001Good evening. Thank you everyone for joining us and apologies for being a couple minutes late here. Please rise and join me for the pledge of allegiance. 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. >> We're going to start tonight with our exeicio student report. Good evening. With the four with the first quarter officially over and the second quarter already beginning, the school year is flying by very smoothly among the students. This upcoming week are the open houses in the high school where the parents have the opportunity to meet and talk to their children's teachers and I know middle school had theirs today and tomorrow as well. This opportunity is a great experience in
002my opinion as it connects the students bodies the student body's home life and their families with their educational lives and their school experiences. So I think that's very nice. In addition, with the exception of one fall sport, all fall sports have officially come to an end and the winter teams have begun practicing and training. Um so this is a very exciting time of the year. in regards to that one fall sport. There's no bias, I promise. But come out and support the varsity football team Friday night on the county championship at Hoffra and wear your Seafford Vikings gear. And on another note, on December 5th and 6th, the annual hot chocolate run will be also be held here at Seafford. So come sign up, exercise, run a bit, and have a great time with the
003Seafford community. So that sums up my report and thank you >> [applause] >> Matt, thank you as always for a wonderful report. We're very much looking forward to the Nassau County Championship game this Friday night at Hopstra. So, very much looking forward to that. Um, while we're talking about student events, I did also want to give a shout out for our drama that's going to be this Friday at 700 p.m. and then Saturday at 2:00 p.m. and 7 p.m. it's puffs. Um, so if you're interested in wizardry and Harry Potterish type of things, um, is the place to be this weekend. I did want to notify the community that tomorrow I'm going to be getting out of Parent Square notifying um, all families and students that ebikes and e scooters, motorized scooters will not be
004permitted on school properties. It's incredibly important that we maintain the safety of our campuses and um protect our students both those that are driving these vehicles and those that are in the wake of those driving the individuals driving those vehicles. So we we do believe that it is best uh there will also be some information from the Nass County Police Department with regards to motorized bikes and and um ebikes and safety parameters regarding that. Um we also are going to plan on in December releasing information about the UPK lottery. So that's going to be earlier than last year. I also want to mention that uh we have been in touch with uh the Cedar Creek facility. I know some of the parents were concerned down by the harbor. Um we were assured that in the
005process of cleaning, it's basically a high power wash. There are no chemicals. It's the same process that took place in 2019. I am not an environmental scientist, but we've been assured that it is safe and very similar to what had been done in 2019. If any parents are interested in contacting Cedar Creek directly, we can provide them if they, you know, contact my office, I can provide them with the information um to contact the individuals over at the Cedar Creek facility. We are very very pleased to have presenting tonight. We have two presentations. We have the state of the district presentation. Um but prior to that, we are looking at perhaps engaging in energy performance contracts. And we do have our guests from energy are here tonight. So, I'd like to give them a a
006warm welcome and we're excited to have you here tonight. So, just [applause] good evening everyone. My name is Renee Pisano, business development and operations manager with Eneria. And joining me is my colleague Justin Menwa, uh, director of project delivery. Um, thank you for having us tonight. Uh, we're going to share a 10-minute presentation on an energy performance contract opportunity that we've identified for the Seafford uh, school district. Um, and I'll begin with just a brief introduction to Energy just to give you a little idea about who we are and what we do. So, we are an energy engineering firm that focuses specifically on energy saving facility improvements. So, things like HVAC upgrades, lighting controls, and renewable energy opportunities like solar. We also act as your owner's representative, meaning we're here to look out for the
007district's best interests. We manage and oversee the energy project from the early planning stages through implementation. We have a team of experts not only on the engineering and design side but also on the financial side. Meaning we work with the district to identify ways to fund these projects um through the savings that they generate so districts can make substantial improvements to the facilities without impacting the budget. Uh we've been in business for 24 years and our entire focus is helping school districts become more energy efficient, sustainable and effective. Uh to date, we've completed over 150 successful energy performance contract projects, including over 60 megawatts of solar. And just as a fun fact, uh that's equivalent to about 225 football fields. Uh so now we're going to share with you some potential energy conservation projects that
008we identified for Seafford, showing ways the district can improve the facilities, reduce energy costs, and take adv available funding opportunities. Okay, so I'm going to hand it over to Justin now who's going to take you through the details. Thank you. >> All right, thank you, Renee. Uh, and good evening, everyone. Again, Justin Menwa, director of project delivery for Energia. Uh before I get into some of the uh opportunities that we've we've discussed and identified for the district, I want to start out with a brief overview of what an energy performance contract is. Um the first thing that I always like to note is the legislation, right? That's the fun part. Um New York State Energy Law Article 9 uh really establishes the guideline for these projects. Um really just, you know, say that to to
009note that this is a proven concept. uh was actually developed by the federal government um before each state kind of adopted their own legislation. Um but in essence what this legislation allows for is a facility improvement project that is focused on energy efficiency. Um beyond that it really also can serve as an alternative funding mechanism as Rene mentioned for you to pay for these upgrades. Um how it works is that essentially again we're laser focused on driving energy efficiencies and reducing your utility costs which result in energy savings. Those energy savings are then guaranteed to you as part of the process and then they can be leveraged to pay for the upgrades themselves. So we like to say that upgrades today can be paid for out of energy savings later. Um again the guaranteed savings
010is really the critical aspect of these projects and what makes them differ a little bit. more traditional capital project. Um there's also some benefits uh in terms of the procurement and just management of the project. So they are fix fixed price contract as well. There's no change order orders as part of the process. And in addition, we're also able to focus more on life cycle cost analysis of equipment as opposed to lowest first cost. Um really again because of the benefit that you get out of guaranteeing the savings associated with that equipment. uh guaranteeing the performance that that equipment will have uh and then being able to model a comprehensive project that again pays for itself out of those energy savings. So as far as some potential energy conservation measures uh really any system or
011any uh any piece of equipment that impacts your energy usage can be considered as part of this project. Um we have identified some through our conversations again um with the district and and some potential opportunities that we've observed. Um I've highlighted a few a few here. Uh one being LED lighting and ceiling replacements. Um so again upgrading any existing lighting to the latest LED lighting technology will drive energy savings. Um there's also some opportunities in the parking lots uh where we can increase the lighting. uh one to improve uh security of the campuses but also to uh make sure that again those lights are the most energy efficient. Uh in addition there's also opportunities for boiler replacements. Um again certainly uh one impacting of the energy usage but also obviously a capital need that you
012know has to be addressed and doing so through a self-funding project is a great way to get them done. Same thing with unit ventilators. again uh very impactful on the the energy usage in a building and there is some new technologies that are available to make them more energy efficient. Uh next up we identified temperature control upgrades as an opportunity both improving the existing temperature controls throughout the facilities but also trying to identify any of the older uh it's known as pneumatic air driven systems that can be brought up to the latest technology one for better control and better comfort. Um again also to drive additional energy savings. And then last but not least, uh solar. Um obviously solar again is a huge impact on energy uh can greatly offset your energy usage uh and
013your energy costs. In addition, there's also federal incentives that are available for solar. Um I did note there that there are some deadlines that are that are coming up uh creeping up a little bit quickly here with those federal incentives, but still a great opportunity. Definitely an opportunity at this point for the district to take advantage of those, but those can be significant. And again, with the energy savings, paying for the cost of the project, any rebates and incentives that are available really just help to improve the overall economics. >> So, I'll just pass it over to Renee to close us out here. >> Thank you. So, just a little bit about, you know, why partner with a company like ours? And one of the biggest benefits of working with, you know, a company like
014ours is because we're here to protect the district's interest throughout this process. Our role is to ensure that the project works in the district's favor. And when you have a knowledgeable advocate in your corner, you know, we're going to make sure that the district is receiving the best overall value. Um, we ensure the energy performance contract is designed around the district's goals and priorities. We make the contractor is held accountable for all of it. Um, and lastly, there's no cost to engage Eneria. We work at risk up until a contract is signed between the district and their selected contractor. So, ultimately, our job is to keep it simple, transparent, and beneficial for the district from start to finish. And with all our projects, we get the kids involved. We offer student engagement opportunities for the
015students to be involved in the project. So that would entail building walkthroughs. We have a person on our team who would work with the district to tailor a curriculum that would include a math and science component as well as vocabulary and lessons learned. We've done it with a few districts and it was so incredibly received by the teachers, the students and the community and the kids loved it. So, we're very happy to be able to offer that and also be involved in any presentations or assemblies or career fairs, you know, anything you'd want if your if your students are interested in becoming an engineer or learning more about um the project itself. And and lastly, the next step in this process would be to issue an RFP um to, you know, obtain some competitive proposals
016from those energy services companies shooting for next month, followed by those proposals being due in February of 26. And and that's it. Um so, thank you very much for having us. Thank you for having us. Um any questions with the board or anything at this point? >> No. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> Thank you. Have a great evening. Thank you. [applause] >> Yes. We'll move on to the state of the district presentation. Okay. Good evening. So I am excited to present with Miss Eric Beth and Kala Sun uh the state of the district information regarding all the wonderful things that have happened in the district. It's kind of a look back to 2425 school year and then projecting forward where we are right now and where we're going forward. So it's kind of the
017prelude before we begin the budget process. Our theme this year is empowering innovative and mindful scholars. I think it's incredibly important. We worked really hard on developing that image because at the at the the thought process behind that was that at the root of all that we do is sparking that curiosity. So I think the flow towards being our graduate and what it takes to get there is rooted in intellectual curiosity. So as we know, we've done this every year that I've been here. We start goals in mind. Since there were slight modifications to the 2425 goals, we use that as the basis for this presentation and everybody's familiar with the 2526 board goals. And we're going to take them one at a time, so I'm not going to read them um to everybody just
018to be time efficient. We're going to start with financial. As everybody knows, our board goal is to create an a fiscally responsible and operationally efficient budget that maintains and enhances the integrity of all of our programs. With that, there are certain pillars that we need to take a look at. So, we have a very strong financial foundation, incredibly proud of that, the work that the board has done and the administrative team to secure that. There are certain things that are elements of those building blocks. prudent spending, prudent savings, growing our reserves, self-funding our projects. That's kind of one of our our base structures. Then we take a look at staying within our tax cap, being mindful of of what we ask our community to do to support our schools every year, managing our fiscal stress,
019which has been wonderful. It's an an external indicator of financial solveny and strength, and we'll talk about that in a little while. So, I'll each one of these individually. So let's talk about um the fiscal stress score. For the last nine years, we've had no designation. That's phenomenal. Many of those years there were scores of zero. In addition to that, we have another external validating measure and that is our Moody's rating of double A2 which allows us when we do need to borrow we can borrow at a very low interest rate. Both of these things are points of pride in the district. Moving along to tax cap. Again, incredibly proud. We have not had to pierce the cap. We've always stayed within the tax cap. And in years where we can, we've come in below.
020Again, sensitive to the taxpayer. So last year, our maximum allowable tax levy was 2.68. We came in at 2.49. And I think we built a budget that's incredibly robust with programs and including enhancements to our facilities within that budget and coming in a little under the tax cap. Can't proud of this. is going to do it every year but where we can do it we do do it. Next talking about that prudent savings and prudent spending. Uh this is all a piece of it growing the reserves. If we grow our reserves then we can use nightclass to make money on our reserves. If we make money on our reserves so that it continues to build the coffers so that we can selfund some of our projects. And that's all done through five-year planning and forecasting.
021We maximize our state aid and again our partnership with BOSIES. You're going to see that on both sides. We save money by using Boseies but we also save the money because we're spending money through Boseies and we get the aid back the following year. So crossing over to the spending side. We try to use safe contracts. We use ED data. We use Boseies. again that self-funding of the capital projects and then targeting very accurate budgets. When we meet with all of the people in the audience, they're all of our administrators and we say, "What do you need? What do you really need for the next budget cycle? And what would be a really nice want?" And we have to have some wants in our budget otherwise we're not continuing to improve our programs. Okay. Um,
022and this is really nice again talking about instead of paying interest, we're making interest. When we have money in our reserves, we make interest. So, we earned $1.4 million on interest in the 2425 year. Again, that enables us to reinvest that money in the district and we were able to appropriate um over $1.3 million to fund the capital reserve in 2024. Okay. Now, those projects that were funded through our capital reserve were the middle school roof and the middle school gym, which you'll see some beautiful pictures of later in the presentation. Now, let's talk a little bit about self-funding our projects. It has been the year of keeping roofs over our heads for and it will be that way for a while. So, um so this past this past year we worked on the middle
023school roof. Um the past budget that we just passed in 2425 had the manor and the harbor roofs. So we're going to be kneede in roof construction this summer because we will not do that during the school year when children are in session to do those two roofs. Um in there was also a couple of security enhancements, door drawer system, security cameras, and we're working on a new elevator at the high school. We just closed that RFP. We have bids in and we're in the process selecting a company to install the elevator. Uh, just so everybody knows, by doing this conservatively, we we recalculate based on what interest rates are, but this is pretty conservative. If you're looking at a $20 million bond to do all of the roofs over a 15-year period of time
024at 3.5%, it saves about 6.046 million by doing it that way. Interest rates a little higher, years are a little longer, you're going to get a different number, but this is a very conservative number. And all of that builds the foundation for secret schools. So because we have this strong financial foundation, we build great academic programs. Another pillar is our staffing. We hire well and we've maintained wonderful professional development programs for our faculty and staff. Facilities keep getting better and better. Thank you, Mr. Costa and crew. Uh athletics again, we have some of the most competitive teams in the county and in the state and Mr. So we can account and test for that. And then our extracurricular, all of our building principles do a phenomenal job of working with our teachers on providing exceptional
025programs for our students both during the day and then after school. So now we get to talk about what I think is really fun part. Um not to say facilities isn't fun, that's fun, too. But teaching and learning um is is the crux of what we do every day. And again, empowering innovative and mindful secret scholars, sparking curiosity within our students. Our goal, provide a dynamic, inclusive, and innovative learning environment that promotes and supports the academic growth of secret scholars so that they may realize their full potential while becoming responsible and productive citizens. So, how do we do that? One of the things, one of the initiatives we started, now it's several years ago, it doesn't feel that way, but now it's several years ago, was secret scholars are working backwards and saying if we
026want to build leaders of the future and we want to empower them so that they can create a better present and future for us, what do they need to do? How do they need to act? And what dispositions do they have to have? And that's where we created the secret learner profile which was a ation of things that we had already explored and it's kneede and seeped in educational pedagogy and um practices. So within our secret scholar profile we have habits of mind embedded the ruler program embedded lions quest embedded growth mindset embedded innovators mindset and then we gave it our own special secret twist for what we think is important for our students. Um, and this is constantly under review. What makes this so successful besides for the fact that it's homegrown in our
027own is that we have people invested at every level. Uh, Dr. Jacob runs the or chairs the secret scholars committee and we have educators at the elementary, middle, and high school letters that are devoted to doing this work. I'm not going to read everybody, but please take the time to recognize individuals and educators in the in the district that devote their time to this. And that's really the power of this program is that there's ownership on all levels. Let's take a look a little bit what that looks like more deeply at different levels means different things, but everybody is very focused on making sure that this is becomes part of the culture in Seafford. students are identifying themselves as scholars and what does that mean? So part of it is promoting self-regulation and that we
028do that with the ruler elements of this. So there are monthly um lessons and check-ins and it may look different at the elementary level than it does at the high school level. At the high school level to the right we have everybody all in this year. That's the theme at the high school. And that's that emanates throughout the hallways, throughout the classrooms and into our extracurricular and athletic activities. Uh we showcase exemplary students. We recognize the seafood scholar traits every month and we recognize them with a couple of fun little rewarding activities which we'll give you some pictorials in the next couple of slides. The recognition is done by teachers and peers alike which is I think is an important element and we also have scholar branding everywhere. It should be very clear when somebody
029walks into our schools who we are, what we believe in, and what we want our students to do. So, let's talk about some of those fun things. Um, this is my visualization slide of everything. So, the little keychains are being given out at the elementary level. Every keychain has a secret scholar trait. And when a student um is recognized for demonstrating that, they're given their key chains and they a lot of them them on their backpacks. When they're recognized as a monthly Seafford scholar, they get similar to how other schools have, you know, you made honor role at Seafford Middle School. Well, here it's very important for cars to start to have you're a Seafford scholar and that should they get magnets and that's going to be hopefully very very um proliferated through the secret
030community. Um, we'll click on a little video there so you can hear some of our own students which I think you heard before. >> I'm car to do something good when it get Thank you. Who am I hero? Was the time you were a principal? I think that weren't true after everybody left. >> Thank you. My was the time you were principal. When I helped someone, >> thank you. >> Who am I? >> What does it mean to be principal? >> To do the right thing. >> Thank you. >> What does it mean to be principal? >> To take responsibility. >> Thank you. Thanks for watching. Come back next month. So, you know, one of the things that that is an added element in in many of our schools is students being able one of
031our secret scholar traits is being a communicator and and we've put students front and center in some of these broadcasting opportunities so that they have a voice and I think that that's hugely important. Um, some other things that we're doing along this vein is um this is largely kind of like a high school slide. So there are monthly nominations for recognition for being um having secret scholar traits. I I hear they give out vouchers to the Nordic Nook. If you're lucky enough to be one of those individuals recognized is publicized on Instagram. Again, this concept of being allin. In January, the members of the Secret Scholar committee that are high school members are developing a Secret Scholar family feud assembly. So that should be a lot of fun. So that's new to come. and they
032also do quarterly reflections with the students. It's important to note this doesn't come out of thin air. The committee works really hard at appropriate levels and they develop curriculum every year. So this past summer they worked very hard on making sure that we continue to advance and it is in the buildings basically everywhere. Okay, next. So how do we do this? It's all about hiring, recruiting, and hiring well with our teaching staff. So, in the 2425 school year, um we've had some retirements and so we had 14 new probationary teachers um and professional staff members join the team. Right now, we currently have over the last several years, um there have been a number of retirements. We had 58 non-tenure probationary professional staff members on staff right now, which is about 23 23% of our
033faculty. Um, which means it's wonderful because you have people that come into our district, they want to be Vikings and they embrace what our ideologies are. Um, and secret being a secret scholar is a huge piece of it. It's a very extensive interview process. We screen, we look at portfolios, um we have them do demonstration lessons, they go through a series of interviews, um panel interviews, administrative interviews, background checks, and then there's the onboarding process. So, um we've been told by some of our employees that is one of the most extensive processes that they've had the opportunity to participate in. Um, with that, once somebody is a Viking, there is a commitment to professional development and we have an array of offerings within the community, the educational community. Um, we have districtwide professional development committee
034that that includes administrators and teachers that have a voice in the professional development that's being offered throughout the district. They help write the professional development plan. There are professional learning communities. We participate in um a teacher center with Wanto that we we co-run where there are courses that teachers can take. There are micro courses that are offered by administrators and teachers in house and sometimes occasionally consultants. Uh there are peer observations. There's the administrative retreat. We also hire experts and consultants to work in. A great example would be our math program. Right now we're at ground zero. when you're implementing a new program, it's very important to provide the teachers with the resources and materials that they need in order to make it successful. Um, so we have that when there are any changes that
035are going on like there are with our science curriculum statewide, we have another consultant working with us. Having external validation is hugely important. Um, it keeps us on par with best practices throughout the county and throughout the state and we will continue to do that. Uh we've also have eight hours of professional development districtwide that um is in our teachers contracts and we take that very seriously and we make sure that the learning experiences are are very very valuable um for the teachers and also for the objectives of the district superintendent conference days in August and November. Uh Dr. Jacob does a great job spearheading that and then conferences and professional organizations. It's important again that external connection to what's going on in the g educational world, it's incredibly important. So, let's talk about what
036we give back. So, we go out, get information, but we also go out and give information about the great programs that we have here in SE. We'll talk about that now. So, um it's been really nice. We've been invited to present a number of different national and local conferences. We presented in LA in in March of 2024 uh secret scholars enlist at the ASD national conference in Washington DC. We also presented the same programs at the Long Island ASD conference in September. In November we have two rock stars in the audience. So Dr. and Mr. Kiti presented uh the academic programs and support structures at our middle school at the association for middle level education just this past month. In January we have Ben Calik who is the author of habits of mind coming here
037using us as a case study in how management has implemented habits of minds well and how to be a leader and use habits of mind throughout your district. So, we're hosting that conference here and educators from all over the country will be going into our classrooms and seeing habits mind in action via secret scholars. And then in February, we're presenting again Secret Scholars and Lyft at the American Association for School Administrators um out in National. So, we take from other places, but we also have been very kind in giving back and occasionally we also have some districts that just want to take a look at one or two of those programs. Um, last year Locust Valley came to take a look at our program and I understand that they're developing something in a similar vein
038in Locus Valley. So, how do we spark the fact that we are special and that we do have an effect on our students? Um, the theme this year when we started Superintendent Conference Day was kind of a spin-off on the butterfly effect. Butterfly effect, I think I've mentioned this before, is that the concept that theoretically butterflies flapping their wings in mass in one section of the world could cause a series of events to occur that would cause a tornado in another section of the world. And that's a metaphor for you never really know the smallest action the impact that that can have. And teachers and educators do this every day. You just never know how you influence or touch a child's life. So our theme this year with our little Viking in the background, everybody
039has a button that says this. We're calling it the Viking effect. One flutter endless in inspiration. And I think that people have really taken it to heart. Um it's always nice to remember the impact that you can have on our children. Now, that being said, that's us in our little nuclear world. Um, then there's the state. So, the state, everybody, there has to be a couple of slides on blue ribbon commission because it's coming. Um, portrait of a graduate. I think we're really well positioned. Redefining credits and learning experiences. We're we're getting ready for that transition. There's some setting the diploma requirements. We know that. Um, unlinking uh regent exams, graduation requirements, and then they're moving to one diploma. They'll no longer be local regions and advanced regions diplomas over the next four to five
040years. Um it seems like there was a little switcheroo done. We're used to seeing like the trivial pursuits little circle here with um how the seat was defined portrait of graduate and seems to shift it a little bit um in this world. And again just a careful reminder we've already been positioned to do these things. So we're already filling that bucket of a portrait of graduate with our own programs and with our own um vision for how we want our students to develop these dispositions. So we're developing global citizens. We already have effect communicate effective communicators in our secret scholar profile. We want critical thinkers, creative innovators, academically prepared and reflective individuals. Every single one of them is embedded in the secret scholar traits. So they should have come to us before they develop. Okay.
041Next, UPK. Huge huge success for UPK. You know, again, um this has been a combination of work that's done by several central office administrators. Um boots on the ground at first time was was Dr. Jacob uh when we went out the first time and we had 18 students that we were able to place at Maplewood. From there, we were able to secure an expansion grant which enabled us to pay per seat more money because there aren't many vendors that were willing to take the money that was being offered by the state. That enabled us to be more competitive in what we could pay for our seats in UPK and we were able to increase the participation from 18 to 120 which that's significant. Of course, it's going to look large, very large in in a
042percentage. 622% is impressive, but really, if you're starting with 18, we're we're where we really need to be. We're hoping that we'll work with some of these same vendors this coming school year and be able to place a similar number of students. Okay. So, now let's take a look at again empowering, innovative, and mindful scholars, this time at the elementary level. What are we doing to perpetuate that? We have, as I mentioned before, the new math program. Our libraries are gorgeous. They really have been established as hubs of inquiry. Our Lyft program takes place there. People come from all over to see that. That's a program that's still morphing and developing and actualizing the vision that it's supposed to be. It really is supposed to be a place where innovation is sparked. That's the eye.
043So, library innovation, fitness, and technology working on the old the whole child to build those curious dispositions. Kids should walk into a library and just want to be able to explore things. Uh literacy, we always have a focus on literacy. Um that's that's a cornerstone of what our elementary programs are and we will continue to do so. That in mind, Kado is the basis for our coding program. Um and again, Dr. Kala has bring that to the next level. Uh social studies, we remain firm in continuing to enhance that program. Um we've shifted some of the the work that we do at the elementary level uh in social studies and in science. In science, we shifted from um the fost kids to mystery science and the teachers and the students seem to really enjoy the
044mystery science experiences. And then last but not least, certainly not least, are the music and visual arts. I I think Our kids and our teachers are incredibly gifted across the district. At the elementary level, you see it in the hallways and it makes you smile every day. So, let's talk about what's going on at the secondary level. Lot a lot of fun stuff there. Um, we have the seal of civic readiness, seal of biiteracy. I'm going to talk a little bit more about that. Exploratory programs at the middle school. Libraries as hubs is going to be consistent throughout the way. Project Lead the Way has been another um venue for students earning college level courses has been incredible and it's a progressive program. So project lead the way at the middle school and there are
045project lead the way influences in the lift program as well. Uh college and career planning the high school team has done an amazing job um just continuing to enhance uh the instruction that students get to go through the college process. college boot camps, essay writing, understanding what's expected in a college interview, how to do a resume. It's it's really been pretty expansive. Uh building business and network opportunities is incredibly important, has always been a focus, as well as access to advanced placement courses as well as college courses. research is cannot be underscored enough how important it is for students to have research skills. So both within our science research program and then of course within our capstone programs we really push for that type of skill development. It will serve students well in in any
046environment in the workplace and particularly in a collegiate environment right now. taking a look at the fine and applied arts offerings. We continue to enhance and improve those. Our handson life real life courses in the electrical training center and the EMT. You'll see a little bit more about that coming forward. Promoting student leadership, interest in clubs, and making sure that our wellness centers are accessible to the students, particularly at the secondary level, is hugely important. And we do have our emotional support dogs as part of the wellness center as well. Okay. So, let's take a look a little bit at um assessment data. So, the next slide, we really historically um have not really I'm not saying we're not paying attention to it. It's just that the data isn't necessarily meaningful because we have such
047high optout rates on the state assessments. Um you know, going forward, we're starting to see our numbers ek up a little bit because the student has the opportunity to show what they know or they don't know, it's a data point that parents have and teachers have that they wouldn't normally have had. So whereas on some of the grade levels our opt out rates are upwards of almost 70%. It's really hard to glean whether this is meaningful data or not. But what is meaningful data is the NWA data because NWA is nationally normed data and at every grade level in math and reading we are above the national norm and that's normed on millions of kids. So this is significant and again it's a significant point of pride and it's an accurate data point. Taking a
048look at some of the regent exams. So in the humanities historically we've done really well. This past year is no different. In global history we're above the county average with a 95% passing rate. US history and government again well above the region which is the county and ELA significantly above the county average. with the 98% passing rate. When we take a look at the exams traditionally that have been required for graduation, that's going to be algebra 1, living environment, and earth science. Um, again, with these exams, if we take a look at performance, we are very much above the county average in algebra and living environment. Keeping in mind that exclusively eighth graders for the most part take living environment. Uh that was a transition we made about five years ago where we said that
049we went from it being an honors course to opening it up that all students in eighth grade would have the opportunity to learn in the living environment. That's part particularly significant that the passing rate is 92% because that's an entire grade level taking the exam a year before it was designated by the state. Um the reciprocal of that is earth science. So earth science were a little bit below the county but keep in mind some other districts their honors program is earth science in eighth grade. So if you're looking at the county not everybody does living environment in eighth grade. Some do earth science in eighth grade. Okay. So, now we're going to talk about some of the exams that are elective exams. Some of these exams qualify students for currently what's an advanced regions
050diploma. So if you take a look at geometry, there's always room for improvement, but geometry is one of those courses where you have to take a look at the blue column, you have to take a look at the orange column, and the yellow column arguably is the most important column because whenever you take a look at data, it's a matter of two things. How well the students do and how many kids take the test. If five kids take the test and all of them get 100%. That doesn't mean you're doing phenomenally well in instruction. With geometry, we have significantly more students taking the test than other schools in Nassau County. So we took a take a look at our quantity factor. We have 105%. You say, well, how could there be 105%. Because they take
051the average of grades 10 through 12. So if nth and tth graders had a slightly higher grade level than the 12th graders, then that's how that's how it was figured. Um, so when you take a look at the fact that almost all of our kids take geometry and the quality factor, you're you have a ratio of equality and quantity factor. So in here, if you take a look at the yellow column, we're doing better than the counted because we have more kids taking the test. Again, geometry is a subject that we have earmarked that we'd like to see improvement because it's not okay that there's a 62% passing rate no matter how many kids can take the test. So that's something that we're looking to improve. Algebra 2, um, which again is a rigorous course.
052It is basically one of the courses that's the gatekeeper for an advanced regions diploma. we do extremely well here. We do both. We have a lot of kids taking it and our kids do well. So here 91% of our kids pass. So when the quality quality [clears throat] matches what's there in the county, but again if you take a look at the yellow column because we have more kids taking it, we do better than the county. We have 70% of our kids that are hitting the quantity and the quality. So, a lot of kids taken and a lot of kids do well versus 66%. In chemistry and physics, those are areas that are under very careful review right now because there in both of those exams, we haven't done as well as we've done in
053the past. Chemistry, we did not do significantly as well as we had done the prior year. So, we'll talk about what what we've put in place. Um, so in chemistry and physics, there is definitely work to be done. in order for our students to perform better this year. So, let's talk about what's going on in chemistry and physics. So, when we had gotten the test results over the summer, we said now not every regent exam is offered in August. So, physics is not offered in August. So, the other exams that were offered if kids did not pass or kids wanted to or students wanted to perform better, we offered several opportunities. The first thing that we did was we pulled their regent exams. We pulled the answer scores and we set up teachers that would
054be able to sit with the students, go over their exams so that they understood where they did well and where they needed to improve before they sat for the exam again. And then we also offered some tutoring sessions over the summer. So that's what we did for all students that were taking the a August exam. We're doing the same thing again for students that want to maintain a higher score in January. And this time we're including the physics students because physics will be offered in January. That's part that's part of when students didn't perform as well as where we wanted them to perform. What supports can we give them so they can perform better? Then looking prospectively for this coming year. What have we done instructionally? So we've instituted common common quarterly assessments in chemistry.
055And again, even though earth science we did fine, we still did below the county. So that's in the bucket of wanting to see higher scores this year. So chemistry, earth, and space science, which is going to be a new regions exam. It's not earth science anymore. It's earth and space science and geometry. Those are three areas that we targeted for common quarterly assessments. And then on each unit assessment, there'll be some common items. By common items, I mean common questions. In physics, that's a different level um where we're going to be or we are monitoring weekly the curriculum and the assessments that are taking place within the physics classes. Teachers al have always been engaged in looking at assessment data. This year we're asking them to to dive deeper in understanding the data before them
056especially in the common items and then how we're going to modify our instruction. So that's our plan for improving some of the scores and quite frankly also maintaining some of the scores for the students that have been doing well. Okay. So now we take a look at students who historically have graduated with advanced designation. So I want to explain it looks like we were absolute rock stars in 2023 and 2024 we sunk a little bit. But let me explain why. So what you will will secrets in blue. We are always above the county in the number of students that graduate with an advanced diploma, which is important and that's something to be proud of. Let me explain why it looked a little differently in 23 and in 22. The 23 and 22 were COVID years.
057So in those years, everywhere where it says E, they were exempt. So the state didn't force you to take the regent's exam. it didn't it wasn't held against you to take the region's exam but going back to the slide prior in every year we're still higher than the region so again I we're doing fine again a shout out to our hands-on courses that that prepare our students for life [clears throat] beyond seafood in the electrical training center and the emergency medical services program. I think we have a little video here too uh just to bring some of the coursework to life. >> Okay. Um they are two programs that we're incredibly proud to house within our high school and we are very happy that they have been um so successful. Taking a look at the
058number of students that are taking AP exams. The pi graph on the left shows the breakdown by grade level. So across the board we have nth graders, 10th graders, 11th graders, and 12th graders. The biggest pie is 11th graders taking AP exams. And then to the right you see the number of AP tests taking per student. So we do have a significant number of students that are taking two, three, four plus AP exams. We'll have a little bit more on that. We take a look at the distribution of AP scores. Obviously there's a significant number of students that are getting threes or higher on the AP exams. And again I'll have another data point for that in a little bit. To the right it shows the interest. And I think this is important. We offer
059diverse coffer course offerings at Seafford High School. So we have students participating in research in AP Capstone. We have the arts. We have English, social studies, the STEM courses, world language. It's a diversified uh composite of courses that are offered at the advanced placement level. Taking a look here on this graph, the light blue is tir again. the participation indust now these are seats these are not students so if I'm taking five AP classes I'm counted five times in these scores so if we take a look at 23 24 school year we had 687 seats it last year or this This year it's up to 803. Last year it was 748. We have a lot of students opting to take AP courses, which is very nice. And not only are they taking them, but they're
060doing well. So we've had a huge increase in the number of students that are getting a score of three or higher. It's gone up 54%. Again, very, very nice to see. And here we're competing against ourselves. The red was us in 21 and the blue is us in 25. So we're just competing against ourselves here. And again, the data is impressive with the number of exams being given from 605 to 710 and the total number of AP students going from 293 to 316, which tells me students that are taking AP are being successful in AP and they're taking a lot of AP classes. Another offering seal of literacy and seal of civic readiness. We one of the first districts to offer seal of bi literacy. Also one of the first districts to offer seal of
061civic readiness. Last year we had 18 students that qualified for the seal of bi literacy. This year there's a very very impressive um number of students that are applying and and trying to reach that goal 41. Uh that's it's very lofty. And with the seal of civic readiness, last year we had 56 students and this year we have approximately 65. That number may rise. One of the things that we've done is we brought some of the projects down to the middle school level and the high school level so it's embedded within the coursework. So it's easier for the students to monitor the requirements for that because it's embedded in the work that we do on a daily basis. Graduation rate which also includes our August graduates. Again, we hover usually in the high 90s, 97
06298%. In 2425, we're at 99.4% of our students graduate. Okay. Now, it is my distinct honor to introduce Miss Mary Katherine Kelsson to talk about our student support services. Good evening everyone. I'm happy to be here tonight with you. Um so I'd like to just take an opportunity to share some of the pride and highlights that fall under the umbrella of the student support services programs. If we take a look at our mantra, our core values and that value and mantra is every Viking every day. Empowering innovative and mindful scholars by meeting the needs of the whole child. And our board of education goal says it best. It really does summarize it. by promoting a safe, secure, and nurturing environment of belonging that proactively supports the physical, social, and emotional needs of all students. But
063our work is steeped in four tenants. And those four tenants include access to a full continuum of services. That access to a full continuum of services is something that I've spoken about on a number of occasions, but is a huge point of pride here in Seaford. We offer services that range from building level supports in all four buildings all the way through intensive special classes for youngsters who need additional support. Another point of pride is our inclusive practice and connections. And this is something that has really um been the at the forefront of the work that we do here in secret. A couple of things I'd like to highlight. We have our Vikings united day. Be prepared. This year it's on April 24th. So, uh, more information to come, but some exciting activities connected with
064that. As well as our, um, all abilities advisory council, which was something that started last year, and Dr. Battalion and Miss Hermal are at the helm of that in which there's parent and staff representation supporting how our practices and programs can foster inclusivity here in the district. You heard a lot this evening about our Seafford scholars and how we embed that. It's it runs through our veins. It's infused in everything we do. Um and really our focus is to develop kind, responsible and innovative citizens um from now as they graduate school postsecary into their successes. And then lastly, we celebrate those students successes in a myriad of ways no matter how big or how small. And how do we do this? How do we advance excellence, inclusion, and well-being? Well, I want to thank the
065board of education and the community as a whole because you supported us in closing the circle of our ICT model here in Seaford. We had a full-time ICT model in grades 6 through 12 and you supported us in expanding that in both of our elementary buildings K through 5. And I'm thrilled to report that with the support of all the administrative teams, the board of education, and central office, our programming is thriving, students are happy, and we're seeing success in those classrooms. This summer, uh, we expanded our extended school year program. Our extended school year program typically supported youngsters on the secondary level in, um, a manner in which we supported them in a resource model. this year. Um, thrilled to say that, uh, Dr. Battalia and Miss Hermel were able to expand expand the
066program. We added an additional special class, a 1211 special class for our high schoolers. And not only was that done, but we were able to partner with Northwell's vocational program services where our youngsters have access to push in staff members from Northwell to support prevocational skills, self- advocacy skills, and also preparedness for our post-secondary outcomes. So, that's something that we were really excited to expand upon. And then as we relate to the safety component of our board of education goal, uh we did some crisis management training and launched our behavioral threat assessment management team this year. It started in the summer. Uh on the team we have a number of uh building administrators uh school personnel support staff and we were trained by Dr. Costas Pastvakus. He has over 25 years of expertise in behavioral
067threat assessment. Um, internationally known. He came in, he did our training, he helped us launch our committee and our team. And I'm happy to say that we utilize this mechanism to maintain a proactive, safe, and supportive environment for all learners. And the key component of educating the whole child is really being able to bridge learning with social, emotional and physical wellness. And you see here just the visual of the social emotional programming as well as our Northwell partnership which supports not only our Seafford scholars initiative but leads us to that um you know blueprint for education as and being able to produce the citizens that we want going forward into the future. I do want to take a brief moment to just focus in on the Northwell partnership that we have because this partnership does
068provide our families and our students with opportunities that they cannot necessarily get on their own in such an expeditious way. And um what it does is it allows us to have access to a mental health provider. We have our adolescent psychiatrist who comes into the district bi-weekly. Um, and he's able to deliver those evaluations in district in a comfortable environment for our students and our families. Um, we are able to offer in the time of crisis the street uh transportation when it's needed. In addition, we have expedited appointments to care. Uh, some of our families have reached out and um we're looking for providers. There are tremendous weight lists as you know. We're able to expedite that, get families appointments and coordinated to care very quickly. Our students and our families are expedited and prioritized.
069Uh, as we talk about um being able to meet the needs of students in the district, we also have a service where um the Northwell staff and our psychiatrist is able to come into the district and consult on individual cases. Now, all of these services are done with parental consent, but um it does allow us an opportunity to afford our families and the community with services that may be on the reach for some some of our families. If we take a deep look at Northwell for the past four years, including now the fifth year this year, you can see that our referrals have increased by 40% over that time. And um just since the start of school, we're looking at 23 overall referrals. So you can see that this service is widely used by our
070families and our students. And I want to thank the board of educ education for your continued support and allowing us to access this partnership. I'd like to now welcome back Dr. Pakora so that she can take us through some of the next slides that focus on operations and facilities. Okay. So, um, another board goal is to create maintain a modern competitive campus to enhance opportunities and foster growth for our Seward scholars as everybody knows. And again, this I think we've done with um a very robust robust um initiative. So, if we take a look at some of the pictures, uh there was brand new patio and concrete area added outside of our conference station. The Nordic Nook um has gotten some enhancements with signage this past year. The Nordic Nook in general has just been
071a constant theme of being a really nice addition to the high school campus, as I'm sure Miss would uh attest to. When we take a look again to beautifying our campuses, again, the work that was largely done this summer was school roof. The before and after of that is is pretty telling. And as well as the ceiling in the gym, the gym looks absolutely phenomenal now. So, if you haven't seen it, go take a look. It looks great. You know, again, at the middle school, uh the library had gotten a facelift. Again, hub of in innovation and uh inquiry. So that's really important to us to make sure that this space reflects the behaviors that we want to see in our children. And then as Mary Katherine has said, there's been a tremendous initiative to
072make sure that this is an inclusive campus. So the CDP room at the middle school had gotten a significant refurbishment this past summer. Similarly, again with an eye towards inclusion, this is our first inclusive playground. There's this is a work in progress. There's going to be fencing that goes up around it. It it looks beautiful already, but it'll be even even more beautiful going forward. And then at the harbor, we did some improvements to some of the pavement in the front of the school. And then, of course, our harbor bathrooms. So, every building we try to take a look at work that can be done on an annual basis to enhance our facilities. That being said, I'm not going to read this to everybody. I'm not going to read every point here, but we always
073have an eye towards security and enhancing security. So whether it's our lock down system or it's a door jar system or continuing to improve and enhance our cameras throughout the district, it's very important to maintain a safe and inclusive learning environment. And again, our our district-wide safety committee is is largely responsible for some of the initiatives that we we put forward with regards to that. And again, communication, we are very transparent. We try to a constant flow of communication through parent square through a number of venues. So if we take a look at communication parents square Viking pops which we've added which I think um has become a huge hit uh district website school newsletters Instagram leaison meetings the booster club and the secret symphony are wonderful partnerships as are the PTAs and the avenues
074that we have both my meeting with the PTA presidents and then the leison on meetings that my administrative team and I do and In addition to that, of course, districtwide committees. So, there are many venues and avenues that we have um to create opportunities, places, and conversations that that are fostered throughout the community. Any questions? I think there's one last video which I think says it. We do all this so that this can So, board of education, thank you for everything that you do for us. Does anybody have any questions? I realize it was a very extensive and um detailed presentation, but we are very proud of the work that we're doing in the community. >> Great job. >> Thank you. Thank you to everybody. >> [applause] >> Thank you for delivering that very informative
075report. Um we certainly have some challenges to confront but the amount of progress that we make um in the district is clear that we continue to move forward with progress and that type of progress is really the culmination of every single person in the district and something to be proud of and the team [clears throat] I can't say enough for the members of the audience here. We have such an incredible group of educators that support and continue to advance our programs and incredibly proud of our team. >> Thank you guys. >> Okay, we are going to move on to some business here. I need a motion for agenda item 51. >> Move it. [snorts] >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? I >> I need a motion to amend the agenda to include personnel
076actions agenda item number 51A instructional instructional personnel actions number two dated November 19th. >> Move it. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> So now I need a motion to approve agenda item 51A. >> Move it. >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. I need a motion for agenda item 52. >> Move it. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. I need a motion for agenda item 61 through 62. >> Any discussion? All in favor? I. >> Any residents comments? Are there any residents in the audience who would like to speak? All received correspondence has been responded to. I need a motion for agenda items 9 A1 through 9 A5. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. I need
077a motion to table agenda item 9B1. >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I I need a motion for agenda items 9 C2 through 9C5 as listed. >> Move it. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I. And I need a motion for agenda items 9 D1 through 9 G3. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I are there any miscellaneous discussion items? >> No. Thank you for your um presentation. >> Okay. Um comments, I'll just say congrats to the football team on your welldeserved win last weekend. That was an exciting game to watch. Um, and we look forward to supporting you guys again uh Friday night at the Nassau County Championship game. So, good luck. >> Thank you. >> Um, and good luck to the cast and crew of Puffs, the Secret
078High School drama production that's going to be put on this weekend. I look forward to seeing it and good luck to everybody involved in that. And thank you everybody for coming. Anything else different? >> Happy Thanksgiving. >> Thanksgiving. >> Okay. I need a motion to adjourn the meeting. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> Thank you everyone.