001To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. If you could please stay standing for We would like to have a moment of silence for Michelle, please. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you everyone for joining us today for what hopefully will be an abbreviated meeting. Let's start off with a couple recognitions. It's National Girl Scout Day celebrate the anniversary of the first meeting organized by Miss Juliet Low. And if you are fortunate enough to travel down to Savannah, Georgia, I can personally recommend taking a tour of Mrs. Lowe's home where it all began. And also I want to recognize our most lo our local most ardent scout leader and promoter and frequent BOE meeting attendee, Mrs.
002Fran O' Conor. And a quick plug, as you've probably seen if you've made it to the store recently, Girl Scout cookies are now being sold all over town. $7 a box. I will not leave any comment on that. Second, it is very appropriately International School Meals Day, a movement to create awareness about healthy eating for children around the world. We will celebrate later this evening with a presentation by the director of our school meals program, Miss Diana Michelini. Two quick items. Jericho schools will be closed next Friday in honor of Eid Alfa. And finally, as we discussed, juniors, pay attention. As we discuss student parking early in the year, I want to remind all juniors and the parents of all juniors who want to park on campus next year, next school year. There is a
003mandatory capital M all the way through capital Y in-person meeting this Wednesday the 18th at 7 p.m. Any junior and at least one of their parents must attend if they want a parking pass for next school year. If you have any questions, please contact Assistant Principal Finley. Unless any of my colleagues have anything that they want to add in the interim, then I would love very quickly to move to Miss Michelini. Um, as we move to our presentation on schools director's lunch, I'd like to introduce Miss Diana Michelini, the director of our school meals program. And she's brought a friend who I apologize. I don't know. Terry O'Donnell. Terry O'Donnell. Cisco. No. Aramark. Aramark. I'm Oh, I apologize. Aramark. Amark is the price to supply. Yeah. The CEO of Aramark is I'm joking. I'm joking.
004And I just want to say thank you um to the entire board to Victor Diana for for putting this together in a short time after I expressed interest. I really enjoy and I think the whole community enjoys your presentations because I think um school lunch the food is so important. Thank you. Hello. All right. Thank you everybody for inviting me and Carrie here to speak with you. We have a brief presentation. Um what we just want to tell you a little bit about to start with is our commitment to Jericho uh student nutrition. I'm just going to read that a little bit. We are more than a meal service provider. We partner in powering student success. Um I think a lot of the principles could attest for this. I love love meeting with the students,
005meeting with the teachers, getting their feedback. They're my clients, they're my customers. So, the student lunch program is really all about them. But then, of course, it's about nutritional standards and um while also reflecting the unique needs of our school community. So, look to the next slide. Tom and the partnership. Uh I don't know if anybody knows this, but we started in 2022. There was a need that we um Jericho I guess wanted to outsource a little bit, see what a food service management company could do for Jericho. So we were awarded the emergency contract in December. May of 2023, which was uh like five months later, we did have our first state audit and um we passed with blind colors and then we had our rebid and we did win the rebid. Uh New
006York it is lowest bid. So we we did we've won the rebid and now 2026 New York State has universal free meals. So everybody here is entitled to a free breakfast and a free lunch every single day. Is when does the contract run through the current contract? You're in three. Yeah, we're Yeah. So Right. Right. Correct. And what I put together here is just a little bit meals dashboard. This is comparing the meals to last year. So yes, obviously there are free meals, but that doesn't mean that just because we have free meals that the students are going to participate in the meal program. They like what we're offering. Um so you can see there is a significant increase in breakfast and lunch. Lunch uh breakfast. Now we do offer breakfast at the elementary schools.
007Lunch, you could see there's there's a huge increase. So this time last year comparing September to February, you could see we're up almost 600. Um just in case you're wondering what ALC is, that's all cart. So that is second entre, that's water, that's anything else like that. And if you look on the uh left side of the board, the summary total uh that's total meals per service day. So if you think about it, we have about 3,100 kids and change in Yeah. And change here. So we're serving about 3,200 meals. Um again and the reason that's higher than the number of students is alak cart sales uh with through formula uh through the state formula translates into meals. So that's why you have actually 3250 even though it's higher than the aroma. And something important
008to call out is the lunch participation percentage. 75% participation in Jericho is amazing and really a testament to Dena and the team here and all the hard work that they put in. That is great participation. We don't see that high of um students participating in districts of similar demographics. So really really great job and one important to call out. Thank you. And I will tell you also the elementary schools have a little over 85% participation. So they're they're Yeah, that's that's incredible. Incredible. Like Carrie said, and from talking to my co co-workers as well, that's incredible participation. And we've seen a 10% participation increase in breakfast over last year. So while it may not be as high as lunch, we are in trending in the right direction. Does anybody have any questions? What What does
009MPS stand for? Meals for service day. Yeah. So that means I get breakfast. You're up. Um, we're averaging 360 meals per service day across the district and $3,71 in allocart. So that that encompasses uh second entre, snacks, anything like that falls into alleart. That's sales per day. Correct. Okay. Yeah. And all that money goes back to the district as well. Do you have any data from us or other school districts why if it's free you're not having 95% So, we actually are in the middle of running a student viewpoint survey that Aramark um runs for three weeks and that will give us some insight as to the reasons why some students don't participate and we can share that with you once the survey is closed. Well, just on any given day you have less than
01010% more than 5% of absentees. So, you know, that's part of That's part most of it done. Perfect. Thank you. And then allergies and such. Yep. Right. Right. So, some of the regulations for every single breakfast and lunch meal that Dina and team serve here, they need to meet certain regulations as set forth by the federal and state government. So, in um when the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act was rolled out a little over 10 years ago, it was a focus on more whole grains, fruits, vegetables. Every meal has to have a fruit or a vegetable at lunch. Every breakfast meal needs to include a fruit at um as part of that meal and all the menus are designed to meet certain specifications at each of the different grade levels. So it is designed for K
011to 5, 6 to 8, 9 to 12. And um as far as the last, you know, every meal that Dena has created has to go through a pre uh menu planning program, meet those guidelines, and then as once we can show that that has been done, the district gets an additional 6 cents worth of reimbursements. It's actually 9 cents now um worth of reimbursements as well. So just a little bit about our menus. Um the menus that we have in place have we are meeting the federal federal guidelines, the state guidelines and then in addition this uh Jericho has contract specifications that we need to meet. But you know our menus are very well balanced. They are reviewed by chefs and dieticians. We have wholesome ingredients. Some of the brand u branding foods that we
012use. This is just a small number of the brand recognition that we have in our meals. And um you know again they we have to be mindful of you know our calorie restrictions, our salt limits. They all have to meet sugar limits and um saturated fat as well. This just goes over a little bit about our partnership with you know the different brands that we use and stuff like that. But I will tell you we do not use lenders bagels. We're bagel boss. Of course. Very important. Freshly delivered every day. That was written into the cup. Yes, it absolutely was. Okay. And this is just I I put together uh daily breakfast options at all the schools. So, if you could just, you know, take a look at this. I don't want to read everyone,
013but um high school, we have the hot entree of the day. If anybody looks at the menus, you could see it changes on a regular basis. Recently, we had Michaela, we had the uh meeting with the students and they wanted to see a hot bowl. So, we did we did it. We did a breakfast bowl. We did scrambled eggs and tater tots and they really liked it. They like their I will tell you the school I'm sure a lot of um schools will like that too. They wanted their Sriracha on it. So, we had the sauce there for them. So, that was a hit. So, we're going to start, you know, putting that into a regular rotation as well. The homemade chocolate chip and blueberry squares are delicious. That's a big seller. Um, Jennifer, you're
014gonna be happy to see the French toasted. We had them today. We should call out too that the waffle in the picture, that is a made inhouse Belgian waffle. That's not the ego waffle that you have. No, that's not No, no, that's a homemade whole grain. This is usually not my question. How does a Pop-Tart meet any dietary nutritional standard? They are different than the Pop-Tarts that you receive in the in the stores that you go into the supermarkets and purchase. They are made for whole grain. They are whole grain. They are made and specifically for K12. And you know what? It's just it's also a different fun offering. They're in school. No, no, I wasn't. Absolutely. Pop-Tarts are blessed. I'm not I will tell you, but you don't toast them. So, I don't understand
015how you eat the Pop-Tarts. I know. I know. Our biggest seller at breakfast is by far the bagels. And we also do have I know some of you might have tried the flavored cream cheese. We make homemade scallion and cinnamon cream cheese. So that's that's really outrageous. Also, middle school uh is a little bit different just because we have a little bit more of a time constraint there. So we do offer I want to say it's more of like a little grab and go. They have their bagels, they have their cream cheese, the cream cheese for them, we do butter and and cream cheese, the bagels, they have the assorted muffins as well, the fruits, uh all the cereals as well. And that's usually how the yogurt comes packaged. Why can't we have like a
016premium sandwich for um middle school? So, it has to do with the time that middle school starts. It starts at 7 o'clock and the staff just starts to get in at 6:30. So, it's a little bit of Yeah, we have added since we we started middle school, I think it was about a year and a half ago, Veto, right? Breakfast there. And we really just started with bagels. It was like, do you want a bagel? Do you want a bagel? But now we're starting to roll out. Perhaps that's something we could work towards. Um, do they swipe even though this is all everybody swipes they go through? Yes. We still have to keep track. Yep. So this way if they some of the students do take two so they can't one is going to be
017uh a breakfast is an extra $2 and if they want another lunch it's $3. And does the free swipe show up on the since there's no charge to the parent does it show up on their report? Yes it does. Yeah. Yeah. And then just like you know if you go to a steakhouse or something like that everything after is alle cart. So if they do want that second lunch or breakfast if they do want an additional juice or milk they if you do see charges for like a dollar or something it is uh how long the swipe process takes for each person? I would think it's pretty. Yeah. Oh you mean for them to swipe or for you to see it? Well like is there from what I been told they have to enter whatever
018the the name. So the kids enter their number. They have to enter their number. Yes. Is there any way that we can make that process quicker so the line move faster? So it really I think Chad and Sarah could probably attest to middle school. We we've gotten that like a lot quicker. At the beginning of the school year, I will tell you, especially with the incoming sixth grade because in elementary school, I want to say we baby them a little bit more. Not all them know their numbers, but we have a pretty quick system. There was even one time, I want to say about a year ago that we were we were timing them. And it's it's it's pretty good. Yeah. It's it's not very long. It really isn't. Less than 10 seconds or Yes.
019Yeah. Absolutely. The line the lines got shorter. The line the line is Yeah. The sixth grade every year especially at the beginning of the year it's just volume and at that point the kids are still learning their number. So, it takes a couple of weeks to go through that. And then again, they I think we added a um a POS system, a POS system at the middle school just to try to speed it up more. So, that's what we did this year. Uh which helped a lot. So, after we got through maybe midepptember, the lines were moving at that. So, right now we have two. Yeah. What do you think we add another one will be even faster? Uh we don't have enough room. We barely fit uh a second one in uh in order
020to get the kids uh to get the kids through. The first couple of weeks is still, you know, with the kids trying to remember their numbers, it's still going to be a challenge, especially at the sixth grade, right? Um but we I think we got to Gina's point, we got it pretty damn packed. I know like the time strain for middle school in the morning is very very tight. like they either miss or they're not going to use like I I know for Yeah, it's a challenge. Somehow we can improve that process so everyone don't they don't need to wait on the line for that long. You're talking about breakfast. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and the breakfast is pretty quick. I mean, middle school right now, I think we're averaging maybe like 60 to 70
021breakfast a day. And it is it is pretty quick. It really is. And I think some of the teachers also might let them be a few minutes late, you know, they wanted to come and get something and go back to class. I think they're pretty good like that. And this is just elementary breakfast options. Also, um they have some of the little hot entree of the day. They have the fresh bagels, the yogurt cups. So hot and middle school options. We have We do have a ton of selections. Ton. Everybody, I'm sure could see the menu. We changed the entree the day every day. Pizza. I'm going to show you pictures later. I love our pizza. We have cheese and pepperoni. Specialty is changed weekly uh with input from the kids. Also, we're instead of
022putting everything out now because I think it's just a little bit too much. We kind of started the beginning of the year doing the chicken patties Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and hamburgers and cheeseburgers Tuesday and Thursday. It really has worked out well for that because it's not it's not too too many too many options. Um high school we do have the rotating bar which is really really amazing. Uh it started as a nacho bar and then kids were getting a little tired of that. You know nachos every day at the beginning of the school year it's crazy but now we make it pasta. This week we have meatball which was a great suggestion. So we have meatball and different sauces. The kids are loving that. We made it into a yoga bar and the baked
023potato bar is pretty popular as well. Deli bar. We have our borhead coats. We have tuna. Um they can have the different topping. Salad. They can choose their protein whenever they want on it and the tables. Do you guys always have like a vegetarian selection or something? Yeah. Yeah, there's a bunch of vegetarian selections on here. Yeah. Every day. And I think Oh, I think I forgot my favorite on here. I'm sorry. The hummus. We make a homemade hummus. I know. Oh, I definitely brought some samples to everybody in here. Well, not everybody, but people in here. It is amazing. But every day we do have uh many vegetarian options. Before you got a sample, maybe he needs to try it. Yeah. Come by and see you during the day. Yeah. And these are just
024some sides that are available, too. I'm really proud of the way my staff puts together these vegetables. We get fresh vegetables and fruits delivered um on a weekly basis. They are they're amazing. They just pop with color. They're not overcooked. The green stays green. And these are all the selections the kids have. We're not throwing out, you know, all of these fruits um every day. But they have they have multiple fruit and vegetable selections every day. Are you saying everything on this list is fresh? It comes in fresh. Everything on the list is fresh. Really? Yeah. And don't we have to be serious? I know. Don't we have to serve whole milk or is that not a law? So whole milk that actually just the regulations just changed in January. We don't need to. It's
025not required. Got it. And these are your elementary options. We have the hot entree of the day. Same sandwiches, the sun butter and jelly. Oh, the hummus I included on here. They have the salads as well. We just started incorporating a cereal lunch and we just do Cheerios at the elementary schools and they seem to be really really enjoying it and same with the sides as well and a couple of pictures. So, Michael was so kind to reach out to me and say, "You know what? I think it might be something fun and different and with the students, you know, I think the students will like if some of the staff served uh the students the the food for the day." So, we did on on Jan in January, um some staff members got behind
026and the counters and they were they were serving the students and they really really liked them. And maybe I I'm thinking maybe we should do it in middle school soon. Right. You guys were very kind and you were so patient with us. And by the way, it was Victor's idea, so I'm wondering whether it was a cruel trick on Victor's part, but it was it was a lot of fun. Thank you. Next time you cook. Thank you. Some other pictures. This is So this is the rotating bar that I was talking about. So we have the yogurt up there. We have the meatballs. Um that's big potato bar. These are real pictures from Jericho. These like McDonald pictures of Big Mac. These pictures. These are real pictures. Yeah. Yeah. That's the yoga bar. Yeah. So
027they they realize you like she had the dry ice on her. That's why the students never know what contains top allergens. So I don't have allergies labeled on here, but we don't we're we're nutree. I believe your child is sesame if I'm not mistaken right. Okay. Okay. But we we are nutree. Um we I specifically do get my bread from not from Cisco, from Rockland Bakery just because of that. Um but I don't I don't have any list but we don't have I know eggs are a topogen. I think online you have don't we do we have online it's been online I didn't know if there's been any change in yeah I know it is online though but it's not just here and that's why we also have the point of sale system as well
028right so the kid has their allergies in the system so if they swipe and they take something then the system spits out you should be yeah and I will tell you like there was one of my uh staff members was doing snack in the in the middle school snack window and somebody had an apple allergy and they wanted an ice pop and it had an apple in it and she she wouldn't give it to her and she the student was a little bit upset but I said you know the they came to me but we're we're going to follow that to a tea unless the nurse or the parent calls me I I I am going to take that food away because god forbid you don't want um you know yeah anything yeah any type
029of reaction sorry is your presentation done I was just waiting for you guys before I ask okay this is something that I'm really really proud about our month does a great job. We call them LTO's, limited time offerings. Every month we kind of have like a feature entree. Last month it was a cheeseburger and nachos with pickle queso. That happened to be our most popular one by far. We had that obviously in the nacho area. The kids love it. We usually have this for multiple days because sometimes the students might be a little leery. Their their friend might get it, you know, then they're going to try it. So we do have it for multiple days. Um and then you know a lot of times it becomes really popular then we can incorporate it on
030a menu in the future. Again these are real pictures. These are marketing pictures. Yeah Sam they're my pictures. I took I have to ask. Yeah. So real pizza. Yeah. Real pizza. So specialty slices. Just just a couple of them. So, we have the bruschetta pizza, which was the first time we did it this year, really, really popular, a vegetarian pizza. The middle, one of my favorites, the um the buffalo chicken pizza, and the end is the wine pizza. And what I really like that we do also is just those little touches, the only the scallions on the pizza. It it just it elevates the program and just brings it to another level. And I think the students really enjoy that because it's it's you know, it looks like you're going into a pizzeria. And the
031middle picture, if you look closely at the top part of it, that's our courtyard. So, you know, it's taken here. Kenny knows AI can post Jericho back. So, just, you know, we really are, you know, invested in being a part of the community here is so important to us. Aramark is a very data driven company. We pride ourselves in all of the surveys that we do. Like I had mentioned earlier, we have a current student survey out which we have had great participation in so far and are you know looking to see where you know where we close it out. We also interview um survey our principles. We survey our clients. So it really is important for us to get that feedback, use that data to improve continuously improve our program. But, you know, Dena
032and the team here do an incredible job and really is evident in all the pictures that you just saw and the participation as well. So, questions. Jen, do you have a question? Yes, I have I have a few questions. I was just waiting for them to um finish. Once again, thank you. And um I I do have to mention I walked through your kitchen just a handful of times. It's spot clean and it smells like mom's kitchen. like you it it feels like you know like I wouldn't have like you know it's it's it's a cafeteria of course it's not a home kitchen but it's it really feels very homey and I it smells good and I think that really contributes to the kids even wanting to eat there because I think if the kitchen
033doesn't smell good you're not want you're not going to want to eat there. So I just need to put that put that out there. So few questions. What time does um middle school breakfast finish? 7:30. 7. Oh, it finishes at 7:30. The breakfast. Yeah. Right. We're 7 to 7:30. Oh, okay. So, it's like like as soon as the kids start start classes, it's it's a little tight there. And and high school. But if just say if a kid like can't be on the couch. Okay. And high school, what time is a breakfast finish? High school, like later. They kind of linger a little bit. So, high school's supposed to be 8 to 9, but they I linger till 9:15ish. Okay. And then lunch. Middle school with well I guess I know there's a bunch of
034periods. It's yeah it's the periods and I will say periods. So middle school I believe ends at 12:30 if I'm not mistaken. High school ends at 1:00 but because we know so many students do not have lunch. Correct. We are open until about like 1:20ish. So so the lunch stuff. What about like past 120? Let's just say a kids, you know, once again, they didn't get a chance to eat. Is there anything that they can just like grab or there's just like no one there to charge them and like there's nothing there like left over there? I mean, we I know we have the after school for the middle school between two and three. Okay. Um the high school after 120, you know, and I'm not saying hot entries. I'm just saying is there anything
035that's it would be it would be primarily vending machines at Okay. Is there was there anything on that menu that just could be like leftover and like someone can just ring them up. Let's just say it's 2 2 o'clock 2:30. They know there's a staff there. There's there's no staff. Okay, I understand. Um what happens to leftover food? So, I will tell you this account is fantastic at not wasting food. So, we really know how to cook accordingly because we do have that middle school snack window. Like, just say we had uh 10 servings of meatballs left over. We could sell those at the middle school snack window. If we had um some macro, I'm sorry, after school. Yes. The middle school snack window. So, we only like we'll have some leftover pizza. We sell
036that at the middle school snack window. So, that's that's usually what we do occasionally. So there's like I want to say almost no leftover food and and some food then gets like say we had some chicken tenders and they were cooked and we cooled them off accordingly and you know what we might make a chicken Caesar salad or a wrap. So we really try to repurpose it and not have that waste. Okay. So so there's no waste that we would say like maybe we donate to Yeah. Fine. Um, and as far as the bagels being left over, do we, you said we have fresh bagels every day? Are we like literally going through all our bagels that we get? So, occasionally there might be some leftover if we're not selling them after school at the
037snack window. What the middle schoolers really like heated bagels. So, we will take the bagels from the day before and we will those could be some of the heated bagels. Fine. So, since we're talking about heated, because that brings me to a question I had. We spoke about a toaster last time. You said you would look into it. So, here's my thought. We could totally get a toaster. I think that takes a little bit of time. Yes. But not everybody's going to want to use it. And maybe it's like a four slice or eight slice toaster, a commercial one. It sits there. I wouldn't put it out. I thought we talked about it and it was a burnish, a burn risk. So, we didn't we decided not to do that. How is it a burn
038risk? We're talking about high school kids. They go to these, you know, hotels all the time. They put the toaster. I mean, like, I don't think you toast your own bagel. Come on. If we can't rely on these high school kids to be toasting their own bagels and I seriously have also a so funny seasons never makes me toast a bagel at the hotel. I didn't know that. They just don't like me now. Um So definitely like it's like a hard That's a hard It's a hard Thanks. Um Okay. So um as far as I know the second like lunch or breakfast plus money, are they allowed to get a third? I think. Yeah. Oh, they are. Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay. So I wasn't sure there's a limit. Okay. Well, we hopefully the child has
039money in their account, right? But if if if they don't, don't don't you still like charge it and it just goes negative? Not for a second. Not for a second. Oh, not for a second. Even in the past, for the second meal, no. Uh there would need to be money on the How could how can account ever end up being? I will tell you occasionally the kids about a timing thing with seen my own account. Sometimes what happens is they put their number in and then they just go um Occasionally that might be poor timing with the money when you put in Can you just do me a favor that when you look at it the 5,000 policy on wellness it has stuff in there about the number of meals they get and stuff like
040that. I just shared it with I don't know if it's consistent with what we do. Absolutely. Perfect. Thank you. Fine. So as far I know that um you you put up their portion sizes. So obviously high school kids probably get a bigger portion than elementary than middle school. Has that ever been like re-evaluated? Like because let's just say there's a a big percentage of kids even going for meal number two or three. Like maybe portions are just not big enough. At a certain point these kids get very very hungry. Your your contract specifications actually do have larger portions than what the USDA guidelines. Okay. Right. So like a six cut pizza you have and um instead of an eight cut pizza and certain um meat and meat um alternative um options are larger. So like
041that is grade level, right? So K to 5 has certain portion sizes 6 to 8 and then 9 to 12. So we I need to be mindful of um the nutritional requirements. Yeah, right. We don't want to be like overfeeding them. I get that. But so for example, French French toast, right? We always talk about this. My kids, my one of my kids that loves them. Would the middle schooler be getting like three versus the high schooler gets four or how does it work? So, at breakfast time, they usually get three. But for lunchtime, it's the same. It's four for But so then, but why should it be? It shouldn't be the same though. A high schooler should be getting a bigger wheel. That's part of the guidelines, right? That's something but but it doesn't
042make sense like a ninth grader or 10th grader is definitely eating well and it's also just not so you have to think of it as the the five components. So right so they're getting that that's the bread then they could get their um if they want their sausage or cheese if they're vegetarian they could get that they could get fruit they could get milk and they could get their vegetable. So we try to really encourage all five components so that they aren't are all five components bigger in high school versus middle school. Is that what you're saying? Middle school it's all we start with a half a cup and then they can get up to a cup of fruit and up to a cup of vegetable every every day. What do you mean up to
043like Yeah. They can say but it's like including they don't have to pay for it. Got it. Okay. Um, can we just uh did you guys ever consider breakfast for lunch? I know for sure is one of the things, but like what about you guys do you guys? We serve breakfast for lunch on Wednesday. I can attest to that. All those things like you had cereal, you had yogurt, like is that all available? Yeah. Okay. Okay. That is missed that. And then I guess one of my last questions is great neck eliminated all added colors. Oh yeah, we spoke about that. Yeah. So are we doing that? So now if you look like on our on our pre um like the snacks and stuff like that and we our menus next year are starting out.
044Okay. So like Yeah. But you guys I think we spoke you guys cut like two out of the five. So, so the ones, so all the alocart is already taken care of because that was Victor and I had discussed that we're going to start this school year. Any snack that we bring in here is not going to have any artificial coloring. Okay. And I could attest to that that the snacks that we bring in that I'm selling right now do not. I don't have many. So, what about Doritos? They don't. You can see I'll take a picture and Doritos. Don't they have that number whatever? Oh, they've got lots of other chemicals, just not the specific colors. Correct. And they've reformulated buy those from our house. Yeah. Can I just get a few to take
045home, please? We talked about that. Healthy. They're just better. We healthier. We talked about that. A lot of the snacks, it's still the same brand. It's Lays, it's Cheetos, it's Doritos, etc. But they're made differently for public K12 public schools across the country. I did not know that. Okay. So, and then there's no um there's no coloring in any of our foods. Obviously, they were making like any of the hot foods there. It's not I know we're talking about snacks, but anything and the Pop-Tarts like you said. Yeah. No, I think we even talked about the fruit rollups there. It's made with a few fruit puree. I think we need to like put that inex. I think it's important that I think a lot I think a lot of the schools that All right. Well,
046thank you then. That's all I have. So, you know, we have you obviously know we have a multicultural community. Does the menu reflect um I know you talked about having some halal meals and they were trying them out a couple years ago. I don't know, you know, if that is incorporated into the meal into the regular menu and any other kind of ethnic I mean I saw right so that's a lot of our LTO's kind of like f focus on that um little ethics you know the ethnic um meals but we we tried halal we did it for a little bit and then yeah I mean I know that there was a whole group of Muslim fans that were really working hard to that was going to school. So, and I know they said there
047would be some trial, but I guess it didn't go. Yeah. And I could always something that we could always was advertised. I don't remember. I think I think I don't remember. I guess if it were well received, it would have gotten I I think I remember the conversation, but besides, you know, whether it was well taken or not, I don't know how many kids, you know, there are that even request side. But then isn't that like a slippery slope? Then what are we going to do at kosher meals too? We can we can serve every it wasn't like to meet the halal standards because a lot of the food the vegetarian meals already more just like you know people like to go to the hal and that was like you know you mean like like
048middle eastern type people were asking a wide variety of different foods that are chicken kebab or I don't know I'm sorry. Yeah. Thank you so much, ladies. As always, great job, Tina and Carrie. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Uh, welcome everyone for my favorite budget presentation, not only because it's the last one, uh, but the second half of the presentation. We kind of bring it all together, uh, to show to illustrate where the money is going and talk about the buildings and what's going on in each of the buildings. So, um, always enjoy this one. So, this is the tax levy cap, um, actual calculation. Uh, as you can see, it's it's a little more complicated than just adding 2% to the prior year's uh tax
049levy. Um, it's eight parts. It has to do with the payment of taxes, uh, the growth factor, tax based growth factor, and also the capital exclusion. So, I do want to point out the capital exclusion. You could see uh last year it was $1.5 million and this year it's only $665,000 and the reason for that was the building aid um that we received additionally in state aid that comes off the cap. So unfortunately um that gets backed out and that's why our cap is uh lower than it typically is at 1.85% 85% and our proposed tax levy is just slightly underneath that at 1.84. This is uh not one that you saw yet. So I added a couple of slides uh since I voted to the board. This is providing the history of the tax
050cap over the last 15 years. Uh that's the top number. That's our actual tax cap um for the district. the uh the bluish I guess uh line graph the one the brighter green one is our actual tax levy on an annual basis and you can see from 1415 to 1819 5ear stretch of zeros and actually one year um the tax levy was actually lower than the previous year and then again in 2122 and 2223 um and the average over that period of 15 years annually was um 1.2%. So significantly below uh the tax. Looking our at our budget summary. So this again is bringing um everything that we talked about over the last few months. Uh just summarizing the uh major categories and overall the budgettobudget increase is 2.83 and our proposed tax levy again
051is 1.84. Uh a couple of things I want to point out. Um significant change in state aid. The governor's proposal uh came out and I think um the meeting following that um that presentation from the governor showed us getting significant more dollars in state aid to the tune of a little more than uh $2 million. And of that 12.4 I know this question came up at the last meeting. Bosey's aid equates to about 1.5 million of that um 12.4. for estimated for next year. I put a couple of charts together on the expenditure side. This chart um just looks at the different categories of the budget. Salaries, benefits, bosses, supplies, equipment, etc. And obviously just like any other district, the lion share is salaries and benefits because primarily we are a people um people business
052and it's based on staff. The next slide is still the total expenditure showing it in a different way. The state requires us to uh look at it in a three-part component pro program capital and administrative. uh we always present this part in the budget detail um that's on the website every year um after the board adopts but I thought it would be good just to give you an idea in a pie chart program is 80 80% um capital administrative is 10% even though those numbers are different uh administrative is 9.53 got rounded up to 10% and capital was 10.35 got rounded down to 10% so that's why they both reflect this 10% So inadministrative that's just salaries and benefits and support for administrative or what's in administrative. Yes. So uh primarily the first presentation uh
053and it would include supplies, equipment, anything in those administrative codes. Uh the capital was where buildings and grounds would be as uh as well as the transfer to capital 1,275. Okay. So the capital be maintenance of buildings when you say buildings grounds maintenance etc. Got it. uh revenue summary. So uh no surprise here um the Jericho school district similar to other districts uh in Nassau County receives um comparatively speaking very little overall state aid which is about 8% and the lion share is tax levy at 82%. So these are the projects I'm going to zip through these a little bit. These are the projects we're physically doing this summer based on prior approvals uh that we already received. Um this is the capital uh reserve history. Um and again that green portion at the bottom,
054we are recommending um a a new capital reserve to be set up. um which also requires board resolutions eventually to fund it once it's set up and then voter authorization to spend out of any reserve. So just because you set it up doesn't mean necessarily you fund it and just because you fund it doesn't necessarily mean you automatically going to do projects at that point. These are the highlighted um items we were recommending. I'll go to the summary. Uh the yellow highlights total just under $6 million and the way we're funding that is 1,275 out of the general fund budget and 4.7 million out of our already funded ex existing capital reserve. So proposition. So this is the actual language you will see on the ballot for proposition number two. And then this is the
055actual language you'll see on proposition three, which is funding a new capital reserve. So you'll notice there's a lot more words in this one than in this one. This is a little more specific to what we're actually looking at to do um you know from the um from the highlights uh from all the highlighted items. This being that you're funding it, we it's known you try to put every possible project in there. This way it gives the board and the future boards flexibility uh to work within those parameters. Any questions up to this point before I introduce uh principles? Great. Uh let's start with Joanna. Um again, this is one of my favorite parts. It kind of buttons up the whole budget process and we could see how the money is being spent at each
056of the buildings. Dina made me very very hungry and I thought she should have brought samples tonight. Hi everyone. Thank you so much. I'm very happy to present on behalf of Dr. Rivera and Dr. Sapienzai about the elementary program. Our elementary program is consistently strong. It includes experiences that set a foundation for our students while also extending and enriching their knowledge and skills. From world languages to robotics to music and art, our students engage in a comprehensive interdisciplinary experience as they learn through the years. Our students who study world, they all study world languages starting in grade one. So from grade 1 to four, they study Spanish. In fifth grade, they're introduced to French and Italian. And also in grade 1 and four, there are units uh targeted units in Mandarin. So they do gain
057perspectives of various cultures and they definitely broaden their global views. Uh this year the integration of the robotics union continued in grade four and five and was extended to grade three transforming classrooms into a lab of critical thinking and collaborative problem solving. Further each week every student engages in physical education, general music and art instruction while they are developing their voices in chorus. They also get to select an instrument for band and or um orchestra in grades four and five. And then beyond our classroom, the success of our students is definitely attributed to our amazing teachers. They work tirelessly and they never stop learning. So through the various professional learning experiences, our teachers continue to grow their skills, their knowledge and repertoire for all kinds of learning experiences. So in recent years, they've been focusing
058on expanding engagement protocols within their classrooms. They then participated in the next level of responsive classroom training so that their classrooms are always places where children feel they belong and they have a safe space to be in throughout their school day. Also they engage in professional learning that has to do with academics. So one of our areas that we expanded was in Hegerty instruction. So that was focused in kindergarten and expanded to grade one this year and Dr. Sullivan is leading some instruction revolving around bridges which is a hegrity intervention program. Uh these programs not only help all of our students, but we find they're especially beneficial with our English language learners. So, we cannot be more proud or impressed by our educators in the classroom. So, thank you to our teachers. Uh lastly, I
059want to highlight the new addition to the elementary this year was we had two additional elementary clubs at the elementary level. Um this came out of interest from our community and also our passion passionate educators once again. So, I'll just highlight two of them so you can get a sense of some of the things that were offered. So one of the clubs was the globe trotters. This is Dr. Bar probably very excited. Globe Trotters across uh offers students a vibrant and exciting space for students to explore and celebrates diverse cultures from around the world. Students delve into a variety of countries and regions of their choosing. The club adviser curates hands-on activities that spotlight art, music, food, celebrations, and history of places across our world. Students make crafts, learn songs, read stories, play authentic games,
060and take virtual field trips. These experiences enable students to become cultural ambassadors and even present their knowledge to their other Jackson student uh peers at events like multicultural night. So, another club I'll highlight is our press club. So, this was at JRS this year. So, press club offered a unique and engaging opportunity for third and fourth grade students to develop critical 21st century skills through lenses of media broadcasting. The club provided an interdisciplinary platform for our students to apply literacy research and communication skills skills sorry in a tangible and exciting way. They made highly collaborative projects focusing on teamwork, shared responsibility. They used digital tools and had various publications throughout the year. So really impressed. So across our three elementary schools, we had those two additional elementary clubs. That's in addition to our safety patrols,
061our peer leaders and various other opportunities for our elementary kids. So that's just a really quick fast way of saying our kids are doing awesome and they do awesome because of all of you. So we thank the board for their support. We thank the community at large. We thank all of you. Uh next up I'll invite Chad and Sarah to provide the accomplishments and highlights for the Jericho Middle School. chat. Thank you very much for the opportunity to share some middle school highlights tonight. Uh so student success always rests on a strong foundation and in Jericho that foundation starts at home with families that support public education here. It's strengthened by the excellent work in our elementary schools and of course we benefit from the great support from the board of education and our central
062administration as well. For the fifth consecutive year, Jericho Middle School was rated the number one suburban middle school in New York State by US News and World Report. That consistency over time speaks to the expertise of our teachers and their dedication as well as our students. Our students also received more New York State Archives student research awards than any other middle school in the state, a testament to the research uh that our students do all year long in their social studies classes. And finally, once again, we're proud to be designated a school to watch by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform. Uh that's a designation given to students or given to schools uh for their academic excellence as well as supporting students uh through a unique period of development in the middle school
063years. So, a little bit about the middle school program. At the heart of our program is a structure designed to make sure that every student is well known. In our large school of 819 students, teachers work together on instructional teams and those teams ensure that every student is well known by their teachers and it's designed to support students throughout the year. Uh students also participate in Nest advisory program. The nest advisory is designed to strengthen students sense of connection with teachers and with each other. uh students meet regularly with one uh teacher in a small group and they dis they discuss things uh relevant to middle school life. Our teachers are continuing to engage in innovative forms of professional development as you heard uh in the elementary schools. In the middle school, our focus is
064on intervisitations. That's opportunity for teachers to visit and observe each other's classrooms uh and and bring back the great pedagogical skills they see in their uh peers classrooms to their own classroom. Uh and students have the opportunity to take on multiple leadership roles throughout the year in the middle school. Junior librarians and literacy leaders are two examples of those. Uh they really help build a culture of literacy throughout the year and that takes place right here in the library where you're sitting. Uh and to ensure that every student receives the support they need. Uh we utilize a response to intervention framework. Uh we also have a full continuum of special education services and a strong ENL program to to ensure that every student has the support they need. Of course, strong partnerships with parents and
065our community continue to enhance the program at the middle school. We have a strong partnership with the Nassau County Bar Association, with Long Island Cares, and with uh some uh support dog organizations that have come into our community service learning classes. I'd like to uh take the mo a moment to introduce uh someone who works closely with our students and staff and families each day and plays a critical role in supporting our students. Please welcome our assistant principal, Miss Sarah Belalute Chanel. Thank you everyone and thank you to every single person in this room. And I just also want to give a special thank you to our curriculum associates that we have such great collaboration with and a lot of things that we're talking about tonight is because of the work that we do so
066closely with you. So thank you. And to our teachers at home, if any of you are watching and we have a few here again, all of this is because of the hard work that you do. We really encourage our students to take ownership of their learning. We have 18 elective running this year and we have 41 clubs from Lego robotics to current events and if you smell the hallways sometimes our culinary arts are our our little chefs. Um students can learn skills that are directly related to their interests. Our research programs allow for autonomy and student choice. In eighth grade, our students have math research science competitions at the local, the state, the national level. And this year, we added a new course to our explorations in science. It's called the science of sound. And
067the students studied sound waves, but then they designed the tech with the technical aspect. They designed their own ukuleles. So, we're going to serenade you tonight. Get them. But if you take a look at this, our students made this. They drafted it. They learned about the the the physics of the sound. They went into the technical programs. They they built them. They carved them. They made all the designs. And then they had a really wonderful celebration of learning. But it's just something so new and so special in our school this year. I'll learn to play it next time for you. Um National History Day. We had a revolution reaction and reforms. Every seventh and eighth grader is participating in self-driven history topics. our teachers, our librarian work entire tire entirely and to make all of
068this work and the students are learning such important skills and things that they're interested in. Um many of them are advanced to the Long Island competition which I believe is March 22nd, Dr. Sberg um at Hostra University. So good luck to all of them. We are still offering four languages. We have Spanish, Chinese, Italian, and French. Really building out the the elementary school program. Everyone has a club that's associated with it by by choice if the students want to field trips and also a lot of culinary experiences so that the students can have the cultural experience along with the fluency development. Um our performing arts program our students are learning to express themselves. They're it's team building. It's confidence building. It's the discipline that's happening through band chorus chorus orchestra um and theater. Tonight we
069had the opening of Big Bad and I hope our students outsmarted that wolf. And in we also have a show tomorrow if you didn't get a chance to see it. And in the fall we had our um Shrek the musical. It was pretty wonderful. Diversity this day was golden. We love our K-pop demon hunters. So that was our theme. and the other students and staff on stage really trying to embrace that theme of community and unity togetherness. So, we were pretty golden. And a huge thank you to the PTSA for the amazing cultural feast that they put on for every single student in the building. Um, it's it's a wonderful way for us to get the traditions that are coming from home and all of the wonderful things that make our community special. We also
070have continuing our Alveas bullying prevention program. Many of you were part of that. We were so excited to once again have our fifth graders join us and throughout the year we have our um our our brave ambassadors. They're students who be are trained in bullying prevention techniques. They go into the middle school and do lessons. They go into the high uh elementary schools and they just try to keep that message going all year long. Our personal best initiatives are we know that every student succeeds in different ways. So, we tried to highlight that with um just different recognition throughout the year. In April, we're going to have a pep rally. We have another ceremony. Um student led learning opportunities. It's really special. And finally, our field trips. Uh Washington DC, our overnights. Thank you to
071those staff members who bravely go overnight with eighth graders. It is wonderful. And um our Philadelphia trip is coming up in next month. We had United States. We have Broadway shows. And one of the my personal experience this year was so amazing to be in Washington DC. We went to the L Milin Center for Advancing the American Dream. It's a new museum and our students artwork was hanging on there. The students who won the artifacts competition. So Jericho is truly on display for the world to see and there's a lot of great things happening here. Good job both of you. Thank you. Um, next I'm going to invite Ruth to come up and give us a fine performing arts forever. Good evening everyone. Um, I'm so honored to present tonight because it's the month of
072March and March is when we celebrate youth art month and music in our schools month too. Um, so with all of that, I want to start by saying the slide that you're seeing tonight has music, visual arts, and theater clubs right next door. So without going through all of the things underneath it, I just wanted to say I had a great time finding pictures in my phone to show tonight. The first picture that you see by music is the brand new theater at Jackson Elementary School, and that just opened this year. And under visual arts, you'll see um one of our community events called Cookies and Canvas. And that is I knew you'd like that one, Desire. That's a really special night that brings our community together um to make artwork together and have cookies.
073And then our next picture is our theater and clubs where you can see all of our student actors on stage wearing beautiful costumes and expressing themselves that way. So, while I begin tonight, I want to make sure that I don't forget anything. So, I do have a script to go by. Um, first I'm especially grateful to present and thank all of you in this room. Particularly, thank you to the board of education, Dr. Kravitz, our central administration for their continued support. Your commitment allows us to make thoughtful allocations of resources and provide meaningful funding that strengthen opportunities for all of our students. So this month has already been filled with exciting opportunities. Highlights included the ASA all county art exhibit, the high school musical, the m the middle school drama which we were just talking
074about and yesterday we had a special guest conductor who visited. Um her name was Sunhine Nubold and she came to spend the whole day with us at our orchestras. This is somebody who is internationally recognized who composes music for K to2 orchestras. And our students got to meet her. It was like having a celebrity here. They took pictures. They got her autograph. And now her name isn't just a name on their music. She's actually a a person who joined our Jericho family. So, we're really proud of that event that we had yesterday. And I want to thank all of the teachers who made that happen. All of the things that I'm talking tonight would not have been possible without their creativity and them bringing all of these programs to our students. So, our music program
075continues to thrive across all grade levels. We are incredibly proud of the many ensembles and performances that bring our community together, including concerts, adjudic adjudication festivals, and special events throughout the year. This year we successfully implemented the Dakapo inventory parent portal and I want to thank Victor for helping us get that started and also Melissa who's not here but um so this was a brand new program that helped us make um payment option through credit card for NISMA for field trips and also for um our Jericho summer music program that will be coming up. An example of how this was successful was with our NISMA um registrations. We have 663 NISMA registrations for this year. 430 of those transactions were through credit card representing about 65% of our total collections. And this shows how Dicapo
076music inventory has provided us with an efficient and transparent way to pay for this activity. We also have continued to enhance our equipment. Some of the examples about the um for this are some fun things. This year we included electric violins in our pit and we expanded our keyboard sound capabilities for our musical theater performers um which included buying patches and being able to have the authentic sound for the aba music that you heard just last week. Um, these enhancements allowed students to explore contemporary sound and prepare for modern performance settings. We were grateful for the renovations made in the auditori elementary school. I already talked about that one. That's the one up there. And um, and it created an upgraded performance space for students. All right, I'm going to go to visual arts now.
077Our visual arts program continue to provide students with opportunities to explore creativity through a wide range of mediums. Students are actively participating in exhibitions and competitions including the ASA all county exhibit. We had 24 students feature their work there and that work has now come back to the district. We will be showing it right here in the lobby starting next week. We'll have a new display so that we can have it up throughout the whole month of youth art month. We are especially proud of the interdisciplinary exploratory model of all of our arts instruction that engages students to learn and express themselves. One of the most memorable experiences was the nighttime astrophotography trip. That was an amazing trip. Students learned how to capture the night sky using long exposure techniques, combining artistic vision and technical
078skill. Standing at the beach under the stars became a truly unforgettable experience. one that blended science, art, and wonder. Opportunities like this will be remembered forever. Theater and performing arts. Our theater program continues to bring storytelling, music, and performance to life in powerful ways. We are still so incredibly proud of the recent high school production of Mamma Mia, which demonstrated tremendous collaboration among students, directors, musicians, stage crew, and technical teams. Our middle school drama production also continues to grow, giving younger students the opportunity to develop their talents both on stage and behind the scenes with hopes of being involved when they get to high school. Looking ahead this month, still in March, can you believe it? Still ahead in March, we look forward to hosting our piano this weekend. Piano Nisma will be Friday and
079Saturday. We had a parade of 15 brand new pianos rented by NISMA arrive here on Monday and they will be instrumental in our success. We will be celebrating the induction of our students in the national um artsbian and triumph honor societies. These students work so hard. I can't tell you how proud we are of them and all of their service that they provide to our community. I also want to mention that the high school jazz band will represent the community with a performance at the New York State Capitol this month on March 31st in honor of music in our schools month. Next month, let the spring concert season begin. We'll also be traveling to Hershey Park and much more. These events truly show how our students continue to share their talents by representing our district
080with pride. Looking even further ahead past March and April and May and June, we are planning our 2027 Florida Arts trip, which will bring together students from band, orchestra, chorus, and visual arts with the possibility of including dance as well. We are exploring an exciting itinerary that might expand the traditional Disney experience to also include Universal Studios, the new Epic Park, offering students an inspiring blend of performance and educational experiences. We are proud to share that we have once again applied for the best communities in music education and this year we have additionally applied for the first year being offered the Nisada vision endorsement. This is a distinction that recognizes excellence in visual arts programs. The results for both of these will be released next month in April. Sorry. Did you see that you have
081kids performing at the capital at the capital building in Albany? I missed the Albany Park. Hopeful that continued commitment and dedication will once again be recognized. Jericho students truly continue to reach for the stars and shine everywhere they go. None of this would be possible without the unwavering support of the entire community. The arts bring people together and together we ensure that every student can discover their creativity and find their voice. Thank you for your time this evening and for your continued support of the fine and performing arts. Ruth Barto, thank you. appreciate it. Uh, moving on to the last piece, Brian, Michaela, and um, Jim to talk about the high school. Thank you very much. Glad to be back again. I want to thank the board of education, central administration for the opportunity to
082talk about and uh, give you a little bit of an understanding of what's going on at the high school. One of the I'm going to start with the academic end of the high school. Uh, one of the things we're really proud about with respect to the high school is our incredible depth and breadth within each of our disciplines. In the high school, we offer 27 AP courses and at least slightly over 38 college level courses. Uh we have within our disciplines we have opportunities for students to delve into their interests and we offer uh four-year sequences in science, social science and mathematics research. We offer multiple languages throughout the high school and we have opportunities in engineering, robotics and video production. in our business department. I'll talk about in a couple moments our uh our
083new co offering in business and personal finance, but we offer array of business courses. What we really try to do within the high school is give students an opportunity to uh explore their interests and passions and not only take a core uh curriculum within their within their day but also have an opportunity to explore a lot of other opportunities. In our English and language arts department, we have multiple classes along with uh you know a pursuit of happiness and creative writing and broadcasting. We offer family and consumer science classes and aggress agriculture classes in the high school. Uh as Ruth was just talking about, we want to make sure we ensure that the fine performing arts are explored by all of our students. And one of our incredible things in our phys department is that
084we have a lot of individualized opportunities for students to not to uh explore some of their interests. We have a possibility of four classes next year that were offered to students. Um we have advanced placement business personal finances uh clinical healthcare 3D unit coding and design and made in Italy where the process of our scheduling process. So based on interest there's a possibility that some or many of these classes will be running this current school year. I'm here also with Michaela Finley who'll talk a little bit about some of the ways we ensure uh the well-rounded student. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to present. Uh so in addition to instruction, we are so proud of the extracurricular activities that we offer at the high school which continue to give our students a well-rounded
085experience and also support us in being a leading high school. Um we have so many different leadership opportunities for kids. So student council, if you've heard, battle of the classes is tomorrow. We're very excited. Uh and we went over a lot of our clubs and service organizations which continue to allow our kids to refine, develop soft skills for lifelong learning and take on leadership opportunities. It's it's insane to think that we're already considering uh officers for next school year in in a good way. Uh mental health and supporting our students needs is always a top priority and we are really grateful to the board for all of your ongoing support. This year we did make some upgrades in Cafe 126 when it comes to some technology and ways for students to connect with one each
086with one another. So again, we appreciate your support and we look forward to more opportunities. Thank you. So when we I every year when I start looking at our numbers with respect to graduation rates and many of the our students winning many awards, I get I get I'm not surprised. I I'm elated at looking at some of these numbers. Every single year we have a 99% graduation rate and you can see up there also our regions diploma rate and our advanced regions diploma rates. This year we had 33 national merit commit committed students, 23 uh finalists and five national med national merit winners. 90% of our students of the class of last year last year's data took uh at least one advanced placement class over their career and you can see the numbers of some
087of the different uh numbers that came out throughout the year. Uh this year we know we had 10 Regeneron scholars uh of the top 300 in the nation and we have one regeneron finalist that we'll find out in a little bit. Today uh we had three students win at LIS that will be participating at our international science and engineering fair uh in May with the opportunity for more students to win when we have our nice competition. As Brett talked about last couple weeks ago, we had 21 consecutive New York scholar athletes, the only school in New York State to obtain that distinction. Uh, and also last week, Tristan Yang, one of our students, uh, was the state champion in diving. Okay, I'm going to now bring up Mr. Jim Andonus that's going to talk a
088little bit about ways our students can, uh, show off their experiences. Thank you everybody. Um yes, so our competitions are quite numerous. Um this is really where our kids get to shine and um you know take what they've learned in in school and apply it in a real world situation under extreme pressure and and we know our kids uh do such a great job. um you know, not only do they get to get the personal accolades and and team accolades, um but they also, you know, it it also helps develop their their um soft skills of, you know, communicating and and being up and presenting um and and everything that uh is involved in in that process. I'll just point out a couple since there are so many here. Um we already heard about National
089History Day. Something like um you know, mock trial. Kids get up and they get to think on their feet. They get to uh defend a you know position um virtual enterprise kids get to you know run a virtual uh company and and make you know uh timely decisions for that company. Um we have our uh world language uh exams. Uh we all know about Regeneron and you were talking about you know what makes it in the paper. There was another article in News Day today about Regen or our Regeneron finalist. So that was great uh to see. Um we have things like the um congressional art competition uh where you know kids submit artwork and the winners can be their uh pieces can be hanging in in uh in the Capitol building. So we have
090great opportunities for kids, great learning opportunities both in and outside of of school. So we're very proud of that. Thank you. And I want to thank our whole teamwork that makes it so incredible. It's our families. It's our board of education. It's our set of administration. It's our teachers, our curriculum associates, all working together to create an incredible opportunities for our students. Thank you. Great job. Thank you. And that wraps up this budget presentation. I want to take an opportunity to thank all of our administrative cabinet uh their teamwork in putting the budget together. It's a lengthy process um last several months obviously and I want to thank the board of education for all of their input during the process as well. Um March 26th is the adoption of the budget by the board of
091ed and that's a uh I believe a full regular board. Thank you. Thank you. So just to echo what Mr. Bang was saying and include him in the praise for everyone in the business office who works extremely hard and uh to get these presentations put together and Miss Fo who helps them make sure these presentations are distributed and put together. So thank you to her. Also um as Mr. Manuel said on the 26th, uh, we will hopefully put forward a budget to the community or we will put forward a budget to the community, recommend a budget that will be voted on in May. Um, as I talked about at the beginning of the meeting, we do have an abbreviated meeting tonight for reasons that go without mentioning. Um, do I have a motion to table
092our discussions on policy sections 5000 and policy sections 3000? Thank you, Mrs. Bartner. Do I have a second? Thank you, Dr. Balachander. All in favor of tableabling 5,000, 3,000. Thank you. And then I think we also also still have to table here. Any second reading of the 1,000s, 2000s, and 4,000s that we had the first reading on before. We have to keep tableabling them until we have the second reading. Um, do I have a motion to table those? Thank you, Mr. Citron. Second, Mr. Jin. Thank you. All in favor of tableabling the 1,00 2,000, and 4,000 All in favor? Thank you. 50. Um, we will get to the policy manual. It will be completed this school year. Can take that to the bank. With that, does anyone have anything to add before we adjourn? Oh,
093I will have it though I know you people will be quiet. Um, opportunity for the public to be heard. If you'd like to make a comment or ask question, please approach microphone, tell us your name. representing group your affiliation. If you'd like your statement to be included, you must have a handwritten copy of your remarks to our district clerk victim man before leaving tonight. As always, oh, I apologize. I my deepest apologies, Mr. Dr. Hartnett. As always, public discussion of matters related to staff and students during which their reputation, privacy, or right to due process or those of others could in some way be violated is prohibited. Dr. Hartnett, the floor is yours. Thank you very much. This is this on Okay. Dear members of the board of education and superintendent Kravitz, we've had a
094very rough few weeks of loss at Jericho. As participants thoroughly committed to this community, the Jericho teachers, counselors, and support staff are haunted and deeply saddened by these losses. In our desire for solace, we return to the rhythms of the classroom and the school day as a means to give normaly and stability to students. New ideas and concepts are always ballasted by the familiarity both of the teachers presence and the classroom environment. In these difficult times, we are committed to providing spaces where students feel comfortable and safe in their own skins. Whatever challenges students are confronting in their years of development, right through the awkwardness, the embarrassment, and the questioning that accompanies adolescence, we are there to offer kind and caring support. Indeed, the curriculum provides much of the heavy lifting here, presenting teachers and
095students alike with reason and purpose, binding us as fellow passengers on this journey of learning and exploration. We continue our quest to do better and be better. So during this rough period of loss, I thought now is a good moment to reaffirm what we do since this collective spirit brings us strength in these most trying times. Thank you, Mike Hartnett, Jericho Teachers Association. Thank you, Dr. hard net for expressing a sentiment that I think is shared by everyone on this board and everyone in this room before we close anyone else any opportunity for public to be heard the public has helped it heard very eloquently thank you again Dr. Hartnett do I have a motion to adjourn thank you Mrs. Martin second thank you Dr. Qual. All in favor of motion. Thank you very much.
096We'll see you on the 26th at Jackson Elementary School for the rescheduled Jackson Elementary School location meeting.