CHUFSD Board of Education Regular Meeting 3/12/26

In three, two, one, action. Thank you. Good evening, everybody. I'd like to call to order. We're ready. I'd like to call to order the March 12th, 2026 business meeting of the Harmon Union Free School District's Board of Education. We will open with item 1.2, The pledge of 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. Thank you so much. Welcome to everyone in the community, people who are watching at home, and our guests this evening. I'm going to turn it right over to Superintendent Walker to introduce some of our special visitors this evening. Good evening. Thank you, Anamica. Good evening, everyone who's here in person and everyone who's watching at home. it's one of the great joys of any board meeting to get a chance to recognize some of the exceptional students who are part of our school district. and this evening is one of those really special occasions where we get a chance to honor, celebrate, and and lift up the contributions of an outstanding young member of our community who is also the PNW Bosey's student of distinction. and to introduce him, it's my pleasure to introduce and bring to the podium district superintendent Neil Boy. Neil, thank you for being here. So just on behalf of the Bose board, one of which we get to chair, Mr. Haber, thank you for the opportunity to recognize a remarkable student. We appreciate the support of Crohn board, Dr. Walker, and the rest of the cabinet members here at the district. It's an incredible partnership that allows us to have evenings like tonight. So tonight, we have the pleasure of recognizing one of the students of distinction. I still remember the first time I met him. I'm not going to turn because I want to talk to him. And it just stood out immediately that his energy, his enthusiasm, and the effort he brought to everything he was doing, including pushing me away from reading. It was clear right away that he was someone who had a positive impression on the people around him, including me. So, Ezra, this recognition not only celebrates your achievements, but also your attitude and character you bring each day to school. I also want to recognize the teachers who are here tonight. It just shows him his impact and how far his stretch goes. I also hear that he's noticed as the mayor of Curtain. But Ed, what you need to understand is you make us better in education and give us more than we give you. So, thank you for letting us be a part of your educational journey and we'd like to thank your parents and your family for being here and having a trust in us to work through school. I'd like to hand over to our board member and as well as yours, Mr. to say a few words.

• Thank you, N. And I guess the first thing I would say is some people spell it the right way like in the wrong way, but we have that argument all the time. I just wanted to say very briefly to Ezra, to the community members who are here and the community members who may be watching this very important, meaningful honor being bestowed on Ezra. One of the things that I can say in wearing both of my hats is that our concern is for the well-being the growth of all of the students in our district and as the Boseies and all of the students who are provided services through Boseies and I am so proud wearing both hats to be able to honor Ezra tonight.

• And I'd like to invite Miss Katherine White, the principal of the Wild Learning Center.

• Good evening everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to celebrate our shared student Ezra Cat. I apologize in advance for the length of this, but I have a great deal to say about Ezra. With me this evening, I have Ezra's classroom staff, teachers Miss Tanya and Mr. Folks, and teaching assistants Miss Maria and Miss Diana, who would absolutely not be missing tonight. Unfortunately, Ezra's partner in crime, Miss Jamie, is homesick and wishes she could be here. Ezra, who I sometimes refer to as the mayor of Walton, is an absolute delight to be with every single day. He is respectful, friendly, outgoing, sarcastic, funny, and lights up all spaces he is in. Ezra works hard every day to make consistent progress towards his academic, physical, and emotional goals. Ezra puts his all into everything he does every day. He never lets challenges get him down and rises to every single occasion, working hard to accomplish his goals without ever complaining to us. Although I sometimes hear complaints to mom and dad, his brother is eager to participate in learning and all learning in all activities and enjoys being with his peers, his peers, and classroom staff. I could truly go on and on naming all of his positive traits, but since I have the microphone and not Ezra, I truly prefer to tell you about the Ezra that I met 40 years ago, who is a very different Ezra with the Ezra of today hiding deep inside. When I first began as the principal of Walden, it was an absolute gift to meet him and more of a gift to watch him grow into the boy he is today. When I became the principal at Walden, Zippa and Seth requested to meet with me and I had the pleasure of learning all about Ezra and his history. We spoke at length for at least 2 hours and at the end I gave them my word that together we would make a breakthrough and that one day we would look back and chugle chuckle at all of the behaviors that we survived. Mom and dad, that day is today. We did. But my goodness, it was not without a fight because I was pretty sure that Ezra was determined to make the new principal fall flat on her face and break my promise to mom and dad. But then came the day that everything changed. A few months into the school year, after trying every single behavioral support strategy I could think of, week after week, I was called down to the classroom to support Ezra, who was struggling a little bit to regulate his emotions, as we all do at times. And in typical Ezra fashion, he was giving me a run for my money. I feared that he was way too smart for this new principle, and I was going to have to come up with something. and think out of the box. After about 20 minutes together with Ezra with me trying to deescalate the behaviors, Ezra looked up at me, pointed to the door, and yelled, "Ow! I don't like you, and I want to go home." Dead silence for what seemed like an eternity. And he had this principal shaking in her shoes. I wasn't sure what to do and I actually don't know where this came from. But I yelled back, "No, you can't meet me. I'm the principal and I'm not leaving you." And you know what? I don't like either because I don't know how I'm going to help you. And I want to go home, too. How is her dad? I slid down the wall all the way to the floor and sat next to him feeling defeated. And within a few seconds, Ezra looked at me in shock and quietly asked, "Are you okay?" And that was the beginning of my most valued and special relationship with the student I have ever had in my 14 years as a principal. Over the past three years, I have watched Ezra overcome challenge after challenge and develop into the truly amazing young man he is today. As I described at the part at this start of this speech, it has been one of my greatest blessings ever to be able to be a very small part of Ezra's journey. That coupled with the fact that Ezra now over the past three years giggles at me sarcastically in the hallway tells me to yell at him all the time and he says and this has been an incredible experience. I share this specific story with you as your cats because you have not only been a successful student. You have truly changed my life and made me a better principal in this new school that I now call home. You have changed a lot of lives. You taught me that there could be a million strategies, a million behavior plans, lots of teachers, social workers, and principles. But sometimes a kid just needs to be heard and have someone to relate to. The key to your trust was through your huge empathetic heart and a whole lot of humor. And you don't know this, Ezra, but this is a strategy I've used over and over again at Walton, and it never ever fails me. And every time I use it, I think of you. For the adults in the room, I guess it's kind of the opposite of co-regulation. If you can't beat them, join the cat method. Tippa and Seth, thank you so much for trusting me with Ezra, for taking risks with me, for joining me, and for allowing me the blessing of joining you on Ezra's journey, even if it's just for a short while. Ezra, we have one more year together until I need to let you fly in the Coop and I intend on soaking up every single minute of it. Congratulations for being named Student of Distinction. Walton will always be with you. We will always believe in you. We will always be proud of you and we love you very much. Congratulations for being named student of distinction. Now, Ezra Catz. YEAH.

• HEAT. HEAT.

• SO, we're going to take a second and ask Ezra and his family to step over in front of those white cubbies and just take a few photos with the the Boseis team and his teachers and then the Croton board will step into the background just for another quick photo and then we'll resume our meeting. So, thank you for bearing with us to members of the audience.

• We're going to try All right. Then we're going to quickly invite our friends from the home district to come upside quickly. Thank you. Love you. Congratulations.

• All right. Ready? One, two, three.

• Bye guys. Thank you for coming.

• Hello Oh, every everyone needs Thank you so much.

• Thank you. Thanks everybody for allowing us to do a little photo opportunity and congratulatory moment. But we're going to move now into the rest of our agenda with item 1.4 approval of oh wait before approving the agenda. This is incorrect that I almost forgot. just need to note that we are going to be striking item 3.4 4 for the from the agenda due to in availability of u materials in advance because the policy and the question is under further remission. So item 3.4 under new business is going to be removed from the agenda. So with that said 2.3 also we're not removing that we're just oh yeah I mean we have still so yes item 3.43 for approve the agenda and with that be it resolved that the board of education hereby approves the agenda as presented. So second thank you all in favor. We have our we have a member on screen. I'm going to assume that that's an I didn't hear otherwise. Thank you. N okay motion carries. we will now move directly into actually the hearing of the public trip to the theater and we will start off with the president's report. Our board president today is traveling with family and so we will we will bypass that and trustees will give the reports during the board of courts section. So we'll open up with the hearing of the public. just as a reminder for members of our community who would like to address the board of education we believe that effective dialogue can occur only in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Therefore it's our policy to conduct our business at meetings and all communications written and oral in a manner that models respect and civil. We invite you all to do the same. If you would like to please leave your name and contact information on the signup sheet at the top of the podium so that we can get back in touch with you. we invite you to restrict your comments to three minutes. Please be sure not to mention a staff person or student specifically by name. And we now open it up for you to come and address the board. Thank you.

• Hi. Ben Faber. we live on street. a couple things. the I note that the the athletics department budget presentation is up for tonight. so I do have a comment and request about the athletic department. we get so the the district adopted parent square as a communication platform. I think it's useful in a lot of ways. It's really good, right? we have a kid at CT. we get a principal's report newsletter thing weekly on Fridays for her and there are probably a few other maybe notifications from parent square scattered throughout the week from CT. we have a kid at PBC pretty much ditto to that. we get a, consolidated report weekly newsletter on Friday and maybe a few other things scattered throughout the week, like notice about, like submit the permission slip for the field trip that this class. So, it makes sense. and it's very frequently almost impossible to find any of those things in my text message history or my email inbox because they are buried by the inundation of unnecessary inane notifications from the athletics department. I have a fifth grader and a student at C. There is no reason for me to be getting notices at all about high school athletics tryyous and schedules or about the athletics placement process for seventh and eighth grade students trying to play up into JV and varsity programs. There's no reason for me to be receiving that at all. But I've gotten I can't tell you how many notifications about that specifically in the last month. It's ridiculous. This is not a social media platform. There should be no reward for like genuinating continuous activity and hijacking attention like once a week. If you want to put it on Mondays instead of Fridays because you have stuff going on during the week, that would make sense. That would be cool. I don't care what day of the week, but like once a week, consolidate all your notices and send them out. Don't send me 10 things every day. It makes it impossible to get to anything else. and some other stuff, too. But I guess I talked about that for 3 minutes, so I'll just send another email about that, I guess. but it'll be one email. Thanks, Is there anyone else who would like to address the board at this time? There's also a second hearing, of course.

• Don Leard along. excuse me. I just didn't hear your name because you were kind of fast. Donor Don Leard on met with Superintendent Walker earlier this year. and he mentioned that one device use was required for delivery of the curriculum through through second grade. I would just like to know why.

• So yeah, sorry I'll give a clarification. I don't know if but during the hearing of the public, it's your opportunity to speak and we won't necessarily get a response directly in the meeting, but we can certainly follow up with you after, especially if you leave your contact info, though I know we have it because you have are parents in the district. Yes, I would love the response from the board of why that's needed specifically. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else for this evening? Okay, then we'll end our hearing of the public and turn it over to item 2.2 on the agenda, superintendent report. Over to Superintendent Walker. Thank you again, Anamica. Good evening again, everybody. three topics from me this evening. let's start with technology. as the community is hopefully aware, we've been engaged in systemwide thinking about the role of technology in our schools for over a year now. One of the great responsibilities of being a leader in a school system is the opportunity to hear from parents, teachers, students, and others, all of whom have a vision for what they want school to look like and be like. And the challenge that comes with that opportunity is to try to develop schools where as many people can see themselves and their visions reflected in the experience of students as possible. that involves listening, thoughtful decision-making, and finding a balance that is based in the best interests of our students. Technology is part of our lives and therefore is part of our schools. It is not and I think we all agree should not be the default mechanism involved in student learning and therefore when it is introduced, it should be with a specific purpose in mind. I'm proud of the work that has gone into the shifts that we have shared in our communications over the past weeks and which Ellen will describe during her budget presentation this evening as well. We aren't done yet and we likely never will be. Technology changes rapidly. Our society's values change and our schools often need to shift in response to that. But I hope that most people would agree that our work in this regard demonstrates not only thought and action, but a willingness to engage on this topic that puts our district at the forefront of this conversation in our region. We will always be prepared to listen, to engage, to share our thinking and be open to changing it and to do so publicly whenever possible. That will always be our view of this issue and every other complex issue that confronts us both now and in the future. We appreciate and need parents to raise questions about their children's experiences in our schools. Hearing them and reflecting on them is how we get better. This certainly isn't the end of the conversation, nor should it be. Our schools are absolutely wonderful, but they can improve. They always have and they always will continue to. If anyone has not had a chance to read our public communications on this topic, view our district video on this topic or view the video features featuring several of our high school students, you can find all of them on our website at trusty.org by clicking on departments on the homepage and then technology. Shifting Gregie to UPK on Monday, March 2nd, I along with Anamica and Sarah from the board and Denise and Rachel from the administrative team had an opportunity to take part in a press conference with State Senator Harkham, Assembly Member Levvenberg, UPK parents and advocates and the owners of Children's Space North to continue to advance the cause of ensuring that the New York State budget provides full and fair funding for UPK for the upcoming school year. We were extremely pleased to hear our elected officials speak with such confidence that the governor's proposal of $10,000 per UPK student will be incorporated into two into the 202627 state budget. In fact, they indicated that given the confidence regarding the $10,000 per student allocation, the legislative focus has now shifted to advancing the timeline for the governor's vision for full implementation of UPK, making it truly universal so that all interested families will be able to participate in the state's UPK program in the future. In our district, we will continue to remain focused on the state budget development process. As we have shared previously, classroom space at CCT was offered as an option for potential providers in the event that the state's not able to allocate the funding to make the program viable for community based organizations. Through the expectation that appropriate funding is forthcoming from the state for next year, we've let the interested community- based organizations know that they will need to provide space themselves and both providers are prepared to do so. But in the event that somehow the currently anticipated funding level is not provided, we we are prepared to allocate space at CCT to support UPK, we have and will continue to very closely monitor the state budget negotiations and the timeline through our contacts with our legislators and the various organizations that we're a part of, including the New York State School Boards Association, the New York State Association of School Superintendent, the Westchester Fund School Boards Association, and the Lower Hudson Education Coalition. We will also continue to update the FAQ document related to UPK on our website and we'll inform the community when updates are made as new questions are submitted or information is provided by the state. I think hopefully we can all view this as an example of the effectiveness and impact of a shared voice between the school district and the community regarding a topic that is of importance to all of us. And finally, Superintendent's conference day. On Monday of this week, our faculty had the opportunity to spend some time doing learning some learning together at our superintendent conference day. As part of the work of our district what's district's what success means in schools committee, we engaged with a speaker from challenge success who provided the keynote address to our faculty that morning, led some breakout group sessions, and then led a session for our parent community that evening on the college search process. Challenge Success is a research-based nonprofit organization affiliated with Stanford University that partners with K to2 schools to improve student well-being, engagement, and belonging by implementing researchbased strategies that promote a healthier, more balanced approach to education. Other learning sessions on Monday were led by our administrative facilitators of some of our district committees, enabling our entire faculty to learn more about the work of our committee so far. Additionally, our fantastic instructional coaches led sessions for faculty on providing feedback to students using formative assessment practices to drive student engagement and centering student voice and learning in addition to a range of school level priorities. The spring conference day has become an incredibly important day for us as it helps us to refocus during incred during an incredibly busy time of the school year and allows us to engage in thinking which then helps drive the summer professional learning and leads us into the upcoming school year. Thank you to everyone on the team who played a role in making the day so valuable, including our custodial and clerical teams whose work behind the scenes is vital to the success of a day where there are so many moving parts and so many moving people. And thank you also to our faculty and administrative facilitators and to Drew Schroder from challenge success. Thank you.

• Great. Thank you. So I just want to open it up if before we go further for this to see if anyone from the board has comment or question on the superintendent's report.

• Yeah. So, I apologize because I'm not as good orally hearing. I just want to make sure that I heard correctly that if there is not the state level of funding provided, the 10K that this the district is willing to provide a classroom at CC. Yes. You want to clear about that? And and and and about do you have a sense about how many students that could accommodate with the classroom size? Typically that's 18 18 to 20. Okay. And I guess the question that I would have is that if for some reason none of the pro we like it's obviously if there's we have all the providers that's great but if we only get a provider who's willing to do that with 18 spots. Is there interest or intention to see if there's anything in any of the other districts in terms of available space? Yeah. Yes, absolutely. So, we as I know as a team are committed to the success of this program. I think we're incredibly optimistic about where the state funding formula looks to be at this point. If for some reason the political winds change substantially and the figure ends up closer to 5,400 rather than the 10,000 then I think we would say again that a number of options would be explored including again space at CBT space in other districts and other options to make sure the program operates successfully. Thank you. do you want to chime in because I know on the advocacy front I was going to say on the advocacy front I did have just just comment I have a question but just knowing that both of the the White House budgets were released at the beginning of this week sorry time's getting away from me. and so it was really encouraging to see that all now all three budgets so the executive budgets, the Senate and the Assembly budget all have that $10,000 funding is in part of their budgetary packages. So I think we are in very sort of cautiously optimistic that that that the funding amount is sort of a done deal. it's really some of the details in terms of the timelines and any additional things. I I believe the Senate the Senate one house budget did include some transportation aid as well. So that was the only place where there was any difference. But right that makes sense. So, I think just like, looking back to what we've experienced over the last couple of years, the fact that we're hearing that not only the governor has it in her budget, but that both houses, I guess, right, of our government actually also are saying this is something that they're committed to. That feels like a consensus that we think that we should be able to feel good about. I think when we we had when we met with the the children's space north, one of our two providers and had that sort of advocacy conversation, our representatives did feel, as superintendent Walker said and others have said, really keen on this coming through. The timing is always a question and we know from last year that that the budget did not quite get cooked quite as early in the season as we thought it was going to, but this is just sort of the way of budgeting and legislators, right? So, I think we're all watching the space, but I think that what one thing that I feel pretty good about is the fact that between our significant coverage on all the legislative fronts, which Sarah's doing for us as chair of our advocacy committee is really really great. I think all of us individually, have connections to our legislators, we're talking about it, every time we see them. And certainly in terms of like connecting with the community, the thing that we feel is most important as a board is that now that we have this FAQ up on the website, there is a place that families can go, they can get the information. It's being updated. If anything changes, that's where you're going to see it first and then you'll hear it at this meeting second. So, I hope that this communicates to the community that this is this is something that we're all invested in. We're all paying very very close attention to. Not going to hold my breath until the budget passes. That'll be a very long time to hold my breath. But I think collectively and spiritually that's what we're doing. So so I guess watch the space and we'll keep you posted. Anyone else comments?

• Just to add I I think it is pretty rare to have the both houses and the governor agreeing on something that is very heartening and I think it is a testament to the advocacy that's been done by school districts by communities across the state. I think it's the message has been heard pretty loud and clear on this. and the importance of EPK and of the state providing sustainable funding over time for for the program and to do it at a rate that doesn't impact small businesses and the the the the providers who are doing the hard work. So that's great. I think we should continue to push right because as anomica as you point out it's not done until it's done right. So we we want to make sure to get it through the finish line. the on technology I just want to say that I agree wholeheartedly that we are I I think as as anything in the district need to just continue improvement right continue working hard and looking at our use of technology and where technology also just changes all the time right like we blink and there's something different out there and we need to continue to reassess what is happening in the district with regard to technology I I'm a fifth grader. I'll say that the change where she doesn't take her device home actually made a big difference, right? I was I was very pleasantly surprised that she pulled out some tactile toys the other day that she hadn't take taken out in a very long time. And I think it was a direct result of you know that that change that I think the the district did which actually had a a meaningful impact in in the lives of many families. I know from the people that I that are in my circle that have have seen that change and I think we need to continue to do to look at things like that and continue to improve and also just to make sure that there's a lot of voices here right from our teachers right who know a lot right about how to adequately use technology in the classroom community members and parents who also know a lot about what they want and don't want with regard to technology in their lives and their famil family's lives and all the experts out there. One angle that I know that we've I've heard I think Phil mentioned it was also the impact of technology on the environment right which yes of course technology has an impact on us and our brains but a lot of folks don't make that connection that more and more technology is having pretty tough impacts on our on our environment and our climate right so I think continuing to dig in on that right and how how are we a a responsible district with regard to being caretakers of our environment is also a key piece of of the equation. So, I think we're headed we we've done some meaningful things. We're headed in the right direction. We need to do more. and I think that starts with continuing to listen, right? And and understand what the perspectives are here and also student voices here are huge, right? we need to understand and we've made a board goal that really prioritizes hearing from students directly on on all aspects of the district's life.

• Daniel, please can I jump in with what Theo said. I just think on technology couple of other things to keep in mind with some of the discussion and things that you've seen in the media. in the classroom. I think it is important that our professionals number one be I maybe the word is not quite trusted but we we have the expectation that our professionals are focused on providing the appropriate and meaningful educational experience for our students. including the use of technology in an appropriate manner. to the extent there are certain actions that may not comport with that. That's really first going to be for our professionals to deal with teachers, our administrators, and of course with the input and communication to the district of what parents believe might be looked at and changed. And I think that's that is the the appropriate way to do that is to bring those concerns to the teacher or to the principal rather than to to use outside media to think that pressure is going to be put on the district. Beyond that, I think as Theo said that because technology is changing so rapidly, it is imperative that whatever policies, protocols, procedures that we establish as a board or as an administration have the flexibility to deal with those changes. is one of the things that I have this is kind of a precursor to what we'll be discussing probably the next couple of months from the policy perspective is in the area of artificial intelligence three years ago we had a presentation from high school principal about AI and it was downstairs in the community room those who are on the board recall that we got some examples of what this tool can do and we all said wow But that was like taking a tower as compared to a high school student in terms of what the capability was is and will be. So I just want to make sure that it is said for all of us that we understand that things change so rapidly that we cannot credibly have a hard and fast rule about something because it's going to be outdated. And so even when you look at policies that will be adopted by the board which will be presented the one thing and I'm as I say it's precursor to what we'll be discussing in coming months they have to be able to allow the the they have to allow the ability to recognize and utilize new forms of technology. One of the things that we have been told by the superintendent's message that was sent out yesterday and I know Helen will be talking about it is we're going to be re-evaluating and reducing spending on educational technology. Why? Because things change and you don't necessarily, just keep using the same thing. It becomes redundant. it becomes less effective. That's the kind of work that we do and it's hard work and it's hard work for our administrators and our teachers and our board to oversee. But I think it's important that we all know that that work as the superintendent said is being done and will continue to be done. And we as a board which has a responsibility for asking questions and for oversight, not for understanding the nitty-gritty, will I believe be vigilant in asking those questions and making sure that those concerns are met, including the concerns that may be expressed by members of the public who come to us or come to administration.

• Thank you, Neil. We'll try to also make sure that we try to understand the nitty-gritty when we can. when we can. Yeah, hang on one second. I just before you I'm just trying to like try to get everybody in order where I saw hands raised and just because Omar raised his digital hand if you don't mind if we put him and then turn right back to you and thank you for your patience responding to something Neil said but I gave him like the little eye on the tiny screen. I apologize. No, that's fine. Okay, Omar, over to you on the Thank you guys. Can you hear me? I just want to make sure you guys can hear me. Yes. Please speak as loudly as you can. Wait, hold on. Can you guys Can you hear me now? You're coming through the owl and it's not necessarily so loud. Can you hear Can you hear me better now or see if we can get you a little bit better? People who are listening on the recording may hear you better, but right now in the room we can't hear you so well. Okay. So, I'm gonna try this. hopefully you can guys can hear me and so what I kind of want to build on what Theo had said and also what Neil had had shared. I I really appreciate the messaging that went out from Steve to the community. I think it did a great job of talking about the the overall philosophy and the steps that are already underway. I think from from my perspective from a from a governance role I think we still need to talk about and discuss as a body governing body kind of getting a better understanding or or just better understanding of the decision framework that the district is going to be undertaking. I think you're right Neil that if parents have any concerns those should be addressed at the with their teacher and building level leadership. I think from from our perspective we should be looking at in in particular because technology is evolving so fast and the use cases are are changing. It would be helpful to have from the administration a decision framework that talks through the rationale around instruction technology and its use in the buildings and what the guard rails are around that that usage. and again looking at it from a governance perspective, I think there's a middle ground between where parents are kind of concerned with the day-to-day and Neil, your your perspective of how policy needs to be or needs to address technology use. I think there's a middle ground where again as a governing body we should be able to look at the guard rails that are the district is is undertaking and just have an open discussion about it and would love to have that as a work session actually for board leadership if you guys can if the board agrees that we can talk about that at some point.

• I think that's yeah I think that's great and I think part of what we're doing tonight is actually starting that conversation as as superintendent Walker said it was an ongoing conversation. I think we talk about it a lot in committee, but one of our goals with this conversation this evening is to actually be able to talk about it here so that folks can hear in committee from different individuals. And with that, I turn it over to my colleague Alison. Thank you. I guess I do want to know the deny because that helps me better understand what's happening even if so just want to say that. I I I definitely appreciate this is an ongoing process and the dedication that's been done to take that feedback and to start the reduction and rethinking of things. that being said just as this my personal opinion about things I would like to see as much reduction as possible of the use of of screens or iPads in the K through two particularly. and I think one of the things that I think is a a bit of a challenging point and I think it speaks to what Omar raised is like what is the the decision-m process and the guard rails in place is I think there's sometimes a little bit of a disconnect between h how some of the some of these educational apps and programs are being used because like some and it's part of this is a personal opinion and different expertise But like one of the critiques that has come up is that some of these educational technologies do mimic social media and social media use in our community is a is a real really big concern and particularly so I think a lot of parents it's not just about one thing is the screen time but parts part of that so that's there's a number of different issues but part of it as when we talk about active use and intentional use is that even though it can be really interesting pedagogy Y part of it that process is using some behaviors that kind of mimic some of the social media platforms. So I just want to put that out there that I think that's a point of contention in this topic in the spirit of trying to be constructive about this so that I yeah I think sometimes you just have to service where there's some disagreement about things or some different perspectives so we can help make it as productive as possible and engage as many students and teachers as possible. And the other thing I would just say is that like I I know in my workplace we work to a lot of things that are digital and part of this tonight as we're hear hearing the budget presentation. there has been more spending on digital technology etc which makes a lot of sense sense especially coming out of the pandemic. However, maybe our teachers need more supplies and tools to bring some more of these hands-on activities like more books in their classroom or things like that. I don't know. But I'm just putting that out there that I'd be interesting to hear like, I know our teachers are very dedicated to the students. They are very interested in in developing rich learning experiences, impactful learning experiences beyond the Tonight we're talking about digital technology tools, but what other tools might they need to help them as they reconsider their practices?

• Yeah, I think that all makes sense. The good news for us is that we'll be hearing from all of our building level administrators on what they're planning for the individual buildings over the course of the ne next few weeks. So that's going to be coming. Neil, I'm going to ask unless it's a specific comment to this just so we have a chance to get to the budget. just on this and I just wanted to say echo what Omar said. You can tell the fact that we're kind of without thinking ahead been talking about very deep things in each of our thoughts and our experiences that I would really like and probably sooner rather than later a work session that may be connected with the work of the technology committee which I assume has been talking about a lot of these things but it really we should we should have that opportunity soon to be able to speak among ourselves with our profession about that so we all understand that the community does you echo what what Omar said and I think what we've been talking about as well I just want to make sure Sarah that if you have anything that you want to add you're good okay I I wasn't I'm like losing track of this so so again just thinking ahead to the fact that we'll be hearing from our building administrators we definitely want to make sure we have time this evening to hear from Ellen and from Christine but just to close it up in terms of this conversation I think that the the summary here is that we there are different avenues through which we are hearing from the community but the message I hope is clear that we welcome that feedback and that commentary and the engagement because the work of educating our children is an effort that we all believe in from our teachers in our classrooms to our administrators to our board of education to our families. So, we're kind of all on this together. And I think I I hope that for the for the folks who are in the audience tonight and also for community listening at home and people listening afterwards that you hear that this is this is a this is a statement from us to say it's like we're here to talk about this and to continue to focus on making sure that student experiences and student outcomes and the student, overall sort of like educational experience and success is grounded in what we believe in across the board. so that I think allows us to sort of bring this portion of our conversation to a close. Thank you again, Superintendent Walker, for all the updates. We'll continue to watch these various spaces on these important issues. And with that, I believe we're supposed to now go to usually our student trustee exist report. our student trustee is unable to be here this evening. So, I'm going to segue us over to board reports and ask for us to keep them a little bit shorter than usual. we can maybe come back to it a little bit later because we do have our very important budget presentations that we want to get to. So, switching over to item 2.4, board reports, beginning with advocacy. If you have additional feedback to give us, so most of what we discussed in our meeting, we did we did have our meeting finally this week after being rescheduled, I think twice for so we met on the 4th. and what you will see in later on in tonight's agenda is a resolution that we will bring be bringing forth for the board's consideration that I want to thank Denise Harrington Cohen our assistant superintendent for business who helped draft this resolution in coordination with her colleagues in lower Hudson ASBO. So more on that then. And then the only other update in terms of reviewing all of the legislative discussion that we've had throughout this period prior to the one house budgets was we also aside from UPK we did do a good deal of advocating on the issues with foundation aid and the fact that the 1% minimum increase that the governor had recommended was really insufficient to meet rising costs. and I was happy to see that in both of the one house budgets they are proposing a 2% minimum increase. Again it's not not quite maybe where where we needed to be but certainly heading in the right direction. So I was happy to see that.

• Thank you. We are relying on you to keep us posted on these daily breaking down. Absolutely. Over to you Omar for audit if we could just have Omar back on the screen. Audit audit is meeting on April 9th. we'll be discussing the internal audit and we'll report that at that board meeting. Great. Thank you, Omar. board development. I have just a quick update to my fellow trustees and also to the administrative team. You will have received today an invitation to a learning walk from our high school leaders of tomorrow. This is a group of high school students that has been engaging over the course of this past school year with our students at C. And so they've invited us to come for one of their sessions in a couple weeks. The date is in the email that you received u from them to see what they're doing in action. what I'm particularly excited about is that this will be an opportunity for us all to sort of preview what they're doing and then we plan to invite them to come in and actually present to us at either work session or regular meeting. We we'll make a an opportunity for them. But they've been working very very hard and we're as part of our board goal that was mentioned earlier making sure that we are centering student voices and experiencing experiences and hearing from them. We're excited to have this to have this on the agenda. So, please look at your calendars and RSVP if you're able to attend. over to communications, Sarah again. Yes, absolutely. so, the communications committee u met on March 2nd. we discussed some of the UPK coverage following the press conference. we also discussed some of the ongoing work that we're doing with regard to updating the website the the VOE section of the website and also trying to improve our processes with regard to getting information to community in terms of ways we might be able to add information to our agendas. We had discussed perhaps adding on adding a link to to our latest board committee reports to the meeting agendas so that people can see those as we are going through this section of the meeting with board reports. and we'll also be working with the recent approval of the update to policy 12:30, we will be working on a revised preamble for hearing from the public that we will hopefully have for the full board soon for consideration. And then we're continuing to work on a survey, so the community should expect to see that relatively soon. a survey from the board on communications.

• Thank you. Over to Neil for policy. The committee met on the 27th of February. worked on a number of policies. I hope that some will be on the agenda today. They are not. We are meeting on March 20th and we certainly hope that we will have policies that are available for first reading at the April board meeting, business meeting. as I mentioned a moment ago, one of the things that we are working on is a policy on the subject of artificial intelligence. we had received the the starting point for that policy was information and thoughts from our high school students in a bioeththics class which then our director of technology and innovation formed it into what she called a draft of a draft which was then reviewed again with that student that class. I was there for that review. I know that then discussed this at the 27th meeting and and their thoughts were incorporated. I know it's been something that has been discussed or reviewed with faculty through superintendent conference day and otherwise and I'm hoping in April we will have a first draft for the board to consider. We'll see what happens in our discussion. One other thing which is kind of a little bit outside the realm of policy, but I'm going to put my PNW Boseies hat on for just a few seconds. On May 13th at 6:00, PNW Boseies will be holding a component board member orientation which is basically an opportunity for board members who want to meet OSC students probably not as I don't think they'll be around at night but students who are involved in career technical education faculty administrators see the facilities that will be available and of course I'll be there and I hope that that's a Wednesday night as many board members as possible and administrators can join us so that we will you get a sense of what goes on and what is provided for our students who follow that path.

• We'll be sure to add that to our calendar so that we don't miss that. Thank you Neil. just quickly turning over to anyone who has lesson on updates as went first as le and board. It's a good segway for us. Anyone have any lesson on updates for this week? I think I just have I have a couple. so first this is an overdue one from last time we met because I am serving as the leazison to SEPTA special education PTA. I neglected to mention this last week, but on behalf of SEPTA and and on behalf of the board and our community, I'm very excited that that at our last meeting the board actually appointed a parent member to the committee on special education Jody Wager who has been a member of the SEPTA leadership team for a number of years now. This is such a great thing for us because it allows, and Rachel's going to correct me if I get this wrong, but it allows parents in the community who would like to have an advocate or someone to partner with them when they have their when they have their CS cse, sorry, cse meeting. they have now a person that they can a person who has been trained, a person who is also experienced and gone through the process to be that sort of partner to them in that conversation. And I think for many of our families when you're embarking on that conversation, it can feel like a lot. And so it's wonderful that with the support of assistant superintendent Rachel Depal, who has encouraged us to make sure that we have a parent actually to fill that role, that has now happened and we're we're we are up and running to be able to do that. So thank you and thank you to Jody RER also for giving the time to volunteer to take the training and to take on this role for the community. really really on behalf of SEPTA and the board and the community. Thank you so much. two other like quick things I want to say is that as as our board's one of our board's naisonons to the village of Croen Hudson, I last night had the opportunity to attend at the village board of trustees meeting the unveiling of Cro a quilt created by Croin 100 and their colleagues celebrating just the the the fact that Croin has a commitment to sustainability in many of the pillars of the community including our municipality, our school district, our small businesses, and our families. And this quilt, I don't have a photograph of it yet to show here, but we'll we will try to figure out a place to make sure that everyone can see it. But the the the the quilt beautifully highlights the extensive solar arrays on all of our school buildings, which are making a significant impact in terms of this making this a greener community. The quilt also highlights the work of our transportation department and the district in general in bringing electric buses as well as believe it or not it also features our commitment to heat pumps. These are all illustrated on this quilt in quilt stuff right like embroidery fabric all the great things. So we'll have that to show. Also want to just thank our director of facilities Rad Kennedy who joined me at the village board of trustees meeting last night and had a chance to meet with some of the folks who had brought to life many of the projects that he and assistant superintendent Denise Harrington Cohen have been overseeing for our district. So thank you all for that and thank you also to anyone who's listening who worked on it. it was really really special and remarkable to see. So, I was I was u pleased to be able to represent the board in the district along with Brad to to see that unfailing. the last thing is just this is not a this is this is a this is a I want to take a moment to actually shout out to students because with our student exits not being here. I'm going to talk about very quickly an exhibition I had and many of us actually had the opportunity to attend last week. it was an exhibition called a women's view, a student art exhibition reception was done in collaboration between the Croton High School Women's Empowerment Club and Croton's Creative Women, which is an organization that's affiliated with the Crotin Council on Croin Council of the Arts. This was an exhibition that brought together artwork created by students both at Croin Hart High School and PBC Middle School. There was a performance element and the artists whose artwork is was on display actually delivered their artist statements about answering your question what does it mean to be M and it was a really very very well attended event. What was really special about it is actually for me that it I saw that it was like a multigenerational event. I told Rachel this when we were there together talking about it that we had our artists in the room and they had brought their moms, but there was also some grandma action. I'm saying it's like there were generations of women and families who were there to to celebrate these students. It was really a just such a testament to I think the way that our collaborations with our community can evolve into such amazing things for our students. I also want to thank very specifically Carrie Tracy, our art teachers at the high school and at the middle school who all collaborated and helped the students I think prepare their work for the presentation. The art exhibit is on display through the month of March. So, please if you haven't stopped into the black cow table, it's really really remarkable. it's really remarkable to see the work of student artists and I feel very grateful to be in a district that really celebrates the visual arts in this way and highlights them every year. so, thank you again for that. That's it's just very very meaningful. That is the end. I think if I if if nobody else has any of the annual reports, long overdue. Now, we will go back into our agenda and turn it over to budget report. so this is item 2.5, budget report, and I will turn it over to Superintendent Walker to introduce and lead us off.

• Thank you again, Anamica. as we I want to be brief so we can get to to Alan and and Christine. but just wanted to mention again as I I do every time we talk about the budget and in particular this this budget. I think we all recognize that this is a particularly challenging budgetary cycle for a number of different reasons, but one of the reasons why one of the many reasons why we're able to navigate through this as well as we are able to in addition to Janice's leadership and the outstanding leadership and stewardship of these budgets by the administrative team and the board over the course of years is the development of the vision map, a document that genuinely drives the decisions that we make. in a way that I think most other district strategic plans don't. and so I encourage the board and the community again through tonight's conversations and through the the future budget conversations to look for for evidence of that vision map in implementation. What you'll hear tonight is a similar theme to what you'll hear from our principles and other leaders as well, which is a focus on the good work that's been done this year. the impact that that's had on the student experience, how we're going to be able to add to the student experience next year, even in this budgetary environment without adding any people. We should we'll still be able to across the board add things to the student experience. And then some conversation about longer term trajectory and goals. And that's for the past few years now been part of our budgetary conversations. And it's always nice to see ideas come to fruition that were initially talked about in this room or in the community room two or three years ago now becoming part of the the lives of our students. So, with that, I'll be happy to turn it over, to Alan to lead us in our technology budget conversation. And Alan, thank you for being here.

• Thank you. Nope. Sorry. Hold them down. Technologist. I know. There you go. There we go. Oh gosh. Okay. so thank you so much for taking the time to let me share some of the remarkable work that we have done this past year and to frame the continued improvements and upgrades planned for the 2627 school year. To ground our future plans, we must first recognize the scope of what we currently support in technology. Our technology ecosystem is vast, ranging from the physical infrastructure and network security that keeps us safe to the instructional tools that spark creativity in the classroom. and just about anything else with a plug. Over the past year, our 2526 budget highlights prioritized four key priority areas as stated in last year's budget presentation. Professional development, instructional technology, equitable access, and infrastructure modernization. Our professional development this year has been shaped by increased access to professional learn learning services including but not limited to offerings of PNW Boseies and Lyric as well as opportunities for staff to engage on cross building days and superintendent conference days learning from experts in the field as well as their colleagues. These professional learning opportunities were focused on instructional practices that can lift the level of instruction class discover discussions and creativity. Over the 2526 school year, we also upgraded the infrastructure at CCT and significantly enhanced network connectivity in our transportation facility. We began our improvements at PBC by increasing Wi-Fi connectivity and modernizing our phone system districtwide. Most importantly, we've made a major investment in cyber security and data privacy, implementing stronger internet filtering, increased email security, and streamline systems to ensure data privacy and compliance. In the school buildings, we focused on common and large group space improvements. We upgraded AV systems in all three schools so that each building has spaces with working technology for the schools to assemble and come together. We also worked to improve and upgrade the classroom displays in all schools. We reflashed faculty devices and added display screens for lunch service areas to provide greater and more efficient access throughout the buildings. Operationally, we improved efficiency by aligning our network and administrative software and simplifying some of our systems, including the student absence reporting system, making daily logistics smoother for families and staff. This has been a very busy year, and we cannot wait for the upcoming school year. Looking ahead to the 2627 budget, our work builds upon our previous successes and shifts. We are continuing to move to active and intentional integration. Our goal is to foster critical and discerned users who understand the impact of the of their digital footprint. We are continuing to prioritize equitable access, ensuring technology is a bridge to learning and assist in removing barriers. Ultimately, we want technology to be a tool for innovation and creativity, not just consumption. Looking ahead to the 2627 budget, our goals focus on five key areas. Active technology integration, ensuring technology deepens the learning experience. Enh enhancing infrastructure, keeping our back-end systems robust, equitable access, ensuring students and faculty have the tools that they need. Professional learning focusing on good classroom practices and instructional strategies first and foremost and technology learning that focuses on active integration, cyber security and data privacy, increasing our diligence to keeping our network and our data safe. Our goal is that students in trustee are engaged in cognitively rich tasks that foster curiosity and engagement. Many of the times these tasks are offline centered on hands-on learning, play, passion, classroom discussions, and creativity. When technology is integrated into lessons, we want our students to not be passive consumers, but adaptable, ethical creators and communicators who actively shape their world. When we talk about screen time in schools, it's important to have a simple but critical understanding. Not all screen time is the same. In Croin Harmon, our focus is not only on the number of minutes students spend on devices, but the purpose of that time. There is a meaningful difference between passive consumption such as scrolling or watching it without interaction and active engage use where students are researching, designing, creating, collaborating, and solving problems. In our classrooms, technology is used as a tool for thinking. Students are not simply receiving information, but they are producing work, analyzing ideas, building models, and demonstrating understanding in multiple ways. It is our goal that when technology is integrated, it is done intentionally, tied directly to instructional goals, and used only when it deepens learning or makes possible an experience that could not otherwise be be done. Equally important is balance. We value face-to-face dialogue, hands-on exploration, reading physical text, building, creating, discussing. Preparing students for the future includes helping them build healthy habits and strong interpersonal skills alongside digital fluency. Ultimately, our vision is clear. In Croin Harmon, we are developing adaptable, discerning users who use technology with purpose, confidence, and responsibility. Over the past year, to support that understanding and clarify our district-wide vision for how technology is utilized in our classrooms, we have worked to draft and refine our vision. We did this through multiple rounds of feedback from various stakeholder groups, including the technology committee, our CTA members, and our administrator team. As such, our technology and innovation vision statement is to prepare all Croton-Harmon students to be adaptable ethical contributors who confidently utilize technology to assist in thinking critically, solving authentic problems and actively shape that actively shape their world. In Croin Harmon, we believe that learning is rooted in human connections and interactions that are grounded in human relationships and engagement. Technology should never be a substitute for meaningful instruction, but should enable and/or enhance authentic experiences that could not be created otherwise. Technology should be used to actively and intentionally deepen learning to expand what is possible in our classrooms. Technology is a powerful tool for rem removing barriers, enhancing learning, providing scaffolds, increasing student choice and voice, opening multiple pathways for demonstrating understanding, and ensuring that every student can thrive. To support this vision, the technology committee defined specific goals for our learners. Critical and discerned use. Teaching students to evaluate misinformation and understand the impact of their digital lives. Innovation and creativity. Empowering students to bring ideas to life in ways not possible through traditional methods. Purposeful integration. Ensuring technology is researchbased and tied to clear learning goals. And equitable access, ensuring technology removes barriers to learning rather than creating them. To align with these goals, we have been making strategic shifts in our technology program. At the start of the 2526 school year, we began the conversations around why we are sending home student devices. As a result of these conversations with teachers and school leaders who have evaluated our practices and made shifts that have ended the regular practice of sending home devices in our K5 classrooms. The shift ensures screen time is a teacher guided purposeful is teacher guided purposeful and tied to learning goals. This also allows for an increased focus on balance allowing more time for play, reading and socialization. That being said, this is not an absolute. When students have specific group projects or assignments, teachers can make the choice to send a device home. Additionally, if a student needs access to a device at home, we of course will fulfill that need. This shift will continue into the 2627 school year. We have also been making strategic shifts to rightsize our spending on edte software. At the onset of the 2526 school year, I halted all new edte software spending, encouraging teachers to utilize the tools that they currently had rather than investing in more. This first step allowed for the deeper examination of the tools that we had access to with teachers to that we had access to with teachers. We've been looking at what products were being used for what purpose and how this makes our learning environment better. As a result of this first initial review, we are cutting over 85,000 in edtech software, which is approximately one-third of that budget line. We will be retaining tools that foster high cognition, creativity, and collaboration. This reduction is both a streamlining of tools to eliminate redundancy as well as eliminating tools that were not deemed fundamental by staff or that did not align to the vision of active integration. Throughout the coming school year, we will continue to analyze both usage reports and the impact of these tools that we retain and to ensure alignment with our vision. To ensure that we are on the right path, we've been taking a look at where we are in the spending of edtech tools relative to the region. It's important to note that not all districts in our region are having this conversation of edte software and their spending. So not all districts were prepared to share this data to the of the ones that have been reported to us. We are amongst the second lowest in the region in per per pupil expenditures in edtech software. Looking at this per pupil expenditure is one way to think about the way we distribute our funding and resources for the 2526 school year. For the record, our spending was closer to the spending of district C, but as a result of not authorizing any new software tool purchases for 2526, combined with the collaboration with teachers and looking at our software purchases, we are now nearer to the top of this list. For 2627, our professional development learning, our professional learning focus remains the same. First and foremost, we aim to support teachers in improving their instructional practices, adding tools to their toolbox to enhance student engagement and deepen the level of learning. When it comes to technology focused professional learning, we know that technology is only as good as the instruction behind it. Our technology professional learning plan for next year focuses on this active engagement. We want technology to be planful, thoughtful, and additive to the student experience. Creating cognitively rich environments where students are creators, not just consumers. On the technical side, we're continuing our critical upgrades with a focus on improving infrastructure at PBC and completing the improvements at CCT. Through the - programming, we are funding switch and battery upgrades at PBC and improving cabling and access points at both CCT and PVC. We will also continue our cyber security upgrades throughout the district. In the realm of cyber sec cyber security, we'll be rolling out multiffactor authentication for all staff and board members to ensure the highest level of network security and data privacy and then look to roll out network access control solution the year after to provide greater filtering control and targeted protection throughout our network. As such, the proposed technology budget shows a minimal increase this coming year. As you can see, the increase is mostly in our equipment line due to our upcoming infrastructure improvement plan for the summer, which as described in the previous slides will update switches, battery, cabling, and access points at C and PVC. This will be done through our ebate program. So, the district is only paying for a portion of the full cost. Additionally, I want to call attention and explain the software line that you see in front of you. The number indicated for this upcoming school year is due to an increase in cost for such services including our Google for education suite from some core instructional tools such as Baby Casting, Infinite Campus and Renstar, but also our departmental and districtwide focus on cyber security and data privacy including MFA as well as programs such as the newly integrated email security program and enhanced network filtering and monitoring tools. We also added an improved inventory system to our technology portfolio that has greater report features, a student help desk, and an upgraded teacher help desk that will be rolled out in September. So, while you do see an increase in the overall software line, this increase is intentionally focused around keeping our network devices, students, and data safe. Finally, I'm almost done. on our road map for the future. The future includes continued work in 2026, which Neil spoke about working with the board of education to complete a policy focused on AI and education. We're also looking to begin work with our colleagues at CCT and drafting a digital skills progression K4 while continuing to streamline and improve classroom technology experience. Long-term, we're planning for PA systems upgrade PA system upgrades in each school. And in an effort to continue to make improvements in display technology in large group spaces, we plan for a new projection screen in the PVC gym stage area, sorry, projection and screen for the PVC gym stage area on the main floor, as well as sound system upgrades in both high school gyms. Throughout the next year, we will continue to improve our network security posture and streamline our network and administrative systems to ensure our technology budget remains sustainable and impactful. Thank you so much for your time tonight and I hope this presentation and plan reflects our commitment to quality security and most importantly active meaningful learning for every student.

• Thank you. I'll let you take a sip of water. choking other than the air here is very dry. We need to all like bring our personal humidifiers. I was thinking about doing that tonight and then I was like that's a little extra. so I just I just before I invite everyone else on the board to submit their questions, just want to say thank you for such a thorough and detailed presentation. And I want to also just extend my appreciation because I know that some of the some of the detail that you provided in the presentation to us this year comes out of questions that we have been asking in the policy committee and some of the questions that have come up I think in conversations that you've participated in with parents, families, and community members over the last several months as well as obviously detailed conversations that you've engaged in with our faculty and administrators because that is that is the work that you're doing every day as well as the work of as well as the work of the technology committee and other committees that you're serving on. So, thanks for that additional level of detail. I am going to now turn it over for questions and just because I know everyone has questions. We're going to start in my reg. We're going to go around the order. Theo, if you have anything, I would invite you to go first and then we'll go this way and we'll switch it for the next one. So, get ready when we do athletics. We'll go the other way. You can come back to me. I'll you take a second. All right. See, I tried to I tried to be also where it's Go ahead.

• Where's Omar on this? Oh, Omar has been letting me know. I'm sorry. I I can't actually see him all the time. So, Well, while we're getting I don't really have a question. I guess about what is presented. I think we I'm not a technile. So a lot of the things when we talk about the particularly the infrastructure upgrades are things that I won't really understand. I didn't either you and those things you worked but I would just ask administration Ellen and other administrators as we are going to embark on the discussions that we are going to have that Omar talked about and that I haded on to to have a work session. I think one of the things that would be very helpful for the board is to have some framework to understand how do we know that technology is being used effectively in curriculum and instruction? What what can we look at? we're not in the classroom but how do we you know how do we know and what you know what can be brought to our discussions or provided so that we can have an understanding and that may be as part of our own professional learning. There may be materials that can be shared maybe materials that were shared in a technology committee on how do you know when something is effective? How do you know that it's been appropriate? I, I like what was said about Theo talked about about, the things change when you know, when the device did not go home with his fifth grader. I also thought something and maybe it was what Allison said that I found very interesting is the fact that technology mimics social media even if it is appropriate in terms of pedagogy. So how do we when we vet those technologies and those apps and those things that we are acquiring or that we are using how do we know that it's not going to be pedagogically appropriate but it's going to kind of key into some bad habits that people may students may gain or get which is not to the advantage age of our students. So those are some things that I just think about which is not really related to the budget itself but I think things that we can talk about as we go as we go into this subject.

• Thanks Ellen. Is there do you want to is there anything you want to address specifically before I turn over to Omar? No, I appreciate your comments and feedback. You know, in thinking about and planning for the techn the work of the technology committee year two, which I'm hoping members here will continue to be on creating those evaluation rubrics is part of the plan for for for next year. So it's been the technology committee has been really helpful in creating our vision statement, the AI policy, our tech goals this year and I think next year is the year in which we dive deeper into our processes and operations. So that all makes sense. I I'll just just comment just on your point now before turning it over to Omar who also has a question. But in terms of in terms of in terms of like again educational technology like one of the challenges I think we all sort of recognize is that some of these materials are designed with gamification and that element of mimicking social media as part of their they are designed to appeal and there's an intention behind that. So I think one of the interesting questions for us as a district is to actually also be able to evaluate what we have that that veers I think too closely right towards gamification and that mimicry of social media which I think the consensus globally is not a great thing right it designed intentionally but not a great thing and so to be able to sort of look at that and then also to be able to look at what's out there because I think one of the realities that is easy to overlook is that when we're talking about in 2026 how curriculum is being developed and how materials for educational systems are being developed. Unfortunately, for better or for worse, a lot of the content developers and publishers are creating materials with the assumption that it's going to be used digitally. Now, here we're saying that's not our assumption, but unfortunately nationwide that is part of the assumption. So, one of the challenges I think that we face and I know that this is something that you're dealing with Ellen and I I think we're also going to hear from it in terms of our building budgets and then also when we talk further about curriculum is is so if there's for example, like a reading program and it has an online component and doesn't come anymore with 26 classroom books and those that's actually just like a reality. It's like it doesn't come with a book set anymore. how are we, you have to look at that and you have to be able to evaluate it and say, is that actually the right is that the right approach for us and it may or may not be. So, I think those are the questions that we're going to be talking about now in the coming years as we're really looking at what feels right and that's going to be guided of course by educators looking at what they need. That's who's informing our purchasing in terms of all of this is what needs to be used in the classroom. So if I could turn it over quickly, unless you have a response.

• Yeah, I'll respond to that which would be I read in some places that sometimes gamification helps keep students attention and focus because there's no reward. But that's also in so I think that's a huge debate topic, right? And I think that's something that we should understand because we, as part of this and I think the other point I feel the other point is we'll come back to you. Don't worry. Okay. I I just want to make sure we can highlight Omar on screen and please help us with the volume if needed. Greg, thank you. Omar, over to you. Thank you, Anonica. So, yeah, I wanted to build on the point Neil had made and actually, sorry, let me take a step back because there are a few things I wanted to to mention and I'm really glad that Ellen brought up that technology needs to be implemented in a way that is aligned or or based on curricular objectives because as part this was a discussion that we had during the technology committee that Ala and I are on where the implementation of technology for the sake of technology rarely moves achievement. It is only when technology is implemented with a specific goal or and curricular objective does it then move the needle on student learning and student outcomes. So I'm glad that to hear Ellen mention it. What I wanted to ask was, we've been talking in the district over the last several months how we have we may have invested too much in technology and distributed too many pieces of equipment into the classroom and now we're pulling that back. So, I'm curious, what mechanisms or measures will we have in place that will evaluate how technology is working in the classroom? and how does that relate to the practice that we're doing today or in the past to see where that difference is coming from? Was that clear?

• Yeah. Mhm. so it's it's interesting because effectiveness of technology there's at at least in my experience there's very little quantitative data that I can go around I could pull right I can pull screen time reports I could pull app usage and right and and some apps are in my mind are more like promote creativity like Canva right like it promotes creativity, student critical thinking, that kind of thing. So, I could look at that, but that's I don't know if it's correlated data, right? most of that data is going to come from like qualitative analysis of going into classrooms, spending time with teachers, seeing how teachers are implementing it. when we meet, when our curriculum coordinators meet with their teams talking about how they're planning curriculum, the data is going to come from those experiences. So, it's a little harder to quantify in in a numerical sense and a little bit more it's going to have to be like this qualitative review of the student experience. Well, I can suggest the numerical way qual quantitative way to do it. and this again this is a discussion I want to maybe it's a good idea to bring this up here at the in the setting the discussion we had early on technology committee was that technology is a tool just like pencil and a paper is a tool it is used to enhance learning if a technology is implemented in a classroom and it doesn't move the needle on student learning and student outcomes whatever measure you want to use a test score a project in the end of the year, like that is the measure we should be looking at to see if what we had implemented actually is worth the investment and the time that we took to implement it. Otherwise, like I I mean, I don't see any other way of say of measuring the impact or the effectiveness of any tool quote unquote used in the classroom. Yeah, I would add first I think and I want to applaud Ellen, I want to applaud the the entire faculty. I think what we'll see in the next couple years is every district having this conversation. I think we just happen to be at the front end and I think you're going to see every district's per pupil investment in edtech software going down. Again, I think we're just at the front end of it. I agree wholeheartedly. technology is a resource and a tool just like any other resource or tool that's brought into a classroom approach learning implement all of those things I think we view through a similar lens which is how are the students responding to it what does the achievement data tell us right I think this community saw and this board saw in November and December and January evidence broadly of the incredible effectiveness of the instructional program but anytime we're implementing a resource the questions are going to sound like what outcome are we trying to achieve with this? what is the investment in it? What is the the return on that investment relative to commitments of time and attention? and what is the evidence that it's worth that kind of investment? And that comes from again review of of data and then conversations with the faculty and observations in classroom. How how are these things behaving in our classrooms? But again I think and Alan's described this the process of beginning to winnow those resources is an important one like as we said earlier that's not done right it's going to be done with increased precision going forward u but it's it's great for I think hopefully for us as a as a leadership team and for you as a governance team to be able to see evidence of that really careful thoughtful study and action just yeah on that Yep. I I think this is a really productive conversation about this and this question of like how do you quantify this? I this might be a little bit out there, but one of the things that I was thinking about which is a little bit yes to like also quantitatively looking at like assessments and things of that nature. But I was also thinking about like I've struggled the same thing in my profession where I put a lot of things digitally and I think one of the critiques that a lot of people have about the increased use of digital tools and screen time and the gamification is reading stamina and the ability of students to focus. So, perhaps there's some way to like look at like give students a book. How long can they focus on it? Because I mean, it's funny, my own teaching, I used all everything's open, educational resources, digital, but when I go back to teaching this fall, I'm actually going to like make the students come to class and we're going to actually spend some time reading, like just reading during the class because it's like something a lot of us grew up with that if we just take for granted, but I do think this technology has been impacting it. Yeah, and I'd love to dive deeper into those conversations of ways to quantify this. Absolutely.

• I also do want to add to that to that extent and to highlight again the student panel from the high school that was held at Tigers and CD team and facilitated by Mr. Bahan. That was one of the questions that was posed to our high school students. How often in your recent school career have you read whole texts? And I was really intrigued by what their answers were. I encourage folks to watch it to a person. they were able to talk about a recent enjoyable experience they had in reading an entire text and I'm not sure that happens in every system either. So I want to again thank our faculty for the forward thinking on that. I'm going to chime in on this because this is also one of my favorite topics but it's like one of sorry like bear with me for one second just to say very briefly that one of the things that I think is like a signature experience for our students is that we do have it's like the book that you read this year the book that you read that year and that there is a culture that has come up in terms of like those signature reading experiences and how much they've changed over the course of just like the last few years to include like a broader breath of authors a broader sort of like breath of you broader breath. That's not a real expression. It's getting laid already, but like a greater range of authors, experiences, and types of storytelling. So, it's like we do have like these books that have now become within our Crohn community sort of like a signature. And of course, this week, as folks who have students at C know, right? It's like it's all about the reading. So, it's like, so, you know, when we're talking about stamina, I'm hearing that people are saying it's like, you need to go to bed, you need to stop reading. It's that's what's happening at CCT this week. I've heard intimately from a number of people who have said that they've had to go in and shut off the lights actually. So, so thank goodness that this is a community that values reading. But completely to your point, I think we've seen in the national literature that this question of reading stamina is a very very serious issue, especially when people get outside of the K- through2 system and get into the higher education system. That's I think where some of those some of those disparities are being revealed. And I'd like to hope that our students coming out of our school system are going to be well positioned to be there. But I think it's a really valuable question for us to be asking in the context of and I think this is also what's interesting about this question is is so when we're talking about it to be able to very make very clearly like make those connections between sort of like an old school way of learning which is reading an actual book and technology. It's all part of that same conversation about instruction and about you know what what's actually happening in the classroom. So it's really really valuable. Sarah, I'm going to start next in line and then we'll go back to Alison and then we'll come back to Theo and then we're gonna let Christine go.

• there you go. Thank you very much, Ellen, for for putting together such a a thorough presentation of the budget, but but also giving us that greater context of the the framework and the why behind behind some of these numbers. and I was really happy to see that you're you discussed that the breakdown of where we see that difference, why why that that that software line does look higher, but where that is coming from. And I think, I'm excited to continue to have these conversations. And I'm I'm excited that there's been such great work from the technology committee, and that, we will hope to see that through next year as well. and see you guys continue to work on this and have these conversations at the board table because I think it is incredibly important. I did want to see the only real question I have is in looking at some of the cyber security and data privacy increases and things are there outside of the the two items for next year and the following year. Are there things you see on the horizon or ways that we can do better in that area? I know it is is something that that is a lot on a lot of people's minds. and we always want to make sure that we're increasing and and looking at those practices and implementing sort of the highest standard for cyber security and data privacy. So are there things that you expect to see that that we should be thinking about from a long-term kind of planning perspective? Yeah, thank you for that question. it's interesting because I'm part of this cyber security CIO group that's through Lyric. and at our most recent conversation, I was sharing this with Steve I think this morning or yesterday. part of the challenges that many of us in school districts are having is that, the the folks creating these nefarious acts, right, like trying to get into our system, it's not actually humans anymore. It's AI, right? And so we're put in this interesting place where there's this like hesitancy for AI, right? Integrating AI into our system, but also this need to to to match the force at which we are being attacked. and so looking at all of the current data security systems that we have, which we started with our filter this year, our email security, and we just have to keep chipping away and thinking about does what what we currently have combat the forces that are coming at us for lack of a better way to say it, right? And so, it's about continuing to tweak and upgrade our system at a at a rate that is both, keeping up with what's happening out in the world, which is actually really scary, but also at a way that we're comfortable with as a community, right? Because there is this like AI and the mistrust there. and so so balancing that and the tension between that is so we want to be as diligent as we can. I'm constantly looking to to improve the our network security. I think these two plan shifts are going to make a huge impact. and thanks to the CTA for collaborating on how to roll out multiffactor with the the faculty. They've been such a partner in that. and then just continuing to be diligent with, any of the fishing campaigns that have been plaguing our region. but but yeah, so looking at the tools that are evolving in order to address the the new struggle when it comes to network security.

• Thank you. I would just add I think is the person whose account is probably most regularly targeted. Yes, you are. You you win every week. Every week. The sophistication of these things is stunning, particularly when you're getting two or 300 emails a day and needing to scroll through them. The the sophistication is remarkable. But again, I will credit Ellen, I will credit Edgitech. almost every week when we meet his essential administrative team, one of the the topics that Ellen brings to the table is data security, system security, how are we doing and how can we add to it. So thank you. Thank you. If I could add very quickly and this is really for professional development for costs. Right before the board meeting, we were sent, at least I was sent, I assume everybody was, an email from NISPA about a data privacy and cyber security webinar on Tuesday the I'm sorry, Thursday the 26th, which they say is going to provide us with tools to be able as a board to over, look at this very important issue. I'm not sure I'll be able to make it, but if others of us can, that would be that would be great for us to I think, it's it's some of our jam. It's our shared jam. So, we'll figure out between us. Sorry, Alison. Hi. So, with what I want to bring up, I'm I'm want to look to slide 11 on the continued shifts for software purchasing. Yeah. you know when you're talking about what you're looking at in terms of some some of your decision-m to reduce some of the technology and then link it to slide 13 a little bit where you're talking about targeted professional learning. in case you haven't realized, I'm a little obsessed with student data privacy.

• And I I so I would just say with this, if it's not if if this maybe this is something that could be added to the work session when we have one. but for myself, I'm very concerned that the teachers and staff not only have like the traditional cyber security and data protections like you were referring to, but also in terms of these teaching tools, because it's like for example, even a tool like Zoom, right? Like I know when I was teaching if you turn on the camera that can help with student engagement. Like recording helps like certain learners. There's transcription but then what if there's this minor in the background who doesn't like it's just like a total mess. And then you so then different tools have different settings different needs and you some teachers like are more inclined to explore and be savvy about these topics and others such as myself are were not as much. And so to me once I got professional training on understanding not only what are the larger scale implications might be engaging to my students but in some cases I teach students that are like some vulnerable populations I might be invertedly collecting biometric data about them that could be used against them especially in today's political world. So I think like having making sure that all all of us are equipped to understand like the tools that are being used like what are the pros and cons not only from like student engagement and learning but also like what what are we collecting about them and what can be because I know our teachers care but sometimes you don't understand fully like the full ramifications or the actual decision you're making. So I and sometimes people there there needs to be additional resources put towards that area. So to me that's something that I I feel very strongly about that I want to see and I think a number of community members are really concerned about this as well.

• We all are right student data privacy I mean it's it's the thing that keeps me up at night. and this the complexity that you mentioned about right there are times where like like a recording is really helpful for a student right but what is that compromise right and so like finding that balance of what's right for kids but what's safe for kids is it it's complex it's not cut and dry there's no black and white right I have been working not only with the lyric in like evaluating ating and analyzing our complete network edgitech and the lyric our network our data privacy I've been shifting a lot of our instructional tools over to to Boseies whether it's Lyric or PNW so that the companies that we sign on with are held to not only our data privacy standards here in in Croin but also the data privacy standards for the Boseies the New York State Boseies and So that's been an intentional shift. are there incidences where there are breaches? Yes, sure. There are things there haven't been any for any of our products thus far. but it is part of it's part of the world we live in unfortunately. But I agree with you the education of our staff is a huge piece of it. I have not made myself very popular by saying no to a lot of the free versions of of everything. I that's sometimes a hard conversation to have with teachers because when a teacher signs up or has a student sign up, they're giving their data and especially if it's a free version of anything, they're collecting that data and selling it. And so I sometimes have had to be that no voice in the room to say like we can't do this. I would rather pay for a product and get the ED2D paperwork signed and it affect my budget than for a student's data to be compromised. So I agree with you. It's complex. It's but really vital and I make strides. I try to make strides every day in improving our data security, our privacy posture and and making sure that our kids are safe.

• Thank you. I think the other thing like yes everything you're saying and thank you that's that's that's wonderful to hear. I think it's also like in the assignment design cuz I know like for example I'll just sorry to keep track of my workplace but like I know it was like really eye opening to me when somebody pointed out to me don't ask your students if you're using such and such software that to talk about like where they originally are from or something because it was kind of like we have a we have a large undocumented student population. So the concern was that if you have certain assignment prompts, it to me was like a nice community building thing. I inadvertently was collecting data that might be used to, you know. Yeah. So it's like it's like that the technical piece, but then it's also cuz I know you also do the pedagogical and the innovative teaching like and then also just some of the awareness of we with the technology companies and like the web behind them, and like Yeah. So anyway, there's like a lot of lobbying groups and things like that. So I think like the more everybody's equipped to understand the complexity of this ecosystem and we're putting resources behind it and being critical the better and it's ever changing. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Alison. Dave, can I loop back to you if there's anything you'd like to add? Yeah, I mean I I I think I and we don't have to go into depth because I know we we want to u transition, but in thinking about a couple of us have mentioned like what other districts are doing and maybe we're we're leading in some areas where not in other areas and so I would just be interested to learn more about what other districts are doing in both. I mean I love the concept of not being passive consumers of technology, right? And and so like what are the best practices that we're seeing in other districts? and then also just like what are the sort of counterparts that you look to for support? I don't know because it's it's a really complicated issue with a lot of different angles, right? And so, it feels important to sort of develop a kind of a network, a trusted network that can like support us in thinking through all of this. And I think I've really liked as a board when we've looked at other districts and various different elements to learn from what they're doing and also to have that exchange like hey we're doing this and sort of share information.

• so I think as at least personally I would like to learn more about where that's happening where that could happen more and what other districts are doing. So, Ellen, like just you mentioned a couple times, I'm sorry before you go, Neil, but just in part to answer one thing that Ellen started to talk about and then back over to you Ellen to finish answering. But we Ellen mentioned lyric a few times and your part of my job is to make sure we explain the acronyms. Sorry, because no, I always I always have to look them up because I also am so used to using them. So, I was like make sure I get it right. Lower Hudson Regional Information Center, which is a consortium that covers school districts in Westchester, Putin, and Rockland. and you can explain it better than I can, but I think it would be helpful just again for folks listening at home, right, to know what we're talking about when we're talking about lyric. Yeah. I apologize. No, no, it's okay. It's part of your job. So that's why, you used to be acronym. That's normal. Yeah. I I mean I happen to be very lucky to not only work amongst these amazing brains every day, but my professional network like I've I've been in the technology side of education for longer than I care to admit, almost 20 years now. so I've developed a really robust network. I'm part of the night group, which is tech directors from basically the entire lower Hudson region. I'm also part of the tech leaders cohort at PNW Boseies, the CIO cohort at Lyric and and a and a board member at the NISAWA which is the New York State association of women administrators, right? Is that right? and so I'm constantly reaching out to them. In fact, I set up a I facilitated setting up a some of our CT teachers to go visit a colleague in Portchester through this nice hour to check out their heard to check out math and movement. Right? So that's not technology focused but using this network to advance instructional practices. and so I I take good care of my professional network especially because some of the networks and I I am an educator. I'm a teacher. I always will be. and the network and infrastructure is not yet my native language. I am way more educated in it than I was 2 years ago. But but I keep these folks close in order to lean on them and their expertise.

• Did you want to add something else? Just the one thing that I wanted to mention before I slipped it out of my head and then Allison kind of re-triggered it is but the other thing that I know we need to do as a district as our students get to the high school level now and then are going to be going out either college or to the working world. They need to have all the tools that they need to be able to navigate this world, whether it's cy cyber security or otherwise when they won't necessarily have the same close relationship with the with other adults to be able to help them. Yeah. And I know from, from what Alison was talking about, this is something that apparently Allison, you say you really intentionally do in your work as a teacher. I don't know that everybody does that. And I don't know that every every young adult will or not so young adult will have that. And we really want to teach them, not just okay, safety here, but also how do to keep safety when you are out in that big bad world alone. And that's what I think is part of what we're talking about. To to add on to that, this year we have implemented a digital citizenship curriculum. I forgot to mention that. in our in PBC. So all of our students 5 through 8 at least one time a month. Sometimes it's more are engaging in a lesson based on what's my digital footprint, what's the impact of my online behavior, online relationships, what is AI, right? So, they're having these conversations in our middle school. My my and I know that also our teachers are explicitly having these conversations when just using tools, right? teaching kids how to appropriately comment, how to appropriately right. So these are these are part of the fabric of what our teachers are doing already in classrooms, but we are explicitly a 5 through 8 having those digital citizenship conversations. So this was year one of it. We're going to continue it next year and hopefully expand it into our elementary program. So that's really fantastic because I think for for some of us whose kids went through PBC earlier, I know we've talked about this before, but there was that course that was really just about sort of like meeting, right? But that was a one trimester elective, one year. And so what's really fantastic about this is now that we've spread it across 5 through 8 and integrated it, I think, throughout the school year and throughout different subject areas, too. It's it's there's a repeated message, but then there's also like that interesting way of like applying it to the different classes that you're in. and hearing it I think from different teachers over the course of your four years at PVC it is really fantastic. I also applaud you for thinking about how that can carry over to whatever is age appropriate CCT, especially thinking of how we're it's like we're developing, you know, what our interactions with certain types of technology are going to be at C, but we also don't want people making that transition from CCT to PVC not knowing anything about this, right? So it's like it does have to sort of start you know where you know where obviously you all determine it's developmentally and pedagogically appropriate but it's great to sort of hear and I know again at the high school this is definitely part of like the everyday conversation through all of their coursework which is what is the information that you're looking at how do you evaluate it and for me I will say just to bring this to to this part of our conversation to a close I think we've asked a lot of really great questions I know it feels like we've been talking about this for a long time but I think it's reflective also of the tremendous interest that this board has in this topic in particular because I think we recognize how important it is. So for on behalf of all of us thank you for answering these questions. Thank you Steve also for chiming in. You know it's like the the things that you're hearing from us today reflect our perspectives as parents as trustees as people who are also users of technology and as people who are talking to talking to students and teachers and families within the community. So, it's really the effort here is to sort of like surface all those questions and you did a really good job of being prepared to answer them. So, we appreciate that. Thank you so so much.

• is this feels like the right time to turn it over to Christine. finally, now you can check that back. All right. good nice job. All right. so, first we're going to jump right into the athletics budget for the 2026 2027 school year. the athletic admin salaries, the slight increase for admin salaries and support. There's the coaching and event coordinator salaries. you'll see your supervision salary cost. which you'll see an increase due to our names underneath the lights. the equipment lines, uniforms, cost of equipment, additional programs. and then you'll see the Bosei services and OCS which include lots of different things like the intercolastic office staffing for coordination of intercolastic athletic contests for school districts covers athletic officials, the fees for the referees and including mileage reimbursement section one base team fees for all sports. and then we have huddle in there family ID as well as the physical education and health education section one consortium that provides collaboration for PE and health teachers. the supplies line will include our CCT scoreboard that's coming gym curtain portable discus cage. I'll talk about all that a little bit more. and those are also include some of our things that we need like swim cloud which is for swim to record all of the statistics. Gipper which we use for athletics for different types of graphics. Rocket alumni and Matt Boss which is something that's used for wrestling. some budget highlights for 2526 school year. we have our Spencer Field complex with the expansion. we have more games under the lights. So we have our normal fall homecoming, but we've also been able to have senior games underneath the lights, Friday night football underneath the lights. we have a brand new beautiful concession stand that is open and our booster club is at games selling food and drinks and merchandise. the phenomenal turf that you see that has already proven to be amazing because we were outside on Monday where many schools could not be. we have our main gym has been completely upgraded with a brand new video board, brand new scoreboard, brand new shot clocks, and a digital scorers table. If you've been in there, it looks like a college facility at this point. we have a new mascot costume that we are unveiling at our games. we also have continued partnerships with our youth programs. and our oop, sorry, I went to add one. Sorry. there you go. And our auction gym in has also been revamped. We have new scoreboards in there. We have new shot clocks. And we've added a huddle camera in there to be able to record games as well. some highlights for for PE and health. Following the district's vision of what schools can be, our physical education and health programs are embracing innovative approaches that expand learning beyond traditional models across grades K through 12. Our teachers are thinking creatively, collaborating across departments, and providing students with meaningful experiences that promote lifelong wellness, movement, and real world skills. Rather than focusing solely on traditional sports and health curriculum, our programs are designed to expose students to a broad range of physical activities, wellness practices, and interdisciplinary learning opportunities that encourage engagement, creativity, and healthy lifestyles. So, some highlights from our PE and health department at the high school. we've offered hands-on CPR training for high school students in PE to equip the students with essential life-saving skills and real world emergency preparedness. yoga, taichi, bosu ball workouts, and strength training at the high school. this year we offered a health and wellness fair that was in its first year where we invited professionals back in the career field of health and wellness to talk to our high school students about the importance of that and share if they have interest in maybe moving into this field. It was our first year doing this, so we plan to expand on it. the Harry Chapen 5K training and participation encouraging goal setting and endurance and community engagement through distance distance running. So this was done in collaboration with CCT and PVC. So middle school students went down to the track with the CCT students and helped them train and be prepared for the Harry Chapen walking trails, hikes and falling units. this was with CCT and CHHS. So, Miss Tracy, her health classes went down with Miss Leslie's classes. they promoted outdoor fitness while helping students connect with nature and seasonal changes. and the high school students prepared a scavenger hunt for the elementary school students while they were hiking and and on the trail. We also have a winter snow unit being done at CCT, which incorporates seasonal outdoor activities that keep students acting active during winter months. in the pictures up there, they were building snow tunnels and sled riding and just outside, in the snow. there is also Olympics and gymnastics units being done at CCT, introducing students to global sporting traditions while building strength, flexibility, and coordination, which tied in really nicely to the Winter Olympics that were happening. Cosmic bowling and rollerblading experiences are happening down at CCT, which are exposing students to recreational lifetime activities they can enjoy beyond school. drumming for fitness is also happening. a high energy program combining rhythm, music, and physical activity to promote cardiovascular fitness and engagement. There's a golf elective taking place at PBC providing students with exposure to a lifetime sport that builds patience, focus, and skill development. And there's cross department collaboration between the PE, health, art, music departments, and this is happening all throughout CCT, PVC, CHS. so it's nice to be able to see that work being done. we also have Suzanne Leslie who is honored as the New York State Aphford Southeastern Zone 2025 amazing person. So that is a highlight.

• just a few more things to touch on what our health department is doing. Our sixth grade is practicing self-management skills through mindful movement. Seventh grade is analyzing influence to make healthy decisions. Eighth grade is advocating for behavior change to prevent disease and a few things for health at CHHS. they are collaborating across buildings for student learning experiences like that hiking that we talked about with Miss Leslie's class down at C. Miss Tracy is also organizing many Tiger Tuesday sessions for health and past students. one example is workshop with my sister's place where CHA students who attended their summer leadership institute helped organize and lead this. and they are continuing the tradition of organizing wellness day with Zoha for the entire high school. Looking ahead, we're excited to be rolling out physical education electives starting next year. So 9th grade students, everybody will be taking general physical education. Then when they get into 10th, 11th, and 12th grade, they will be able to choose two electives per school year. we're starting with these electives that you see on the right. So we have personal health, wellness, and weight training, bad mitten, pickle ball, and golf. ball one yoga, flag football and soccer, as well as CPR and first aid where students will actually be getting their certification to have been first aid and CPR that they can use to get a lifeguarding job or if they want to become a coach or something like that. That's incredible. We're excited. Great. these are just some pictures of some of those highlights that we were talking about and actually going to play a little clip of the fitness drumming that's been happening down at. Don't be alarmed if it's very loud because alarm was turned out. So just warn get ready.

• Yeah. moving on to some 25 26 athletic highlights. We have quite a few that I am happy to share out. First of all, boys soccer, we'll start with the fall. We're league champions this year. We had several all section winners. as well as an all league honorable mention. Coach Abdul, who's coach of the year for our soccer program. and our soccer team made it into the playoffs and they went into they made it two games into the playoffs. girls soccer had a playoff appearance. They also had league player of the year with Gwen Mcmanis and they had all section as well as all league players and a player of the year cross country which our track program continues to grow each season. They had 29 personal bests, five course bests and three season bests set throughout the fall season. They had 22 medalists throughout the season. and there was several personal records that were set throughout the fall season. Girls swim. we have all league and all section with Vivian Chen who also headed up to states to represent Krogan Harmon. She finished 17th while she was there. she also won the section one sportsmanship award which is given to only only one swimmer in the entire section. boys volleyball was 18 and three this year. they had several all section as well as all league. they also were co-league champions. They seated number one in the playoffs and it was the first trip in program history to the Westchester County Center for sectional finals as well as the first trip in program history to the state championship that we to for varsity football. They finished 4 and three. and that schedule there was a switch when we switched to JV. for girls tennis they were 10 and five. There were several all leagues and honorable mentions. One of the biggest program highlights was that they had several players that made it into the sectional tournament and participated. So that program also continues to grow. some of our winter highlights our varsity boys basketball team. We have all league player Vinnie Flynn. varsity girls basketball finished sixth in the league and made a playoff appearance. And we have several all league as well as an all league honor role mentioned. Our varsity wrestling team finished third in the league, made it to the section one championship at Westchester County Center and they had 10 male wrestlers and one female wrestler placed which is the largest number in years of the program. we have varsity ski alternate for the section one state team. Varsity boys swim. We have several all section as well as two swimmers who went up to states and represented us Dylan and Carter. the team finished fifth fifth place overall at the league championship meet and Carter and Dylan represented Cro and Harmon two weekends ago. Dylan finished 30th in the 100 pack and 34th in the hundreds fly and Carter finished 27th in the 500 free. For varsity indoor track, there was again several personal records that were beat and podium appearances. one of the most exciting things that happened in the winter season is Ezra Green broke the school record for the 300 meter.

• we also had our first ever homecoming dance which was very popular. and I think that's something that we'll be be continuing. our winter tiger showcase happened as well as our fall tiger showcase. Our spring showcase was canceled due to a snow day, but we're working on rescheduling that as well. looking at the 26 27 athletics goals, the first one is to strengthen partnerships with you with local youth sports organizations. we started to do that a little bit more this winter. So we plan to further develop the athletic pipeline and strengthen community engagement. So far we've been able to work with Croin ASO, Croin FC, Croin Youth Lacrosse, Croin Little League, CIO, and Croin Run. we would like to launch a workshop series for parents, students and coaches that will be led by our athletic trainer focused on leadership, sportsmanship, mental health and athlete development as well as injury prevention. we are going to continue facility improvements including planning for a future renovation and expansion of the weight room to better support student athletes and physical education programs. This is a large project that will happen over time. also establish an inter mural sports club to provide additional opportunities for students to participate in recreational athletics and stay active be on inter intercolastic teams. And this also will be a way of trying to get more kids playing sports like our younger kids as they come up to become seventh and eighth graders. They'll be getting involved in modified sports and continuing through high school.

• for physical education. Looking at the 262 27 goals, we're going to introduce the physical education electives that I talked about at Cro and Harman High School while aligning programming at PBC Middle School to better prepare and expose students to the future elective opportunities. As you saw in the beginning, PBC is doing a golf elective and that's going to be an elective here at the high school. So, we're going to align those so that the kids down at PBC get a little bit of a taste of what they can look forward to at the high school. provide targeted professional de development for physical education staff to support innovative instruction, curriculum development, and best practices in student wellness and movement education. And one of the last goals is to implement a bike education program at C elementary school promoting safety, physical activity, and lifelong recreation skills. for health and wellness goals for the next school year, we are going to grow and enhance the wellness career fair, providing students with exposure to careers in health, fitness, sports medicine, and wellness related fields. We're also going to expand wellness opportunities for staff, including programs such as stretching sessions, yoga, meditation, and wellness services to support overall health and work life balance. Looking ahead at some of the athletics facilities upgrades. We're looking to get a gym curtain here at the high school that would divide the gym in half to allow more than one PE class, but also help with some athletics practices after because we could divide the gym in half multiple uses. We're also wanting to get a new scoreboard at CCT upper field. we're going to get a portable discus cage on CCT that will help with being able to have throwing events at larger events like our girls relay that's coming up in April. and we're going to have new and updated gym banners which will represent all of the sports and the years of the league championships or the things that they've achieved will also be updated. and we're going to have light pole banners and windscreen branding that will continue down at the Spencer complex. That's everything.

• It's actually a lot I feel like. So, so I'm going to just interject with a couple things just because I have a question and then I'll open it up for everybody else as well to go ahead. But I think first of all just very exciting just to see the highlighting of the games under the lights. I think everyone would agree that like the the enhancement of our athletic facilities by with that opportunity what has been so remarkable and I know everyone's been going games and I will say it's like have we all been going to games before they were lights? I'm not so sure that I was going to fight as many but I'm going to more now and I think the other thing that we're seeing is that that folks in the community are also showing up because it's actually become like much more of like a thing you can do to be able to go. So, we're seeing we're seeing I know just from having talked to people who are involved in community athletics that this idea of like bringing your team to come down to watch the high school game, for example, that's that's huge. And I think that connects really well to your pipeline initiatives that you've had so far, whether it's through the through the the sports showcases and like just the other sort of outreach work you've been doing. But it's like to have that central place that is sort of like the central place where it's all happening feels very very exciting. So, it's great to hear about all of that. For me, the other thing that I I wanted to say I'm very particularly excited about is the electives at the high school. So, I have a student at the high school and I I have mentioned many times that like I think these are all incredible. It's like these are incredible opportunities and also what I love about them is it's like it's stuff that you kind of not that you didn't want to do all the other things that were happening in PE. I'm sure that everybody did, but some of these things are are pretty extraordinary, like to be able to get your certification or do yoga or, again, one of the things that I I'm always excited about when we talk about physical education is learning how to sort of be healthy and like take it outside of the classroom, which I know has also been a focus for you. but like developing those life skills to sort of be like a healthy person and then also these opportunities to get kids outside doing all these concrete tactile things that relate to the fact that we live in a place where you can do all this stuff is pretty is pretty remarkable. So, I'm sorry for going first and I know we go the other way. So, over to you with any questions you have for Christine.

• Sure. It was it was really great to see the diversity of the types of activities and exciting new facilities. I guess one of the the the questions I had is the strengthen the partnership with local youth sports and organizations. because I know particularly over co that shifted the dynamics of can you speak to example like what that's looking like because I think a lot of people are concerned about the pipeline. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. so we have in athletics I have spoken to a lot of the the local partnerships. we have an athletic advisory council which a lot of the members of these boards sit on and they'll what we're what we're talking about is how do we get more kids playing sports as well as being mindful of how many commitments kids have and not overusing overusing them. And some things that we did immediately was just inviting CIO back to play at halftime of basketball game. we're already talking with Croin Youth Lacrosse to do the same thing. If you were here in the fall, we brought out Croin FC as well as Croin Viso, how they do FIFA and the World Cup, handinhand high school kids with the younger players, letting them see what it's like to be on Spencer under the lights, like trying to get them excited about you're a future Tiger. so those are some of the immediate things that we're doing. we're also doing a lot more youth clinics. So, our coaches for each sport are rolling out clinics to get the youth playing and we've been partnering with the local youth organizations. so our coaches and our players are going to start going down and working with the Croin Youth Lacrosse. We're playing right now for spring. So, our varsity boys and girls teams are going to go down to one of their practices and they're going to work with the kids and actually run a clinic there. and it gives them that ability to again see what it's like to be an athlete at an older level, get excited, go down in their uniform and just spend some time with the kids. So, those are the things that we're we're working towards.

• Thank you. Yeah, no problem. actually, just to to piggyback on that because I know we've been doing some of these clinics and and I've been hearing great things about that. have we seen that enrollment in those clinics and interest in some of those clinics has been increasing? and then I guess separate but but also more on the numbers is in terms of our overall number of student athletes. How how have we seen those those numbers trending over time? Are we are we sort of maintaining where we are? Are we increasing in certain areas decreasing? Yeah, I think the clinics are definitely helping. we haven't been able to form a modified girls lacrosse team in a while. we fielded one last year and this year we have 20 girls that are joined signed up so far for modified youth across modified sorry girls across there's other modified programs like we brought back softball last year hasn't been there for a while so I think the clinics are helping I do to answer your second question about numbers we're watching numbers it fluctuates so this year for example this spring we don't have enough for a modified team but we have a GV team which is something for softball which we haven't been able to have. And a lot of the middle school kids are testing up to play JV. So it's not that those kids aren't there and aren't interested. They're just interested playing at a higher level. which is good, right? And that's because the youth program for Croin Little League is so strong, right? So you're seeing kids come out at a higher level. So, I do think that the work that we're doing, just opening the doors, having the conversations, having the leagues come in or the organizations come in and partner with us and work with the kids to do clinics or to be present at halftime and play or be at games. I think it is working. and the Tiger Showcase, I think, is another piece that is also bringing a lot of spotlight to what we offer in athletics as well as what Croin offers because we have the youth organizations table there. So, we invited kindergarten. You know, at first we started with the older kids, but we realized we want to tap in as young as kindergarten, get them playing sports early, continue to strengthen the pipeline, continue to work together. and being in a small community, I have the ability to see these people so often and work so closely, which is really actually a benefit.

• Sounds great. Thank you. Thank you, Christine. an observation, and this may lead into a couple of questions. One of the things you talked about is the connection with our youth sports organizations. to mention many years ago we had a study done about you know what we provided and the idea of a pipeline and a pipeline not only from local organizations but pipeline from modified JB to Farsity is a very important component of a successful overall athletic program. one of the things that concerns me at least from over the years is when a student athlete gets to maybe 8th grade, ninth grade, there's a tug and a pull between representing your school and going to a club team where the competition may be considered to be a little a little more robust and may it is believed give greater opportunities for recognition if you're looking at the collegiate level. What I'm wondering about, that's an observation, is as we go on finding that student athletes when they get to nth grade or 10th grade will say, you know what, I'm going to stick with being on my high school team. And I'm not going to do both because I do both, I get worn out and it's not good for health. But that's what I want to be. and I'm hoping that that that is a direction that we're able to build over the years. question on the two electives in 10th, 11th and 12th grade. Are those going to how how are those going to be a semester elective such that if you decide you're going to do CPR or whatever you mention in front of you or you're going to do any one of those others you're going to do that for a semester you're going to do it for two weeks and then go back to what would be offered how's that going to work?

• It will be a semester. So, there'll be two semesters. So, basically 10th, 11th, and 12th grade, we're going to be moving away for from what we have been offering field sports or, a unit on on bad mitten or and a unit on whatever. Yeah. Okay. So, that's that's the plan. Y. So I guess since our students are also consumers, have you had feedback from students as to what they think about something that's so radically different than they have been used to? It's a good question and I should have probably mentioned that before we picked these electives, we sent out a stupid survey. So these electives that are here are the top from the students. so they were given a survey with electives and description of and they voted on them. So this is the top and that's okay. So so the expectation is that each one of our students in 10th, 11th and 12th grade are going to find something that they may want to do for a semester. And I just anecdotally when I was in college and I had to take physical education they did something like that. Okay. And they had a lot of different offerings and they had I got with squash and wrestling and I was by far the lightest person. I don't know. It was funny because you would go there and you would, you'd be wrestling against somebody who's in my case 15 pounds heavier and I would always get pain in 2 minutes and my penalty was I had to lapse around the track around the gym which fortunately we were able to get the wrestling teacher who was also like a coach assistant coach on football team to sit around and talk about football and other necessary wrestling. But I'm just I'm only concerned I've been thinking about that.

• Do you have trauma? Yes. I I for a lot of things that's one of us but I'm just wondering about whether the curriculum offering in each of those subject are periods is going to be enough to sustain interest and commitment for students for an entire whether that be 16week period or whatever and I I don't I'm wondering how that's going to work but we'll try again and we see how they work. One other question though you mentioned about teams and rosters and I know we you mentioned in particular football JV schedule went four and three. We do recall what happened in the fall about having to readjust. What is your sense about next year and whether where we may be in, an independent league or something else and and maybe for a interest and physical abilities of the students, athletes is going to be a large part of it, but I'm just wondering what you're thinking about that and also more generally about combined teams and what you see might be on the in the offering for next year. Sure. our football schedule is set already, so we're back in on a section one schedule. So, we're going to come off the independent schedule and rejoin section one. there was some grouping changes and it seems like it will be more favorable of a matchup and more competitive for our students to be back on the section one schedule and come out of the independent league. So, they will be playing a varsity section one schedule. as far as some of our merge teams and what we're looking at, we are going to continue the merger with Brier Cliff for boys volleyball as well as our girls swim merger with Hen Hud. we are going to be entering into a first year merger with Hen Hud for field hockey, which is on the varsity level. one of our fall sports that we have traditionally struggled with numbers. as far as the merge sports, we also, have a merger with Brier Cliff that we're entering into now for boys lacrosse. We have an open merger. We haven't had students join, but we do still have the ice hockey and gymnastics for students who are interested and those are mergers. I think with collaborating with neighboring school districts through the merge athletic teams has been a positive impact on our program and our student athletes. As a smaller district, these partnerships allow us to expand athletic opportunities to our students while maintaining sust sustainable program numbers. in many cases, merge teams enable us to offer sports that we would not be able to field independently due to the low participation numbers. So, by partnering with the nearby schools, we ensure that students still have access to those athletic experiences rather than losing the opportunity entirely. so this approach helps maintain a broad and inclusive athletic program despite some enrollment limitations. You know, while the primary goal of merging teams is to pres preserve opportunities for student participation, there can also be some modest budget efficiencies depending on the structure of the agreement, shared costs for coaching, stipens, transportations, officials can reduce overall expenses compared to operating a program as a standalone. However, I think the most significant value is the program sustainability and expanded opportunities for our student athletes that, we wouldn't be able to offer otherwise. So overall, I think the partnerships are allowing us to remain competitive, offer a wide variety of sports, and ensure that students continue to benefit from the academic, social, and physical advantage of these intercolastic programs. Thank you.

• You've been able to build some partnerships like with Brier Cliff, with volleyball and and lacrosse to expand from varsity to JB as well, right? Yeah. So, this is the first time that our boys program will be able to have a JV level. That's fantastic. Yeah. So, it's expanding the levels and the the partnerships have worked well like our boys volleyball team went to states so our girls swim team is successful every year. So, I think it's giving the the athletes a really great experience. I think it's also great just that sort of the creative approach to ensuring that our students have opportunities by with through these partnerships and we're partnering with some larger districts but we're also partnering with some smaller so it's helping those districts as well. But I think it's just great to hear that, you know, that this is part of like our thinking districtwide is how to ensure that there's different ways that we keep these programs going. because we are a small district. So it's like this is going to be an ongoing challenge. So kudos to you for that. You anything you want to add? sort of random, but I I thought of it when the slide said health and wellness, and I don't know, as a parent, I feel like I just always want my kids to eat better and and like, and there's so much bad food out there. And and so I'm wondering like I feel like this connects also to the interdisciplinary stuff that we've been talking about, any collaborations between athletics, nutrition, health, right? And even just like what's in our cafeteria like all of that stuff like whether there's has been any thinking around like how do you sort of integrate that sort of like wellness nutrition importance of nutrition not only for athletics but really in the lives of our students overall and whether there's any thinking there and sort of like innovating on that. just cuz I know just in hearing from parents it's it's a common sort of wish that we all had right that there are these struggles of bad stuff out there and we know the importance of not only on personal health but just on many elements of our lives right so I'm wondering if there's like any opportunity there.

• Yeah. down at C there's not a health program. So our fizz teachers are integrating nutrition units into PE and really talking about it. health at PBC as well as CHHS, there is tons of nutrition built into that curriculum. as far as like wellness offerings, we are working on doing a little bit more on the wellness and that's where the wellness career fair came in. for nutrition, I've been speaking with, Miss Kelly down at PBC about the potential of offering like a healthy snack cart after school for our athletes and kids that are in after school program so that they're a lot of them are going out in between practice and grabbing quick things that are not the best. So, we talked about can we put something after school that's healthy where kids don't have to go out and then they're grabbing something that is good quality. So, that's something that we're working on as well. probably the best stuff wasn't so delicious. I know

• still doing the dry air in here. I don't think has I think he has not intended any question much. I believe that he is good. So I think we can say with the group, thank you so much for such a nice presentation in the highlighting just before and and you know what this speaks to a little bit is like we talked about our athletic sort of overview in the context of the budget presentation, but I kind of dug that like hearing about like what happened with each season. So let's think about that for the future because that was really fun to hear all at once. thank you both Ellie and Christine and time for staying so late tonight for tolerating a tremendous number of questions which I hope for you tells you that we are very very interested in everything that you're doing and I think our curiosity comes out through these questions and you did a great job of helping us understand the importance of both these sort of crucial areas in our students experiences within the district. So, we really appreciate it. Anything else to add otherwise I think we'll just say thank you very much. See you all tomorrow. All right. Unfortunately, you guys have to stay a little bit longer, but we're getting there. So, we'll move on. Thank you again. We'll let Ellen and Christine situate yourselves, but we'll move on to continuing with new business. Now moving into item 3.1 on our agenda to click on. Okay, ready to go. Recommended action. Okay, recommended action 3.1. It resolved that the board of education hereby approves the establishment of the Laura Martinez Black scholarship at the Croton Herman High School for a member of the graduating class who has committed to attend college and will be a first or second generation college student who has shown leadership and academic achievement.

• So moved. Second on question. Okay, just as a reminder this is a new scholarship. I think we explained sort of what the what the background is there. and it's just very specifically for a member of the senior class as we said who's going to be attending college will be a first year or second generation college student. nothing else on paper. Okay. Opposed abstain. Yes I said it. Thank you. Sorry, it's a little hard for us to hear. So, the motion carries. Thank you so much. we're going to talk a little bit I think further do we we do have like further a little bit of discussion of funding in that but wonderful to have established that scholarship and establish item 3.2 to establishment of another new scholarship, the Croin River Artisans Gallery Scholarship be resolved. That the board of education hereby approves the establishment of the Croin River Artisans Gallery Scholarship at the Croman High School for a member of the graduating class who is pursuing art or plans to pursue art as a college major or was an AP art student at Croen Harmon High School. So move second. question. I think the only thing that may be interest because there may be some in the community who don't know who the C what the C River Artisans Gallery is. It's a local nonprofit organization. Yep. I'd be happy to share this part of what what we're going to talk. So C River Artisans is a gallery co-owned by six multi media artists all living in Cro Hudson. All the members have children that have attended the Croman School District. They're a missionoriented group supporting the arts in our community and they as as their intention in terms of their donor to attend states. The recipient would be a graduating senior who plans to pursue art as a college major and or was an AP art student at Croen Harland High School. So our local gallery but also a collective of our local artists and a collective of local local parents who are art supporters. Oh, so would you like to add any further? Mr.

• The only thing I want to add, but this might be a polling thing, but I also think it's appropriate. Yes. Last Saturday. Last Saturday, I went to the Croman Free Library for an exhibition, Women's History Month, showing the works, maybe paintings, some photographs of local Croen artists, some of whom are members of this collective, some are not. But I just think this scholarship, this organization speaks to the wonderful artist community that we have that I'm so glad that this organization is going to honor students who may follow in these folks footsteps and also hopefully we can make more connections between our art teachers and our art students with all of the with all of the resources in art in the community and we talked about connections with sports in local sports teams and groups. If there's nothing further, all in favor I abstain. The motion carries and want to thank the the Clinton River Artis and Gallery for their support of our student artists, visual artists and otherwise through the establishment of the scholarship. Thank you very much. Item 3.3 new business under new business a resolution. so be it resolved that the board of education hereby approves the resolution for advocacy for universal health insurance reserved fund authorization as presented. So moved. Second on question. You could share a little bit about this for us, please. Yeah, I was actually going to say I was going to turn it over to our assistant superintendent for business, Denise Sarington. and if she wanted to just give us a little bit of background on this and and why it is such an important advocacy topic for us. Sure. So, this is am I on? Yes. Okay. this would enable school districts to establish a health insurance reserve fund to cover the rising costs of health insurance, district paid health insurance. Currently, self-insured districts in the region have the ability to establish this fund. many districts are like ourselves, we're part of a consortium which is essentially selfmanaged. it's a consortium but it's very similar to like a self-insured but we don't have we don't have access to that. health care is over 10% of our budget and it is ever increasing due to changes in our health care system. GLP1 mental illness and a number of things that the cost of health insurance is increasing. so this would enable us to establish a fund. it would be no cost to Albany. So this would be just it it would be a free option and would provide leverage for our district to offset costs that we know are inevitable. So right now I have spoken with Asbo New York and our region right now we have about 10 districts in our area that I know about that have reached out. They said we love it. It's going to our board. It's either gone to their board already for approval or they will be approving it within the coming weeks. So, that's about it. And I will just add anecdotally in speaking with some of our colleagues throughout the region I know that a district speaking with a different district that is self-insured they have stated how how important being able to have a reserve like this has been and how it's been able to really provide them some stability and long-term planning and it is a reserve that they regularly access every year. so this really allows for better planning. which is something that I know we are all concerned with. and want to make sure and has been part of our ongoing advocacy in just flexibility in reserves funds in general. and noting that, as I said earlier, both one house budgets h have come through. but because this doesn't have a budgetary line item attached to it, I think continuing our advocacy and continuing to discuss this with our legislators, it is, we can make some movement there because it doesn't necessarily need to be tied to the budget.

• Well, thank you for that very clear explanation. Thank you for the work, your work, and to all the advocates for putting it together and Denise for also bringing this to our attention and ensuring that we prioritize this. So, I have to cough. I'm so sorry. I have to get away from the microphone. So, if there are no further questions, I'm like having a moment here. Sorry. Breathe. I don't even know what's really happening. thank you all in favor. Like, I I lost it completely. I was like, opposed. Same. Okay, the motion carries. Thank you. Sorry, I needed a little help with that. I said I said I was not going to be like all the way through this without a little bit of support from my friends. Okay, so moving into item 4 section 4, item 4.1, donations. We have a number of donations and we are going to take some time to go through them because this is an important way that our community supports the school district. So item 4.1, donation. be it resolved that the board of education gratefully accepts a donation in the amount of $300 from Kathleen Gerard as a contribution to the Michael J. Gerardi baseball award at Crotin Harman High School. This award is to be awarded to a graduating senior on the baseball team who demonstrates good sportsmanship and character, outstanding effort, and is a team player. So moved. Second on the question. All in favor? I I abain motion carries. Thank you so much to Kathy Jar and for your support of our seniors through the scholarship. We appreciate that. Item 4.2 donation. Be it resolved that the board of education hereby gratefully accepts the donation in the amount of $100 by Susan Aguad for the Steven Auad scholarship fund at Croin Harmon High School.

• We can move it and then I'll explain it better. I move it second. Thank you. So this this scholarship is to be awarded to a graduating SE student who like Steve has provided exceptional support as either a manager, film staffs, etc. to athletics teams and their success both on and off the field. This student also exemplifies Steve Iggy Aguad's qualities by improving school spirit within the CHS CHHS community. the student whether they actually competed on the field or not has demonstrated that either way you can make a positive and significant impact during your time at CHHS and in life. So with that said, all question. All right. All in favor? I post abstain. The motion carries. the board of education extends its thanks to Susan Aguado for this contribution and for the ongoing support of the Steven Iguad scholarship fund. Thank you very much. Item 4.3. Be it resolved that the board of education gratefully accepts a donation in the amount of $40,000 from Cheryl Schulman and the Richard Albert Family Foundation as a contribution to the Richard Albert scholarship at Croen Herman High School. So second. Okay, a little bit of an explanation of this. This scholarship is to be awarded to two graduating seniors who rank between 11th and 30th in their class and plan to attend a 4-year college or university and have demonstrated academic achievement while also having made contributions to the community. All questions. All in favor? I I abstain and the motion carries. Thank you so much to Cheryl Schulman and Richard Albert Family Foundation for this generous contribution and for your support of our high school students. Item 4.4. Be it resolved that the board of education gratefully accepts a donation in the amount of $1,000 from John Martinez and Gabriella Martinez Anaga as a contribution to the Laura Martinez Legacy Scholarship at Croen Harmon High School.

• So move. Thank you. this scholarship is to be awarded to a member of the senior graduating class who is committed to attending a college and will be a first or second generation college student and has shown leadership and academic achievement. As we heard earlier, this scholarship is a newly established scholarship and this separate the separate resolution is to accept the donation funding that scholarship by the Martinez family. So on the question. Okay. All in favor? Opposed? Same. Motion carries. our huge thanks to John Martinez and Gabriel Martinez and Missaga for first of all instituting this scholarship and then for this generous donation to our high school students. We appreciate you. Item 4.5. Be it resolved that the board of education gratefully accepts a donation in the amount of $1,000 from the CHHS Foundation Incorporated as a contribution to two CHHS Foundation Incorporated Alumni Association scholarships for graduating seniors at Croenhar High School. So move second. This these sorry this donation funds scholarships that will be awarded to two graduating seniors who are planning to further their education as part of their application process. An essay on Croin history is required by the scholarship. On the question all in favor opposing the motion carries. Thank you so much to the CHHS Foundation for their generous contribution and funding to these of these scholarships. Item 4.6. Be it resolved that the board of education gratefully accepts a donation in the amount of $200 from Neil and Suzanne Habber as a contribution to the June Pearl Memorial Award at Croton Harman High School. Second. So, I will turn it over actually to Mr. favor to tell us a little bit about this. Thank you. In 2017, this memorial award was established for Jean in memory of Jean Pearl. At that time it was a monetary award to a graduating senior who was a member of the or was in the tradition the transitional alternative program TAC program which served students who had challenges and persevered. So what you'll see in these in the criteria that are set forth are the hold on just one second are the items that include good work ethic committed to civic duty extracurricular interests because that was something that the TAC program sought to indeed inculcate to the students who were participating. the TAC program no longer exists, but we, my wife and I, continued to provide funding for this annual award. It is not a scholarship because it does not necessarily go to a student who is going to be attending higher education. It's meant to recognize those students who have persevered and I know that last year's recipient where it's best and prior recipients have been the students who may or may not have been going to private education to higher education but have met the spirit. I could talk a little bit about Jeanie Pearl. I've done that in the past. You should just know that he was a member of the board, this board in 1960s. He was a member of the board again 1990s into the early 2000s. He was a Crotin Gro Crotin. He was a actually the messenger, part-time messenger after he retired from the board. and his his his to me at least his spirit lives on but I'm going to add I will be abstaining because I just think I should not vote for my own donation. Thank you for the introduction on a question and okay all in favor I I abstain I'm sorry opposed abstain thank you the motion carries thank you very much to Neil and Suzanne Haba for their contribution and Neil for your explanation of this award in honor of Jane Pearl item 4.7 another donation be it resolved that the board of education gratefully accepts a donation in the amount of $1,000 from the American Legion as a contribution to the Dominic and Fitatro and Maline Doss scholarships in the amounts of $500 to $500 each for graduating seniors at Carman High School. So moved second. These th this these scholarships are to be awarded to two graduating seniors on the basis of citizenship and devotion to the principles of our American heritage and promise of success in the college selected. All questions all in favor I opposed abstain motion carries. our great thanks again to the American Legion Fox Elo Post 505 for their generous contribution towards our graduating seniors at GRA High School. Item 4.8 another donation. this one. Be it resolved that the board of education gratefully accepts a donation from the Croenharman Education Foundation, also known as SHF, in the amount of $6,260 to fund the purchase of math maths at Carrie E. Tomkins Elementary School.

• So move second. I will give you a little bit of background on this. the this grant application comes out of the work of the applicants being Joseph Pasley and Miss Bianke at CCT. the I don't know if should I read all this or does someone want to speak to it better? That would be great. Thank you. Because this is a very long explanation. You'll give it. So the foundational philosophy is that we want to make sure that kids are involved in kinesesthetic activities related to learning as often as possible. and so these are ma mats and manipulatives that enable our kids I've actually seen Joe engage in professional learning with our faculty around these and I've seen our kids use some of them at the recent global day of play at CCT. the level of interest and excitement around getting a chance to move as you learn your multiplication, division, and other foundational math aspects was terrific to see. So, these support that kind of important kinesthetic hands-on learning for math and C. I will note that in their in their comments that they shared with us that the chef board also appreciated the opportunity to visit CCT and see sort of like a pilot of that. So I have to imagine that that after we have a vote on this, we'll we'll be able to see the fruits of all of that. So on the question, now we've heard this explanation of what the grant will cover. Then I will say all in favor I I anyone abstain? Motion carries. It does sound like a very exciting opportunity for our students at C. So once again, we have to thank the Groharn Education Foundation for their ongoing generosity in terms of supporting innovation in our schools. And this sounds like a particularly innovative program at C. Thank you. Thank you again for all your support. Item 4.9 donation. Be it resolved that the board of education hereby gratefully accepts the donation of two violins by Megan Saltenic to be used at Carrie E. Companions Elementary School.

• So move. Second. Okay. Just to hear I think we know that we have a tremendous strings program at our elementary school and these these donations of violins that have been previously used are going to be able to support students in terms of access to musical instruments that often students have to rent. we have developed ways of supporting families when the cost of rental can sometimes be a challenge and this donation is intended to further support that is my understanding. So on the question all in favor I I opposed the motion carries thank you so much to Megan for this generous donation towards our C strings program we appreciate it. We'll now move into the next portion of our agenda, the consent agenda. be it resolved that the board of education hereby approves all items in consent agenda. Moved second question. Just for the purposes of informing the public, the consent agenda covers a number of items including summer camp recommendations, personal recommendations, and coaching recisions and appointments. If anyone needs time to further consider, please let us know. Otherwise, I'll ask all in favor. I I opposed. Motion carries. We'll now move into the closing of the meeting and that portion of the meeting begins with item 6.1, our second hearing of the public. As there are no longer any members of the public in attendance at this meeting, perhaps you're watching from home. I I think that's pretty much all I have to say is everyone else has gone home. We're still here though. item 6.2 pulling the board. anything would like to address or bring up. I think we've had a had some opportunity to speak, but certainly invite anyone who has anything they want to ask for service.

• I just want to reiterate that I think it's a really great idea to continue the conversation about the in the use of technology now we're considering it. I thought the conversation was very beneficial. Great. Anybody else want to chime in on anything please? This is a great opportunity. I agree. Okay. Yeah. Omar, please. No, I just want to say I second that approach. We should we should have more conversations around you know, how it's being used and the the measures we're going to use to or the standards we're going to use to measure effectiveness. Yeah. Wonderful. Well, thank you. Thank you for that. We move to item 6.3, next board of education meeting. So, our next meeting is scheduled for March 26th, 2026. It is a work session where we will be covering school budgets as they relate to curriculum and pupil personnel services. So, we know who's going to be talking to us there, assistant superintendent Rachel Hall as well. we will also the board of education will also be hosting in advance of the meeting as usual our meet the BOE to which the public is invited with no need to register in advance. just drop by, let us know what you're thinking, as well as an information session for pro p prospective candidates considering a run for board of education. Both of those events will be held prior to the meeting 30 minutes before at this point. The start time for both of those, sorry, the start time for the candidate information session will be 6:30 p.m. on March 26th and meet the BA will commence at 700 p.m. on March 26. Thank you. Looking into me, Sue knows all the time. Okay. Yes, absolutely. So, item 6.4, it resolved that the board of education will now hereby enter into executive session to discuss the employment of a particular person or persons.

• So, moved second. But before we do that, is there also is it's just personnel. I thought I might get another subject to the curriculum and people personal services was listed on the agenda. I think that's what's up. Okay. Just point back to our motion in progress. Just as a reminder, say it was seconded, right? Because I just I did. Yeah. So, I'm going to say all on the question. All in favor? I opposed. Same. Motion carries. We'll say that now the board is going to enter executive session. We will leave executive session after which we will adjourn the meeting. Thank you to everyone who attended tonight, folks who are watching from home, folks who are watching the future on video, and thank you to the board and the admin team for