At a glance
Three long presentations filled this Board of Education meeting. The superintendent used a 125 day report to lay out six keys for improving Hudson City School District schools, naming stagnant test scores, staffing vacancies, weak data practices and a strategic plan that was never finished as the problems to solve, and proposing a fresh planning process that would run from spring community engagement through a final board review in the fall. The director of student services then walked through special education by building: 307 classified students, a classification rate that has climbed to 19.5 percent, a shortage of outside programs that will take Hudson's harder to place students, and four children currently taught at home for lack of a suitable placement. The district's internal auditor called the 2022-23 risk assessment a relatively clean report, with one real recommendation: the board was not getting required reports on time. The board put its agenda, personnel and consensus items to voice votes, and called a motion to adjourn at 7:52 p.m.
Roll Call, Agenda, and the Student Report
The recording's captions pick up partway through the roll call, after which the board called a voice vote on the agenda and heard the student representative's report on upcoming activities.
Key points
- A motion to accept the agenda as presented was made, seconded, and put to a voice vote
- The student representative reported that mock trial has competitions coming in late March
- The multicultural club and another student club are working together on a talent show March 27
- Student council hosts its annual dodgeball tournament March 8, paired with a 'tape a teacher' event featuring gym teacher Mr. Turnbull, who will be taped to a wall outside the gym to build excitement
- The board announced it did not need an early executive session
The captions begin at 02:19, already in the middle of the roll call. The call to order and the first part of the roll are not in the transcript, so who was present and who was absent cannot be established from this record. Names heard in the captured portion are run together and partly garbled, so they are not reproduced here.
The Superintendent's 125 Day Review
The superintendent presented a long review of the first 125 days in the job, naming six keys for school improvement that framed the rest of the night, and opened with curriculum and classroom technology.
Key points
- The entry plan promised three things: engage the district and community, deliver a summary of findings and observations, and outline what a strategic planning process could look like
- The six keys named were strengthening the instructional core, improving data driven practices, promoting a positive and inclusive school environment, strengthening instructional leadership capacity, creating a tiered approach to school support and intervention, and increasing monitoring and accountability
- Teachers lack consistent access to high quality curricular resources, with inconsistency among grade level teams and materials that may not align to the Next Generation learning standards
- The district has completed an audit and review of its curriculum, and a proposed expansion would continue the rollout of Eureka Math Squared through Algebra 1 to create consistency in math
- The district is partnering with outside organizations, including RPI, to supplement student experiences
- A Verizon Innovative Learning Grant application has been submitted; if approved it would provide one to one devices for all secondary students, instructional coaches, and support for embedding technology in teaching
- The superintendent said Hudson already has strong arts programs, so the push should be on STEM rather than STEAM
YouTube auto-captions do not identify speakers by name, and this presentation was delivered against slides the captions never capture. Attributions are given by role unless a name was clearly spoken aloud.
Leadership Capacity, Vacancies, and Data Practices
The superintendent said the district lacks the structures that support organizational learning, that persistent staff vacancies are holding schools back, and that no data driven practice has taken hold because leadership kept changing.
Key points
- There are no consistent expectations for professional learning communities, instructional coaches have not been used effectively, and teachers report that professional development is not high quality
- Staff shortages have left an inequitable number of students in certain classrooms, and programs such as Blue Hawk Academy have staffing needs tied to particular student populations
- Proposed responses include driving instruction through professional learning communities and peer coaching, revamping recruitment and retention, and investing in a grow your own pipeline
- Principals have been asked to take more responsibility for instructional leadership and to spend more time in classrooms, and have started leading professional development at staff meetings
- Last school year's strategic planning process was left incomplete, and the superintendent said the district has been moving too quickly between initiatives to know what works
- Students' learning needs are identified too late at the elementary level, so the kindergarten screening process is being revised to collect and share better data
- Grant spending is being analyzed for equity and alignment, and the DEI committee has drafted diversity, equity and inclusivity goals from stakeholder engagement and student learning data
Target District Status and Tiered Student Supports
The superintendent said state testing data shows stagnant or declining scores and concerning achievement gaps, that New York State has identified Hudson as a Target District, and that a K-12 multi-tiered system of support is being built in response.
Key points
- State testing data indicates stagnant or declining scores, with achievement gap data points and a lack of appropriate support for some student groups
- New York State has identified the district as a Target District
- A report the superintendent referred to as the red box report pointed to a lack of opportunities for students with disabilities
- A multi-tiered system of support framework for grades K through 12 is being built across building and district leadership teams
- The district leadership team is developing a new proposal for an innovative school model at Blue Hawk Academy that would embed internship opportunities in the school day, with Blue Hawk staff involved
- Molly Zucker joined the leadership team as Blue Hawk Academy associate principal in November 2023
- A crisis plan was developed with counselors, social workers and school staff to address student mental health support needs
- Asked later to explain the tiers, the superintendent described tier one as students working on the general curriculum and tier three as the neediest, covering academic, behavioral or social emotional needs, with the goal of moving students down toward tier one
Asked which areas the state flagged, the superintendent said it is in subgroup areas, naming English language learners, and said conversations about instruction have already started.
School Climate, Safety, and Belonging
The superintendent called climate the area with the most urgent findings, citing families who feel racial and economic division and parents worried about safety, and listed steps already taken.
Key points
- Stakeholders raised concerns about the teaching and learning culture and about low student and staff attendance
- Some students and families identify feelings of racial and economic division, and some curricular resources lack cultural sensitivity
- Student advisory teams cited a lack of connection with some teachers, and there is no coordinated approach to services for families with English language learners
- A student advisory team has been created to involve students in improving belonging and rebuilding pride in being a district student
- An online reporting tool was adopted to deter and address bullying, cyber abuse and other inappropriate behavior, and additional school safety officers were hired in the secondary schools
- A DEI manager joined the staff in October 2023 to lead this work, alongside a staff book study and professional development on culturally responsive teaching
- At Hudson Senior High School, 110 students were recognized in December 2023 for being respectful, responsible and safe under the PBIS rollout
Teacher Evaluation, Websites, and the Planning Timeline
The last key covered monitoring and accountability, from a teacher evaluation process the superintendent said lacks clarity to a district website that loops readers in circles, and closed with a proposed timeline for rewriting the strategic plan.
Key points
- Some teachers report that observation and feedback cycles do not give them meaningful chances to grow, and the superintendent wants observations aligned to districtwide initiatives
- Professional development should be differentiated by what the data shows for each grade level and subject, the same way teachers are asked to differentiate for students
- Cyber security protocols, the student technology handbook and use policies all need updating, and the district website is difficult to navigate
- Engagement steps already underway include monthly stakeholder feedback sessions, family fun nights, and a newsletter issued every other week, with an end of year community survey being developed
- On the existing strategic plan, the superintendent said it did not engage community and staff deeply enough, was set for only one year, was not specific enough to drive change, and was not implemented effectively
- The proposed replacement process runs community engagement from April through June, board and staff revision from July through August, and final board review and revision in September and October
Special Education by the Numbers
The director of student services presented a state of special education report, opening with three year enrollment trends that show a rising classification rate and fewer district students accepted into BOCES programs.
Key points
- The district counts 307 classified students as of the October state reporting date
- The share of students receiving special education has increased again, to 19.5 percent
- Students served in BOCES Questar programs are down to 13, from 24 three years ago, as programs closed and more Hudson students were not accepted
- The number of students in private placements has stayed more or less the same, with two residential students having moved into the district in the past year and a half
- A residential student is one who lives at the school they attend, placed through the CSE process, and these are typically the most severely disabled students
- Students classified with speech and language impairments drop off as they get older, as deficits are recouped and students are declassified or reclassified
- Students with autism are rarely declassified, though some who make enough gains move to a 504 plan instead of specialized instruction
The caption of the total student population reads '156 or 1,567,' so the denominator behind the 19.5 percent classification rate cannot be read reliably from this transcript. The count of private placements is also ambiguous in the captions, which run the placement count and the residential count together, so that number is left out here.
Programs and Projections, Building by Building
The director walked through special education programs at each building and the early projections for next year, flagging one self contained class that is already projected over the state's size limit.
Key points
- In kindergarten through second grade there are 56 classified students, one pending evaluation, and 13 preschoolers awaiting evaluation before kindergarten, an unusually large number for this time of year, plus 11 new referrals
- Consultant teacher services in the primary grades work out to 1.13 of a teaching position, and resource rooms are capped at five students, though staff try to avoid pulling the youngest students out of general education
- In the communications class for students with global needs, New York does not allow a class to open with more than eight students, and the district projects three incoming kindergarteners with significant delays on top of three first graders and three second graders
- Grades three through five had 55 students with one pending evaluation at the time the report was written, with 58 projected for next year
- State rules cap an integrated class at 12 special education students and require at least half the class be general education students, so a class of 12 would need 24 students total
- The junior high has 80 classified students and two pending evaluations, with four fewer students projected next year
- The high school has 74 classified students, and scheduling there is harder to summarize because students may be in a self contained class for one subject and regular classes for the rest
Asked why classified counts jump from about 50 in grades two through five to 80 at the junior high, the director said elementary students get reading and math support built into the day that is less available later, that some students struggle behaviorally when they move between eight teachers every 42 minutes, and that this year's fifth and sixth grade cohort is a large one. Some students are declassified again by high school.
The captions render the state class ratio labels inconsistently, so specific ratios are described here only where the speaker stated a plain student limit.
State Indicators, Alternate Assessment, and Suspensions
The director reviewed the state performance indicators the district must report, explaining why Hudson is in targeted status for alternate assessment and for suspensions of students with disabilities, and what the corrective action plan requires.
Key points
- This year's indicator is the parent involvement survey, which was made available in Spanish, Bengali, Creole and Korean, with one family's language unavailable; next year's indicator is timely evaluation
- Federal rules allow only 1 percent of students to take the alternate assessment, and a district goes into targeted support status above 2 percent; Hudson is in year three of targeted status
- A state review on February 9 found the district 100 percent compliant in every aspect reviewed, and the director said the district will not apologize for a higher share of students needing the alternate assessment, since no student should sit a Regents exam when it is not appropriate
- The district remains a targeted group for suspensions of students with disabilities based on 2022-23 data, with 20 special education students suspended for more than 10 days in a school year
- A corrective action plan followed a federal reinterpretation: the district had always held manifestation determination hearings but had not separately documented a disciplinary change of placement decision, which must now come first
- A second issue was a student sent home late in the year without the student services office being notified, since a send home counts as a suspension day
- The director said part of the problem is placement: BOCES often will not take the district's more challenging students, the nearest private school is 40 minutes away, and those schools have waiting lists and closed programs, so students stay in district who historically would have been placed outside it
- A principal can suspend a student for at most five days, within which the superintendent's hearing and the manifestation hearing must be scheduled
The captions read 'we had 20 we had 20 special Leed students out of 30 14 I think,' so the total the 20 is measured against cannot be read from this transcript and is not reported here.
Asked whether a student with a disability is judged by the same ruler as a general education student, the director said behavior is only excused when it is substantially related to the student's educational disability, and that any student with an IEP facing a superintendent's hearing gets a manifestation review.
Special Education Costs and Students Without a Placement
The director closed with the budget side of special education, the outside contracts the district relies on, and the students it currently cannot place.
Key points
- A contracted Medicaid billing service brings in between $325,000 and $375,000 a year on average
- The district contracts for physical and occupational therapy evaluations and supervision, outside psychological and assistive technology evaluations, and teachers of the visually impaired and of the deaf
- The superintendent has raised the possibility of a full outside special education audit to look at streamlining services and staffing
- Four students are on home instruction or homeschooling because no appropriate program has been found, and one student who is deaf or hard of hearing attends a program in Guilderland at a cost in both tuition and transportation
- One residential student is in a Pennsylvania school because no New York school accepted him, and the district is working to move him to a closer school in Massachusetts
- Transportation usually costs more than the program itself, and retroactive billing arrives when program rates rise
- Students are arriving with more trauma and mental health needs, some with multiple inpatient psychiatric hospitalizations in the past 12 to 18 months, and some arrive short on foundational language and fine motor skills after not attending daycare or preschool
- Questar closed its Career Academy in late August 2023, notifying the district two weeks before school started, so five juniors the district had planned to send had to be programmed for at the last minute
- BOCES declines about 70 percent of the district's referrals without giving specifics, and the nearest alternatives in Dutchess County and the Capital Region mean a minimum 50 minute bus ride
Asked what the district does to hear from families of special education students, the director said the required survey is being handed to parents at their CSE meetings and will go home by backpack mail otherwise, that a separate survey on interest in parent training goes out roughly every other year, and that the district needs about 70 responses by the August deadline or it must repeat the effort next year.
Internal Auditor: Reports Were Arriving Late
The district's internal auditor presented the 2022-23 risk assessment, calling it a relatively clean report whose findings trace mostly to heavy turnover, with one recommendation about getting information to the board on time.
Key points
- The auditor explained the district has three auditors: an external auditor on finances, an internal auditor on operations, and a claims auditor who must approve every bill before taxpayer money is paid
- New York requires an internal audit and an annual risk assessment update only for districts with more than 1,500 students
- The biggest risk in 2022-23 was change: the business official, HR manager, claims auditor, transportation department, food services and information technology all saw personnel turnover that year
- The one finding rising to a formal recommendation was timeliness, with the treasurer's report at times three months late and August, September and October reports delivered in January
- The auditor recommended the district clerk and business office build a checklist of what should come to the board monthly or quarterly
- No major findings were reported in cash receipts, payables and disbursements, cash and investments, fixed assets, transportation monitoring or information technology, and a prior audit finding had been cleaned up
- Interviews over the auditor's roughly 10 years with the district have never indicated people were leaving because of a toxic work environment
- The auditor suggested the board review the state comptroller's report on transportation issued about five years ago as a self audit, since the district outsources transportation
- The focus area for the next internal audit is currently expected to be extra classroom activity funds
Board members asked about a consultant now doing work the district's former part time transportation employee did. The superintendent said the consultant is evaluating routes and bus placement and handles some parent calls, that he works for another BOCES rather than the district, and that his contract runs through June. He was identified as Larry Lee, and a board member said the community should be introduced to him.
Personnel, Public Comment, and Upcoming Dates
The board ran through its personnel and consensus agendas by voice vote, heard one public comment about how meeting dates are published, and read the March calendar before adjourning.
Key points
- A motion to accept personnel agenda items A through I was made, seconded, and put to a voice vote
- A motion to accept consensus agenda items A through G was made, seconded, and put to a voice vote
- A speaker in public participation asked that upcoming meeting dates, including committee meetings, be printed on the public facing agenda as they used to be
- The same speaker said the district website loops readers between the Board of Education page and the meet the board page without ever showing committee meeting dates, and a board member agreed it should be fixed
- The board announced it did not need a second executive session
- A motion to adjourn at 7:52 p.m. was made, seconded, and put to a voice vote
For each motion, the captions record the motion, a second, and the call for 'all in favor,' but not the members' responses. The record here says the motions were put to a voice vote rather than stating an outcome.
- Tuesday, March 12, 2024: community budget workshop and Board of Education meeting, 6 p.m., high school library
- Tuesday, March 26, 2024: policy committee meeting, 5 p.m., high school library
- Tuesday, March 26, 2024: community budget workshop and Board of Education meeting, 6 p.m., high school library
About this page
FUTURE HUDSON is an experiment in civic engagement: every public meeting of the City of Hudson since January 2026, transcribed and made readable, so any resident can follow what the city is deciding without attending every meeting. This page covers one meeting; see the full archive.
How it was made
The meeting video was transcribed automatically; the transcript was then organized into sections and summarized. The raw transcript is above, every claim can be checked against it.
What to be skeptical of
The transcript is automated and contains speech-recognition errors; names and numbers may be wrong. This page has not been reviewed by a human. Nothing here is an official record, the school district's official minutes are authoritative.
About coverage of this body
Board of Education meetings are livestreamed by the Hudson City School District to its own YouTube channel. The school district is a separate government from the City of Hudson. If a meeting is missing from the archive, the recording was likely not posted. See the archive index for the full coverage note.