001will quickly rise and for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please remain standing for one second. I would like to take a moment to pause and reflect. Many in our community are aware of the challenges our district has faced and at times like these, it is important to simply take a breath. Let us pause together to reflect and to honor the importance of empathy and compassion. Thank you. Good evening. Let's start off with recognitions. March is a big month for our English language arts department chaired by Dr. Dan Salsman as it is National Reading Month, which focuses on encouraging a daily reading habit and fostering a
002love of books. In addition, tomorrow, March 4th, is National Grammar Day, which promotes using proper, clear, and effective English with written and spoken communication. For you, Mr. Goodstead, fittingly or curiously, National Grammar Day was first officially recognized by our 43rd 43rd president, George W. A great leader whose wellocumented struggles with the English language, often termed bushisms, included unconventional phrases, malipropisms, spoonerisms, neologisms, mispronunciations, and grammatical errors. Take this opportunity for those students and parents wanting to celebrate National Grammar Day tomorrow. I recommend purchasing the book Must Know High School Grammar and Composition written by Jericho Middle School's Rosemary Scalera. available in all your favorite book sellers. Some quick items before we jump into our agenda. You should have all received an email about the Jericho school survey. We would appreciate all community members taking the time
003to complete it. It will be very helpful in writing our district's strategic plan over the coming months. Miss Molina, what is the deadline for completing that? Did I miss the window? Uh, sorry, ignore that window is closed. Thank you all of you. I'm told we got thousands of responses. So, thank you very much. Hopefully I have not missed this render. Mr. Cornbloom, registration for high school sports closes this Friday. The season starts next Monday except for a couple golfs and tennis which start the following week. So if you're a high school and interested in sports, please get to it. Unless any of my colleagues have something to add, we will jump right into our middle school student update. Can I please have uh Shea Maramari and Sanvi Meta Good evening. My name is Ishimari and
004I am Sanvi Ma. We are sixth and eighth grade student council representatives. It is a pleasure to be here today. Mother Nature decided to extend our February vacation last week as the latest blizzard closed school for two days. Wednesday, February 25th was indeed a school day, but it was also a night for informative incoming seventh and eighth grade parent meetings about course selections, clubs, and middle school philosophies. If you heard that many award-winning authors visited Jericho Middle School this month, you would be correct. We are thrilled to announce that on February 4th, a total of 13 authors participated virtually in our National World Read ReadAloud Day. What a great way to celebrate literacy and reading. A huge thank you to Miss Conquin, the middle school librarian, for organizing this amazing event. Does math count? You
005bet it does. We are proud to share that eighth grader Shelton Leia recently competed in the Long Island Math Counts Competition and has advanced to the New York State level which will take place on March 14th. We are also excited to share that our Jericho Middle School spelling be winner Stephanie Lan has qualified for the 2026 SNSB Region 4 regional B on March 12th. Good luck. On February 12th, Miss KBO and Miss Fernandez took their seventh graders to the Long Island Children Museum where they parttook in a guided tour entitled the saltwater story exhibit, followed by a bubble experience, pop culture indeed. And more on the pop front, February 4th was also the night of our middle school pops concert. And lastly, K-pop demon hunters may have been the inspiration for this year's diversity day,
006but our JMS diversity demon hunters were the stars on February 6th as performers danced, sang, and laughed their way into our hearts. Thank you to Miss Murphy for organizing such an incredible event. Love isn't only reserved for Valentine's Day. On February 13th, students participated in PSI Love You Day. Prior to this day, Miss Schneider and Miss Schmidt Student Council Club and Miss Newman's and Miss Penny's community service learning classes teamed up to create an informative and entertaining video about this nationally celebrated event. Their video taught students that PSI Love You Day is an annual international event that is dedicated to promoting and recognizing mental health awareness. This year's theme was be someone's light. During Friday's nest period, students decorated and designed hearts that reflected how they could be someone's light. We love that Dr. Brush
007and Miss Breland organized this event. What does March have in store for our middle school? Well, our theater students are rehearsing for their March 12th and 13th performance of Big Bad. They along with Showtime students will also be attending the high school's performance of MMA Mia tomorrow. Lastly, we are especially looking forward to our special author visitation on March 18th. Authors Liz Welch and Caitlyn Olaf Franka will present to the sixth graders about their non-fiction book, I will always write back. If you are interested in being part of the PTSA book talk featuring this book, sign up through parent square. Liz Welch will also speak to the seventh and eighth grade students about her book with Malala Yuzafsai entitled We Are Displaced, which features true stories from displaced persons around the world. That's all for
008now. Thank you very much. Now for our high school update, Dean and Emma Zoo. Good evening everyone. I'm Emma Zoo, student council co-president and I'm Devconi, the other co-president. We're excited to share what's been happening this month at Jericho. Um, and yeah, let's get into it. Starting with the arts, March is both music in our schools month or our schools month and youth art month. So, there's a lot to celebrate. On March 1st, the art supervisors association all county art exhibit will take place at Clark High School. Congratulations to Zoe Davis for being recognized as this Jericho Senior Scholarship Award recipient. From our theater department, the high school musical production of Mamma Mia opens March 5th through 7th. So take a chance on this amazing show and get your tickets today. In music, on March
00911th, the music department is excited to host a visit from orchestra conductor soon. Then on March 13th and 14th, the school will host the NISMA piano festival with help from our Triumph Honor Society members. And later in the month, look out for the combined triumph thespian and art honor society induction ceremonies as well as the jazz bands trip to perform at the Capitol building in Albany. From the languages department, the AP French class hosted guest speakers for an information session about Cameroon. Students learned about various aspects of the country including languages spoken there in addition to French as well as cultural products and practices. We thank Mr. and Mrs. Keju for preparing such an informative presentation and Mrs. Kennedy for organizing the visit. On behalf of the English department, we are proud to recognize the
010achievements of our Jer Echo student journalist at the annual quilt awards at Adelfi University. For individual awards, the Jer Echo received best news video, most outstanding reporter, which went to Madison Lee, and best news article. The Jer Echo also earned second place in the category for best online newspaper. Turning to science, research, and technology. It has been an incredible stretch. As always, science students Manis Dundakuri, Ashna Arya, and Eva Brown earned honorary mention, and Isabelle Dion earned first place at Stony Brooks Institute for Advanced Computational Sciences. They were honored at a ceremony before February break. Our science Olympia team finished in second place at regionals, earning six first place medals. They now head to the state finals in March. And Asha Shaw will also be in Washington DC this March presenting her project as a
011Regeneron Science Talent Search finalist. All 12 of our Jericho proposals earned a bid to round two of the LIFE semi-finals in person. Jasmine Thingra is a national semi-finalist in the MIT Think Scholar program and AP Biology students are headed to the Cold Spring Harbor DNA Learning Center this month for fieldwork. Also in the world of competitions, Alan Zang made the honor role in the US AI Olympiad and will be moving on to the next round at MIT along Randy Zoo who made the distinguished honor role. That next round takes place in April. It has been a busy and exciting few weeks and we are so proud of everything that has been happening across the Jay-Hawk community. Thank you and we hope you have a good night. Thank you for coming. Next up, PTA joint council
012update. We have PTA joint council vice president. Good evening, Dr. Kravitz, members of the board of education, faculty, staff, and community members. Um, I'm Pratea. the vice president of the joint council. Um, I just wanted to first start by acknowledging Dr. Pavitz's earlier call. Um, I really appreciate your pause, your request for pause and reflection. I think it's so important right now that at times like this, we come together as a community and really lead with compassion, care, and empathy. This month, the joint PTA council has had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Dan Salsman, um, our curriculum associate for English language arts. Dr. Salsman had a fantastic presentation for us with comprehensive overview of the district's K through2 ELA framework highlighting how students across all the schools become prepared to become critical thinkers and and
013readers. He emphasized that strong reading skills are not only important for success in English class but across all subject areas including math, science, and the social sciences. Dr. Salsman also discussed how the department is supporting the shift in standardized testing, strengthening our students communication skills, and ensuring that our students are prepared for civic readiness. Thank you. All of our individual PTA units were busy this month. Kantia had an early showing of the movie Goat on February 12th at Regal Westberry. They rented out the entire auditorium as a fundraiser and they also had a Valentine's Day boutique on February 5th. Ratner Seaman held its meeting, its PTA meeting this month and invited third and fourth grade students to showcase their after-school clubs. They also celebrated Valentine's Day with a fundraiser to support the graduation activities for
014their fifth grade class. In addition, they organized a President's Day camp at Champions Martial Arts on February 16th as another successful fundraising event. Jackson held its PT, its park activities, pick a reading partner activities from February 2nd through 6th, providing each participant with a bookmark, pens set, and a stress ball. They also hosted a glow party dance night on February 6th, where glow-in-the-dark t-shirt kits, and goodie bags were sold. In addition, they were proud to partner with Jackson's seal committee in support of PS. I love you day. The middle school PTA PTSA hosted a wonderful Valentine's Day boutique on February 13th just before they break. They also supported the cultural food exchange on February 6th where more than 50 dishes from across the community were shared this for the students to sample an incredibly delicious
015and memorable event for all. In addition, they are in the final stages of planning the annual teacher, faculty, and staff appreciation lunchon on March 11th, which is sure to be another amazing event. And the high school PTSA is also partnering with the middle school on that upcoming lunchon which will um feature delicious food, surprise desserts, and plenty of fun for all. This month, the high school PTSA also collaborated with Jackson on a clothing drive. Thank you to everyone who generously donated. In addition, the senior committee is working tirelessly to plan the senior party, a free event for all students on Wednesday, June 3rd at 6 p.m. in the Sam Springer gym. And finally, SEPTA is busy planning the All Abilities Month kickoff on March 31st with a movie night at 6 PM. On April 28th,
016they will be holding a robotics night and plan on a large event, a large attendance. And finally, on May 29th, there will be a meeting at um 10:00 a.m. in the middle school library. Thank you so much and have a good night. Thank you very much. Um, as announced in our last meeting tonight, uh, we are joined by high school administration to discuss the institution and maintenance of our student organizations or student clubs and service clubs. So, with that, I turn it over to Principal Cummings. And who else is walking? And Vice Principal Madonis. And that looks like it is perfect. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see her back there. Dr. Finley, I apologize. No one puts Dr. in the court. Um, thank you Good evening everyone. I want to thank uh Dr. Kravitz and
017essential administration, Mr. Pearl and the board of education to give us an opportunity to talk a little bit about our clubs that we had in the high school and the process that we went through this year when the had the opportunity to create two new clubs. I'm going to talk a little bit. Then I'm going to give you an overview of our existing clubs and uh service functions. I'll go through the process that we're very proud of uh where we formed the committee and uh created two new opportunities for students. talk about those two offerings and talk talk about our reflection on how as we did last year going into this year and this year going into next year how we're always looking to improve on the process that existed in the high school. We
018have 29 clubs and 35 service functions. These are opportunities for students to be involved in extra and co-curricular activities to to go along with all their academic learnings learnings really give them an opportunity to be a well-rounded student. One of the questions I often get is what's the difference between clubs and service functions. Uh in our minds the clubs are opportunities for students to pursue some of their passions, learn about new passions and get involved in the community where service functions like honor societies and theater productions are a little slightly different. They apply skills, they expand their talents. Um many are very excuse me school-based and have a community service aspect. Think of it this way. We have a physics club which is a club and we have science olympiad which is a service function.
019The club gives students an opportunity to talk about physics and the sciences involved where the science olympia is an opportunity for students to compete in a school against other schoolic events. Uh similarly we have an art club and an honor society. The art is art club is a club and the honor society which has a service component is a service club. This year we had the opportunity to create two new clubs similar to what we did last year. Last year we had budgeted for two new clubs. We had gone through a process and this year we had two clubs not running. We had uh kids helping pets and and Latin club that were not running based on student enrollment. So similar to last year a process that we originally started when Dr. Philly and I
020started talking about this when we were assistant principles with Mr. Cohen and then we started it last year. We really value student voice in all aspects of the school community but especially with respect to clubs. Clubs in our minds are for kids by kids. They are led by student uh faculty adviserss but we wanted to get a lot more student involvement in this process. So partnering with student council, we created a a packet proposal where students could give their ideas because just because we think what we know we should have for students uh as teachers and administrators, we wanted to get much more involvement from the students. Last year we put the proposals out and we had third uh 16 applications. We created a committee. Last year's committee uh encompassed building administration, guidance counselors and
021teachers. Uh through this process uh we developed the physics club and the investment club that are running started last year and are concurrently running and running again this year. This year when we realized we had those an opportunity to create two clubs because we were not having the two clubs I mentioned earlier uh late September we put out the packets again. Uh we started thinking about the process last year and we thought of an a great way to even get more student involvement was the committee that were going to read the proposals reflect on them and make recommendations. So where last year we had all adults on the on the committee, this year we'll I'll talk a little bit about the fact that the majority of the committee were actually student elected officials. Um so
022what we ended up doing um the committee were made up of the three building administrators. We had our student uh two student council uh repres uh co-advisors, Miss Khan. And then we tried to think about the best way to get student involvement. So we thought about getting as much as much as possible all student involvement. So the rest of the committee were actually the student elected officials. We had our our co-presidents Dev and Emma. We had our board of education rep Cynthia and the other four students or our grade level uh presidents. So the committee was made up of the five of us adults and the seven students. We met multiple times and as I basically what we ended up with was last year the the process was so effective and where we had 16
023proposals last year. We had 33 applications this year. Um we got a lot of different ideas. Uh we sat as a committee. We went through every single proposal. uh we met multiple times. Uh one of the things we noticed was some constant uh some consistent themes in some of the patterns. For example, we we had a photography propo application and a photograph uh photograph application. We realized those are very similar themes. We had three applications that were aligned to culinary arts. So what we did is we went through again looking at and we had another meeting and went through all the different proposals and what they were really about and the 12 of us did our best and possible to try and create 20 proposals that we looked at these 20 common themes. We were
024also afraid that similar proposals would take votes from each other. So we wanted to really value everyone's opinion. We then met, we voted and another thing that we added this year because last year we sat and we discussed it. We had more students involved in a process and we created a a rubric aligned to the packet that focused on five criteria. the purpose of the club, a number of students affected, addressing the students needs if it addresses students new needs, alignment to the Jericho school district mission statement, and inclusivity for all students. We then rated on a scale of 1 to five. So, if you look on the left, you'll notice that that's the one for the photo photograph photography club. those two that group together and each of the 12 of us had the
025opportunity to vote on a scale of one to five on each of these five categories. Um after all 12 of us uh voted independently on a Google form, we calculated and tallied all the process and there were two proposals that had a significantly higher score and they were the art uh the culinary club and the artificial intelligence club. So after the two clubs were voted on and approved, then we have to communicate with the students. So we followed up with all the students who submitted proposals. Um we also followed up with our student council to let all of our kids know the two new offerings. And then there's a staffing component. So we had to put out a blue sheet to select an adviser for those two clubs. And after that then student council assisted
026in helping the two new clubs launch their first meeting with the time location. They're starting Instagram platforms and we're very happy to say that they started in January and they're doing great. You know we're always looking to improve on the process. Uh one of the things we're kicking around the idea is making the process if we know there are uh opportunities for next year if that occurs um we maybe do a spring timeline instead of a fall timeline. The advantage would be that we we would already have the student elected officials. We wouldn't have to wait for those elections in the spring. If we had that happen in the spring, we knew what clubs we were going to be offering for the next year. We would have the opportunity to for them to preh be
027a part of the club fair during freshman orientation. It's also the time that we look back and uh anal analyze reflect on all the existing clubs. We look at attendance to see if there are any clubs we may be combining with similar interests or clubs that are not having a high attendance and we would be able to, you know, possibly not run that club and give other students an opportunity for another club. Um, we're always looking for new ideas to, you know, think creatively and, you know, always look about improving our process. Thank you. Did I ask a question? stand. Oh, go ahead. I'm trying to figure out how we do it. Um, sorry. Can you just um clarify? So, who's who's actually making the decision for the club? Who's the ultimate decision maker? I
028mean, I eventually me you. Yes. Based on the recommendation from the committee, okay, and based on uh the committee work, okay, they felt these were the two and I I supported that completely. So the student council plays no role in the decision- making. Oh, we had two the student we had two student council advisers as committee members. I understand. Yeah, Miss Conor and Miss Schmidt. I got seven student council representatives. Seven students seven students and then two student council three of us. Yeah. Yeah. So the student council is well represented because the clubs and service functions are part of the student council. But just one more question for for next year. Are we going to be rolling out anything different as far as letting the kids know what what the criteria is to be chosen?
029Well, the the the packet is pretty extensive and addresses a lot of different things. What we did is when we wrote the rubric and we realized this year when we had 33 proposals quite a bit more that we wanted to you know uh give us something to you know quantify it a little bit better and we wrote the rubric align to the packet. So today today as the packet stands is there any improvements that are going to be made for next year? Yeah. Yeah. Certainly like related to the timeline like this coming timeline spring instead of fall. Yes. And for example, we had a due date on the packet and then we said you'll be hearing from us in five weeks. The reason we selected that time frame was what we did the year before.
030Obviously with double the amount of packets, we needed more time. So in in the same way that next year if we only get three applications, we don't need five weeks. So I think a lot of the language is going to be changed to say we will be in touch with you once we know how many packets we receive and we then can make an informed decision on what the timeline's going to be. And can you just um just let me know the the people the kids submitting these um these clubs, they're mostly juniors, mostly seniors or is it mix? They all grades. Yeah, they're all grades. So if if they're if they're seniors submitting this moving to spring timeline, doesn't it negatively affect them kind of like they don't get to like participate as much
031because they're graduating soon? Well, the idea would be that they've already had two opportunities as sophomore and junior. I know but no there were there were some proposals from seniors. Yeah. Um and in the proposals that they wrote they did talk about creating this legacy that they wanted to leave behind. So so it wouldn't they wouldn't be upset about that like they they got approved and then they're graduating a couple months they you're talking about the seniors who did it this year were looking forward to using their club during their senior year. If you move this to the spring, seniors won't be applying because the clubs won't be starting till the following September. Correct. So, right. Right. If you do it in the spring, there's no seniors applying. It's on your side. Instead of, you
032know, doing the process in September or October into November, if we did the process May into June, then the club the clubs are off and running. It would be different student council leaders, too, right? We would have a future year's student council elected. Is there any plans to make it more open transparency that everyone know how the process like do like we do you planning to make it like there's an update on each process like oh we doing this right now and this is what we add and we got how many selected and the reason we didn't pick you because of this and next to y reason and the reason we pick you because of that reason are you gonna plan to improve that process well one of the things yeah that's yeah we're always
033looking to come up with the best things. The other advantage of us doing it in the spring, it would be an opportunity to talk with students at DIP process to learn more about it also. We'd have more time. Okay. So, just for take from the audience, so was the decision based on the rubric or based on a vote because you said rubric, but then you said there was a vote. We we used the rubric during our voting. So, for example, we go back to this you'll notice like the screen on the left is the the one for the photography club. So each each of the 12 of us voted on the five characteristics in the rubric on a scale of one to five. So hypothetically I may have done photography of the photograph club for
034the purpose of 12 level of four u uh potential effects five and so I could give a score of anything up to 25 points that all 12 of us voted independently and then an aggregate sum for us to use that to inform our decision. I'm I I apologize I'm not sure I understand. You're rating the club based on a scale of 0 to five or one to five on five different categories aligned to that rubric that we wrote when we realized we had so many performance. So it's not like you're saying I want to vote for everyone's raising their hand to vote for a club. You're saying they're you're ranking each of them on those five metrics and then you're adding up scores and that does it. And so the culinary club went you took
035all 12 of us on a scale of 1 to 25. The culinary arts club at a aggregate of 237. And did all 12 members of the club of 12 members of the voting committee their votes were equal? Yes. And then finally you said there were 33 applications. So there were 33 rubrics voted on or you said you combined some? Yeah, we we combined we combined and looked at who made that decision the committee. We met an actual extra 12 members. Yeah, we actually met an extra time to talk about how we would go. We had students missing classes so it was very difficult to get everyone together. We had a whole meeting on looking at the 33 applications and combining them to 20 and then another two meetings voting on those 20 discussing them and
036then we vote independently. And you said Latin Club and another club were eliminated last year. No, this beginning of this year they weren't running. Right. So they So that was done on their accord, not by the school. Yeah. So the school didn't say okay this club is dormant or or not active enough. Is there a process in place to deal with that issue? I it's like the Latin club said we're dormant. We're no longer off in Latin. We're not having Latin club anymore. We have however many clubs we have now. Is there some evaluation process that is being done? We we look at we look at that every spring. Who's we? Uh building the administration. So, so not your committee. This is a total separate. No, this this committee was solely for the pure fact
037of getting a reflection on the applications that were submitted. And is there an objective sort of like the old GE model of we're going to get rid of 15% of our clubs every year because you know what? We we want to get new better stuff. If if the clubs are well attended, what qualifies is well attended? He's asking what qualifies. Oh, um, how do you decide that a club deserves to When I say not deserves, but merits the fact that the limited resources that we're going to expend the limited resources on that. I mean, I don't I don't know if I have a quantifiable number saying I need 30 kids for, you know, we we look at it holistically and, you know, make the best decisions we have with the information that we know. Thank
038you. Any other board members have any questions? Open to the public. Can we go back to the rubric for a second? Sure. Okay. When was the rubric created? We actually created this uh after the application process was done. Uh reflecting on last year, especially after we didn't have the rubric last year. So to clarify, this rubric was created after applications went out to students. Correct? Yes. Okay. The rubric was approved by Dr. Kravitz in an email from you to Dr. Kravitz after the application went out. Correct? I I think so. Yes. Okay. Did any students see that rubric besides this hand selected committee that you're pointing to? No. Okay. Did the students apply the 33 students applying for a club know that they were being scored on this rubric? No. What we did, we tried
039to uh you know, as I said, it's the second time we've ever gotten student input for the application process. We're trying to do the best we can, and this is developed to help us through that process. Our intent, I'm sorry, our intent would be the packet refer the students to some sort of scoring mechanism or methodology of rubric scoring votes in a committee. We didn't have one last year and we're just reflecting on the process we added it this year during it. Okay. With respect to the prior year, if you could go back, you said two clubs were approved prior year. Did two clubs drop off the prior year? We budgeted for two clubs. If you're talking about investment club, I'm not talking about budgets because I'll get to that one for a second. I'm
040talking specifically did two clubs the prior year drop off to a lot for two. We budgeted for two additional clubs and it was approved in the May preceding that and then we were able to approve two clubs last fall. Okay. What is the budget for clubs? You'll see that in the presentation a little later on. Um I believe for next year it's 767,000 um give or take but we'll see it in the uh spreadsheet. Um it also includes chaperones. So that's inclusive of chaperones. Obviously that's dependent on trips and competitions etc. So how many clubs will be budgeted for next year? Two more. The same the same amount as this year. So obviously increase for salary. So barring any drop offs then next year there probably won't be any club proposal submitted. Correct. Correct. We
041add I think when did we add the element? I think we added this year we added uh two clubs along each of the three elementary schools. Six total. Got it. Could you go back to the scoring sheets that you guys showed on the presentation? Sure. Great. So I, as you all are all aware, right, and Dr. Kravitz and Mr. Goodstead's aware and Mr. Man's aware, I submitted a foil request that covered requesting the following thing you're presenting today. I filed an appeal that was effectively denied by Dr. Kravitz. And last meeting, Mr. Goodstead said, "These don't exist." Do these exist? Yeah, we voted. You received the one on the right. I know that. No, because that doesn't show exactly who was voted and scored accordingly. No, but you you did receive that item on the
042right. But do the scoring sheets exist? That I was told last meeting they don't exist and I was denied on my appeal. Mr. Bernie, there was some confusion with regards to the scoring sheets where they were and there was confusion. You will receive it. We do apologize. So, you will receive it. You did receive the one on the right though. Yes. the summary. I just want to make the scoring sheet the scoring sheet you receive. I want on the record so the entire community knows that I've gone through two foil requests in-depth foil requests both denied. Both essentially just thrown away and those were we cannot see who got what score. To this day, no kid that submitted a submitted a proposal knows what they actually got and why they got it. Well, hold on.
043And and my other issue with this is that well I've spent like 3 months on this now right you guys blew past your deadlines right so the other problem is that you you approved AI right if you go back to your own rubric doesn't currently exist with one of the four points or five points correct so you're saying no nothing related to AI currently exists in in terms of clubs so a new AI club is in Yes. Is there a computer science club? No, there are computer science classes. So the the language in the Rubies, does it address a new need? And the committee felt that an AI club addressed a new need. Okay. Who decided that the committee is going to be student council? We did. We did. Got it. Okay. They were elected
044by their peers. 1,200 kids elected. We really wanted to get as many students. So we figured we could encompass as many student leaders as possible. We've selected the seven kids who are elected by their peers rather than a hand selected by staff. And and and everybody knows that that's the committee, I guess, right? If the kids in the packet know who their committee is, they understand like who's voting for them. That would be a question for the kids who submitted packets. Well, okay. I'm telling you from my kid. She didn't know. Okay. So, I guess is that fair enough? And I think that that's some of the feedback that's on the last slide, right? How we see we're doing better. So, moving to a spring timeline also allows I mean, the kids were amazing in
045this process. And I think having them more involved is better. This should be less adultled and more studentled. So for example, a student council meeting where they can actually speak to their peers about what the process is going to be and have an info session. While we won't have these three with us next year, unfortunately, the reason we have the other student leaders is to hopefully have some future leaders involved as well so they can speak to the process. They can help us refine the process and do better. But why not give So no offense to the student body. Great great kids. My daughter's friends with the student body. Why not give other kids an opportunity to be in leadership committees or positions or opportunities to do that? Because there's only so much that's been
046monetized by the student council. Should they do everything or should there be opportunity for leadership roles amongst other kids within the school? Because if you're going to turn down 33 kids for clubs and you're saying only two exit, only two can do it next year, right? Potentially or zero, right? That's a essentially a cycle of loss for a kid that's trying to build a resume for college. Well, so it should be pretty open to everyone. Don't waste your time doing this. There's other things you can do. I mean, one thing I'm saying here as a parent now, and this is nothing to do with Sam knows I love her. Great. And and Dev and M. I actually don't think students should be involved in that selection process at all. I mean, I understand what Mr.
047Bar is saying. I understand what you're saying. I don't think students should be involved in that process. I think there's it inherently poisons the world. Okay. and and it should be something where it's administration again if it's okay I would actually respectfully disagree with that in all of my experiences in high schools for well over 30 years it is always the way I've seen it student council that is really overseeing the club process student council and students are the ones that have to maintain finances the adults actually can't make decisions about spending money there's clubs they are student function. So respectfully, disagree. Respectful. We just disagree. Also, in my past experiences as school leader, one of the things you want to avoid is creating leadership opportunities through clubs. In other words, the idea of a
048club is to create club experiences that serve the masses of students. It's not about creating individual opportunities for students to put on their college resume that they created a club. Hence in these clubs the kids who created the proposals are not necessarily the leaders of the clubs that then happens at a later time in the club is created and there are elections. So I think it's important that we separate the opportunities for kids to p their resume from the experiences that are good for the collective whole of the community and how decisions are made. Well, we share a name. I was not talking about daddy resumes. My children are well past that. I'm not worried about that. My issue always becomes, you know, who's making the decision and why. And look, I'd be surprised if
049someone just served and formed a club and wrote a petition and got people on board and they're not going to be an officer of that club. So, that completely separate point. I I would be very very surprised and you know, if that's the case, I I love being surprised. Please let me know. But I do believe there's a issue where you have students voting on other students proposals especially because one of those leaders, one of those representatives might be putting forward their own proposal. When when we and I can speak for me as well as the students when we read those proposals and applications, we didn't know who applied, who submitted them. No, I know you wouldn't, but the students might. That's what I'm saying. I I agree with you, Mr. that you wouldn't probably
050know. I mean, you might, but it wouldn't be a conversation, but as we find out, students know 90% of what's going on here because like, you know, as opposed to administrators who know about 15 and so there's a huge discrepancy there. And again, I'm not saying people are going into it with ill will, but there's a natural bias here of campaigning. I I would like to think that that there's, you know, not a lot of that, but if I was submitting a club proposal, I would campaign. I mean, I would do it. I would try to get people on board, not just the people who want to sign up to the club, but also people I know in the decision. We'll have to think about how we're going to create if if this happens again
051next year. We'll have to think about the best way to create that committee. I think uh I I think I think I agree with David and I agree with Sam as well. But I think the best solution if you want to let students um decide on this, we should let the whole entire school to vote instead of six people. I think that would be the best solution. We want to get student responsible then let the entire high school go and not this system. And that was our intent by having this these student elected students. We we we're going to have a new web page. Why don't you reserve a new a web page dedicated to a club with all the improvement of you transparency the voting system all that stuff on that one single web
052page talk to Maggie about it. You can reserve on that page and put all the improvement in there. I think that's Yep. One more thing just or two one on the whole resume pattern. I I I disagree because I've just spent the last year and a half going through this college process with my daughter and club is at the forefront of something you can do from a leadership perspective. I also reviewed all 33 redacted um things. I would put any amount of money on it that the leadership roles are filled by the creators of those packets. Just just a hunch because I I've read them. Actually, I don't I don't even know that answer. No, but but just I think it is, but that's my point. The second is the third whatever you said you
053took a you're taking a holistic approach in terms of the viability of clubs. Is there a like attendance sheets or how many students are part of clubs? Is that on record anywhere? Yeah. In my office. So I can foil that information and see the record of how many members there are per club, what the attendance is, and what the holistic approaches that you guys take to determine if a club is viable or not. The student council constitution has all that information online. You wouldn't need to foil that. What information is online? The student council constitution. No, the club membership. Student council count the student council constitution shares that information as to why a club exists, what clubs need to exist. their obligations to the school, how they're advised, all of that information is public. You
054don't need to that's public for all existing clubs. Yes. I I think you guys are copying past each other. Are you looking for attendance lists? No, I'm asking for if so whatever whatever time period you guys decide to audit the existing clubs, right? If only if nobody attends, if a club doesn't hold any meetings, nobody attends to it, how do you know? Well, there's so much more to that process, right? So, as we mentioned, an adviser is appointed. An adviser for each club is appointed. In order for that adviser to then be paid, we have to have proof that the club met 16 times. All of that information is submitted to my office and that record exists and can be foiled. Yes. I I just I don't know. If there's student names on statistical data
055can be foiled. So if he's looking if he's asking for if he's looking for clear yeah statistical data I'm asking for what the process is that's ballistic to determine the count you know anything that exists can be foiled what information it will give you I don't and is the number of clubs that are that are I guess budgeted for written anywhere like it's what's the number right now each year yeah each um again the elementary was two per for the first time this year and I would have to check to see exactly how many, but I'm not sure at the top. Where is it published? It's not necessarily I'm not sure it's public. Yeah. I'm I'm talking specifically I don't know what the count is right now. Where online visibly to the public does it
056say Jericho has 35 of 35 clubs. The cap is 35. So, if you go to the Jericho High School website extracurriculars, it'll give you our list of clubs, our list of service functions, their descriptions, their adviserss, when they meet, where they meet, how often they meet, purpose of that club, events they're holding, links to their Instagram pages. What I'm asking is where does it say this school district or high school allows 35 clubs for the 2025 2026 year? Well, if if my if we have this x number or y number of clubs and service functions, if Victor says my budget line is staying the same, I keep the same number of clubs. Sorry, we will I'm going to ask again. I don't have to. Where is that published besides in your office or in your
057head? There's a schedule. No, no, I think Okay, we're talking past each other. You're saying there's a list of clubs on the web. I know that Mr. accept the number. What he's saying is where does it say that the maximum number of clubs we have is 35. Is that the question? Correct. I don't know if it says the maximum, but I don't know off the top of my head what that number is. I do the dollar side of it, but off the top of my head, I don't have that number, but we'll provide it to the board this this week. And what would it take for the board to tell you to budget for 10 more clubs? They could tell me tonight. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, more the better. Thank you. We're not going to
058get too comfortable. Stop. I know why everybody's here. All of our regulars know developing the school's budget is a complex and extended process. As we just heard a little bit, recommending a budget to our community is one of this board's most important roles. Tonight, we continue with that with budget presentation number three. Should you have any questions, please ask them as we go along politely. Thank you, Sam. Um, make sure everyone gets comfortable. This is probably going to be a little longer than the other ones. Uh we're talking about general education, occupational education, technology, clubs, athletics, transportation, and employee benefits. Uh after this meeting, uh we'll look at the full review of revenues and expenditures. That is a week from Thursday on the 12th and adoption will be on March 26th. Tax levy thresholds. So
059next week at the review meeting I will have the actual spreadsheet with the specific calculation that we submitted to the state late last week. Um but our approximate tax levy threshold and I explained uh why in previous meetings will be about 1.85% for the 2627 school year and we will be uh within that tax cap. Uh again, these are the uh projects we're going to be looking to do this summer. I'm not going to um go over everything in detail again this evening. We did it at the last two meetings. What I'll do is look at this slide which shows the activity in all of the capital reserves along with the balance. Um and as I mentioned, we will be putting forth a third uh proposition to create capital reserve 6. And the wording on
060both propositions I'll include in next week's proposition as well which will be reflected on the ballots. Again, all of the highlighted items are currently um included and I will go to the final slide. The highlighted items currently total just under $6 million. The budget amount for uh out of the general fund is 1,275 and currently the to subtotal the proposition only is 4.7 million and again I'll um I'll provide the actual uh proposition language uh next week. Uh looking now we're going to go into some of the general ed um areas before we get into some of the specific departments. Uh looking at enrollment, um actually since I've been here, we probably had a low of close to 2900 and a high of 3,400. Uh and right now uh in the last couple of years,
061we did drop a bit over the last couple of years. And next year, it's projected uh according to the Bosey's demographer at about 3,76. And again these the actual number on the left is based on the official uh beds data day which is early October. Why is there no prek number on this slide? I'm sorry. Say it again. Why is there no prek number? Oh prek this year we have um 54. Next year we we will have 72 because we're going to have four classes. Thank you. You're welcome. Uh general ed staffing um not not much to report here. We are expecting again um a minus1 both at K6 and at 7:12. That's what we think it's going to be. Obviously, we budget for contingencies uh in case that changes or classes break at the
062elementary school or more sections are created uh at the secondary level. Sure. I'm sorry. Yeah. As of now, we're looking solely at attrition. This is uh again one of the bigger categories uh in the budget. This is g general education. Um the first line and the fourth line are basically all of our classroom teachers not including uh small class not including co-eing. These are general ed classroom teachers. Um the the increases is about 2% at each level. um within a couple of uh percentage points there. Uh everything else is relatively flat, maybe slightly increasing in a couple areas. We did increase the textbooks. We are seeing um some of the major adoptions that come up every five or six years. We're seeing a couple of those in some of the um main subject areas coming
063due and we are budgeting for that uh particular item. uh Boseies at the bottom. Uh primarily in this area, one of the I'm going to say the largest chunk of that is for the district copers districtwide. So we lease them through uh Boseies. That's probably a at least a third of it. And then there are other um categories. There's some PD in there for teachers and uh outdoor education, the learning labs. Um, and some of the field trips would be uh there as well as well as arts and education instructional equipment. Jen, where are you? Look, includes funding for 12 Bloomberg terminals. I know you were looking for that. So, uh, we did allocate some, uh, some dollars there. Again, I've currently I put it in the equipment budget. Um when when it gets down
064to it, we may have to switch the budget line depending on how how that works. Uh when we get to it, can you discuss the timing and responsibility for developing curriculum around the installation of those 12 blueber? I will ask Dr. Kravitz to step in with that portion. So we we have started to discuss it but at this process you know in order for it to make sure that if we can do it we are the money is allocated. That's the most important thing right now. the money is allocated. I know there have been conversations of how we would implement the curriculum, where we would put it, what kind of class that would would mean, but at this point in our school year, we wanted to make sure that we budget for that amount. Does
065that mean we will have all 12 ready to go for September? Maybe we start with a few. Maybe we figure out where classes it's going to be. But in the budget, no matter what, we have budgeted for 12 Bloomberg terminals. Which curriculum associate is going to be responsible for that? Dr. Sunberg and I have been discussing it, but we are in the infancy stages of that. But again, for the point of the budget, it's there. No, but since you've been discussing with him, that means he's going to be integral to that department. It's not He's always integral in every program. You've learned that so quickly. Thank you very much. 1845. Thank you for stepping in there. Uh, let me get my glasses back on. uh contractual services. This is just a descriptive what you what
066you'll see on the next uh slide. Some um narratives on the um particular codes and again nothing nothing significant changing here relatively uh status quo instructional supplies uh again the buildings is it's part of their budget. They receive an allocation every year for supplies, equipment, uh textbooks, etc. um they have the freedom to break it up as they wish but the total allotment is the total aotment and again this hasn't uh changed significantly career education so these are students that take uh halfday programs at Boseies whether it's for um uh mechanical uh is Greg here can you just give us a couple examples of of some of those programs uh there's medical assisting culinary arts automotive techn technology. Uh it's it's a fairly long list. Aviation operations, um a lot of different things. Thanks. And
067that those are usually half day programs. Go ahead. I have a question. Are the students made aware of these programs when they're in high school? Yeah. So, it's it's a conversation that uh counselors have with uh students along the way. It typically comes up for students that are looking potentially at a vocational uh path, but we do certainly have students that attend Boseies that still plan on attending four-year colleges. And uh Boseies does it on a three-year average just way. There wasn't any particular year where you lose four students or gain four students in any one year. So, they do it based on an average of three years. And we have seen the number of students. Again, overall not a lot, but when you're talking single digits, if you go from seven to nine, that's
068pretty significant. Okay, I'm going to ask uh Michael Larkin to join us and discuss the technology budget overview for his department. I travel with a lot of stuff. Good evening everybody. Good evening. Good evening everybody. Good evening. Hi. Um, I just want to thank the board of ed and uh central and school administration uh for being here and also for all the collaboration and support that you've uh provided for the technology department. Um I have a few few items on the uh agenda today. We're going to go through instructional technology. Uh we're going to talk about some hardware software. Uh we're going to spend a little time on AI AI tools, some of the um initiatives going on as well as uh some updates, some of the - projects as well as uh a brief
069uh update on the website. Right. So, first off, I just wanted to uh share a picture of my team. Um yeah, so I just want to say that uh the technology team uh this is the middle and high school team. Uh they've been they've been uh a pleasure to get to know and work with. They're a great support for the whole district uh when it comes for infrastructure, working with teachers, working with students, working with uh principles, administration. Uh this is the elementary school team. And you know, we have somebody that's ready to help at all, you know, all levels at the district, which I've worked at other school districts before. And it's it's really kind of a blessing to have uh the staff that we do here uh to be able to support problems
070as they arise. And as you know, with technology, there's always a problem that needs to be fixed somewhere. So, I just wanted to uh thank my team and I just want to let them know that I really appreciate all the work that they do and uh the support that they provide. Um to kick us off, I just wanted to talk a little bit about the instructional tech uh technology and some of the professional learning opportunities that have been going on uh within the district for uh for our teachers as well as our administrators. Right. So we've hosted about 26 AI uh PD presentations so far this year. Uh those are kind of formal presentations. We've covered the the tools Brisk, notebook LM, Gemini, Skillstruck. Uh we're working with Canva and DIFF, right? And then we're
071also uh next week actually we're doing a presentation uh with AI for education. They're coming in to work with uh 50 plus teachers on designing AI integrated learning experiences. So, we've been working quite a bit with uh helping support teachers with using some of these new AI tools so that they're comfortable with rolling them out, using them with students, creating content um and creating a more robust like learning environment using AI. Great. Mr. Ar. Sure. What was the process that you guys went through before you approved these for use in the school? Like who signed off on these? Who's tested these? you said these might be good ideas before you had teachers come in and start teaching the teachers how to use it and things like that. Well, uh part of part of when I've
072uh started here, there was already some uh some of these pilots in process. So, I think that you know it was a combination of teachers and administrators asking for some of these tools and support on uh learning how to use these tools. Um, as well as I think, you know, I've had several parents reach out and ask for, uh, you know, for support on, you know, or not support, but just, you know, asking if students would get to use AI tools in school. And to be honest, we don't have a ton of, and I'm going to speak more about this in further slides, but we don't offer a ton of tools for students to use at the moment. We have a couple, but uh, mostly teachers are using different tools to help create and refine
073their content. Okay. Um before you go, how many um do you have a feedback system for the new tools that on AI because we got a lot of AIS is I think they're kind of like they're there this um like a feedback system for people that are using current software. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So uh it's it's kind of a twofold process, right? So uh you know for example where you know we had a few department meetings where I worked with uh you know our curriculum associates like Jenna uh and and Dan and we've you know what we've done is we've done some department specific trainings right and using notebook LM has been kind of like our latest uh the latest app. It's one of my favorite tools. Uh it's it's really great at uh doing
074some research and helping you kind of curate uh a guardrail notebook for learning, right? It's uh it's a really great tool uh if you're using it to pretty much learn anything. That's kind of their punch line, too. So in doing these department meetings and the larger staff meetings, we get feedback coming from teachers and you know staff to ask for specific uh specific ways they could use tools to solve instructional needs or instructional problems, right? So I'm not looking to say let's let's say like roll out 100 different tools using AI. I want to focus on what the problems and the needs are and then meet the meet those needs with the tools that we currently have so that we're not kind of like adding more noise to our software platforms. Right. Right. So the
075other the other piece though um more specific to the feedback is we're working uh on the technology committee side to uh roll out a teacher and a student survey. Right. So that's something that's coming very soon. We've already finalized that survey. Um Jenna and I have been uh running like the technology committee. We have uh parents and teachers and students on this committee. We've spent the last uh couple meetings reviewing these survey questions and we're going to be sending those out to teachers and uh students to to complete very soon like in the next week or so. Okay. I I mean I deal with AI every day and I know these a lot of these like skills drugs there's probably not one that is out there that could replace them but I can make them
076in a week and replace that. So can I so have you especially skill scrub I have I have accounted to it and I use myself it sucks and I got a lot of feedback from other people that it sucks as well. If that's the case, why are we paying that money? So, that's a great question and um I don't want to say, you know, I don't want to say I agree, but I do agree with kind of like that philosophy, right? And one thing that I'm looking at doing is a holistic and and that's part partly why we're having these surveys, right? is we want to take that holistic like process of well what works what what's not working what's more redundant like skill struck could be maybe more redundant because brisk is actually something
077that does very similar work but the fact of the matter is we've trained staff on how to use that tool and we've already paid for the license so I'm not it's not something I would take away immediately but it's something that I would look to phase out you know as we're looking and consolidating further uh expenditure on software So, I'm with you on that. And uh I think that as like as these tools that we're g, you know, that we're a not that we're given, but that we have access to as they improve, we're able to build more. We're able to do more with the with the resources, right? And I think that there's going to be an opportunity in the future where we can build more than we than we should buy in a
078sense, right? And I don't think we're necessarily there yet because there's also risks and uh privacy and other issues related to that. But I think that, you know, with the skills in house, we might be able to get there. So, I just want to acknowledge that, you know, I hear you. Um, I think we're going to get there. I just I just think that there's been some some of the wheels are already in motion on some of the stuff that we have rolled out and we can't necessarily just kind of like change course midway because it could throw our it wouldn't be right for our staff and students that are currently using something and have things embedded in their plans. So, we need to find a transitional way to do that, right? And you know
079I am happy to say though that the staff engagement has been really high when it comes to the the workshops and the PDS. Uh you know we have 60 uh 65 plus at this point in time uh individual and small group instruction that that people have asked for and received. Uh we have uh really high attendance at our uh pajama PDS that were started uh last spring and we've had you know 50 people showing up to that at night uh you know taking s you know taking uh you know these trainings to like further their skills in some of these uh some of these tools right um and as we're you know and kind of like getting into the the philosophy of it we're really looking at emphasizing uh using AI safely effectively um and
080ethically Right. So this way we're teaching like the core beliefs and the skills of using it in a proper way so that we're not looking just to kind of get to the answer but we're getting a deeper level of learning while we're using AI tools. Okay. I ask a quick just brief question on AI. I have more slides on AI too. Yeah. Just one small so um my kids came home today actually was using Gemini which is great and the way they use it in elementary school is phenomenal. Like her teacher they're gating it and walking them through it versus just here you go, have fun. The only thing I'm I'm asking the IT part is are you able to block elementary school kids or middle school kids from using OpenAI Chad GPT or other
081frontier models that are outside of their their Google classroom sign in assuming Gemini is embedded in there. So, I would I would excuse me, I have a little bit of a cough. First day I'm sick this year, by the way. So, um I I think that those should be blocked. If they're not, okay, then we'll we'll look at that. Um I know that we do we do block a lot of things uh that are bring brought to us. Um Gemini Notebook LM the Google suite is protected by our Ed Log 2D contracts, right? So at when we sign up for uh Google for education, we have like an edu workspace, right? That .edu workspace for the most part of all of the main tools except for like YouTube and some of the other stuff um
082is covered under Edlaw 2D, right? So if you were looking for a safe like a safe place for for your children or students to be able to use an AI tool, it should be in the Gemini workspace. Okay. Notebook LM is something that we've opened up for middle and high school students to use and even at the elementary school level. Um, you know, I have to say that, you know, from 200 uh 23 until 2026, there's been a gradual implementation and that's what this purpose of this slide is for. Um, teachers have been increasing their usage and their skills in using these AI tools over the past uh few years. Uh, you know, I've I've seen firsthand, uh, Ivy I've seen it as well, like with some of these, uh, some of the some of
083the ways that the teachers are using AI is is, uh, especially with Notebook LLM, I they're creating like podcasts and videos. They're upgrading their slideshows because you could put your old work into the notebook and recreate it in a more engaging way, right? And students are using the the quizzes and the flashcards up on the Smartboards. Um, so there's a lot of really uh like integrated and uh integrated and um you know just like new ways that they're innovative ways that they're using these tools. So you know when it comes to like some of the outside tools whenever we find them we usually block them. I'll take another look to see if there was something that we missed. Yeah. They're letting them Sorry. So the kids the okay my daughter she just goes to chat
084GBT and asks like whatever she wants it and lets because that's what they're that's what Chad GBT does just we need to protect them from the frontier models that are accessible outside of that I agree um and then the the other pieces are in the I guess in your guys' side do we know what versions what models are available to the kids like is that published anywhere or can you make it available or is it anything that I can get like models Then like are you talking about Gemini models like Gemini Flash 3 or Flash 2 or so on the front end they don't they don't give you the model um when you're in the Gemini interface they give you basically like a pro and a fast and a research deep research you know they
085give you the different names but they don't show you the model and I think that's because when they upgrade the model they just the pro model is going to be the latest model and they don't always show which model's on that but on a on a consumer side you see it so did the kids see that or you see that or no? Only like like an outside consumer. It depends if I'm using that within the Gemini interface or if I'm using it on a different interface. So I think what the kids see is they probably just see the fast and the pro which they don't have pro. So and and yeah, they wouldn't see the actual like model number version number so to speak, but when you're you you'll see that version number on different
086uh integrations though. So um and yes so and then in the future we're going to be uh looking for additional feedback and uh you know my my thought is it would be you know it would be worthwhile to spend some time with you know doing more parent parent meetings and uh creating resources for parents on AI uh usage at home and in school. Uh so kind of kind of what I talked about before some these are some of the platforms that we have in use. Google brisk uh Canva has AI integrated into it. There's also Adobe uh Firefly that not everybody has licenses to but there are some licenses in the district. um skill struck diffit uh is a teacher tool and turn it in you know and that's something that our teachers can use
087to kind of like assess if papers turned in had uh AI kind of like development behind it right um and then I also am part of a New York AI uh consortium we meet monthly and we talk about what's going on in uh in schools around AI developments and uh policy and things like that so on to onto some hardware and devices, right? So, uh right now we are um we're continuing with the one to one like every you know everybody in Jericho can get a Chromebook right so from first grade to 12th grade. Uh right now we are refreshing in fifth grade and 9th grade. Uh this year I'm planning to do some earlier refreshing as long as we can get the computers. there's been uh I guess with all of the uh the
088the chip backlogs, there's been a little it's been a little bit harder to get an order in and uh prices have started to go up as far as uh Chromebooks go. So, right now we're looking at uh purchasing 5 to 600 Chromebooks to replace uh the current fourth and eighth grade. And then uh we also will be replacing a couple hundred desktop PCs. And we we pretty much replace the desktop PCs every four to five years just like the Chromebooks. So the spec difference between the Chromebooks you're going to be getting and the Chromebooks the kids are giving up or is it just that they're old? So to be honest uh we so we have three different models of Chromebook right now. Uh we have a we had bought uh back around the uh like
089around the 2020 co year we had bought a a whole bunch of Chromebooks. I forget how many 800 it was, but um some of those are now 6 years old. Um we still have those in cycle. Uh what we're, you know, the the new specs are just they're just a little bit faster. They have an updated chip. So the the new Chromebook is called Chrome Chromebook 11. So they're kind of like recycling the name from the old Chromebook 11. But uh so we have So basically we have three different Chromebooks. The specs aren't changing that much. They're still the same size. They have an updated processor. Um, and you know, to be honest, some of the older Chromebooks we're looking to uh recycle in a sense because we're going to get some new batteries and
090reuse them because some of the ones that are only a couple years old, they're still going to work just as good with a new battery and when you wipe them clean. How much is the Chromebook per one Chromebook? So, last uh I think last year one Chromebook was um was like 360. No, three $350. This year it's going up to $460. Why don't we just replace iPad the price? Well, that's a good question. Um, that's something that right now we've been a a Chromebook district and this is something that I've spoken, you know, I've spoken with Dr. Kvitz and other administrative uh team members and I think that it's not something that we're opposed to. But again, when you introduce the change of a device, it also uh shapes up uh a lot of planning
091uh instructional and lesson planning, design, training. Here's my take. Sorry, here's my take on Google's Google. Um a lot of kids, they've been using Google Docs, Google Excel, all those apps throughout their entire education cycle. When they graduate and go to college, they don't know how to use a real Excel. They don't know how to use a word document, Microsoft Office. They don't know any other function. When you go into uh corporate world, they all use that. No one use Google and that's that's the re that's the reality we need to face. Well, I mean goo Google like Google Docs like Microsoft Microsoft Docs, Google Docs, I mean they work very very similar. Um I've been an expert in Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, right? And the formulas go back and forth. an animal computer
092it's different animal they have different functions and there is a bit of a learning curve I I would agree with that but at the same time the core functionality the core skills are very translatable uh when you look at like creating a a Google slideshow to a powerpoint or a a Microsoft Excel document and then you convert it to a Google doc um I I agree with you in some ways but at the same time I think that when we're looking at translatable skills I think that that they're on car. But, you know, at the same time, when it comes to using like an Apple device versus a PC device versus a chro Chrome OS, I think that there's value in students learning all different operating systems, right? Like I I kind of look at
093it as being agnostic to hardware, right? If you can use an Apple device in one setting or a Windows device in another setting, a Chrome OS, it makes you kind of more uh flexible in what you're like in the work that you're doing because you can do the work no matter what device you have. Well, in a professional world, we have Windows or Mac. Yeah, use I know. But I'm I'm just saying like it's still there's like this like translation of learning. It's like a trans a transient like learning skill where you could like adapt to different technologies which I just want to add about the the iPad. So just like we said before about the Bloomberg terminals, you know, we craft a budget based on timelines. There's a dollar figure that's associated with that.
094There's a lot of discussions going on that the cost of Chromebooks are going to be significantly higher. You know, we are starting to also get quotes for iPads. So when the final time comes to purchase, we will be looking at that. But for the purpose of creating a budget, you know, this is the plan of as how many devices we need to implement over the next year, but we are we are looking at many options. Um, as far as the Google versus, you know, this district runs on both platforms and most schools are running the Google platform for for students, right? Mo that's that's what's common. So we're looking at all of that and we've shared that at PTA meetings. you shared that across that we are trying to streamline everything and become more efficient
095because we are draining our resources by man managing multiple platforms with multiple things right we have we've always talked about that at like I said at PTA meetings we're running canvas we're running Microsoft office we're running Google we're running P school so we we've sent out some surveys we're getting some information but also understanding that it's a culture change and that takes time because we cannot just change it and then have everybody disrupt right we're doing very well academically We want to keep that but also understanding there has to be changes and and a sustainable change is slowly along a path with goals and that's what we are but for the purpose of a budget that's the number of devices there's a dollar figure that Victor will show or it's in this in the slides
096and as we get closer to the end of when we're making our final decision we'll do the evaluation of okay this is what we have to spend that's I think the key point the kids also do have the district last year did um consolidate and fix it. The kids actually have access to the full office suite. It's free license for the district. So, they can use Excel or Sheets and especially in high school, like I have my kids doing both. There's that versatility that the district has. So, I do appreciate that. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's I think it's great to be able to use both uh both environments because it it gives them the skills of having to like mentally and physically, you know, switch how they're how they're using those those tools.
097Can I just chime in two seconds? I'm sorry. Sorry, I haven't looked this way. Well, no, it's fine. Um, I just I just want to kind of I know there's no decision being made today, but I think comparing iPads to a laptop, whether it's a Chromebook or or any other, it's comparing apples to oranges. I don't think working on iPad. Sorry. Apples to oranges. Yes, apples to oranges. I thought you wanted to laugh. I'm sorry. Um, I don't know if the capabilities I I think the capabilities are very different, but it definitely feels different to work on an iPad even with a keyboard versus a laptop. Am I wrong? I mean, it's a different experience. Uh, right now in the past couple of years, Mac has uh well, Apple has really they've changed the way
098that they're I guess marketing and developing the iOS so that it feels more like a Chromebook in some ways. um when you put a case on it, keyboard and the compatibility of the different Google apps that they like they have the Google app suite in there now. So there are some school districts that are just all iPad districts. There's districts that are all Chromebook districts. Uh it just comes down to sometimes it comes down to budget, sometimes it comes down to uh you know the instructional goals and training in the district as well. But if we are talking about preparing them for the future, would it be would it I don't know if it would be wise to get our kids used to working off of iPads and then they get to college and then
099they need to really using like a computer laptop and then they go to the corporate world or where whatever job that they go to, somebody uses an iPad to work. It's it's it's more entertaining. I of course there's capabilities with an iPad. I own one. You have a keyboard, but it definitely feels different. And I think that it's just It's not as it's not as easy to work off of for sure. So I don't know how that is for preparation for real world. No. So I think I think as Mike Mr. Lin has shared is a little different but we're not even again we have 1100 apps right now launched in our in our district right we have 3,700 Chromebooks in our district. So we have a a good amount within our ecosystem. It's now
100as we're looking at we want the best functionality for our students and when we look also at art students and you know if they want to do design the the iPad's phenomenal especially as as we're talking about yes for for graphics for short that that flows out and there are just like we talk about Bloomberg so that software runs on Apple there are districts around the country using Bloomberg software on Mac computers the same way Mac computers Mac computers and also iPads and actually even virtual stuff so as we look at the whole ecosystem and what we're going to do. This is this is a very big move just understanding that we are again slowly looking at all the options as we move forward. But I understand your point 100%. Thank you. Yeah. And also
101with that being said, you know, as we refresh Chromebooks, we are also refreshing iPads in the next year as well. So, you know, there's some generation 7 iPads that we have that we're going to be suns setting and replacing with some new ones um as we move forward. So also within the last uh within the last year uh towards the end of last year and this in the beginning of this year um we've replaced uh some of the Mac labs. So the Mac labs in rooms uh 118, 262 and 118A have uh new Mac computers and uh and monitors. Uh we also have uh 10 iPad carts that are shared throughout the district as well as in the uh kindergarten classrooms. But Mr. I still So you're telling me the the specs on the new
102ones are not really much better than the old ones. Just a matter of age. No, they're they're slightly they're better. They're better. I mean, look, they changed I think they changed a few uh a few aspects of the design on the on the newer ones. Uh they're still made out of the same, you know, plastic cases. They upgraded the computer chip to a faster to a faster chip and um I think the storage might even be about the same. It's not they updated the computer chip motherboard. They didn't necessarily change the design of a Chromebook. I think they added a couple ports abilities are at least a little bit better. A little bit. But I mean, at the end of the day, you know, if if you're comparing like last year's Dell Chromebook to the
103to the new Dell Chromebook, they're not going to be astronomically different. So, and we have Chromebooks from last year. You're you know, every year we've purchased uh you know, several hundred Chromebooks. So, you know, the ones that are on the older side, we're going to be suns setting. Those are going to be the much different than the newer ones because they're six years old. But it's it's kind of like, you know, this the standard life cycle for or the standard upgrade for these uh for Dell, for example. You know, they'll they'll update the chip to make it a little faster. They'll update some of the ports, change the case. All right. All right. So, uh just an update. So the -ate uh -ate is a fun uh federal program that allows uh schools and libraries
104uh basically to apply for this uh it's this grant like program where you can update your infrastructure. Right. So in the past uh in the past school year or this past summer we finished in September uh up updating all of the Wi-Fi or wireless access points across the district. So, uh I believe it started out as a high school middle school project that went into basically replacing all all the uh wireless access points across all the schools. Uh we also added another 20 outdoor access points so that there could be uh Wi-Fi outside as well. Um we're looking at future projects to include uh expanding direct connections to uh to the three elementary schools because right now we have direct connection to the high school and middle school. Um and we're looking to expand the
105direct connections um and update the switches at the elementary schools as well as um including like forinet uh and linewise devices for uh web filtering. The the access points are live now. It's all done. Yep. It's been it it basically finished in September. So all of the old access points were taken out and new access points up updated upgraded ones were put in. Fine. And and how how has it been? I mean it's it's been pretty good. I mean we I think in the beginning it we had a couple complaints about some of them being out and some you know but ever I think since October we haven't really had any issues. So if you're in the middle school parking lot waiting online I know I always bring this up your example. I know that
106was my example there would be no you couldn't get text your kid hey I'm outside. You couldn't I know but but is that Wi-Fi or is that like your your There was no cell signal and you couldn't connect to Wi-Fi either. How is it I mean just overall so to be honest I'd have to get back to you on the mapping of where the 20 access points are. I don't know off the top of my head, but um right and so uh as far as software goes, um I know we're we're trying not to add a ton of software because we're in the process of, you know, working as an administrative group to uh consolidate some of the software because there's uh there's there's a lot of software, right? So, we're trying to figure out
107ways to kind of like hone that in. Uh, but I I am working closely with like the curriculum associates and building administrative teams. And we are, you know, we've added a few things in the past year that we're looking uh, you know, to expand on a little bit. Um, so we've added like Padlet, Speakable, uh, Word Play, Freckle. Um these are more on the lower cost side as far as um as as far as cost goes, but they all but they contribute to the instructional value at the schools, right? And then we're expanding, as I kind of explained in the beginning, we're expanding the use of AI applications, but we're not expanding how many AI applications that we're using. So we're not looking to spend more money on on that end. just increase the training,
108increase the quality uh of support for all those applications. Have we eliminated anything since you've been here? Yes, a lot of we've eliminated I I've eliminated about it's most it's mostly on the uh kind of like the security and the backend side about $200,000 worth of uh like software services or support services. So uh that kind of falls in line with some of the Cisco support that we had. So we've moved from well we're in the the ending stage of moving from an on-prem to like cloud uh system right so I think that last year and the the previous year you guys had some uh presentations about moving from like you know self-hosted IDM over to cloud hosted. So some of the support and some of the software that we needed for onrem services I
109was able to kind of go through and eliminate some of that. Right. So that's going to include like some of the network monitoring. I couldn't remember everything off the top of my head. We had some a VH uh backup server uh running. We had password management system that was not no longer needed. Um there was uh there's a few other things on here. Uh couple there's a couple instructional software items that uh the CAS had said that they weren't going to need anymore. So, we've eliminated uh I don't know about 10 10 to 15 items from last year's budget to this year and you know and basically you know in in the meetings that I've been in with PTAs and uh with Dr. Kravitz and uh various uh various people. Um we've heard the feedback
110on you know that there's too many applications that there's not really a central place for for parents. Um and that's something that we're working on. We're still you know we're basically we've been assessing this. We're looking at different things that we can do to kind of help with that in the future. Uh, and I think in the next year or so, we're going to be coming out with some plans to help continue to consolidate some of the applications and the software. And, uh, you know, in the meantime, we've we've worked on creating this page. It's a family information page. It has like direct like direct links to the login for parents for Power School, Canvas, Google Classroom, Parent Square, uh, Pay Schools, and the Dicapo uh, services. So this is so on the technology page
111the the first link now is it's a Google uh this is like a Google page Google site that has all of the uh the technology support and resources and it basically has a family section and it has some of the some of the things that have come up at some of the PTA meetings. I've updated this page for family information with links, quick links and information and resources for for students and families. I I know that um you know this has been brought up a bunch of times as far as centralizing as much as possible. Yeah. And obviously I I'm not going to put you on the spot to make any promises. How complicated of a process is it like on a scale of 1 to 10? I know that you know this conversation started
112months ago. We're now We're still kind of hearing we're in the evaluation process. Sounds like it's very complicated and there may not be a great solution at the end of the day. Is that a possibility that we just we can't fix it because there is no software central software that exists on in today's market for educational you know purposes to centralize. We're not going to build our own software obviously. Well, I mean one one thing that we have is class link, right? And class link is a centralized software for instructional apps, right? And that's mainly for students and teachers to use so that they could get a single sign in from like in the classroom. So if the teacher uses 10 different applications, there's like a centralized like portal for them, right? Um, you know,
113when it comes to when it comes to like all the different software that you're talking about, there's like to change that midyear or to change that kind of like ad hoc is going to be dangerous because there's so many so many people across the district that have been trained to use or that have been using some of this software and are like experts in Canvas or an expert in P school or or whatever the software is. So to take that and to like pull that away immediately would change the in like their instructional uh abilities, right? Because they're not going to have a tool like it's kind of like if you're a carpenter and you take away one of their main tools that they're using, they're going to have to figure out how to do
114something else, right? So there's there's this uh you know, it's kind of like what Dr. Travis talked about with uh transitional change and how you do that over time because you need to make sure that you're providing the you know the plan for the change and the support for the you know for that change as well. So we can't just swap something real quick. You you need to make sure that you're you know that it's kind of like done holistically. So on a scale of 1 to 10, changing, you know, changing something as big as like an information like an information system or learning management system is up in the top 8 n 10 range. Um because because there's a good a fair amount of instructional support needed and training needed and it also includes
115shifting a ton of data from one system to another system as well that could be in different formats. There's a lot of things that kind of play into centralizing or changing applications as opposed to using a new tool like that centralizes the access point to these different applications like a class. I understand that it's probably like super complicated, but is it is it possible that you may come back to us in six months and say we like could we couldn't like just we couldn't because because of those reasons. Well, I think that this I mean I think this is just one of those things that's an like an ongoing conversation and I know that we have some ideas on things that we would like to do, but it's not like changing things kind of like
116mid year is not the time to do it, but like beginning of for the beginning of next school year. Yeah. And I think that I I believe we Yeah, we have some we have some changes that we would like to make, but I don't think now would be the time to say, "Hey, we're going to definitely do this um publicly um until we kind of like had more conversations with staff, teachers, set up any types of supports that are needed, things like that." And then uh but you know, I think both Dr. Kitz and I uh we we like to look at things and figure out how we can make things like consolidated or more efficient. So I think we share in that we understand the need. So good. Okay. Um and then you know
117we've been working on the uh the website refresh right. So we did decide to move toward uh using smart sites which is a parent square um product. So one one of the nice things about this is it's very userfriendly to update. uh it links the parent square application to the website. So anything that's pushed out onto the parent square platform can also be published directly on the website. So it makes it um easier to share information at the school level. So this way it pushes out onto the website kind of at the same time it goes to families as like an email or a text message, right? And uh it's also it's also nice because uh parent square has a really uh robust translator feature. Um and that'll be available with the website. Um also
118one thing to note is that uh like we'll be able to use the parent square calendar feature uh so that it updates the website and the the calendar feature is nice because you could uh you could basically update it within the parent square app like as a school principal and then that can feed the website as well. So this way we could really use one integrated calendar for all the schools and the whole district in one place. So this way we're not updating or finding things incorrect on one calendar or another. So that's a nice feature. Today the website says it's under construction even though you still have access to everything. So when is this project going to be done? So the plan launch for the website is July 1st. So and I'm sure you
119know we'll be sharing progress of that I think in the in the next couple months. And Sam, even though it says that you could still use everything that I said, no, I've used everything on there. You said we're under That's why I didn't know why I was under construction, but you could use everything. But if you're That's like a teaser, so I just want to make sure. Yeah, that's a teaser. We do our best to keep you entertained. Am I that entertaining? Oh, you want me to go to the next one and then come back? Are you coming back to the microphone? because I'm gonna have one one last question. Go ahead. No, I don't know how many more slides. Just like two or three. Oh, that's fine. This is the um the budget overview
120and a couple of pl I mean the salaries are the salaries. We're not um increasing or decreasing staff in the technology department. And just so you know, our staff are our employees. There are other districts that hire staff through Boseies. We do not do that. It's all of our staff. Um a couple of the areas we maintenance uh of network and software you'll see decreased and both you see increased and we actually this year because I I know there were a lot of questions last year we um uh detailed every single dollar associated with uh Boseies. This is technology software that we purchased directly not through Boseies. Um these are all the areas that uh that would be in the software budget and looking at BOSIES again this is just a a brief um uh
121I know I've discussed this uh publicly plenty of times uh why would we choose to get things through Boseies as opposed to directly uh this example pro provides that reason because of Bosey's aid reimbursement uh that we received the following year with uh this part of the Boseies budget we do receive about 41 42% back in Bosey's aid or reimbursement and this example just shows um again why we make the decision to purchase things through Boseies as opposed to directly but this has been bothering how go ahead why is Boseis paying $120 we use that as an example not necessarily why would be paying and why would we ever be able to buy something directly cheaper than buying it from repeat that. Why would anything ever be cheaper? Forget about the the state aid package
122or the money back. Why would Bose's prices ever be higher than the prices we would pay directly? They wouldn't, but there's administrative costs that go above and beyond the actual cost to the uh to the vendor. Again, this is an example. I'm not saying everything is 20% more, but like that's what I'm trying to understand. So you're saying that whatever it is, not 20% more, but it's more but and this gives the impression that in your experience it's meaningfully more. It may not be 20%. But it's meaningfully more. But what I'm trying to say is like we're buying Chromebooks, not not necessarily, but we're buying Chromebooks from these guys, right? And the Chromebook shouldn't have any administrative cost. They're basically just they are doing the purchasing. Uh they do the bids. They'll do uh the
123ordering. They they do all of the administrative. We literally give them an approval to say yes, we need x amount of Chromebooks. They're doing the work in purchasing it and making sure it comes to us. I understand. But and do we have any idea what the price is? Because like I said, I understand some of the stuff they do is complex. Ordering Chromebooks is not complex. It's not. And so if they're charging a if the price through Boseis is even more than a dollar more, $2 more a Chromebook, I'm not suggesting that the Chromebook itself is a dollar more. There is an administrative fee that gets added on by purchasing it through Boseies. And again, I use just this as an example. If something cost more going through Boseies with the aid, it still ends
124up being less. And from a I full I I'm I'm moving on from I understand that what you're doing what we're doing is best for the district. I'm not arguing that point at all. That point is accepted. What I'm aggravated about is is Boseis stealing basically money from us by overcharging us administrative fees that don't cost them anything, but they're using that to jack up prices to increase their revenue. They're not. Again, correct me if I'm wrong. They're not. How do we know? Like I'm saying, are you able to say, look, if we bought Chromebooks directly, the list price would be, as you said before, last year, $350. If we buy them through Boseies, they have a list price of $380 because you have a $30 administrative fee. Now, again, that would be Boseies basically
125panning their line, taking tax dollars from our district, taking tax dollars from the state through a back door. They don't increase the pricing. So if if the quote like they'll they'll they'll it depends on it depends on like the coaster. Um it could be 15%, could be 18%, could be 10. I'm not sure what the percentage is because it depends on what the product and what the service is. But what they'll do is they'll give you a quote. They're going to say administrative fee with the percentage. That percentage adds to the total. we pay that total and then that total then that that total gets put in for the state aid reimbursement for the following year. So like for example that but that's not that's not my question. That's not my question Mr. L. Okay.
126My my question is simply that that as anyone who's been these meetings knows I'm no fan of state ed. I'm no fan of Boseis. Yeah. is Boseis and I'm trying to use a nice word without the are they basically taking money that they really haven't earned. They're giving we're getting like they're char they're saying oh they can charge us whatever they're charging us a 20% or 15% administrative fee on buying Chromebooks to me that seems egregious. If we're buying hundreds of thousand dollars of Chromebook, literally all they're doing is filling out a sales price and making sure the address says Jericho versus Freeport, then them earning 15% on that is egregious. And they're taking money from our taxpayers and they're taking money from the state. Whereas if they were just running a straight up business,
127they would be getting their money the way look, they give us services, we should pay for them. I'm not arguing that point. If they're doing it by saying, "Oh, we're charging a 15% maid fee to file the purchase order with Dell because we have That's that's just I'm trying to not use a word there, but you can fill that. So that's correct. You're correct. However, add the second piece is that the year after you get the the money back in a reimbursement that if you were to purchase yourself, you wouldn't. So to your point, yes, your first statement is correct 100%. However, second here, the way the system is designed allows for the reimbursement aid, which reduces the cost. And and what I'm saying is that as a board and as a school district, I'm
128sure we're not the only ones having this problem. And to me, if Boseies is providing us some of the services they're providing us, we should be paying for them. They should not be backdooring their revenue line by overcharging districts for for administrative fees that they haven't incurred. And what I'm saying is that at some point someone's got to go to state ed or to the state government or to whomever in Boseis and say this is not right. Like someone has to call Larry Levan or Betty D. Ros or Governor Hokll and say this is what Boseies is doing to to hide to to somehow exploit the fact that you're giving them 40% state aid all these districts are are you know dumb and happy said sure as long as we paid less than we would
129otherwise we're happy to pad O B O B O B O B O B O B O B O B O B O B O's revenue line it's not that simple so there is administrative cost that Boseies does you can't just buy Chromebooks you have to bid for Chromebooks And bidding takes time. It costs money. There's a process there as well. Not for Chromebooks. For for everybody. There's still a bid. It's not just Chromebooks. It's where you buying Chromebooks. You're not buying from Google. You have to lose vendors. It's not as simple. And the services that if Jericho has to put out for that 100 bucks, you're also putting out a cost for how much you're spending on the bid process as well. It is not that simple. It is not. But if they're char
130if we're buying hundreds of thousands of dollars of Chromebooks and they're charging us 15% surface fee and they're charging us 60 or $70,000 60 or 70,000 to to order Chromebooks and they're getting that from I forget how many districts are there in Nashville? 357 57. So they're basically taking in you know millions of dollars to order Chromebooks. that that that is that is just as close to robbery as it comes because they've got because basically the state is funding them to just basically overcharge us and that's just not right. I'm not disagree with I just want to make sure it's not I want everyone to know it's not as clear as them just filling out a different form. There is work that does go into Absolutely. And that's why I'm not saying if they're providing
131us automotive or they're providing us, you know, small ticket items or or even small number of items, but if we're ordering hundreds of Chromebooks and all these other districts ordering hundreds of Chromebooks, it's not costing them millions of dollars in administrative fees to figure out where to buy Chromebooks. I I understand what you're saying and we've had this discussion before. As the business official of Jericho, I'm going to look at this and say it's best for Jericho school district. I understand what I understand what you're saying. Wait, this isn't even a business. This is a board level decision or a superintendent level decision that this type of behavior. Someone has to call it out at some point. Like they're just basically taking money from our taxpayers and taking money from the state taxpayers and who
132knows what Oies is doing with that money. Like that that's my problem with it. This is just like I I just wanted to clarify that I was understanding this properly that they are charging us like a 15% commission or administrative fee as Mr. Datab puts it to buy promos to buy hundreds of thousands of dollars of promos. I mean I'll take that. I'll lend us the promos 70 $80,000 off the top of my head. I don't know exactly for promos but there is definitely administrative fee added on to the price and again I'll take it up with them at their next budget meeting. That's fine. I just want to make sure I'm understanding what you're understanding it correctly. Thank you. But the problem is that math is not as simple as you're making it and
133Mr. Goodstead saying and my point to this is if it's such a savings, the math should be simple and published and explained because the budget has gone up year after year after year. I just use this as as No, I know. But for because this this conversation came up last year during the budget for the technology stuff too and no one could clearly articulate how much did computers cost how much did we get back where did it go in the revenue item like line item it shows in state aid under I'll explain that next week but it shows under state aid and what's the year-over-year numbers that shows it's an actual savings versus what it would have been in the open market with an RFP because nothing gets RFPed in this district if I'm not
134mistaken. No, everything is so if we're purchasing through Boseies, they're handling the bid and getting the lowest per cost. Yes, they're adding administrative fee. But again, I will show next week what part of the state aid is Boseies and it was part of the governor's proposal which was public and Boseies is not a nonprofit. They're a for-profit entity and and they're they're not a nonprofit. municipality. What's that? They're a municipality. Good, but they're making profit year after year. It's not like they're sitting there breaking even doing a service for the community. That's good. They're actually becoming a real estate development portfolio essentially through all the money that they're taking from the 50some districts that exist on Long Island. We receive a fund. We if they have a fund balance, each component district receives that back
135each year. But going back to what we purchased through them, let me go back to Mike on this report. Yeah. So basically uh the Boseies the Boseies purchases we've increased uh a little bit this year. Uh we moved some of the stuff that was direct into Boseies so that we could get that state aid back uh next year. Um, I mean with with these items going through Boseies next year, I mean we are looking at uh making back in revenue over $800,000 um in that state aid. So while we hear you and understand um you know what your arguments are um we're also trying to maximize decision making is perfectly rational and we're just trying to maximize what we get back as a district when possible so that we can then use that funding for
136next year for our you know expansions and budgeting purposes um and ever increasing budget uh because you know technology as a whole every year it seems to be getting more expensive um just just for the hardware alone, you know. So, um there's a few things on here that we had moved over um more on the software side. A lot of the hardware and services stuff was already on there for the past few years. Um but we did move over a few things like Amplify and Brain Pop and Brisk and um Edpuzzle and some of the uh some of the software related items. Um yeah, I think that's it. This is back to co-curricular clubs and I should put slash um chaperoning because chaperoning is included in here. This year was 767. Next year we're budgeting
1377.85 in this category. Uh the reason again it went up uh this year 2526 is because we added the two clubs each at the three elementary schools. I'm gonna turn it over to Brett to talk about the athletic program. Sorry. Can I just ask? Sure. Sorry. Can I just one more question regarding um AI? I know that everything there's a lot of AI and stuff going on. Is there any plans on hosting any type of um development um classes or anything for the um within the district of parents? I would like to do that. I've really really like and that was part of uh yeah like the one of the slides where I had the timeline uh getting more feedback from community. I feel like um when I had started um there was a lot
138of things in progress here uh as far as like teacher development and um the question just about if students were going to be using AI and things like that. So, um, I would love to be able to and I think I have a meet I have a couple PTA meetings coming up that I'm planning. I think one this week we were supposed to do one, but I would like to do some some parent education. I think if if if you guys can schedule something when one can be during the day, one can be in the evenings for parents who work. I think they'll do you have anything specific in mind? What? Like I mean like topic areas or I mean you know compare Gemini to to open AI to this to there's just so many
139and it's just even I I use AI but I I I only know like such a small fraction. I'm sure there's so much more and I think parents will will benefit from it because now their kids are using it and and they'll be educated on what are my kids using and you know safeties and you know in elementary school obviously if you're wor worried about safety and what are they doing over there high school I mean or just in general to to develop our our own skills okay I think you'll be so amazing I think that sounds good please make it happen much more basic question um if we needed to go to a remote day last week were we ready to do that or those systems sort of just appreciated over the last two
140years I think structurally we're ready to do that I think We pro I I I I think we could probably could use practice in in trying that out. But I think we have the tools needed. It's just a matter of uh being able to You're talking about remote. Yeah. Yes. I think it's Yeah. We did it a year and a half ago. We did it a year and a half ago. I'm not talking about snow day. I'm not in Jericho. We have flood days. We have We have a variety of opportunities. We did it a year. We did it in November of 23 when we had the flood. I think I think the board had decided a couple years ago if there is an actual storm the day of the storm, we're not going to
141do remote. It's a blizzard, the power outages, etc. Uh the Tuesday is a different question and we should talk about that going forward. But I'm saying we were you think in your mind we were prepared and again I'm not just snow days that brought it to talking about floods, you know, bus strikes, whatever. I think the only issue this year it was literally the week was a recess right before that. Um, you know, typically, you know, the storm's coming 2, three days out. We would have known if we had school that week, but I I think we're going to talk about next year practicing uh to make sure that we're ready to go at any time. Yeah. I'm not trying to take away snow days. I understand. I still need senior votes at some point.
142So, no, I'm not taking away snow days. These are all good. Even in that case, Monday still would have been a snow day. It's just the Tuesday that was in question and the January one still would have been a snow day because that was the day of the storm. So, but we should still be ready for any type of emergency. All right, Brett, let's go to athletics. Thank you everybody. Full disclosure, that is uh my logo is AI. So, um, we're very fortunate here in Jericho that, uh, we do offer a ton of teams here from the varsity level to our JV level to our middle school level. Um, Nassau County sports, we do offer, um, starting in seventh grade. Um, and you can go all the way up to our 12th grade. So, our,
143uh, Jericho Middle School will be 7th and eighth graders. Um, be able to participate. Um, and the high school is for our 9th uh, through 12th graders. Um, once again, we do offer many of the offerings out there. There's only a select few sports that are not offered here at Jericho for our student athletes. Um, so I'm proud to say that. Um, here is a list of our uh, sports offered for our high school students. Obviously, I'm not going to sit here and go through them, but you could see from the fall, winter, um, and spring season, we offer many, many offerings. Uh, once again, which is a phenomenal um, situation for our student athletes. Here's our middle school offerings. Um, it's a little different. Um, as you can see from the first slide, there
144are three seasons. Uh, for the middle school, there are four seasons. So, there's the fall, winter 1, winter 2, and then our spring season. Um, some of our participation numbers for this year. During the fall season, we had 382 student athletes. Um, for our high school winter was 316 student athletes. And for our spring season, as of today, we have about 360 student athletes registered um on our family ID, which is our registration system. Um for middle school, um our fall season, um we had 215 students. Our winter 1 is 160. And you can see that number is a little lower. We do offer less sports during the winter seasons. Um 115 for winter 2. And full disclosure, that spring season is an estimate of kind of where we are because it just opened. Um
145so in the past uh four years we do have we have offered uh additional offerings uh JB JB boys badmitten um 2122 uh football returns in uh in full force uh our unified basketball program was in 23 242 our middle school bad mitten girls flag football unified bowling and crew um and then this year we added for a full-time our uh girls wrestling We had five girls wrestling last year. How many do we have this year? We had dedicated We had 10 girls. We had 10 girls. And currently, uh, we have, I think, two or three that are graduating. And then in our middle school level right now, we have three girls that are competing. So, we're looking to keep around that 10 10 student athlete number. Uh, we are actually one of only the
14610 schools in Nassau County to actually have offer a full-time girls team. Um and it's really nine because MacArthur um comes together with a few different other schools. We are just standalone. So uh last year uh we had our very bright scoreboard uh that was put in and it's beautiful. Um I can't see the score. Currently is not lit up. That also happens during the sunny days. You can't read it in the game. Depends on where you sit. No, it doesn't really matter where you sleep. Um, that was me out there with, if you could see in the background, they're putting the crane in. It's actually a really cool experience to watch. Um, never actually watch one that go up, so it was pretty pretty amazing. Um, with our our athletic programs, obviously, we're very
147proud that we are a New York State Scholar Athlete School of Distinction for 21 consecutive years, which is unheard of. Um, but it shows the dedication for our student athletes on and off the field. Um this season all of our teams qualified for um playoffs whether it be counties or or going forward. Um unfortunately our um girls and boys basketball teams just lost the other day. Um they're they're a very competitive year that they had. Uh we are sending some uh swim boys swimmers to the states. Uh we are sending some track athletes to the states as well. They're going to compete at the end of the month at the end of the uh week, I'm sorry. Uh huge highlight. Um Kevin Brodzky, who's our boys wrestling, varsity boys wrestling coach, uh completed his 30th
148year coaching, uh which is amazing. If you guys have ever watched him, he's he's an interesting man and he's he's dedicated to the program. So 30 years of that is unbelievable. Um they run an alumni night um which I've never experienced before and obviously I'm new to the district. It's an unbelievable night. So, it our our coaches go above and beyond for our student athletes and it's it's an un unbelievable thing. Uh, boys Batman, uh, ninth and second Nassau County Championships. They're going to be playing in the spring uh to go against the um, uh, Long Island Championship and hopefully they they win there again. Um, some Jericho history. Uh, we've had all American soccer players, track and field, um, swimming and diving. Um, we currently had a diver this year that is going for
149his second consecutive state championship. So hopefully uh he he he wins there. And now to the numbers. Um that's going to be even better today. Awesome. Um thank you Brett. Great job. Appreciate it. Um again nothing much is changing here. the equipment, uh, replacing the Sam Springer shot clock and the tables in the athletic training room. Um, otherwise, uh, pretty pretty straightforward. Before you go off that, Sure. Do you have um individual breakdowns of how much each sports team costs per year? The I mean, all of the salaries are are in the contract and they're approved each year depending on who's coaching, assistant coaching, etc. Um, but I'm sure I could work with Brett to get um like uniforms and equipment, etc. You know, because like you mentioned the basketball team, they have numerous games
150where there's a large transport component to it versus football that has a low transport component but a high equipment component. So, if you could I'll send you an email. Yeah, that'll be great. Yeah. Um I mean all the security isn't necessarily coded here. The you know the ones in the yellow jackets, we'd have to look at that separately. But in this salary line, it's coaches, assistant coaches, etc. You know, I was I say the assistant coaches, some teams have more, but then again, transport, I assume, is a big number for some sports versus meaningless for somewhat meaningless for others. So, speaking of transport, I'm going to invite Castell up to the uh microphone as he comes up. I'm going to compliment him in in addition to the facilities department. This gentleman and his team did
151an outstanding job during both storms getting us ready. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Thank you very much. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I would like to start a transportation club. Michaela, transportation club. I propose a transportation club. Driver's ed. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for having me talk about the transportation department. Um, in the transportation department, we have two dispatchers, Renee and Francisco. We have 17 Jericho drivers, 49 first unit drivers, three mechanics, Keith, Eric, and Vincent. Um, Jericho provide universal busing for all students. So, all students entitled for transportation to and from school. Uh, we transport about 90 student to private school. We also transport student to Boseis and the technical school, special needs school. We also transport about a thousand activity trips, music trips, athletics, science. They've been using us a lot
152lately with all the competition. Jenna, uh we have our two main budget code 5510. Uh mostly we pay the insurance for vehicles uh parts, driver monitor, training, fuel and office supply and 5540 covers a first unit contract, private school and special ed school district and first units are only contractor. These are the only first units main uh transportation contract. We have transport student to all five public school, 22 private school, five special ed schools. Uh this year we have 15 18 large buses with first use and 35 vans and we have 17 in district buses. In upcoming school year we anticipate having 18 large buses, 31 vans and four per pupil and still 17 in district Jericho drivers. question. Are our um the after school rounds are still our own drivers here or athletics activity?
153Yes, we cover all of our uh athletics trips and activity since we made that change. It's been u much more efficient and uh much better because things change with athletics. So, it's just the it it's been very smooth since we made that change from outside to our drivers and we have enough drivers now that we can do it ourselves. Can I just ask one question? What's the longest shift that a bus driver will work in one particular day from let's just say they start in the morning and then they do sports at night. What's the longest shift that we allow for? Uh 10 hours. 10 hours. Yes. So, so um the drivers usually have a 3-hour in the morning, 3 hour in the afternoon. Some drivers will work either in the cafeteria or do some
154cleaning in between. Um they would pick up uh after school activities as well. Your question is more um we look at that very closely with long trips and overnight trips uh where we want to make sure the driver is getting ample sleep. Um yeah. Well, Definitely. That's where I was leading. But but could but do but would it be worth it to get it for a person that started early in the morning then took some a different type of a job during the day to help out in the school and then they picked up another shift for you know driving. Would that affect No, it's not. Would we worry that they're too tired? No, it wouldn't be an issue. It it is again more of the overnight trips and the one over the road trip
155like long distance trip. That's where long distance trips and one the one we were concerned about because we had to bring the kids back from Boston. I think it was one of the science trips and there was a snowstorm coming and we had to shift the time level of that. We had to make sure we kept the room for the driver to sleep during the day, right? Because we wanted to bring the kids back that night so we didn't get stuck in the storm. Um, the kids did their thing, you know, during the day. They participated in the entire event, but instead of leaving the next morning, we left uh probably 9:00 p.m. But the driver, we kept the hotel room and allowed them to rest and sleep in order to make the trip home
156before the storm. Thank you. We currently run over 400 trips daily. For example, we cover one route will cover eight runs. We cover the middle school, early high school, elementary, regular high school, special eds, and after school uh trips. We have a 4:30 late run, uh 5:45 on a 6:30 uh late run that the students can take home after clubs or any activity. All the buses are equipped with cameras inside and outside. They're also equipped with GPS system. Then they're also equipped with a stop arm camera. If a motorist pass or stop school bus, it could face a fine between $250 and $300. We have IMAS with four districts for additional income. Franklin Square, Eric, Sport, Washington, and SAS. We cover about 30 vehicles for those districts. Uh new proposal for the upcoming school year,
157new equipment is one HDX 44 packs coach bus. That's Yes. That's not allowed. No, it's not. We're going to submit the waiver for that um within the next month, month and a half. I think uh Kenny, you had asked about that. So, uh we're going to submit the waiver to um allow us to continue to purchase the vehicles that we purchased through the 2829 school year. It's a 2-year waiver. Okay. How much is that bus? The new bus that we're purchasing? Uh it's around 27 if you said is that purchased through Boseies or directly from the bus company? Directly through the bus company. Okay. Um do we get revenue from the stock cameras thing? We do not. Uh any revenue would go to the uh I believe it's the town um that would receive any
158revenue. So it would be between uh Oyster Bay and the town of North Hemstead. Do you know the numbers by chance? I do not. And I haven't heard anything from community members either. I know when the red light, remember the red light cameras a few years ago, there was a lot of complaints. I haven't received one poll of anything, which I'm hoping is good news that people aren't passing school buses. And how many students actually ride the bus? Well, like on pick up, we have we have universal busing, so everyone's entitled to a bus. Um, obviously I would say the elementary probably takes it more than the high school, especially when you get to junior and senior year. Um, we fill to capacity. Um, meaning it's, uh, for the elementary kids, it's three to a
159seat. And at the high school, do we two? We book it two to a seat. Um and again to to your point, I know that um not every kid takes it on any particular day. Uh bad weather usually brings a lot more parents driving the kids, etc., etc. But we are required to have a seat for every student. So if you did do load factor numbers, I'm sorry. There's really no benefit to doing load factor numbers because there's nothing we can do to There is not. And there are certain days that the bus will be 80% full versus a day that it's 25% full. And especially after school once you get into clubs and activities, sports, etc. Um again, we have to provide a seat for every student. Sorry, this um again you could see
160it's getting less uh dramatic each year but um when the top line is our driver salaries um and that has increased uh exponentially uh again when I started here we had two drivers now we have 17 which is good we have a lot more control over over uh situations especially if a if a bus breaks down we could send our own staff out. We talked about the afterchool uh and athletics. Again, not not only is it more efficient and better for our students, it has saved money over the years um not having it done through an outside um company such as first student. Um so we're definitely uh proud of that fact. Uh the contract um again is increasing uh and it will for the next uh several years. Again, we tried to smooth it
161out this way. We didn't see a uh 30% increase in any one year. We did it where it stayed in the high single digits. Uh and we are seeing that increase on an annual basis. Employee benefits. This is uh again every year we talk about the health insurance premiums. Um uh this past year um in 2025 they go on a calendar year um from January to June. 2025 calendar year was a minimal uh increase. Actually pretty much stayed flat. We're seeing 10% increases for the 26 calendar year that we're in now. Um so we have to estimate what the increase will be for January to June of 27 because we know what se uh July through September will be. Um and we are seeing 10% increases in that area. The employees retirement system uh which
162is a retirement system for our non-instructional uh staff and the teachers retirement system is for our um uh professional teachers, administrators, etc. Um it's not normal to see such a big increase in one and such a big decrease in the other uh because they both use uh smoothing factors based on the stock market etc investment rates. Uh but this year there was a significant increase in the employees and luckily there was a significant decrease in the teachers retirement system. Uh overall almost a wash maybe slightly lower um than what we're seeing for this year. I have a question. Sure. When was the last time we we put out an RFP for health insurance? We dental we do um annually very small part of that. It's probably out of the 21 million it's like 400,000. So
163it's literally minimal. Um the health insurance we don't. It's a New York State health insurance plan. It's part of um it's actually run by the New York State Department of Civil Service, I believe. Um and believe it or not, I mean regionally um you mean there's one health insurance in all of New York State for teachers and for No, no, not for everyone. There there would be districts do self insurance uh which I wouldn't recommend, but districts do do self insurance. There are certain cooperatives throughout the state. um you'll see that more upstate because the regional cost for the health insurance plan is the same statewide. So the premiums are the same statewide. So there's not a different premium for Western New York or upstate New York versus downstate, which I guess benefits us a
164little bit, but um you'll see a lot more self-insured plans uh upstate. I think there's one out on the east end also. a bunch of small districts got together, but like in Nashville County, everyone has Yeah. I don't know of anyone that doesn't use the New York State Health Insurance Plan, and a lot of contracts are pretty much tied to that as far as the benefits are concerned. Uh debt service, not much here. Again, we do not have long-term uh principle and interest. We're debtree when it comes to long-term. We do borrow um tax anticipation notes on an annual basis. That's just basically getting the district through July through November when the tax payments start coming in uh from the community. So, we do do some short-term borrowing for that. Um I reduce the transfer
165to school lunch again. I left a little bit in there, but um we'll be profitable again uh this year uh without any transfer from the general fund, which is great news. The transfer to special aid um that is for the uh summer special ed program. Um it's run through the special aid fund and the general fund funds it, but it's a it's funded through a transfer to uh that fund and that's where the expenses come out of. Next week, uh, the 12th, Thursday the 12th, we'll do a full budget review of revenues expenditures. And, uh, the second half of that presentation, we'll be looking at some highlights from all of the buildings, elementary, middle school, high school, as well as music and fine arts. So, I look forward to that because that kind of buttons
166up the whole budget process and uh, gives everyone some background on what's going on in the buildings. And that's it. Any last questions? Thank you. Appreciate your time. Your face says it all. This whole I can't give you a suspense. If you've heard the groans coming from the deis uh we we believe given the hour given the comprehensive of Mr. Emanuel and his helpers presentation. We are probably going to have to table our discussion of our policy manual sections 3000, but we will reschedu it soon. We and we will have policy discussion on the 12th. Oh, wait. This is hard enough. If you really as vice president, if you really want to run it, it's it's really up to you. So for something before, but we are going to schedule some extra meetings probably at
167night, maybe on a weekend. So you guys can always join us for a Saturday. Um Oh, yeah. We'll be we'll be done that. Let's go to opportunity for the public to be heard. If you'd like to make a comment or ask a question, please approach the microphone. Tell us your name and if you're representative specific to the group, your affiliation. If you'd like your statement to be included in our board minutes, you must hand in a written copy of your remarks to our district clerk, Victor Emanuel, before leaving tonight. As always, public discussion on matter staff and students during which their reputation, privacy, or right to due process or those of others could be violated as prohibited. And with that said, Mr. Citron is back and we can go. Who's got comments? Who's about to
168pass out? Excellent. Um we will move on to approval of minutes. Uh recommend a motion be resolved the board of education by getting necessary corrections and move the approval of the minutes of the regular meetings dated January 28th, 2026 and the regular meeting dated February 12th, 2026. We have a motion. Thank you, Mrs. Vardner. Thank you, Mr. Citron with the second. Any discussion? All in favor? 5. Thank you very much. Unfinished business. As always, we have the new business. Everybody, we did not actually do a superintendent report. Do you have any like to have out of order, but it's okay to just do it? The enrollment report for the the year. So, at this point in the year, last year we had 3,320 students. Now, we have 3,172 students. My superintendent board see wants to
169go home. Okay. Couldn't tell. Oh, okay. Now to new business. You've been waiting for this for months. Be it resolved that the board of education adopts the calendar for the 2026 2027 school year as shown in the attached. Hopefully, everyone seen the attached, everyone has expressed their opinions. Um, we appreciate apologize for the delay and we wanted to ensure that we did our best to address the needs of all community members. Do I have a motion on the calendar? Motion. Thank you, Mrs. Vart. Second, Mr. Jin. Thank you. Any discussion? Thank you again for your patience. Mrs. Beliva is very excited. All in favor? 5. We are on it. And and I'm happy to report we're starting August 31st. We haven't started like August 31st in a very long time. Just rub that into Dr.
170Hartman. Rub that into Dr. Hutman. He's not starting August 31st. Okay. Acceptance of donation be resolved board of education accept a donation on an outdoor bench from Priyanka and Satcha Tande to the George A. Jackson Elementary School to place to be placed in front of the building for students, staff and families to enjoy during the school day and school events. Do I have a motion? Thank you J. Any discussion? Thank you very much to the Tanden family and George Jackson. You are a lucky elementary school. All in favor? Thank you. 5. Um with regards to the policy, do we need to we'll never table. Um we are going to be involved with the board of education accept the first readings of the policy. Um we have a motion to table. Oh, Mrs. Citro makes a
171motion to table with no one seconding that motion. Oh. Oh, no. Mr. Jim. Okay. We don't have to. If no one wants to second, the ladies want to go ahead. Any second. Mr. All in favor of tableabling. We're joking. We're joking. 5. Punching. 5. Good. Um, hold on. Have to switch piles. Uhoh. Oh no. Okay. Moving on. Approval schedules. Consent action settlement resolution be resolved with the board of education of the Jericho Union Free School District. Having received and having received and reviewed a settlement agreement and general release concerning an instructional employee known to the board hereby approved such settlement agreement and general release and authorizes and directs the board of education president to execute such settlement agreement on behalf of the board. Do I have a motion? Thank you Mr. Barton. A second Dr.
172Balachander. Any discussion? All in favor? 5. Motion carries. Business affairs schedules. Um, unless any of my colleagues have a problem, I'd like to move schedule little I1, the treasures report through little IV, schedule K, instructional leave of absence. Meaning, as always, the whole package, but I'm happy to break out any specific schedules that the board member wishes absent. Anybody objecting? Do I have a motion to move all of those schedules as Mrs. Mrs. Bartonoff? Thank you very much. Second. Second. Thank you, Mr. Jin. Um, any discussion? The only important schedule that only nonregular schedule that's in there really has to do with us pertaining to Nassau County Board of Elections for our May elections to approve the lovely budget that Mr. Manuel has been putting forward to us for the last couple weeks. Any other
173discussion? All in favor of adopting accepting all the schedules 5. Thank you very much. Any of my colleagues have anything to add before we adjourn? Then uh when all business is done, do I have a motion to adjurnn for the evening? Mr. Jin, thank you. Second, Dr. Alexander. All in favor of adjourning. Thank you very much for your presence this evening.