods not just the white with butter you know and I guess combined with that you know again my experience with they they try a meal they don't like it and then they decide to buy a second meal and then they buy their friends you know uh you know cookies and you're like wow this budget I mean we just blew through it so I am curious curious about that opportunity to maybe look at at least in the elementary grades where um you know the the offerings seem quite simple um and maybe not that dissimilar to what is currently being provided. Obviously in middle and high it seems
068like you know the offerings are much more diverse and you know those pallets have you know matured. Um but I I would be curious to see that Um other considerations as we look at this um is cafeteria capacity usage um competing with outside programs using the cafeteria space graband go or classroom service. So that is um specific to the um free breakfast offering. Right now, as we discussed, we offer breakfast only at the high school cafeteria. If we were to look at this program, um it is in it's strongly encouraged that breakfast be provided at every level. That would be a significant change for us, especially at the elementary schools because currently the cafeteria doubles as um before and after care. So we would have to look at that in terms of how would we
069share space that would lead to conversations around student supervision having them in earlier than school begins. We're not equipped for that at the moment. So there we could be looking at incurring additional costs for the purposes of looking at breakfast expanding breakfast service K12 um and just increased volume of food. If this is something that we would be offering as a free option, um you would imagine that more people would take advantage of it, which would by way of just the sheer volume of providing food would come along with increased food costs, right? Um additional equipment and freezers when we talked about those commodity foods and taking advantage of those rebates and coupons. Um, so when that shipment comes in of celery sticks or whatever that commodity food is and in the large quantities that
070they come in, we are going to have to rethink about capacity and how we're storing all of this stuff. Um, it's tight as it is. I would love to be able to add additional ovens um in the existing footprint for what we do and how we do it. And there's just not space. Um, so we would have to maybe consider external freezers um on the outside of the building or something to be able to figure out how to make this work. Um, so those are things that we would have to talk about for um maybe I misheard if you offer lunch free lunch you must offer free breakfast or it's a choice to do free breakfast. It's it's strongly encouraged. >> Well, sure. I encourage a lot of things to people and they never listen
071to me. >> I hear you. You >> The way it works is you would have to survey your community. >> Uhhuh. >> And put the offering out there as an as as an option, right? depending on what that survey comes back with could determine that there is a need for free breakfast. The the whole concept behind the free meals is obviously to provide students with food, right, who otherwise wouldn't have it. So that's why I say to you it's strongly encouraged by adopting this program. They want to make sure they're meeting the nutritional needs of all students. So by way of putting out that survey would determine whether or not this was an added service that we would need to implement. >> Okay. So we're open for questions or discussion. Uh first I will say
072thank you for this. It's a it's um really helpful to get a full understanding and a full picture of exactly what the different components are not just of what we do but what a switch would look like. uh because I think I know that there have been um reasons and rationale that have been presented before which did not contain this type of detail and I think with this kind of detail people can make u informed decisions in a way that hasn't necessarily uh been shared before. So I really do appreciate that. Um I've asked some questions. I'm sure I have more but others I want to encourage and make sure Will there be an opportunity for um you to share more of the financial impact that the program would have on our district? Like a
073little bit more defined numbers if it's like if we need additional staffing, how much is that going to be like for our budget purposes? Yeah, I I think um I would say that we would kind of have to gauge what the participation level would be to be able to do some of that number crunching, right? >> That would be like the next step after that. >> Yeah. I I think and we haven't really um discussed how we would look at that information. I mean, a survey maybe. I I don't you know >> well I I was also wondering the districts that you visited did they talk about whether or not they saw an increase in student in students participating in the lunch program once they switched over? I'd be curious to know about that. Like
074do districts typically see an uptick? >> So we didn't necessarily visit a district that went from one to the other. Um, one of the districts that we went to that I would say was a program that for the first time convinced me that this was something that could be put in place and we would survive. As you can tell, Stacy and I are extremely passionate and, you know, >> I couldn't tell at all. >> Yeah. >> As somebody who doesn't play poker either. >> I I'm being honest, right? like my entire world is about food. But um so having said that, but this was a district that I learned has been on the program the whole time. So it's hard for them to stay to me. They knew nothing else, right? Like this is this
075was their world. Um so I think we need to do and I really did want to see a good program that I could then mimic, right? and come back to you and say confidently this is there is a path forward for this. Um so I I do believe that that exists. I just don't know that I can answer that question. So I think we have to go back and target districts that have made the switch as a result of this new concept of a free meal for the entire population to be able to answer that question better. Thanks. I just think it's hard to kind of look at all this and I I see a lot of yeses. Oh, that's great. That's not so great. But when it comes down to it, I think it's
076going to be right the the budget impact. >> It is. I mean, that that's a huge consideration, right? >> Well, go ahead. >> No, no, just thank you for doing all the the pre- leg work and looking into this. I appreciate it. I know there are a lot of people, you know, asking questions about it. So, it's nice to be able to know we can at least direct them to the slides if they >> aren't listening. It's nice. Well, and clearly it's something that you needed to take a lot of time to do, right? So, this was not a topic that you could just say in one week like, "Oh, I'm just going to Yeah, let's go ahead and throw something together." There's a lot of background information, a lot of a lot of details
077to get in. I think when we think about um some data and some information that could be helpful to further this discussion, one thing that I would be interested in understanding better and have a better appreciation is what is our particip what is our current participation rate at elementary, at middle, and at high in terms of participation in a meal. And I say that because having kids experienced middle and high school, I'm not confident that my kids are accessing the meal as much as they are accessing the ala cart. And so at the middle and high school, I think there could be a much larger impact to make this type of switch to our students and our families than there could be at an elementary level. And we could p perhaps say, well, is that
078something we could do for elementary families without really upsetting the apple cart, but really benefiting financially families? But then, as to Matt's point, your kids are older, they've had a more developed pallet, they have hopefully a better somewhat sense of self in terms of they know what they like and they won't just take what they're not going to eat. Um, so would that then what would that financial impact really look like? I think that could be some helpful data for us. Um, I actually had a similar thought um along those lines, but specifically with the upper classmen at the high school who are able to leave campus for school. I'm wondering like not that we can ascertain necessarily how many juniors and seniors are eating lunch in the cafeteria or buying food at school. I'm
079just concerned it might drive a lot more of those kids who can leave the building to go off campus and that would be much more expensive for those families. >> And we did notice at the schools they did say there was a significant increase in in Door Dash, GrubHub like lines for it's and it's a problem at some of the districts >> which by the way can I just say I found this out. I think this is cray cray. I'm just going to be honest but that's me as a parent. I'm not a board member saying this. I'm getting myself in so much trouble and I >> but >> so I will stop there. But I do think that >> but you are right. I mean we >> it's cray cray. >> We witnessed it
080ourselves with kids just lining up as these cars are pulling up to these other districts. Um the windows going down and they're getting their food. It's f it it was like holy cow. >> So an increase since they switched to the program or um an increase? >> I think it's both. I think it's I I do think that there's just an overall increase, right, with this availability. Um, but I do think at one school in particular that made that change. Um, she said that it's it you totally see them using another option to to get that. >> Okay. But a lot of the the districts that we visited were part of the national school lunch program. the the free lunch program is something that happened just just this year. What since they've participated, they've had
081to follow rules and regulations their whole time. We've never Well, since I've been here and the seven years that I've been here, we've never participated in that. and the 15 that I've been here. I I don't >> It's very different when they come here cuz before all this happened, every local school district would come here to try to mimic our food service operation in our middle schools, our high schools. It's no, there's nothing like what we have here out there. It's just it's not there. I'm really proud to say that. That's really good. And much of it did come from like when Stacy first came on and what, two years ago, we did a survey, right? And and I hear you when you say that your kids aren't aren't participating in the meal option. We
082were told that they hate that. They hated the prescribed this. We're, you know, we're serving meatloaf today with mashed potatoes and broccoli. They didn't want that. They wanted bowls. They wanted choice. They wanted it to look different every day and we answered those demands. Um, and we really I there are a ton of options every time you go into that cafeteria on what kids want to eat. And we listen to the parents when we especially at the elementary school level. They didn't want to see a brunch for lunch every every Thursday. They wanted it sporadic. We only offer it twice a week. We hear what twice a month, I'm sorry. um we hear what they're saying and we took everything from what their comments were and put all of that into our menus. They wanted
083to see a more diverse menu. We we offered that. They wanted to see all kinds of fresh more fresh fruits, more vegetables. I have more fresh fruits and vegetables coming in this district that I don't know what to do with and all different kinds different varieties. Trying different kinds of different kinds of vegetables even at our ramen station. Napa cabbage trying to find out um sourcing through local um like uh local produce. Uh I've tried to reach out to um our vendors to find out what local farms around here we can we can source that food and feature it on our menus. We feature it on our menus. We'll say this is from such and such. This is from a farm. This is from a farm out in Jersey. They're all over. They wanted it.
084We we gave it to you. So I think it's safe to say that that option would go away that that if parents said but we want more diverse well >> right I don't there would be very there would be a lot less flexibility in your um in the optionality that you have to do that >> it would go back to that price point right like you would have to we would have to work hard to make sure that we're living within that 460 or 475 price point and being very selective about the ingredients that we're choosing to bring in. Um, and you know what? I may be surprised that kale will be on that commodities list. It could be >> and we'd have to see what that looks like. >> Is there So, is there
085a way to to find out get a a sample of what would be on the commodities list just so you have a sense of it? >> No. Mm-m. It usually comes out um I believe in January for the following year. And I I don't have access to find out what they are offering or how much money we have to divert. I I I just we don't know. I don't know. >> And I think the point is that it changes, right? depending on what contracts and deals that they're making with the providers, whether it be the farmers out with the beef that's coming in or whatever that produce or protein is that they're contracting with to get those rates is then what they pass along to the school district. So, it's not like it's a standard
086list that um comes out every January. It depends on what they have availability or what they have access to. So, it's it changes. >> It could be potatoes one month and peaches another. >> It's a month by month. Well, what actually how that works would be we would we would allocate so much money into our our fresh fruits and produce and we would find out what what is available at that time that we can get and it would just kind of if we allocated, you know, a bunch of money, it would just be a receding um uh receding amount until we used up all the money that was there and what was allocated. It's usually seasonal. So, I'm sure right now they probably get a lot of great like fresh produce and vegetables, but during
087the winter it becomes very it's it's challenging. Um, >> so it' be more protein, right? >> On the commodities list. >> Exactly. Okay. Well, that's for the that's for fruits and produce when we want to allocate for meats, you know, if for our our our poultry or or our our beef, our turkey, our potatoes, whatever it may be, because we can have stuff allocated for we want to make our own potato tots and we want to take this much money and we want to and uh have Lamb Weston, I'm just throwing a um a vendor out there, and process what we have allocated for potatoes into French fries or potato tots or potato rounds or hash browns. I don't know what those items are. Once you get with that vendor, they will say this is
088what you can or like this is what you can have processed. And it's the same with the beef. Do you want beef patties? Do you want ground beef? Do you want taco meat? You'll decide how much you want to divert for your beef and what kind of product you want. >> Okay. I think just one more point to bring up. I know as we mentioned maybe it would be easier to establish this in an elementary school versus um throughout the entire district. I think we just need to look at how that looks um as far as like equity goes. Um certainly >> as far as I'm sorry >> as far as equity you know sorry based on >> you know certain families you know are only in the middle and high school versus right one
089has one and one doesn't have the other that's really important as well. >> Thank you. >> And Gabby would we need to go out to bid again? >> Yes. cuz right now um we are strictly um we take all the reward and we take all the risk with the way our bid is and we pay a flat management fee to Aramark. Um but all of the expenses are passed through to the district on a monthly basis. Um that would change. they would actually take on all of the expenses and they would take on all of the reimbursement and give us the leftover. >> And so just for uh a reminder for people when you talk about uh the fact that all of our uh equipment and facilities improvements, give me like two or three of
090the things that we've been able to do through that. Yes. So, um, this floor, these cafeteria tables, air conditioning upstairs in the high school cafeteria and the floor in that cafeteria. Stacy probably reaches out to me maybe once every 2 months to replace an open air refrigerator or aging equipment that we have throughout all of the cafeterias. We refaced the servery upstairs in the high school cafeteria. We are going to address the air conditioning in the Osborne cafeteria this summer. Um the Midland cafeteria floor is getting done this summer to um eliminate waxing ever again in that space. Just a healthier it's healthier for our kids, the environment, custodians for cleaning. These are all things that are 100% supported by the funds that we collect through food sales in our cafeteria. So, it's a huge
091way for us to give every dollar back to this program. Whether it's creating a crepe station or whatever other equipment we need, the chocolate fountain back there, um it is 100% supported by um the great food that we make and the fact that people like it. >> Well, but it also gives back to the community. >> 100%. >> Right. So having the floors and the tables, >> we're able to do that without going to the community in the budget to say we need more money. >> Correct. >> And we're using the money they're putting in to provide for >> um additional things. >> So I'm going to ask a question that will be controversial >> and the roof on the Osborne cafeteria this past summer. >> Okay. Costs are obscene everywhere, right? you go to
092your own grocery store and you cook your own meals. They're a lot. Um, how often or is are there opportunities knowing now that costs are probably as high as they've ever been for meals for whatever we're trying to serve and and and give students >> to look for perhaps opportunities to reduce costs. knowing costs are going up that families are paying for foods here. So, a question I have is about milk, right? So, we offer a lot of milk it sounds like, right? But would is does it save us money to say we're going to go with instead of whole 2% skimmed chocolate strawberry you know rainbow to say we're going to do 2% across the board and we'll do chocolate vanilla and white. Like are there those kinds of things that perhaps wouldn't necessarily
093change the entire program but provide an opportunity that we could at least look into and explore to say by buying less of everything. Do we save a couple of bucks in a contract that then we can pass on to people trying to, you know, for better lack of a term of a phrase split the baby. >> I hear what you're asking. I I think we'd have to look at that a little bit. Mhm. >> That's fair. >> I just wonder if that's a a way to in the middle with some of this stuff because it's a hu it will be a significant shift for a in a lot of different arenas to move to this. >> But but I think also and and maybe it's you know part of it is an analysis of what
094gets bought at the higher levels and what gets maybe not like it's gets bought but maybe not quite as much. I don't know how much of that happens on a on a regular basis for when we're looking at what we offer um in in any like in any of the alle cart uh options also. Um, but then to to Matt's point earlier, there might be I'm wondering if there's an opportunity also to look at um some making some of the options a little bit more on the, you know, healthier whole grain side of things. Um, because I do think that there's probably, you know, while there's lots of great options and you want kids, you want them to buy the food to eat, right? Like that's the whole point, right? So making massive shifts like
095it sounds like we're talking about would be a pretty shocking experience I think for for the the kids who who've been come used to a certain type of food. But perhaps there's ways that we can sort of look at either the amount or or um different different ways of incorporating some of the the things that seem like they're a little bit more in that higher nutritional value space like a whole grain or something along those lines. Not wholesale, but just something to think about. >> Yeah, we do put whole grain items on our menus. We don't use at all whole grain pasta, but we do offer like there will be times that we'll menu if it's the hamburger, we might say one week it may be a bio roll, but there are times that we'll
096say it's a it's a whole grain, it's a whole grain roll. >> So, we do we do have that. And at the high school there are different kinds of offerings. There is like there is whole wheat bread. There are whole there are um wraps that you can get that is a wheat wrap. like those items are are available if if students want it. >> Okay. What about items like um gluten-free or lactose free? >> We do gluten-free at every school. If you have a child with an allergy or a gluten allergy, I've basically have the connection with the with the family and the and the parent. I know who those children are who are coming through the lunch lines. They are set for a lunch every day. Would that be available with this plan as
097well? >> Yes, we'd have to say yes. >> Okay. >> We have to service those those students. >> Do those menu items though typically cost more >> and so they're going to >> gluten-free typically costs more. >> Yeah. Right. So they're the automatically, you know, you're going to automatically do. You just send it. >> Right. And we're certainly not going to say, "No, I'm sorry. You have to eat the whole the whole grain bread with your, you know, allergy. That's not working." So, you're going to you're going to have that cost and we're going to absorb and and have that overage already. >> Okay. We actually did serve the whole grain pizza at the elementary school. >> Oh, I remember that. >> Okay. So, so we did try it. >> Oh, that was when my
098kids were little. >> Oh, no. >> This was This was two weeks. >> No, this was two weeks ago. So, we tried it. We did a switch and uh at one school we ran out of every other option. We ran out of uh sandwiches. We ran out of yogurts. They did not want it. They just they refused to buy it. We we had we were in the back making sandwiches for the students. >> And using that as the example, Stacy, it wasn't because we were like, "Oh, let's try this." It actually came out of >> it came out of um it came out of a survey that was done by one of the students in another school and they said can we try different kinds of pizza um when it's not an outside pizzeria day.
099So when it's not piaza can we do something different than the pizza you were serving? I thought this would be a great opportunity then to try the whole grain pasta. I mean the whole grain pizza and oh yeah didn't go. He called and she's like, "I just want you to know that >> ran out." And that's a call that goes to the principles. It's a call that goes when we run out of food cuz we don't like to run out of any kind of food that's available there. But when no one's taking the featured item, a pizza that day, everything else ran out. It It seemed um a little better at at one elementary school versus the other, but again, it's what it's what it's what the students want. Yeah, it was that was a
100tough one. >> So the new so the national school lunch program >> is uh the New York offering is the mirror of the national school lunch program. >> I just want to for for verbiage understanding. So when the may when the governor says >> it's free food for all, >> it is the national school lunch program that you have to follow and adopt to. >> It's the nationalism here and then the state of New York made it free. Y >> cuz on the national it's free or reduced which we have always followed >> to be clear. So any family or student that up even till today that um meets the requirements of the national food lunch program we adhere to that program and that student is either provided the free meal or the reduced meal.
101What New York State has done is gone in and said everything is free. So the re So the reimbursement comes from New York State, >> correct? >> Yes. >> It would No. So the the federal government would not give any reimburse. >> So I assume it's it's a pass down, right? They will so the the federal gives to the state and then the fate the state supplements for the full. >> Okay. >> Right. Got it. Other questions, thoughts, comments? I just want to say thank you for um putting this all together and it's a you know it's a lot of information and it's um >> you know I think there's there's a lot of great learnings to come out of it um from from understanding how it's working at other schools and also for our
102own benefit of seeing how we function and operationalize and um you know I really appreciate both of you taking the time to to do all this work. So thank you. >> Thank you so much. Thank you for having us. >> Yeah. So, I I would say um I think there have been some really good follow-up questions and some more information and so certainly uh not next week or on the 16th, but uh certainly to come back to this and to continue this conversation would be great. >> Thank you. >> Okay, so with that we move on to the hearing of the public of non-aggenda items and once again there is no public so we will then move on to the consent agenda. Uh, can I have a motion to approve or review this evening's consent
103agenda? Valerie Lapam, seconded by Matt Shibonoff. Let's take a look at tonight's consent agenda. Consent agenda general. Uh, resolution for certification of budget vote school member candidate election results. Consent agenda fiscal. Consent agenda professional appointments. Consent agenda, classified appointments. Consent agenda, pupil personnel services and special education. Okay, seeing no questions, can I have a vote on this evening's consent agenda? All those in favor? That would be 5 to zero with two absences. So on this evening's consent agenda, we are very excited to accept the budget results which had an 80% voter approval rate and the election of Sean Clapper and Emily Varel as our new and re-up in uh school board trustees. Uh with the passing of the budget, we want to thank the community once again and as always for the support of the
104work of the administration and we look forward to now having an opportunity to see all those great things that were in the budget start to roll on out and through. And with that, we have the acceptance of a lease agreement on tonight's agenda, which is and something that was incorporated into the 2627 budget uh proposal. And so that's for the fleet management of all of the district vehicles. We also are approving a gift in the amount of $30,000 from the Midland PTO for flexible furniture for the first grade classrooms. We have an gift in the amount of $3,100 from Half the Story for a digital wellness craft cart which is going to help provide alternative activities for our students to help reduce stress and build sense of community and belonging in a digital free way.
105And this will be at the high school. Correct. Yes. So we're very excited to see what happens there. We also have the hiring of our staff for summer school and some additional staff for the 2627 school year. And as we welcome new staff, we are also bidding uh ado and farewell and thank you to two of our retiring staffs. So I begin tonight with a retirement announcement for Miss Rosemary Hanley. It is sadness that I announce the retirement at the end of the school year for Miss Rosemary Hanley, secretary to the school principal Andrew Hara at Rye High School. Miss Hanley will be retiring after 11 years with the district. She joined the district in 2015 and was not only Mr. Har's assistant, but also served as the assistant controller for Rye High School. Rye
106High School principal, Mr. Andrew Hara shared, "Miss Hanley has been a steady and trusted president in the Rye High School main office for over a decade, and in the time I have been fortunate enough to work alongside her, I've come to appreciate just how special she is to the Ry High School community. Mrs. Hanley is the type of person everyone depends on because she is kind, personable, thoughtful, and exceptionally effective in everything she does. Beyond her outstanding work ethic, I regularly regularly turned to her for her wisdom, perspective, and counsel. Her deep connections to Ry both as a staff member and as a parent gave her a unique understanding of our school community and the people within it. She has made a lasting impact on Ry High School. And while we were miss her tremendously,
107we are deeply grateful for her years of dedication and service. We wish Miss Hanley nothing but happiness, relaxation, and many wonderful moments in her well-earned retirement. Rosemary, we wish you all the very best in your retirement. It is also with sadness that I announce the retirement of Edgar Eddie Ruiz. The head custodian at Osborne School, Ed Edgar Ruiz, will be retiring at the end of the school year. Mr. Ruez began here in the Rice City School District in 1988 as a custodian at Midland School. Throughout his 38 years working in the district, he became head custodian at Midland School and then transferred to Osborne School as head custodian, from which it is where he is retiring. Osborne school principal Angela Garcia shared, "To say Eddie was dedicated is an understatement. For nearly a decade, he
108drove more than an hour each way just to get to work, and he barely took a day off. In fact, Eddie's dedication is legendary. He would brave that long drive through terrible snow, even when school was officially closed, to join his crew and make make sure Osborne was clean and safe. Eddie brought much more than a strong work ethic to our halls. He brought immense patience and kindness. As we all know, schools can be messy and hectic with many facility demands placed on a custodial team. Where others might see frustration, Eddie saw an opportunity to connect. He never complained and he always took the time to have a conversation or laugh with the students and staff making them seen seen and valued. No matter what the request was or how busy he was, Eddie was
109always available to help. Eddie, you have kept our school running, but more importantly, you have lifted our spirits. Thank you for your years of service. We wish you the absolute best in your well-deserved retirement. And Eddie, we wish you all the very best in your retirement. And we thank you for all of your time here. And so with that we will now move on to presentation and discussion two policy review. Miss Boille, thank you. Um so we have two policies that we discussed in our last meeting. Um and uh just in time for that lease of of new vehicles. Um we have an update to our vehicle use policy 6835. Um these are are minor changes. Um some business some uh title changes and then also um just some slight changes to uh making sure
110that emergency situations are covered um and things like that. So that is 6835. Any questions? Okay. Um the second is an update to our employee acceptable use policy which is uh 8630. Um and this is a change that is um really centered around uh adding in personal device use by our teachers and faculty um and not only use by the uh district-owned um computers and materials and equipment. So there were updates made specific to that optionality for teachers to have any questions about that one? No. Okay. So we will move those forward for adoption at our next meeting. Great. Thank you. uh information and discussion or 26 29 27 districtwide safety plan. Dr. Murray, do you have anything to add on this? >> So, this is our annual review of our district-wide safety plan. The
111safety committee met um maybe two weeks ago, I I believe the 18th maybe. Yes, we met and we reviewed it. um didn't have any substantial changes to it and so it's just on the board agenda for um review discussion. This triggers the 30-day um community review. So, it will be available on the website for community review. Um, and then we're going to come back, I guess, at the end of the summer and ask the board um to adopt it in time for us to submit it to the state as required um as part of that whole good package that I jump up and down about every year in October. >> All right. So, this is step number one. All right. >> But do not be surprised if I come back and tell you that SED
112made a last minute change and we got to set the clock back again >> and we got to reset. That's all right. They like to keep us on our toes. >> Yes, they do. >> And it's all right. We'll be here at the end of the summer so we can make those changes as needed. >> Awesome. All right. So, communications to and from the board, Miss Bole, policy committee map. We did um and uh some some of the policies that we talked about tonight were a part of that meeting. Um and we are uh actually when I'm looking forward to our next meeting um hopefully going to be through maybe all of 2019. >> Oh, all right. >> So, we'll be heading into the 2020s soon. And we have some NISBA updates that we'll be
113seeing uh in the next round of policies on our board agenda. >> Okay, great. And it looks like, oh, we got a busy week. Curriculum council tomorrow, professional learning the day thereafter, Miss Santa Barbara, it's going to be very busy lady. And then back to policy one more time. Okay. Uh any communications to and from the board in any other community? No, we're good. Okay. Look at that. Our next meeting is going to be on June 16th where we are going to discuss the strategic plan. >> Whatology? >> No, no, we're not going to discuss the the strategic plan. Scrap that. We're going to pivot to technology which will be also an exciting and interesting topic. So, we look forward to that. And that will be our last board meeting for uh this session at
114that time. But we'll talk more about that at that point. So with nothing else, can I have a motion to adjourn this evening's meeting? Miss Lapam, seconded by Matt Shibonoff. All those in favor, five to nothing. Thank you all. Have a good evening.