speaking from the ether. I see this is on mute. We're going to give a Now I can hear you. Thank you.
• action. Good evening everyone. Welcome to the April 10th, 2025 business meeting of the Crowen Harman Union Free School District. We have already held our opening of the meeting and called the meeting to order. We've done the pledge of allegiance. Approve the agenda. We entered executive session and we are now at item 1.5 leaving executive session. So recommended action be it resolved the board of education hereby leaves executive session and returns to the regular meeting. So move second. on the questions. All in favor? I abstain. Motion carries. Moving into board reports item 2.1 our president's report. I want to thank Avery Gosell, an eighth grade student of a Pierre Van Courtland Middle School for being here tonight with her mom. she created a sports day experience for her fellow students. And I'm going to turn it over to Superintendent Walker to to to tell us that. Thank you, Anna. Good evening everyone who's who's watching at home and good evening to Avery and her mom who are here in person. one of the things that we feel best about as a school system is, that we've been able to create over years and years and years, school environments where, students not only feel inspired to try to bring about change in the world and in our local school setting, but more importantly, as importantly, they in addition to that inspiration, feel like they have the voice to actually do something about it, right? to bring these ideas forward and to feel like they can operationalize, they can make real some of these opportunities in our community. And I think Avery, your leadership and your vision is a tremendous example of this. so I want to defer to you, turn the floor over to you to talk to a little bit a little bit about your vision around what will be a new experience for our community this spring, the Tiger Sports Showcase. Thank you. yeah, so my idea started as my Girl Scout silverware project. where I kind of like find the community issue and a way that I can improve it and benefit the community. So sports are something I'm really passionate about. So that's kind of where I focus my project and I reached out to different leagues and Miss Drago, our athletic director, to try to find the issue I can improve on. And something I noticed was a drop off in sports kind of going into middle school and like around age nine, that general range. And I think sports are really beneficial for students. like teaching life skills, building team relationships, and just like staying healthy. And I think they're really valuable. So, I kind of wanted to find a way that I could like kind of prevent that drop off and get more people involved in our local like opportunities. So, I've been working with the athletic director, the different leagues, and we put together this sports showcase. So, basically what we're going to have like for our different high school sports, we have coaches and high schoolers running stations where kids get to try the different sports and like learn about those opportunities. I think by letting them try the sports, they're kind of seeing the opportunities they have, finding new interests, and seeing what they can get involved in. And by having Crowin High Schoolers there, they're getting to see student athletes that have stayed with the sport, really grown with it, and really enjoy it and have a passion and can inspire those younger students. And then we're also going to have leagues and local activities like Town of Courtland and just like different local activities so parents can kind of learn about those opportunities. and yeah, we're just hoping to get more people involved in athletic opportunities so students can benefit, parents can get them involved and just kind of sharing those opportunities and getting more people involved in the community. And so important details, this is May 28th at C. May 28th at the high school from 6:00 to 7:30 and there'll be activities inside a table inside and then outside we'll have some activities so students can try the sports. Outstanding. Again we talk about student leadership, student advocacy, vision and ch helping to change our system for the better. This is an incredible example. Way to go.
• Yeah. And we'll keep sharing it. So hopefully we can get a lot of people signed up and benefit from it. The first of what we hope will be an annual event and part of your legacy here long. Keep getting people involved. Way to go. Extremely proud. Great job. Feel free to stick around if you like. Have a good night. Thank you so much. Thank you. just to continue with my president's report. That was amazing to have to highlight kind of student involvement. It's just so rewarding. we are still accepting applic application universal prek program forms are available through April 28th for the lottery drawing to take place on April 30th at 10:00 a.m. at the district office. Did you have them? Okay. petitions for nominating candidates or nominating petitions for candidates for the school board elections must be turned into the district office by April 21st, 2025 by the close of business. The election will take place on Tuesday, May 20th, 2025. Voting will happen at CHHS here from 6:00 a.m. to 900 pm. also taking place will be the district budget vote and the library budget vote. the board of education candidate forum will also be held here in this room at the Cotton Harman High School library on Wednesday, May 14th, starting at 700 p.m. Candidates should be here by 6:30 p.m. The forum will be moderated by someone from the League of Women Voters. Community members will be able to submit questions in advance. all information on how to do that will be sent out via a parent square notification. So, please be on the lookout for that. The event will be recorded. it will be held for a live audience and will be available to those who are unable to attend via a link on our district website. And then finally, our next meeting will be Tuesday, April 22nd. that deviates from our regular Thursday meeting schedule. It will be a work session. it will be it will be held here in the library and it will also be a special meeting regarding the OC's budget vote. And my one final mark your calendar is for April 29th. I could wait until the 22nd, but I wanted to make sure everybody put this on the calendar. Please mark your calendars for the Cotton Harman High School Science Research Symposium, which will be held here at the high school on Tuesday, April 29th from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. where our junior and senior students involved in the science research program will be presenting their projects and available to answer questions. it's really a culmination of the work that they've been doing all year and some for some of them for multiple years. So please come out and support that work and bear witness to bear hard work in the district. And that is all I have. we will now move into our first hearing of the public. There is actually no one here in the in the meeting room with us right now. So, I will close the first hearing of the public and move to item 2.3, the superintendent report. Thank you, Anna. And good evening again, Tigers. knowing that we have a budget presentation to follow this. I'll be relatively brief, but I did want to highlight and call out some of the exceptional achievements and activities in our district over the past two or three weeks or so. starting with uplifting and celebrating the outstanding accomplishments of our Hall County musicians in the area of all county orchestra, elementary chorus, band, and intermediate chorus. Tremendous credit to them combining talent with great work ethic, wonderful family support, and outstanding faculty. And so we think about how we continue to develop robust programs, whether it's in athletics or the arts or academics across our system. One of the things that's important to do is to highlight and celebrate the accomplishments of our, in this case, student musicians and then allow especially our younger people in the community to look up to them. and this is certainly one of those opportunities. So, congratulations to all of them and to our outstanding music faculty for continuing to to shepherd their talent and their their passion and inspiration over the course of what I know many many years in our system. Way to go, Tigers. also want to say that I guess it was two Fridays ago now I had the opportunity to attend the a taste of culture event a districtwide event held annually at CBT and again this year this was just a wonderful and inspiring and happy event getting a chance to celebrate I think there's 18 different cultures representing the vast range of of the CPVC and high school families within our community so thank you to Marina Horton to the entire planning team there to our student volunteers from CHHS and to everyone who is a part of making that such a a special and wonderful event as it is every year. It's already, I believe, tenatively on the calendar for April of next year. We'll make sure to get that date out so people can can hold that date for 2026 as well. I have to say Peter Pan Jr. was just exceptionally wonderful. the quality of the performances, the direction, the costumes, there was nothing about that that wasn't absolutely superb. congratulations to all of our our students and the cast, the crew, Christina Carmino, Sally Barnes. Thank you very much to our friends at Hen Hud for allowing us to use their their stages. Our auditorium is now in the very very near future going to be finished but and when it is finished there's going to be some outstanding truly outstanding talent on that stage for the next few years judging by what we saw from Peter Pan Jr. So thank you to everybody involved for what was a a great night watching that performance. also want to say that one of the things that the board knows and I think probably the community knows as part of the vision map is prioritizing crossbuilding learning experiences and cross-building collaboration among our faculty and several members of the administrative team had a chance to to be witness to one of those examples the other day when members of our elelll student population at the high school had a chance to visit Mrs. DC second grade class to collaborate on a fairy tale unit where thanks to collaboration from Pam Morrison, from Indiana Reli, from Miss DC, from Aaron White and others, our ELLL students at the high school ready tales to the second graders that were written both in English and Spanish. And so read them in in both languages, spoke to them about various fairy tale story elements. See there are high school students doing some wonderful teaching of our second grade students who were outstanding learners. They were really wrapped audience to see all these older students coming to get a chance to spend time with them. So those are one of those moments where it just it feels like the vision of the school district coming to life in front of you is an emotional thing to be a part of. And actually, it was neat to hear from the teachers at the high school who said that our students at the high school were very confident about this idea. And then once they got on the bus, several of them have been, "Wow, I'm pretty nervous. I'm gonna go." But our high school students did extraordinarily well. thank you to Miss DC and her class for hosting and we look forward to this becoming a much more regular part of the collaboration between our students and CT students. Also want to say the Laram project and congratulations to Isabelle and the entire cast. just stunningly powerful, compelling. I think everyone who was there both Friday and Saturday who just flew to their seats. that was a riveting riveting performance. So thank you to the entire cast the crew to Jonathan Kaplan. That was as powerful a high school drama as I think I've ever seen without exaggeration. So truly bravo and bravo that was phenomenal. Also the u annual second grade interdisciplinary project build a business that we had a chance to attend with last week. thank you to Mayor Pew for for joining us from the village and to members of the board who were in attendance as well. This is this is one of those special days for us to get a chance to spend so much time with our second graders presenting not only to us but to some of their first grade classmates at CCT and the range of ideas is always just remarkable. We come back to district office with huge smiles on our face. and I know I think Mr. Pew and the village leadership has some real thinking to do about how we can continue to include some of these businesses in the long-term planning for the community because u some of them are are truly spectacular. So congratulations to our entire second grade student body and to the faculty for making that happen. also want to say that this was another great example of combining student interest and passions with an important part of our school systems goals which is transitioning students from one building to the next. So as our CCT fourth graders get ready to become new fifth graders at PVC it was the passion pursuit of three current fifth grade students at PVC to help with that transition. And so those three students created a presentation over the course of the past few months and then in collaboration with our fourth grade faculty with Mr. Planin and Miss Kelly came down to to those classrooms, presented, answered questions, shared some really insightful information about that transition and why while it's a significant one, not one that our fourth graders should be overly concerned about. So a really great combination of a practical implication and application of of the passion pursuit project at PBC. So congratulations to those students and and thank you very much. And that is my presentation. Thank you. Good stuff. All good stuff. That's good stuff. moving on to item 2.4. Our student trustee to share Isabelle.
• Hi. So I have a short one for you. Mr. Walker did take one of my talking points, but I'll just I'll go over it really briefly. but first, I just wanted to say there was a whole discussion at this table before one of the meetings. We were talking about the issue of parking at this school. And I was like, well, why doesn't someone make a parking map? So, with SOC, you might have seen it on social media. I made a map and basically it just kind of annotates where on the street you can park and when you can park. and I've heard from a lot of people that it's really helpful. So, I just thought I would share that with you. and if you're looking for it, it's on the SFC and the CHHS Instagrams. and then, okay, so what Mr. Walker said before, this past Friday and Saturday, the CHHS drama club had its production of the Larmy Project. it was hosted at Austin High School. So, thank you to them for letting us use their theater. it's beautiful and really big. but yeah, it was it was one of my last productions, so it was a really powerful message, but I'm really glad that I was able to be a part of it. and then lastly, a little fun note. it's color wars this week at CHS, so we've been doing spirit week. Monday was pajama day, Tuesday was Adam Sandler day, Wednesday was anything but a backpack day, and today was generations day. And tomorrow is pep rally. So, I don't know if administration wanted to come see, but it'll be a fun time. and everyone's gonna dress in their grades color. Yeah, that's it. Thank you. Thank you.
• item 2.5, the superintendent 2025 2026 budget presentation for adoption. Thank you again, Anna. I wanted to start just by saying that u this was a challenging budget to put together. a number of different unpredictable factors including the status of foundation aid federal aid generally increasing cost in any number of areas made this certainly the most challenging budget to put together in the time that I've been here. And so I wanted to say that by way of again thanking and appreciating Denise for her outstanding leadership and continued stewardship of not only the budget process but in the financial positioning of the district along with the board of education. this is a budget that continues to move forward the vision of the school district in significant ways due in no small part to the leadership of Denise and of the board year after year, positioning us so well so that we're able to get not only navigate through but thrive during some really challenging financial times. So to Denise, to Barry, to Kelly, to the entire team, bravo.
• So wanted to begin just by there we are highlighting the what we call the budget roadmap. this is this is information that the board and the public have seen previously but I wanted to mention it primarily to say that the budget is truly a yearround process and it occurs obviously through conversations in rooms like this one in administrative meetings but as importantly the ideas come for for the budget from conversations that we have with students with staff members with parents and they typically sound something like, wouldn't it be great if we could do the following? Wouldn't our district be even better and even more amazing for kids if we could do the following? And so those sort of those sort of conversations plant seeds for us. and as a result of those, as a result of the contributions of so many students and staff and parents and community members, we're able to incorporate as many of those ideas as possible into the student experience through the budget. and as always, it's our goal and our plan to utilize the vision map as our north star, right? And so everything that we do comes back to how it advances the student experience through the lens of continuing the work and deepening the work of the vision map. And so wanted to take a moment just to to highlight that for the community. including our vision statement discussing how all members of the learning community will demonstrate an enduring curiosity, engage in the pursuit of inspiration and develop the habits of mind to promote personal growth and the well-being of society. And so along with the rest of the vision map, we consider that not just to be our vision but promise and a commitment to our community. And through the budget process, we get a chance to live that out. And so as you see on the next slide our priorities again I would say comparing these to the strategic plan the long-term plan of any other system I think these hold up exceptionally well in terms of the aspirational quality of them and the alignment with as we see now from the blue ribbon commission at the state level where all schools should be heading the kind of conversations that all schools should be having and will be having and it's our really a wonderful privilege to get a chance to be out in front of this work in so many significant ways. Our district goals as a reminder for the community for the 2526 school year, but as a community and the board also know we think about these in multi-year increments. This work doesn't stop in June of 2025. It won't stop in the June of 2026. But continued conversations around assessment, grading, feedback, creating flexible and dynamic learning spaces and district and school culture are all incredibly important aspects of our system. And the work of this current year, as you've heard from our building leaders and our district leaders over the course of the past few months, continue to be around designing genuine highlevel rigorous interdisciplinary courses and learning experiences. Leveraging the master schedule to innovate and allow for work that continues to create that idea of what school can be. and having significant and robust conversations about how we can make our grading, feedback, and assessment systems even better as informed by research and continued modernized thinking around how we can get feedback to students in the best way to support their learning. This is a graphic I think John put together last year we wanted to bring back just because it makes me smile. we think about this as we know as part of a long-term vision and we started talking about three and a half years ago about the concept of highlevel interdisciplinary learning about the concept of robust pedagogical instructional coaching staff that will uplift the quality of the instruction for all teachers and all staff members and about providing significant systemwide supports for the social and emotional wellness of all of our students. And there's a long-term conversation about that, a long-term staffing plan around that. And we view this budget as really the culmination of that staffing plan. And in that, I think it lives up to the promise that we've made to the community and the promise that we'll continue to make going forward. Not just incremental change, but systemic change in the experience for our students. Also wanted to remind the community about some of the foundational aspects of our system. Again, that innovative professional culture encouraging thoughtful risk-taking, reflection, and continued pursuit of excellence, uplifting faculty to faculty collaboration, genuine elbow-to-LE elbow work together that creates learning experiences that any one faculty member couldn't have created on their own, and we saw an example of that during the superintendent report. and genuine, rigorous, and robust interdisciplinary learning, which I think as we look across the region, you're going to start to see more and more school districts begin to recreate and look to emulate the interdisciplinary courses that have been created here in this building and that in the experiences that have been created at the middle school and the elementary school, not only this year, but in the years to come. And so there are several ways in which this budget enhances that that work and supports our vision beginning with the addition of an English teacher at CHHS which enables the high school to double the number of new and innovative interdisiplinary core courses from 4 to 8 for next year. And if anybody's interested, there's a fantastic, in my opinion, 13minute video that came out today about the work that's gone into creating those courses. And we hear from several outstanding Tiger students about what that's meant for them in terms of the rigor and the expectations and from several members of the faculty about the work that they've put into it, about why they believe it's a superior model to the traditional classroom learning environment and how that collaboration has lifted up both of them. So check out our website or our social media or parent square for a link to that video. The budget also increases our counseling staff at the high school. And you had an opportunity as a board and as a community to see some data from Mark Mum and the high school administration about the change in the college application trajectory for our students particularly postcoid and as we all know the academic and social realities that our kids confront at the high school level are as complex if not more complex than they've ever been. And so this is in response to that and we think frankly is proactive and looking forward to add that fourth counselor to the high school. Also adds a clinical staff member, school psychologist or counselor at C to strengthen our support system for our youngest students. Again, that's part of living up to that aspect of division math that speaks to a culture of well-being and robust supports for all of our students, but particularly those who need them most at the youngest ages. and adding an instructional coach position at PBC, which rounds out a multi-year plan to staff that. So, we'll now have a half dozen instructional coaches between all three of our buildings. We had a chance to see all of them in the same room at the same time the other day. And that felt again like the idea of we love it when a plan comes together. Like the dynamic between the six of them is special already. and we'll certainly continue to elevate the instructional practices of teachers across the district in the time to come. Also want to make mention to u some of the proposed budgetary additions from Dr. Moscowitz and the technology team, including increased technician support, which I know our faculty is very pleased to hear because it means that we'll be able to be even more responsive to the increasing technological needs around all of the u the various aspects of technology that have become such an integral part of the the learning experiences for our students K through 12. And want to make mention of the presentation from Miss Drago and including several enhancements to support our vision in the area of athletics. Of course, Spencer Field coming online soon. Look forward to that. New scoreboards and shot clocks in the gym here at the high school. Inter mural sport offerings. I know Christina shared this the success on a pilot basis over the past year. And we're going to look to expand that where possible to help support our students who may not be quite ready to make one of our teams at a particular level, but continue to have a passion and interest in improving. And this gives them a formalized structure to do that supported by members of our faculty and staff. Additional unified sports offerings as we heard from from Rachel as well as additional huddle cameras to cover various aspects, new aspects of of our fields. And so at that point, I'm happy to turn the financial side over to our outstanding assistant superintendent, Denise. Take it away. Thanks. Okay. So, I just wanted to share this to kind of show you what brought us to this place today. As Superintendent Walker shared, this is a year-long endeavor with the hope of finding clarity also transparency for our community, opportunity for input etc. So our first budget presentation was in January and we did the budget development process where we reviewed the calendar, our revenue and expenditure assumptions and then in February we reviewed the governor's executive budget proposed state aid proposals and projections and also took an in-depth look into the allowable tax levy. Then in February on the 27th we did general support and operations. So we looked at our administrative budget, our fringe benefits and retirements, debt service, transportation and buildings and grounds. Then in March, we began our vision map and we did an overview of our technology budget and a and our athletics budget. And then our last budget budget presentation was our pupil personnel services and we took a deep dive into each of our buildings. and that brings us to tonight where we are doing the superintendent's budget proposal and adoption. So let's begin. Okay, this is kind of becoming a regular thing. the the budget has been delayed now for the for the fourth time. May may have been the fifth time by this afternoon. Have you heard her say that she's strong in overtime? That's what I heard her say. She's good in overtime. I think this is now double overtime. And now with the holidays coming up, it's there's a there's a possibility I mean there's a possibility that most districts will be approving their budgets prior to really knowing their state aid numbers. So I feel that as a district we are very safe in our projections which I'll get into as we go through the presentation. So this is a budget overview of our revenues. We have our payments in the taxes. That's down because last year was the first year of our pilots. So it was slightly over projected. So now we are ching at 44,000 county sales tax and interest earnings. So, for those of you who don't know, school districts receive a portion of the county sales tax that's imposed for any purchases throughout the county. So, we are keeping that fairly fairly stable with a slight increase of about 50,000. other revenue that represents insurance recoveries, building use, some prior year recoveries, some also Medicaid reimbursement. That's we are projecting that up about 144,000. There's also tuition revenue in there. our wonderful assistant superintendent for people personnel services has been making a name for herself out there and a lot of districts a good name good name are approaching us to send their students to to our district for for education and other services. So, that is up. state aid, we're looking at almost a $900,000 increase there. And I will go a little bit deeper into that on the next slide. We are appropriating this year a fund balance of about $2.46 million, which is down about 500,000 from from last year. also as far as reserves we are allocating 200 from the employees retirement reserve 200 from the teachers retirement reserve and 800 from our tax certiary reserve. So we just completed an analysis of our taxert exposure and we feel that we are safe to reduce that number considerably. So, we're going to allocate that towards this year's budget, next year's budget. And then we have our allowable tax levy which is at 45422572 bringing us to a balanced budget of 60,99650 state aid. So again the budget is is still not approved but we are anticipating a foundation aid increase of about 2%. we are also a safe harmless district so we feel confident in that number. transportation aid is up. Transportation aid is an expense-based aid. So the aid that we get is based on our prior year expenditures and also our aid ratio. So the transportation aid ratio is up slightly and our expenses work as well. no changes in the other areas with the exception of private excess cost aid which is down slightly due to enrollment. And then you see that we have a very large increase in state building aid and that is directly related to our capital project. So we are anticipating that that those final cost reports will be filed and we will begin generating aid and you'll see that is offset by some debt service which I'll show later in the presentation. And then Bosey's aid we had a slight reduction in Bosei services that we're anticipating a decrease there and then pretty stable with hardware technology and textbook aid. Here we are the lovely tax path calculation which you can't make this slide pretty. I'm sorry I've tried. It is what it is. so our tax base growth factor which is line B is 1.0040. So that is down from 0.0056 from last year. That's the growth factor that is applied to the formula based on brick and mortar growth and development within the community. Surprisingly, it's down. It's kind of off cycle as far as when these numbers come in. we're hoping that next year it will it will be up. I won't take you through this again. We've already had two sessions on this, but we are looking at an allowable tax levy of 2.62% and that is within the allowable tax levy. I'm sorry, Denise. Could you go back to that?
• Okay. I have a question. Sure. Because you have the base year pilots at 70, but on the other Yeah. So, so the formula, what the formula does is it says take last year's okay numbers at the top and then this year's numbers at the bottom. It's that's an oversimplification, but yes, but we have to use the pilots that we applied last year to the formula. Okay, thank you. And incidentally that that miscalculation of the pilot actually benefited our taxpayers. So it it it was overp projected and that benefited our taxpayers. So it didn't have a negative impact. So this is our wacky tax rate history projection. So as we have two taxing jurisdictions. We have Yorktown and Courtland. They both have extremely different equalization rates and they are also both so for example Courtland represents about 94% of our tax levy. So 94% of that 44 million that I just spoke about will be applied to homeowners within Courtland and then the balance of that which is like three and change percent will go to our Yorktown residents. That number, as you can see, it it varies. Every year there's a sharp spike in that. This year, we're looking at Portland being stabilized at kind of steady around the 1 and a half 2% mark. And then last year, Yorktown was at 3.4% increase. This year, they're down 4.4% increase. So even the assessor can't tell me why the extreme I it's there's a lot of functions equalization rates property values assessments assessed value and number of properties. If you average this out over the course of 10 years and and you look at the at the 10-year averages Yeah. They're flat. Yeah, they match. You average it out over 10 years. Just so you get in a single year basis, they bounce around all over the place. Yes, it's just how the math works out. Agreed. Agreed. Okay. So, this represents our restricted reserves. So, these are our categories. Our largest being the capital reserve. So, the capital reserve consists of three different reserves. We have the 2013 and the 2016 capital reserves and those are specifically designated for property and equipment capital reserves. So capital expenses. The 22 reserve is allocated towards our transportation fleet. So that was established to electrify our fleet in 2022. That's our largest reserve. what this allows us to do is it allows us to invest in our buildings, grounds, and transportation fleet without incurring any debt expense. So we don't need to borrow. We can utilize these funds in order to pay for those expenses. And that represents about 52%. the next largest reserve is the employer reserve for teachers retirement. So that represents about 11 12% and that reserve is used to offset the cost of the employer the district's required contribution to the New York State teachers retirement system for our staff. And then after that we have the taxert reserve which we are reducing by about $800,000 this year to have that in line with our obligations. So it it all in all our our reserves are extremely strong. they are within the New York State requirements as far as allowable reserves and within the the confines of that expense overview by function. So as I shared with you last there last session there are many ways to slice the budget. you can't even imagine how many ways. so this this is by function and when you think about function think of it as like department. So this is by department. So it it includes everything within that department salaries contracted services supplies materials etc. So, general support, which represents about 14.5% of our budget, is up, about 3.5% and that's primarily due to property assessments, insurance, because of the increase of natural disasters, tariffs, also, Sam's cases. They do. Sam's sexual abuse and molestation cases has nothing to do with protein. but because of the extension of that the reporting time frame that the insurers have seen a lot of claims around that. So all of these things have increased the the costs of ensuring our buildings and and contents and and fleet. The next component is instruction. That's about 53% with the largest movement here in technology due to some of what superintendent Walker shared earlier. then we also have school counseling and social work and athletics which is also off due to some equipment purchases. Again this includes salaries, Bosey services, student support services, supplies, materials etc. Pupil transportation is up about 4.2% that department 95% of that department is insurance and salaries. so that's that's an insurance component there. And then lastly, we have benefits, debt service, and other financing. And I'm actually going to it's easier to address that in the next slide. So I'm going to go here. So this is a budget overview by object. So the object is on the left side. The object is salaries, benefits, equipment, contractual services. So it's broken out not by department but by actual object. So as you could see salaries and benefits which represent over 75 70 to 75% of our overall budget that is up about 2.7%. And then the next we have is contracted services which includes boseies, legal services, insurance, specialed placements, technology etc. Then we have interfund transfers. So interf transfers are that is money that ex that's expended from the general fund to offset and cover costs from our extended school year program and also any losses in our school lunch fund. And then I'm going to pop back up to debt service and principal. So our debt service and principal is up about 20% but again that is counterbalanced with the increase building aid that we will see next year based on our capital project. Now don't get crazy. We're not going to go deep into this, but a a a requirement for school districts in order to ensure transparency and accountability in school spending is a three-part budget. And this is a snapshot of our three-part budget. the administrative component covers costs related to district management, salaries, benefits for administrators, legal fees, property insurance, any school board expenses. So that is approximately 11.3% of our budget. Next, we have the program component, which includes expenses related to student instruction such as teacher salaries, supplies, textbook, extracurricular activities, and transportation. And then finally we have the capital component which really focuses on facilities, infrastructure, building maintenance, custodial staff, salaries, utilities, add debt service. and that's about it. I'm sorry maintenance point. That's that's a large number. That's a large number. That is a very large number. Is when we say maintenance is that does that include things like maintenance salaries? Yes. That's so custodial is in there. Yes. Okay. Yes. So that custodial is is encompassed within operation of plant and maintenance of plant. Yeah. That is 1621. 1620 and 1621. That's essentially what it costs to keep our buildings operating and our land as well. So it it's both the supplies involved in that supply and contracted services for all of our maintenance of our equipment, HBAC, etc. Salaries, fuel would be an operation. Yep. Okay. Okay. Understood. Thank you. Water, telephone, etc. Electricity. Yep. Okay. Thank you, Paul. So, what are our budget drivers? So, we have anticipated from a revenue perspective, anticipated increases in building aid and transportation aid. increase in foundation aid approximately 2%. slight decreases in Bosey's aid and stable county sales tax and interest earnings. From an expense perspective, major components are salaries and increased teaching staff benefit cost increases for teachers retirement system, the employee retirement system, other health and French benefits and the FICA which is the social security contribution that the district has to make on behalf of our staff. Then we have technology and infrastructure upgrades, debt service increase, increases to property and casualty insurance and then the inflationary impact of costs of goods and services which we are already seeing based on the the tariff situation on the ballot for May 20th. So proposition one is for a 2526 budget of 60,990. Proposition two is our vehicle proposition which I'll speak to in a moment. Proposition three is the Croin Library levy of 985,392. That is outside of us but it goes on our ballot. and then proposition well four the trustee elections where we have two candidate positions open our vehicle proposition. So for this year we have a 166 passenger electric vehicle 220,500 of which is being compensated through an IERTA grant. This will also be funded. The balance of that which is approximately 275,000 will be funded from our vehicle transportation reserve that I spoke of earlier. Then we also have I was just going to ask you, did I hear that one of the other electric vehicle companies went out of business? Yes. Lion Electric. Lion that was who we were recommended to use who we did not use. Is that correct? Correct. And we're fine. We're staying. We are great. Our the bird bus that we use actually opened up a plant right in Yorktown and they are servicing our vehicles and working out very well. Yes, we we made a good decision. That's wonderful. Thank you. I'm sorry to interrupt you. then the second component of that proposition is for two 20 to 30 passenger buses and two hybrid vehicles. We're finding that we're needing more of the smaller vehicles now based on our out of district placements and some of our shorter runs bringing us at a total cost of 385,000. And those vehicles will be funded through our current year appropriations. So there will be no tax impact or borrowing required for any of this proposition. It's it's completely tax neutral. So just an overview, our budget 60,990. Our proposed tax levy of 45,422572. That's bringing us to a 2.62 62 tax levy increase which is within the allowable tax levy. Some voter information. I am not going to go too deep into this but just wanted to point out some some dates and I strongly encourage you to go to our website or speak with our district clerk Denise Vaceia regarding eligibility and registration deadlines. Couple of important dates. the last date to register is May 15. additionally on April 22nd, we will be in the office. Denise will be in the office between the hours of 4:00 to 7:00. You can come in, register in person. And then, absentee and early voting applications are due on May 13th. And lastly, candidate packets will be available, within in the district office and are due on April 21st.
• Thank you. I just wanted to we have question and answer if anyone has any questions and then I will follow up with our upcoming presentations. Thank you. Any questions?
• I mean, I think the process that starts in January is so thorough. By the time that we get here, we've asked a lot of the the nuanced questions. So, it's certainly not a reflection of anything other than how prepared you've made us to understand your presentations as they go along. can I ask a quick question? Thanks. just on the NAERTA grants for the buses, could you just explain how that work? Do we do a grant application for each individual bus that we're going to purchase or is there an allocation every year? Right. So we have done multiple applications. So we've applied for probably about four separate grants there. Some of them are still through NAERTA but a separate grant. this one, Kelly in our office, Kelly Lent did most of the leg work on it and it was not easy and it and it doesn't end once the grant is approved. There are so many reporting requirements that follow. So we were allocated a number of vehicles but Naerta who doesn't understand the confines of the school budget process just thought well we can give you money for five vehicles and you can just go buy those five vehicles and knowing that there is a very long process and that it every part of the process requires requires voter approval. So, right now, we received a grant for two vehicles. One of which we applied to a vehicle that we've already purchased so that the voters approved the purchase of a fullcost vehicle that we have received $220,000 in funding for. So that money will not be will not be removed from the transportation reserve but it it will stay there as for whatever we need in the future. And then this one is the second grant that we the second vehicle that we were approved for. And so you'll h you can apply year to every year or you limited as far you can but because we're not a district a high need district it's unlikely that we would receive continued grant funding. But because we are a frontr runner in the region in the state that we were we were granted a number of vehicles through that grant. I do I am a little uneasy based on the state of affairs. So I don't know if any of the funding is going to be pulled back but but we have locked this in for this year. And as far as the actual payments, because I I know that with often state and local grants, they take a very very long time to actually pay, right? Does that happen? No. The good thing about this is that they will pay the vendor directly. Oh, good. So, we we will pay our portions to the vendor and then Naerta will pay the vendor directly. Which is really great. Once again, how great that we went with you. You can't imagine having paid directly, right? and they did and gave us a lot of assistance in applying for this grant. their main grant writer is from Austin and he came over and worked with us and really helped get the required information to Naerta so that they could understand our our confines and he did a great job. So I have a another question on this subject which is as I recall when the grants from Naerta first were advertised there were requirements for obtaining that funding or maybe that was through the motor vehicle the MVIP but and I remember there were you had to have your vehicles go a minimum number of miles. You had to retire a vehicle that was older than a certain year or was de as a diesel. Are there any restrictions or requirements with regard to the receipt of the this grant for the two vehicles that we one we've already purchased, one we are going to purchase. So there are requirements but they're more reporting requirements. So we were working with NAERTA at that time to say we for example we were looking into retiring there were different classes of vehicles. So if you didn't have the right class of gas or diesel vehicle you couldn't get the get the grant. But we worked with NAERTA and now we are the requirements are much less. You have the option of retiring vehicle or not and it it doesn't have the same the same year of make a model that it had last time. also the the requirements for mileage have have dropped slightly. So because I remember one of the things that we had talked about a few years ago was if we are going to get this vehicle and we had to put a minimum number of miles on it, it would be a vehicle that would be dedicated to sports runs, dedicated to other things so we could do the mileage sufficient to be able to justify the money. As I understand, that's less of a an issue now. Correct. It's still an issue on that first vehicle, but not on the others. And Joe is Joe is making sure that we hit those targets. Okay. One one thing to just Denise that you had mentioned that was a little bit of variance from the slide with regard to nominating petitions. You said they're available in the district office. The slide indicates that they're also available on the district's website. So, yes, thank you. Okay. So, we're next budget presentation will be on Oh, so April 22nd, we will have the adoption of the property tax report card and also the Bosey's administrative budget vote. followed by May 8th, our public budget hearing. And then May 20th, our public vote and trustee election. And our tenure celebration begins at 7. And voting is going to be at the high school between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 900 p.m. Always visit our website. That concludes my report. Oh, and don't forget to vote. Thanks, R. Thank you so much, J. That was really great. Yeah. Thank you. Moving into new business, item 3.1, adoption of the 2025 2026 superintendent's budget for the Croen Harman School District. Recommended action be resolved. The board hereby adopts the 2025 2026 superintendence budget for the Quilton Harmony School District as an amount of 60 million 9996,50. So moved. Second on the question. All in favor? I oppose. Abstain. Motion carries. Item 3.2, policies for first reading. This is a discussion item. I will turn over to the chair of the policy committee, Neil Haber. Thank you. The policy committee met I think on the 26th of March and reviewed a number of policies and we are reporting for first reading three policies. one of them is evaluation of instructional program where we've made certain changes Actually I'm sorry on that one only one change we have basically or two changes we have modified the policy slightly in terms of how we are accepting community input and feedback to what's happening with instructional programs and how they are to be evaluated. and one wording change which in essence says we're talking about checking on the suitability of instructional program in terms of community needs as opposed to community requirements. if there are any questions on that or the other one that I'm going to mention, please feel free to contact policy committee with your comments. The other policy is on expense reimbursement and expense reimbursement regulation. The main change, actually the only change of any significance is that the committee is recommending to the board that our policy or expense reimbursement regulation be revised to provide that for out of town travel for an entire day. meaning the individual district employee, board member, etc. leaves before the start of the day and does not come home that day. That rather than putting in a per meal reimbursement that will that must be supported by by documentation, receipts, etc. we will provide a daily allowance for meals. That makes the business office have to do much less work because they don't need to look at each of the receipts and catalog them etc. and the amount which is proposed $55 a day is the same as the total in our current policy if one were to get a reimbursement of $10 for breakfast, $15 for lunch, $30 for dinner. So it's really costneutral but it makes things easier to administer. This was requested by the assistant superintendent for business and policy committee is in agreement. So as I said those are the three policies. If anyone has questions now, we certainly can discuss them or if there are any questions that one has after having reviewed them further, please contact the policy committee. Policy committee is next scheduled to meet on May 1st in advance of our May 8th meeting. So, any questions?
• Okay. You're saying that the the $50 per day is not based on any kind of IRS thing. It's it's really just th those are the amounts per meal that we h have had the practice of reimbursing for. That's correct. If we were to do, and some districts do this, they say they will provide an allowance based on the General Services Administration rate that the GSA does for meals, as they do for hotels, etc. And that can vary based on where in the country you're traveling to. And that is higher than $55. We have just, you know, that's what we decided years ago to provide on a per meal basis $55 total for a day. and we are just changing the manner in which it will be processed for reimbursement to a daily allowance. Thanks.
• Thank you. Sure. Moving on to item 3.3 the taxiary settlement recommended action be it resolved the board of education hereby approves the proposed settlement for the tax certiary of matter of 104 grand street LLC v the assessor of the town of Portland at all as presented so moved second question. All in favor? I oppose. Abstain. Motion carries. Moving on to ongoing business. Item 4.1, policies for second reading. Recommended action be resolved. The board of education conducts a second reading and hereby adopts the following board policies as presented. So moved. Second. Another question. All in favor? I oppose. Abstain. Motion carries. Moving on to our consent agenda. Item 5.1, approval of the consent agenda. Recommended action. be a result that the board of education hereby approves all items in the consent in the consent agenda as presented. So moved second question just all in favor abstain. Motion carries. We are now moving into our closing of the meeting with our second hearing of the public. I'll again say that there's no one here from the public. So we will move into it 6.2 for the reports. You can start with Thanks. so March we had our last meeting on March 17th and discussed the Senate at at that point the Senate and Assembly one house budgets that had come out and reviewed the just the summary on on state aid and what the Senate and Assembly proposals were as well as the cell phone policy. updates. the I mean as has been noted that the budget is not on time and so we there's still back and forth going on on that but at that point we were noting that the cell phone proposal from the Senate was seeking some more flexibility to give things like giving districts leeway to allow use during cell phone use during non-instructional time and a requirement for districts to consult with families and local reps. We also talked about meetings with legislators and and I think there's a follow-up item here because we know that we noted that Westp has been typically putting together these meetings and we just had a general question around how how in the past whether we have had the practice of doing meetings with legislators on our own and I believe Sarah that you did loop back I think we asked you this question and you did loop back with an answer on that so yeah I think I loop back with an answer is it in that westpot hasn't doesn't generally schedule any additional right that but that they they they schedule an initial round they do schedule and we when you participated initial practice. and then I have on here one outstanding to-do item, which is something that we need to follow up with Rachel on historical funding amounts for UPK and UPK formulas. So, we will move back on that question that the committee had. We are we are trying to do a next meeting postbudget passage which we anticipate will probably be who knows but probably around April 20th we hope maybe and yeah we're just going to keep monitoring the timing of a final budget passage to be able to have a meeting to dequify where the budget's I don't know if you want to add I think you've covered it.
• Thank you. audit is meeting the 22nd before our regular meeting before or our work session. Okay. Board development. yes, the board's development committee met on March 24th. Sorry, I don't know if I'm getting picked up or not. the board development committee met on March 24th and the the couple of sort of updates for the group are as follows. we will be reaching out to you shortly to look at potential dates for a brief spring retreat conversation during which the board will will review our together as a group our self-ealuation. We're going to try to administer that to ourselves beforehand so that we can use that retreat conversation to actually discuss the self-evaluation in terms of our goals for the year and how we feel like we're doing in terms of our developing governance norms and communications practices and sort of conducting ourselves as a whole. the other sort of call for dates will go out to the group as relates to a end of the year or summer retreat. The u one of the topics that has come up over the course of our conversations this year on our own processes and improving our governance sort of presentation and responsibilities is to to have a conversation at the beginning of the term. every term to recommmit to ourselves sort of how we plan to operate. revisit sort of our our practices and ensure that they continue to be our best practices and sort of also start the conversation on developing our goals for the upcoming school year so that by the time we reconvene in September and administration is back in the building well administration never leaves the building but you know what I mean when everyone's back in the building in September we'll be able to have a conversation about sort of ensuring that that we're all working sort of towards the same long-term goals for the school district. So, that was the that was the conversation and those are the follow-up items that we'll be reaching out to you about over email. I think that's it communications. All right. so communications met on Monday this week and we spoke a little bit about budget communications and just again a thank you to Denise and Jackie and everyone in's office for all of the hard work and Greg Cavaleri as well for all of the hard work in putting together our budget presentations. I know that they're fast working on the finishing touches for reflections and that we can probably expect to see those in mailboxes around the beginning of May. so everyone should be on the lookout for those. we also discussed more towards the middle of May because we have the budget notice that's in there. So, there are some timelines that we need to comply with or else we would get the reflections out sooner. But because of that requirement, we have to hold off until a certain number of days before the vote. Okay. Thank you for that. and then we spent some time discussing hopefully everyone on the board and and our community has seen some of the new social media posts that we've been putting out on redefining excellence in learning and really calling attention to some of the great work that is going on in all of our buildings and how they align to the vision map. So please be on the lookout for those. and then we are still continuing to work and the policy committee as well is continuing to work on hearing of the public and those opening and closing statements and any policy ramifications there. so that is in progress. We briefly discussed the upcoming NISBA convention in the fall and wanting to ensure that we include student photographs photographs of student work and looking to explore ways in which we could get some more student involvement in that in those opportunities as well. So, we looked at some of the, metrics on our work session recaps, which I think have been a great addition, to the communication that we send out this year. and we've heard from some anecdotal feedback that those are very helpful. And so, we will be continuing to do those and and taking a look at how those are, the engagement with those on both parent square and on our website. and I believe that was really it. Did I miss anything? Not that I all right so that was communications. Thank you Sarah Neil policy. Sure. Actually, Sarah, there's one thing that you did not mention on communications, which is we had a presentation by Greg of some of the analytics of people's how people have been going to our various social media presentations whether it's school-based or districtwide or district provided. And Greg provided us with some very detailed analytics as to how people in the community are interacting at least by seeing the things that we're putting out there. I maybe that's what was in your [Music] bullet on social media post, but I think it was I think we should, give a thanks to Greg for really knowing the numbers on how our how our messages are getting out. Thank you very much for Thank you, Greg. Is that something that you could share a little bit more widely with us? Certainly, that'd be great. Thank you. Great. So, policy. as I said, we met on the 26th. We will be meeting again on May 1st. Among the things that we will be working on is continued discussions on the athletic player playing placement process and a revision to that policy. I know we will be talking about other policies that are in our pipeline. We will be talking about a social media I'm sorry student privacy policy because that is something that has been on our docket for a long period of time and it's something that the audit auditors internal auditors has have asked us to to complete since it is a required policy. I know one of the other things that will be on the agenda perhaps in May at the May 1st meeting or perhaps at the next meeting after that is a policy on extreme heat which is required by New York State law and is must go into effect by September 1st. it is our understanding from discussions that we've had is that we generally as a matter of practice within the district do relocate students if there is an incident in which a classroom is excessively hot. But we will be codifying that into policy and there are a number of others that will be on the agenda. Every time we have a policy committee there is a very long agenda. We don't always get through everything but I try to be a taskmaster and get through as much as we can with full discussion. that is basically it and of course if there are any comments on the pol three policies that were up for first reading that will be the first item on the agenda for the policy committee. So we will consider any comments from members of the community who send them in or members of the board.
• Thank you Neil. And then we still have on our agenda the ad hoc committee on social media chooses. Yep. Yeah. Let me let me speak to that very quickly. The ad hoc committee met on Friday, April 4th. We did additional work on the social media policy called social media in instruction and official communications. It is our hope that after a final review by administrative council that we will have that for the board's consideration first reading. We also need to complete our work on policy 2901 which is social media use by trustees. Both of those are new policies. They are not replacing any current policy. And it is my hope that maybe even the same time as 4526.2 two is presented, the three committee members will be able to finalize the policy 2901 at which point and assuming that the policies are in fact considered and adopted by the board, the ad hoc committee's work will be at an end and it will be disbanded. And that's what I got. Thank you, Neil. Moving into item 6.3, pulling up the board. Okay, I'll get this on. And Neil has invited me to represent this our sort of shared report and he'll chime in on things that I miss. So we attended Neil and I attended on was it Monday of this week? Monday night a regionalization seminar at Northern Westchester Boseies. all the boards of education trustees were invited and represent representatives, many of them sent representatives to participate in a sort of informational sort of learning conversation about the regionalization discussion so far. As a reminder to everyone what does regionalization mean? in this context what we are talking about is a sort of information gathering opportunity to talk about how school districts can maximize opportunity by sort of like working more collaboratively on areas where we're working collaborative collaboratively combining resources and combining efforts and combining sort of like our thought processes towards moving moving our districts forward might be beneficial. does that sound accurate, Neil, in terms of that definition or do you want to chime in something more on that? No, that that is accurate. But I think we also as a kind of a context, the district superintendent Neil Bole and his staff had previously met with a variety of different call them constituencies, business superintendent and other district level officials from our 18 component districts and came up with areas or subject areas that each of those that the consensus was of those groups that we should look at for our regionalization efforts. I don't have with me the listing of the six. So you're going to go forward with that? I just wanted you to chime in on the definition. Oh, I'm sorry. so yeah, the definition is is is as you described it. and it's really kind of a ongoing collaborative effort among all of our districts. So go ahead. Okay great. So the the discussion just because I think this is important just for all of us to hear and that's the reason that we went is to be able to report back to all of you. There was a conversation about what has been identified so far as our regional strengths. I I don't know that I need to go into them because I think we're all aware of what is working in our districts. also sort of like an evaluation of the needs and I think that's what we kind of wanted to focus on because it was sort of it was interesting to sort of see what had risen to the top as as this polling happened of district leaders, superintendent etc across our region. So among the the things that sort of rose to the top were the following overall just needs for prek and CPSC CPS sorry CPS I have to say all the letters correctly. So among the concerns are the the need for providers for example across the county concerns in different districts some districts have lots of open spots for prek other districts have no open spots for prek and I think that the question has risen has arisen as to whether there's a way to sort of spread that around geographically in a way that could be beneficial to getting more students into pre into prek. Discussion of advocacy in a more collaborative fashion to advocate for an increase in preupole reimbursements because that remains an issue statewide I think as we all know. there was a conversation about transportation and ways that districts can sort of work together specifically in terms of our responsibilities to transport students out of district. again like a place where there's an opportunity I think for efficiency. there another topic was workforce development determining ways that we can sort of again possibly not necessarily in terms of this was I think more about workforce development in terms of like the approach towards students and providing opportunities for students and specifically for students 18 to 22 which I think again that there that's that's just again like an opportunity that districts could collaborate on another topic was ENL programming. Again, ENL programming and programming that's being offered for ENL families and again 18 through 21 students. access to social emotional supports, u mobile crisis services. there was a discussion of school security generally speaking and advocacy towards the concept of school peace officers which are a sort of a different function than I think we often talk about. Other lower priority things that came up were things like having shared medical directors, ways of expanding summer school to hit more students, ex sharing resources on grant writing because of course that's like a thing that's not that easy to do and if you're have a specialist to be able to share those services. So the le the list was really really extensive. the meetings are going to be ongoing. I think there had been a plan to have a second convening of this in May and what we heard during that conversation is they're thinking of sort of punting that conversation to September to do a little bit more information gathering and see sort of where we land. but I think it was a really interesting conversation just to sort of hear what the opportunities and the needs are and the ideas that people have for filling them in. So I thought it was really useful. Neil, do you want to add anything? I don't really have anything to add except to note that the October 15th I believe is the deadline for the final submission from the district superintendent to the board of regents or the commissioner. So it is anticipated that there will be major kind of pairing down of all of the ideas and thoughts that were presented prior to the April 7th meeting and at the April 7th meeting to tighten it up to a list of things that we really would be suggesting from this region but northern west to provide to our component districts and the sharing and and cooperation opportunities that we can create. I will note that one of the things that was said by a number of the presenters in each of those subject areas who were superintendent who had previously met with the district superintendent to flesh out ideas and even more so by the district superintendent was that a lot of these things are going to require funding And so it's anticipated that once these are narrowed down, this is probably the same for every of the 37ies, but there will be, advocacy at the state level to ensure as much as we can that we've got the resources to do the things that we as districts in our region want you do. Some things don't require funding, but as you can hear from what Anomica described, a lot of them do.
• Thank you. And I attended the PBC building planning council along with Neil. It was a good meeting where he talked about the primary subject was on the student handbook and just like providing comments on potential edits to the student handbook that's given out. It's a a handbook along with a planner that PBC students get every year. I won't go through every comment obviously, but I think the main pieces were about restructuring it so that it was more easily digestible and that like policies probably meant more for parents to see that that's clear that there's a section for parents as opposed to it was all kind of mixed together along with things for students, things for parents. and then language access also came up to make sure that the student handbook is available in languages other than English as well. and other general comments, but I think it was overall a great conversation to yeah improve the handbook. And I also attended the kindness club event the other night the other day. It was a great event. it was very well attended and just really well put together. People are having fun building community. So, it was it was a really good event. That's it. Right. so I was able to attend the webinar on March 31st that Westp had hosted with D'vorah Heightener who's the author of Growing Up in Public a discussion that largely centered around cell phones, social media our students and also the implications of the the potential cell phone ban that's being advocated for by the governor. so it was a really insightful conversation and I know that Westp put out the following day an email. So you guys shall have that with some of the highlights from that session that evening and that signing up for that also did give us a copy of the growing of the public which I have. So if anyone wants to borrow it, please let me know. Feel free. I also wanted to point out a couple of upcoming events. So, Westp's final Ed Law lunch and learn presentation of the year will be on April 25th. so if you have the ability to tune in to that on Zoom, I think they're really informative. and I would highly recommend that. And then also NISSBA has a couple of events coming up on April 23rd which is a lunchtime webinar on student exeicio trustees and welcoming them to our boards. and then also on April 30th there will be a lunchtime webinar on student data protection. and they also opened up their registration for the leadership and education events that they do in August. So that'll be August 1st and 2nd in Albany. and then lastly, the resolutions kit for 2025 has been sent out to everyone. resolutions will be due in by July 18th. So something that perhaps advocacy u might want to discuss and then bring back to the full board. other than that I did I was able to attend the idea committee meeting of the village which Nam and I share leazison responsibilities for. they discussed they did a quick recap of our of the culture night at C. and they were also discussing upcoming events that they are planning in coordination for Junth and also planning to have a booth at Summerfest. So that's it.
• I'll just add very quickly, Omar and I met with Steve for board leadership, meeting this Monday. I'll be forwarding the notes to everybody just to kind of give you an update on what our discussion, was. It was just a series of updates regarding different things going on in the district. And on April 14th, I will be attending along with Mr. Santiago at PBC. I don't know how many of but AI is really a passion of his. and he's very involved in that in and in and in in those conversations I've had with him. He invited me to a generative AI and assessment webinar. so I'm very excited to go to that. Something completely outside of my comfort zone, but I think when we imagine what school can be, he imagines me understanding this. I'm not for it. I will be there and I will report back. And I want to thank all of you for all the work you've been doing in the community. anyone else? Yep. Couple things. First is I did not attend the last village pedestrian bicycle pedestrian committee. There was a conflict. I know there's going to be another one. I think sometime like the 20th or something like that. I'm not sure exactly when it is, but it's on my calendar. I will be there. I agree with Theo's report on what occurred at the building planning council. I in PBC. I just would note that the concern really among the faculty and the parents were to ensure that the material for students was age appropriate but also that parents knew what they should be looking at. whether that was going to be in a separate section, this is the student part of the handbook, this is the parent part of the handbook. that's something needs to be worked out. Given the handbook supplier, the vendor with with whom PVC works, there's a page limit as to how much information can be included by the school district because this Fender also puts in, their stuff that they have along with the student planner or calendar. We'll see how that works out. One other thing I just wanted to mention about NISBA, I was reading the other day some back issues of on board and one of the things that NISBA said that they are intending and doing is to provide training modules for new student trustees. so that the student trustees will have the opportunity to learn about board service and you know how they can help in board service and be effective student trustees and I think that's really great to be able to harness their support to make our student trustees in our district and every district more effective. I think that's everything I've got for the moment. And if not, we'll hear about it soon.
• Thank you, Neil. we'll move into item 6.4, items needed for the next board of education meeting. And that meeting will again be April 22nd. It will be a Tuesday here at the high school starting at 700 p.m. There was some discussion regarding whether we would cancel the meet the BOE prior to that meeting. Was it prior to that one or was it prior to the 20th because of the tenure celebration? It was the 20th because of the budget vote in the Yes, it was the 20th. So there is I'll just say that now. there might be a cancellation of the May 20th meet the BOE and I would just ask my fellow trustees to jump into that document and maybe update it because I think when we initially set it up we kind of got to this point and then assumed that we would see whether or not it was still going to be an ongoing event. so if you could just pop in there, sign up for a date or two, that would be great. Moving into, if no one has anything to add for items for the next board of education meeting, we'll move into item 6.5, which is the adjournment of the meeting. Recommended action that the board of education adjourns the meeting at 9:47 p.m. Second. On the question, all in favor? I oppose abstain. Motion carries. Thank you everyone.