001No, I was saying It's actually okay. Thank you. Good evening. We're going to get started. Thank you for joining us. Please rise and join me in the pledge. I aliance 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. >> Okay, thank you. We are going to begin tonight with our student board member report from Matt Hines. Take it away, Matt. >> Yes, thank you. So, good evening everyone. This week marks the start of the spring sports season here at the high school. So, good luck to all Seer student athletes. But before we move on to spring, a huge congratulations to our very own seaf cheerleaders who came in third place in their traditional New York State
002Championship competition. And also the varsity bowling team is also competing in states this Friday. And varsity wrestling had two sophomores place seventh and sixth in their own New York State wrestling championships. So just overall incredible winter performances from everyone. Last Friday, March 6th, the high school successfully ran their annual blood drive and that was facilitated by the student council. It was a huge success and everyone donated. They saved up to 36 lives. So it's an incredible opportunity. On Friday the 6th and Saturday the 7th, Seaffort High School drama had their production which was the Little Shop of Horrors. And it was an incredible show that I had the honor of attending. And I even saw Dr. Kennedy in the pit playing his instruments. And I wrote on my report and I hope he's here today,
003but I don't see him. And then this upcoming week, the high school band, the dance team, and the cuddly guard, they all are going to New York City's St. St. Patrick's Day parade on Tuesday, March 17th. The Harbor School's production of Alice in Wonderland, that will be Thursday the 19th. And on March 27th and 28th, that is middle school's drama production, and that will be taking place in the high school. So, that wraps up my student report for today. And thank you all. Have a great night. >> Thank you. >> Okay. And we'll move on to Dr.'s administrative report. >> Okay. Okay. So, um the vast majority of administrative report is going to be the presentation tonight with regards to um the enhancements that are being funded through our budget this year. I did just
004want to take a quick moment and mention to the board that with our energy performance contract, we'll be approaching our next stage where there were four companies that responded to it and we're going to be meeting with Energia to go over what those proposals are on March 16th. So, more to come next time on that and our progress with the process. Tonight for board approval is the tenure of one of our very special teachers over at the high school. She's here with us tonight. So um in a moment I'm going to ask Alex me and to come up and say a few words about Katie. Um but I'd really like to take some time just to read to the board of education um some of the comments that were in her tenure recommendation. So, Miss
005Schnable wrote, "Miss Needle, Miss Needle truly sets the tone for members of our Secret High School community to in quotes, surround each other with greatness. From her bright and positive attitude to her attention to detail to engaging instructional strategies, she is constantly refining." Miss Needle always brings her a name to her students and colleagues. And then, uh, Dr. Jacob had written um Through her thoughtful lesson design and integration of diverse text, Miss promotes strong analytical writing and communication skills while nurturing students social emotional development. Her active participation in meetings, curriculum development initiatives, and schoolwide committees demonstrates her collaborative spirit and dedication to continuous improvement. She consistently seeks opportunities to refine her practice and to contribute to broader academic goals of the district. And then I wrote, "Miss Needle is a magical teacher who creates an
006energized positive inquiry based classroom environment for her students. Her passion and excitement for teaching high school students is unmatched. She ignites inner curiosities in our children where it is common to walk into her classroom and see students actively engaged. In her classroom, students will be cloaked in costumes dynamically dynamically acting out scenes from Shakespeare plays. Miss Bele known to wear a costume or two throughout the year. Miss Needle is an exemplar teacher who other educators can emulate. I proudly recommend her for so with that may I ask up Mr. Mante, Miss Judson, and Mr. First of all, I want to >> I want to second everything that's been said already, but I have a couple of words here. So though I've only known Miss Needle for a short time, I've been consistently impressed with her
007dedication, creativity, and compassion toward her students. I first heard about Miss Needle when I was working with Dr. Leone to transition into this role last spring when he shared with me that there was a teacher addressed as a 90-year-old woman in her classroom while lauding her theatrical teaching style and infectious energy. Upon meeting her, I immediately understood Miss Needle is warm, dynamic, and her love of and her students emanated even from that short encounter. My admiration for Miss Mele has only grown throughout this year as I've watched her thoughtfully and strategically engage her students in finding a true love of literature and language. Passionate and determined to the core, she teaches her students with eagerness and an incredible amount of heart, even finding ways to make those the most hesitant of students fall in love
008with Shakespeare and Steinbeck alike. She even pers persuaded one such student to put on a dress and beautifully act the role of Juliet right alongside her Paris. Not an easy feat for 8 a.m. Uh early on in my weeks here I happened upon a group of Miss Mele students all male in the hallway sitting huddled around a laptop. When I inquired what they were doing they whispered making epiphies. I think this says it all. Miss is a wonderful educator who is enthusiastic, thoughtful, and creative in everything she does and lights the way for her students to emulate those qualities as well. Congratulations on tenure. We are so lucky to have you. So, I've had the fortune of observing Miss Mele and a lot of other teachers for the past 15 years um working in education
009as an assistant principal. And I can honestly say that Miss Mele is in the top five best teachers that I've ever observed. Um tonight, we celebrate a remarkable educator who has earned her tenure through dedication, creativity, and a genuine love for teaching. As a ninth grade English teacher, she brings a flare of fun and finds ways to make learning interactive and exciting. She also serves as a creative writing and poetry adviser, nurturing students voices and encouraging self-expression. As the 11th grade adviser, she engages both students and parents in meaningful activities, creating a strong sense of community. One of our more spirited staff members, she approaches her classroom and extracurriculars much like a camp where students learn through games, exploration, and enthusiasm. She has worked incredibly hard to reach this milestone, and her passion for teaching
010ensures that every bit of that effort is felt by her students every day. We are proud to recognize her outstanding contributions and commitment to our school community. So, it's been customary now for several years that upon receiving tenure, we bestow upon the awardee a green apple signifying that you are forever going to be one of our teachers. So, if you come on up, Katie, we'll we'll give you a green apple and we'll take some pictures. congratulations so Thank you. >> Thank you so much. We're going to go right into a budget presentation if that's okay. Hey, good evening. So, this is this one of my favorite budget presentations because it really talks about the origin of how we create a budget and what we focus on. I would first like to thank my co-presenters. So,
011Miss Rhonda Mezell and Mr. Stalolino and Miss Kala Sun, thank you so much for your efforts in not only that you do every day, but the hard thought process that we all went through together to to develop this presentation. And uh Dr. Jacob also gets a little bit of a shout out because she is our technical expert in camera. So without further ado, so we're here tonight celebrating excellence and and the point of that is the investment that we're making in tomorrow's secret scholars. So as always, um I Start with the why. Why do we do what we do? And we have to go back to our mission statement and some of the key words in our mission statement which are to empower students to develop their academic and social skills while becoming learners and
012leaders who create a better present and future in a democratic society. It's a very lofty goal and we take those words very seriously. And then if we take a look at how our board goals coincide with this, of course, when we're developing a budget, we're going to look at our financial goal, which is to create a fiscally responsible and operationally efficient budget that remains that maintains and enhances the integrity of all our programs. And I think that that's really important to mention because as we keep building, maintaining becomes more difficult and it becomes even more difficult to continuously invent and innovate within our existing structures. Um, but we have an amazing team that continues to do that. And while we're doing that, again, we're looking at making sure that our programs and the learning that
013goes on in classrooms is excellent. We make sure that we have social emotional uh learning in place across the board K through 12 and and we have a huge component focusing on making sure that all of our students are safe both physically and emotionally. Um communication I think our district is one of the best with regards to how we communicate both internally and then with our parents and our larger community. And of course, we've done a tremendous amount, especially in the last several years, of creating and maintaining a modern and competitive campus that enhances the opportunities for our students. So that's the backdrop for how we're starting to build this budget because we want to make sure that we remain pure to these goals. So then we say, okay, so how do we do this?
014What do the goals look like in action? So what the goals look like in action is our school district is trying to do a couple of things. we've presented on the blue ribbon commission. We know that the portrait of a graduate is going to be coming as well as some changes to graduation requirements. So what we do is we make sure that we have the competencies and there's ongoing work to make sure that our Seafford scholars continue to improve through these innovative programs and that we have no problem meeting what the new state requirements will be as they develop. So how do we do that? We cultivate secret scholars in almost everything that we do. Um, we do a really good job communicating to our students and rewarding them for when they show those behaviors
015and dispositions of being something like a principled person or a good communicator or a networker. The other thing that we do is we've increased the focus on project based learning. That's more the real world. And at every level K through 12, we've tried to enhance opportunities for students to show us what they know. In addition, we've expanded college level course offerings, which we've spoken about a number of times already earlier in earlier presentations this year. We advance our programs to academically prepare students for whatever future they have when they leave us. We focus tremendously on wellness and social emotional development. And we can't do that without providing for our staff and faculty appropriate and meaningful professional development. We prioritize innovation and instructional technology. We've spent a lot of time talking about how do we stay
016competitive in those realms. And then we promote inquiry and problem solving. Uh the revamping of three out of our four libraries to where they're state-of-the-art establishments right now where kids can go in and create and think and question. That's a project that we just keep enhancing. And we want them to become more hubs of innovation and inquiry than anything else. Of course, we love books. They take our books. They have to But the other pieces are really important. They need a place to go where their brain is free to ask questions. Um in addition to that uh was provided by the state the seals of biiteracy and civic readiness. This is one of the state enhancements that I think has been very meaningful. Our students are soaring and doing very well. Uh the seal of
017literacy presentations. I just saw Mr. Klein sealed by literacy presentation a couple weeks ago. I think it's a very meaningful addition to our New York State Education Department enhancements to a regular high school graduation and of course the seal of civic readiness. We're in the throws of of finalizing those projects right now. So then we talk about okay so how do we do this? Here are some of the programs that we have that enable us to do all of those big and lofty ideas. Um so we have Kado for programming. We have Heerty. We have advanced liter advancing literacy again social emotional learning. We have habits of minds. We have the ruler program lion's quest. And then when we take a look at our math program over the last two years we spent a lot
018of time enhancing how students operationalize and think about math. So, Magma Math is probably one of um I think the most dynamic tools that our students have for continuing their understanding of mathematics and it sub it supplements at the elementary level our brand new illustrative math program and Mr. Stfalina will talk a lot more about all of these programs in a little bit. Okay. So now we have what we're doing, why why we're doing it, what we're doing, how we're doing it, and then how do we know it's working and we want to continue moving in this direction. And this is the fun part. So we look at our exit criteria and we do really well. So what does a K through 12 13year secret education get us? We have US News and World Report
019best high school's recognition for 2019 through 2025. We are a gold award on the AP honor roll for 2024 and 2025. Our graduation rate is nearly 100% and 99.4%. Our scholar athletes exceed extremely well. We're the vast majority of our teams hold that status and we have and we're given the school title of an athletic school of excellence. A very impressive statistic is 72% of our students earn an advance regions diploma. And one of the things that I'm going to say in addition to this seal of bi literacy and seal of civic readiness when we talk about the number of students who take college classes here there were only 12 students in the class of 2025 who did not take a college level class. And of course we have our successful vocational programs in the
020EMT and the electrical training center. Again, Mr. Stling will mention this more extensively. And then there's more points of pride. So again, external validation that we're doing a great job here. Besides for the AP honor role, we also have schools to watch at the middle school level. We are recognized as an international habits of mind school. the PTA has earned school status of excellence both at the Harour and Manner schools. And then another way we know that we're doing great things is because people want to come and find out what we're doing. So here are just a a few of the conferences that we presented at in the last couple of years. We presented in March of 2024 at the national ASD conference. We presented lift and secret scholars. Um similarly on a local level
021we were asked to do it again so we did it at Long Island ASCD in September of 2024. Dr. and Mr. Piti had taken the show on the road for the Annalie which is the association of middle level educators and presented nationally the work that we're doing not just secret scholars but all of the programs with secret scholars is the bedrock for the programs that they built at the middle school. And then of course habits of mind that's been with us since 2017 18 school year and we are a habits of mind school as I mentioned before both of our schools and we're going to be hosting an indepth conference here next month and then last but not least um we presented at the American Association for School Superintendent just last month not only are
022we presenting these larger concepts we're also on the ground level talking about really important and dynamic things such as AI and what is AI's place within the classroom. So at the AI summit at Malloy University um we had two of our teachers we had um Dr. Kella present as well as Miss Foley and then Joan McCluskey. So again we're at the forefront of innovation. We're at the forefront of some of the topics that are most both provocative and exciting at the same times that are in education right now. So with that talking about our programs much more specifically is Mr. >> Good evening. It's nice to be behind the microphone again. The school budget enables us to provide a comprehensive, robust, and well-rounded education program for our students based on the education goals. We continually
023evaluate and enhance the educational experience for our students. Spoil the next three slides are highlights of what's contained in the upcoming school year's budget as we maintain, enhance, and add to our program. So, while you look at these, these are actually clipboards. They replace the old pagora patches that we used to have in other presentations. But um there's 18 on every slide. I'm not going to go through every one of them, but the ones that are in white are ones that were basically maintained. Okay? Your project lead extensive club offerings, lift program, etc. I want to just go over a few of the green ones. You're going to see link on every slide. And this is going to be a new program that will collect and analyze academic assessment data toward the goal of informing
024our instruction and increasing student achievement. Kid Oyo, I have to be careful how you say that. Kid, it's a new program for us that's going to be used for teaching coding to the kids. Program coding. A really uh huge valuable addition this year was the full ICT program in our classes. I know um Miss Kell son will go over that. Um we'll be getting new third grade laptops next year. Our UPK expansion program, Dr. McCory will go into that in a little more detail. And our new science and math programs are really aimed at developing higher level critical thinking skills with our kids. I've been in some classes to observe. And then of course our we've remodeled our libraries. They become hubs of innovation. We have really neat 3D printers in those libraries. Now, looking
025at the middle school, the big addition is we're bringing the illustrative math program that we have at the elementary school to continue instruction that will be now in sixth grade. The kilm in our art class has opened up a whole dimension for our art. Now, we can do ceramics. We have a seal of civic readiness. All the students in the middle school seventh grade have an opportunity to start earning credit toward a high school graduation credential through a research project aimed at helping our community. The library again has been remodeled for innovation. And then our middle school datawise team has been very effective in examining data and helping our teachers target their instruction to address the needs of our students. And a nice addition is the therapy dogs. Lucy and Riley, I met them the
026other day following our SEAL uh functions and efforts. And of course, we have our AS program and morning Monday morning check-in, which is really unique to the middle school. And then we go on to our high school. And again, the things in white are things that we're maintaining. The things in green are new additions or enhancements. We're adding two assistant coaches. the varsity level for both varsity soccer teams. There's expansion of our ETC and EMT program actually to the electricity training class the other day. I mean, it's really cool to see these kids operating on circuit boards and stuff like that. It was really neat. We uh as always, we're looking to add some new courses. Virtual Enterprise and Forensics 2 will be added next year. Of course, we have an array of our sports
027and extracurricular activities. We had a Viking visitation day which is going to be continued which was a very meaningful experience. We had some amazing speakers and opportunities for the students. This gave the eighth graders an opportunity to learn about the high school and help their transition to the high school. We're expanding our science and technology program again with project leadway and as you can see there are many and there's link and magnumath as Dr. Cor spoke about. So, as mentioned before, the proposed budget represents an excellent comprehensive educational experience for all of our students. And now, okay. So, um just want to speak a little bit about the UP program that we have because um most of costs are covered by grants, but but some of the operational costs are through the funding of our
028general budget. So, I just wanted to spend a little bit of time short amount of time talking about the history of this because a lot of was done in a very short period of time. So, we've had a problem in this district in the past of not being able to get community based organizations, CBOS, to take some of our students because the rate that was offered by the New York State Education Department was $5,400 per student. and it cost a lot more to um educate a child than $5,400 per student. So in the past we have not been we have not been successful with the request proposal that we have sent out. So in 23 24 we sent out an RFP. We had zero CEOs respond and then I had gone to the superintendent's conference
029um in the fall of 2024 and went to a workshop and one of the individuals there said there may be the opport Oh thank you there may be the opportunity to get an extension grant and I do have to give tremendous credit to Dr. Jacob because she was dogged about this. We had a little bit of help from our track, but um she's very persistent and we did secure the grants. However, we secured the grants in April of 2024. So, um so with that, everybody had basically found a spot, but Maplewood to take 18 of our students. So, in our very first year of UPK, we had 18 students. The following year, we knew better. um we had now this additional funding and we were able to use that additional funding um with the 5,400
030uh dollars from the state and put together a package that was more attractive to the CBOS because we did want to compensate them as best we could. So this year we have Kitty Junction, Maplewood, Harmony Early Learning and Learn and Grow. Those are our four CBOs that will be continuing us continuing with us into the 26 27th school year. And right now we have 109 students that are registered for the program. Um there are about four people that are still deciding whether they're going to join on. So there is zero families on the wait list right now. So we're really really happy about this. Um and the and the future is bright. Hopefully, we'll be able to continue with that. Uh there's been a lot of talk in the in the larger educational world and
031across New York State about a statement that Governor Hope has proposed that in 2028 29 school year that UPK would be available for any family of four-year-old that wanted to place a child in UPK. Um that is not finalized at this point, but I think it would be prudent as we plan going forward to understand that we may need to use some of our own district space if we can't have it in CBOS. That may shift things a little bit. And the reason why I mention that is because for a number of reasons, the economic environment is changing a bit. And we have been able to maintain low class sizes. So our average class size K through five at the Manor Elementary School projected right now is 20.5 and it's 20.3 at the Harbor. That's
032about as close as you're going to get. Keep in mind that all of our kindergarters are registered. It doesn't account for the M and flow of people moving into the district and moving out of the district. However, going forward, we're going to really need to start to take a look at the fact that some of these class sizes may be eating up a little bit um just because of the cost of maintaining our district and the possibility that we may have to add a 14th grade to our K through 12 experience. Um just FYI, in every presentation that I've been to at the state level and NYSCD, they don't call it K through 12 anymore. They call it P2. So, I think that's an indication of things to come. So, um I will end on
033the note that I think there's a tremendous amount in this budget and we still are going to hear from Miss Koala Sun who's going to speak specifically about the special education programs that we've had. I really think the fulltime ICT has to be celebrated and she'll talk about that. And then of course the the person of the hour is going to be Miss Mezero who's going to talk about all the numbers. So um first Miss Colson and then thank you. >> Good evening everyone. Um I'm happy to be here this evening to talk a little bit about some points of pride in PPS and student support services. So, first I I absolutely need to thank the board of education and the seafford community because without your support last year, we wouldn't have been able to
034implement our full-time ICT model K through five. And I can only tell you that what's taking place in the classrooms is palpable. It is exciting. The teachers are happy to have the support of one another for all four content areas and our students are thriving. So, why maintain this program? Why is it important and what are the benefits? What do we get out of this? And ideally, first and foremost, our students are getting an optimized fidelity of instruction every day. So, having both teachers, the general education teacher and the special education teacher in the classroom for all four content areas is quite powerful. Um, we're starting to see improved outcomes. We're able to target our instruction in different ways. we're able to utilize um more cohesive co-eing models that show a greater level of efficacy
035for our students. So that in itself is truly important. In addition, having both teachers available to our students allows us to differentiate in a way that was not physically or um environmentally possible in the past. So having those two teachers during that time again very important for our students and important for our staff. Uh we've developed and created our updated uh MTSS plan, our multi-tered system of support plan. And what we needed to do as a district was add that other side of the triangle which was the behavioral supports. And I'm happy to say that that is up on the website that has been completed. And one of the things that the full-time ICT model does is support that triangle for not only our academic interventions but our social, emotional and behavioral interventions as well.
036Having the model available to support tier one and tier 2 interventions in the classroom has been very important. And then one of the things I will say as well is having two teachers in the classroom, youngsters who may have academic needs, youngsters who may have um behavioral challenges, were able to support engagement at a higher rate of learning as well as support some of the behavioral needs and supports of our students throughout the school day. And then we have an expanded professional development opportunity for our teachers K through 12 this year. um most specifically K through five, every teaching team, every co-eing team has access to professional development and inclass coaching. So it really does uh support our teachers in giving them the tools and the resources that they need to help maintain this program
037uh in a successful way. Of course, a huge focus and priority here in Seafford is our social emotional learning and wellness. And really when we take a look at that, we are looking at three buckets. And the first bucket is curriculum. What are we teaching children as it relates to uh social emotional wellness and of course the beacon of that is our Seaffort scholars, right? our secret scholars profile embedded within the secret scholars you will see that each of these curriculums um come to life. So our Lion's Quest program and our ruler program support our youngsters in sound decisionmaking anti-bullying as well as being able to identify regulate label and understand the big feelings that we're feeling P12 right or K12 um our connected not consumed curriculum. This is something I'd like to just take
038a moment to explain. So, we have uh two of our staff members, Miss Sharon Klein, she's our licensed clinical social worker over at the high school, as well as um Mr. Jack Scaliferry, our school counselor, one of our school counselors at the middle school. They together with Dr. Kalala were represented Seafford School District with a number of other Nassau County districts to develop this curriculum. So they were boots on the ground writing the curriculum. And the focus of this curriculum infuses not only the computer science standards as well as digital literacy standards in supporting youngsters in making sound decisions when it comes to technology and the use of technology. So what is your digital footprint? How can you be safe online? What are you doing to access AI? What are some other things we can
039do to develop our social emotional wellness that may or may not include technology? And how do we do that in a safe supportive way? We talked about our habits of mind schools. You know, on an elementary level, we're internationally recognized for that. Our Seaffort scholars has our 16 traits infused and embedded uh in our overall 10 traits of Seaffort scholar profile. And what it does is again teaches our students not only how to be great citizens but how to be responsible, how to make sound decisions and how also to utilize those skills beyond the four walls of Seafford. And then together against bullying is a program that we are utilizing to support going forward some of the anti-bullying um components that we want to make sure our youngsters are aware of and carry and practice.
040And that includes being upstanders, not bystanders. When we talk about partnerships, our partnership secret again with the support of the community and the board of education, we have two main partnerships to talk about. One is our Nassau Boy's mental health consortium which gives us access to collegial circles for many of our specialized staff members. It allows us mo uh monthly professional development that's targeted towards mental health and it also keeps us at the forefront of what's happening in the communities around us when it comes to supports and services. Our South Oaks Northwell partnership goes a little deeper than that. What it does is it provides us with some hands-on support. It gives us access to an adolescent psychiatrist in district. that adolescent psychiatrist is able to perform educational psychiatric evaluations um which is something that
041many families choose to um explore because it gives them information to make sound decisions for their for their children. We also can connect families to care in an expedited fashion which is something that many of you know if you go and get an appointment on your own can be quite challenging to navigate. And in addition to that um the psychiatrist will come in district and support our teams and our teachers and our families with observations and consultation. And then the supports that we offer here in district. We have a robust and highly skilled behavioral health team here in secret. I am proud to say every social worker is a licensed clinical social worker. All of our school psychologists are licensed and trained in multiple modalities for how to meet children's needs and address counseling needs.
042Um the supports that we offer K12 range from, you know, non-mandated social skills groups to regular group counseling, individual counseling, crisis counseling. So really running the gamut and having a skilled team of professionals to be able to execute that is something that I I couldn't ask anymore for. Um and then in addition you know last year with the support of of Dr. Sheena Jacob we developed our behavioral threat assessment management team. Last year we had training from Dr. Costa Scabbakis. He came in he's one of the worldrenowned tra uh you know trainers in behavioral threat management and we have taken our team uh run with it. We have our monthly meetings. We support the district in identifying and mitigating any potential risk and/or threat. And this is something that has been really um wellreceived K
043through 12. In addition, many of our buildings have deescalation teams as well as crisis intervention teams. And so when we talk about the main highlights for student support services, you know, we still through this budget are able to maintain a full continuum of services. And that is something that is extremely special not only for meeting the needs. Thank you. Not only for meeting the needs of our students but for meeting the needs of our families as well because at the end of the day no one can educate our students better than than we can. So we do our best to service as many children as we can in district. In addition now we're proud to say that we have uh full-time integrated co- teaching K through 12. This year we're looking to support some targeted
044professional development for integrated co-eing again which will be phase two that will be mostly at the elementary level and some uh teams on the middle and high school level as well as any new team that comes. In addition, professional development for our special classes, taking a look at enhancing the curriculum and the practices there, as well as providing our full-time aids with specialized registered behavior technician training so that they can support the needs of some of our um of some of our learners. And then lastly, closing the loop on multi-tered system of supports, introducing our universal screener, which is mandated by MTSS, getting that in place, as well as Mr. Strifolino mentioned earlier, link it. Link it becoming the district's dashboard for data and a compilation of where all of our data is housed to
045be able to be analyzed and utilized to drive instruction across the district. While that will be a multi-phase process for full implementation, it's important to say that next year will be the inception of that. And I'd like to now introduce Miss Rhonda Mezerole, our assistant director of um business and operations. >> Thank you, Miss Palisan. Um good evening. So, um how are we going to fund all of this? Uh next presentation will be a full budget both revenues and expenditures but the largest part of the funding source is our local share our tax our taxpayers our residents in the district. It's about 72% of our budget and uh last meeting I shared the actual tax cap calculation and uh I shared that this is among the lowest in in a lot of years. Um at
0462.26% tax levy increase over last year is the maximum tax cap calculation and that is what we are moving forward with. Um again that's the uh second lowest in the last eight years and uh at this point all of the school districts on Long Island and New York State have already filed their tax cap calculations that was due by March 1. And uh um across all of Long Island, the average was 250%. Uh for um Nassau County, it's 2.41 and in Suffach, 2.6. So uh we are among the lowest here in Seafford. Um and I always like to remind that we do not set the tax rate, but rather the tax levy. the tax rate uh is driven by each individual's assessment value within uh the SER boundaries. So um on the next slide um
047here we have a comparative of uh last year to this year and again at the bottom there uh in blue is 2.264% 264% and that equates to a tax levy of 1,390,943 over last year. That's the increase. Um, and we're cognizant of that. We we we try to keep that as uh low as possible, but uh we have a lot of things that we want to maintain and uh grow from here, too. So even with this very low tax cap increase, we are still able to plan for uh our facilities and safety. Um so in the next slides I'm going to share again uh what this budget includes with regard to capital projects and in maintaining our infrastructure. So, one of the projects that we're planning on is another set of bathrooms in our middle
048school. And uh at the top of the slide is both of the actual girls and boys bathroom. And then um at the bottom is what it will look like uh when we're all done. And uh what we have been doing in these bathroom renovations are epoxy floors, which uh are easier to maintain and keep clean. as well as our Seafford green partitions in the bathroom. So, uh we're excited for this project that will begin um you know uh over the summer. That would be our plan. So, um a few weeks back, our facilities director, Mr. Russa, had shared some of the work that has been done and some of the plans that um we had hoped to do. And uh one of those that was mentioned was an improvement to our high school library. However,
049um when we look at all of the projects that we want to do um in the district, uh what became more of an emergency and a priority was here in our middle school gym. We had done a wonderful renovation of that last summer. Um and a picture at the bottom right depicts what that now looks like. New floor and uh the big open ceiling. Um but up above are the pictures of our actual um original to the building windows and um as I had shared last time uh pictures worth a thousand words. >> Got water coming out the top all on the edge pouring down. These buckets been here for no joke saturated. All these towels, cardboard drenched sal. >> So, it doesn't mean that we're not going to look to do our high school
050renovation in the library, but um this had become a priority for us uh in planning the 2627 budget. Uh the the other project that is part of our interfund transfer to capital that we're proposing is a continuation of a project that we had funded and was approved in the 2526 budget and that was to address drainage and also um outdoor space. Uh in order to make that adable and also um we needed to the project sort of morphed a little um We need to provide an egress to this area. So, uh what is being asked for in the 2026 2027 budget are the funds to make that hallway so we may access, you know, make that space accessible to us. Um and it's probably one of the things I think we're all most excited about.
051Um so looking forward to that. Um so even with uh facilities, we always try to keep an eye on safety and how can we improve um and how can we continue to um make those a part of our budget as well. So, one of the things that we're looking to include in this budget is protect more of our turf space that was done a number of years ago and extend fencing. And that is uh on the left side there you can see the arrows where that fencing continuation would just kind of close open space and keep that uh turf safe. Also up above on the right, we have a very old um what we have the passage point system and that's our visitor management system. But what we need to do is um expand that
052and one of the pieces is a new visitor management system. So when visitors come to our schools, we can make sure that um they that safety check is done uh appropriately. That is in all of our schools. And at the bottom right uh we have a very old PA system which is used for announcements and the like and uh that will be we'll be using rate monies which come to the district for the wiring piece of it but uh we need to replace the actual PA system and that is a picture of what we actually are looking to uh install in our high school and then we would move on from there in future years so that uh we have updates to the PA system And that's all of the capital projects that we have
053planned for and safety within our budget. Um, but we do look for creative ways to still enhance our buildings and use whatever funding we're able to. So what uh Dr. Core had mentioned also is that we are embarking on an energy performance contract. So what is an energy performance contract? Uh, it is upgrades to our fac with energy efficient equipment and it can run a gamut of different things uh including solar panels um new boilers. Uh we are in we had sent out a request for proposal to vendors for that. Those vendors are considered um energy service companies escos. Uh we did receive four proposals. Uh next week we'll be working with Eneria our architect firm for those specific pro that specific project and uh we'll be reviewing those proposals and see what they have
054crafted for us and how we might move forward. Um and they are uh at the bottom it says cost is offset by aid and energy savings. Um so we are hoping to take advantage of that and uh do continuous upgrades to our uh infrastructure in an energy efficient way. Um this is just a sampling of some of the things that were put in the RFP uh of things that the district was interested in looking at. Oiler replacements, our unit um unit uh systems in our buildings and um uh not to keep you in suspense but more will come on that subject when we find out and go through what those projects look like. So uh as I mentioned next board meeting we will have the anticipated expenditures and revenues the other revenues that comprise our
055budget along with the detail of the expenditure piece. On April 15th, the board of ed will be asked to um adopt the budget for the 2026 2027 year along with the property tax report card which will be filed uh right after that adoption. And on April 28th, this may have been a change of what originally was posted, but that is the Bosey's budget vote where our board will vote on the Bosey's budget for Nassau County. And May 6 is our budget hearing and it culminates with May 19th, the statewide uh budget vote and uh trustee election. So I thank you all and to my co-presenters, great job. It's exciting. It really is. >> Thank you. Okay, thank you so much for that great presentation. We're going to move on to some business. Any motion for
056agenda items 5A through E2? Any discussion? All in favor? >> This is the resident comment section. Anybody like to speak? All correspondence received by the board has been responded to. Moving on to new business. I need a motion for agenda items 81 through six. Move it. >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I need a motion for agenda item 81. Move it. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I need a motion for agenda item 81. Move it. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> And I need a motion for agenda items 8 D and two. Move it. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Any miscellaneous discussion items from the board? Uh just some closing comments. Thank you to Dr. Pakora, Mr. Malisan, Merall on a
057great budget presentation. It's great to see all the program um enhancements and the way we're sustaining our programs through the years and such tremendous growth. Um that is in every way and um we appreciate all your efforts and we look forward to continuing to grow um our program offerings and work with us. Um we just like to thank the Harvard PTA for their monetary donation to be used toward a brain challenge assembly in May. So thank you to the Harvard PTA. Um as Matt kind mentioned, we've had um some great um student athlete achievements over the last few weeks. Congratulations to them and we look forward to celebrating their successes in future board meetings. Um, a big congratulations to the secret high school of shops. What an amazing production. Um, I brought my youngest and
058thoroughly enjoyed it. It was so phenomenal. Such great talent and the pit was a real treat. I mean from admin to teachers to alumni and to students. Um, just phenomenal. They're all great, but this one was great. Great. So, well done. >> Next level. Um, and I just encourage, you know, the community, anybody watching at home, um, if you didn't get to make this production, you know, do try to make the middle school production. I think it's Spongebob this year. It's end of March. I'm sure it'll be a fun treat. And it's just a great way to see um, how, you know, what once little students grow up to be these very amazing >> as a harbor. That's right. So great productions. Take advantage of them if you can. It's always great to celebrate our
059students. Um and to Miss Mele, congratulations on your tenure and um you are now a Forever Viking. So congratulations. >> Um and I think that's it. Anything new or different? >> No, I just want to say again, Miss Needle, congratulations. Welcome to Vikings for the rest of your life. And um I I I would be remiss if I didn't agree with everybody that was absolutely fabulous and uh we did probably have one of the coolest pits we've had ever. >> No, it didn't. It was really remarkable and and I know Spongebob's going to be wonderful and the third grade production will be great. So, everybody just keep coming. It's a really nice treat to see our children be so confident in their presence on stage as well. So, welcome all. It's going to be fantastic.
060>> That's right. >> And uh good luck to our bowlers. And I need a motion to adjurnn. Please move it. >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. Thank you for joining.