001This might be I don't know. Welcome to board meeting. I'm Bill, president of the board of education. Everyone, please stand for the pledge of alleged announcement. We have a big crowd here tonight emergency. Please be aware of your rearranges and your exits to your left and to your right. Um we're going to start off with ISO prior presentations and this is one of the uh highlights of our board meeting. Especially for me, it's a great opportunity where we really get to recognize um student achievement and uh tonight uh we get to recognize our night of champions which is a wonderful accomplishment to all the students and to all the parents and guardians that support uh the students in their endeavors. So, uh, with that said, I'd like to turn it over to Dr. O'Hara. >>
002Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Welcome. Um, as Mr. Denim said, this is one of our favorite nights. This is where we get to see the fruits of uh, students growth mindset, their perseverance, their grit, their passion, and we also get to see the work that our teachers and faculty and staff put into these great achievements. also to the parents in the room. I congratulate you because it's a great partnership at home as well. So, we are going to spend the next uh I don't know 30 or so or more minutes celebrating and recognizing some terrific achievements. And to start it, I'd like to welcome Mr. to get the award started. Thank you. [applause] All right. Good evening everyone. My name is Michael Hersworth. I'm the very proud director of fine performing arts here in the
003ISIP school district. I just want to take a moment to thank the board of education uh and Kianne uh for giving us the opportunity to recognize uh the amazing students in our district for achievements that go even beyond what they're doing in the classroom. Um I'm very proud to recognize two very very accomplished groups of students uh tonight uh from our some of our music students. Uh the first group uh are a group of fourth graders uh who are accepted into our peak festival in the fall. This is a program called parents, educators and kids. uh students are nominated uh they get to spend a day uh working with teachers all over Long Island, other students in fourth grade um and their parents uh for a day at North High School followed by a concert.
004So if I could please have the following students come up if you are here today. Penelopey Delaney, [applause] Cecilia Freriedman, [applause] Harley Sawyer, [laughter] Aiden Crow, >> [applause] >> Laura Hart, [applause] Martha Pipion, and Maline Zard. One more round of applause for our PE students. [applause] Get more picture. Here we go. >> [applause] [applause] >> Next group of students um are 11th and 12th graders who were accepted into our Suffach County All County Music Ensemble, our disc ensembles uh this past November. Uh very honored to uh give these awards to Connor Clifford. >> [applause] >> Addison Devel, Lucas Jordan, Anna Latiri, Olivia Zimo, Julius Lefthani [applause] and Nicholas Gulick. [applause] Also like to recognize Nicholas Dulick was selected for our All State uh ensemble uh in in New York uh after receiving a perfect 100
005score on his All State saxophone. [applause] >> [applause] >> Can I have those students from the Peak Festival come right back up here? Can we get another picture? And one more round of applause for our panel. [applause] All right. [applause] And it was before the cut off for tonight. uh we will recognize them in the spring, but I'm very proud to announce that uh 10 of our students were selected for the Suffach County String Festival County and uh a number that is larger than we can see in recent history. 50 of our students were accepted into our Scabia Hall County ensembles. Uh they will do that in the spring. Very proud of that. [applause] Thank you, Mr. Hersz. I'm going to ask Mr. Sparasia to come up. We'll be recognizing scholar athlete teams, individual achievements
006among our athletes and team championships as well. >> Thank you, Dr. Howard. Thank you to our board of education and Miss Bar for putting this all together for us and taking care of all this uh these certificates and the mailings and everything else. Uh also, congratulations to those who just received uh some awards. It's really nice. Congratulations. I always say our student athletes are student athletes first and they do a great job of our student athletes do a great job not only out in the gyms and in the classrooms but also here in the auditorium. So congratulations to all of you. Uh also first before I get into the certificates I just want to say we had a really really great fall season. You'll hear some of the uh acknowledgements and accolades in a moment
007but uh all of our teams were uh section 11 scholar athlete teams. That's 100% of our fall teams that's having a grade point average or 90 or better. And again, that's why we say they're student athletes. So, credit to all the student athletes in here and the parents and families. Great job. They do it not only in the classroom, but for getting it done on the fields. Um, first I'd like, if I can have Mr. Rosado, Coach Rosado, come on up, please. And we're going to recognize boys cross country. [applause] If you haven't had an opportunity to go to a cross country meet, I would encourage you to do that, especially at Sunken Meadow. Uh I can just imagine how tiring it is for the student athletes, but for the parents and the spectators to
008walk around to the different legs of the race. Uh I know I was exhausted. I know Dr. Har and I were both up and uh uh it just really is a great uh it's a great event and coaches does a great job. This year we have our first team all league and all division honors is Ryan Ryan. [applause] Congratulations, Ryan. [applause] As if Mr. Rosito can come up and just help me out with girls soccer. I don't think Coach Riley or Coach was able to attend tonight. Uh so we're going to give out some brown girls soccer awards. Another another great season. Uh you know, year after year playoff bound teams, uh semi-finals, county championships. Uh these girls, they just leave their heart out on the field and uh they just did a phenomenal job.
009Uh we're going to start off with uh one of our all division honors for girls soccer, Grace Breel. Grace, [applause] another all division player and always has a smile on her face. Jenna How, [applause] I think she's here right off the basketball court. Uh, all division honors. Uh, Riley Moran. [applause] Uh, next all division honors girls soccer Amanda Owen. Amanda [applause] also all county and defensive player of the year Shayla Julia. [applause] I think I witnessed this year her score a goal from the four outside the 40. It was incredible. We'll just do it. Right. Right. Amazing. Unreal. Uh, next, all county and new state top 100 players on Long Island, uh, Julia Drummond Howard. [applause] Another one of our all county players and uh, also one of the top players on Long Island and
010also the division three player of the year, Abby Dumagard. >> [applause] >> Also, we did have two coaches of the year in girls soccer. Unfortunately, he's not here tonight, but coach Riley was our varsity coach of the year in girls soccer. Uh, voted on by section 11. And also our JD coach of the year this year was uh Jillian R. So, two of our coaches. [applause] Congratulations. Great job. Congratulations, please. [applause] Here's my back. Next up, I'm going to have uh Coach Andrew Alice come on up. Boys soccer. to recognize our boys soccer players. [applause] Uh coach Judge Antiano couldn't be with us right now because he's in the gym coaching a basketball game. Uh hopefully we're doing well. So we'll start off again another incredible boy soccer season. The boys do very very well.
011Uh we'll start off with our all league honors and academic all county uh this year was Dylan. How Dylan [applause] All league honors. Vincent uh Farangi [applause] Wii Nicholas Santiago [applause] All conference, Jonathan Lova Lopez. [applause] Uh, and also all conference also the senior all-star team made the senior all-star team and the exceptional senior game uh this year was Gavin Artenziano. Congratulations. [applause] Congratulations, boys. [applause] I don't know if Coach Wagner is here. Girls gymnastics. Girls No. Okay. Uh, Mr. Run, if you want to help me out with girls in gymnastics. Appreciate it. As you know, we combined with the main short team again, just another another great team. I think they took second. They did take second in the county this year. Um, and uh, they were just right there just by a few
012hundreds of a point. Uh, this year, all honors um, for uh, for her obviously gymnastics ability. Ella Rizzo Aldi. Ella Rizzo. [applause and cheering] All the honors on the balance beam is Alli Guzman. [applause] All league honors on the vault bars and the beam. Um Laney Ela Biscari. Lady [applause] ball league honors on ball bars and beam Ella Marie Green [applause] and all county honors Nichollet Ferrara. All right. [applause] Thank you so much. Congratulations to all your campus. [applause] >> Not sure if Mr. Boyick is back yet tonight. First, we're gonna This is our boys golf this year. Academic all league Kieran Freeland [applause] and academic all league Brandon Simetti. [applause] >> Coach Martell, can you come on down? We're going to recognize our girls tennis team. >> [applause] >> Uh, all division honors, Megan
013Dwire, [applause] >> all division. Isabella Felman [applause] >> [applause] >> Ball County Addison Andrea [applause] All County Rowan Barry >> [applause] >> She had tennis. All right. Old County Elizabeth D. Roas. [applause and cheering] [clears throat] >> Old County. Alexis Han. [applause] Another old county, Melissa Bushik [applause] and Old County Reese Wallace. [applause] Congratulations girls. [applause] >> [cheering] >> All right. Congratulations, girls. Tennis [applause] can have coach Sabatino come on up. Football. Coach Lince is coaching the basketball game with us tonight. again great football season this year. Seven and one overall regular season. Tough loss in the playoffs in a great job this year 17 division. draws. John, second team, all division. Jack Halvin. [applause] Jack suffered a late season collarbone injury and now we missed him for the playoffs. Great job, Jack. Second team
014all division, Christian Arzovich. [applause] First team all division, Jackner, [applause] first team all division. He's at his basketball game right now. Elijah Lewis, [applause] first team all division. Karelli, [applause] first team all division. Naj Simpson, [applause] first team all division. Louis to [applause] next are all county uh all county and also six all state uh Jake de Janeiro [applause] also county also named uh National Football Foundation receiver award and also fifth all state Alex Alexander Morales. [applause] Alex does a great job when he's sitting down in my office with the college coaches and uh he really does know what he's looking for and what he's after and uh you do a great job asking him questions. All right, you really do know what you want. So, good luck. Uh also last uh for outstanding achievement
015this year as a quarterback uh varsity football team earning all county and second team all Long Island all Long Island honors setting the single game passing and total yards record uh throwing 29 passing touchdowns and being named the Boomeras award finalist as well as a golden 11 scholar athlete by the named by the National Football Foundation and also first team All State Jack Railo. Congratulations, [applause] [applause] >> boys. Varsity football. Great job, guys. [applause] Congratulations. >> [applause] >> Yeah, I'm not sure if uh if coaches are here from volleyball. Uh Coach or Coach White. I don't think so. Um Mr. You can come up. Uh this year our girls volleyball team uh just what an absolutely amazing season. Not only did they have a great regular season, but um they also went up state and
016they competed in the New York State Championships. Uh interesting how they made it there. They actually lost in the in the county final game, but this year there was an atlarge bid and it goes on a rotation. It happens like every 10 years. So, we all thought we were lost and the girls are crying. Everyone's upset and they're like, "No, John, you know, the officials, no, we got the ATL large." I'm like, "Oh my gosh, that's right." So, I'm trying to get the girls all settled down. Like, girl, stop crying. like it's not over, you know, it's not over yet. We actually like what what what? So, it was really it was really pretty cool to be part of that. And it was even better to be part of that whole experience. Uh up in
017Albany and uh somewhere else upstate we were Saratoga or wherever we were. It was just two places I've never been to before and uh a very long drive. But I have to tell you, these young ladies and the coaching staff, they really did an absolutely amazing job uh representing Icelip, this community, and their families. And it's just a testament to uh the families how well you raise your children because they were perfect ladies. They did an absolutely wonderful job. The rooms at night, you know, the curfews, just traveling with the the team and the buses and everything else. They really did an outstanding job and I couldn't be more proud of each and every one of you. So, thank you to the volleyball team. Appreciate that. [applause] We're going to give some individual awards. I
018don't know if the entire team is here, but we'll call out those awards as well. Uh, but first if I can have our academic all county honore come up. Jaden Zinc. Jaden. [applause] Uh, Sar County Rookie of the Year goes to Gracie Ferrara. [applause] All league. Grace Ryan. [applause] I mean, just tough flying all over the the the court up there at upstate New York. Pretty cool. It was fun. Uh, next for our old league honors and making 250 kills uh this uh so far career kills, we have another year left of Gracie as well as this next person, Jane Tierney. >> [applause] >> also all league and all county honors and also uh 250 plus kills this season. Cali Adio Cali [applause] also all league and also she earned the all state sportsmanship award.
019Jamie Sullivan. Jamie [applause] also she was all league and also named to the all state tournament team as well as she made over 1,000 career assist and we are going to miss her. This is Riley Haynes. Riley [applause] very very hard. Unbelievable. Absolutely amazing job. Did a great job upstate as well. Thank you guys. [applause] The next team, I'm not sure if everyone is here, but if you are, just come up. If not, we'll just call out the names again. Caliia [applause] team, Gracie Barara, Avery Glazer, Riley, come on back down. Riley Haynes, [applause] I see Ava. Ava Miranda, come on down. Emma Newman. Emma, [laughter] Ava Oberg, [applause] Olivia Pew, Amy Rich, Lea Rodriguez, Gra. Come on back down. Ashley Stevenson. [applause] I don't think she's here, but Jamie Sullivan, [applause] Jane Tierney, Olivia
020Wade, Olivia, and last but not least, and I know she's not here, is Jade Sing. So, congratulations [applause] to these ladies, the entire volleyball team and the coaching staff. Been an outstanding season and uh we're looking forward to big things next year as well because we got just about everybody coming back, right? It's stuff except [clears throat] you rather go on to bigger and better things. [applause] Congratulations to all our honores. Thank you, Mr. Scorio. Congratulations to all of our athletes. We are going to shift to some academic awards. Uh this is a pretty large and impressive group of students. So I'd like to welcome Dr. Gonzalez, assistant principles of Miss Ward, Mr. Roso, and our dean of students, Dr. Kenro to recognize the academic achievements of many of our students in Iceland High School.
021>> Good evening. How heartwarming seeing such a wonderful turnout this evening. I know I speak on behalf of the building leadership team when I say that we could not be more proud of our student athletes, our artists, our musicians, and our scholars. And I think what you'll find is we have students here whose names we're about to call who have excelled in multiple categories. At Icelip High School, we are incredibly proud of AP participation. the advanced placement college board courses that in the short time that we've been working together, we have added courses. We put a lot of focus on participation. And this evening, we're going to put a spotlight on performance students who have excelled in the most rigorous course of study that we have available at our high school. So, I'm going to
022ask um my partner, Miss Lisa Ward, who is our assistant principal of course, but also our AP coordinator to help me. I'm going to read some of the descriptions and Miss [clears throat] Ward is going to call some names. Our first category is AP Scholar. This recognition is granted to students who receive scores of three or higher out of a maximum of five on three or more AP exams. This one I believe [applause] you got this news. people at bestasel [applause] Abigail Bartoni [applause] Genesis Deoyo >> [applause] >> Lacy, Carmine, [applause] Dennis, Bear, Brother, [applause] Kobe, Guzman, Morales, [applause] Alexis Han, >> [applause] >> Jack Jensen [applause] graduate ethan [applause] [laughter] Emily Neil >> [applause] >> Amanda Owen, [applause] Estaban Lencia, [applause] Emmy Tier, [applause] Jarling >> [applause] >> Alex Rodriguez, Janna Porto, [applause] Hill
023[applause] Good morning. [applause] >> [applause] [applause] >> The next group of students are AP scholars with honor. This award is given to students who receive an average score of at least 3.2. 25 on all AP exams taken and scores of three or higher on four or more of these exams. Is this Marriola [applause] Green Elizabeth [applause] Miri, [applause] Benedict Mayo, [applause] Chloe Martinez, [applause] second John Melissa Peterson, [applause] Wesley Park, [applause] Joseph Resa, >> [applause] >> The next group of students are AP scholars with distinction. The recognition is given to students who receive an average score of at least 3.5 on all exams taken and scores of three or higher on five or more of these exams. >> Joshua Elo [applause] Caitlyn Barnes, [applause] Valerie Campidelli, William Chong, Juliana Chassi, Hamilton, Kelsey Orch. [applause] >>
024[applause] >> The next group of students are the AP capstone diploma. This diploma is granted to students by the college board. Students who earn scores of three or higher in AP seminar and AP research and on four additional AP exams of their chip. Johanna Arato, [applause] Nana Aoyo, Amy. Ever since I >> [applause] >> Ayah Ellie, Jasmine Field, Robinson, [applause] Dylan >> [applause] >> can ask the students to remain standing while we call the next group AP seminar and research certificate. This distinction is granted to students who earn scores of three or higher in both AP seminar and AP research. >> [applause] >> Hernandez. Next group. AP scholar with honor, research and seminar. Nar El [applause] Riley Haynes. >> We have one AP scholar with honor. Capstone diploma. Amanda Miranda. [applause] and two students earning
025AP seminar and research certificates as well as being named AP scholars with distinction. Jennifer Corner. [applause] Thank you. Awesome. [applause] [clears throat] Just We have four very special award recipients. This is the category of national merit scholarship winners. Students entered the National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2024 preliminary SAT National Merit Scholarship qualifying test. In April of 2025, National Merit identified 50,000 highest scores from across the entire country and notified their high schools, including us. Some 16,000 of those high performers were designated semifinalists on a state representational basis. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 6,930 national merit scholarships worth nearly $26 million in that will be offered this spring. The other 34,000 high performers have been named commended students based on a national selection
026index score. We are thrilled to be able to honor this evening two commended students, William Chung and Jaden Zinc. [applause] So that you are clearly at home studying. [laughter] And we have two national semifinalists Joshua Alarm [applause] and Sep. Although Connor is not here with us this evening, I hope it's not a secret. U but I did hear that he received a perfect SAT score of 1600. So you may want to mention it [applause] while you're there. Don't mind if I do a little bit of principal's privilege. I am delighted to share publicly that this young man is a QuestBridge scholarship winner. Josh Alaran has been awarded a prestigious scholarship through QuestBridge and will be attending Yale University. >> [applause] [cheering] >> Heat. Heat. Not yet. According to you, you said in addition to Yale's
027stellar academics, the interest that you showed was in the fact that the university prides itself on letting students take classes that fit their interest, no matter what major they they pursue. And since you love both computers and music, you're excited to pursue courses in both areas while pursuing a dual electrical engineering and computer science major. I mean, is that even possible, Josh? [laughter] Wow. You are one of only 2,550 seniors across this country to be awarded a full match. [cheering] >> [applause] [applause] [cheering] >> Congratulations to all of our students for their outstanding achievements athletically, academically. Thank you to the parents for being excellent partners and supporting their children along their journey. And thank you to the board of education because many of the achievements uh that we witnessed this evening are the result of
028programs that are supported by the board and of course supported by the community. Um my last words then I will see you that I slip is rising and thank you for being with us in this portion of the board meeting. I think uh Mr. Commission will take a five minute break to some families exit and then we'll resume again. Thank you very much everyone. [applause] I'd still like to um as you know what Dr. Harris said um just to congratulate um all our students and all the successes and uh you know thank you to the parents and guardians that help support their children to uh achieve their academic and athletic success that they do here at ISIL. It's just wonderful to see that. Uh so that that uh um concludes our ISO product presentations. We're
029now going to move on to our agenda items that we voting on this evening. Um are there any questions from the board of education on any items we be voting on this evening? Uh any questions from the public that we're voting on this evening? Okay. With that, um we'll have two items that can be voted separate on from consent. So right now I get a motion for consent. Items 5A through 5 L. Can I get a motion? So that was Mr. Buer and the second is Mr. Leo. All those in favor I >> I opposed stateain and that will carry. Okay. The uh next item that we need to vote on this evening will be item 5A, ratification and approval of the collective bargaining agreement with the ISIL curriculum leaders association. Can I get a
030motion? >> Mr. Kurine. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> That's Mr. post it. All those in favor I opposed abstain. >> And one that will carry. Uh the next item we need to vote on is item 500 which is the approval of the CPS schedules. Can I get a motion? >> Mr. Horseman, can I get a second? Mr. Leio, all those in favor? I >> opposed. the same stated. >> All right. And that that motion will carry as well. Okay. That concludes our agenda items that we're voting on this evening. We're now going to be moving on to our public questions. And we do have one public comment. [laughter] I was curious. I know they haven't started a committee out of the smart school. I've been here. This has been a year now.
031We still don't have cameras in our main throw away in all of our schools. We still don't have cameras all over where they should be. We have money that we can put into our budget and get back from the state. Are we looking into this seriously? >> No. So, actually um you must have known to ask the question. So, um we have been moving on this very seriously and we do have some good news to report on. I'm going to turn that over to Dr. O'Hara. >> Sure. Thank you. Good evening, Miss. Um so we we are planning on spending in the near future approximately 334 between 330 340,000 on some devices one to one for students from that grant. There's about 1.9 million in total available to 1.9 1.9 million in total available to
032us and um we have done a lot of work with the state. We learned that the reimbursement timetable is much quicker than we originally anticipated. So, we think that we uh will be able to take money out of the general fund to fund expenditures for some of the things you're asking about and then get reimbursed by the state. Um I don't know that it'll happen by June as far as you know security measures go, but it will be happening. I'm not you know armed security whatever I have no problems with it but we have so many other layers that need to be in place in order for those types of security measures to also be effective. Why are we why are we waiting longer to improve our security? >> Well, I I don't think we're
033waiting. We we had to do some re research to find out that we could fund the reimbursement. We think we know how to do that now and so we're going to get the ball rolling on it. >> So it took a year. Now we're still not some of that stuff still not gonna happen. We're not Are we putting it in the July one budget? Are we putting some of this towards July one? The safety and the security. >> Uh I think you can correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is we don't actually have to put it in the budget. we think we can take it from the general fund knowing that we will get reimbursed in time to use those funds for the things we need to do. So this year it might
034be a little bit tight because we're halfway through the year but um when we have a new budget and we have a whole year to spend the money, make sure we get reimbursed so that we can meet bills and expenses that we need throughout the rest of the year. I think that's probably a realistic timeline. >> I understand that. I appreciate that. The idea is it there's no actual roll out plan for improving the cameras and the main view of security. >> Well, informally, we've started some research and I I've phoned uh one one company that's going to come visit us and give us a proposal. We're going to reach out to others. Once we have some of that information, we're going to bring it to a committee rather than form a committee and then
035go do the homework. We're going to try to do the homework first. Bring that information to a committee. see what people think of the proposals and then move forward from there. >> And just last thing, I can think of at least six six eighth graders that are already leaving for Catholic school next year. I would really love to know how many eighth graders in the past five years have left school to go to private. >> We've presented that more than once at public meetings already. So, >> unfortunately, but you can email me the numbers. >> Sure, I'd be happy to. Well, just to be clear to anybody who may be watching, we've been asked and we've answered that question on the screen in public. >> Okay. >> No problem. >> If I'm not mistaken, I
036believe that number was >> it's been Yeah, there hasn't been a drastic change in the years that we were able to go back and and find >> usually the same amount that was >> pretty typical. you know, we rarely did see it a spike up and a spike down, maybe one or two, but we'll get that information to you. Thank you. Okay. Um, that concludes our public questions. We don't have any other. We're now going to move on to our reports and correspondence. My favorite. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. Uh, I'd like to highlight several recent and upcoming events across the district that will help bring our students together. There will be a postprom meeting on Thursday, January 28th at 7 p.m. at ISUB High School in the high school faculty room. Each year,
037a committee of parents and community members work together to plan a themed postp prompt celebration for our seniors. This event includes prizes and gifts for students and is made possible through the generous support of our community. We encourage anyone interested to consider joining the meeting to help support this special tradition for our seniors. At ISA Middle School, the care and kick clubs are hosting a book drive. They're collecting new and gently used adults, children's, and baby books. Donations can be brought to Miss Kword or Miss Ryder in the ice middle school library. This is a great opportunity for our school community to support literacy and give back by sharing books with others. There will also be a sweetheart dance for all Ice up elementary students in grades K through 5 on Friday, February 6th, 2026
038from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Iceland Middle School. This fun family event will include games, raffles, DJ and dancing, snacks, and a photo booth. Families are encouraged to pre-register by fe February 2nd for a discounted rate, and [clears throat] registration can be completed using the link available on Parent Square. This is always a great and memorable night for families. I I remember I went to it when I was uh in fifth grade. Next, the middle school is hosting a pizza kit fundraiser where families can purchase $10 pizza kits that include dough, sauce, and cheese with a gluten-free option available. Pre-orders are due by Friday, February 6th, and pickup will take place during the week of February 9th through February 12th. This fundraiser is a great way to support the middle school while enjoying a fun
039and easy family meal at home. Last is SEPTA is hosting a fundraiser event with the Long Island Nets at Nassau Coliseum on Sunday, March 1st at 3 PM. This event is open to families and community members, and tickets are $30 per person. This is a great opportunity to enjoy an exciting afternoon of basketball while supporting SEPTA in our schools. Thank you. We appreciate the continued support of our students and schools. >> Thank you, Mr. George, for that report. Okay. Got it. Next is the NSA Suffach School Board Association joint conference. >> Thank you, Mr. On Thursday, January 22nd, I attended the annual joint conference of the Nassau Suffach Schoolboards Association, Nassau County Council of School Superintendent, and the Suffach County School Superintendent Association. I attended this event entitled Pathways to Partnerships along with Dr. O'Hara,
040Mr. Austin, Miss Prey, and Mr. The focus on the conference's presentations were highlights on the career and technical education programs of the west of school district with the William Floyd school district and the Belmore Merrick school district along with presentations from Suffach County College Suff County Community College and the accelerated training defense in manufacturing company. There were also resource tables available that provided information about skills USA, the New York State Career Readiness Educators Association and the New York State Department of Education. It really was a great opportunity to explore a number of CTE programs throughout Long Island and many that can hopefully be implemented within our own school community. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. Uh after some work on Saturday morning, uh Dr. Hara, Miss Prey, and I attended the Suffach County School Superintendent
041Association conference. We had touched on some subjects like the zero mission buses, foundation, a reform, UB funding, um, charter school funding, and pilots. So, I'm going to let Dr. Hara expound on it since it's his group. Uh, thank you. So, um, for the past nine years, I've been a member of the Suffach County School Superintendent Association Legislative Committee. We meet, um, each month to discuss, uh, legislation that's proposed or legislation that's been passed, how we think that legislation will impact school districts, opportunities for students, um, taxpayers, etc. Each year, we set, um, a priority list or an agenda of things to speak to our elected officials about. This year, the priorities that our group identified are um the Child's V victim act, specifically how um those cases are hurting school districts um budgets and making
042it very difficult to fund settlements for um uh crimes that happened uh in the 60s and 70s where uh in some cases the perpetrators are deceased, witnesses are deceased, insurance carriers are no longer in business. It's been quite a challenge for some school districts. Fortunately for us in our district, um we haven't had to face the magnitude that some other districts have. Uh the second priority was zero emission buses and um although we do not have our own buses, we contract out. That is an issue that's going to cost every district in New York State lots of money. In fact, it's already costing going to cost us money next year because we anticipate that um the cost for services from our transit transportation provider will increase because they're having to begin funding electric buses and
043obviously uh all the costs get passed down to the consumer. The third priority is foundation aid. that's been in the news a lot and um uh as the state and others and legislators work to modify that formula or improve the formula, we want to make sure that um we don't have a situation where some school districts get helped while others get hurt with uh changes to the formula. Universal pre kindergarten is an issue. If uh any of you watched the governor's state of the state address a week or so ago, she addressed UPK and explained how she wanted to increase funding. And um in her preliminary budget, Governor Huckle did increase funding from approximately $5,400 per student to $10,000 per student, which at first glance might seem like good news, but that's not immediately a
044help for our school district because uh for the last three or four years, any student in this district who's wanted UPK uh has been able to find a seat in our UPK program. and the provider we have has been accepting the $5,400 per student uh cost for UPK. So, um that $10,000 is really really constrained. You can't spend on anything you want, it has to be specifically for universal pre kindergarten. So, although that might seem like good news, it's not necessarily a help for us. Um, another issue is project uh license agreements which is related to construction projects. And that's a big issue for school districts and it could be for us in the near future because we think um we're going to have a [clears throat] need to propose uh construction bonds to the
045community in say the next two or three years. And there's a lot of research that show that these uh project license agreements raise the cost of construction from 12 to 20%. So, we're doing everything we can to make legislatores legis legislators aware um that that's legislation that works against school districts and taxpayers. And by the way, that legislation is proposed only for NASA and Suffach County, not the entire state. So, that's a problem. Um priority number six is charter schools. Um charter schools get public money with no public oversight. So, there's no school board, there's no community representation. Um the facilities aren't uh what public schools offer. There's a whole list of things that uh uh make us believe that our public schools are a better place for our local students than charter schools. Um
046but they're they're taking uh tons of public money from New York State to fund forprofit uh well they're not for profofit but there's people that are running them as a business. And the last priority is pilots which is a payment in lie of taxes. So, um, that happens a lot when a developer comes into a school district and there's a parcel of land and the developer says, "Hey, I can build 50 uh rental apartments or 50 condominiums here and um uh instead of paying property taxes like the rest of us, they make a payment. It's usually a substantial discount. uh that payment um affects our formula for our tax limit uh cap and in the long run it hurts our district because it lessens our ability to get revenue from a pretty big developmental development.
047So um that's a list of what we talked about uh on Saturday and a list of things that um we kind of need the public to be aware of and people to get in touch with legislators about and so more to come on those issues. Hope that helps. >> Great. Uh thank you Dr. Just a question about the electric buses. I know there was a big push with zero emissions with the prior administration with the current administration that we have in place. I know the auto industry a lot of their emission standards have been relaxed. Are they looking to that's going to be big companies as well? Well, or is it still you know >> Yeah, that's to be determined. one of the challenges that um Governor Hawk uh will have and legislators because uh
048school districts can get waiverss to push the deadline back two years and possibly another two years but um the deadline is moving and um that deadline was in part based on federal money that they thought was available and now the current administration has said you're not getting that money >> so it makes it a lot more challenging to have those buses come online. That's why I was wondering if they still gonna go forward with that or you know the table a little bit. >> Yeah. As far as of zero emission and electric buses go, there's there's um in addition to just the tremendous cost for one electric bus compared to a typical diesel bus. Um there's al also um nobody really thinks the infrastructure is in place to support all these charging stations and electric
049buses. So, this is a pretty big challenge and it seems like at some point they're going to have to move this deadline further away or do something. But the important thing for people to realize is it's already going to cost us money in the 2026 27 budget. >> Right. Good point. Okay. Great. Thank you for that information. Okay. Uh lastly, on our reports correspondence, um our community safety survey will be going out. Uh there's been a lot of discussion about uh armed guards versus not armed guards in the school district. We've had some forums together. Uh Dr. O'Hara has put together a survey that's going to be sent out to the public and that's going to be going out probably this week. >> Uh I think sometime by tomorrow afternoon. >> Tomorrow there'll be a
050oneweek window on that. We're going to get um it's a short survey. Maybe speak a little bit to the survey. >> Sure. It's um I think it's roughly seven questions and the first two questions might be what's your name and what school would you have a child in? And then there's about five questions uh trying to assess the community's uh check their temperature on whether they support um armed guards on the outside of our buildings or um or not. And so um so far we've we've held a forum um we've surveyed our faculty and staff. Um Mr. So Deutsch and I have done a sample survey of some students in grades 6 through 12 and he and I will be getting together where we'll probably administer a survey to students likely in grades 8 through
05112 and in the coming weeks um as part of our budget presentations or in conjunction with we'll present all that information and uh then we'll take some some input and ultimately have to make a decision. >> All right, great. Uh thank you for all that. All right, that uh concludes everything on our reports and correspondence. It's going to bring us to dates to remember. Uh February 10th will be our next board of education meeting which will be here in the high school auditorium. Uh 6 p.m. will be executive session with the public starting at 7:30 p.m. Uh [clears throat] then on February 16 through the 20, uh school will be closed for winter recess. Seems like this is Christmas recess at that point. So it goes quick. All right. And uh our next board meeting
052will be on February 24th. So that's it on dates to remember. That's all we have tonight folks. Um with that, I'd like to get a motion for the motion. >> Mr. Green, I got a second trusty. All those in favor? I >> All right. Uh thank you everyone for attending this board meeting. We'll see everyone at our next board of ed. Thanks for attending. Stay safe. See you soon.