At a glance
The Hudson City School District lost $2.9 million in foundation aid under the governor's proposed state budget, and the board got its first look at what that means for next year. The district official presenting the preliminary budget proposed a 2% tax levy increase, below the 3.42% tax cap, and said a spending freeze already in place is meant to bank money for next year. If Albany restores the aid, she said, her plan closes the gap entirely; if it does not, the district is short by an amount the captions garbled. The board also heard a reintroduction from the district's public relations firm, a public comment thanking the district for eight years of a student journalism program, and news that the district was designated by New York State as in need of improvement. No budget decisions were made.
Opening, Agenda and an Early Executive Session
The board opened with the Pledge of Allegiance, moved to accept the agenda, took a roll call, and then went into an early executive session to discuss the employment history of a particular person or persons.
Key points
- A member moved to accept the agenda as presented, the motion was seconded, and the chair called for all in favor
- A roll call followed, with those present answering here
- The presiding officer said the board needed an early executive session for the purpose of the employment history of a particular person or persons
- The board came back and put the time of exit from executive session at 6:24 p.m., and that motion was seconded
- Public business resumed with the Focus Media presentation
The captions record no speech for the first three minutes of the video, and none at all between roughly 5:00 and 25:18, the span covering the early executive session. Anything said in that period is absent from the record this summary was written from.
The auto-captions rendered the roll call as a run of broken names, so this page does not say who answered it. Attendance should be checked against the district's own minutes.
The captions record the chair calling for all in favor but not the responses, so the motions on this page are described as put to a voice vote rather than as passed.
Focus Media Reintroduces Itself and Describes Its Work
The district's public relations firm, Focus Media, gave a reintroduction to the board ahead of the new school year and budget season, walking through its background, the work it has done for Hudson, and how it can be paid.
Key points
- Josh, the firm's CEO, said Focus Media has worked for the district for 13 months and that he started the firm 22 years ago
- He said the firm handles press releases, media relations, advertising, branding and web development in house, and works across roughly 20 industries besides education
- He described campaigns for other districts after failed bond votes, including one district of 10,000 students where a video promoted on Facebook drew 50,000 views, and a $16 million proposition in Mount Vernon
- Stu, the firm's vice president, said the relationship began last spring after incidents in some schools spread on social media, and the firm responded with weekly community eblasts on safety initiatives
- Stu said the firm found the district's crisis communications protocols were not organized or aligned, wrote a crisis communications plan, and ran a training session for district leadership a couple of months ago
- He listed ongoing work including the district newsletter design and writing, communications around changes to the football program, information about state bond limit changes, and introducing the superintendent to the community
- The firm is currently working on a flat monthly fee, and offered two alternatives: an expanded role with a person embedded in the district a few days a week, or a return to an hourly rate as needed
Both presenters gave full names, but the captions garbled the surnames, so only first names appear here. No dollar amount for the firm's fee was said aloud.
Preliminary Budget: Purpose and Where the Money Goes
The district official who presented the preliminary budget stressed that it is preliminary, with state aid still unknown, and walked the board through how the district spends and how it pays for it.
Key points
- She tied the budget's purpose to the goals in the superintendent's 125 day presentation: strengthening instruction and leadership, improving practices, and supporting students through interventions
- On the spending side, 42% of the budget goes to payroll, 24% to benefits, and 25% to instructional programs, which covers general education, special education, transportation, building maintenance and BOCES programs
- The rest is debt service on past capital projects
- On the revenue side, 47% comes from local taxpayers and 45% from state aid, with the remainder from use of reserves, fund balance and interest earnings
- The budget proposes using appropriated fund balance, and a spending freeze already in place is intended to save money to carry into next year's budget
- The proposal is a 2% tax levy increase, against an allowable tax cap of 3.42%, after the district went out at 0% last year
The captions never give the budget presenter's name or title. She refers to working alongside the superintendent, whom the captions call Dr. Pennyman.
A $2.9 Million Foundation Aid Loss
The largest problem in the preliminary budget is a $2.9 million drop in foundation aid, driven by two changes in the governor's executive budget.
Key points
- The governor removed the hold harmless clause, which had guaranteed a district would get no less aid than the year before
- She also stopped recognizing the consumer price index at its current rate of 4% and allowed only a 2% increase on CPI
- Together those two changes cut $2.9 million from a category the district does not control
- The foundation aid formula still draws on census data from the year 2000
- Counting decreases in building aid and other categories, the presenter put the total aid loss at $2.8 million
- Every category except universal prekindergarten is expense based, meaning the district spends this year and is reimbursed a percentage next year
- If the state restores the hold harmless clause on April 1 and gives the district what it got last year, she said state aid would rise by $15,000, and she could fill the hole with appropriated fund balance and reserves
A Proposed 2% Tax Levy and What It Would Cost
The presenter showed four years of tax levy history and what a 2% increase would mean for a homeowner, using a $200,000 fully assessed home as the example.
Key points
- Last year's levy increase was 0%, this year's tax cap is 3.4%, and the proposal is 2%, the same increase the district asked for in 2022-23
- A 2% levy yields about $499,000 in additional revenue
- Using a fully assessed home at $200,000, which she said is probably a little low for the area but is an easy number to scale up or down, a Greenport homeowner paying $2,487 this year would see an increase of about $50 a year, or about $4 a month
- The example does not account for equalization rates, which would change the figure
The next year Greenport tax amount was broken across the captions and is not readable digit for digit, so it is left out here. The current year amount of $2,487 and the increase of about $50 a year are as spoken.
Budget Scenarios and Unknowns
The presenter laid out two scenarios that turn entirely on the state budget, and listed the pressures she cannot yet price.
Key points
- If foundation aid is not restored, the district faces a gap it would have to close by cutting expenses down to projected revenue
- If the governor restores the aid, the presenter said the gap would be zero under the plan as proposed
- The state budget is due April 1, when the governor combines her January executive budget with what the legislature supports
- The presenter said she and the superintendent discussed the pressures on the budget at a Lobby Day meeting
- Out of district and residential placements for students with special needs are a $2 million budget line, and transportation is about a $4 million budget line
- Contract negotiations are up this year, and some grant applications are not fully funded
The dollar size of the gap if foundation aid is not restored was broken across the captions and cannot be read digit for digit, so no figure is given here. It should be checked against the district's own budget materials.
Budget Calendar Through the May 21 Vote
The presenter walked the board through the dates between this meeting and the budget vote.
Key points
- The budget presented April 9 will be closer to fully executed, reflecting whatever the state budget delivers on April 1
- April 22 is the due date for petitions to place a proposition on the ballot, which she noted is not in the plans right now
- The board must vote to approve the BOCES component budget, as taxpayers vote to approve the district's
- Voter registration day is April 25 at the Junior Senior High School
- School board nomination petitions are due to the district clerk by 5 p.m. on May 1
- A public hearing on the proposed budget is set for May 7, the last day to propose a budget, with the vote May 21
- If the budget is voted down, the revote day is June 18, and the adopted budget takes effect July 1
The time given for voter registration day on April 25 was not readable in the captions, so only the date and location appear here.
Board Questions on Reserves, BOCES Spending and State Aid
Board members asked what room the district has to use reserves, whether it can spend less at BOCES, and how likely it is that the state restores the aid.
Key points
- Asked whether there are limits on how much of the reserves can be used each year, the presenter said the only limit is the amount in them, and that repair reserves and capital reserves cannot be appropriated
- Debt reserves and the employee benefit accrued liability reserve can be appropriated, and her plan draws on the workers compensation reserve and the employee and teacher retirement systems
- Asked about sending less money to BOCES, she said BOCES aid is based on what the district spends this year, so spending less next year means less aid, and the district's BOCES aid ratio is not very high
- Asked for historical context on aid being cut in March and restored in April, she pointed to a gap elimination adjustment in 2008 and said foundation aid is used as a negotiation tactic, so a low number was not a surprise
- She said the foundation aid calculation is expiring and that people are looking to get together on a board to decide how to calculate it, and that the current formula pulls from 2000 while the district's poverty rate is now about 80%
- A presenter said that at a superintendents' conference the week before, the governor's representatives named declining enrollment and the percentage a district holds in reserve as two factors that affected districts, and that both were variables for Hudson
- The presenter said Hudson does not have a lot in reserves but has a healthy reserve that is not excessive
Personnel Agenda and Public Comment
The board took up the personnel agenda, then opened the first public comment period, where the founder of a nonprofit journalism program thanked the district for eight years of work with its students.
Key points
- A member moved to approve personnel agenda items A through M, the motion was seconded, and the chair called for all in favor
- The chair explained that state law does not require a public comment period but the board holds one anyway, that the board is there to listen rather than respond, and that privacy law bars comments about school personnel
- Peter, founder and executive director of School Life Media and a former member of this school board, thanked the Hudson City School District for eight grade years of working with district children on the program
- He said he incorporated the nonprofit in New York in 2015 and pitched a junior journalism program to a former superintendent and a principal in spring 2016, starting with third, fourth and fifth grade classes
- The program teaches students to research using the five W's and five senses, interview, take notes and write a story, on pencil and paper rather than computers
- He said writing and rewriting is one of the keys to retention, and that roughly 3,000 children have gone through the program
- He said the organization is working on a summary and audit of its last eight years, and was asked to wrap up at the three minute mark
The chair read the speaker's full name from the sign up list, but the captions garbled the surname, so only the first name appears here.
Superintendent's Report: Verizon Grant and a State Improvement Designation
The superintendent announced a Verizon Innovative Learning grant that will put connected Chromebooks in students' hands, then told the board the state has designated the district as in need of improvement.
Key points
- The district was announced that day as a recipient of the Verizon Innovative Learning grant, competing against districts across the country, and is in the 11th cohort
- Secondary school students will receive individual Chromebooks with built in wifi, so students can finish work at home without a hotspot
- The grant runs for two years, and the superintendent said the district will use it and Verizon's support to enhance curriculum and graduate students with 21st century skills
- She thanked principals, district office leaders and students, who were interviewed as part of the application, and said an eblast went out that afternoon
- She then told the board that New York State deemed the district in need of improvement, with the elementary school designated a targeted school and a different designation for the junior high and high school
- The district will have to write a school improvement plan for the elementary school, and the superintendent invited parents in the audience to join the school improvement team, with principals soliciting teacher volunteers the next day
- She introduced a retired superintendent brought in to guide the process
The captions render the junior high and high school designation as an unreadable acronym, so it is not named here. The elementary school designation is given later in the meeting as targeted support and intervention, or TSI.
Writing the School Improvement Plan
An education consultant hired to guide the work described the state's school improvement planning process and the tight timeline the district is on.
Key points
- Adams introduced herself as a retired school district superintendent and 36 year educator who worked in Albany for five and a half years, in Clark County, Nevada for 28 years, and in New Orleans before that, and is now CEO of an education and business consulting firm
- Her role is to work with the district on the school comprehensive education plan and its submission to the state
- Because the elementary school is a targeted support and intervention school, it must develop a school improvement plan, and the junior high and high school will develop one through a similar process
- The steps are to establish a planning team representing community stakeholders, administer a survey to parents, students, faculty and staff, complete a five part needs assessment, and analyze that data against student performance data
- The team then identifies the interventions and strategies that go into the plan, which is shared at all levels and brought to the board before submission to the state
- Surveys, the internal five part needs assessment, the annual improvement plan and the school comprehensive education plan are all state requirements
- She said the timeline is tight, roughly three months from now until May, and repeated that the process is collaborative rather than something written in a back room
The consultant gave her first name twice and the captions rendered it two different ways, so only the surname appears here.
Consent Items, Upcoming Dates and a Late Executive Session
The board moved on consent items, read the upcoming meeting dates into the record, and went into a late executive session.
Key points
- A member moved to approve consent items A through P, the motion was seconded, and the chair called for all in favor
- The board listed a policy committee meeting Tuesday, March 26, from 5 to 6 p.m. in the high school library
- A community budget workshop and regular Board of Education meeting follows Tuesday, March 26 in the high school library
- Another community budget workshop and regular Board of Education meeting is set for Tuesday, April 9 at 6:00 p.m. in the high school library
- At 7:09 p.m. the presiding officer said the board needed a late executive session for exempt subjects including Board of Education rules and procedures
- That motion was seconded and the chair called for all in favor, and the meeting closed with thanks to those present
The captions do not say what consent items A through P or personnel items A through M contained, only that they were moved as a block. The agenda packet would have the detail.
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.