001It's good now. Welcome. It's 6:30. Awesome. Vice President School Board. Can you hear me? >> Everybody hear me back there? Nope. >> Better. >> I'm all about people being able to hear me if I'm going to talk. Um before I call the meeting to order, I just want to welcome everybody and um say how thrilled we are to have people here. I know there are some people here who might be here to speak about a uh resolution u for the board. I want to remind people that we have comment periods. There is a public comment period at the beginning of the meeting and there is a public comment period at the end of the meeting. The public comment period at the beginning of the meeting is for related to agenda items only. So if you
002review the agenda and you have something you want to ask or comment about um please do. If you have anything else you want to speak about um please save it for the last comment period. I would expect us to reach that comment period no later than 7:30 quarter to 8. So this is not a strategy to get people to leave or to wear you out but it is a way to sort of have to structure a conversation because this is a public meeting but it's the board's meeting. It's not it's the board's meeting in public. So it's not a public meeting per se. Um, and we offer public comment as a courtesy to the public. We want to be in conversation with the public. So, the first public comment period allows us to hear what
003you have to say about the business we are doing tonight and then hear us do our business and then at the end to bring up anything else that is of import. Okay. So uh welcome and we do have some board members missing tonight. I just want to remind everybody that we are volunteers and we have lives, health, families and jobs um that sometimes keep us away and so that those are the reasons why we may not have a full board here tonight but we do have a quorum of five. So let us proceed. Do we move to call to order or do I just call it? >> Okay, I call the meeting to order. February 11th, 2026. Okay, the designation of the emergency exits. This is my first time in the role of sitting in
004the president's seat, so everybody's going to be super patient and providing some grace. There's an exit over there. There's an exit over there. And there's an exit out that way. So if there's an emergency, please choose one of those and proceed to calm. Miss Carney, will you do the roll call, please? here >> Michael >> here stand for the algian 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. Dr. Sure. The soy central school district mission statement. We provide equitable, engaging, inspiring, and holistic experiences that support success and empowerment for students, families, and the community in a diverse and changing world. Our vision statement, we are a beacon of excellence. >> Thank you very much. >>
005And then any discussion vote? All in favor? I can get this. >> Um, >> Dr. >> Who is soaring in February? Well, tonight is all about junior high and they deserve it. So, I am going to invite principal Vale to help me deliver these certificates. One of the things that our secondary principles have been doing that is absolutely wonderful is they've taken the core values from our blueprint for excellence. Oh, I'm making it difficult for you to find me. Sorry. Um, and each month they are having assemblies to award students who really are embodying and showing themselves to have our core values every single day. So, our first person is a staff member, Lori Fry, that we would like to recognize. Principal V. >> So, Miss Fry is a teaching assistant who consistently goes above
006and beyond to help our students feel connected to the broader community. She actively encourages and supports student participation in patriotic essay contests supported by our local veterans. She herself steam heads the Veterans Day assembly that we sponsor several veterans from our communities. We have a breakfast and we have a full assembly where we honor these veterans. She incorporates students to help at that as well. She helps students develop a sense of civic pride, gratitude, and respect for all those who have served. You would have seen her at the Elks Lodge when seven of our students were presented with awards for the patriotic essay. And right now coordining coordinating the Valentine's project for Senator Hinchi for our senior citizens and she has a lot more up her sleeve. Um I can't go on about how she
007is an avid lifelong learner in my faculty meetings and that she supports all of our mission, vision, and blueprint on a daily and our students So, um, we have the pleasure of honoring many winter stars, but these two stars stood out because unanimously all of their core and encore teachers recognize them for integrity, empathy, and compassion as part of the classroom. What teachers said about them is they are students who show integrity by being honest in their schoolwork, taking responsibility, and treating classmates with respect. So, our first one, uh, grade eight is Jared Andrews and our seventh grader is Nora Williams. They did also prepare something to say, but they can either do it in my presentation or now. >> Yeah, go ahead. This is their time. All right, Jared, you ready? All right, you
008come right over here. >> And I can knock you over. No, I won't. >> My journey from seventh to eighth grade was full of growth and learning. I started seventh grade feeling nervous and overwhelmed. I faced challenges, discovered my strengths, and learned from my experiences. At first, I procrastinated a lot because I didn't understand the work. But I managed to get my work done by staying after school and getting home from my teacher. Over time, I got man better at managing my time and staying organized. In seventh grade, I had a hard time getting my emotions under under control. But in eighth grade, I had I have an easier time getting my emotion in control because I use meth to help my mom myself calm down. I overcame challenges by staying positive, asking for help
009when I needed it, and pushing myself to do my best. the skills I have developed and the lessons I've learned about determination of responsibility. >> Good evening. I'm honored to have been nominated for this award. So far, I have loved my junior high experience, especially having more independence. Having more classes has helped me learn to manage my time better. I try to do as much work in class as I can and keep my supplies organized so that I have what I need for class each day. I have planners that are useful. We have planners that are useful for keeping track of homework and duty. Our teachers don't give us constant reminders about assignments, so we have to be more responsible about completing our work on time. Getting less reminders forces us to keep track of
010what assignments we owe for each class. Most teachers still give a few reminders and help us if we need it. It's nice knowing that there are always to go to if I have a question or need help. I am als I'm also learning how to advocate for myself by communicating with my teachers. My classes have also helped me to work with others. Some of my teachers use random group generators which give us the opportunity to work with other people that we normally wouldn't work with. I am looking forward to the rest of the year ahead. Again, I am honored to have nominated for this award. Thank you. Thank you uh so much. I will tell you that uh learning how to manage your time and your emotions in middle school is an amazing feat because
011I will argue that almost every grownup here continues to struggle with that. And the more we are able to learn to ask for help or even to have somebody sit next to us when we work is um something that doesn't necessarily go away and good for you guys for practicing it. Now um okay we are at our first public recognition for those people who were not here at the beginning of the meeting. Our first public recognition is um for all communications related to topical issues related to the agenda. I know there might be some people here to speak about a resolution. The resolution is not on our agenda this evening. Um if you wish to speak to that, I ask you to hold that to our second u meeting. This is an attempt not to
012stop people from speaking but to sort of maintain hygiene of our meeting. Okay. So is there anybody would like to speak now. >> Yeah. >> Yes. And I would anticipate that's not going to be much more than about an hour because we don't have a huge long agenda. Yeah, >> we welcome everybody. Right, we got to hear the business of the school. Um, okay. Then, uh, we are going to move to our student representative report Adriana High School team competed against. Great job to all participants. Scholarship season has begun. Opportunities will be shared with seniors and families via email, Google Classroom, and 2026 to 2027 is underway with counselors assisting students in course selection. Thanks to the school community for cooperation with updated arrival and dismissal procedures. Congratulations to core value award recipients. Junior high
013the incoming class of 2031 to the building participated in a Q&A panel with seventh and eighth graders and met staff and support team members. Stars breakfast will be held Thursday, February 12th, honoring 50 students for demonstrating integrity, empathy, and compassion. The musical Alex at heart is approaching with performance on March 6 to 8. Junior high and sixth grade students will attend preview performances. Black history month activities include Harvard Microsoft research projects and an optional human rights focus magazine project in seventh grade. hosted the first Olympics assembly with student country presentation. Six Sixth graders visit the junior high for their first introduction to secondary school. Forensics students taught third graders about fingerprints. New York City testing simulations were completed. Final week of underway. Next PTA meeting March 4th at 4:30. Morris successful completion of New York
014State CBT simulations. Week three encouraging family reading time second passion for this week with family hours Thursday from 6:00 to 7 p.m. Next meeting next PTA meeting February 18th at 6 p.m. Virtual BT meeting February 25th at 3 p.m. completed New York State and science assemblies. Sixth graders visiting junior high this week meeting Wednesday, February 11th at 6 p.m. Are you a senior? How is your >> Okay, more power to you. Okay. Um that's student representative report. Um we have junior high school updates. Miss Bale principal of junior high. >> That's why the chair's there. Can you hear me now? >> Excellent. >> Thank you. >> I hope so. I'm also signed in. I mean I will tell I I can talk while I can hold space. Um just one of the things that will
015be happening agenda tonight is we're kicking off sort of our budget conversation. So this is the budget season is cranking along and um so tonight will be the several presentations that will continue through the budget vote in May. There we go. There is the beacon of excellence. All right. Welcome. Hello again. For those in the audience that don't know me, my name is Ginger Veil. I've been principal of the junior high school. This is my fifth year now. Um, four years as the assistant principal before that and 18 years before that as math department chair and math educator. I love Sawyer. I bleed blue. Um, so let's get on to my awesome school. Uh so we have about 50 adults a day and about 11 to 13 year olds for seven hours a day working
016on connections, belonging, and everyone learning each other's perspectives. Um all things that you see listed from 2022 right on up through 2025 have helped propel academic excellence and the student experience that we decided to hone in on. Besides the other facets of our blueprint. So, as you look at what happened in 2425, I will skip to nothing because this isn't working. Yes, it's on. I'll just get up there. So some of the things in 2025 were diagnostic days for connections, the cell phone policy pirate pilot, presentations of learning culmination days and mental health partnerships. Um and now we are just um flourishing with all four things from our blueprint. The student experience, academic excellence, family and community engagement, and professional culture. You cannot have one without the other three. It is one in four. Four
017is one. It contains four areas of focus that cannot exist on islands and each ideal lends itself to support to support or enhance the other and they guide our work on a daily basis. I would like to bring one more student up. We have Sophia here to talk to you. She is our director of operations of our student government. So, I would like her to step forward. Um, Logan Pertess, our president, could not make it today, but Sophia was going to be later in the program, but I decided that she should kick us off because students are better to listen to. >> Hello, my name is Sophia Martina and I'm in the seventh grade. I would like to share with you how the experience in the junior high is. As a student, I feel respected
018and supported because of the teachers and how they care and teach us what we need to know. While in the junior high, I have developed skills to succeed. Some examples are how to be independent and responsible for myself and how to be organized and learn skills. The counseling center has also helped me work through some social conflicts and friendship struggles that are part of coming to a new school. One way the junior high has helped me is preparing for what's coming in eighth grade. All my classes have helped me focus and meet new people. In the junior high, there are so many opportunities to do like school sports. Not many people get the chance to play because of many reasons. There are also clubs. The clubs I am in is builder club, student government, and
019FCCLA. In all my clubs, I learn social skills and express myself. Thank you for your time. Have a good night. Next year I think I'm just going to have like 10 students for my presentation to speak. >> I know you're gonna give me thumbs up Dr. Hos. I knew that. Um so when you're, you know, when you need something to read, you can see those two slides that I already talked about. And now academic excellence. So we already talked about two of our fall stars were here. 56 more will have breakfast tomorrow along with Jared and Nora. They are truly lead learners is what I asked for the teachers to recognize. Those defined as investing and driving their classrooms and being engaging and supportive to them through integrity, empathy, and compassion. We have students that
020thrive, but we also have students that struggle. Recently in a support team meeting and faculty meeting, we decided to build communication about extra help nth period. We have seen a decrease in students that want to stay after school that 9th period for help. So we decided to create a document that's shared throughout the building where each teacher is in the document and if they are staying after they are marking that they are staying after school. So if a guidance counselor is working with a student who really needs help with Miss Smith, they can check the document and let that student know when they're staying. Um the other piece to that, the other piece to that is also um my teaching assistants, their hours are through 3:00. So they are each opening a learning lab after
021school to help students with work. Um based on what team they work with, they know the assignments that are coming up. It's a little bit less chaotic than our sports academic study hall. So there will be quiet learning labs as well for all students after school. You'll notice throughout the presentation that the Sawyer saw is on some slides because the student experience is all of these slides. It's not just one contained. So I did mark um things that we have added to add to our Sawyer experience. professional culture. I know that we gave credit to flipping our faculty meetings about three years ago. You'll see it in the 2022 slide. So, we try to do a little slice of common initiatives for the district at every faculty meeting. And this year, trauma informed practice is
022one of those focuses. I did I would like to say that in the number of years that I've been training teachers and we've been talking as a collective you'll notice in those tier one focuses folky um you'll notice that there are ideals that transcend through social emotional learning trauma informed practice also the culture responsive classroom and all of our work with PBIS things like foster relationships and belonging belonging. It all starts with connections. Whether it's trauma-informed practice, whether it's the culturally responsive classroom, whether it is social emotional learning, students need to feel that they belong here. And that's what happens when relationships are built. Also, restorative and supportive discipline that we have been striving to add to our system. Um, it is the fifth tenant of this tier one focus document, but it also has
023been started prior to this year. So, I always love how things overlap, envelop, and can keep growing every time we add something. It's not brand new. It just encompasses everything that we're about. One of the most difficult conversations that has happened um in the last few years is about consistency and about what is restorative discipline, what is true discipline, what is needed, what needs to be decided upon. As a faculty, I really needed to see where my teachers were. So, I actually initiated a climate survey for my faculty. Um, and we have decided that we need to totally reset PBIS. Um, I heard too many times like we don't do PBIS anymore. And I said, well, we still have the same expectations. We're still doing it. What left was the P positive. So we are
024really trying to resurge the positive behavior incentives for the rewards or the validation for the students that do everything right every day instead of constantly focusing on the mistakes or the disruptions. We'll still focus on that but we really need to give credit where credit is due. Um so we have reworked and we will be restructuring our um PBIS team and this is just one piece of data from what came out of that survey. There was a critical finding of the consistency gap. There was a it was a very open question and it asked um it said agree or disagree student compliance to rules and expectations is reinforced consistently in my school. 75% agreed that there were clear behavior expectations like we all know what we expect the children to do but only about 40%
025agreed that everybody is reinforcing those consistently. So we really need to take a look at what that means and redefine consistency. Um some of the comments uh were that there were inconsistent consequences between classrooms, lack of accountability and different messages in different rooms. Um so we are going to stay solution focused. We do not want our adults or students frustrated with inconsistency. So, we are going to do a positive um behavior reset as I mentioned. Um and we're really going to focus on how we can reward and incentivize what we want our classrooms to be and what we want it to look like in the junior high. Um there is a graph. The graph actually shows the climate survey that I did in 2018 when I started PBIS and the 2025 pie chart. It is
026still consistently 60% of staff disagreed that we are consistent. So it's the same feel when we started PBIS and then we got momentum and then we had a pandemic. So now we have to rebuild that momentum. And part of the PBIS reset was a full assembly of seventh and eighth grade and really um focusing on behaviors that we were seeing blips in and what we wanted to see. Um so that is one of the slides that came out of that. But again, as a PBIS team reforms, we're going to focus on the positive and reinforce the learning we want to see rather than keep focusing on the negative. We want to celebrate the positive. Third tenant of our blueprint is family and community engagement. Here is a list of things that we have consistently done
027over the last I want to say um seven years. It does take a village. So, one of the new um practices that Mapino and I have encouraged is when we feel like we want to see parents, we immediately invite them in. We don't wait for a conversation. So, we've had a lot of proactive meetings with parents um to ask how we can best support their families. Um you know, expectations and a collective plan to move forward. Trying to think creatively and build pride and community and connections outside these walls is always a goal of my staff. Miss Fry that was honored today is always thinking about how we can incorporate the community agencies and how we can have our students show pride in our community and do little things to bring the outside in. I
028wanted to focus on one of what I think is unique to Sardis Junior High and it always when I'm in conversations with other administrators, it is our support team and our redirect center. The support team exists um of our nurse, our social worker, our psychologists, our two counselors also, Mfino and I. So we meet as a support team every other week to talk about what we need to do to support our students that are suffering from mental health, anxiety, um social struggles, anything that we need to get them to learn because there's a lot in a teenager's brain that can get in the way of instruction. Um, so we are fully focused on doing that. And I just wanted to give you some information because I'm not sure um whether or not I have highlighted
029this in the past, but we could not be the building we are without Miss Maltine, our psychologist, Miss Milinsson, our social worker, our two guidance counselors, Miss Tiffany and Mr. Tolman, and our nurse, um, Susie Paploakus. They are a facet to the way we get through every single day. And you'll notice um that in addition to just putting out what needs to or helping what needs to happen in a junior high day, our guid our guidance counselors provide help for those crises that happen during the day. But also we have IEP counseling and 504 counseling that need to fit in every week. Um between Miss Milinsson and Miss They see 47 students um and that is like a rotational basis. So they need to see each of them once every two weeks. Miss Milinsson is
030also maintaining success plans for our attendance of 10 students. That is a proactive plan um to have them want to come back into our building. Um their attendance has shown that they're chronically absent. They also collaborate with outside agencies um outside therapy clinics, TTP which is the therapeutic day treatment program at Boseies. When we have a student there, we then give them a plan to bring them back. County agencies including um pins diversion and then any student that needs to be placed in a partial hospitalization or hospitalization, we draw up a success plan. So that is all part of what Mrs. Millson and Miss M Queen do. So from 7:30 to 2:20 there's a definite eb and flow. Teenagers are juggling responsibility, acceptance, identity, and belonging. They're strategizing how to have a great day while
031being aware of the world that is around them. These are the pivotal important years and we could not get through a day without my support team. So I did want to give a shout out and highlight them. It all comes down to the Sawyer experience. There is material about Lasal School. We've been working with them on a grant um for mental health. So there are 10 children that are seen for counseling. It's a rotating basis. So that's there for later if you wanted to see it. Um the SOE student experience. These are some of the things that we do um outside the school day or in the school day to build connection. Our diagnostic days had minute to win it challenges. They had STEM challenges um all during they sit for their diagnostics and then
032we have fun time and bingo and the teachers really build a connection. Winterfest and Spring Flint socials. And we have so many other clubs, not just our Sawyer for our Sora athletes, but we have a creative comics club for those that like to draw mango. We have crafts, our service, FCCLA, builder club. Um, we have many clubs. One thing that I could not not highlight and I did try to cut my presentation down. back. I promise. Um, but we have to give credit where credit is due. I call this plan pilot junior. Um, Chelsea's back here, uh, but she's letting me do the speaking. Um, but we actually have incorporated presentations of learning. Um, and I would like to just highlight that math is on the board now and we have social studies 7 that
033has joined the party for presentations of learning. So, these are assessments outside of a written final exam. And we actually had a midterm celebration where math um did a presentations of learning. And I have a slide that I'm going to show you in a minute. So, we added four educators to this. And how these teachers that did the presentations last year have set up is that there was portfolio work already done. the portfolios were set up and ready to go from the beginning of the year. Those teachers that did it last year. So I asked them to drop some of their work in a project book. So we have human rights Mr. Deary. So the human rights scene project they read along walk to water which is two stories of survival, perseverance and hope. There
034is a refugee that travels to America and there is an 11year-old who spends hours walking to water and their story converges um when Salva does the project for the country so that Nia doesn't have to make the walk anymore. So they read that story together and then they're given a blank canvas to reflect and create what human rights looks like to them. And some of these examples um you can't see from that far away, but they actually have gone into um their websites and they are representing different stories of different refugees. Um there is a what human rights means to me, what does it really feel like to call home? Things like that. So they are illustrating what human rights means to them in seventh grade eway math which I could talk for an hour
035but I will not. I am so happy that an open-ended problem. So the pattern that's up in that corner they had to decide how it was changing and they had to represent it with algebra. This is actually the slideshow of an eighth grader and how they came to terms with how they're going to represent that. Um, some did slideshows, some were more artistic and did posters. They were absolutely phenomenal. And they all came out of it with the understanding of what a rate of change means, what slope means. I believe that 97% of our eighth graders can tell you where the y intercept is. Now, when you ask them, it was really huge of the eighth grade teachers to do this. And they presented in circle form. They each presented their project to each other.
036So, the team um So the teams came together and also our 1211 special education class also did this project for linear algebra. So it was a wonderful afternoon and I just would like to put in a plug like that's real life math right I mean I just had to figure out the rate of change and slope of the line for work to be able to demonstrate that our membership has gone up. Excellent. >> So that is a skill you may use again. >> Yes. Thank you. Can you all again. No, I'm just kidding. I think that I'm just really happy about math. But I'm happy about all this work. But the other thing was that it was open-ended and they had to figure it out and they had to communicate with math, which is what
037the algebra exam is now asking them to do is write math and talk math. So, they were able to do that. I'm done talking math. Civilized research project. So the English eighth grade English um with Miss Squires read the book March book two. It is a book that highlights the freedom writers the Birmingham campaign the Lewis election as the student nonviolent coordinator um courage leadership struggle and the students had to choose a character from that graphic novel and they had to highlight what that person did for civil rights. and they also had a mini share out to practice for the presentations of learning. So 2025 was my slide last year about what I intended to do in 2026. I was very happy when I saw that we have started some of this work. Um my
038commentary is in the 2026 box, but just some highlights. I am extremely proud um that we are continuing to work on the scheduling with our department chairpersons. We almost have a brand new course catalog ready to go. Um Mr. Cooper is helping with that. Ian Cooper, I am very happy to be collaborating um and researching the opportunities for trauma informed practice in my teaching and learning meetings. teachers are having aha moments about how, you know, ADHD is sometimes driven by trauma and how every student deserves a little extra. Um, it's been really great. And then I just always look forward to teachers being able to join our learning walks and professional collaboration. Um, and we're starting to plan that as well. So it's a constant crosswalk between all of the things we have been exploring
039for the last few years. Restorative practices, trauma inform practices, social emotional learning, PBIS. It's a constant work and the junior high is making it happen. So I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you. >> Yeah, please. Anybody have any questions? Thanks. Appreciate that. I'm really glad that you focused on the accountability and either whether we call it discipline or accountability because this is one thing that my public friends social circle talks about all the time. What is the district doing to hold kids accountable? My kids have said the same thing for the last many years. How come the teachers can't get a handle on vaping? How come the rules don't make sense? How come some kids get away with this and some kids don't? And didn't necessarily talk about this in her presentation. and that they
040want to be, you know, that they want to be validated. And I think that it is very I could go on forever, but I do feel like the connections that we build in our classroom is a definite reflection of the culture of our building. So those the classroom is where it starts and then feeling supported is where the work needs to happen. um behaviors that can be addressed. And that's the tricky part, too, because having a teenager realize why it's very distracting that they're doing that because a lot with social media and with brain science, they're looking for validation from their peers more than they are from the adults. And sometimes those behaviors are to get a reaction from their peers, but the reaction that the peers give them gives them joy, but it's not
041really it's cutting into the teachers job and learning. So, there's a lot of teenagers that want to feel their peers think they're funny or think that they're that they're taking over the classroom. Um, that said, I just want that's why the PBIS team is coming back as a collective from the building. so that we can have real conversations because I think there's a lot of miscommunication and a lot of assumptions um that aren't necessarily true of what's happening. Did I talk too much? >> Is there anybody else? >> Thank you for your junior high. appreciate the focus on the consistency of process and discipline and for your highlighting uh the student support team um mental health is so important um and also I would love to see more about the human rights that was put
042together and the civil rights Okay, moving right along. We are at G the interim superintendent report. Good evening again. So, in continuing our celebration of junior high, I would like to celebrate a particular teacher, Kathy Corso, a junior high MTSS math teacher who has worked hard to become a nationally board certified teacher. Becoming a national board certified teacher is a one to threeyear process that entails completing four components. Three portfolio entries including video student work and reflection and one computer-based assessment. This requires 200 to 400 hours to demonstrate expertise, differentiation, and professional growth. So well done, Mrs. Gorso. Additionally, I would like to congratulate the teachers who completed and passed the level one Orton Gillingham Associate Coursework and exam through the Rose Institute at Manhattanville University. Orton Gillingham is a multiensory approach to teaching literacy
043and it's very important here in Soures. It empowers our teachers to use multiensory strategies with precision. The training also dedicates time to handwriting, cursive, and disgraphia as well as dyslexia and the associated strengths and weaknesses of living with dyslexia. As a district, we have been working diligently to align our curriculum and pedagogy to the science of reading. It is our goal to offer the Sorton Gillingham training to various cohorts for the next five years so we can effectively use science-based instruction. So, congratulations to the following teachers who participated in this work. And yes, they had to pass an exam as well. John Carlson, Rebecca Frick, Tracy Lodge, Lori Porz, Kelly Beaser, Kelly um excuse me, Mary Butler, Brandy Foley, Kylen Lighter, Kelly Petramol, Hillary Wyek, Shauna Bruno, and Shaunie Fr. For the next portion, I
044would like to request that the district clerk record my statement. I would like to, as the interim superintendent, share a statement regarding the protection of English language learners, multilingual learners, and immigrant families. In this evening's minutes, I want to begin by acknowledging the fear and uncertainty that many immigrant and multilingual families are experiencing right now. Please know that the safety, dignity, and well-being of every child in Soerty Central School District, regardless of their immigration status, is and always will be our top priority. I also want to be really clear and reassuring. Our schools are safe spaces for children. The district has established protocols and grounded in federal and New York state law that strictly limit access to our buildings and protect students rights. I want to specifically talk about what we have done here at
045Soures and what I've done today to protect children's safety. All exterior school doors remain locked during the instructional day and the entry is controlled. We have atlas security guards are stationed at building entrances and work in coordination with school administration. No DHS or ICE agent is permitted to enter the school building, classroom, or other non-public space without a judicial warrant or subpoena signed BY THE JUDGE. ADMINISTRATIVE OR civil documents, including ICE detainers or administrative warrants, do not authorize access to school property or students. Any such request must be immediately referred to me, the interim superintendent, and to district legal counsel. Schoolbased staff are not permitted to grant access independently. ICE or DHS agents are not permitted in classrooms or student spaces absent of a judicial order. Students will not be interviewed, questioned, or removed from
046school without proper legal documentation in my notification. staff have been instructed not to inquire about or disclose the immigration status of students or families. So this week, this is no different than last year. This week in admin uh or been last week in administrative council, we have a monthly meeting with every single administrator or managerial role in the district. And I reminded them of these protocols and I reminded them to articulate them to their staff and to our Atlas security guards. But quite honestly, that's not enough. I need to work in close partnership with our local law enforcement and Atlas security guard to ensure we're all on the same page. So today, I worked with local law enforcement when it came to sovereignties. I worked with the vice president of Atlas Security and their manager
047to ensure we're all on the same page. And we are because the law is very clear about protecting students rights. So we do recognize that for some of our students watching what's happening around our country is scary. and it evokes a lot of fear. So I want to remind parents that we want to support you. We want to protect your children and we want to keep them safe. We have psychologists and social workers who have great expertise. We have the most incredible caring staff here in Soures who want to work with your children and all of our families. So, please know that our schools are places of learning first and foremost, care and protection, not enforcement. We stand with our students and families and we will continue to act within the law to ensure that
048every child feels safe, welcomed, and supported each day they walk through our doors. So, thank you again for entrusting us with your child. And I offer I am so happy to see you all here tonight. And my door is always open. If you have any questions or concerns, please call me. I will make time for you. I will talk with you and Please know that I am always available for you. So, in conclusion, I would remind everybody to take care of our students, take care of yourself, and take care of one another. Thank you, Dr. G. It is now time for board member remarks and discussions. I will start over on my left mic. Um, thank you. Uh, just a couple things. I'll keep this brief. Um, a couple positive things I think. Uh, I
049just want to recognize I was at the opportunity to attend the all county choir that was held at Celebrities and it was arrangements. It was really amazing. It's a beautiful experience for both the students and for other students in the county. >> It is. You just got to talk right into it. >> Um students from all over the county coming here. Uh it was it was great experience. Um secondly, I think it was mentioned that Alice by Heart is the musical coming up in early March. Hopefully folks can attend that. Um, and I just wanted to do a quick thank you to the maintenance staff at all the schools for um, I know we had a large snowstorm and keeping the buildings warm and the outside free of snow and ice. Uh, it's a lot
050of work. So, thank you to them um, for undertaking that. Um, and I just wanted to um, briefly touch on what Dr. Warbach um, touched on as well as a number of the emails that we've received over the last week. Um just wanted to uh convey at least from my point of view that the board does have um a similar goal of keeping especially our most vulnerable students safe. Um we might have differences of opinion of how to do that, how best to do that, but I think that is ultimately the goal of the board and the school. Um obviously we work within a framework of what the state has established. We work within a framework of what the federal government has established um as we as we work towards achieving that goal. Um obviously
051we are trying to work to make sure that the policies comply with that framework but also you know protecting the students which is really our priority. So thank you >> Bill. Can you hear me? So um I first of all I want to thank uh Nora and Jared for their um congratulate them on their awards and just everything that you actually resonated with me very much because I do have an eighth grader myself and the time management and trying to be learning independently and all of that. Um, congratulations for being recognized for your efforts in that area. Um, I did also want to acknowledge um all of the emails and thank the community members who sent us emails over the past week uh concerning a resolution um about student safety. Um, I want to thank
052Dr. Borback for explicitly saying um and letting us know what the district and you know what the district is doing every day to keep the students safe because that is you know one of our best priorities. Um and I guess from our point of view from my point of view I I am concerned with what I'm seeing in society. Um but also as a board member I also know that our role can be somewhat limiting in what we can do. Um and policy making is is one of those responsibilities. So, you know, one of the things we can do is make sure we're looking at our policies to make sure that they're um meeting what the community members and what the laws um require us to do to keep people safe or students safe, I
053should say, and um what information can be shared about students and things of that nature. So, I think, you know, we should we can look at our policies in addition to everything else that we're doing. Um and I know a resolution is not on a table tonight, but if there was in the future. I would like to support it. I want to say congratulations to the Sawyer S uh SOAR awardees, Miss Frey, uh and students Nor and Jared. Um and many thanks to our student representative for uh the report on updates on the happenings for all the schools. Um thank you Dr. Roarback for your clear thoughtful empathetic and statement on the protection of students most importantly for the minutes of this meeting. Um, I'm I'm gratified that we as a board are considering a
054resolution affirming our commitment to the safety of all students, specifically those in our community is under threat, immigrant students and families. Thank you to all the community members for your letters, messages, calls, and conversations and advocacy. When this issue was brought to the attention of the board by the public last year, the board declined the opportunity to consider such a resolution. The super superintendent did address the community in a letter that referenced the New York State guidance and the district's procedures, but these were not included as part of the district's public safety plan, and nor can that guidance be found anywhere on our website. I'm glad that we need to rectify that this time around because the trauma of seeing how others uh have been treated despite status or citizenship seeing how that uh these
055people people have been treated has only grown in that time in a year's time exactly a year. Um when we considered this uh this issue before um having a place where this guidance and procedure will demonstrate our commitment as a board to keeping people informed on what we can do and what we are the the limits of what we can do. Um we say we strive to be trauma informed. Anyone who cares to be informed on how these actions are taking place, taking people and taking lives is in fact feeling some measure of fear and trauma every day. Particularly anyone whose rights as a human being in this country ever been up for public debate. According to the New York State School Boards Association, we the board are the educational leaders in our communities. As
056educational leaders, if we are not willing to speak out to affirm our commitment to the protection of all students, then anyone of a marginalized or endangered identity has concern. I don't feel I have personally I have option of not speaking out on issues that are seriously impacting the mental health and security of children in our district. On this matter, I cannot pretend to be neutral because in the face of oppression, neutrality, neutrality is complicity. speaking out comes with risk. So does staying silent. In honor of Black History Month, I'm going to close with a that I shared with my for my fellow board members when advocating for the consideration of such a resolution. In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends Dr. Martin Luther King
057Jr. I am proud to be part of a body of community members and educational leaders that refuse to be silent. It >> sounds a little >> All right. Can you guys hear me? >> Yes. >> You hear me back there? >> All right. Want to make sure. Um, I apologize first and foremost for being late today. I had uh some some stuff I had to do with my kids. Um, so I apologize for being late. So I missed I missed some of the stuff early on. I I'm a little disappointed because it sound like like it was pretty good presentation and a couple students got present. Unfortunately I missed that. >> I'm I can only imagine unfortunately I missed that. Uh Dr. Roarback I think she kind of covered all the bases and I appreciate
058that and I appreciate the statement to the community. so they understand where we as a district and as a board stand. Um, you know, we we value our students and we are going to protect them with every ounce that we possibly have. Um, whether you know, whatever their their background is, we are here to make sure that they're they're going to be safe in this school and that they're going to receive an education and hopefully they're going to excel throughout life beyond that. Um, and I think everybody on the board stands behind that from what I understand. Um, so, you know, I know I know there's I appreciate everybody's emails that that sent us. I It's amazing to see all these people here today. Uh, you know, normally we'd have maybe 10 people. So, it's
059great to see you all and how passionate you guys are about this. Um, and you know, keep keep the emails coming if you have concerns. Uh, if you have questions, Dr. G obviously said her her, you know, she's available for phone calls or emails. Um, I'm sure she'll respond possibly can. Um, but we are here to make sure that our students are safe. That's the key for us. Um, and we're not going to allow someone to kind of bully us and into something that we don't necessarily need to do. We're going to stand our ground until we absolutely have to give in. I think you said order something along those lines. Um, but I appreciate all you guys here today. And that's all I got. Thank you. >> Thank you. Mr. Mullia, >> thank you
060to all of my uh co-board members and um briefly I of course want to thank as the facilities committee chair and understanding how hard keeping the buildings warm, keeping the snow removal going. I want to thank Richie Prince and his team. You've done an amazing job. I'll leave it at that. You know that I recognize and see what you're doing. Um, I think that if we look back over the last eight months, this boardroom and echo what the other board members have said, but at the same time, I do. I don't want to sound like a record that's on repeat, but I think all of us can't say it enough that we have to focus on the children. Everything else is noise. And so we can figure everything else out, but if we lose sight
061of the fact that the kids are why we are here and making sure that they are safe and feel secure and see the district as a place where they have comfort and um calm and a haven, then we are all missing the point in my opinion, regardless of what the issue is. And I really appreciate everyone at this table really emphasizing the children and the safety and security of those children today. And I look forward to discussing a resolution with my coboard members as we go forward on this. I want to just ask something of the public and of the parents and of the loved ones and of the teachers. The best way that we can help your children and your students is to know from you that they are suffering or feeling vulnerable. And
062so to the students that are in the room, if you see a student that you think is struggling, tell someone. It's not going to get you in trouble. It will only help them. Same thing with parents or friends of a parent's child or someone on a sports team or in the band. We can only help each other if we know that there's a problem. And sometimes people are afraid to bring that up. And teachers are trained to read psychosocial cues. But you will never hurt your friend by saying that you are worried about them if you're a student or if you're a parent. We have to communicate and as soon as we know that's going to get it on our radar, it's going to get it on the administration's radar and then we're going to
063deploy the support teams and the other resources that we have to make sure that people are supported. So I I'm just encouraging continual communication about what you need from the district. That means to the board members and it means to the administration. The last thing that I will say is that in a couple of months there are going to be four, as as far as I understand it, four schoolboard seats opening and we need people that are ready to come out of social media and come off their keyboards and to come and sit on this board. It is hard to be a school board member. The last year should show you that. These issues should show you that. And there are a lot of bright minds and engaged people in sorities. Please consider running for
064the board. The kids need strong leadership. They need it from the administration and they need it from the board. And finally, I would just like to thank everyone for coming out today. It means a lot to see you sitting in this room and um spending the time. Thank you. Um, I spent a lot of time this weekend uh sort of agonizing over not being able to just immediately reassure everyone that we would do whatever we had to do to make people feel safe and sound. Um, so I went through the meditation of rain meditation where you recognize the feeling and accept it and interrogate it and nurture it. Um, and I think the feeling that I came up with is um is grief that for me once I start feeling a little bit of that
065um it sort of overwhelms me because there's sort of a deep well of that in my life. Right? This is important for trauma informed care to name these things. Um and it was through connecting with others and being able to talk about it and discuss it and being reassured the grown-ups around me would do what needed to be done to not just do the things that are so important to keep families and children safe but to speak out about it and to affirm our commitment to it. Um so I want to speak a little bit about uh resolutions right so some people say well resolutions they don't really make a difference they don't matter words of course matter as far as I'm concerned um and talking to our lawyers right resolution is actually school law
066the way a village or a town might pass a law or an ordinance when a school passes a resolution that's essentially the law of the So, as anybody who knows who lives with a lawyer or deals with the law, that doesn't happen fast and it's really important to get it right. And so, um, we as a board will be considering a resolution and making sure that the things that, uh, Dr. Roorac talked about are codified in that um and that we can all agree on it and pass it because bringing forward a resolution that we cannot all agree on or that we cannot stand by does nothing to keep families and children safe and it just makes the system weaker. So, I want to reassure everyone that New York State guidance is clear and we
067clearly affirm we will protect students from being detained or questioned by anyone without parental consent. That is not just federal law enforcement. That is local law enforcement. They cannot just walk in here and detain and question children without parental consent or a judicial warrant. And that includes all school setting including buses, school grounds, classrooms, and school events. And that's all I need to read because everybody else. So, it's important that we get it right. Um, because one, it makes us liable if we don't. And more importantly, it does little to help them feel safe and secure. Okay. Number two on my list is lobby day was today up at the capitol. Um Nerzari and I went and attended. Um it is important to know that uh you can go up there any time if you
068want any contact information for any of your legislators. It's right here. Um and there were several school districts that actually brought students up there. And so next year I would really like to encourage us to in November start thinking about students who you might want to invite and that they can get credit for coming, thinking, talking, reflecting. Um, and the two big topics are uh, and this is a great segue into the budget are electric vehicles. There's a mandate for electric vehicles which I know you guys are going to talk about. Um, it's a it's going to have to change from what it currently is. it is untenable and it is not possible to do it as it's written and so um they have heard that from everybody and are very aware of it. The
069other is um prek and so it's great they've expanded monies about prek. They are not clear yet on how that money gets into the district, how much that money will be for the districts up here. So that is still very unknown about what prek is going to look like in this district. Um, and again, it's something that we really want to do, right? Um, so I encourage you to contact your legislators. Um, I encourage you if you are concerned about this resolution and you want to have law in New York State that says explicitly that children will be protected this way, call your legislators, call your senator, and say that they should support New York State Senate Bill 4735B. It's a protect our students act, our schools act, and it was passed by the assembly
070last year and it is in the Senate now. And with that, I just want to leave us with the budget calendar and a segue into our budget report. So, this is the first of our budget reports. Um, the calendar we're going to go over later uh is missing. I think we're going to add two budget workshops, one to March that we've discussed and then one possibly in April to at least schedule it. We don't need it. Great. But if we need it, we have it. >> Dr. G. >> Great. Thank you so much. >> Okay, I'm coming. So, while we're getting set up here, just a segue. Thank you all for staying. I'm sure you're all hungry. Um, you know, the budgeting and the leadership and the doing of teaching and learning and running a
071school district is a fascinating and multifaceted enterprise. When you are considering a school budget in includes everything from finding people who are talented, driven, understand child development, understand content and care deeply and they need to fit within our mission and our vision of sovere becoming a beacon of excellence. So that requires humans because we're in the industry of growing humans and growing human minds and hearts and we need the right people to do that. So their salaries are the majority of our budget. Then we have the practical things. We need lights. We need fuel for our buses. Occasionally we need to replace the carpets. We need furniture. We need technology and the list goes on and on and on. Not to mention that our buildings all need repair because think about when they were built,
072right? So, we need maintenance and capital projects. So, this enterprise of leading a school district is so important and we take it so seriously and we take it with two things in mind. One is the budget is a statement of our values and if we don't start doing that then shame on us. And the second thing is we need to be fiscally responsible to our taxpayers because we are all a community. So tonight we're gonna Mr. Siger and I uh who will join me soon. Um this is like the mis pl of the culinary world. Our CTE students who go to culinary school at I park. The first thing they learn in culinary is the misam plus. You get to learn about setting your station up so you're not all dis disorganized running around the
073kitchen slipping wasting time. So that's what tonight is. We're going to set you up so that you understand all the budget drivers and how we want to be strategic in our investments for becoming a beacon of excellence. Wow, that was a long introduction. >> It's okay. >> Okay, good. I'm glad you're not going anywhere. >> Maybe my thing will move. Okay, Mr. Warl. Click it one more time. Where am I? It works. Okay. All right. So, for tonight, thank you so much, Mr. War. So, for tonight, what are what drives our budget? And this particular year, Mr. Stiger and I, our admin along, we would invite you, the community, and the board of education. this is your responsibility uh to decide if you're going to adopt this eventually is we want to align our budget
074to the blueprint for excellence otherwise there's no point in it and then we have SED mandates and then Governor Hokll's budget proposal always drives our budget so then Mr. Styer will talk about the budget process and then give some updates on our capital projects which is separate and the public always votes on that and then how can we strategically invest our funds. So as we are strategically investing our funds I would ask us to consider what are we going to start doing what are we going to stop doing and what are we going to continue to do. So what we need to start doing is planning for our future. As someone said earlier in the evening, the class of 2031, that seems like so far out. Well, our second graders are going to be 28.
075That is in the year 2046. That's what we have to think about and plan about. 28 is the prime age now to be in the workforce. So planning for 2026 or next year is not good enough. We need to be strategic with our funding so they can be successful in the world. We need to stop taking away academic supports. And I'm that will be a theme every time I come up. There's nothing left to strip. We are down to the bone. So we need to talk stop taking away academic supports. We need to continue student driven programming. Everything that principal Vale spoke of tonight represents studentdriven programming. And even those student presentations of learning are so important because it's moving away from the old-fashioned learning of memorization to students having agency and responsibility for their
076learning. And we need to start designing our programs with the portrait of a graduate which is New York inspires at the center of our work. So, our budget will be aligned to our blueprint for excellence, which is our strategic plan that the district leadership team collaborated and wrote together. And we have our four pillars that every time a school comes and gives their presentation, they talk about academic excellence, the Sawyer experience, professional culture, and family and community engagement. And we need to take those four pillars and ensure that we are aligning it with SED's New York State Inspires Portrait of a Graduate. We've done a lot of good work in the district leadership team of looking at what the portrait of a graduate is at the SED level and then we've soyized it. So what
077do we want our so graduate to leave with? Having some rope memorization is not going to prepare our students for 2046. It's not in this day and age. They need to be flexible, global citizen, culturally competent, social emotional competence, effective communicator, critical thinker, innovative problem solver and literate across all the content areas. So what does this mean? So New York State is moving from three diplomas to one diploma. Uh and we are creating more pathways to graduation and using New York State's portrait of a graduate as criteria for graduation. Uh so in other words, we are redefining uh and putting more emphas emphasis on proficiency rather than completion of a timebased units of study. And you know a prime example of this is the fact that soies is a planned pilot school one of 23
078in New York state. So we are working very hard at this and committed to this work and it also includes financial literacy and climate uh education to environmental. So through uh SED's initiative and governor Hokll's initiative with the science of reading we have had to do a lot of work in so to align our literacy teaching practices to align to science-based instruction to teach literacy. We were not given any money to do this and we don't have enough time to really work with our teachers to do this. So, we've had to be creative and really committed and I'm proud of our teachers and the work that they have done and Dr. Jen Schlber has done an extraordinary job of really helping move this work forward. So, here's an example from last year. Last year, Governor
079Hokll initiated uh the distractionfree schools. So we have the belt to bell no cell. We implemented this this year with yonder pouches, right? So the district spent about 47,000 approximately on the yonder pouches which today it's as if we've always been using them and it's fantastic. I are students going to try to you know work around it? Yes, of course. But we are working towards distractionf free schools. The reimbursement aid was approximately 12,000. So we put out 47 and we only had approximately 12,000 in aid. The room temperature law uh stating that we can't be above 88 degrees. That has been a lot of work. Now we have all of our second floor and third floor classrooms do have air conditioning and we are fortunate that we have um some experts in uh that work
080for us that can do the HVAC work, the maintenance work, but we still had to install a lot of AC units costing about 57,000 $57,000 and we don't get any aid on that. So, my point is this. When we're budgeting, New York State public schools are constantly bombarded with you need to do this and find the money, which then ends up on taxpayers, right? So, I'm taking the time to explain this because it is quite an enterprise to do the budget for a school district. And as Dr. H said, you know, the electric buses, they want us to have electric buses by 2035. The reality is the infrastructure is not ready. We need to slow that process down. So, a lot of folks are advocating to slow that down. And with the UPK, the governor's
081budget continues to expand to her vision is to truly make UPK universal for all uh by 2028-29. So, UPK funding supports a critical service for families and children, but there are a lot of gaps and it's not in our general fund budget to be clear. It's separate. It's a grant. You're not going to vote on it. Um, but it doesn't include things like space, materials. It doesn't include transportation or right now we provide food for our UPK. So again, there's a lot of things it doesn't include. So here are some more budget realities and considerations. I'm just a ray of sunshine now. Um, so at this point you're getting the gist that we have unfunded mandates. In fact, New York State has over 157 and it depends on where you look. Sometimes it will say
082we have 200, sometimes 160 and unfunded mandates. Let me give you some prime examples of this. So here in soies, we value all students and there's a diverse array of children and students that we have and some have exceptional needs. Some of them need to go to um out of district placements. We have to pay for that out of district placement. We have to pay for the transportation. Sometimes a child might need an aid on a bus. We need to pay for that. A child might need a nurse. We need to pay for that. So those are unfunded mandates. So, for those of you who like visuals, here's a a visual. The majority of a school budget is always going to be contracted salaries. Here at Soies, we have four collective bargaining units and this
083is all contractual. It's decided. Then there's benefits and health insurance. That's another huge chunk. And then we have transportation. Transportation last year was about $11 million in our budget. The contracted salaries last year were approximately 34 million and benefits and health insurance were approximately 20.8 million and special education inclusive of the special education teachers salaries was 14.4 million. So that leaves us with this little tiny skinny piece of a pie wedge to figure out what to do. So my point is there's not a lot to work with after we do all of those things that we absolutely need to do. So now I'm going to toss the microphone to Mr. Siger who is our business uh manager. >> Thank you Dr. Orbeck. So the budget process is a year-long process we're always working on. Um
084so we make sure as Dr. Orbeck said that aligns with the blueprint for excellence. So it aligns with our values. Um so I want to give an update of where we are at that process. So we have met with all of our district principles and administrators to go over staffing needs and student needs for the next school year. So we can use that information while developing the budget. We have also met with Boseies and the Mid Hudson Regional Information Center to go over um services um that they offer to us each year um to go over and see what we'll need for that. Um it's also important um we have the tax cap calculation is due at the end of this month, February 27th. So we're gathering information to finish up that calculation. Um it's
085important to know part of that calculation is the allowable levy tax growth factor which is limited to 2% the lower of 2% or the CPI inflation factor rate of 2.63 as calculated by the New York state controller. Um so what that means we have to use the 2% figure which is the lower even though inflation is looking at they're calculating at 2.63%. That's important to mention because even though we're a school district, we are still subject to inflation. So, as our materials complies, our gasoline, electricity, as everything's going up in cost, we're limited to a tax increase of 2% in the um levy growth factor. Um, as Dr. Warbeck talked about, a big part of our budget is benefits. It makes up about 20 million of our budget. 12 million of that is health insurance.
086We get our health insurance through DHICK, which is the Duchess Duchess Educational Health Insurance Consortium. There's about 24 school districts that are part of that. It helps us um get a better rate, mitigate risk for the district and gives us some bargaining power. This year they are projecting our rate going up 16%. Which is about $1.9 million. Um as health costs, it's a regional trend, health costs are going up. um um increasing medical and prescription costs. Um so those are things that we have to keep in mind while budgeting. There's also retirement rates. Um we for employees that are part of the teachers retirement system that rate is going from 9 and a half% it's going down to about 8.25. Although that rate is going down and offers some limited savings there and we have
087to keep in mind that uh salaries will increase with contracts. So even though the rate's lower, salaries will come in higher. And then the ERS, which is the employees retirement system that carries our um custodial clerical staff, that rate is increasing about 1% to 17.6%. And then we're going to look at the governor's proposal for state aid. Um, state aid makes up about a third of our budget. So, this is important to us to review what the governor is proposing. The biggest chunk of this aid is foundation aid. Um, this is aid that state gives us for general classroom instruction, teacher salaries, materials and supplies. Um, so this is the biggest um part of state aid. It's a complicated calculation based on our student enrollment, poverty data in the area, um, English language, English language
088learners and property values. So, it's about 18 million, which is only a 1% increase, which is the minimum due in the governor's proposal. Of the about 700 school districts in New York State, 450 of them are getting the minimum duo building a software library textbook hardware. Those are expense based aids based on what we spent in 2425. So that's how those are calculated. And I know a lot of you are probably looking at the public access high cost aid and private access cost aid. Um, in the governor's proposal, those are showing a pretty relatively large increase, but it's worth noting that those are based on a snapshot in time. Those aren't um real data. Um once we're the um school year starts and we start entering in student information into the stack system which is
089a New York State system stands for system for tracking and accounting students. Once we start entering student data that'll generate more aid. So if we were to look back at last year's presentation for what the governor was proposing for this current school year in 2025 2026 that value was 400 approximately 499,000 but as we see on that slide for public access high cost aid it's 790,000 and it's worth mentioning access cost a generated for high figure that is based on if we were to offer a full day prek, they would reimburse 10,000 per pupil. So this would be if there were 71 students in a full day program, but we do just a a part-time a half day program. So we would get either half that rate or the higher of that rate. Half that
090rate or our current per pupil rate rate which is 5900. Um this is a new proposal. There's new information coming out every day. Questar 3's they have a state aid planning department that their specialists of anything state aid related. 600 over 600 schools subscribe to it. They are taking questions every day from vis from school administrators to get us um information. We all have questions on this. They're talking directly to the department of budget to get us answers and they'll be holding a seminar later this month. So, we hope to have more answers on this. Um but I thought it was worth noting. Dr. Orbeck already said it. This is a state grant. This isn't a part of the budget that'll be voted on in May. Um Next, we're just going to touch on our
091capital projects and where we're at with some of the ones that we have going on where as we wrap up our $22 million project. That was the first capital project we did here since about this is around about 20 years. That was only 2007 I believe it was. Last year we had Dr. Tims came in. He was a long-term planner and one of the things he said is like we have to start doing capital projects. We have to take care of our buildings. They're getting older. We have to do updates and so it's important that we keep capital project planning constantly on our radar and things to look ahead of. So one thing we are in the process of and this has been ongoing is the Ricardi easing um connecting Joseph's Drive possibly to the
092Ricardi Elementary School. Um the purpose of this would be to of course improve studenting safety. Um reduce some of the congestion at dismissal and arrival at Ricardi. Um so where we're at in that that process in November, Tetrate Tech, who is the district's engineer, they did a traffic study. They came in with drones at dismissal and arrival. They took footage of that. Um and they also got local traffic data of any accidents and information on how much traffic is in the area. Um so they are working on preparing that traffic study report for us and it should be finalized soon here and then once all this snow melts tech will be back to do a wetland study at Ricardi um to get more information on that. And so for capital projects that are completed and
093have been approved, we have the $22 million capital project that was approved by our voters in December of 2020. That project does a vast amount of work. It updated the auditorium here at the high school as we can see in addition at Morris to add an auditorium, secure vestibules in all of our schools. Um replaced roofing at the Hilda brand building at Khill, some roofing, some windows there. So there's really a lot of work done and that um pavement at the parking lot here, the junior high, senior high, pavement at Morris. Um that work is all complete and we are in the process of just closing out the project, the financial side of that, but the work is complete. Over at Kahill, the antiquated fire alarm have to be replaced. That is all the work
094is 99% complete. We're just at the point now where we're just finalizing and um customizing things exactly how we would like. um the announcement at for any emergencies there. We're getting it translated into Spanish, so it'll be announced in English and Spanish for students. So, that's just the very last thing to complete for the Kill Fire alarm. And over at Ricardi, we have exit and we are just waiting on the hardware um to finish up that project. >> Mr. What's the difference between a capital outlay project and the other capital projects? >> The capital the big capital project is voter approved in a separate resolution. Capital outlay is a part of our um the $100,000 project that we can include in our general fund budget each year. Um it's limited to just $100,000. So it
095really limits the amount of work we can do. But with that we can do a $100,000 project. Once we expense that $100,000, the state will re reimburse us in full the full building aid rate, which is about 66% in the following year. So, we get 60 66% back in aid in the year after that project's finished. And we can do one a year up to $100,000 for a capital outlay. >> So, let's just pause there for a second. So, every time we're doing a capital project, we're getting aid back. >> Yes. at our aid ratio of 60 unless we exceed what we always say under the aid limit. >> So it would behoove our district to ensure that we are constantly making repair and maintenance of through capital projects so that we're constantly receiving this
096aid back so that we can continually upkeep our buildings. >> Yes. Yes. And that was we saw an increase if we were back on a couple slides in the building aid. We saw an increase because we are doing capital projects. So now we are getting reimbursed for the work that we are putting into our buildings that need the work and upgrades for our students. >> Okay. So Dr. Tims also shared last year that all those years that soy central school district did not have a capital project which I believe was almost over a decade. We are so far behind and I believe he said almost $8 million lost in receiving aid. So we can never do that again. So when we talk about strategic investments, we need to this is what we're talking about. We
097can't go backwards. We need to continue these capital projects, keep it moving so we get the aid flowing. >> Thank you, Dr. And then just here we're just highlighting some important key dates coming up for budget development. I mentioned that the tax cap calculation is due to the state February 27th. Um upcoming meetings we have for budget presentations are up here on the screen. I know we're talking about adding some more. So um be on the lookout for those on the website or Facebook. Um we'll spread the word for those. But um the big date I'm looking at is 97 days away. May 19th is our annual budget vote here at the junior high school. All one voting center on May 19th. >> Okay. So, thank you so much. And just as a healthy reminder,
098we have our district leadership meeting on March 18th and the next districtwide safety meeting, which many of you have been asking me, will be on March 25th. Thank you so much. considerations, comments, or questions for Mr. Steiner or I from the board? >> It's a great It's a great start. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. This is There we are. Okay. Um, thank you everybody for your patience as we move through this. We've had a lot to talk about. I know I said that we would be ready for the second comment period by 7:30 or 8. We're not, but that's okay. Um, we now have personnel instructional and noninstructional. Um, and so that is that includes resignations. We have two resignations. We have five appointments. uh spring coaching recommendations, substitute recommendations, and volunteers. So,
099can I have a motion to approve J1 A and B to J 2 A through H. Miss Golia made a motion, a second. Missari, all in favor? Any discussion? All in favor? >> Hi. >> Thank you, Miss Carney, for the postits. And um now we have um K, which are business office recommendations. This includes the treasurer's report, revenue and appropriations status report, extra classroom statements of cash receipts and dispersement report, internal claims audit, non-resident tuition rates and non-resident tuition rates estimated and final parental transportation contract. Again, that's sort of related to what Dr. Roback said about we have an obligation to make sure kids get to where they need to get for their education and we need to pay for that and the way to make that happen is um in this instance is through
100parental transportation and educational data services. So that is K one through eight. I have a motion. Miss Bellarosa. >> Mike Meyer. Second. Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> Okay. And now we come to board action items. Uh those include the cse and CPSE. That's the uh committee on special ed and the committee on preschool special ed recommendations. uh 504 recommendations. Uh Louie Calabro um who is it's a contract for to serve um you want to tell us a little bit about that independent educational evaluation. Thank you. um new positions, full-time onetoone aid, full-time teaching assistant at Cahill, and um the CESA memorandum for the open house back to school night. A new club, there's a dance club in the high school now, and that's very exciting. And I want to say I'm thrilled that
101they were inspired by the second graders. Um and then the uh CEA memorandum of agreement and special ed student contract. So that is our items L1 through 8. Can I have a motion? >> Mr. Wells. Second. Miss Verosa. Uh any discussion, questions? All in favor? I Uh committee reports uh audit committee bills. >> Yes, you can hear me. Okay, great. So, um I'm the chair of the audit committee and we held a meeting on Wednesday, January 28th. Um that the the meeting was held with our um new internal auditing firm. Uh we have both external auditors and an internal auditor. Um and New Jen and Howler uh has started with us this year uh to and the role of an internal auditor is they perform the annual risk assessment and then a focus audit. based
102on what they find during the overall risk assessment. So the overall risk assessment is really kind of a mile wide inch deep overview of the district um mostly from a business and financial perspective. Um and since they're new to us as a school district, um they they do many school districts themselves, but um this is their first year working with so they interviewed a lot of the business departments, district management, um and did kind of walk, you know, talked to them about what their job is and how they do it and walk through their procedures, walked through some temp sample testing as they went through it all. And at the end of the day, they provide an overall risk um of the various areas within the district. Um and they will rate them high, medium,
103or low. Uh some of the I think there's four areas that they indicated are always going to be high risk for every district just because of the nature of um what goes through that activity. Um and then uh the others would be assessed at high, medium or low. So based on the results um of their uh risk assessment, they identified area um I think it was a total of 19 um business related areas that they looked at and they had eight that were high risk, four of which were deemed inherently high which is um would be high no matter what the conditions. Um the first was uh assessing the financial condition. um that was deemed high um because as we've talked about um you know there's been some turnover um within our business office over
104the last year or two um and also our external audits have been a little late the last two years in a row. So they they've deemed that as something high risk but don't anticipate that that would continue if we are able to tighten up um some of our external reporting. uh cash receipts and revenue reporting is always going to be inherently high. Uh accounts payable and cash dispersements are um usually typically high. Um and they've also the district has had turnover in the AP area this year. So they've deemed that to be a high-risisk area. Payroll and personnel is always going to be inherently high as we talked about u with the budget that the biggest slice of the pie is contracts and teacher salaries. So, um, that's always going to be a high-risisk area.
105Facilities and maintenance, you know, we had a new, um, position of, uh, I think a maintenance director this year. And so, just having that new position and how all that's going to work, they deemed that to be a high area. Um, fixed assets and inventory is also inherently high. We have a lot of, a lot of everything, you know, technology. Um, we have a lot of things to count. So, That's always uh an inherently high risk. Cafeterian food service was high due to the complexity of um you know having cash, multiple buildings, multiple food servicing areas and then extra classroom activities which is also deemed inherently high because of you know you're dealing with students and money and it's always going to be um a learning experience for everyone. So um out after all of
106that and discussing what is bit they're deeming to be high risk within our district um they would they will choose an area of those high areas to do what they call a focus audit which is a deeper dive into that um specific area and this year we have chosen to uh do payroll and personnel >> and they will um I think it's probably in in process right now. Um they were going to come in um after doing some initial selections with Mike some for some information and the things that they're going to do in their deep dive to look at new hires and act personnel files um how the quarterly reports are run any 403b which is kind of the 401k plan. the school districts um how that deferred compensation comp compensation compensation is calculated.
107Um review all the salary codes, payroll change reports, review COBRA and retirey health insurance, compensated balances like um vacation and um sick time, direct deposits, wage chargements, time sheets. So you can see that it's a pretty detailed um review of that area. So we look forward to the work that they're going to do and the results that they're going to have it. So that's the audit. Thank you. >> Thank you so much uh Christine and thank you again. I thank you before for I'm just going to do it again for being on the board and for really the diligence that you have um about an area that I am just super weak in and so it's great. Thank you. uh facilities. >> Yes. Um facilities meeting for this month was cancelled, postponed uh partially because
108of the snow yesterday and and some issues last week, technology issues, but also because we're waiting for these reports from tech and um as soon as we get the the traffic study in from Ricardi and the facilities committee is going to be focusing on the Ricardi easement issue, the uh upcoming capital project that we're going to be needing to plan for and bringing in a a construction manager for that. And then also um I do want to hold space for transportation because transportation is our largest cost after personnel and there's a lot to it. So more to come at the March meeting. >> Excellent. And um policy that is me. Um we also canceled our meeting this month because of uh travel and weather and we'll be meeting again in March. Um, we have contracted
109to have a policy review of our entire manual, um, which hasn't happened since we sort of assembled the manual current in its current form in 2013. And it's really recommended that that happen every 3 to five years, especially if there leadership changes. Um, so where are we with that? >> We sent the cross contracts >> to them. >> It's in motion. Okay. So that's going to be happening with Erie Wosis. Um and we will be meeting again on the first Tuesday in February and invite everybody come. Um we did other board members um that today at the lobby day and uh I told them that oh no we have like 15 20 people at our policy meetings and they could not believe it. So um with that we come to our second public recognition. So
110I know it took a little time but here we are. I appreciate everybody's waiting. Um so I will invite you to come up. You can stand, you can sit. Um if there is a student in the house, I would like to give the student the freedom to go first. um simply because we like them to get rest and yes and you have to sign in and it's on the table and um so if you could just say your name where you live um and actually if we could just do a quick hands of people who want to speak tonight. Okay so we have a three minute limit. So there are six people here, right? That's 18 minutes. That's about 20 minutes. We have 20 minutes. We have 10 minutes on this the agenda, but we'll
111give 20. So Michelle over here is going to be our timekeeper because three minutes can be endless and three minutes can also go really fast. So when you have about 30 seconds left, she's just going to do this with her hands. Okay? And we're not going to gamble anybody out. So we're just going to ask you to sort of wrap it up so that everybody here can speak because it really matters to us that you're here. Um and thank you. So name and Okay. So our first speaker will also have his remarks translated into Spanish. Thank you very much. >> There you are. So name and uh name and address. >> Um carry on. >> My name's uh Reiker Armanine. I'm in the seventh grade. My address is 4 Route 32251. >> Good evening. My
112name is Reiker Armenine and I'm a seventh grade student at the Junior High School. I'm standing here tonight because I want to use my privilege and protect my classmates, friends, and community. I'm here to ask you to please adopt this resolution and declare our district a safe zone for all students and families. Some students are worried that when they go to school, their parents might not be there when they come home. This just happened to my friend in Kingston while he was at school. I can't even begin to imagine what that feels like. School is already hard, but now he and others have to live in fear while still trying to learn and get through the school day. So schools are supposed to be the one place where we feel safe, welcome, and able to
113focus on learning. This can't be true if students are worried about immigration officers coming on the school grounds, near buses, or into classrooms. All students have the constitutional right to a public education, no matter their immigration status. And as a school district, it is your responsibility to make sure that right is protected. This resolution does important things. It would clearly state that non-local law enforcement, including ICE, cannot come on the school property without following strict protocols. It would protect student privacy. It would make sure staff are trained. It would make sure families know their rights and it would show students that this district stands with them. Even if you were already following the protocol, I am asking you to put out an official public statement. It tells our families, you are safe. We see you.
114We support you. ICE activity has been happening in our country for a while already. There's no time to waste. Please act now for this resolution. Declare our district a safe zone and set up know your rights workshops and clear protocols. Please show every student in this district that Their safety, their education, and their future truly matter to you. Everyone belongs here. Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Andrea Viviani. I live at For Rock Maple Road here in Soures. I am here this evening to translate Riker's statement into Spanish. I'd be remiss first to not acknowledge that I would not have this skill if it were not for the education I received within these walls in the classrooms of two amazing teachers Angela Hulahan and Laante Buoes Riker Darin and Amos amigos. Padres, Eliach.
115Estoes and lastori respons. Fore personal. Now, official Fore estabos. educos. Next You hear me? Okay now. >> All right. My name is Erica Pipco. I live at Trice Terrace Parent. I grew up in an extremely segregated school district in New York State. As property owners, we intentionally chose to raise a family in so in large part due to the diversity here in the village. My daughter has grown up in a multilingual community filled with incredible families who have enriched our lives. My family has been embraced by families from around the world. Unfortunately, those same families that have grown that I have grown up with since the first time my daughter walked through the doors at Cahill could now become targets of this current administration. Around the country, children have been indiscriminately and aggressively detained. The
116vast majority for civil misdemeanor like overstaying a visa, sent to makeshift tent camps set up in warehouses. Adequate medical care and hygiene access are not being provided. Moldy and buggy food, dirty water, and unsanitary conditions have been reported in multiple facilities. Children do not get time outdoors. The severe trauma of these experiences will cause generational harm. All students in the United States have a constitutionally protected right to obtain a public education regardless of legal status. Children in these camps are not being given access to a real education. At Dilly Detention Center in Texas, there's one hour of mixed level instruction, often just worksheets conducted on a first come, first- serve basis. Kids line up every to try to get into that. Board members have a professional responsibility to foster inclusivity, empower students, and advocate for
117policies that create a safer, more supportive environment for immigrant families. So must adopt policies to limit ICE enforcement on school grounds, improve protection of student privacy, and reaffirm that education is accessible to all students regardless of immigration status. By adopting a resolution that protects immigrant students and families, this board will send a strong message to members of the sovereignty community that every family in this district matters. None of our families are safe unless all of our families are safe. Your courage in this moment will be your legacy. Thank you very much. Sorry. >> My name is Dr. Christine Dinsmore. I'm a retired psychologist who work with children and adults who experience post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD. I've come here tonight in support of the school board passing the resolution to protect all children and their families
118at school activities, including classrooms, on buses, at school events, and on school grounds. Trauma is contagious. We have all witnessed families documented with green cards or asylum cases, undocumented lived and contributed peacefully for decades and citizens who are black on and brown or brown being grabbed by ICE and Border Patrol. While the image of 5-year-old Liam being ushed into a van by ICE sears in my brain, he is one of many children who have been traumatized by our federal government. Yet, it's not only those children and families who are affected. Countless people, especially children, have been traumatized as they witness what's happening and worry if it can happen to them and their families. For people who may not be sympathetic to the plight of immigrants here, of which I am not one of them, and
119are focused only on their children, families, town, state, or country. I want to emphasize that protecting our most vulnerable is protecting their children, too. I urge the school board to take a public stand and reaffirm that all children will be protected in Sovereignty School District by passing this resolution. It's the least a caring adult can do. Publicly reassure our students that they will be safe with us. Thank you. Pick this up. >> I need you because the people online need to hear you. >> Hello. >> Yep. >> My name is Lanny Walter. I live on Van Learden Road in Sedesh since 1989. My family's been in the town since the early 60s. As a former president and member of this board, I am a gasast at what the current president of this nation has done
120to terrorize our children and their families. I ask you to do all you can do to comfort and protect them. The Kingston School Board has enacted a resolution which is attached to this letter that strives to provide the protection its community needs. Please use it as a guide to protect the vulnerable members of our community and enact a similar guide to the well-being of members of our community. have shown tonight that I'm talking to many people unemployed uh who followed my regime uh as being inclined to develop and enact vote positively on such a resolution and I'm delighted to see that that seems to be the situation. One of you commented that it's important that the resolution be adopted unanimously. Now, I certainly hope it's adopted unanimously, but actually, you know, there's reasons why people
121have different feelings about these things, and maybe some of you won't support the resolution that you come up with, but all you need, and I this is my advice as former president, is a majority. So, please do what you've indicated tonight that you are going to do, and please as soon as possible. We're in a terrible fix in this country and we need you to act uh along those lines. I'd like to give you my letter and the copy of this resolution. Who should I give it to? >> I'll take I have the resolution. >> I want to have my copy >> and just Because uh people online are texting that they can't hear, speak really loud into the mic so that the folks online can hear it. >> Is this on? >> Yep. >>
122Is this on? >> Yeah, you just have to talk right into it. >> Okay. Well, I'm here for the tax exemption for the fire district, and I don't know if this is the time to do it, but I wanted to uh come here, and I came to you before November 14th, 2023 for a tax exemption for all te for all town fire districts. It was passed and we are grateful and thank and thankful for this. I'm here today because it is the opinion of the Association of Fire District Lawyers of the State of New York that the that the exemption must be requested every year due to a law change. I have enclosed an article from the association, your previous resolution, and an active firefighters list from the Glas Fire District signed by Chief May.
123I will instruct other fire departments to update their list and forward to you. I have everything here. >> Tried to make it as easy as I could. >> Thank you so much. >> The way they read it, the way the lawyers are reading it from the fire district, they want us to come every year. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. Yeah, we'll take that. >> I see what happens as president. You get all >> position. Thank you so much. >> Anybody else? >> And please just make sure you've signed in on the sheet if you've spoken, please. It's really important that our minutes reflect. >> Great. Excellent. >> My name is Brandon Schumaker. I'm local internet troll. I live in 34 Redwood Suries. That's apartment. Uh I actually came here to ask some questions about
124the budget, but while I was here and did this, I would like to say that as a white guy who benefits from birthright citizenship that I never I'm here in support of the resolution. I'm looking at all of you directly in the hopes that you keep the promises that you've made here today. You all seem like honorable, upstanding people, but I would also remind everyone that there are people in this community that do not agree with the things that were said here. There are people that serve on the police force that do not agree with this resolution and would hand over an undocumented citizen just because they think that's the right thing to do. Some of them might have jobs in this building. So I hope that your commitment to the resolution is also making
125sure everyone is committed to the resolution. So on to my questions. Actually it's for my staker. I noticed on the budget that there was an 11% drop for the uh technology and I know that that came from Governor Hokll, but I'm wondering if you know what determined that need to decrease that by 11% especially since it seems like it's going to be a part of the stuff that we're going to need going forward with this commitment we've made. Yeah, I don't feel like there's a problem answering. >> The more questions about the budget we get, the better. >> You may not have an answer, by the way, but I'm curious if we know what this >> Yes. So that um software, textbooks, those are all expense based aids. So it's based off what we spent
126in 2425 is how the governor determines how much aid we're going to get for the upcoming year. So in the prior year we probably spent more in those c in that particular category. So that's why it's down in the upcoming budget. >> Now what determines the TSR and the ESR for the retirement? One went one went down. I'm just curious what goes into that decision-m process as well. >> Those are um state retirement systems. Those are rates that they calculate um that employers have to contribute to um employee salaries towards their pensions as well. Um, part of it has to do with like markets, how markets are doing. Um, I'm not 100% sure of everything that goes into their calculation, but those are determined by the state for every school district, every village. Um, at
127our part of ERS, those rates are all the same. >> Thank you very much. And actually for Bale, I have the one about the report you did. My son's in seventh grade, as you might know. He's only 2% troublemaker. Good kid, non. So anyway, I noticed that the report you were basing everything on was the 2017. Do we think that the margin of error creates a gap of information that might make a newer survey more valuable or do we feel like that information is pretty valuable still? >> It was the same survey in 2017, but this time I gave it in the same twice and very good. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. >> Is there anybody else who wishes to speak? You can sit right next to him. He's a friendly guy.
128And you just use that mic. Thank you. You're good. >> Is this working? >> It's working. >> Yes. Thank you. >> My name is Dave Mitch. I live here in the village and I um I want to thank you all for volunteering. I know what that's like. I've been on one of the village boards for 35 years and I have been late to some of them. >> Thank you. And um I'm here to urge you to >> really talk right into it. Yep. >> Okay. I'm here to urge you to uh to vote for this resolution because um as you all know, if the child is afraid, it's very difficult to learn and creating an environment here where they can feel safe is really critical. But there's an added benefit to passing this resolution, which
129is you're passing the message to all these children that the community is behind them so that they know they're safer at home. Also, passing this resolution is a huge benefit for this. It's um governing from the bottom up and you have a lot of power here and I hope you take advantage of that. Don't forget to sign in. >> Thank you. >> Next. >> Can you hear me? >> My name is Lori Hopkins. I work with special needs children. My name is Glory Hopkins. I work with special needs children for 32 years in the community. I live on West Bridge Street. Adding on to what my colleagues here have shared, I would say it's a moral imperative to pass this resolution. And for two years, I worked with a preschooler from this community. I recently
130learned that she and her parents were taken by ICE. And you talk about grief. I was so bereff I couldn't go to work the next day thinking a child with autism confronting these goons, the goon squad, these masked frightening people. Um it was horrific and it really took me a few days to get over it. So perhaps traumainformed care now is being um expanded to those of us who work with these children. And when a comment was made about upholding of course federal law, listening just now, I had a knee-jerk reaction. Well, our federal law is actually violating the rule of law and condoning these atrocities. So, thank goodness we were in New York State where we are upholding moral imperatives to take care of our children. So, I thank you. I'm happy with what
131I heard, but I also want to emphasize what Lanni Walter said that perhaps not unanimous, but a majority and we must protect our children. Thank you. >> Thank you. Is there anybody else? There you go. >> Right into it. >> Yeah, you can pull that forward and tilt that down. These are very tight mic. >> Hello, my name is Sue Rosenberg. I live in Westies. Um, I've been here for way over 40 years. My kids went through the school system. I want to first of all thank the superintendent and others uh who spoke for clearly um supporting the idea of a resolution, how important a resolution and not just the intention of the board is. um to protect our students and our families. I I just want to say how moved I was by the
132young man who spoke. I I I couldn't say anything more moving than he did. But I want to join with many here to urge the Soviet school board to pass a similar resolution that the Kingston school board passed um protecting immigrant students and families and ensuring a safe school environment for all. Um, we need to protect our school community, students, teachers, families, regardless of their legal status, race, language, country of origin, from the fear of detention, intimidation, or worse. Our hearts have been broken as we've watched on TV with horror at the actions of ICE has taken in communities close by and far away. We know that Olter County is already experiencing ICE activities, including the tensions, family separations, and deportation affecting kids and families. We know that some kids and families are afraid to
133go to school or school activities. Some parents are afraid to go to work or shop. And we know that there is a proposal for an ICE detention center to be built just next door in Orange County. This is why it's so important to act now. We know that that just the intention or the plans of the sority school district to follow these guidelines may not be enough and you know that as well. So we urge a passage of a resolution which will take a public stand to support everyone in our community with specific guidelines and protocols which must be followed. We know that there is much more that needs to be done, but right now this is something we can do. This is our time to stand up and make our sovereignities voices heard throughout
134the county, the state, and the nation. That we can take all steps to protect all students and families in our community. That we will not allow fear, hate, and justice to dominate. Please make our community proud and pass this resolution. Anybody else? Okay. Um, let's see. So, we now are at our proposed executive session. Um, we will be I need a motion to move into executive session. We are moving into executive session to discuss multiple RFPs that are going out for professional services and an update on separate confidential personnel matters within the district. Can I have a motion? >> Uh, I will. Yeah, we will not be voting on anything when we come back out. You're welcome to stay and saying hello, but we won't be voting on anything. All the actions over. Um, Ms.
135Arari is a second. Uh, any discussion? All in favor? >> Right. >> And the time is 8:55. Thank you. Thank you everybody for coming. We don't have a quorum. >> We need a quorum. Now we have a quorum. Somebody make a motion to come out of executive session. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Mr. Wells, seconded by Mr. Meer. Uh 937. Oh. All in favor? >> I do. >> Sorry. >> You're doing great. >> I need a motion to >> move. Second. >> And all in favor? >> I thank you.