001There you go. Clearly respond. Welcome everybody. I'm Philip Dudine, president of the board of education. would ever please stand for the pledge to republic. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Okay, we have a nice crowd this evening. In the event of uh fire emergency, please be aware of your rear exits and your exits to your left and to your right. Not that we're expecting anything. Okay, we're going to move on to our part presentation. We have a lot of good things to discuss this evening. First, we're going to start with uh the Department of Food and Nutrition and the thank you staff that will be Dr. Good evening everybody
002and welcome. Uh we just we wanted to take a moment tonight to recognize the people who work in our kitchens and feed uh almost 2800 students every day. You may not all realize this, but in February of 2024, the ISO school district qualified for the community eligibility program, which means that because of the socioeconomic status of our district, every student, regardless of family income, could come to school and uh receive a free breakfast and a free uh hot lunch. Uh these meals are not only healthy and well balanced, but for many of our families, they mean the difference between um being wellnourished and going hungry. Believe it or not, um just in this school year alone, uh the ladies that take care of our children uh and do their hard work in the in the
003stoves and kitchens and so on have served 79,000 breakfast and 198,000 lunches just since the school year started. So that's a full bellies, uh, a lot of students being taken care of. And, um, uh, what we know in schools, and you probably know in your homes, if if people uh, don't have a meal and are hungry, uh, they're not going to be able to focus on school and other achievement and other things. So, to the people that work in our kitchens every day tonight, we'd like to say thank you. And we're going to give out some certificates of appreciation to those people who are uh, present. And, um, I'll read your name if you're here. If you come forward, Mrs. Brower will uh, a token of our appreciation. Arlene [Applause] Leio, Cassie [Applause] Bloom, Gina
004[Applause] Schwitzer, Michelle Doro, Jack Bonitz, Jean from [Applause] Smith, Cindy Sabatino, Joan [Applause] Sha and Renwick, [Applause] Donna [Applause] Henghan, Candida Rodriguez, [Applause] Uh, I think we got word that she couldn't be with us tonight, but we'd be remiss if we don't have her name. Adam, would you guess Deborah [Applause] Ellison? Jasmine Rodriguez, Nikki [Applause] Kelly, J Marie Dietro, also not with us but tonight, but Margarita Gonzalez, Jane Joy, Also not with us this evening, but Claire Kawakowski, Evelyn [Applause] Murphy, and Carmen Torres. And I I should add that not not only do these ladies serve u lunches and and uh uh put on a great presentation on the food lines and so on, but they do it with tremendous compassion. Uh they love to see the students every day and the students light up
005when they go into the kitchen and interact with people that are feeding them their meals. So to everybody who's here tonight from the food services, we thank you very much for the great service. Uh Deborah with us. Anybody from central office with us tonight? Deborah. Oh, Mr. Braum. Patricia Connelly and Dial. Andrew, are you here? Come on down. Mr. Braum's the director of our food service. So, uh, [Applause] And thank you again everybody very much. Thank you Dr. O'Hara. Okay. Next on are our private presentations. Uh item B, wing softball field dedication and naming ceremony. Uh the board of education has received a request to dedicate the wing softball field in honor of coach Dennis Msini. As a board of education, we are happy to support this request. I'd like to take a moment to
006remember Coach Mcweeny, the impact he had on the community. Coach Mweeny served as head coach of the ASA varsity softball since 2008, 17 years. He led the team to numerous victories and instilled the values of discipline, teamwork, and perseverance. Under his leadership, the ISOP softball program grew into both success and spirit. His presence was a consistent source of encouragement and inspiration to athletes, parents, faculty, and alike. A special ceremony dedicated new field day has tenatively been scheduled for May 18th, which is a Sunday. And we hope you can all join us on this special education uh special event. Thank you. [Applause] And also thank you to the girls softball team for all your successes that you had over the years and uh continue to look forward to seeing that and thank you. Okay, next in
007[Applause] the next presentations will be Mr. Zedberg the budget workshop programs and expenditures. Everybody, excuse me. Everybody who's here is welcome to stay, but we could take a break if any of you would like to go home. Girls have homework. And at tonight's second budget workshop, uh we'll provide an update on the current draft of the proposed budget uh on the expenditure side. Just a reminder during the budget development process we're focused on the simultaneous development of two two budgets on the funding plan and on the spending plan during the end of the process. The bottom lines of each of these plans must match. In other words, the district must identify what are the funding sources that we have available to support the uh expenses in the proposed budget that will go before the community.
008Quick review of where we were when we at the end of last budget workshop. State aid, we had a decent increase, much more than was expected, $683,000 for the district. Our allowable tax levy limit as calculated and filed with the office of the controller was a 2.42 budget increase with approximately $1.6 million in additional revenues. Uh local revenues 2.7 million. Um this is where we have a little bit of uh of a gap that we have to make up make up. uh revenues in this category are down, but that is typical as we're in the early stages of the budget development process. Most of this is because of the decrease in the currently current appropriation of fund balance. During the budget development process, we focus on a couple key objectives. uh the ongoing development of
009the instructional program which is the continuous evaluation and planning of the district's instructional programs. What will be new? What will continue? What needs to be re-evaluated um and modified going forward? be to provide uh needed student support services, preserve the investment in the district's infrastructure, specifically ensure that there's a safe and healthy environment uh for staff, for students, and for visitors once they when they come on campus. Maintain the district's basic operating needs, which is the support for the general support program uh the operations that support the district. identify staff development opportunities and respond to federal and state mandates. Our expenditures are based on a number of uh key factors including identifying what are our contractual obligations, what is listed in our bargaining contracts that we must uh address, what are is the ongoing service
010agreements that we have for service providers and what are our debt service obligations. We take a look at what our historic expenses are, what they have been yeartoear, what are the trends, where can we modify what we're dedicating, where can we seek reimbursements for certain expenses in the form of state aid, um constant analysis and projections. What are the plan initiatives both short-term and long-term and how we incorporate these into our expenditure budget as well as identify what are the resources need to support these initiatives both financial and staffing needs again regulatory mandates what comes down from Albany what comes from Washington incorporate those in our plans follow and alo also forecast there are a number of items that we need to identify and forecast that aren't readily available. Where will interest rates be next
011year? What will energy costs look like? What will fuel costs look like? Uh the district has a transportation service provider, but we buy the the fuel to supply those vehicles. The reason we buy that is because we're a tax exempt entity whereas Southern Transportation is not. So we get a better price on the fuel and where where our insurance is going, what is needed and what's affecting premiums, what can we control. So attached here is a review of the uh SED component analysis that's standard with every district and this is based on where we are currently with draft number three of the expenditure budgets. Basically, where are funds being allocated? um general support area um modest increase. You see that the majority of the increase is coming in the structural area which makes sense since
01254% of the operating budget is in the area of instruction and corresponding 64% of the increase right now is in the area of instruction. The other large area of typically in a budget that's is benefits. That's uh standardly 23% of of the operating budget uh and 21% of the of the increases that we're another way of looking at this is um how our funds being being spent. It's a labor intensive industry. So the majority of the expenses are going on George salary. 49% of the increase which is $3.6 6 million at 3.6% year-over-year. Uh and then the other area is services that we provide whether it be instructional support um and operational and that's 33% of the proposed increase at this time. And this is a little different way of looking at the same information.
013We're breaking it down a little bit more. So we'll start off with what was our budget the most recent completed fiscal year 2022 23 um comparing that with what our actual expenditures were and then within each of the component areas specifically general support and instruction where did the money go. So if you move all the way to the right $390,000 of the uh proposed increase right now to $3.6 6 million is general support. Much lower than it it typically has been. Um $330,000 of that is just in the service area. Very minimal right now salaries in this area. We very very fortunate with um we had some unexpected midyear retirements. We expected them at year end and we also have some uh retirements going into the next fiscal year. In instruction again the largest area
014because this is where the business is centered. Um $2.4 million of the increase or 64% a lot of that is going towards to salaries. 1.7 million of the uh of the increase is salaries instructional purposes and another almost half million dollars going towards services. Now to get into a little bit more detail of where we are. General support $390,000 of increase really comes from two areas. Our network operations which is includes cyber security. These are initiatives that we're putting in place that protect the the district's assets particularly its data and its financial resources. um software for the programs that support u a number of our management systems as well as mostly services that uh give us access to those same management services and insurance property casual liability. This is really driven by a number of
015factors. All districts are experiencing a big increase in um in our insurance over the past couple years driven by child victims act um claims and settlements, social inflation, which is the number of claims that districts are receiving as well as the large size of the awards that are being granted by juries. And then lastly, weather related property damage, the cost of repairing those. So while ISIL hasn't been exposed to a lot of these things directly um probably more so weather related damages we roofs etc but all liabilities are pulled amongst all the subscribers of of insurance companies and shared so we are impacted by agreement are impacted by what's going on nationally and particularly when you're overall $390,000 increased only 11% of the increase very minimal. We've uh we've looked to contain a lot of
016costs in this area and taken steps to reduce what has been in the prior two drafts as we get to number three and hold that costs. This is a summary by functional area. Um this is all the areas within the general support and a little small but as you go through it you see the increases on the change column you'll see they are right towards the bottom it central data processing which is the state's name for network operations as well as the next line down unallocated insurance which is the state's name for insurance uh the majority of the increase as I mentioned 64% It currently is in the area of instruction which encompasses a broad range of of activities including regular school student services specifically payroll payroll including classroom teachers there's more money going towards
017ENL services there's more money going towards academic and intervention services uh development of curriculum initiatives both primary level and the secondary level looking at before and after school programs. And a new one I do want to highlight is charter school tuitions. This is something that was started a couple years ago by the folks up in Albany and has had a a big impact on public schools. It started off with money the form of state aid we diverted away from public schools to charter schools to help support their operations. But more recently, we've been we've experienced their impact in terms of the tuitions and the state has mandated through educational law that if a resident child attends a area charter school, the district of origin is responsible for paying the tuition which the state sets for
018the child to attend that school. So Carol and I still have a child attending a charter school. The state set tuition to $17,100. Very similar to what it was last year and terms of what we get back is $1,000 per child. So last year two children is resident children attended an area charter school. This year it's nine and led to a significant increase of costs and budgetary appropriations in this area this position and right now the projected number is 10. So all right, we get 10 10,000 to hold it back on $35,000 in tuition. But again, this is education mandated by the state, but it does have an impact on our budgets. Dude down. The occupational education program is important. State development, our special education services which include tuitions for related services at district plans
019as well as the students that we we address their needs within the district in form of payroll both in terms of instructional personnel and the support staff's need. Al alternative high school is another program that was started this year that we continue to next year offering some alternative opportunities for students who have certain issues but it's getting them back into the educational personnel services, health services and some other services. guidance counselors available at both primary and secondary levels, computer assisted instruction, technology, a lot of our instructional programs, a lot of our student data management systems included in this area and extracurricular activities, payroll for club advisors as we increase the number of clubs available to students as well as the number of athletic programs, teams that are available to students require additional coaches. and for
020student competitions and fees associated with this. Again a summary of the functional area withinstructional area see the budget from this current year for J3 right now and the change and then smaller increase but combining transportation benefits service increase of 526,000 again with the current draft which is about 25%. Uh we have been fortunate on the benefit side with uh TRS rates this is actually a lower employer contribution rate that we're experiencing uh this year it's gone down from 10.11% to 9.59 and ERS has increased from 15.2% 2% this year but a modest increase less than 1% year over year. Insuranceances health insurance again a real surprise these are set on a calendar basis when we got these figures entering into calendar 2025 very modest increase in individual plans at 2.3% and a very very small
021increase in the family plans 02% FICA social security that's increases, but that is consistent with the overall increases in payroll. And then the last summary of again functional areas for these three, you can see where the increases are transportation as well as overall modest increase benefits of 754,000. Usually that's that's a seven figure increase. So again put in perspective the spending plan right now draft three million the funding plan is the same as we presented in workshop one. So we have a gap of 2.7% $2.75 million that we'll be working on over the next several weeks to budget adoption April 22nd uh workshop. The challenges for us will be on increasing the uh the revenues as we anxiously await a state budget. Um we are hearing some positive news out of Albany. Uh but there's
022an expectation that additional funds will be allocated to to both education and healthcare. The executive proposal had an increase of $825 million. The assembly we're hearing right now is a $2.7 billion increase and the Senate of $1 billion. Um hold up right now again what we're hearing out of Albany is that there's discussions separately related to challenges funding plans to support the the MTA and that's why we haven't got a a budget for fiscal state fiscal year 2025. The current fiscal year expires March 31st. So next week's in their new fiscal year. Um, we're also hearing unfortunately that districts should expect an late budget. So hopefully we get something by the April 8th budget workshop, but definitely before the April 27th budget workshop. So the other challenge that we have is is the continuous review
023of the draft of the budget. We're meeting with budget supervisors throughout the district examining their proposals. importance where we can adjust things and focus on focus be on closing this gap and eliminating this $2.75 million deficit. Uh at the next budget workshop on on April 8th, the focus will be on instructional programs and services that are going to be incorporated in the budget either maintained, adjusted, or expanded. Uh look at projected enrollments and class sizes and staffing needs. Any questions for the board of education? Just zipper the budget gap any relation to last year when we did this in spending the funding pretty closer about that. The biggest difference well we're ahead of things on on the the state budget which is which is good news. um tax levy is a little bit more uh
024than we had last year. The big difference right now is availability of fund balance. Right? Last year we ended the year we appropriated 2.2 million. Right now the projection might identify as 1.2 million. So we're down about a million right there on that. Um the other concern when when what fund balance is is a projection of a surplus of revenues and any available expenditures, budgetary appropriations available projected to be available at the end of the year. And it's a balance between what we can appropriate to support next year's budget, but also what we don't appropriate and keep unappropriated. Uh and that's the figure that's kept at the 4%. So as we reduce expenditures that reduces the budget there and also increases what becomes unappropriated. Right now I'm at about a 3.3%. Maybe that's that's a
025little unhealthy at this point in the process. I wouldn't want to see anything less than 3 and a half%. We get closer to an adoption closer to 3.75%. Any questions from the community? I'm not really sure your question answer, but I want to know if we're talking cyber security and software and OC services for network operations. Are we talking about cameras and things for the schools? No. um that the cameras for the schools are incorporated in our security budget, not our uh network operations budget. Do we have increase for our security next year? We know there are new cameras. There are cameras in in the budget. Uh maintaining the same amount. The plan has been to focus on a particular building each year to increase cameras. Um last year was at Sherwood. This year we're
026looking road next year be focused probably on wing. So more cameras were installed in roads. No, we're waiting for it to finalize proposals for comarmac road this year. Last year the focus was on Sherwood because we particularly needed more cameras on the outside for following the installation of the outdoor classroom. Uh next this summer we're going to begin work on the outdoor classroom at Komat Road. So we want to have upgrade to the existing cameras and additional cameras outside to protect that area and then following the completion of the outdoor classroom at home road will be embarking on the same initiative at I also want to know you know maybe not the board but maybe for administration why don't we have more cameras in the hallways there's I know happened recently and if there was
027a camera working in the hallway to see what the students were doing, every child that needed to be investigated or spoken to could have been found that way instead of trying to go through the he said she said he was there kind of circumstances. I know from past life experience cameras help investigation for educators, administrators. It helps students see the light of things that have been going on to show them an incident so they can go, "Oh my god, sorry. Eric pushed me, but Eric didn't really push me. Eric tripped." You know, those types of situations are things that I think on top of the light of recent events within the whole country and the world. Why we don't have better camera systems and cameras that see all the hallways is beyond me. I just
028don't understand it. And we have over a million a smart school grant that is over 10 years old that we haven't even used that we even start using until I off in 2021. Thank you. Hi. Um, I have a question about some of the line items. Um, some of them have double digit increases and I just I just want to make sure I understand what they're for. Um, on slide 15 there's one that just says supervision regular school. What does that entail? What's the the category? Is that instructional under instruction? There's a separate line item for teaching. So, I'm not sure what the supervision one is. Sure. Supervision has to do with um building and department administration. Department administration. Okay. So those are salaries then um salaries, supplies, equipment, furniture. Okay. Is basically the front
029office budget. Okay. For a building for department such as fine performing arts, athletics, guidance. Oh, okay. Um and then and then sorry I think your other question was even further down teaching. That would be any expenses associated with um general instruction again um instructional, non-instructional, payroll, equipment, furniture, services, testing, textbooks. Okay, so that makes sense. Um and then on slide 17, there's just a line that says other and that has a 46% increase. Based on where it is, I'm thinking it's just part of the benefits that the district has to pay, but I just wanted to ask. Yes. Um It's another type of benefits. Um, and in two, this includes two areas. Um, a couple years ago, there was a retirement incentive offered to teachers. We have one more year left on it. Um, and
030they following their retirement, it's paid was paid out over five years. So, that's in there, too. We also have incorporated in in two of the bargaining unit agreements that part of their salary increase will go towards a tax sheltered annuity. So which means it's not subject to payroll taxes. Okay. Um and then it gets paid out of this area to those unit members. Okay. Um and I also just didn't plan on saying when I came up, but I just want to say I completely agree with Christina about the cameras in the hallways. especially in a middle school and a high school just from recent things having kids in both the schools they're definitely needed inside schools. So just from another community it would be a great idea to use that for that. Um I mentioned
031our next budget workshop will be at the next board meeting on April 8th. Thank you, Mr. [Applause] Okay. Um, next up, please. Um, before I move on, I was remiss when I opened up the meeting. Um, board trustee Miss Flora could not be here this evening. She wasn't feeling well. And also, Matt Matthew Chlorine um has a um teacher conference with his employer this evening. So that's why he's not in attendance. So my apologies for not recognizing that after when we first opened the meeting. Um last thing that we have on our part of the presentation is our policy reading is Mike. Are you able to speak to the policy? This is the policy about uh class change class change policy. I'll do my best from memory. Uh-oh. I'll do my best from memory. Um,
032okay. So, it's policy, I believe, 5154, which is a uh leveling now of class change. Uh one of the changes uh that we made was a reduction um from uh end of the second quarter, I believe it was 5 days after the second quarter down to uh midway point or 5 weeks into the uh sec u into the second quarter. So we we dropped it about 6 weeks in. Uh there was reasons for that. Um some of the reasons um we felt it was appropriate uh to move it down was um there's hard transitions when you level down. Even though you may think like it's a leveling down, it's an easy transition to the other grade. We believe that the um scope and sequence and the pacing between the two uh for you to go,
033the later you go, the harder it is to uh level down to a different class or change to a different class. So, as a result, uh we felt that was a more appropriate time if I'm doing the right policy uh because I don't have it in front of me, but um that was the reasons why we had made the uh changes to the uh uh new or existing policy 5154. Thank you. All right, that's it on our prior presentations. We're now going to move on to our agenda items. And are there any questions from the board of education on any of the items that we voted on? Any questions from the public on any of the items that we're voting on? Hello. I was just curious um in comparison to the last meeting, March 5th
034to this meeting, it looks like, um I'm hoping it was just a a typographical error, but it looks like the wording has changed a little bit in regards to the proposed capital improvement project for Wayne's um playground. Is that still getting replaced? Yes, it is. So, what is being done there is incorporating an additional project to be included in the overall project. So what is going to occur with play is um replacement of playground equipment and resurfacing um site improvement works including um fencing and now some interior work which is what's on tonight. And the recommendation from our architect is to include some additional work because the state sometimes looks unfavorably on site work only and doesn't grant building aid on it. Okay. But if you tie it with interior work, it you're going to
035get building a sounds good. So So we're expanding the project, not removing anything. Great. So that red the big red playground that's going to get removed and replaced. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions from the public before we vote? Okay. There's two items that we're going to be voting that are going to be separate from consent. That's going to be items 5 M and 5S. So, I'd like to get a motion for consent. Items 5 A through 5 L and 5N through 5Q. Can I get a motion? That was Mr. Buer. The second was Mr. All those in favor I opposed abstain and they will carry. M would you go to person before this evening on the A1 we have um part-time teacher appointment adjustment uh for an ENL teacher. We have a
036leave replacement appointment for a school counselor at Crest. We have a long-term substitute appointments for uh an elementary teacher at Wing, a school counselor at Wing, speech pathologist, an ENL teacher at Wing, and our library at Sherwood, excuse me, as well as a permanent uh substitute appointment adjustment. On the A2, we have um a retirement physical education effective 826 of 25. We have rescended the JB tennis uh boys head coach as well as a six period assignment for ENL. On the A3, we have a request for a leave of absence. On the A4, we have a coaching appointment of a middle school track coach um for boys and girls due to our increasing numbers. On the A13, we have additional duties for chaperon and pit orchestra for high school musical as well as uh a
037subcrew position, an advisor for special Olympics, home instruction, speech services. We also have additional duties for AP review sessions and seal of bi literacy. On the B1, we have appointments of a school teacher aid. We have a custodial worker one that will be moving from night to day. We have two school teacher aids as well. We have substitute appointments for custodians, a clerical substitute as well as a special education substitute. On the B2, we have a resignation of a special education aid as well as a custodial worker one from Knights and a custodian substitute and a clerical substitute. On the B3, we have a request for of absence from uh district security as well as a media aid and an account clerk. On the B13, we have additional duties for a to for toileting stipens
038for two uh school teachers. Thank you, Mr. Dean. Great. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Okay. The next item we need to vote on is item 5M, approval of a memorandum agreement, UPSC ISIL clerical unit. Can I get a motion? That's Mr. Leo. Can I get a second? Second. Mr. Austin. All those in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Abstain. And that motion will carry. The next item that we need to vote on is item 5S, approval of the CPSC schedules. Can I get a motion? Mr. Austin and the second was Mr. Leo. All those in favor? I opposed. Abstain. Abstain for the same reason stated in the September 20th, 2023 meeting. And that motion will carry as well. Right. That concludes our agenda items. I'm going to move on to item number six, which is our public questions.
039I do have two public comment cards. The first one I received was Elizabeth Tomlin. Hi again. Um, so I want to just say that I really appreciate that the policy for the assignment of students classes was updated and that uh we are taking into consideration that quarter is probably not long enough for the students to to go down a level or change a level, especially if they're in an AP class. Um, I do have a question about the policy for dropping a class, it looks like that one is still staying 5 days after the end of the first quarter. Um my question for that is if the class that the student wants to drop, let's say it's something like AP physics 2 where there is no class they can go down to and they decide
040that by the second quarter they just can't do it. It's too much. They're taking too many APs. It happens I it's happened with my own children. Would they be allowed to drop a class at that point or they have do they have to go down a level into a class that's not a physics class? And I'm just using that as an example because I know that there are classes that have that that issue. What I can say is um dropping a class after the first quarter be extremely difficult to start a new class uh midway through the second quarter. So that's what they don't want to add a new class. Let's say it's not something they need for graduation and they don't want to add a new class. We we can look into a little
041bit more of that, but the the reasoning behind the uh not dropping after the first quarter would be that we would have a place for you to go and I think that's what that was referring to. That's sorry, that's okay. The uh and that was the reason why we had that in there as such. Okay. Um I also noticed on the the last policy before it was revised um I had mentioned that the word honors was crossed out and the word AP was added in and I see now the word honors is no longer crossed out and AP is still added in. So does that mean that we're bringing back some honors classes as opposed to I know the trend has been that we have only regions and AP classes in classes where APs are
042offered. Uh, we're getting rid of the honors classes in those the honors level in those classes. Are we bringing the honors classes back? Is that why that board's back in the policy? We we don't anticipate any changes to the off to the offerings that we have. But I think it might be important to note that that change only impacted English and social studies. It did impact all academics across the board. Okay. And and so um uh let me think about this. What about like we're in the third year of that phase in? So, um what about like uh statist like a uh statistics and physics? Like there's I don't think and I could be wrong, we don't have physics honors anymore. We only have AP. Um you know there's AP stats AB and then B
043or A and BC. And regarding physics, I have to double check for you if I remember correctly. the honors physics um college board changed u some of their curriculum. So the honors physics is is the AP physics one I think now and AP physics 2 is another AP class right so um uh so that is that is an example but it's I think it's some not not as I mean I'll double check for you because I'm not an expert in physics curriculum. We'll get back to you. Well I mean I'm just using that I'm just using that as an example because I know about that one personally. Um, as far as this being the third year that we're getting rid of the honors level or at least for the classes where it's applicable and really
044only having regents and AP, do we know at this point how the students are actually doing on those AP exams? Is it benefiting them in the long run? Are they getting college credit for it? Um, you know, I can bring that next time. Um, I think we uh we did do a presentation on that and so I don't have it tonight because I I didn't know I would get the question. Actually, um, Dr. Gonzalez did that. presentation when actually here at the high school when we were featuring each high school and you know all the accolades they were doing I think you went to every school so we could actually I'm sorry I I do have something here if I could just if you want yeah no I I would be curious to know I
045forgot that I had this okay so um let me just try to take the time to get this right okay um this is uh from I I think this is from May of 2024. I don't have a date on it, but um or it could be 2023. Okay. So, um in calculus BC, the average score was 4.14 for our students and this the mean score for New York State was 4.06 and the global mean score was 4.11. So, we're better than the state right on the on the uh global score. Um, for AP research, our score was 3.71. The state mean score was 3.24. The global score was 3.35. So, we're doing well there. Um, I can continue to read them, but I I'll hold this up. You don't have to. I'm just cur I'm
046curious more for the classes that are required classes like um something like AP Euro as opposed to I I don't remember the regions level for that. I want to say it's global, but I could be wrong. Um, the classes that the kids have to take. So, But the last part of my question is if the AP class they're taking is a required class such as global versus euro. Again, I could be wrong about which is what the level is. If they fail that class because they're taking an AP, do they have to repeat that class? And if they do, do they have to repeat it as an AP or can they repeat it as a regions? How do how do they move on if they fail that class? Okay, so I think it's let's speak
047hypothetically because every case could be different, right? Of course. Um, first thing is it it's um I uh I think it's unlikely that somebody would fail the AP course. We have a, you know, as we're talking about tonight, a policy that can change classes, likely we'd be on top of that and everybody would know that it's time for a change before it gets to the point of failure. Okay. Um, but it's a um if it's graduation requirement, there's no requirement that you take the AP course. So, if you had to I I do think it's unlikely, but if you had to repeat the course, you would you would take the course necessary to graduate. You could of course try the AP course again, but you know, if you went through it once and really it
048was over your head or, you know, just was that particular content or subject for whatever reason is not you don't have an affinity for it, you wouldn't have to repeat the AP course. Okay. So, I just I think maybe clarifying some of those points in the policy for the next reading might be a good idea. Um, I'm sure everyone's aware, you guys pretty much all know me. I have two children in a high school, one in the middle school. I have a really hard time with the fact that they're being pushed into the AP classes because it's overwhelming for them. It's way too much. I've seen way too many kids having breakdowns because they're so stressed out and it's so unnecessary. That's why I asked the question about do we know what the kids are
049getting out of this. Are they getting college credit? Is it worth it? I don't know. I haven't even My daughter's about to go to college. I don't know if she's going to get any credit for any of these APs she's taking yet. So, yeah. So, at I think I mean based on my experience and things that I've read and stuff, it's a two-part answer to the question, right? They have to score three or above to earn the college credit, but not every college has to take it then. They don't have to give them the credit for that. No, they don't have to. But it it depends on how competitive the college is and it also depends on what your major is, right? So if you're if you're um if you're going to major in physics,
050to use your example, they might not accept three on the AP physics exam because, you know, you need to be better to be a physics major, right? Um if you're going to major in engineering, possibly they might not accept some of the science that I don't know, right? So depends on the on the major and it depends on the on the college. So have we looked at all, you know, do we have Any idea for kids who maybe graduated last year, how many of those AP classes they took translated to credits? Do we have any do we ever do we look at anything? I don't know. I'm back question. Do we look at anything? I don't know if I don't know if we have that kind of data. Um it's it's actually very difficult to
051collect postgraduation data. Absolutely. And for a number of reasons. Um um but it's a to me it's a two-part answer I believe. Right. So the one part is what do they actually get in credit? How many how much um um money or credits do they save by taking our AP classes? That's one half of it. Um but it's it's pretty clear that they benefit in college, even if they earn a one on the AP exam. They do benefit from the class. Absolutely. I think that they're they're learning a lot about how to study, how to work, and all of that. My concern is not so much taking the AP classes. My concern is taking four and five and six AP classes. That's where I really have a problem because And when you have an AP
052level kid, if they're taking five, they don't want to take a region's class because that class is going to be too easy for them. But there's no other level for them to go into. So, it's not I'm not asking a question. I'm I'm making a statement. And I think I'm not the only parent who feels this way. I think a lot of parents don't realize it because we're not paying for the AP exams as parents. We're paying for it as a district, which is wonderful that we do that. But I think a lot of people are wondering why their kids are so stressed out and staying up till 2 and 3 in the morning. I have found my kids sleeping on their laptop more than once because they're doing homework till 2 in the morning
053and then they're up at 5:30 to get to school. It's I just wonder how necessary it really is. And I think that's something that if we're putting an emphasis on social emotional learning and mental health, it's something that really should be looked at. Um I think you make some good points and and I think that I think for me there's several points to it, right? One is um where does this stress come from, right? So it it's it might not be healthy. Some students can handle um 15 AP classes over their high school career, but some students can't, right? and and you don't um our job as whether it be the parent or the counselor um in school is to say let's just pick the best schedule that you can handle. We should stretch ourselves,
054right? But I don't I don't have to keep up with Miss Conland who who's taking five AP classes in her junior year. I can choose three or four. Um and the the only choice the only place it's an issue is English and social studies. I just keep emphasizing it's not across the board. Well, it's not, but if you want to take calculus, your only options are AP because there's no there's no honors in in uh the calculus classes. And if you're that level of student who's going to take calculus AB or calculus BC, you're probably at least an honors kid. But again, if you're taking four and five of them, it's just too much. Yes, you're going to get and I understand what you're saying. I really do. I get it and I I think
055we could probably have this conversation for hours, but I think we really have to just Yes, we want to give the kids the best schedule possible, but when their options are limited by one or the other and their polar opposites, the kids who want to challenge themselves are going to go for the AP regardless of how many it is. And then come December, they're going to be breaking down. terms they're breaking down. So, I understand what you're saying. I I understand the reasoning behind it, but I think it is something that needs to be looked at. Um, yeah, I mean, I can tell you we continue to have conversations about it. If if um not to make a point, but only because I didn't want to take everybody's time to read all these lines. If
056you are interested, I can be happy to show you after the meeting. And uh I don't have it with me, but I I do have um uh I do have data on our attrition rates. Uh meaning how many students started the year in the AP course and how many finished it. Okay. And I have that going all the way back to uh two I just gave it to you guys. Uh I think it's May of 2020 20 or 21. Okay. I don't have it with interesting to see. I don't have it with me this evening. I could tell you um I do remember this that um in uh May of 2022 we we had 443 AP exams written in this building. That doesn't mean 443. I think there's 4 443 uh or 434. It doesn't
057mean there were 434 students because they multiples, right? Yes. Um I can tell you right now in AP classes expected to take these end 820 tests that will be written. So it's it's almost a 90% increase. Do we think that's a good thing? Well, I do and and I understand your feelings and and um much of what you say makes sense. I'm not discounting what you say. I I think if students are feeling that way, then I think we need to work better together to talk to kids about how their choices impact their stress. Um but I do know from memory that that the attrition rate this year um if I remember correctly was 10.7%. So we had, you know, 900 and something that started the class and now we have 820. Right. So were
058those numbers looked at um holistically or were they looked at by student? So like I I have I have them by class. Okay. I by each each individual class. Okay. Yeah. Or I should say not every there might be two sections of AP US history. I have it by US history, not each section. Right. Right. But you're not not looking at it as, you know, one kid took five APs and dropped two of them. I don't have that. I We could We could look into that. I don't have that yet, but we could. That's a good question to look into. Okay. Thank you. I don't want to take No, it's fine. And Yeah, it's fine. Thank you. And I could show you those numbers, too, if you're interested. Thank you. I appreciate it. Have a
059good next comment card we have is I I I'll I don't want to really get out of this practice because it's really not fair to people that that fill out the cards and do not I just wanted to say that just social studies in English, but that's a huge deal if it's just social just and also just to let you know that it does hurt the kids that aren't the AP students. I think probably just as much because they're not being as prepared for college as they need to. So I have a kid I take on both the sides. So can you just explain that point to me a little more? Which one? That it hurts the kids not who's not an AP student. The kids that aren't AP students are going to college and
060they could have been more prepared by taking those more difficult honors classes. So I have one like that. was not he wasn't the five you know AP course taken for student but he was a lot more than regents so I don't think he definitely wasn't as prepared and that's something you know that I had planned to speak about being this is the example you and I spoke about correct we have spoken about yeah but you know there are kids that are on that side that are taking too many and I have one of those too taking too many because there's nothing in the But there's alo also those kids that aren't the AP kids but are much more capable of something in the middle and that that was so thank you. I completely agree with
061both of them. My kids aren't even in high school and I can see both of them being one of them being an AP kid and one of them being an honors kid because they need that push a little bit more than just a regent class. Definitely something to consider. Just like we have a seventh grade algebra class with over with 25 kids in it. And I'm going to be completely honest with you as an educator. There are not 25 kids in that class of 175 that are developmentally appropriately ready for algebra in seventh grade. Those numbers are small. Those are the top percent of your grade level. Those are things that we should be considering. Those are the kids that handle high loads, heavy loads. And the reason why there are so many kids taking
062these AP classes is because that's the direction they're being pushed in. When you're looking at attrition rates and you're looking at the students who are dropping and aren't dropping, there's more taking them because that's the path they're being told to go to because they are the straight A student. But just they're still 16, 17 years old. I graduated high school at 17 years old. I was not ready to take full AP classes, but I did take my honors classes and I was prepared for college. Those are all things we need to think about when we're looking at the spectrum of students we have in the district. But I did ask my question about the cameras. I do feel very strongly about it. I would like someone to communicate with me on how the smart schools
063bond money is being looked at should be spent. This is my second month talking about it. I think it's extremely important. Why we're still sitting on this money letting the state get the interest when we could be using it for our school is bothering me. Especially knowing where we are in technology and where and we have come strides but but we can still go a much further rate and then security and safety of my children and everyone else's children is extremely important. I also would like to know what is the policy for who is responsible for opening up the gates when there is a sporting event over the weekend. Department of security schedules people that are on duty just because we know my had a lacrosse game on Sunday and the gates weren't open and
064the school district was notified three times that there was a game and it's embarrassing for other towns to come and here we are like locked out. Everyone's sitting like sitting just waiting for someone. If you um if you give me the name and contact info of the person who runs it, I can reach out and see if I can help clear that up in the future. Well, they have the contact number. They contacted just didn't happen. Well, what I'm saying is if you put me in touch with the person from the It's not a school team, right? It's not it's a team, right? So, if you put me in touch with the PAL person, I could find out who that person contacted and I could try to help make sure it doesn't happen again. Okay.
065Oh, next week, next month, can we please when we're looking at stamping and programs, what do we have? What are we losing? And what are we gaining? Yeah, let me address that for a minute for you. Um, first answer is yes. Uh, we will do our best for that for you. Of course, we have to do it. Um, I just I just want to make sure we're on the same page, right? For the last three years, we haven't cut anything. Uh you and I might disagree on the one position that, you know, we repurposed. You might consider that we've cut something. And I'm not being sarcastic with you when I say that. Um but for the last three years, we have given a list of everything that we've increased or added or augmented. And there
066hasn't been uh an opposite list. this year it's likely there will be and we're going to have to have some difficult decisions ahead of us and so we will be including that. I think when you talk about whether agree or disagree, it doesn't matter. But when you're presenting something to a community, you know, just show us off. Show us what like get us excited for what we have. Get us excited for what we what we need. And it's it's not like that. And I think that our budget presentations don't convey to us as community members what we're saying yes to on a budget. Um, okay. I I think that's a good point and and um to this point in the process, this is just where the numbers are and I I understand what you're asking
067for and I will do the best I can to deliver for you. Thank you. Okay, that concludes our um public questions, reports and correspondence. Um last week we had the Eisentown School Boards Association meeting. Myself, Mr. Austin, and Dr. O'Hara attended it. Was held at the west of high school transportation was there to give a little presentation on the hiring practices and then we also got a tour of West CTE program informative um it's a good event it's nice to see what the districts are doing and collaborate with the other districts next that we have is musical. So, this past weekend, the High School Musical Clue um took place and just a little backstory, um there wasn't somebody to run the play this year and Mr. Levianne found out about that and he said, "Not
068on my watch." And he took the responsibility of the play. Uh so, we're very grateful. Together with Miss Parent, he created this new and muchneeded return of an incredible theater community for our students. The students raved about the guidance and support that they received from these educators. The kids really pulled off an authentic authentic characters and made each character their own. They were so so talented. Each night there was a different ending. It was engaging for the audience for them to feel involved in the game by picking the cards that represented the ending and then trying to figure out the who, the where, and the with what to solve the murder mystery. There were so many lines to remember because of the different scenes u that they different endings and they pulled it off with
069what looked like to be effortless achievement. Such a dynamic and talented group of students. I saw all four all four of the shows. Um, and I was the proud mommy of the candlestick. Each show got better and better, and by the last one, they were really having fun and adding their own touches to it. Um, really made me chuckle. Uh, Mr. Livianne, you're so special. Thank you for bringing back the play to the high school. As a board member and especially as a parent, I'm so very grateful. Your energy was seen and felt throughout each and every student out there. you were committed to the success, not just of the play as a whole, but for each individual student up there on that stage. Um, even the special note that you sent home to each
070student with a little gift just added that little extra Mr. Levian touch to it all. Um, amazing job by it. I also wanted to add in a big thank you to Mr. Lavianne for taking on this project. You really brought musical theater back to Iceland and our students in a big way. Thank you. Okay, that concludes our reports of correspondence uh dates to remember. Uh March 31st, school will be closed. Um and it will be superintendent conference day. Our next board of ed meeting will be April 8th uh 5:30 executive session with 7 p.m. public starting here in the high school. And uh that's all we have folks. So um thank you for attending and can I get a motion for Thank you for attending again. Stay safe.